Spring Break Fun

I try and make sure we have fun things to do for spring break.  Its hard that we haven't been able to take any trips for Spring Break in years, but I'm hoping that will soon end. Until it does though we have a good time doing things close by.  This year I tried to have things to do every day and it ended up being really fun. I feel so grateful that I have kids that enjoy being with me and each other. It makes me really happy.  We went to the park and to the Grows house which honestly my kids like going to as much as any amusement park. They love the baby animals and riding the ponies and the cotton candy, and just all the fun things they have to do there.  We had a fun day going to the cement slides with our friends the Gurrs.  We really have been having fun with them and its fun that they have kids the same age as my four youngest.  They have a great time together. It was also fun to go to the Ward Easter Hunt.  We rounded out or break with a trip to Bodega Bay and Dillon Beach where we froze to death but I will blog about those in another post. It was a fun Spring Break and makes me look forward to what we are going to do next year. 

 This pony is a favorite of the kids they love riding him when they come and Clara thinks she is the biggest girl ever.  She didn't want to get down.

 They have so much fun on this swing. Lizzy is probably going to be mad at me for posting these pictures, haha!

 They had a giant bubble maker and the kids loved making the bubbles, they spent well over an hour doing this.

 Russell and his buddy Porter on the swing.

 WE love that they have a cotton candy machine. Its so fun!

The cement slides weren't working all that great the day we went, We had a hard time getting going very fast one them.

 After the cement slides we took a walk down by the creek and played a little. The kids loved it!

Its fun for Clara to have a little friend to play with.

Annie and her friend Ella were having fun just walking and visiting.  It was cute.

Annie and Piper have always been great friends but lately they have been letting Clara play with them too and it has been so nice.

Wherever Kevy is you will likely find Russell as well. He is usually glued to Kevin's hip.

When Clara spotted the Easter Bunny she sprinted over there to hug him. It was pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Counting the loot. Thankfully its not nearly as much as Halloween!

Clara's 3rd Birthday!

My baby is three!  I can't believe it.  I know I constantly say it, but I can't get over how fast time is going!  My kids are growing up so fast!  Clara is not a baby or a toddler anymore.  I love it!  I love this little girl she is turning into, although I definitely could do without the many tantrums that she is throwing right now. She turned into a threenager a little earlier than her third birthday.  Hopefully she will get over it before she turns four!

 Nellie was really sweet and wanted to give Clara her American girl doll since she no longer plays with it. Clara was thrilled. She loves dolls.

Clara also got an Elsa doll and some Ariel shoes.  She is very into princess stuff right now.  

 Her all time favorite princess is Rapunzel and she wanted a Rapunzel cake.  It turned out pretty good. Clara was happy with it.

Random things

Clara came down with the absolute worst case of croup that I have ever seen in a kid.  It was so scary, I was so worried all night for tow nights that she was going to stop breathing because she sounded so bad.  So i took her into the doctor and they gave her a breathing treatment. I guess it goes to show how lucky I have been with healthy kids because here she is my sixth and this was the very first breathing treatment we have had to do.  Luckily a couple days later and she was all better. 

 Russ got to bring home his school mascot owl.  He was really excited about it although you can't tell from these pictures. Haha!

I love these three!  Its so weird that for a while I thought we might only have three kids and then along these three came. They certainly have made my life a lot harder, but so much better too!  i love them so much and I cant even imagine what it would be like without them!

All About Lizzy- 13 years

My little Lizzy girl is 13!  Oh how fast time goes by.  She was just 2 years old wasn't she?  She has grown up in so many ways, but is still the Mae cute smiley girl that she has always been.  I know I say this all the time but I really admire Lizzy and her attitude.  She just rarely has a bad day.  She is just always so positive and you cant not want to be around someone like that!  I swear she always has a smile on her face and I don't know if I have ever met anyone who wants to help people as much as she does. 

It's hard to believe that she is a teenager. So many people talk about the attitude and problems they have with their kids this age and it just isn't the case with Lizzy.  She just always wants to be good and kind and helpful.  Lizzy has really grown so far this year in school. She joined leadership and I just love to see her helping others and taking that leadership role. Lizzy is one of those people that does everything and wants to do everything. She just loves being a part of things. 

Lizzy is still my eater and I love how she has a hallow leg.  She is never picky about what I feed her and loves everything and eats EVERYTHING! Its fun too because she and I have very similar tastes so I can find something I really like and know she will really like it too. 

Lizzy has really taken off this year with her running.  It's fun to see her do something that she really enjoys and also that she is really good at too.  Its fun too because she sometimes goes running with me, and although I am not nearly as good as she is, it's really fun to share it with her. 

Lizzy tried out for the play this year and she didn't get a good part, even though she deserved one.  She decided to stick it out and still be a part of the play anyway. I am so proud of her attitude. 

I love getting to talk to her and laugh with her and just have a good friend. She is always so kind and helpful to me and she really tries her hardest to make my life easier. I really do not know what I would do without her.  She can take over for me when I am feeling overwhelmed with all this craziness. Unfortunately the kids think she is really bossy, and she can be, but she is ultimately just trying to make my life easier.  I love her so much and I am so glad she is my first born because she was supposed to be. 

 I know I say it a lot, but I really love this big kid thing.  They are just so much fun! 

Halloween Festivities

The kids had Halloween off of school this year which was kind of a fun thing. We had fun reading some scary stories and then I made a fun Halloween lunch with mummy dogs. 

 

 I seem to drop the ball every year on carving pumpkins. I always forget to buy any because I always think, "Oh there is time" and then I realize that we need some and there are none left at the store.  This year that happened again. Luckily we found out that RC Willey had some they were giving away for free so Kevin took the kids one night and got them. Unfortunately they were pretty small so we couldn't really carve much, but there's always next year.  Haha!

 Clara had fun digging the guts out of her little one that she got from Annies field trip.

 For some reason Russell felt like he had to carve his many days before.  He had one of his sisters help him and he did it without even asking.  I know crazy, a kid not asking? Who has heard of that before. He carved the LA for Dodgers, but it ended up being a little bit shrunken by the time we got to Halloween.

 We even saved some of the seeds and I toasted them this year.  The kids have always been begging to do that.

 It was really weird this year because it was the first year that Lizzy didn't join us and she went with her friends. So I just had the five little trick-or-treaters. Kevin stayed back to watch the Dodger game because it was game 6 of the World Series and an elimination game for the Dodgers. I knew I couldn't ask him to miss that so I took one for the team and took the kids out.  We ended up having a blast!  It was so fun to have finally reached a point when I didn't have a baby or toddler that was crying and tired and just plain hard to take around.  Clara was the cutest and had the best time and walked herself the whole time. I only had to carry her bucket once it got heavy.  I ended up taking her back to Kevin after a while because she was ready for bed and then she came down with a fever which was so sad, but I'm glad it didn't happen until after the trick-or-treating because she was just so darn cute! 

Annie had fun going with her best friend Piper and Russell and his best friend Michael were so speedy it was hard to keep up with them!

Lizzy's 13th!

We now officially have a teenager in the house!  Our Lizzy girl turned 13!  I can't even believe it!  She is such a busy girl, involved in so many things at school that we couldn't even take her to her birthday lunch on her birthday!  We had to take her out the next week. She wanted to go to Buckhorn. She also wanted the yummy lemon raspberry coconut cake that I had made for myself on my birthday.  I didn't mind having it again, haha! 

 It was fun to take the Lizzy girl to lunch and celebrate her day!

Russells 6th Birthday

Russell is 6!  He wanted a baseball cake this year, but since I made an actual baseball last year, I decided to try for the field.  It worked out okay.  I'm not a professional, but I can hold my own.  The kids are always super impressed so I will take it. 

We had our usual family cake on Sunday and then the next Saturday we had his birthday party since it was an even year.  It comes as no surprise since I am constantly talking about it on here, but I really loathe birthday parties.  I hate throwing them, I feel like they just aren't that good and I am always really happy when the kids are on an odd year because I know they don't get a party.  I am SO bad! But this year with Russell's birthday I decided to just settle down and not get so stressed about it.  Russ wanted a lego party since he loves them, so we decided to get all the boys a small lego thing to put together as part of the party.  WE had pizza, opened presents, they made their lego car and had cake and they played. It ended up being great and really not that stressful.  I need to just do this kind of party more often. Russell loved it and it was perfect! 

 Russ was super excited because he got legos from everyone!  They are his favorite thing and he has so much fun building them! The only problem came when the big girls got overanxious about him building them and they did it for him!  So then he didn't even get to build all his presents he got!

 His friend Andrew parents got caught at a Soccer game so he got to stay with us for a while after the party so Russell put him to work helping build legos.

The party was a success and I'm sure we will be doing another lego party for him again when he turns 8. Haha!