Making Memories With Cookies

Maybe it was the rainy weather or the fact that Easter Sunday is just a week away, but I felt the need to make some Easter cut out sugar cookies today after church.  One of my favorite Easter memories from when I was a little girl was making Easter bonnet cookies using a round sugar cookie and a marshmallow for the top part of the hat and then decorating the cookie and marshmallow with frosting bows.

The boys didn't seem much interested in making the cookies as I was whipping them together, but when they saw me roll the dough out and then retrieve the cookie cutters from the drawer, they were all in!  "Mom, can I cut out some cookies?"  "Mom, I want to help you!"  Apparently the fun shapes and colors of the cookie cutters got their attention!

We used some pretty special tools to make our cookies today, too.  The little circular board I rolled the dough out belonged to my Grandma Bell.  She used to make kolache and breads on this and my heart just swelled seeing the boys making creations on it just as my sister and I used to do when we were with Grandma.  One of the bunny cookie cutters belonged to Kris' Grandma Malphy and those type of cookie cutters aren't even made anymore.  I'm going to make the Easter bonnet cookies I talked about above later this week when we decorate our cookies and I used Grandma Malphy's round biscuit cutter to make the circular cut outs.

We had a very fun time making the cookies today.  This is something I enjoy doing and the boys really do, too.  We're looking forward to decorating our cookies later this week.  I'm hoping the boys will have wonderful memories of making cookies with me when they're my age.

Elephant Trunk Rock

This afternoon we were down to one son as our youngest was attending the birthday party of a friend and we had to do some grocery shopping anyway, so we headed to the Richland Center/Ithaca area.  Along our way, Brock spotted Elephant Trunk Rock and asked if we could stop on our way home, so we decided to do just that.

What is Elephant Trunk Rock, you ask?  It's a very neat formation that looks exactly like an elephant trunk hanging down in the form of a rock.  

While we were at the rock, we decided to take a look at the park that adjoins it.  There is a sign there encouraging people to enjoy the park including the picnic tables and fire pit even though it's private property. Kris said that he recalls a teepee being at the park, too,  and while that wasn't there today, we're hoping maybe once the nicer weather shows up again that it will be put up as the boys would love going in it!

After getting home from our little excursion, I decided to Google Elephant Trunk Rock and this is the video I found which includes the teepee.  We can't wait to have a little picnic here this summer! 

Boys + Water = Fun

Saturday was such a gorgeous Spring day, so we decided to take advantage of that by going for a walk. We many times ask the boys where they want to go as we want them to be able to choose our destination and what we might see along the way.  Today, they said that they wanted to go check out the Pine River and see if we could catch some crayfish, so Kris grabbed a bucket and away we went!

When we got down to the river, we all commented on how crystal clear the water was.  It was so pretty! Kris noticed right away that some sandhill cranes had been walking in the water as their prints were still in the sand on the bottom.  I was able to snap a picture of their prints.

Once we got to the water, all 5 of my boys were in and out of the water.  Kris said seeing the boys trying to explore in the water reminded him so much of his childhood where he was in the water looking for turtles and frogs.  They spotted a few crayfish, but none that they could catch from where they were located, so we went home empty handed, but they had so much fun.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Ever since watching the movie Mary Poppins when I was little, I've loved the song entitled, "Let's Go Fly a Kite," which was part of the movie soundtrack.  To hear the song, just click on the video below.



Today, I had that song in my head again as it was a spectacular Spring day out with temperatures in the 50's, a light breeze and a beautiful blue sky.  As I was pitching a ball to Jake to hit, I said, "Hey, we should get your kites out and fly those!  It would be a perfect day for it!"

The boys were both in favor of that, so we got them out and I'll let their pictures say the rest.