Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break with Grandpa and Grandma Judi visiting us.  Dave took the week off, so we all got a nice break.  Here's some of what we did:

EASTER, Sunday, April 4, 2010

The kids got to find some Easter eggs on Sunday morning.  They each had certain colors that they had to find and then there was one egg with their name on it and a clue inside it.  The clue led them to a new book.  We successfully celebrated Easter this year without talking about the Easter Bunny at all.  The kids knew that I hid the eggs and bought them a book and they didn't ask about the Easter Bunny.  Maybe they'll ask about him next year.

Kate and her book, Little Mommy

Jack got The Three Little Pigs -- one of his favorite stories

Grandpa was a great story reader.

I made Shaunna's famous Easter cupcakes -- chocolate cupcakes w/creme filling for an early birthday celebration for Kate.

Saturday, April 3, 2010 Egg Hunt

Following Judi tradition, we colored Easter Eggs and also had a BBQ (without the picnic).  I made the our traditional Easter BBQ -- marinated chicken, hamburgers, salads, etc.

Coloring Eggs

Getting ready to find eggs

Ty watching the egg hunt

Checking out their loot

Friday, April 2, 2010 Kate's Early Birthday Present

We went to Albuquerque and Vaughn and Marianne took the kids to IHOP for breakfast while Dave and I went to the temple.  We went to Target on the way home and let Kate pick out a scooter for her birthday.  We were nice and let her open it even though her birthday wasn't for another week.

The kids waiting for Kate to get the OK to open her scooter.

Jack helping Dave set up the scooter.

Showing off the new scooter to Kate's friend, Nina

  Jack and his buddy, Grandpa -- they were inseparable the whole week.  Jack was in heaven having someone to play cars and basketball with him all the time.

Marianne threw out her back while she was here, so she and Kate spent lots of time cuddled on the couch.

This is how the kids like to play outside sometimes -- take a whole bunch of stuff outside and play for a while.  (Then watch Mom put most of it away -- oh well, at least they were playing nicely together.)

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 Bandelier Hike

We took Vaughn and Marianne to Bandlelier National Monument for a picnic and hike.  They hadn't been before, so the kids were excited to show them around.

Ty and I are ready to go.

 Our very simple picnic lunch -- I needed to go grocery shopping.

 My boys -- Jack really wanted to wear the Camelbak -- it didn't last too long.

 The men.

 The ladies

 Dave, Jack and Vaughn went on a extra part of the hike -- up some really steep ladders against the rock face.  Kate, Marianne, Ty and I watched from the safety of the ground.

 At the top by the kiva (shown behind them)

Sunday, March 28, 2010 Cameron & Emily's Blessing

We took a quick trip to Colorado Springs so we could go to church for Cameron & Emily's blessings.  It's always fun to stay w/Geoff & Annelisa.  The kids LOVE playing with their cousins.

Cousins!  (I love this picture of Ty -- he's SO mad!)

Visiting Friends

Last week my friend, JoDee, and her kids came down to spend their spring break in Los Alamos.  They moved away a year ago and came back for a visit.  

I kept Jack and Kate skip school on Tuesday so they could play with Sadie, Zack and Halle.  Sadie had Mrs. Hopkins (Kate's teacher) for kindergarten last year, so they came with me to pick Kate up from school on Monday.  Mrs. Hopkins told me several times that it would be okay if Kate ended up not going to school the next day.  So, Kate got to stay home and play with Sadie.

We had a fun day hanging out in Los Alamos.  Kate loved playing with Sadie.  Jack loved playing with Zack.  And Halle was just a sweetheart.   

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Fireman Park:

Gymnastics Show

Kate and Jack had their gymnastics "show" on March 20th.  They started doing gymnastics in January and are loving it!  Most of the pictures are blurry -- we haven't perfected how to take clear pictures of people moving!

Here's Kate:

Waiting in line

Bars

 

Rings

 Beam

  

Medal

The finishing pose

And here's Jack:

Doing warmups.  Notice how he is paying attention to his teacher.  He was very serious.

He's ready:

Run

Jump

Bars

Rings

Beam

Forward Roll

Medal!

It was fun to watch Jack as he took his turns.  As time went on he started to notice that people were watching and he became a little shy, but he still did a great job!

Baseball Anyone?

Jack set basketball aside the other day and took on baseball.  This kid goes all out!  Dave played softball the other morning with some of his friends.  Jack sat patiently in the dugout for an hour and a half until they were done.  Then Dave played catch with Jack.  He loved it!

My Name is Buzz

Jack has watched Toy Story 2 a few times in the last week -- we don't own it, he watched it at the babysitter's house.  And for the last week Jack has been telling everyone that his name is Buzz.  Today he told his Sunbeam teacher.  On Thursday he told his gymnastics teachers.  I'm sure he's told his teachers at school too. 

That's great and everything if Jack wants to pretend to be Buzz, except that he's pretending to be the mean Buzz, not the nice one.  We have had so many talks about how Buzz is nice and helps people and is a good friend, etc.  Unfortunately, Jack remembers the line in the movie where Buzz says that he's in charge.  (Which he's not -- I'm in charge!)  Hopefully this Buzz phase passes soon...maybe he should watch a different movie with a really nice superhero in it. 

Random things to post about before I forget...

So, this is a boring post with no pictures, but I wanted to write these few things down before I forget them.

Yesterday Ty turned 8 months old and to celebrate he cut his first tooth.  One of his bottom teeth started to poke through.  So, maybe all the drooling is really from something after all.

And here are a few funny things that Jack has said lately:

"Where's my but port?"  Translation:  Where's my report card?  It was parent/teacher conference last week for both the kids, but I didn't know that Jack even knew that he had a report card, or a but port.

Jack always says, "Hey, I have an ideal."  You mean an idea?  Nope, Jack's pretty sure the word should be ideal.

Children's Museum

This week Kate's school dismissed at 11:30 every day because of parent/teacher conference.  On Wednesdsay I took the kids to Santa Fe to the Children's Museum.  We'd never been there before.  It is a tiny museum, but the kids enjoyed it.  It's nothing like the Discovery Centery in Salt Lake -- you can tell Santa Fe is an artsy town. I didn't take the camera, but Kate really wanted me to take pictures when we got home.

Here are the watercolor crayon and pencil pictures that they made.  

Kate's favorite part of the museum was the face painting station.