A Very BORING Spring Break and the beginning of April

I figured our camping trip was our big "to-do" for Spring Break.  I guess the other fun thing we did was to go get ice cream one night after dinner.  I am an awesome mother, I know.  And, truth be told, the ice cream was Garrett's idea.  Me, I had other plans for Spring Break.  After getting most of the laundry done the day after camping--quite the accomplishment for this bunch!!--I decided that I wanted to repaint my living room. Back when our toilet overflowed and we had to replace the sheet rock and floors, they painted our living room for us and we chose a grey.  But the color we picked was too dark and too blue.  Not what I had in mind at all.  I've been talking about repainting since December and Garrett didn't want me to, saying we should just enjoy it for a year or so since we just had professionals come and paint it.  But, it kept bugging me.  So I went and got a sample of what I thought I wanted and just went for it.  Garrett said he wanted "nothing to do with it" and thought I was crazy.  I started taping and painting a primer on Thursday and Friday--I did 2 coats of primer. On Saturday, I started painting the grey.  Garrett must've felt a little bad because he gave in and helped me paint on Saturday.  It helped so much.  My back was pretty sore by then and I was grateful for some help.  Maggie babysat for us and we went out to dinner with Jim and Georgia and then came back home and started planning our excursions for our Cruise that we were going on at the end of April. I actually decided to do a 2nd coat of the grey on Monday morning and by Monday afternoon I was finished!!  I was so happy with the end result and so happy I made the decision to repaint it.  

This is how it looked before

 and this is the new lighter grey.

My kids were pretty much neglected during these few days of painting.  Luckily Maggie and Lydia were there to help with getting food for the smaller children.  

This is what they did during most of their vacation:

 They love to do this on my ipad.  I have over 100s of pictures of them distorting their faces on whatever program this is.  Especially Lydia.  Some of them are pretty funny.

 Then this girl lost her first tooth!  She's been wanting this to happen for so long!!

My kids did have one fun day during their spring break.  All credit goes to their grandparents.  They wanted to have them spend the night, but then the previous week, then discovered that one of the pipes in their kitchen had busted and now this is going on at their house:

So, instead they came and picked up the kids on Wednesday and took them out to lunch at Izzy's (a pizza buffet place) and then took them bowling. 

They had a lot of fun.  Then after that, they took them to a farm store and showed them some baby chicks.  They showed me this picture that they took and to me it just looked like a big cookie or something.  But they are little chicks in a big container.  

My kids loved those and were oohing and aahing about how cute and fuzzy they were.  

Then they went to Sonic and each got a special drink.  So, Spring Break was saved by grandma and grandpa.  Hooray!

April

Everyone was back in school and things were back to normal.  Except Bella.  Poor little Bella was starting to get a bunch of canker sores in her mouth.  For the next couple of days, more kept appearing.  She probably had 5 cankers and about 4 cold sores on her lips and gums.  She was having such a hard time eating or drinking or smiling or talking.  One of those things is pretty painful--get a mouthful and it's downright miserable!!  I was so impressed with her though because she was so brave throughout the whole ordeal.  She did complain that it hurt, but I think if it had been me, I would've been crying all the time and begging for help.  Which she did not.  Tough girl!  We tried orajel, hydrogen peroxide, melaluca essential oil.  Nothing seemed to help.  Poor thing lived off of plain pancakes, bread and cheese for a week.  

 She took this selfie of herself.  It doesn't hardly even show all of them.  Her gums were all red and irritated because she couldn't brush her teeth very well because of the pain.  They finally started going away after about 8 or 9 days. 

Soon after, Paige started getting them.  She didn't have so many on her lips.  Most of hers were down her throat.  I took them both to the Dr. and they did give us a numbing medicine, but Paige said it didn't help her sores at all.  

On the 4th of April, Bella had a birthday party to go to at her friend Lauryn's house, then on the 5th, Noah went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese for his friend Cooper. It was General conference weekend, so we didn't do much else.  Maggie and I went Saturday afternoon to do a little shopping at Old Navy since she had a gift card there from Christmas.  

April 8th:  I was upstairs doing laundry and peeked out the window to check on my kids.  I had to take a picture because it was so fun to see all the kids out playing.  I love our neighborhood and I love being on the very back street.  We don't get a ton of cars and its pretty quiet.  Two of Paige's friends were over that day playing and three of Lydia's were over.  They love to play outside shooting hoops or riding bikes or playing whatever they invent.  I love it.  

 Noah, Sarya, Brooke and Paige--in the street

Lydia, Natalie, Maleah, Desiree, Paige, Brooke, Bella and Noah

April 9th was a beautiful, sunny day and so we were outside again.  This time we made a hopscotch game and played that for awhile.  

 Then Garrett came home when Paige and I were shooting some hoops and he was able to help Noah and Bella have turns.

That night I decided to cut Bella's hair because it was so long and stringy and she never likes it fixed.  So I chopped it to her shoulders.  

This is the next morning.  I wanted to go shorter, but she didn't want me to.  

On April 10th, the 3rd grade had a Wax Museum at school.  They each had to pick a famous person and research that individual.  Then on the day of the wax museum, come dressed as their person and give a short speech about that person.  I suggested that Paige do Emma Smith, but she said her teacher said that there had to be a book about her to read during class.  I didn't know of one, so then I suggested Anne Frank or Annie Oakley.  I bought a book about each of them and she read them both but decided to do Annie Oakley.  It was a good fit for her.  She was very excited about dressing up like her and getting to use a southern drawl--because she was from the "Old West".  

This is her costume:

 and this is her speech:

"Hi my name is Annie Oakley.  I was born August 13, 1860 in Drake County Ohio.  In 1866 my father died of pneumonia.  In 1875 I met Frank Butler.  One year later we got married.  Then in 1883 me and Frank toured the midwest as Butler and Oakley.  In 1885 me and Frank joined Buffalo Bills Wild West Show.  Then in 1926 I died in a car accident.  I was famous for gun use and teaching women how to shoot.  Thank you for coming to our wax museum."

 This is her friend Hayley, or Dr. Suess

 This is her friend, Ashley (Joan of Arc)

 Some 5th grade students who came to listen to Paige's class.

 Her friend Ella--Sacagawea, I think

and her friend Charlee who was Sally K. Ride.  I went to an elementary school named after Sally K. Ride, so I thought it was cool that someone had picked her.  

The next day there wasn't any school.  Paige went to her friend Brooke's birthday party and we all just hung out and played.  The next day was Saturday and worked around the house--cleaning and pulling weeds.  Then rode bikes and played outside.  Garrett was teaching the younger kids how to shoot the BB gun out back while Maggie practiced on her bow and arrow.  

That night Garrett and I got to go out on a date.  Out to eat at Pac Thai and to see "Captain America".

Well, this post has gotten a bit long, so I'll end it now.  

Other things besides birthdays...

We've had lots of other things going on the past couple of months, that I thought I would quickly blog about.  I don't have pictures for everything, but would still like to get it recorded. 

Waaaayyyyy back on April 14th, Maggie went to a one day dance clinic that Glencoe high school put on as a fundraiser.  It's an all day thing where the Glencoe dancers teach girls from Kindergarten on up, a dance in their different age group levels, then they perform it for the parents at the end. I of course forgot my regular camera, so only have a video that I took on my iphone.  She had a fun time. 

It was a beautiful day when Maggie was in her dance clinic, so we played outside for most of the day.  Here are the kids digging in the dirt in our garden boxes. 

This was Maggie's science fair project for the year.  She wanted to test what would help flowers stay alive longer.  The things she tested were sugar, aspirin, the "plant food" that comes with cut flowers and just water.  The flowers that lasted the longest were the ones with sugar and plant food in it. 

On April 17th, the Activity Girls leaders put on a "Cute as a Button" Mom and daughter Party.  It was really cute.  They had a couple of people demonstrate different hairstyles for girls.  Then we made button bracelets and had button cookies.  They took pictures of us there, but I haven't seen them yet.  It was a cute activity. 

The top picture is the bracelets we made and in the second picture I am wearing one of the button pins that Maggie and Lydia made for me. 

On Maggie's birthday, she got to participate in a Piano Festival.  This is where a group of kids at the same level pick 2 songs that they have to memorize and they play them in front of a judge, the other kids in their group and their parents.  They are not competing against each other, but playing for the judge. The judge critiques their playing and gives them advise on ways to improve and then they get a score.  This was the first time that we've participated in the festival.  Even though it's nerve wracking, I think it's a good experience.  She did very well even though she said she messed up a few times.  It was all due to nerves because she plays the songs perfectly over and over at home.  I was really proud of her for doing it, even though she didn't want to.  She's holding her certificate a few days later, because I didn't take a picture that day.   

 Old Yukon

Newer Suburban

Out of the blue one day, Garrett tells me that he's found a new car that he wants to get and that we were going to go the next day and trade in our Yukon.  So, the next morning, we drove out to Sandy by Mt. Hood and traded in our Yukon for a very similar Suburban.  The suburban is newer and it has 8 seats instead of our 7, which is really nice. 

 At school, the 3rd graders were learning about famous people in history and they each had to pick one person they wanted to learn about.  So they researched their person and wrote a one minute speech and were supposed to memorize it (most didn't).  Then they put on a Wax Museum.  They each had a paper on the floor with their person's name on it and a button.  So, if you wanted to learn more about that person, you'd "push" their button and the students would come alive and give their speech.  Lydia really wanted to do Amelia Earhart, but a couple of people had already chosen her.  So Lydia picked someone named Babe Didrickson, whom I had never heard of before.  Turns out she was this really great female athlete who competed in about every sport possible.  She was a really great golfer though, so that's how Lydia chose to dress up.  I was really proud of Lydia for finding someone new to learn about, even though she wasn't able to have her first choice.  It was fun, but a little chaotic with so many students in one room. 

I started something new at the beginning of the year.  I really wanted my kids to get into the habit of writing in their journals.  So I found a bunch of journal prompts off of the internet and printed them off and put them in a journal jar. I bought them each a composition notebook to write in, nothing fancy.  Then, every Sunday, we would pick out a topic and write for about ten minutes.  It was perfect when we had our 9:00 am meeting time, because after we got home from church, we'd eat lunch, then write in our journals and then there was free time to do other things.  Now that we have 1pm church, it's a bit harder because we sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, Garrett has meetings starting at 11, then sometimes I'm still finishing my lesson or something, so it hasn't been as easy to keep up.  But I'm still trying.  So, I took a picture of the kids writing in their journals awhile back.  Noah and Bella usually just color, but I like that they know that we take time to do this.  A lot of times, they fight back saying that they don't want to write anything or they don't know what to write, and sometimes they only write one sentence.  But I keep reminding myself that it's okay, they we're just trying to establish a habit.  It'll be fun to go back and read/look at their pictures even a year from now. 

Garrett lets Noah do a lot of things that I don't let him do.  One of those is to sit on the table and eat.  Garrett does this sometimes as he eats his own breakfast.  Noah things it is the coolest thing to sit on the table and eat eggs and toast with daddy.  I think it's hilarious!

Lydia totally surprised me one day.  She told me that one of her friends taught her how to crochet at recess.  They don't use hooks or anything; just their fingers, so I'm not exactly sure if it's really crocheting or something her friend made up.  But after getting back from taking one of my girls to dance, Lydia told me that she had made me a scarf.  And this is what it looks like:

 I was pretty impressed and I think she was quite proud of her accomplishment!  One day she took some of my yarn to school so she could crochet at recess.  So cute!

May 15th was Bella's last day of her first year of preschool.  They sang some songs and then they had a little hot dog luncheon for all the kids and parents. She really loved school and learned lots of fun songs.  We really love her school and her great teachers, Linda and Chris. 

Linda, Bella and Chris

Paige's allergies hit earlier this year. Seems like she can't get a break from these darn allergies, even though we try to be faithful with her eyedrops. I try to keep her inside, keep the windows closed put a cold rag on her face, but she still ended up with puffy eyes.

 This was one night before bed time.  Her eyes were really red and you could see little red welts under her eyes. 

 This was the next morning.  I kept her home from school for two days, so she could be miserable in the comfort of her own home. 

This was later that night...surprisingly better.  The cold rag brought down the swelling a lot. 

On Mother's Day, Garrett went out of town.  He was originally going to Brazil, Chile and then Argentina, all in one week.  After being in Brazil, he cancelled the Chile part and stayed in Brazil until he left for Argentina.  He served his mission in Brazil and hasn't been back since, although not for lack of trying.  He really enjoyed being there and speaking Portuguese.  The last night that he was in Argentina, he and his coworkers went to a Tango show, with a live band and awesome dancers.  He said it was really well done and really entertaining.  Here are a few pictures from that. 

On Saturday May 19th, our Stake went on a Mini-trek to get us ready for our big Handcart Trek in July.  Garrett and I are going to be a Ma and a Pa for one of the families.  We all had to wear our pioneer costumes and bring a sack lunch.  We hiked 8 miles that day!  What a sight it was though to see hundreds of youth dressed in pioneer clothes walking along a trail.  It was neat.  I didn't get pictures, though.  Garrett was supposed to go, but didn't get back from Argentina until the day after. 

Whew!!  Done!