April

Trying to catch up on blogging...

This was the first year that we have ever planted bulbs in the winter.  It was so exciting to have tulips popping up in the spring.  They are one of my favorite flowers and they are so pretty. I really want to plant MORE next year.   

We've had a beautiful spring...we've been playing outside a lot.  Bella and Noah love to play out front for some reason.  

I bought a Groupon to a jump house place called Pump it Up Jr.  They were expiring soon, so I figured I'd better go use them.  This was our first time here and the kids LOVED it.  I will definitely have to bring them here again because they ran around like crazy and were so sweaty when we were done.  Good exercise for them.  Bella loved the big slides.  I went with them quite a few times on the bigger slides and they were so much fun!

This year for General Conference--a day or two before it started, I thought I'd put up a game for the kids to see how well they know the general authorities.  I hung up the apostle's pictures and then had their names up with tape.  They were supposed to take the names off, mix them up and then see if they could get them matched up correctly.  Paige blew everyone out of the water the first time she did it.  I think she got all of them except 2 or 3.  I was pleasantly surprised.  She did better than Maggie and Lydia.  All of my kids had a hard time with Elder Holland, which I found surprising, because he is one of my favorites.  I guess I just assumed they'd know who my favorite apostle was!  :)

Noah loves grandpa's tractor

We went over to grandma and grandpa McKibben's house Sat. the 6th, to help out with cleaning the barn and stuff.  It was their wedding anniversary and she made us dinner.  Oops.  It should've been the other way around.  Oh well.  We brought them a chocolate cake and a balloon, and they were pretty happy about that.  

Noah loving the chocolate goodness

then we watched one of the sessions of conference

I think these two learned a lot! :)

The next day we watched conference at our house.  Maggie and Lydia are playing the "Match the Apostle Game".  Jim and Georgia came over in the afternoon and watched it with us, then had a ham dinner with us.  

This is how our kids watch conference.  They do the packets for the first session or so, then they just play.  Sometimes, not so quietly.  

Noah playing with He-Man while he "watches" conference

The second-graders, put on a play which they learned in their music class, which was called, "A Mango in the Hand."  It was one of the most interesting plays I've ever seen.  Paige, being the singer, was always singing the songs at home.  So, when they were performing the songs, we not only recognized them, but were singing along in the audience because we already knew them all.  

This is Paige's good friend, Hayden who had the lead in the play.  I think his name was Francisco?  Anyways, Hayden has a major crush on Paige and wants to marry her.  Unfortunately, his family is moving away soon.  His mom told me that the only thing he was worried about (concerning the move) is how he is going to get married now that he will be a long ways away from Paige.  He is so funny and such a nice little boy.  We will miss them when they move.  They've known each other since pre-school and he's had a crush on her since then.  I guess if it's meant to be, then they will meet up again someday.  

This is my laundry room when I was getting it prepped to paint.  Man, that took a long time!  

I'm done with it now, but haven't taken a finished picture of it yet.  I'm always behind on laundry, so I always have piles of clothes and towels in there.  I need to get it put away and then I will take a picture of it, even though I still want to put up curtains and stuff.  It turned out so cute though.  I love it!  

Science Fair Project time again.  4-6th graders are required to do a project, so Lydia had to do one this year.  Her and Garrett grew crystals for her project.  I think they had a lot of fun.  Love the picture of her in the goggles.  

Trying to get it all put together

The finished product

I think she did a good job.

this is Noah and his good friend Cooper.  Cooper and his family just moved into our neighborhood, so hopefully, we'll have lots more play dates.  Noah just loves Cooper!

Bella had a teddy bear picnic at her school and I thought it was set up so cute.  they have a ton of bears!

I really love her preschool and her great teachers.  We will miss them!

One Sunday we went to Jim and Georgia's house for dinner.  She never buys any name brand stuff.  My dad  and brother work for Heinz ketchup and they always make a big deal when they go somewhere and the people/restaurant doesn't use Heinz.  So, my mother in law put this piece of tape on her ketchup bottle with Heinz written on it.  We all got a kick out that, so I thought I would post it for my dad and brother to see.  :)

That day, she had all of us shell this really old, dry hard corn for her so she could grind it into cornmeal.  None of us had ever done it, so it was a new experience and my kids enjoyed doing it.  

Kids love having a tree to climb.  Even though they don't get very far up.  At all.  They like to pretend they are good tree climbers.  :)

This is Noah being silly one day after dinner.  

We've been having some really nice 80 degree days.  Of course the kids think they need to get the hose out and play in the water any time the sun comes out.  

They thought they'd wash my car.  It seems like it was dirtier after they were done.  Oh well, at least they got to spray each other.  

That night, we had a ward activity that was a fundraiser for girls camp, scouts and cub scouts.  We had hawaiian haystacks for dinner, a silent auction, a live auction and a bake sale.  The young women presidency decorated and was in charge of the food.  They asked Garrett to emcee the event.  He did a great job.  It was a very successful evening.  

We also had voting going on for 3 people to dance the hula.  You paid however much you wanted to vote for a person to hula.  They had an adult category, a young man or young woman category and a child category.  Whomever had the highest amount of money paid for them had to go up on stage and hula.  It was a great idea and brought in a lot of money.  

The guy on the left is a member of the bishopric.  It was too funny!  It was a fun night.  

Birthday posts will be next.