Easter 2016

Every year there is a community Easter egg hunt at our local park.  I like to take the kids because its always fun to do something out of the ordinary on a Saturday.  Kevin didn't end up coming with me because he was doing work form home and Clara was napping. We showed up right at 10 because every other year we have gone the hunt was immediately, but this year they didn't start the hunt until 11 so I got to wait around an hour in the cold.  Okay, okay it wasn't that cold, but it was a bit breezy and I am a wimp.  

 Once it was finally time for the hunt to start Russ and Annie were excited to get to go.  I tried to direct on the best way to do it,to stay in one spot and get all the eggs in that spot, but once they ring the bell they just start wandering and can't seem to focus and only end up with a few eggs.  But really who cares as long as they have fun.

 It was fun to spot our fiends from the ward the Waites.

 I used to make Easter dresses for the girls but the last four years I have just been way to busy to find the time to sew much.  I am hoping to pick it back up when the kids are all in school because I do really miss it.  So my parents were kind enough to buy the kids Easter clothes.  They all looked so cute, but this picture was the best I could get out of the approximately 35 I took.  It was pretty cold that morning and windy too and the kids were all a little grumpy so I am going to call this a win.

 Just like I do every year I never seem to find a time to color easter eggs until the last minute and this year didn't disappoint.  The good thing was we have 9 o'clock church, so we had plenty of time when we got home to do some egg coloring.

 Russ was having a severe meltdown when we were trying to get him to come join the fun so I had to get a picture of it, because he was freaking out about his blocks not staying together.  He did end up joining in after we got that taken care of. Haha! 

 I always think I am boiling a ton of eggs and then I ended up going so fast that we wish we had done more, but that is what happens when you have five kids doing it.  They only end up getting to do a few each.  Just wait until we add one more little monkey to the fun.

 Grandpa and Grandma came over to join us for the festivities and have dinner with us. Grandpa is always so great to play with Russ and Anne and they seriously adore him. I love it.  He played the game that he played with me and my siblings when I was young where we would lay in a row and then he would lay on top of us and we had to try and get out.  They loved it too.

 Grandpa even played babies with Annie and helped her get them dressed and put to bed.

 After dinner it was time to do the egg hunt.  The kids decided again this year to have an egg hunt rather than the Easter Bunny visiting, which is fine by me.  Kevy and I hid them in the backyard and then this year we let them go out one at a time youngest to oldest and do the hunt.  It kind of ended up being a little unfair to Lizzy because the kids had almost cleaned out by the time she got out there, but she is a good sport.  

Grandma ended up missing pretty much e whole thing because she was gone taking meals to people forever, but it was nice to have Grandpa around.  We are sure going to miss them when they move next year and we are all on our own out here. 

Spring Break

 I wanted to make sure that we didn't just let Spring Break go by without doing anything.  It is always so hard every year because I feel like I have these big plans for things to do and then life gets in the way and we never end up doing anything.  So I had a few small things planned and then a small overnight trip. 

I had been told about this ice cream counter inside one of the drug stores that had really good ice cream, so we went there. I am the last person in the world that will do a selfie, but it just seemed appropriate in this instance. 

One thing about my kids is that for the most part they are amazing at entertaining themselves.  They usually play really well together and are so creative at thinking of fun things to do.  They played ballerinas and even made up some dances that they performed for some guest that we had for dinner. It was seriously so cute.  I had to give them some sock buns in their hair because Dancers have to have sock buns!  The funny thing was that Annie decided for the rest of the week that she wanted a sock bun in her hair everyday.

I had told the girls that we could make some cake pops out of some cakes that I had in the freezer back at valentines and then it didn't work out because things got too busy.  Of course the girls acted like I had just neglected them by not doing it, but I promised them that we could do them for Easter.  They of course did not forget what I said so we had to do it.  I have never made cake pops before and they were certainly not as easy as I thought, so it ended up being a giant fiasco.  Oh well the girls were really happy that we made them.

 A few years back we decided to get Season passes to Six Flags because they are actually pretty cheap and not much more than buying a one day pass.  We really liked being able to go with the kids.  We had a couple more kids in between so we haven't done it, but we decided this year would be a good time to do it again.  So we bought them and decided to make our inaugural trip. 

Russy was so excited to ride this ride with the little jeeps that we went completely by himself because I couldn't go with him because of Clara.  It was really funny because he didn't care, he just wanted to go drive the truck.

 One thing I really love about this six flags is that there are quite a few shows too, it isn't just rides. Annie really loved the dolphin show and was really cute waving to the dolphins when they waved.

I love this picture because I love how Annie has her baby, and Russy and his silly face.  Clara was absolutely exhausted by that point and I spent the next almost 45 minutes walking in a circle back in a quiet area just to get her to fall asleep.  I really don't know how it is going to work out having a baby that doesn't like to sleep away from her bed for all the next trips we take there!

Russy and Annie had a good time playing in the fountain and getting drenched.  I stayed with the little ones so that Kevy could take the big girls on some of the bigger rides.  Having little kids is so fun but for things like this I am so very excited for the time when my kids are all bigger.

 We decided to stay down in the Bay Area that night so we could go and hang out in San Francisco the next day.  Its embarrassing to admit that having lived her almost six years, we had never gone to San Francisco besides a couple of Giants games.  We decided to stay outside the city because it is so expensive,  I got a hotel on hotwire and thought I got this great deal.  We drove a very tired group to the hotel that night and I couldn't wait to just relax  That's when it all went downhill.  We walked into our room and instead of a couch and tv there was a giant conference table.  I was so stressed out because I had been the one to make the mistake when I booked the room.  We tried to go to the front desk and they pretty much laughed in our face and said they were all booked up. I tried calling hotwire and the did the exact same thing and told me sorry that i made a mistake but they couldn't help me.  It stunk.  We moved the conference table over to the side and laid out a bunch of blankets for the kids.  It ended up being just fine.  Kevin and I laid down with the little kids and they went to sleep very quickly.  Even Clara who really freaks out about being in another bed just laid there and went right to sleep.  If nothing else it is a memory that we will always remember.

The next day we drove into the city and since we stayed in San Rafael we got to drive in over the Golden Gate bridge which the kids thought was pretty cool.

We decided to go to Golden Gate Park because my friend Amy and a few others highly recommended it. We went into the art museum so that we could see the view of the city.  We were going to try and walk to a fun Childrens play area, but then realized walking might take really long so we decided to just drive over instead. Of course there was some kind of carnival going on that day and there was nowhere to park.  We deciedd that we needed to just try for that another day so that we had time to head down to the pier.

Oh how I wish that we didnt do the pier.  That is where everything went downhill.  It took so dang long to drive there, then once we were there it took FOREVER to find a parking spot.  I was getting really crabby and stressed as was everyone else.  When we got there we tried to get lunch but while I was waiting in line with Annie and Clara, they both started crying uncontrollably, Kevin was trying to get food too, andt hen multiple kids needed to go to the bathroom at the same time, and oh yeah there was a million people there on the pier.  It was crazy!  I guess I am glad that we went to the pier so that we could say we went, but I dont have plans to go back anytime soon.

It was really cool to see the sea lions sunning themselves on the pier too.  We had a very memorable trip if nothing else.  I am hoping next time that we have a little better idea of where things are and what we want to do so that it will go a lot smoother.  I think just staying away from the Pier might make things a lot better.

Clara's First Birthday Party

I had a hard time trying to decided what kind of cake to make Clara for her birthday.  I wanted to make something different than I had made for all the other kids.  I wanted to do a bird because she is my baby bird, but I was worried that if I did a bird shape it would look like a baby shower cake.  But after looking through some ideas on pinterest I came up with this one.  I was so happy with how it turned out!

 I knew with how much Clara loves food that she was going to love getting a big piece of cake.   And sure enough she LOVED it!  It was the cutest thing to see.  She didn't realize at first what it was so she broke off a small piece and ate it. After she tasted that it was all over,  she grabbed the piece with both hands and tried to shove the entire thing in her mouth at once.  It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  The kids got such a kick out of it too. 

Man do we love this cazy lady!  She really truly does complete our family!

Valentine's Day Cookies

 It was really fun again this year to do our annual cookie decorating for friends.  I think this is one of the kids favorite family traditions. It was fun for Annie this year to be old enough to participate.  I loved how she and Russ decided that the best way to decorate was to see how many candies they could fit on top of them.

   I had waited too long to get the much bulk candy from WinCo so we had to scrounge different kinds of candy but they turned out great as always.

 WE had to deliever them as soon as possible because Annie was really wanting to eat them.  But she was really happy to give them to her best friend Piper and her friend Philip.

I love doing activities like this for my kids.  I just really hope that these are the things that they will remember about their childhood.

The Grow's House

I have this really amazing friend that used to live by me but last summer she moved away.  Not super far, but far enough that I don't really get to see her too often.  They purchased a house with a lot of land and a bunch of animals.  She invited us to come visit during a random Monday that the kids had off.  It was great because I was trying to figure out how to keep them entertained and it worked out great because we were able to make a whole day of it. 

 One of the big reasons we went up was because their goat had just had babies and they are such cute little things.  The big kids really loved them.

 Nellie was by far the most interested in the goats.  In fact she spent her entire time down with the goats loving them and holding them.  All the other kids were off doing stuff after a few minutes but Nellie spent literally the entire time there besides eating, and we were there well over four hours!  This is a picture of her with Jeff.  He was her favorite and she even got him to sleep in her arms a couple times.  It was so fun to see Nellie love something so much.

 Annie kept finding random things to play with.  It was really nice because the kids were so entertained I almost didn't have to worry about them.

 There were a few other families from the ward there, and Lizzy's best friend was there so she was very happy and I barely evens saw her the entire time.

 This picture kind of kills me because seeing Annie be the one in charge and driving the truck was too funny.  Good thing the battery was almost dead and was driving super slowly. 

 One of the definite highlights was getting to ride the horse.  Annie was beside herself excited and had a hard time waiting her turn.  She let everyone know that she was the next in lie to ride the horsey.  She wanted to be on him forever and when she had to get off she cried.  It was sad, but seriously so cute.  She had to wear the cowgirl hat and she made sure  I wore it on my turn too.

Russ wasn't brave enough to ride by himself, but he rode with me and had a good time.  I am so glad we made the drive that day because it was such a neat day for all of us.

Drama Club

  Last year Lizzy wanted to be in Drama Club.  I didn't know how it worked and by the time I found out that I was supposed to email the ladies in charge for an audition, it was too late.  Lizzy ended up being the very next person on the waiting list.  This year we weren't going to let that happen. I contacted them immediately and signed both Nellie and Lizzy up to audition.  They each had to sing a solo and do a reading for their audition.  I was so proud of both for not being too afraid to do it. 

 The ladies didn't think the girls were good enough for big parts so they were given bit parts  It is hard sometimes as a parent to explain the political aspect of things.  Its hard for a kid to understand why another kid who isn't as good as them has a bigger part.  But they still showed up every single week to practice for Shrek.  Nellie was given the part of a Duloc dancer, and Lizzy was the ugly duckling. 

It was a bit frustrating that after months of going to practice every single week, the ladies in charge never took the time to learn the girls name.  I realize you are busy, but is it really that difficult to learn 30 kids names.  They knew the big part names.  Way to make the small part kids feel even smaller.

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It was so fun to go and watch the girls perform.  They did such a great job.  Lizzy is totally in her element with performing and it was so fun to watch her blossom.  She really was the best singer, but she needed to learn how to project her voice and she did learn that.  This sort of thing is really out of Nellies comfort zone so I was so proud of her for really going after it and doing awesome!  I sure love these amazing girls of mine and I am so proud of all that they are becoming.