Planting, Planting, Planting

Thanks to the example of a loving Papa, these little ones learn every spring about the importance of planting a garden!  

 These little hands have learned well from all of Papa's lessons!  Thanks Papa!

 T

 Liz

O

Easter 2012

It has kind of become our tradition to decorate eggs with cousins.  This year we dyed eggs with the Earls.

I don't have any great pictures of Easter morning, the egg hunt, the outfits for church...but, here's what I do have...

A very sleepy Daddy with a not so sleepy baby.

A VERY handsome little boy who has discovered a hat fetish.

 And several not so great pictures of four super adorable kids!

Spring Break 2012

We had a great time over spring break this year!  We spent a few days in Breckenridge having a blast.  We were really nervous about how Zac would do with five other people in the same room for sleeping, and vice versa.  Lucky for us everyone did a great job!  Zacky was a real trooper and the rest of us had a great time!  I only have pictures of the two main attractions: the gondola, and the mine.  

 This man makes a Snugli look GOOOOD!

Yes, they made EVERYONE wear a hard hat, including the sleeping baby...my arm hurt by the end of the tour!  The kids had a blast though!  Tori is convinced that she would have been a "Blast Monkey" back in the day.  She is the right age, but I don't think that would have happened.

 No gold found, but they had a great time anyway!

At the end of the week the three older kiddos got to go to Disney on Ice with their cousins!  They all dressed up and were so excited!

What better way to end a great spring break than with a lemonade stand?  I was really nervous to let them do it, but Daddy gave in.  I was so afraid that they would get everything ready and then get disappointed by people not stopping and abandon the effort.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised!  All three of them sat there working together for almost two hours.  No fits, no frustration, just sheer excitement and anticipation!

I sat behind them on the porch.  Far enough away that they could feel independent, but close enough to be there in case they needed help.  It was interesting to watch them all.  My favorite moment was when a couple of teenage boys walking down the street got about ten feet from them and said "You selling lemonade?"  The smirks on their faces told me that they were going to tease my babies, and mama bear was about ready to pounce.  I forced myself to sit and let it play out for a minute.  The boys then pulled out their wallets and gave the kids some money for their lemonade.  I almost cried.  I know that's silly, and I probably shouldn't admit it, but my babies are my world, and that day those boys made my babies happy. They had a blast, and made about $5 which was about $4.50 more than I expected!

A Weekend with Stanley

Some wonderful friends of our moved to Alaska a few years ago.  We miss them SO bad (enough guilt there Allie?).  Luckily we keep in touch (thanks to Allie, because anyone that knows me knows that I am TERRIBLE at keeping in touch!).  This spring their boy that is Tori's age sent a "Flat Stanley" for her to show around for the weekend.  For those of you that have never read the book, or had a child do this activity, it is based on a book about a little boy who gets flattened by a bulletin board.  Sounds weird, but it is great for a unit activity about travel, etc.  Anyway--Stanley was mailed to us in an envelope, we had some adventures with him, and then we sent them back.  Here are some of our adventures with Stanley:

Stanley had a sleepover with Tori and Lily.  Stanley enjoyed movies, popcorn, the works!

Then Stanley helped make a volcano with Owen and the girls.  

Finally, Stanley got to visit the museum.  

Sometimes it is nice to have an excuse to do some fun things and let everything else wait til later.  Thanks Shane!  We had fun!