The rest of Easter and odds and ends

 We tried out the bubble blowers that I put in the girls' baskets.  They worked really well in the beginning.  Then of course Tyler and Chris played with them all day (without bubbles) and stripped the gears, so they only lasted one day.  I guess that's what you get with dollar store stuff.  It was just sad because the girls didn't even get to play with them.

We decorated cookies on Sunday as well.

 The girls licked the frosting off, then ate most of the cookie part.

 Chris doesn't nap much anymore, but this day he fell asleep as Buzz Lightyear.

 The girls love to be outside.  Out neighbors have a dog who thankfully is very nice and doesn't bark.  He likes to lick their fingers when they stick them through the fence.

 The girls like the slide, but they still go too fast.  I have to catch them at the bottom or else they go flying off.

 Tyler is working on an economics unit in school.  He was assigned to make something to sell in their little market.  We made these 'treasure chests' together.  Tyler did a great job of folding.

 Yummy ice cream!

 We rode our bikes to the library yesterday with the girls in the trailer.  I was taking them out and the trailer shifted and fell on my foot.  It is pretty sore and bruised.

Phone Pictures

 Doug and I dumped our pictures from our phones, so here is a menagerie of photos from them.

Chris was about to get into the tub for a bath, but then we said we were going to have ice cream, he wasn't going to miss that.

This past week Chris had the last of his Sporting Around class.  He finally warmed up toward the end of the class and participated.  The first 15 minutes he just sat on the floor.

 First time in the car part!

 They love walking around the block and they like to hold hands sometimes.

 Me and my girls

Damon's busy week

 These past two weeks have been pretty busy for Damon.  We have been working on his Science Fair project.  His display was titled: Is Taste Affected by Sight and Smell?  Last week we had his class taste some fruits while smelling peppermint, plugging their noses, and breathing normally.  We also had them drink apple juice that was colored differently.  Then we made some graphs and put it on a poster.  Damon did a great job of analyzing the data and helping me count the results.  Friday was the awards ceremony and Damon won first place.  He was pretty excited about it.  (this was just the third grade, not required by all teachers, about 40 projects total).

Damon also had his third grade program this week.  They did a cute musical called "How Does Your Garden Grow?"  It had some fun original songs with a nice message: our children are our flowers and we need to take care of them to help them grow.  Damon sang well despite a few yawns that I saw.  We brought the whole family...Doug was great to watch from the back with the girls in the stroller.  They really didn't want to stay in the stroller up front where we were sitting, but Doug said they did ok in the back.

 Farmer Damon.  I have to put in a quick story about his bandanna.  I knew we had one around the house but I hadn't really started looking for it yet.  I had checked a few of the normal places but I hadn't found it yet.  On the day of the performance Chris asked to dress up like Buzz Lightyear.  Well when I was looking for the wings to go with the Buzz costume I found the bandanna that goes with the Woody costume.  It was a small thing but I was so glad that I had found it.  I know that Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and He helped me by having Chris want to dress up at Buzz so I could find that bandanna.

 Now we only have one month left of school, crazy.  Good job Damon on all your hard work!

Easter Fun

Saturday was a happy day of Easter fun.  In the morning we still cleaned the house, but then we went to Toys R Us.  We let them pick out a toy to share and I picked a family game for an Easter present.  (the Hedbanz game)  The girls were very tired by the time we got home.  Kaylee was pretty upset, but she finally calmed down enough to eat and go to sleep.  We dyed eggs while the girls napped.  We also did some in the morning a new way.  When the eggs were still hot we put crayon shavings on them.  The wax melted and looked pretty cool. I swirled some around to try it that way.  Damon and Tyler got into the eggs more this year.  Tyler thought it was cool that you could make stripes and Damon had fun with the white crayon and different colored layers. 

 

When the girls woke up from naps we did our own Easter egg hunt in the back yard.  We haven't gone to an organized hunt for two years.  Too many kids to keep an eye on and timing of naps.  Maybe next year.  The girls caught on pretty well and had fun shaking the eggs.  Everyone ate all of their candy when we were done - it's a good thing I didn't give them very much. 

 Something new I did this year, I wrote a clue on a piece of paper then cut it up like a puzzle.  Then I put each piece in a green egg.  All the kids help find the green eggs then put the puzzle together to read the clue.  It said where their final present was.  It was a ladder-ball game for the family.  Everyone loved it and I think it will get a lot of use this year.  It's just the perfect size for our back yard.  I think I will do this type of hunt again next year.

Sunday morning we let the kids find their Easter baskets.  I try to keep the gifts and candy to a minimum and try to find a spiritual gift as well.  The dollar store helped us with hats, coloring books, water-guns, and bubble blowers.  I had found some things at Deseret Book to put in too.  Everyone found their baskets pretty well.  I had to do "hot and cold" with Tyler.  We hid Damon's too easily, he found it quickly.

 Yummy jelly beans!

 Off to church, this year it happened to be Stake Conference.  Of course the picture with the best smiles was the one with Chris' arm in the way, sigh.  We hopefully will decorate cookies this afternoon.

Happy Easter everyone.  We have watched a lot of the church videos about Easter and they are always so powerful.  I am so grateful for our Savior and all that He did in life.  I am grateful for the atonement and the reality of the resurrection.  He lives!