Feathers in Our Nest

a blog about faith, family, food, & more written by a wife and stay at home mom of four

Spring Break 2017 Recap

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Last week we took the week off for spring break, as so many other did! We had a wonderful, jam-packed week and made so many fun memories together (and with friends and family)! This week we’ve been catching up on sleep and laundry, since we ran so hard last week!

Saturday

We kicked off our break by meeting my family at a park in between our houses. It was a gorgeous day to be outside, and we happened to be there while an agriculture event was going on, so we ended up getting free swag bags, barbecue sandwiches, and ice cream!

Monday

On Monday morning, Tad’s mom surprised the kids at breakfast! She spent the day with us and we mostly played outside! Of course we got some reading in before nap-time as well.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to the bird zoo that is pretty close to our house! We love going there every spring, and it’s fun to see how the kids have grown in their bravery holding the birds and feeding them!

Theodore was delighted.

Tuesday evening at our small group we dyed Easter eggs!

Wednesday

Wednesday we went to the park with friends after picking up drinks (just for mom & dad!) at our favorite coffee shop downtown!

After playing a while, we had a picnic lunch. This was probably the hottest day of the week, and we really could have gone to the beach!

Thursday

Our friends the Woods were in NC for their spring break, so we got to go visit Travis and Andrea on Travis’ dad’s strawberry farm! The kids adored riding on the golf cart with their boys!

Riding between the blueberry bushes.

All our kids!

The grown ups!

Theodore had the BEST time eating his body weight in strawberries! He can’t get enough of them!

Friday

On Friday we decided to drive to New Bern, one of our favorite places to visit on a day trip. We started out at a fun wooden playground where the kids could explore, play hide-and-seek, and make new friends!

It was really warm that day as well!

We packed a picnic lunch and headed down by the water to eat in the shade of a tree.

Sweet kiddos! Vera said that this was the only picnic this week that “counted” since it was the only one we ate on a blanket (all the others were at picnic tables)!

Well, no question now if I look pregnant or not! Ha!

We got ice cream before heading home!

That night was also our Good Friday service at church, which was wonderful! It’s one of my favorite church services all year.

Saturday

Saturday was our church’s annual Easter Pig Pickin’! In addition to eating great food together, the kids enjoyed sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a bounce house, and an egg hunt, while the adults enjoyed corn hole, volleyball, basketball, and more.

The egg hunt was an indoor balloon egg hunt, which was so much fun! Theodore was more interested in the balloons than in the eggs, and the girls enjoyed helping pop all the balloons at the end!

Sunday

Easter Sunday was a great morning of reflection on our Savior and His finished work on the cross!

The kids looked so sweet in their new outfits from MiMi.

Love our family picture this year!

That evening we had some friends join us for dinner, and that was a sweet time of fellowship!

Whew! Is it any wonder that I spent most of Monday in recovery mode? Ha! It was an amazing week, but I needed to nap a lot this week to recover!

How was your spring break?

First Day of Spring Baskets

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Catching up on posts around here!

Instead of doing Easter baskets, we do ours on the first day of spring! I know I got this idea from another blogger a long time ago, but I can’t actually remember who it was! But we love that it is a sweet celebration of the beginning of spring, without being a distraction on Easter Sunday morning (because, goodness knows, it’s hard enough to get everyone out the door on time!).

Our baskets for the kids this year contained books, fun activities, cute band-aids, Peeps, and a few other fun surprises.
First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

Here are the books we gave the kids! We love Usborne books SO much at our house (more on that soon!!), and these adorable spring books were the perfect additions to their baskets this year!

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

It was so fun to see their faces as they opened their baskets!

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

Fun fact: apparently this was the first time any of my kids have had Peeps (or remember having them). So they kept calling them little squirrels! So funny!

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

Band-aids are one of my kids’ favorite toys.

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

Vera also made ME a basket! Wasn’t that so sweet of her? She spent her own money buying me some delicious chocolate, and she wrote some adorable notes for me!!

First Day of Spring Baskets | Feathers in Our Nest

Do you do Easter baskets? Or first day of spring baskets? Or skip the baskets altogether and just dole out candy? Haha!

Your Road Map to Spring Cleaning {Guest Post}

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I’m excited to welcome Emma from Smile As It Happens as the guest-author of today’s post!  Hope you enjoy these great suggestions for spring cleaning! -Aliesha

Your Roadmap to Spring Cleaning

The other day I heard some birds chirping outside my window. That means it’s time to get the winter dust out of the house and start my spring cleaning! I may be the only one, but I love spring cleaning. It’s the chance to open windows that have been closed for what feels like forever, and the chance to empty out closets and toy boxes and get rid of all the broken and outgrown items.
I tend to stray away from the typicalspring-cleaning checklist, although that is always a good place to start. I like to get the house to a standard level of cleanliness, then completely destroy it, then reorganize it. Somehow the ritualistic destruction makes me feel more productive.
Start With the Basics
I start with a once over of the basic house cleaning; everything goes to its assigned room, the place is tidied and vacuumed. Then I start with the closets. I go room to room and empty out every single closet. I vacuum out the closet floors, get all the cobwebs out, and decide if I am keeping the shelving/storage the way it is. Usually I am, but sometimes I get a bit crazy. Last year, I ended up with a bunch of milk crates, so I built a cubby shelf out of them for the kid’s closet. It was so much easier to see their clothes folded in the crates than it was in their dresser drawers, and since their nightstands have drawers, they were able to store small things like socks and underwear in those. I ended up repainting that dresser and using it as a television stand and storage for sheets and blankets in the guest bedroom.
Donate or Decorate
Once I have decided to keep the storage, I start reassembling the closets, removing any items that we no longer need and putting them in the soon-to-be-giant pile for Goodwill. I keep any jackets or clothing that can be used for lawn scarecrows for the next Halloween, so jackets, button down shirts, and jeans without holes stay and get moved to my Halloween decorations storage box, along with any sheets that I decide to dispose of from the linen storage. They make wonderful ghosts hanging from the trees.
I try to be very organized about holiday decorations being stored in their labeled bins, but with two kids, inevitably I find decorations from Christmas, New Years, and Valentine’s Day tucked away into a drawer or closet. This is when they get returned to their rightful place.
Leave no Drawer Unturned
Once the closets are all reassembled, I do the same thing with dressers and anything with a drawer. Toy boxes get dumped and wiped out, dresser drawers get upended. I go through the same process with every item: refold, decide if we are keeping it, put it away or donate it.
Then I move to the kitchen. Every cupboard gets emptied. In the kitchen I wash everything before I put it back. Then it’s on to the pantry. If I haven’t used the item in a year, it gets donated to the local food pantry, no questions asked.
The same thing in the bathroom; every medicine cabinet gets completely emptied, wiped down and reassembled. I’ve recently become more conscious of the kinds of chemical products I’ve been using to clean my home. I haven’t cut them from my home completely yet, but I do use a healthy cleaning guide to find the safest ones.
Once I have emptied every closet, drawer and cabinet, I move on to moving large pieces of furniture. Each piece gets moved at least once to be vacuumed or cleaned behind and under. Then every curtain in the house comes down and gets washed. I’m no expert in interior design and don’t have a huge budget for home decor, but I do try to spruce things up once a year. There are plenty ofgreat posts online that provide simple tips on how you can makeover your home’s interior.
Once that’s all done, I only have to do another quick vacuum and my house is completely cleaned and aired out for spring. I hope this roadmap assists you on your big spring clean!
Emma Banks (of Smile As It Happens) is a DIY enthusiast and mother of two who is always looking for new, creative ways to spruce up her home. With spring right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get a jump on cleaning and begin some new projects.

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