Easter

It was awesome to have a snow storm to cancel school on Monday.  That meant that the kids got to stay home to visit Colby on his last day in Virginia, as well as have extra time to dye our Easter eggs.

Waiting for the eggs to color.

We had a design contest with $cash$ rewards!  Everyone had great ideas and we had a lot of fun.

Emma made Angry Birds eggs and a Dark Rider egg.

Sarah made a tie-dye egg with a sticker face.

Colby made a basketball egg.

Michael made the One Ring egg (with Elvish writing).

I made a spring egg with grass, flower, birds and the sun.

Nate made a football egg.

Nate and I got to go into help with Sarah's Spring Party at school.  Sarah was so sweet to share with Nate and help him to feel included.  I am so glad that they are such good buddies.

The Primary is in charge of the Easter Activity at the ward, so I got to help with that.  We had our big blow up slide, muffins and juice and an egg hunt.  I thought that it was a great success.

We went early to set up and the kids took advantage of the empty slide!

Nate loved his froggy basket and got to find eggs with Pooh Bear stickers on them.

Love those dimples.

Just eating his treats.

Sarah teamed up with a friend to find all of their eggs.

Michael also teamed up with one of his friends to find their eggs.

Emma was so sweet to help other littler kids find their eggs.

Easter morning was wonderful.  We had eggs and baskets to find.  It was nice to have church at 1p, so we could have a slow paced morning.

Found his basket behind the "lazy seat".

"Fished what I wished."

Yummy!

Sarah was almost too scared to retrieve her basket from the box with the buffalo head in it.

And after all of the searching was done, the kids ate candy for breakfast and played board games . . . all-in-all a perfect Easter.

Krista and Craig's Wedding

We were so glad that we got to go up to Washington DC to attend Krista Fantin's wedding.  She has been a friend of the family for over 15 years and we love her.  It was an added bonus that the wedding celebrations drew out visitors from SLC.

We got to see Shannon too.

The wedding was very beautiful.

The three big kids leaving the church to go to the reception.

We got to ride on a chartered bus to the reception center.  It was awesome.

 The reception was "the funnest wedding ever".  There was a lot of dancing.  I love to dance and I got to do a lot of it that night.  We had some technical difficulties with cameras/phones so I didn't get very good pics. But, the best pics wouldn't have done the dancing justice.  It was just really, really fun.

Everybody getting their groove on.

And we were groovin' all night!

Random events

One day I took the kids to Office Max to buy mechanical pencils for Michael and Emma.  There are a multitude to choose from at that store and it took the kids a long time to decide on which size of lead, what color of pencil and what style of eraser.  As I discussed these options with the older kids I glanced over to see what Nate was doing.  There he was calmly standing next to the packing supplies popping the bubble wrap.  I guess he takes after his Grandma Nona.

Nate popping bubble wrap.

The kids have been shooting Michael's bow and arrows in the backyard.  Nobody has been injured yet!

Shooting out of the play set.

One of my Sharing Times that I did in March included having "visitors" from the past come forward in time to testify that they knew Jesus Christ was resurrected.  I had some awesome actors portray Mary Magdaline, Cleopas, Simon Peter, Thomas, and a Nephite woman.  They came into the Primary room through the "Time Machine".  I have to admit, I had a lot of fun making it.

We got a short, but great, visit from Uncle Colby.  I don't think that the kids left him alone for one minute.  We love that Colby-O.

Dog pile

St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

This year Sarah talked us into signing her up for the Westchester Shamrock Kid's Run.  I think that she really enjoys running, and is pretty good.  Of course, if Sarah is going to sign-up, Michael and Emma have to run too.  So, we spent the morning at the race.  We ended up running into quite a few kids that we knew who were running in the Kid's Run too.

Our kiddos and their buddies.

Michael ended up coming in 4th overall.

Emma sprinted into the finish line.

Sarah was all smiles the entire run.

They had a "contest" to see which local elementary school could get the most participants.  Whichever school won would receive $500 to use toward playground equipment.  JB Watkins ended up winning.

Emma and Sarah got chosen to be in the picture to accept the check on behalf of JB Watkins.

This year St. Patrick's Day was on Sunday, so we invited a couple of families over after church to celebrate.  We went all out on the meal.

Rainbow fruit with a pot of gold.

Corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, green beans, shamrock shaped rolls, shamrock shaped pasta, and green beverage.

And a green lemon lime bunt cake (green inside and out!).

The big kid table.

The little kid table.

I love having parties at our house and having fun people to share holidays with.

Work with Dad

I went out of town for an overnight trip and Ben decided to take Nate with him to work.  I think that Ben was pretty excited for his day with his little buddy.  I think Nate had the time of his life!

Snack time with a show.

Hiding?

Elevators are so cool!

And a HUGE cookie.

I have the best husband!  He sure loves his kiddos.

Sarah's first missing tooth

It was a long time in coming, but Sarah finally lost her first tooth.

Getting ready to pull out her tooth.

Looking beautiful.