Easter Egg Hunt 2010

We went to our city's Easter Egg Hunt.  We had to park a little far away, and since we had already been cleaning the church that morning, Olivia was a little tired.  Luke of his own free will and choice gave her a piggy back ride to the park.  You'll notice that the kids are dressed warmly, every year, even if we've had 80 degree temps earlier in the week, is always COLD.  I didn't even have the kids dressed warm enough.  Someday we may live in a location where the weather is warm in March/April. 

Olivia was brave enough this year to stand by the Easter Bunny.  She was even a little upset that she forgot to give him a hug.  What a turn around from years passed.

Oh my goodness, what cute kids I have been blessed with.

Because they set up the "hunt" or we should say "run and grab as fast as you can in the wide open field" by age divisions, :Livvy went first.  Luke went out and pointed out eggs to her, and held her sack.  He was such a good help to her.  (And I must say that isn't always the case, so we celebrate those moments when they happen).

Here we are waiting for Luke's division.  You can see the eggs behind him.  Brrrrrrr.

Let's just say, we had plenty of candy.  It is such a great experience for the kids, they love it.

We had a funny experience there at the park.  Across the street from this area, they have a real bathroom.  Luke had to use it, and I asked Livvy over and over again to please use it and she refused saying she didn't need to.  I warned her there wasn't a real bathroom where the Easter Egg Hunt was, but she refused to go. 

Sure enough about 30 minutes after we got there she was doing the desperate potty dance.  I had to take her into the port-a-potty.  She hates port-a-potties, even worse than I do, and I hate them A LOT!  So while she's in the port-a-potty crying and yelling she doesn't have to go, I can just hear the people on the other side laughing.  I have to tell her to look at me and not to think about it.  She's screaming, "I can't pee on this potty!" all the while she is relieving herself.  It really was pretty funny... after the fact.

Yep, Livs, I agree.  Port-a-potties are disgusting. 

Pine Wood Derby 2010

Pinewood Derby time again.  Luke had a fun time making his car this year.  It never fails, you think you're going to help them get their car done early, and it still is the night before that you're helping them finish it.  Luke came up with a "super gnarley" design- he decided to make his car a skateboard.  It was sweet.  It didn't win any speed races, but he did win the Super Gnarley award.  Maybe next year his car will be a bit faster.

Here are the boys from my den that were there.  We had some great winners in our group.  We had one who placed in the overall winners, and two who won for their age divisions.  And even better there were no hurt feelings or fights with any of the scouts or parents at the derby.

Train Ride

For Olivia's preschool field trip we went on a train ride.  Then we got to walk to Clara's and eat lunch, then ride the train back home.  Olivia was so excited to ride the train, and I was a little excited too.  I've always wanted to take a family trip by train.  Maybe someday we will be able to.  But back to the field trip...

Olivia and her friend Christina.

I loved her excitement of seeing everything we were passing.

There goes our train!

Time for a walk.

We had a good lunch, it took a long time to get the food to our large crowd, but we all survived.

You have to love trying to get 13 preschoolers to pose with their teacher.

There's our cute girls with their teacher Mrs. H.

The Leprechauns are coming, the leprechauns are coming!!!!!!

The leprechans came!  The leprechauns came!

Still not sure of all of this.

Checking out the toilet to see if the leprechauns used it.  Yep it's green! 

(Olivia won't go to the bathroom in it now that the leprechauns used it and turned it green.  Too funny, because it was when the leprechauns went pee pee in the potty when Luke little he became potty trained because he wanted to go where the leprechauns did).

Livvy is however loving the leprechaun kiss she received on her hand, and as you can tell by her teeth, she was very excited to find that the coins the leprechauns dropped all over our house are filled with chocolate.

Luke's birthday party 2010

Luke is into football this year.  He has been playing flag football, and we are constantly playing catch.  So it made sense to have a football themed party for him for his birthday.  We rented an indoor field at the complex where Luke plays flag football, and invited 9 of his friends to come and play football.  I had dyed   t-shirts in 2 different color (blue and orange- go Boise State!), and then the boys got to choose their color and that determined their team.  We switched up the teams until the boys got too sweaty and then we couldn't change the shirts around anymore.  (YUCK!)  The boys had so much fun playing football.  Even the refs (Ryan and I) joined in and started playing with the boys.  The boys did not want to quit playing after an hour.  It was such a great party because they were able to burn so much energy and get a lot of excercise. 

We live just around the corner from the complex, so after the game we went back to our house and opened presents and had cake and ice cream.  Luke had a ton of fun and said it was his favorite party ever.  It was by far the easiest party I have thrown, and I think we will repeat that one as long as we can.  Especially because Luke has a end of winter birthday it is great to just let the kids run and play hard.  I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing football.  I could have kicked myself for that, but it's hard to ref and play with a camera in your hand.  :)

Luke had a great birthday party, especially because it was on a Friday and school was out for mid winter break.  On Saturday Luke got his presents from his Grandmas and Grandpas and us.  Grandpa and Luke love looking at birds and wildflower.  Grandma and GrandpaP gave him a couple of books which are field guides to wildflowers and birds.  He loved them.  Grandma and Grandpa S gave him a card filled with $25 cash.  Luke was pretty excited about that.  Olivia gave him a small nerf basketball hoop. 

From mom and dad Luke got a present he wasn't expecting and he was SO excited to receive.  (Don't you love it when you get them something they LOVE?  We gave him a video camera with still shot capabilities.  Luke LOVES making up skits and videoing them.  He loves to video tape just about anything.  He has it with him whenever he possibly can.  He'll even yell out, "WAIT!" and then run grab his camera and film whatever it is that he determines film worthy.  He is so funny.  Then he watches his videos back and laughs and laughs.

Snow Day = Snow Ghoul

Our latest and hopefully last snow day.  The snow was perfect packing snow and so we made a snow goul?  This particular goul had 2 heads, with one eye per head, and 4 legs with different sized feet.  Luke was in creativity heaven.

I shoveled the driveway.  The snow was HEAVY!  My shoulders and back were tired and sore when I was done.  Let's hope we are done with snow for the year.

Luke's School Birthday 2010

Luke pretending to be so excited about his birthday treat.

I know, I know, I made the same cupcakes last year for his school birthday treat.  BUT, I figured it's a new school, new teachers, and a lot of different kids this year.  AND also, Luke loves them.  He was just fine with me repeating the design this year.  ONLY this year, I placed the footballs on the 9 yard line, instead of the 8.  AND this year I found a better candy to work with to form the footballs that.  When I shaped them into footballs it was so easy especially since they had a cream center and that became the laces on the football.  I was very excited about that.  SO by making the same design 2 years in a row, I made it even easier on myself, and had a very happy boy.  What more could I ask for? 

Happy Birthday Luke.  We sure love you.

Wolf Scout!

My handsome "Scub Scout."  When Luke was 2, I was a Webelo's den leader and he always called scouts "Scub Scouts."  It has stayed with me ever since the.  Now Luke is a scout.  This is the day that Luke earned his Wolf badge.  Notice that I am once again a den leader, now for the Wolf and Bear dens. 

That's my boy!

Afternoon with the ladies

After preschool one day Olivia invited some friends over to have an impromptu tea party lunch.  Maddie, Olivia, and  Christina had a lot of fun eating their finger sandwiches, cheese, chips, carrots, fruit kabobs, and sipping their blue KoolAid.  It was fun to have the girls over. 

After lunch, the girls had a dance party.  The moves were out of this world.

Strike a pose ladies!

After the dance party it was beauty salon time.  The girls had so much fun doing my hair, they chose me as their victim, I mean client, because I whined the least when they pulled handfulls of hair out while they were putting the pretties in. 

Olivia was snapping shots while Christina and Maddie were doing my hair.  You can't see the enormous amounts of barrettes they put in the back of my hair.  Later that afternoon when I dropped Christina off, Sarah informed me that I hadn't removed all the barrettes out of my hair.  She saved me an embarrassing trip out shopping.

Coming too soon

All too soon we will be heading to this wonderful, sunny, warm, paradise of a beach. 

I mean, who wouldn't want to see such spectacular sites, and be able to sit in the sun and be warm, not freezing your backside off, (which by the way, is not true in my case.  It is ever growing). 

Last night, I saw the date and realized that all to soon this wonderful experience will be heading Ryan's and my way.  Rather than be excited and looking forward to this upcoming trip, my stomach is twisted in knots and I feel like throwing up.  Not because I have to put on a swimsuit.  I definately am not looking forward to the way I look in one, but I have been exercising and eating healthy.  I can only do what I can do.  But I am so not looking forward to leaving my amazing, wonderful, precious children.  Do I know they'll be in great hands?  Yes!  Do I know that I will have a harder time than they will?  Yes!  Does that make it easier?  No.

I told Olivia that I will bring her back some dresses and she is ready to kick me out the door today.  Luke is excited to sleep over at a friend's house (for one night, then my sis- in - law and my brother will be coming to take care of them).  Maybe all this anxiety will make it easier for me to drop some weight.  Look for the positive right.  It will be good.  Ryan and I will have such a good time.