Easter

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them,

 Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!

 How grateful we are as a family for the life, death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  His life and His sacrifice do not go without my utmost gratitude.  He is the way, the Truth and the Life.

He has made the life we enjoy possible and we are thankful that we have been entrusted with these 3 beauties to love, teach and raise.

Happy Easter, everyone!

My kids are cute!

Like really cute!

I mean look at their faces.

Angelic and peaceful.

Well,

most of the time.

That's all I really have to say. Carry on.

Tulip festival

 

  I needed to take my lil' Dutch kids to see some tulips today since today was opening day at the Woodburn Tulip festival.

 My little dutch girls. They always have fun and enjoy the flowers.  There were no crowds today so they just roamed the fields with friends.

  Ansen, on the other hand, was in rare form.  Seriously folks, he was not being very um....normal.  It might have to do with the fact that he is exhausted from an almost sleepover party last night, and a early morning classical concert this morning.  People were giving me the "I pity you for having such a stubborn kid" look. Oh well.  He can't be perfect all the time. The boy needs a good nights sleep.

 I tried to get a good picture of the 3 but it was harder than herding cats. Honest. For today this was as good as it got. And honestly I think they are pretty adorable.

We did take some fun pics so watch for them!

Easter eggs and YW

There's a spring break tradition I'm pretty fond of: No Mutual.

It is so nice to have a Wednesday night where I don't have to head off to the church.

Last night was different though. There was a request to get together and "just do something fun."  I was willing to play along as long we did it at my house.  Yes, I'm lazy.  Sue me.  So we dyed Easter eggs, had a movie playing in the back ground and ate a ridiculous dessert that one of my councilors came up with last minute.  I don't know if it has an official name but should be called As Close To Heaven As You'll Ever Get.

Braley and Ansen got in on the decorating action and it was a lot of fun. I loved all the creativity the ALL girls & Ansen showed decorating their eggs.

(Kylie's self portrait) 

Honestly I was amazed how many girls showed with it being Spring Break and all, but I was happy to see each of them having a good time.

Here's the dessert.  It was cookie dough, topped by peanut butter cups and oreo's , topped by brownies and hot fudge.  To make it even yummier, it was served with ice cream. Heaven, I tell you.  And because yesterday I had some dental work done I wasn't able eat yesterday until this and let me tell you, I had the craziest dreams last night with all that sugar rushing through my blood.

Pow!

Right in the kisser!  This kid took an (accidental) fist to the face this morning and we are currently waiting to see if he gets his very own shiner. I really think he got it more in the eyeball than around the eye.  Thankfully his eye seems to be fine.

Gotta love boys!

Committed?

Here I am "finishing" my mini-triathlon last September. Yep, that's a 5 year old finishing before me and a 3 year old dragging me across the finish line. Judge if you must.  I just found out yesterday the triathlon for this year has been moved up a month from the end of September to the end of August.

A month, people!

To commit or not to commit that is the question....and how committed do I want to be?

Well, darn

Guess who has to miss Easter Sunday?  Yep, the Hubs.  He has to make it to an out-of-state meeting the Monday after Easter. The meeting is in a state that is unreachable by catching an early flight the day of. Darn it.  So Easter will be celebrated the day before at our house. Really, it's no biggie, and I am kind of (a little bit) happy to have Easter dinner a day early since that Sunday has been designated fast Sunday due to General Conference the following weekend.

I was just looking over menu ideas for dinner and I gotta say, I'm hungry just looking at all those savory dishes.  

Do you have a favorite Easter dish?  Tell me about it.
***
On a more exciting note, Spring Break is here! I am excited.
Here's what's planned--actually nothing is set in stone but here's what I want to plan.
-(obviously)A day at the pool.
-A day Spring cleaning.
-Easter egg dying.  I have a bunch of new methods I want to try.
-Shopping.  We have a quick family trip coming up and my poor kids are looking a little rough around the edges.  Time to freshen up their looks a bit.
-Fun day with friends we don't get to see very often.
-Reading, writing and maybe a Harry Potter marathon before bed every night.
The possibilities are endless and I just want to have a relaxed, fun, yet productive, break with yummy food, no fighting, no messes, late wake up's,  non-grupmy kids who love their mother more than life itself. Yep, I want perfect harmony.....hmmmmm. Reaching for the stars much?  Maybe a little.
 A girl can dream, can't she?
 

Spirit Week

The kiddos had spirit week this week and man oh man we they so super excited. 

On Tuesday (top left) it was Pajama Day.  I think maybe there is nothing better than getting up on a school morning and not having to get dressed. As a mom, I know our morning wen very smoothly. It was nice.

Wednesday (top right) it was mismatch day.  Braley had a field trip so she didn't go too crazy, she just wore mismatching rain boots. Ansen, on the other hand went big.  He decided to do a mismatch sports day so he wore a track shoe, and skateboarding shoe, basketball shorts, snowboarding pants, surfing rash guard, globetrotters wrist guard, and baseball hat.

Thursday (bottom left) was crazy hair day.  Braley went for a personal record of how many hair thingies she could get in that sandy blonde mop-top of hers.

Today (bottom left) is sports day.  Brays is in her basketball shoes and swim t-shirt and Ansen is a surfer.

They have loved the break from the everyday grind of uniforms.

Starting at 2:40pm today we start Spring Break....and it's supposed to be mostly sunny.

2:40pm can't come soon enough.

Geocaching

 Definition of Geocaching:

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, first played in May 2000, in which the participants use a GPS or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.

^{Our first adventure as a family was a lot of fun even though it was kind of chilly.  I can see our family doing a lot of this isn the future!}

^{Have you been?}

Bonding

We had some visitors this weekend and one of them was completely enamored by Uncle Jason and his his guitar.

Back in Time

 Braley's class took a field trip to Champoeg (pronounced Shampoo-y) State Park this week.  We learned about the early settlers in this area and how they lived.  It was very interesting and a lot of fun.  The women from the historical foundation did a great job helping the kids understand life "in the olden days."

 They kids were able to make toys for the era.

 And listen to a story teller or two.

 The 5th graders learned how to bring in wheat and prep it for grinding.....

 And then they ground it!

 They also learned about the relationships between the local Native Americans, settlers from the eastern United States and the French Canadians.  The reason that this park is a State Park is because this is the location that the settlers made the decision to become a territory of  the United States.

Who knew it was so close to our house?

Now I do.

 

 Field trips are always such a fun time to connect with my kids.  I am super thankful I am able to go attend so many.