High Freakin Five for Friday!  Excited for Easter weekend in Vermont, and thrilled to share five awesome happenings this past week….

1. FOUR!

Guess what I did on Saturday?  Just guess.  Something I’ve been working on and hoping for…for months.  Yep, I tried on my size 4 jeans, and what do you know…

They fit!  And not snug either, they were perfect!  I knew something was wrong with the jeans I wore to work last Friday because I could pull them down over my hips.  So on a whim, I tried them on.  And proceeded to take a picture to send to Erin and freak out over it.  I haven’t been in these jeans for 3+ years! Yeah AWESOME moment. And since it’s casual Friday again… I’ll totally wearing them today!

2. Creative Toddler Play

It’s just about the zillionth month we’ve had to stay inside.  We’ve still got snow on the ground in places and it’s still FREEZING (40s).  So, Avery is getting pretty bored of his toys – but to avoid cabin fever, we’ve created some fun activities at home.  #1 Fixing it.  Avery has a tool set with screw drivers.  I pick out an object in the house with nuts or small holes and tell Avery to fix it.  One of my favorites to watch is him fixing the dining room chair.

did you notice the two different socks?  NOT my fault.  One night after I brought Avery home from daycare and took off his shoes, one foot didn’t have a sock!  They later found it at daycare… sneaky kid!

Vinay came home to Avery ‘fixing’ the chair and gave me a funny look.  I said, hey, at least he’s not standing or jumping off the chair.

#2 Laundry.  Avery loves to help with laundry.  He takes the clothes in and out of the basket as I fold them (and in and out of his dresser sometimes – doesn’t quite get the concept yet)

…and he likes to load the dryer or washer too.  Except one day we were playing in the basement and there were no clothes to put in the washer, so he found something else…he spent a good 5 minutes loading the washer with rolls of paper towels.  He grunted and carried them over, pushed them in, shut the door every time. Adorable.  Vinay gets home and asks, uh why…. ?  Yeah, because it was fun!

3. Avery’s Toy Box

Grampy made Avery an awesome toy box last year.  It’s been used to store Avery’s toys – mostly stuffed animals.  And lately it’s been a good platform for Avery’s little people farm set to sit on – perfect height for Avery to play them.  But with our cabin fever growing, we decided to do something new with the toy box…Play inside it!

We know Avery loves hiding in his cabinet in the kitchen, so it was no surprise that when I pulled over Avery’s step stool, he climbed right it, and pulled the lid shut on himself.  Silly kid!  It was a fun 20 minutes of getting in and out and opening and closing the lid.  If you ever play hide and seek with Avery, you know one of his hiding spots!

4. March Maddness

Instead of putting money in a pool for March Madness brackets, Vinay and I are playing a friendly game against each other.  The winner gets to pick activities for a date night, treated by the loser.  As the first rounds were played on Friday and Saturday, I was ahead. Vinay was sour and pouty about it while I bothered him about my date night ideas… Olive Garden for dinner, and a Chick Flick after.  He was NOT thrilled.  Then comes Sunday and my team I had going to the end was knocked out and the tables turned… now Vinay’s prancing around talking about Outback Steakhouse and Bowling.  He’s convinced he’s gonna win, and man does he rub it in!  We’ll see… it’s not over until ‘Roseanne Barr Sings’ (Vinay’s favorite saying).

5. Easter Cookies

As every holiday approaches, I’m dying to do projects with Avery.  Pinterest and the blogosphere are exploding with ideas… and usually that freaks me out, mostly because I don’t have time to complete these cool projects.  Yeah, some of them claim they don’t take much time and effort, but with a demanding little toddler at your feet (or in my case, on my hip 99% of the time), NOTHING is easy.  Valentines Day photos of Avery was a disaster.  I was frustrated and disappointed  and we had noting to show for our valiant efforts.  So, this holiday I am totally making it simple and fun – totally Avery proof.

I bought these cute Bunny Cookies, already made, just have to pop them in the oven.  My plan was to have Avery help me put them on the pan, watch them cook, then send them to daycare.  Simple, easy, toddler-proof.

So I bought Avery’s kiddie table into the kitchen, thinking it was the perfect height for him to stand at and I’d put the cookie tray on it for him to place the cookies.  Well, I brought the table into the kitchen, turned around to get the cookies, and when I turned back…

I saw that Avery had a different idea.  So, after taking Avery down off the table 3 times, I gave in and we used it as a step stool (I was standing with him the whole time).  And with that, Avery was the perfect height for the counter, and I showed him how to put the cookies on the tray.

Avery was thrilled.  But he didn’t quite get the concept – instead of spreading the cookies out on the sheet, he stacked them.  And every time his cookie tower got taller, he would shriek in excitement.  Then I guess we had the cookies out for a while, because they started to defrost and it didn’t take long for Avery to taste test them.  Oh well, the kids at daycare share binkeys and colds, so no biggie, right?

I quickly adjusted the cookies before popping them in the oven.  When they were done, Avery had half of one (before dinner!).  He loved it. (I ate the other half – yum!)  And they needed to cool down, so I fed Avery dinner while they cooled and I cleaned up the kitchen.  On the back of the cookie box was an idea on how to bag the cookies with m&ms… hmmm.  I have a zillion zip lock bags, and ribbons – I can do that!  So after Avery was in bed, I whipped these up:

1 cookie, handful of M&M’s, in a ziploc sandwhich bag, tied with ribbon, a note ‘happy easter’ hole punched tied in the ribbon, curled the ribbon.  I made 21 of them to be exact – enough for his classmates and teachers.  And totally budget friendly too! Box of 24 pre-made cookies = $2.50 (Avery ate one and Vinay and I each ate one).  Bag of Easter M&M’s =  $4.00 = $6.50/21 = 30 cents a piece!

And after they turned out so cute, with little effort and no frustration from me or tantrums from Avery, I wish I had bought two boxes of cookies so I could share more of them with our friends at work.  Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

What holiday is coming up next?  Mother’s Day & Father’s Day.  Any toddler friendly ideas to share?!

Happy Easter!