In the morning, we gave the girls their Easter baskets before we left for church gathering. They were giddy with excitement at their basketful of treats. Each gal got her own Clonette doll (I have one too), Dress Your Bunny doodle book, tattoos, washi tape, some card games, and a carrot surprise filled with goodies.  It was a pretty quick morning at home because we had to head out for church gathering. Ben was sick, so the girls and I went to and fro from church family, to his family, to my family, without him.

The day prior, Ben and I were fighting, rather I was fighting him (not so much him fighting with me). I remember while I was holding on to my mad and stubborn heart, I kept thinking, “Jesus died for exactly this and I don’t need to hold onto it anymore.” I eventually apologized to him later than evening, but man, I was so mean throughout the day. I was so nasty towards him and that’s exactly why I need Jesus. My good will never be good enough. My heart is filled with all kinds of nasty, and it’s precisely why I believe in the cross. It’s not because I think I’m good and want to get better, rather I know I’m not, and trust that the only good I can claim is from Jesus covering me with His righteousness. So as I drove to church gathering, my heart was rejoicing that God didn’t harden my heart, and that He continuously leads me to repentance.

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday. My girls had a glorious day hunting for eggs (3 egg hunts!), stuffing their bellies with sweet treats, and being lavished with lots of love from both sides of the family. Our Easter weekend was full of bunnies and egg hunts, but also plenty of heart lessons that pointed us, especially me, to the cross.

Last Wednesday night, the girls were chattering in excitement about how the Leprechaun was coming. *insert wide-eyed emoji* I kept meaning to sneak out that evening to pick up something for them, but then we had a guest over, then got caught up with working on my projects. I only remembered it was St. Patrick’s Day right before bed. Thankfully, I’m an early riser and was able to come up with something in the morning. I pulled whatever extra treats I had stashed for a rainy day, and put it together in a little “pot of gold,” along with a paper rainbow mobile.

They woke up and saw the card from Mr. Leprechaun and ran all over the house searching for the rainbow. Soul was the one who found it; the girls all giggled in delight at the treats Mr. Leprechaun left them.

See past St. Paddy’s Day celebrations here.

We’ve never actually given the girls Easter baskets and this year will be the first time! I’ve typically used these bags, or we did surprise balls one year, so I’m excited about actually giving them baskets. I know Easter is a week away, but if you still need some ideas, I hope these help or you can bookmark them for next year.

I love this mini oval basket from French Baskets (there are so many good ones in this shop!). Shipping is pretty speedy, but you might want to shoot them an email if you do plan to order one in time for Easter.

These two are mini baskets I found at the thrift store. Every time I go, I always keep an eye out for these vintage baskets, so next time, keep your eye out too! Check out this one that is almost exactly like that green one, and this fruit flower one would be adorable for holding Easter goodies.

Of course, African bolga baskets make perfect easter baskets too!

 All these baskets will definitely get more use way past Easter! I’m filling ours with a carrot surprise, this How to Dress a Bunny
doodle book, and Easter eggs with sweet treats.

I was stuck for the longest time on what to make Ben for Valentine’s Day. Of course, when the idea finally came, it was two hours before he was supposed to come home on Friday night (the day we agreed we’d all celebrate Valentine’s together). We had been out delivering my Galentine’s gifts, and as soon we got home, I set to work. The girls were rushing around finishing up their handmade Valentine’s gifts too!

I used tissue paper to create each fruit form, and then wrapped them with crepe paper streamers to create the fruit. Good ol’ glue was used to keep the streamers in place. I was hustling to get all my fruits made when I realized I was out of red and orange streamers. I loaded up the girls into the car and we set off to the nearest party store to pick some up. Thirty minutes later, we were back home and I hurried to finish the rest of my fruits. I cut up some kraft card stock to make the tags and wrote the silly love sayings to go along with each fruit. I had a cotton rope basket I made awhile back and that ended up being the perfect fruit basket.

When Ben surprised us with lots of ice cream, I chuckled inside because here he was giving us low-nutrition, and in return I give him high-nutrition. Totally sounds like us! I am the “low-nu lover” as the kids say, and Ben is so diligent at moderation and making sure to get his five-a-day. Even though we gravitate to different things to satisfy our sweet cravings, I think together we make a perfect pear!

We knew Sunday we were going to be busy with church gathering and activities, so there wouldn’t be much time to celebrate Valentine’s with the girls. Thus, we planned to celebrate it with them on Friday night. I made the girls some pancakes for dinner (kids always get a kick out of breakfast for dinner), and Ben asked each girl to be his Valentine with a sunflower. After all the pancakes were devoured, Ben came in with another surprise for all of us … a tray full of ice cream with a sweet note that said, “Happy Gallontines Day!” We all flipped in excitement. If you follow me on instagram, you know how much I love ice cream. Each girl got to pick out her own flavor, and three of them were reserved for me (the two Talenti Gelatos and McConnell’s). Woot! Woot!

We all cuddled in bed together, watched Cutthroat Kitchen, and happily ate our ice cream. It was a sweet way to celebrate how much we love each other.

On Sunday night, the rest of my Valentine request was fulfilled as we had sushi while we watched the newest episode of the Walking Dead. Man oh man was that episode intense; I’m glad AMC delivered a good one for Valentine’s Day. We loved it so much that we already watched that episode twice! Once while we ate our sushi, and again while I had ice cream. This is totally my kind of Valentine’s Day. I love the super romantic stuff, but I also love the laid back stuff too.

I know it’s mostly a commercialized holiday, but I do love the extra day to get spoiled and to spoil the ones I love. We can love each other because Jesus first loved us! Loving each other (and when we suck at loving each other) points us back to the cross.

Ben turned 41 in December. His only request was that we go to the citrus fruit tasting in Central California at UC Lindcove, so we planned a mini road trip! This was his first hotel birthday celebration. Morning of, we served him breakfast in bed at home. I used to make him fancy omelets for his birthday, but the past few years all he’s wanted is the same thing he eats every morning … 1 cup oatmeal, covered with skim milk, 22 almonds, 1 chopped fruit, and a scoop of protein. The only difference is that on his birthday I make it for him, and he makes it himself all other days.

Since we were about to embark on a road trip to a citrus tasting, we did a little spin on oranges for our gifts for him. The girls made lots of little cards with orange looking characters, and they were all filled with orange jokes.

“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Orange who?”
“Orange you glad I didn’t say banana.”

You get the gist. To make their orange characters, each of them used their thumbprint on some white card stock, and then drew funny faces on them. We also wrote out 41 reasons why we love him and wrapped them up in a nice little orange for him to unravel (like this and this). Funny thing is that he didn’t want to ruin the orange ball, so he’s never unraveled it to find out all the things we love about him. Oye! I told him I would gladly wrap it all back up, but he still hasn’t done it.

That guy is so sentimental. Back when we were dating, and he would get sick, I’d bring him orange juice. Well, he’s saved all of the containers, and there in a box sitting in our closet, along with a million other things that he saved from when we were dating. My Benny is too sweet.

Our first stop on our road trip was for lunch in Pasadena. We took him to Spinfish, which is a poke bowl place. Sushi is Ben’s jam, so I knew he was going to love this place. In fact, we all loved it! The girls get theirs without any raw fish, but with imitation crab meat instead. We haven’t introduced them to raw fish yet, but I have a feeling that once they get a taste, especially the middle two, they will love it and won’t even give California rolls a second look.

After lunch, we were all happy and satisfied, and ready to hit the road. We love doing little getaway trips like this to celebrate a birthday. Another post to come to share all about the citrus tasting.