This is the First Year I got my act together early and started hunting for cute easter decor early... I am talking feb & march... The only Easter Decor I had was an Easter Wreath for my door, a bunch of plastic eggs and a craft I made in Relief Society craft day a couple years ago... I was ready to get my CRAFT on and make a new banner for my home and then I went a little nuts after that :)
I begged Leonard to let me stop for a 1 hour shopping trip at Tai Pan in Utah on our long drive home from Grandma's funeral. This place always makes me very very happy! They had some of the cutest easter decor and I was able to snatch up some goodies for my home! I found this wreath there and I made that little bunny flag! LOVE IT!
I went Cukoo with the Burlap this year and made a few pennant buntings for here and there! I found super cute little eggs at Tai Pan.. perfect for filling my many apothecary jars.. and when I came upon that fluffy little Chick, it hopped right into my basket... I couldn't help myself ;) This Year Hobby Lobby didn't disappoint either. Super cute easter eggs of all colors and sizes! YES!!
I found that bunny at Home Goods! What a fun surprise :)
More goodies from Tai Pan.. my kitchen table center piece and that artichoke final... love it! I added bunny ears to my topiary and whipped up that little pink glittery picture too!
Alas, here is my Easter Banner! Simple... easy as pie and cute, cute, cute! I love the crafty people out there on the world wide web... sharing ideas galore which then gets my creative juices flowing!
A close up of the cuteness!
oooh, there is more! Chicks, eggs and another bunting! I think I should have a party!
For my front room table... easter grass from Hobby Lobby and that darling bunny I found at Hobby Lobby Too! Have I mentioned I have a little crush on that place?
Loree + HL 4ever ;)
I couldn't leave the little sister bunny all alone on that shelf at HL... I have just the perfect home for you! ;)
Those Carrots are TO DIE FOR cute... That was a Tai Pan find!
Just a couple more details and one final look!
We are ready for Peter Cotton Tail to pay us a visit! ;)
oops.. I almost forgot... This is my SPRING Wreath for my front door! I pulled out my easter wreath and I have had it for 10 years... It needs a makeover!!! You know what that means????
Another Crafty Project waiting in the wings... just how i like it, but it may have to wait until next year.
Look who's CRUISING around the neighborhood in Style?!!
That would be me ;) LOL!!!
Leonard bought me this super cute green machine over spring break!
I instantly fell in love! I had to take a ride and when I did, Oh MY.... I couldn't help but laugh out loud and shout with joy, "THIS IS SOOO FUN!" Not to mention this bike is so CUTE, Spunky & FUN!!!
I had to have it!
It is a SIMPLE bike... just a bell, no whistle ;)
Aluminum frame, light weight, No gearing, Nothing complicating or technical... to stop, you back pedal, just like the first bike you rode as a kid! It is AWESOME!!!
I also love that I get to sit upright on that HUGE, WIDE, CUSHY seat. I can say my hiney is happy :)
So now I have 2 bikes that I LOVE with a capital L... My "It's all Business" road bike and now my new"Cruising in Style with my Kiddos" bike! It is the best of both worlds.
Ahhh, Life is Good!
Keep it Simple! drrrrring drrrrring.... that's me ringing my bell!
oh ps.. I just got a call that my white basket is in at the bike shop... gonna make my SWEET Ride even better! ;) I can pack a little picnic, or my book, hey even get the mail... oh boy... lot's of fun adventures are on the horizon :)
**** side note... now that Blake is 5, he tells us every night when it is time for bed that he is 5 now and is big enough that he should get to stay up with the girls... we must admit, it is such a cute argument and it almost works except the fact this kid gets up at the CRACK of DAWN like 5 am almost daily... so by 7pm he is DONE!! Oh Blake we love you! ****
He had his heart set on a SPIDERMAN cake this year. I looked all over the web for a cake that I could copy. I found one that looked like This One... When I showed Blake he was so excited! I had to hold my breath a LOT while frosting this cake... Blake was thrilled with the outcome and told me that " I WAS THE BEST CAKE MAKER EVER!!!" Wow, Thanks Buddy man! :)
We decided to go all out and do a SPIDERMAN theme for his Birthday this year. We just had a little family get together for a BBQ lunch, cake & ice cream to celebrate. Even though our party was small... I was missing 3 of my siblings and their families... they all live out of state :( We decked out our place for our special birthday boy!
Kaitlyn & Carly put up the streamers in the archway.. I was pretty impressed with their skills... They make a mama proud ;) Blake Loved his "Car Wash" streamers... he ran through the "Car Wash" all day long.
It that Spiderman???
The Decked out Birthday Table!!! Let's PARTY!!!
The GRUB... BBQ, fresh fruit, homemade potato salad ( Leonard made the whole thing... it was Good!) and the Cupcakes I made for Blake's Preschool Class!
Our only cousin that is big enough to play with is Van... He loved this Spiderman Party. It was fun to watch the boys excitment with the spiderman masks, blower horns and everyone's part of a Birthday....
PRESENTS!!!!!
Blake had a hard time being patient to open his presents. Since his Birthday fell on a Sunday we had church bright and early. But not only one church on Sunday. My sister Celeste and Matt blessed their baby this morning and then we went to our meetings and then FINALLY home, but we waited to open presents until after lunch which was EXCRUCIATING too long for Blake. Luckily, he survived the LONG wait and his patience paid off!
Happy Birthday Blake!
Blake is a crack up to watch open presents. He is very animated and EVERYTHING was the best Ever!!!
With all the birthday commotion going on, I failed to take a group shot of us! RATS!!!
Those in attendence were Celeste & Matt with their 2 boys Van & Rook, and My parents Jim & Joan. We missed all the rest of of family!
Woo Hoo! JACKPOT!!! It was a TRIO birthday for Blake. He Loves building with Trios and has some more sets to use his imagination with! I love this happy picture of my little nephew Van. He was so cute and so helpful. He would hand Blake each presents and would try to help unwrap it and ooohed and aaahed at all the fun presents! We Love Van!
Time for the Cake and a Loud Cheery rendition my traditional family birthday song.... It is a song that has been sung at every birthday in my home growing up... We love it.. The words go like this....
It's a Very Happy Day
When your Birthday Time is here
We'll sing a special song to you
To wish you joy and cheer....
(then on to the regular Happy Birthday song!) I'll sing it sometime for you... you may want to adopt this little diddy to your family birthdays from now on.. it is very catchy and cheery too :)
Make a Wish Blakey Boy! oh how we love you and are so happy to have you in our family! You definitely are the Cherry on Top in the Zito Family!
Boy oh boy, did we have FUN on Spring Break last month... i know, i know... i have been slacking again updating my blog. No worries though, I have the ENTIRE trip documented... just so you don't miss a thing. :)
Wowzers, that Grand Canyon is sure GRAND!!! I am a native Arizonian and I have never been to the Grand Canyon before, I blame my parents ;) hee hee!
So months ago, we decided it was time to change that and take our family on a vacation up north and see what is so Grand about this huge hole in the ground. We planned to go with our friends the Richardsons. It is was a FIRST for all of us... We all had a blast together and made some great memories with some pretty cool people!
Leonard made up a little video overview of our GRAND CANYON VACATION... Check it out first if you want... Blake's reactions are hilarious!!! I have more details following the picture collages too :)
Doesn't this video leave you thirtsty for more??? well I got you covered... ENJOY the plethera of pics of our GRAND CANYON FAMILY VACATION 2011
~ Zito Family ~
Leonard, Loree, Kaitlyn, Carly & Blake
~ Richardson Family ~
Justin, Larissa, Connor, Rylee & Tatum
~ The Kiddos ~
This is our first family get together too! I think the Zito kids and the Richardson kids meshed pretty dang good! It took a little warming up but by the end we were all BFF's ;)
Pictures just don't do it justice!
As far as you can see the canyons are deep and rugged!
It is a chasm 227 miles long and up to 18 miles wide! We visited the south rim where it is about 5000 feet deep, so basically one mile deep! sheesh! So breathtaking and AMAZING!!!
We strolled along the trail and oohed and aaahed at this wonder of the world!
In March, there is still snow patches all over the canyon trails and view points.. the kids all went bonkers over these little dirty patches of snow. I think that was more exciting to them than a deep hole in the earth. Oh and the garbage cans were also a HUGE hit... they were animal proof and almost kid proof. Our kids took time figuring out how to open the lids... aaaah good times!
On the Edge of the Earth with people I love! Nothing better :)
Justin & Larissa are great folks! We instantly fell in love with their great kids! We look forward to more family vacations together :) I think they really got a kick out of Blake and all the silly things he said and did! Lots of giggles and smirks around our Blakey Boy!
Another HIGHLIGHT of the Grand Canyon visit is discovering the culvert... or secret tunnel as Blake referred to it. :) The kids spent a good while daring each other to crawl through this tight space and come out victorious on the other side... They were all brave souls :) I tell ya, easy to please :) Blake also enjoyed visiting with other vacationers at the park. He to talk to anyone who would listen :)
This was a HOOT!!! There are these signs located at the viewpoints reminding visitors that Coins Can Kill the birds in the park as they eat them up and get poisoned and die... Blake decided he would read us the sign and tell us all about it... His guess was pretty good just looking at the picture! Man oh Man we LOVE this boy of ours :)
More of God's Beautiful Creation for man & woman to enjoy! can't get enough of it :)
We are all having a GREAT time... all but Blake by this time... He wants to go back to the hotel to chill and ride the park bus! he is sick and tired of pictures! oh boy, we really just got here! time for some reinforcements... fruit snacks and starbursts save the day!
Kaitlyn being silly... Leonard about FREAKED when he saw this picture! He had nightmares previous to this trip about one of our kids falling down the canyon... YIKES!!! I guess I should not have encouraged risky moves like this one! It really looks worse that it was :)
Ahhh, a change of scenery and the Blakey Boy puts a smile back on his face! PHEW!!! the little visitor center/museum was a good distraction and we learned more cool facts about this amazing place!
Oh DEAR!!!!
What darling ladies ;) and how cool to see a bunch of mule deer cross the trail in front of us! Real LIVE WILDLIFE... only at the Grand Canyon ;)
SNOW!!!!!
As day one came to an end, we were finally gonna ride that bus Blake has been DYING to ride. While we waited for our ride to come, the kids were thrilled to see that there was a good pile of snow just BEGGING to be played with, made into snowballs and get thrown at each other and me!
Look who instigated this snowball fight.... none other than our Spunky Carly Girl... and after that first snowball smashed into me and the laughter rang out.... i had to run for my life with camera in tow.
Blake just tosed one my way but the worse is yet to come...
Kaitlyn - Rylee.... DON'T DO IT!!!!
AHHHHHH! Huge snowball headed straight toward me!
Luckily, I barely dodged that blow... It was pretty fun and I love that I got it on camera!
Isn't snow suppose to be white and fluffy??? This is the dirty mess the kids went nuts over! They cracked us up!
AHHHH! at last, rest your weary legs Blakey Boy... your bus has arrived and it is off to the Hotel we go!
What a great first day in the park!
Our hotel had an arcade and game room... they even had a bowling alley.. pretty cool. We gave the kids a handful of quarters and they had a ball. The best "game" was the vending machine! you always came out a "winner with a prize". Speaking of prizes.. there was a game machine that popped out huge gum balls when you won... It was broken because every few minutes it would kick out a gum ball even though no one was playing it. Carly got pocketfuls of those yummy morsels!
After a good nights rest we were ready for DAY 2 at the Grand Canyon!
We started the day of playing in another pile of SNOW!!!! woo hoo
We toured the Grand Canyon Visitor Center and kids signed up to do the Jr. Park Rangers program.
We attended a fun little class taught by this sweet park ranger. It even involved a "craft"... we made a replica of an ancient depiction of a deer... just like the native americans made oh so long ago.
Leonard was in LA LA land dreaming of adventures he could take here in the canyon while the ranger class was being taught. He took some pretty cool pics though :)
After the kids finished their booklets the Park Ranger swore the kids in as junior rangers. I loved in the pledge she had them repeat had important stuff like, take care of nature, treat animals kindly, make your bed everyday and obey your parents. They had to make the PROMISE and swear! Sweet! This is good news for me!
woot woot - this is one COOL group of Junior Park Rangers!
Well, we couldn't visit the Grand Canyon with out a little hike. Most of us ventured down the main hiking trail...Bright Angel Trailhead... for a tiny taste of hiking the grand. It was STEEP, MUDDY, SLIPPERY and SNOWY... our shoes were all caked with mud after this short journey. I think it would be fun to do without kids... maybe one day :)
Here is a Video Leonard put together with some of the HIGHLIGHTS the kids seemed to enjoy most about this trip to the Grand Canyon! ENJOY :)
Ahhhh, One last parting shot of the Zito Family at the Grand Canyon ... So happy we came here. We all really loved it and so glad to have this trip marked off my TO SEE list. I can't wait for our next family adventure together!
As we were leaving the park I had to get a picture here at the official sign! Richardson family, we sure love you guys... thanks for making this trip happen - it wouldn't have been the same without you all!
Woo Hoo! The Grand Canyon was the GRANDEST place I have ever seen so far in my life. If you haven't gone, I suggest planning a trip. It is truly an AMAZING sight... One of the 7 natural wonders of the world!
