Our Spring break this year was far from "springy" but we managed to have fun. The Friday of Spring Break was a bit warmer - I
think the first day of 40 degree weather since fall - so we celebrated
by walking to the library! The sun was shining and the kids were running
down the sidewalks through the snow and slush and I'm pretty sure
everyone who saw us was wondering why the kids and I were all laughing
and grinning like we'd just won a trip to Disneyworld. Actually, they
probably weren't wondering since they experienced the same winter
we had! It was awesome to be out and walking again. The rest of Spring
break I was watching 3-4 other kids every day so it was pretty
much a mad house
here Monday - Friday!
Sophie helping with dinner.
Nora making a duct tape bracelet. Nora loves her duct tape!
Miles has really loved paper airplanes lately. The first time I made him one he looked at and was like, "Umm... what is that?" So we checked out a library book and I've improved a bit. Though daddy and Sophie are both better.
The girls back up in their tree with their friend Beatrix that was at our house all week.
Just a bunch of kids at the table :)
We made Fairy houses for a project and used some wooden birdhouses from the craft store and glued on moss, rocks, flowers, butterflies, etc. The girls spent about 5 hours doing this.
Nora and her fairy house. She also included a cute note to the fairies who will come and live in her house. We do believe in fairies.
This is Wesley and one of the two boys I watch in the afternoon, Lance. These two are almost exactly the same size and love to wrestle and hug and chase each other all afternoon.
I had to include these two pictures of my kitchen and dining/family rooms. Every night during the break my house looked like this, or worse, so each night I had to clean it all up so it could happen again the next day! And the kids even helped when I asked, so it would have been much worse!
Nora climbed up in our tree in the backyard with a couple of blankets and stayed up there for almost two hours! She was trying to take a nap and I'm not sure she succeeded but she loved it anyway.
Sophie played a really great trick on me and mixed peanut butter with fudge sauce and spread it on the toilet. She called me in and made me think one of the boys had done it. Since there were 8 kids in the house at the time, with four boys ages 5, 4, 2 and 2, this wasn't too hard to believe. Scooter was licking it when I walked in the bathroom so Sophie was quite pleased with my reaction that went something like "SCOOTER! SOPHIE! Don't let him lick that! Gross! Who did that? Get him out of here!!" Funny girl. We were both laughing pretty hard the rest of the day when we thought about it.
At the end of Spring Break we had an Easter brunch and egg hunt in our backyard and that night our friends from Michigan, the Allee family, came to our home. They just moved here and were in town for the weekend because they were signing on their new house on Monday. Their three girls stayed with us so they wouldn't have to get two hotel rooms and they came over for Easter dinner. I watched their 4 older kids while they signed on their house on Monday and my kids were pretty excited because I let them stay home from school an extra day to play. It will be fun to have the Allee family in the same city as us. We had a very busy week but it was a lot of fun!
Went to our city Egg Hunt:
and had our own little egg hunt at home:
Brian took this picture before church (sun is kinda making it weird but oh well). No one had new clothes this year except Miles. I found this suit at the thrift store and almost passed it up. So glad I didn't! We did have Easter baskets with candy but I didn't even take any pictures of them! The kids got some candy and that little water table that is on our porch in this picture.
Here is Miles in his new blue pinstriped suit. He really loves it.
So grateful for Easter to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior. What a beautiful Holiday.
We had an Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch in our backyard(s) and had lots of friends over and had a great time! It actually stopped raining and although it was muddy and wet and Miles went through 4 pairs of clothes before lunch it was a super fun day.
Maddie and Nora
On Sunday we had some more friends come over for a glorious Easter dinner (potluck style with ham, roast beef, rolls, au gratin potatoes, beans, fruit, jell-o and carrot cake). It was a perfect afternoon and I ate so much!! I wish we could have an Easter dinner every Sunday.
This is Miles and his BFF Zach. They have become such good buddies lately it makes me even sadder that we'll be moving in a few months!
Here's the group of kids (minus 2) eating dinner downstairs at the craft table.
Sophie made a little centerpiece with our colored eggs and some paper. After she had it all arranged I moved it to make room for the food and all of her eggs rolled off and broke. Oops! She was sad, but kindly forgave me and picked some new eggs.
Miles had a bit of a tough day because he took a couple of rough falls, one of them led to some road rash on his forehead. Then later he was jumping off the table to the couch and cut his lip.
And here are the kids in their Easter clothes. I had been planning on making the bowties for a few months and of course made them Saturday night at midnight. They all looked so darn cute. How I love these kids!
...and a few days ago Wesley started pulling himself up on a few pieces of furniture. He's barely army crawling but can stand up if something is just the right size. Dangerous since he can't lower himself down slowly! He's quite proud of himself.
