The Braegger Family Blog: March 2013

On March 1st Christian got to celebrate Dr. Suess' birthday with a party at kindergarten! There were a bunch of cute activities and they made these fun cat-in-the-hat hats.

On the 3rd we celebrated Skittles' first birthday. Our baby isn't such a tiny baby anymore! Christian made her this darling party hat and Faith sewed a red felt toy that looked like a Skittles candy.

I love the cake that they decorated! I made it using Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake recipe, but with some Postum powder to give it a mocha flavor. It came out sticky, but yummy. We did a chocolate ganache on top and then just frosting for decoration (which Faith did herself). I loved how they used the white "S" on the candy for the two s's in her name :)

On March 9th we finally got to do something that I had been meaning to for the last eight years--go to Disney on Ice!!

They acted out some of The Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and Tangled. There was some great skating, but what really impressed us was the arial work on silks and pyrotechnics. Tony wasn't all that impressed with the first act (since he doesn't love ice skating like I do), but really liked the second half. The kids and I were mesmerized the entire time!

After the show, we stopped by Tim's house (Tony's friend from work). Buddy especially loved their dog.

On the 10th we celbrated Grandma Quinn's 90th birthday at the Gardens (her assisted living center). Even Skittles joined in the fun!

Since St. Patrick's Day is on Sunday this year and I knew we'd be eating at mom & dad's I decided to have our St. Patty's dinner on March 12th, instead. I made a new side dish this year: roasted vegetables. There are potatoes for Ireland, green kale for color, and sliced carrots to look like gold coins. It was very delicious and we have done "kale chips" several times since then because the kids love them so much.

Of course, we also had corned beef and cabbage,

and I made these "Blarney Stone" cookies for dessert. They are made with pistachio pudding mix, coconut and butterscotch chips. I really should learn better than to make desserts that I will want to eat!

We had a beautiful evening on the 13th, so we took a walk down to the park just west of us and then back through the horse trail.

The 14th was Pi Day and you know that, being a proud nerd, I had to celebrate! With pie!! We got creative this year and had quiche for dinner. It had bacon, onion, mushrooms, spinach and cheese. I was surprised it was such a big hit with the kids.

I was going to finally try a new kind of pie this year, but I was outvoted and it was cheesecake, again.

Christian asked me why it was called "cheesecake" when it didn't have cheese in it and it wasn't a cake. I explained it to him, but he still insists on calling it cheese pie. He's such a fan that he ate it the next day for breakfast and lunch! (And I kind of let him--I'm obviously vying for mother of the year again)

On the 15th the kids got all gussied up in their St. Patrick's Day best, since it was the last school day before the holiday. Tony got Faith those stockings and I think she's so darling in them :)

That afternoon Christian wrote his Chinese numbers in pink chalk all over the driveway. It's hard to see in this picture, but it looked awesome.

On the 16th we ate breakfast at Golden Corral. Man, can those kids put away a lot of bacon!

That afternoon we flew Arkite at Angel Street park,

And tried on groovy hats at ShopKo.

Just before bed the kids set up an elaborate leprechaun trap.

It included this tempting castle,

all set up with delicious food & drink.

They didn't catch one this year. the trap was sprung, but only a stuffed animal was found caught. Foiled again! He even played a trick on us--he upturned all of our chairs and hung candy canes on them.

On March 17th my mom had a St. Patty's hunt where the kids found chocolate coins and shamrocks with money taped to them. Lucky!!

Tony has been on a pickled egg kick and has been making tons of the things. He had boiled a lot of eggs the day before and hadn't pickled them yet, so I let Christian color them first!

On the 23rd we went to Fresh Market's candy hunt. I don't think it was advertised very well and was over a week before Easter so there weren't very many people there. The kids each filled their baskets to the brim and then needed an extra bag to take home even more loot!

After that we went to Centerville to their Easter activity. We got the kids some funny ears and they had their faces painted.

They played on the playground for a few minutes and did this cute Bunny hop race.

It was pretty cold so we decided to leave before the Easter egg hunt.

That afternoon was the Braegger family Easter hunt. Tyler brought along his black lab puppy.

Liam had fun looking for his eggs!

The kids got lots of treats and darling outfits.

That evening we stopped by the pet store and Christian got to pet this lizard.

Buddy have been begging me to eat lunch at school with him, so I did just that on the 28th.

On the 29th we delivered our bag of filled Easter eggs for the neighborhood Easter hunt. Faith took skittles and rode her Ripstick.

The next morning we got to go to the park west of our house, see the Easter Bunny and hunt for candy filled eggs.

After that we went to Laguna on opening day and got our season pass pictures taken.

We missed you Lagoon!!

We even rode the samurai for the first time.

When we got home we colors are Easter eggs.

Easter morning the kids woke up early and luckily I had traded away my earliest hours from work. There were lots of goodies in the Easter baskets and all the eggs were hidden along with some jelly beans.

So cute for church.

For an after church snack the kids wanted some deviled eggs. Christian is stuck on doing green eggs like we did for Dr. Seuss day, so we had them again.

Mom made her eggs look like cute Easter baskets!

We always joke that my dad manages to take pictures of us when we look weird, but this photo takes the cake. Eric has no idea what he was doing when this picture was taken but he looks like he came in on the short bus!! Hehe, he's my "special" brother!!!