Easter

All of the Cerkas cousins

Our cute kids in their Easter best!

Hunting for Easter eggs in our backyard after naptime!

Levi found one!

I think her Easter basket is hidden under there!

Tundra Lodge

We took a belated winter family vaca to Tundra Lodge in, where else, Green Bay!  Even though it was March it was still a nice time for all of us!  Alena got to go down some of the big slides with Mommy or Daddy, but was a little startled by the water dumping down on her on the platformed play area.  She and Levi mainly stayed in the zero depth area. 

Levi's getting excited about the water!

Lena is "taking a shower"

She got to play lots of games in the large arcade.  You can see in this picture that she is uber tired!

This was our favorite game to do with her because she was actually pretty good at it!

Cabin Trip March 2012

We decided to make our inaugural family trip up to the cabin in March.  The weather was pretty chilly, and it was misting on and off.  We did get a good hike in, and had food cooked over the fire.  But, due to things beyond our control, we ended up cutting our trip short and heading home on Saturday afternoon!  The kids just were not very happy with the sleeping arrangements in the cabin, were getting crabby, and Mommy and Daddy couldn't take their (or our) crabbyness anymore!  It turned out to be a HUGE blessing in disguise!  The Lord works in truly mysterious ways and we are so grateful that he doesn't tell us his plans!

Out for a walk around the circle.  Daddy brought a rifle so he could shoot at a porcupine if he saw one.  I think we were all disappointed that we didn't see one!

Here's Levi's ride

After a while, Daddy took over carrying Levi.  Then, Levi was so tired and had so much fresh air that he fell asleep!

We carefully took the backpack off of Daddy's back and propped it up in the cabin, letting the little boy sleep longer.

It wasn't long before he was up and devouring his army guy!  Daddy looks very excited about it!

Alena colored...

And Daddy worked as the human colored pencil sharpener!

Alena decided that the fire needed some poking.  She felt like a big girl doing that!

Look at all of the shells she found strewn all over!  Daddy hinted that they may have been from the guys weekend earlier in the year!

Queen of the dirt hill!

Levi, the Roomba!

Since our kids make such a mess at meals, we bought a little electric sweeper for cleaning up their messes.  Recently, Levi decided that it is his job to sweep the floors.  He whines until we allow him to use it himself!  He's such a big boy more and more these days!

Woodland Dunes in the Spring

This spring, we spent some time at Woodland Dunes Nature Preserve, which is only a couple of miles from our house.  We especially have been using the Goodwin Road trails.  The kids love going back into the woods, looking for snakes, bugs, butterflies, and being out in nature.  Both of the kids were soooo well behaved while in the woods!  They just love it!  I found this sweet little meadow on the Ice Age Trail, and took Daddy and the kids there.  They loved it, too!  here are a few cute shots from one of the times we hiked out there.

How We Roll

Levi really doesn't like mashed potatoes very much. 

He starts wiping his eyes, and keeps wiping them with his grubby little hands, just making things worse! 

Levi eating his snacks and showing off his cute hat!

 

I took out the breadmaker that had been sitting on our baker's rack, and opened it to find a whole load of toys hidden inside!



One of the "games" the kids invented!



She can be a vicious one!  She takes about a pint of blood a day!



Here's Daddy playing the "box game" with the kids

Homemade Mothering

Now, I know that I don't normally post anything but about the kids, but I thought I might start sharing a bit about things that I have been doing that make me proud of myself!  Selfish, I know! 

I have been reading the Homemade Mothering blog for a few years now and have used several recipes for both cooking, and making my own cleaning solutions.  Just in the last few weeks, I made these yummy homemade cherry muffins with some of the oodles of cherries we have canned or frozen in our basement.  They were so tasty!  I especially liked the topping!  Of course in my typical fashion, I substituted at least half whole wheat flour and probably added some ground flax.

Earlier this week, I tried our Homemade Mothering's Chicken Pot Pie.  Though he had cautioned me many times before that he was not a fan of any kind of pot pie, Eric tried it anyway.  Just the thought of pot pie, he said, made him feel sick to his stomach.  I think he must have tried a bad frozen pot pie or something, because not only did he like this, but I'm sure I've made several venison pot pies for him in the past, and he liked those, too!  I made my own whole wheat crust from an old school Betty Crocker cookbook, and added our own canned carrots later than the recipe suggests since they were already fully cooked.  I just ate the last of the leftovers today! 

I've also used cleaning tips on this blog as a springboard to transforming the products I use:

I now regularly use a vinegar and water mixture to clean just about everything, but that didn't come solely from this blog.  I made Homemade Mothering's Dusting Spray, and really have found that it is just as easy to use, and doesn't leave such a heavy fog in the house after use! 

I've even made her homemade laundry soap! I've since modified the recipe, and Eric helped me to make it last time. Using a stick hand blender truly helped to get any rogue chunks out of the mixture.  We reuse old detergent bottles over and over again, and the cost to make the homemade stuff is just pennies!

Above and beyond these last couple of items being "green," they are safe for my kids and are soooo much less expensive than buying each of these items at the store!  I now buy vinegar by the gallon, and don't have to worry about the kids being around when I'm cleaning (not that I clean that frequently, anyway)!  I just love the treasure trove of information you can find on the internet to support your own agenda!  Homemade Mothering certainly keeps spurring my on to make better choices for my family and I.