Ann and Elise Come for a Visit (part 1)

My Spring Break was this week. It was such a blast! Ann decided a few weeks ago that she really needed to come visit us before she has her baby in August. And we are so glad she did! So for the few days before they came I was cleaning and organizing everything. Having them come has been such a great thing for us. I think we have finally utilized what little storage we have to the fullest potential. Our extra bedroom looked the cleanest it has ever looked in the almost two years we have lived here - it had become the "catch-all" room with no rhyme or reason for why or where things were placed. Now we just have to keep it that way!
They got to Richmond Wednesday night. After everyone was settled and the visitors had had their grand tour of the apartment :) we went out to eat at Five Guys. We came back to the apartment and Elise showed us in just a matter of minutes what a terrible job we had done "baby-proofing" the place. We realized that our apartment was not ready for a curious and somewhat destructive toddler.

Thursday, the girls went shopping in Carytown then went to Maymont. Elise loved looking at all the animals. Elise was wearing her squeaky shoes. Everytime we passed by someone they would comment on her funny shoes. Someone even asked where Ann got them. They definitely helped us keep track of where she was.

That night we took Ann to Stony Point Mall (one of the nicer outdoor malls of Richmond) where we ate at PF Changs. That place has yet to let us down. The service is great and the food fabulous. We walked around the mall and ended our visit with Haagen-Dazs smoothies...delicious.

Friday we went to the Richmond Metro Zoo. It is a great family owned (LDS!) zoo that lets you feed all the animals. Elise loved giving all the animals the little grass pellets even when her little arms couldn't quite get it to them.

That night Brian & Kimberly and Cameron & Haley came over for games. Everyone had a good time and Elise loved all the new friends and attention she was getting. We ended up only playing one round of hand and foot (which the girls were losing horribly at) but we still had fun just hanging out.

Happy Easter!

We want to wish everyone a Happy Easter! I love Easter - all the little girls in their Easter dresses and fancy hats. Everyone looks so bright and cheerful. And everyone is a little more happy - I don't know if that's due to the warmer weather, more hours of daylight, or the extra sugar ;)

We had some friends over last night to decorate eggs. We did a lot of different techniques to get some really unique eggs - wrapped and boiled in onion skins and leaves, rubber bands, stickers, crayons, rubber cement, fingerprints, leaves in nylons, and blown egg sculptures. It was so much fun and we had so many different eggs. After we were done decorating the girls kicked the guys trash in a game of Hand and Foot.

Girls are awesome!!

We hope everyone's Easter is relaxing and that you have time to remember our Savior and the tremendous sacrifice He made for us.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I had all these great activities planned for school today - painting shamrocks, reading stories about leprechauns, singing shamrock and leprechaun songs. Instead I got sick this morning and had to call in. It wouldn't be so bad if this wasn't the most important week of the whole year.

Our Headstart program is under review this year and this is the week that the review team is coming to evaluate all the teachers, classrooms, and all the other departments of the program. So I'm really hoping that the day went ok without me and that I don't have anymore problems.

I hope everyone is having a GREAT St. Patrick's Day and that you find a little bit of luck!

Kite Festival

Last Sunday was the 10th annual Richmond Kite Festival. We were pretty excited to hear about the festival. If you haven't noticed from previous posts - we like kites. We were also excited because Matt was going to test his Wright Brothers plane he made back in November. It has been sitting in storage until Saturday when Matt put the finishing touches on it. We were all a little skeptical that it would fly. It looked awesome - just very fragile. We were pleasantly surprised when it soared in the air. Matt had to make some adjustments to the wings, and he added a "tail." If you look closely at the picture you'll notice a grocery sack flying in the air behind the plane. This is the makeshift tail - a grocery sack with a granola bar inside. Even though it didn't look very pretty, it worked like a charm to stabilize the plane. The plane flew at the most 40 feet in the air - in all it's magnificent glory. And then when the wind stopped it crashed a few feet from a little boy. I think it scared us and the boy's dad more than it did the little boy. He just gave Matt and Brian weird looks. The kite festival was awesome. There were some really amazing kites. The pictures don't really do them justice - they were a lot bigger in person. And it was fun watching the kids with all their free kites and painted faces. We only stayed an hour because the grass was wet and it was a little cold. Matt has started planning for his next kite. Maybe we'll bring it to the kite festival next year. That is, if he doesn't break it before then :)

{favorites}

These are just a few of my favorite things right now:

TV Shows

Movie

"after-school" snack

Time of Year

Chapman Gardens (2006)

Candy Bars

Fruit

Activities