Tie Dye cupcake fun

I decided to try a fun new cupcake and they turned out great! The girls just LOVED them, and Daddy was pretty excited to take them to the station to show off his girls cupcake baking magic! I started with a plain white cake mix and made it just as the box said. Then I separated the mix into 5 different bowls. I added food coloring to each bowl, I used the neon food color which I ended up loving, the colors were sooo vibrant! Then I just dropped a bit of each color into my cupcake tin and...

Magic! Tie dye cupcakes! I love the colors, these are too cool!

Then onto the frosting! I made some yummy colors, put them all in the bag and voila!

These were so fun, so easy, and sooo pretty! I'm not a cupcake eater but Benjamin and the girls said they were soo yummy too :) Enjoy!

Tiny Dancers

The girls have been taking dance for about a year now, and they are just too stinkin cute! They take a dance/tap/ballet class and are getting ready for a big show in June! The costumes are so adorable its disgusting! So much fun to spend our Friday mornings watching them learn and love dance! Here are some pics from ballet... This is Malaia and Miss Ava, their Daddys work together.

Little Mia in ballet

Snider Family Fishing Fun

Daddy came home from a loong 2 days on duty only to convince me to go fishing with him and the Bigs. Usually fishing trips are for Daddy Malaia and Mia while mommy puts Kaia down for a nap and gets some scrapping done. But today was a full family fishing day. In the RAIN! I don't like being cold, but what Daddy wants Daddy gets...so I bundled up and headed out for the adventure...

Ok so Dad's fishing hole is pretty covered by trees, and it was only sprinkling outside so we were safe from the rain...

Kaia thinking...why do they do these things to me....

The Bigs...they are fishing pros...they taught mommy that fishing trips really just mean, outside with lots of snacks while you throw sticks in the water and scare the fishies away...which makes Daddy upset;)

Ill be honest I spent most the fishing trip taking pictures of the girls...I cant help myself! But we had a fun outdoor day with Daddy...and I think Kaia even had fun, although none of the pictures really captured that;) Our fishing trip was cut short due to our little Mia falling in...Daddy was right there to grab her right up, she was our only catch of the day. Mommy laughed, Mia yelled...its not funny! We spent the rest the day talking about having Mia for dinner...her only reply, Its not funny guys!!!

Happy Wednesday to all, hope yours was a fabulous as ours!!!

One of the Coast Guard wives is the assistant coach for the high school cheer leading team in Reedsport. This year when they did their Jr. Cheer camp she thought of our little Malaia and made an exception to the rule, letting Malaia do the camp even though she was only 4. Malaia had practice every day for 2 hours all leading up to the big Friday night halftime show. She loved practice, and we loved her coming home and teaching us her moves! She was a little upset on day one when she came home and told us she had to be a Brave, and not a Bruin like aunt Kiki, but we told her with Daddy's job she would be cheering for many many teams in her years:) Go Braves!!!

Mia and Makaia got red ribbon to cheer on the cheerleader!!!

G O everybody LET'S GO!!!

The halftime dance, it was too cute! She did so great! Very proud mamma!
High V....GO BRAVES!!! Go Laia!!!

Our dentist here likes kids to be 3 before they come in for their first cleaning. Malaia has always loved getting her teeth cleaned, if we drive by her dentist office she will even ask, "Can I go get my teeth cleaned!!!", so you can imagine how excited Mia was to turn 3 and be old enough to get HER teeth cleaned! Auntie Jamie would be so proud. Mia did just wonderfully, and walked around the rest of the day showing everyone, "See how clean my teeth are!!!". So sweet! 20 beautifully perfect teeth! Go Mia!!!

Rain wont stop us!!!

I grew up LOVING the rain. Which was good since I was born and raised in Brookings Oregon, where we tend to get, a LOT of rain, at least in the winter. Anyways, when everyone else was complaining about rain, I was excited for it. There are a lot of things that are just better with rain:) Sleeping with your window open, running outside(as long as you end your run at the high school football field and have your sister and best friends with you to mud wrestle with) board games, all better when there is rain. And then I had children. Yes I still love to listen to the rain outside when I'm falling asleep, and enjoy a good rain run, as long as someone is home to watch the girls, but for the most part I have found it just makes for a LoooNG couple of months, stuck indoors, with some very energetic toddlers! In Seattle we had so many winter options, Kids Quest every Friday night, a trip to the aquarium, or just walking through the mall. But now that we are back on this beautiful Oregon Coast, I find myself more and more dreading the months of rain, and looking forward to the sunshine and trips to the park and the beach again, which can make for an even longer rainy season:) So we spend our days having tea parties, cutting paper, you cant imagine how much kids love to just sit and cut paper, and yes we have an occasional bundled up trip to the beach, in the rain, but sometimes we just need something more. Benjamin got a package in the mail the other day with all this brown paper. The girls found it and started tearing it apart until mamma, the smart woman that I am :), had a fun idea...here we go for a fun winter art project.....kept the girls busy for at least an hour! YAY!!!

And now our only problem...deciding which lucky gramma will be getting this in the mail :) :) :)

mouthpiece anyone?

Being a mom has got to be by far the BEST job in the world. I think I say this all too often, but I cant help myself. I am the luckiest woman alive. I get to stay at home and watch my kids learn and grow every day, I wouldn't trade it for anything. From the hilarious things a 3 and 5 year old come up with, to watching my 8 month old sit with a basket of toys and be the happiest human alive, I am just so blessed, head to toe, in life! There are certain stages, especially in the first year, that I hear myself say, this is definitely my favorite age! But I honestly think 6 months-until crawling is my FAVORITE stage! They can sit up, entertain themselves, and cant MOVE!!! :) I can sit Kaia down with a basket of toys while I entertain the bigs, or even better...get housework done!!! YAY:) She is just so content to sit there and take each toy out, one by one, slobber all over it for a bit, before she goes back for the next victim! I love love love to watch her with her basket of toys. Love to watch her explore each part of an old cell phone, or a mirror, suck on it for a bit, and then toss it to the side....cant we all be this easily entertained?! But what I love about Makaia at this stage even more than I did my older girls is her silly bracelet fetish! Every time we turn around there she is, exploring her basket of goodies, with a bracelet accessorising her mouth :) It is just too cute! After a few weeks of it I decided to grab the camera out a few times and catch the cuteness....enjoy!!!

Our Monster Mia is 3!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our little Monster, or as she would prefer you call her, Princess Mia. I cant believe the Snider birthday season is here already! This year we decided instead of parties we would just have the birthday girl be in charge of the day! As always we started out with candles in our pancakes...

And Mia wasted no time getting into some princess attire just in time for presents! 3rd birthday in the Snider home means BIKE year!!! Now even though it was pouring down rain outside(imagine that in the middle of March;) by no means meant we would have to practice riding another day...bring on the indoor biking!!!

Mia really just wanted to spend the day on her bike! Which was fine with us:) She had asked to see a movie for her birthday (gramma and papa stole that activity and they saw Gnomeo and Juliet) and dinner at her favorite diner in Florence...we sit in an actual CAR...such a fun restaurant! I love this kid! She is so full of life, and energy! She is a lover...and a scrapper:) She keeps Daddy, mommy, and sisters on our toes daily...and we wouldn't trade her for anything!

I cant believe you are THREE my big girl! Mommy is sooo proud of you! From spelling your entire name, to counting to 50 with sister, to insisting that you cant leave the house without a tutu on, you make me smile and laugh my days away! I love you so much, and cant wait to spend another fun and busy year being your mom!!! Happy Birthday sweet Mia!!!

Ugh, and yes, they even got to pick out their cake this year:( Which made Daddy happy(his fav. polka dot cake, which the girls happen to LOVE and mom happens to DISlike) I don't know that this will be an option next year for birthdays:) Call me crazy but I just LOVE the pretty cakes I order them each year...who can go wrong with a pink and purple princess tower cake right...and chocolate...oh well, we will battle that out next year:)