Easter Party

We were in charge of planning the Easter party this year.  We wanted to do something just a little different besides just the egg hunt, so we thought of Kite-flying!  Unfortunately the weather didn't have the same idea.  The wind was MIA.  Apparently it was the one day out of the month that there isn't wind in Daybreak.  Go figure :)  We did manage to get some of our kites up.... thankfully they were the cheap dollar ones from Wally world.  The kids would let them up and then run and that seemed to work for the most part.  It was still fun and even though these pictures are horrible, I wanted to have them to put in the book.  This just proves how important it is to use a tripod when you're using a zoom lens from really far away.  I was being climbed on for part of the time, and the rest of it, just shaking (like usual), so..... sorry, but it's not the quality of the pictures that matters for these :)

Kelly got her googley-eyed Penguin (aka: baby owl) up a little :)  She seemed to be having fun and Darren was very helpful.






Caleb had his kite WAAYYYYYY up there.... he was a little more educated than the little ones, and knew to let out the string as he ran. 







Erika did a lot of scooting down the hill.  I was worried that her pants would be stained, but they weren't.  That's a very good think.  Love the bald spot.  This little girl just can't keep her hair for some reason!



I don't know why, but I like this picture.  I just think it's funny how easily Erika pesters Noah.  She really doesn't have to try.  I hope these two will be better friends again someday though.  I know they were close in the Pre-earth life.



Charity wouldn't even try her Barbie kite this time.  She's so funny about Barbie. 



This was supposed to be a really cool picture of everyone with their kites up in the air, but well.... yeah.... didn't quite work out.










Far more exciting than kite-flying, for Charity, is walking her cousins' dogs.  She is obsessed.  One day though, she'll have her own.









So once everyone got there, Nate and I headed down to the park to hide the 400 and somethin' (I lost count unfortunately) eggs.  Sounds like a lot right?  Well, each kid only got 13-15.... crazy huh!  It was difficult (to say the least) to hide them all.  We ended up just spreading a lot of them around on the lawn.  I babysat the eggs (and two little girls who thought I didn't see them stealing the candy out of the eggs) while Nate went and got everyone.  Nate's Mom came and kept me company.  She's so cute riding around on her recumbant bike.  She sure gets around.  The egg hunt went fast (especially for me since I had to run back to the car to get the camera), but I tried to get a few pictures.  It's fun to watch all the kids helping each other and finding eggs for the little ones.  I think most of them had a really good time.















"look Mommy, I got one with a star sticker!!"  Nate's mom had a table FULL of prizes to be redeemed for star stickers on the select eggs.  I think that's a fun idea.  Especially for kids who are not eating candy right now ;)





Here's the whole group.  I wish we would have tried just a little harder to get them set up differently.  Oh well.  Who wants to be in charge of that anyway.







This was Erika's first egg hunt (that she was walking and coherent :))  and I thought she did it like a pro!  She was hard to contain at the beginning, she was out there, gathering them before she even knew what to do with them!  Even before she knew there was candy in them!  Funny girl.



Noah ate the candy as he emptied his eggs :) HA!  He was so cute about it all.  It's fun to watch them get older and get more into the traditions and know more what they're doing.  (if there's anything good about them getting older that would be it :) )

Spring Break (calling it Winter Break would be more accurate)

Our Spring break started Sunday night with rag curlers in the girls' hair!  We had been watching the Emma Story and I remembered doing this in Charity's hair when she was little, so I suggested that we do it.  They weren't thrilled about it, but I convinced them :)  I guess I mostly just liked these pictures of my cute girls goofing off together....







posing for grandma's phone








Our Spring break was pretty mellow.  Normally I would feel guilty with how little we WENT and did during this Spring break, but I decided that I wouldn't this time.  We did a lot, had a lot of fun, and I really think the kids had a good time, that's all that matters.  Plus the weather was horrible.  Most of the normal outside stuff was really out of the question.  We did what the kids wanted to do though. 



Ramen soup is a MUST when Kelly is home for Lunch :)  And I couldn't resist taking pictures of everyone, as always, they were hilarious with their noodles.












On Monday, we also spent a lot of the day doing crafts.  I think that was the day that Kelly and I made her stuffed animal Jaguar that we've been meaning to do for a while.  I was really surprised at how hard it was to make, but it did turn out pretty cute.... I need to make the neck a little shorter is all.  We also worked on the girls' lamp shade that day too I think.... I should post pictures of that... it is pretty cute.
Monday night was our big Tangled Movie Night.  Everyone invited friends over and we watched Tangled with popcorn.



On Wednesday we braved the grocery store so that we could have some food.  I knew it was a stretch taking all six of them (it's been a while since I did last did that) but they did FANTASTIC!!!  I think I already posted about that though.  They're reward was to go out for ice cream.  Charity, Kelly, and Bradley all paid for their own ice cream!  They really have loved having their own money and buying their own stuff.  Trust me, I wouldn't have asked them to pay for it considering it was a REWARD, but they wanted to.  So sure!  Whatever :).  After ice cream we went up to Rocket Park and I was able to take a few pictures of all of them together like I've wanted to do for a very long time.  I'm not sure I like these ones all that much, but I was sick of the one I"ve had up since November.  They were such good kids that day.  Ahhhh.



Here's Erika climbing UP the slide.  Depending on the shoes she's wearing, she can do pretty well and usually make it up to the top as long as she grunts three quarters of the way up :)  She's so intense sometimes :).



I really like this picture, minus the location of Luke's hand, but I've decided to let that slide.  I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that they were wearing blue, pink or orange and black pants for all the girls.... not as uniformly as I would like a picture to be, but hey, having not planned it out, I'll take it!









another doggie. "arrh, arrh!"













The ball Brad is holding is the ball he won from the claw machine at Walmart.  He has been dying to play that thing for MONTHS now.  Everytime we go there, I have to come up with some excuse why he shouldn't blow his money on that machine because it is rigged, or has lame stuff, or would just be a complete waste of his hard-earned money.  Well, it was Spring Break, so I caved.  I gave in and let him play it.  How surprised was I when as I was texting Nate on my phone, letting the other kids roam around the gaming area, I saw Brad grab this basketball with the claw and promptly drop it in the hole to receive it!  I was SHOCKED!!!!  I wasn't sure what to say.  He had just proved me wrong in a matter of seconds.  It was a proud moment for him and he proceeded to pop a few more dollars in the machine and then convince Charity to try one out.  Charity actually lucked out, just like his brother, and won a big red UTAH cheerleader bear!  This really made me look dumb, for all the things I had said about the claw machines, but we all got a good laugh and shared in the amazement.  It was a lot of fun.  I take it as a tender little mercy from Heavenly Father to help add a little excitement to our rather ordinary Spring Break.  Maybe that's strange to think, but I do.

I really just took picture after picture.  I know I've done this a lot lately at the park, but it's just so fun for me.  With photobucket, I don't have anything stopping me from posting all the ones I liked.  So sorry if you're sick of it :)





I like this one of my girls.
I tried to get one of the boys, but Noah vetoed that.




This was my favorite of the 10 I have of Brad on these handle bars....



"Mom, take a pichure of me wike dis!"



and once again, everyone coddled Erika around.... I'm pretty sure she's the luckiest little girl that ever lived.  She gets EVERYTHING she wants from them.







Charity's silly boot made it hard for her to get around.  And put a damper on some of our other ideas (i.e. swimming!).  That thing was like a curse.  Glad it was only a two week thing.















Brad's back on the hanging bar and dropping off backwards now!!!  Pretty exciting!









this was Noah's "wood chip rope".... he still has this stick and will probably not let it go easily. 





Lukey is now part of the Monkey Bars club.  I still haven't gotten a good enough picture of him doing it on his own this year.  I think he did it a little last year (if I remember correctly) but he said he didn't, and was wanting me to be proud of him again :)  So I am.  What a cool little guy!











Kelly is so sweet with Erika.  She is the perfect helper for getting Erika to sleep.  Nate and I couldn't resist taking these pictures of Erika asleep next to Kelz.  So sweet.



We spent a LOT of time picking up friends, taking friends home, and playing with them.  I liked being able to let the kids have friends over a lot.  That's something we've tried to take full advantage of now that we have a whole house to play in.  We missed out on that a lot at Grandpa's.  Lukey had his friend Carter over for the first time.  This is actually the first time he's called a friend to come over and ever since then, he's wanted to do it EVERYDAY.  Funny boy.  He's at that age where they don't really know how to entertain each other.  They played Angry Birds a lot :) 

Brad and his friend were really cute with Erika.... wish I had a better picture of them playing with her.



The only reason I keep this picture is because she's eating a SANDWICH!!!!  She hates sandwiches, but she ate this one!!

I wish I could remember all the other stuff we did.  I will need the kids to help me get it all down.  We didn't get pictures of it all.  Fun stuff though.

On Saturday we made our way out to Eagle Mountain for Marcus' baptism.  That was fun.  I love baptisms.  The Spirit is always so perfect.  Charity said she felt the Spirit too.  That was neat.  Kelly cried a little as we were getting ready becaus she wished it was her turn to get baptized instead.  It's hard to wait when it's SO close.  But only 1 1/2 months now!!  Can't believe it's getting so close. 

It was sad to send the kids back to school.... as always.  Makes me wish I could homeschool them.  Onto the next thing!