Spring Break

We've had a fun filled week, despite the awful weather. It snowed on Monday to start off our spring break. The kids and I still trekked out to Ann Arbor to get some things for Jason for graduation, but we had to cancel our picnic at the Botanical Gardens since we had a nice covering of snow. No matter, the kids enjoyed helping me clean and playing at home the rest of the day. We went to the free 9:00 am showing of Yogi Bear at the movies and then stopped to get some flowers to plant, even though it was cold and raining, on another day. It turned out that it was the grand opening of the nursery and they had face-painting there. Victoria and Karissa loved their beautiful butterfly faces.

We played with some friends, inside of course, due to more days of wet and cold and Victoria got to join us for some of our usual errands and trip to the library. All the kids got to come with me (it's usually only Austin) to the church for Zumba which I get to to go to every Wednesday, taught by an awesome teacher.

Finally, on Thursday, we had a slightly warmer day and the sun was shinning, a plus, so we went to the zoo. This was taken in the aviary, which we hadn't seen yet in all our times going to the zoo. Karissa found a real robin's egg in our yard when we got home. We couldn't find the nest, so we put it in some cotton in a small box inside. We don't know what will come of it, but we're playing it low, mostly so the kids won't handle it too much.

On Good Friday we got to spend a nice, cold and wet, day with Jason! He didn't have to study and he didn't have to go to work, what a relief! We shopped for TV stands for our upcoming new HDTV which we'll get as part of his graduation gift. Then we went to lunch at Los Tres Amigos, a new restaurant around the corner. Here's Austin with his chips and salsa, which he loves! Too bad Karissa doesn't like Mexican food like the rest of us. She got chicken strips and french fries.

We colored Easter eggs and Austin had some nice green-colored hands afterwards!

The kids have missed being with their dad, I have too!
On Saturday we made Bunny Buns for Easter morning. They were delicious! Kind of like homemade doughnuts, though, Karissa didn't like them.
Austin didn't quite know what to do with the Easter egg hunt, but he sure enjoyed the fruit snacks that were in them! (Yes, I made sure most of his were not jelly beans, which he loves and will eat them all in one gulp if we let him!)He found an egg with a chocolate-wrapped egg inside and gave it to me to open it, then decided he didn't want it after all, so he fed it to me!

Victoria loved Piggy that she got in her basket and all the candy and other gifts.
Karissa liked her Chicky and other gifts too. She was happy to get a couple of fruit snack eggs as well.
Here's my cute kids, except Austin gets his own picture,

he wouldn't leave the push car, but I got a cute smile out of him because he was happy I didn't move him!
Here's our best at a family picture. How do you like Austin's shiner? I better give an update about that crazy boy soon! Happy Easter!

KarissaQ

As sweet as Karissa is, she is also very stubborn and insistent. Somehow when she started writing her whole name she would add a Q at the end. I kept telling her that she didn't have Q at the end of her name, but she insisted that she did. Some of you have even received letters from her signed with the Q. Luckily, she has realized that she doesn't have one and has started excluding it from her name. Here's one last piece of art with the KarissaQ. We have to document it for memories' sake.

Dance Pictures

Victoria and Karissa have each been taking a ballet/tap dance class this year. As the dance season comes to an end at the beginning of May, the program had a scheduled picture day with all the dancers in their various classes. It's a big "to-do" with this program, Dancin' Feet, especially since there are about 300 dancers in the program. Everyone had specific times to show up at the studio dressed in their recital costumes, complete with hair and make-up. Of course my two had very different sitting times, which meant more driving for me, but we had fun. I took my own individuals of them. Here's Karissa in her Going to the Circus costume. She loved getting her hair done, and especially getting make-up put on her. Her little, non-existent, lips, remind me of mine.

Victoria was excited for make-up, but didn't want much to do with fancy hair. I finally convinced her to let me twist the top before pulling it back into a ponytail. She promptly took it down the second we got home from the studio. Her lips were a different story: I have never put lipstick on lips so big in my life! Especially with the bright pink lipstick, they were quite the lips!

Austin loved Karissa's gloves and wanted to wear them. He couldn't be left out either! (He wanted to put make-up on too, but I convinced him that the chap stick was enough!)

General Conference

Even though conference is not over yet, I asked each of my kids today what they like best about general conference. I meant as the experience as a whole. I thought maybe they would say things like playing with legos in the living room, drawing in the living room, etc. But they surprised me with their answers. Victoria said she liked the talk with the story about the "stone turning to gold". Unfortunately, I missed that part, so I don't know who gave that talk, but I'm excited to read about it later on. She said she also like Elder Cook's talk because it was "funny". Karissa said she liked the singing. They especially loved when the choir sang the Primary song I Know that My Savior Loves Me. When I asked Austin, he said, "Yeah, yeah". I asked him if he liked the candy (we play Gospel Topic Bingo during conference with Star bursts to help us focus and listen for key words) and he said, "Candy!" So I guess that was his highlight. We look forward for tomorrow's sessions, though the kids always do better on Saturday, so we'll see what we get from tomorrow. Jason's just hoping to stay awake during the second session!

What Not to Wear

For the past month-and-a-half, Victoria has been on a pj kick. The second she gets home from school, or anywhere she has to wear regular clothes to, she puts on her pajamas. It started the week she was sick. She wore pjs all the time and I guess they became her preferred article of clothing. I do make her put on her non-footies when she has friends come over so at least she doesn't look too ready for bed. The thing about it that makes me laugh is that throughout her little life she has gone through weird phases of clothing. When she was two, she only wore costumes, mostly princess dresses, until she was about 3 1/2. Then she only wore blankets tied around her, or just her panties, for another year. Now she's in the pj phase. We'll see what comes next! Here's a shot of Karissa's work on Austin. See how proud they both look?

Spring Has Sprung!

One thing I noticed here in Michigan is that even though the winters are really long and cold, everyone seems to appreciate being outside during the other seasons a whole lot more. This week finally melted all of our snow (I think there are still very small piles in the shadows) with temperatures being mostly in the high 40s, some days in the 50s, and even one day in the 60s! Everyone and their dog, literally, was outside. We get to see our neighbors again, who we haven't seen in a few months. This week we went on a few walks, rode our bikes, played in the sandbox, played on our swing set, and went to the zoo. I don't think I've ever appreciated the beginnings of spring more than this year, after a particularly long winter. Even the ducks, who are seen roaming around in pairs in people's yards during spring, were already out and about.

Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday present I wanted to paint our living room. So I did. All last week I painted the trim, put on the primer, and finally our nice new, darker color. I had painted the ceiling the week before and I will paint the front hallway soon. It's been nice to change things up a bit, especially since we've been inside so much this winter and are going CRAZY!

Here's some pictures of how it turned out with our decor.

I'm probably going to paint that shelf you see part of the top corner of, so I didn't include it in the picture.

Austin loves to help me bake. Here he his stirring my birthday cake.

Even though my present was the paint, Jason and the kids still spoiled me with nice lotion and bubble bath, new gardening gloves, flowers, and a raspberry-filled treat that no one else would eat. Jason and I got Indian food for dinner and the kids got pizza. The kids were super excited to sing and blow out the candles with me. I have the best family!