Raindrops on Roses

The end of our week was pretty stormy. One night the kids spent about an hour in the hallway sleeping during a tornado warning. Can you guess which one is slightly awake?
Other than some stormy evenings, this week has been pretty uneventful.

Instead of a travel log of our week, we'll list some of our favorite things.

Jon: "My lightsaber, Super Mario Galaxy, Lego Star Wars I and II, reading and resting since I've worked a lot."

Rebecca: "My favorite thing is princesses and silver."

Ethan: "My favorite things are silver and golden nuggets. I like eating macaroni and cheese (he ate 4 helpings the last time). I like eating tomato soup. Playing pbskids.org.

Kirsten: "Um, um SQUARES!" What else? "Um, cake!" Anything else? "Eating snacks."

Alyssa: "Mamamama, Dadadada."

Shanna: "Babies," dressing up, playing outside and eating food.

Haley: Playing with Cal, watching movies, eating and going places.

Spring Break '09

Wow!!! What a week. As if the excitement of St. Patrick's Day wasn't enough, we pretty much kept up the same pace all week. I ended up teaching piano lessons to all but one of my students as well.

On Wednesday we took the kids to the park with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a lot of fun playing on the new, bigger addition. In the afternoon our neighbor called and asked if any of the kids wanted to go on a walk with her and catch butterflies. Almost everyone wanted to go. She had some really nice butterfly nets that the kids had to take turns using.



Grandpa set up a tent for the kids to sleep in. He and the kids built a fire and we ate s'mores after dinner. The kids and Mike had fun camping out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.


Thursday we had a nautical theme for the day. We started off by visiting a Civil War gunboat, then we went to a boat playground downtown.


We ended the day by visiting our friends who have bees and honey. Grandpa got everyone set up to fish in the pond there. Rebecca caught the biggest fish--a wide mouth bass. Ethan caught one that was smaller. We baked them on Friday. Mmm. Grandma and Grandpa liked a little lemon juice on their fish. Ethan and Rebecca tried the fish with the lemon juice and didn't like it very much. Ethan then made some lemonade with some of the lemon juice. He started dipping the fish into the lemonade and declared it to be delicious. Rebecca tried it and said the same thing. They both gobbled up their fish after that. Lemonade and fish. Who knew?!





Friday I went shopping for the girls. We made cookies and played outside in the afternoon.
In the evening, Mike's supervisor brought his high-powered telescope to show the stars to our kids. It was a great night for viewing Saturn. We were able to see the ring around it. When each of the kids saw it they said, "It looks golden," and I would have to agree. It did. We also saw the Orion Nebula, the Seven Sisters and Sirius, which was very bright. The kids really had a lot of fun looking at the stars and running around and chasing each other. We'll have to teach them night games, like Ghost in the Graveyard, sometime. Looking at the stars with the kids reminded me of when I was a little girl. We went camping down in the desert of Southern Utah with our cousins' family. One night we got up in the middle of the night, and it was really cold. We then drove and drove and drove to get away from any artificial lights. We then got out and watched Haley's Comet. That was so cool.



Saturday the boys and Rebecca went fishing again with Daddy and Grandpa. Everyone except Clark caught fish. I went with Grandma and the little girls shopping. We were able to find a lot of good deals on clothing for next winter. Yea! In the afternoon we went down to a Samedi Gras party in the swamp. (Instead of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, it was Samedi Gras, or Fat Saturday). The kids had fun riding down the hill and playing ball. The adults had a good time visiting.



Kirsten must have caught wind that many of our faithful blog viewers enjoyed her tatoo shop so much. She opened up for business again today. She expanded from hands and arms to also include feet and legs. Tatoo anyone?

Trappin' the Wee Folk

Click on the little text icon to read the photo captions.

Even with our best efforts, the wee little green folk have eluded us again. The kids made a bunch of leprechaun traps on Monday and set them out to try and catch the leprechauns, but alas--they managed to escape and still cause some shenanigans around our house. The milk was green at breakfast, much to the delight of our children. The leprechaun left tiny notes in each of the sprung traps, such as "Hee, hee--you canno' catch me!" He even left a clue to a hidden treasure on the milk jug. The kids thought he must be extra tricky and might have drilled a hole in one of our walls to hide the treasure. We assured them that the leprechaun didn't do that, and they just needed to look harder. After awhile, Mike found another clue. He pulled it out of Jon's ear! The kids then found the treasure--more green than gold-- on a shamrock plate. Everyone got a little treat bag. The rest of the day we all wore green to avoid getting pinched. For lunch we ate green eggs and ham with pistachio pudding for dessert. Rebecca read the book of the same name to the other kids. For dinner we had Irish stew, Irish soda bread, and green lemonade. The 4 Elders (missionaries) in our ward came to dinner.


Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Nine is Feelin' Mighty Fine

Spring Break is here and has brought some more cousins to stay for the week. Grandma and Grandpa brought Clark and Cal down to see their "babies," Shanna and Haley. It has been a party from the get-go. Immediately after they arrived, while kids were running around in a state of wild, excited frenzy, Grandma and I left for an adoption party with other sisters from our ward. We had a great time visiting and eating yummy food. At the end Grandma was anxious to get back to help Mike and Grandpa put kids to bed. I, on the other hand, had no qualms whatsoever about leaving the kids in their capable hands. Besides, I'm usually the one who has the privilege and opportunity of putting the little darlings to bed many days of the week, by myself. I felt no guilt, and had a very enjoyable time at the party.

Saturday Mike made breakfast, after which Grandma and I went to a Visiting Teaching Conference at the church. We came home and Grandma fixed lunch. After lunch, all the girls, minus Alyssa, went shopping and ran errands. We came home and fixed dinner. After dinner the kids had baths then watched "Arnie the Doughnut." We would have read the book instead, but it was checked out of the library. We were able to check out the Scholastic DVD though. The kids thought it was a fun story. I made doughnuts and we ate those after the show.

Today we had church. The trickiest part was getting all the kids out to the vans at the end, but we managed. We had a very nice day. The kids love playing with their cousins. They get along very well with Ruth's kids. Clark and Cal are very cute boys. Clark has a hard time remembering my name. Usually when he wants my attention he says "Excuse me!" then tells me what he wants to say. Cal is also starting to say "Excuse me." At one point Clark called me Aunt Lois. I corrected him and he said "Aunt Wena. . ." and proceeded to tell me what he wanted me to know. For whatever reason he can say the "L" correctly on Lois, but can't say it on Lena. He was very good in church today so we could have milk shakes tonight. We also had popcorn and fondue while we watched our conference talk. Clark said it was the best dinner ever. I guess I did not fix enough food, because everyone ate cereal and applesauce an hour or so later.

Mike took some fun pictures of Rebecca this week. He couldn't think of what to do with the theme from this week's photo challenge, so I suggested Rebecca in white with the irises, since they are blooming this week. I love spring! Something different is in bloom each week.

Kirsten tried to open a tatoo parlor this week, but when the owner of the establishment found out the shady business she was in, her business was shut down rather quickly and her equipment confiscated.

Kirsten prefers free-form art, as opposed to more traditional work.

You better watch out for the leprechauns this week. They are tricky little fellows. We might make a trap tomorrow to try and catch some on Tuesday. Maybe we'll find some of their hidden treasure. . . Stay tuned!

"Guess I'll Go Eat Worms"

We have been busy! To catch everyone up to date on our happenings, I'll be putting a bunch of slide shows up. The kids have had lots of fun playing outside. One day Ethan decided to make a guitar out of cardboard (thanks FamilyFun for giving him the idea). I helped him cut it out and tape it together, then he colored it. Of course once the girls saw what he had been up to, they also had to get in on the action, complete with dressing up and having a jam session. It was so exciting that Rebecca's tooth popped right out of her mouth!


Jon had his Pinewood Derby. I missed it because of Stake Auxiliary Training. Rebecca and Alyssa came with me to the Stake Center and Mike took the others to the Pinewood Derby. Jon's car was the fastest one in his den. Way to go Jon!



One week I did a letter R activity for preschool. The kids had some R worksheets to work on, then they made rabbit hats. For a snack they ate round red jello, raisins and rectangles (graham crackers). I read "Peter Rabbit" and some other R books. It was fun.



Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us for a few days. What a treat! Grandpa helped Ethan and Kirsten plant some seeds in some cups. The seeds have sprouted now in our kitchen window. Ethan also helped Grandpa plant some plants in our garden outside. Hurray for Spring!



I finally got pigtails in Haley's hair last week. I admit I haven't tried very hard, but she would usually run away when I wanted to fix her hair. Shanna likes watching me fix the other girls' hair and having me fix her hair. She will go and get hair rubberbands and a comb for me when we're ready. Haley could care less, although she has started playing dress up a little bit. Not to the extent that Kirsten and Shanna do, but she will put on a play skirt over her clothes and last week she let me put a bandanna around her head when Ethan dressed up as a cowboy. So cute! It was so funny to see her outside with it on. At one point it must have come off and she put it back on upside down so it was covering her face, but she had to have it on.

The popcorn trees have been blooming. We made our own "popcorn trees" and ate popcorn for a snack, then we went over to our neighbor's house and sang "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree," to her. She let us pick some of her popcorn blossoms and the kids got to run around in her yard while we visited for a little bit.



Needless to say we've been kind of busy these last few weeks. We had a nice family home evening lesson tonight, courtesy of Ruth. She said she wished she could help us out and I told her she could by preparing a lesson for us. We are adding more garden beds in our yard, so I thought a lesson on gardening would be appropriate. Thanks Ruth for the awesome FHE you sent us! Jon helped make the treat. The kids enjoyed eating the dirt and worms while we talked about gardening. The kids' favorite plants from the garden are "cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries and flowers."

Spencer W. Kimball, 12th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a conference report from 1976, “We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments … can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden … neat and attractive as well as productive. If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities.”



Our friends brought us a load of gin trash last week (the leftover plants from cotton gins that are then composted). It is beautiful compost. We are going to get some more tomorrow, hence the need for more garden beds. Yea!

For those who regularly follow our blog, we apologize for the lack of posts. I thought Lois's blog entry about her son Reed getting out of bed over and over was pretty funny. She should try bedtime at our house! I got home last night, after visiting a sister in the hospital, and Mike said he must have put the twins back in bed 20 times. They were pretty much settled down by the time I got back. They would have a blast with Reed. Have a great week!