Sister time!

This week my sister and her family came to visit.  She has three boys, and my kids loved their company!  Elsie adored her oldest, who is 12, and Peter was her 10 year old's shadow, and Kimball just ran hard, trying to keep up with everyone.  I loved their company and seeing her family grow.  We ate good food, hiked, and enjoyed a fire in our backyard, as well as fit in the late night chatting.
On the hike, someone found a leg of a deer.  Mike was the only one brave enough to touch it.  Yuck.  The boys ran ahead, blazing the already formed trail most of the time.  They really enjoyed each other.  Elsie was at her finest!  I've never seen that girl walk so far in my life.  She had a purpose though, to impress and keep up with her oldest cousin.  She hiked a ways, and through some rough, steep parts.  I was proud!  Anna slept the whole way up.  It's amazing what babies can sleep through and the comfort levels they can withstand.

This little guy was a great hiker as well!  It was a big hike for a little guy!

Friendships were forged.  What a great example my Peter has to look up to!

  It was perfect sister time.  Mike was good to indulge and support me.  He and my brother-in-law made some great dutch-oven potatoes!  They were only here for two nights and a day, but we fit in some great memories! Thanks for coming down Lanita and family!

We tried roasting some peeps over the fire.  Fun experiment.

Easter!

I figured I'd better create a post about Easter before it gets embarrassingly late.  We had a nice time preparing for it this year.  We tried to have a simple devotional every morning where we talked about where Jesus was that day almost 2000 years ago and what he did.  Then I tried to find a picture that correlated with the story and we posted them on our wall.  It was a good reminder, and I think the kids really learned.  However, Saturday almost came and went before I remembered we needed to dye some hard boiled eggs!  It was fun, but it's easy for kids to forget from year to year how long one has to wait for the eggs as they sit in the dye.  It was quite a conflict for Elsie - did she want to wait and enjoy the brightly colored egg or should she burn through the whole process and move on to something else.  I couldn't help but relate to her struggle.

Sunday was great.  It was a tight squeeze, but we managed to fit in the easter baskets before 9:00 church, so the kids went wearing their new ties and necklace.  Anna managed to get one bite of a peep down her.  It was really cute.  So I took a picture.  Sharing time was a great hit - the Primary Secretary and chorister worked together and created a wonderful lesson.  I was happy the kids were going home knowing the story of Christ and his atonement and sacrifice for each of us.  It was the most pivotal moment in history.  I'm glad we have one Christian holiday that we can keep on Sunday, always.

Afterwards we headed to Aunt Camille's for a yummy big family dinner and an awesome Easter Egg Hunt.  Camille really knows how to organize and good hunt!  The kids had a blast and got too much candy.  It was another great Easter!

The girls in purple!

Let the hunt begin!!

Good reach Elsie!

Couldn't stop from taking this picture - I love Crocus' in the spring!

Smores

For our Family Home Evening before Easter, I was getting things ready for our traditional Easter Egg Hunt where the kids find eggs that are filled with symbols of Jesus the last week of his life.  Elsie had this great idea to have Smores for dessert.  She called her dad to see if he could pick up fixings on the way home from work.  She was so excited, he couldn't help but accommodate her wishes.  It was a hit!  The weather even cooperated, barely.  I love taking smores pictures - they are such an ooey gooey mess.

Orange Week

Last week was Orange Food Lunch week at our home.  We had lots of mangoes, cantelope, carrots, sweet potato muffins, peach smoothies, and orange juice.  The kids seemed to appreciate the consistency, and they loved the muffins.  We took a break from themed lunches this week because I started feeling stressed and overwhelmed.  We enjoyed a week off of school and everything.  The weather has been very agreeable and the kids have enjoyed the outside and parks! I think we all needed Spring Break!

Birthday Time!

I put an exclamation to this post because I'm trying to make up for the lack of excitement Michael had  on his birthday.  He was less than thrilled to be turning another year old.  His dad reassured him, though, that he was just now getting in the prime of his life.  You know, we decided to believe him.  His dad will be 80 this year, and when one gets older, there's more strength in one's sage advice.  Hence, the exclamation mark. 
I suppose there's more to that punctuation after all.  Could it stand for my feelings for the wonderful man I married?  You bet!  How lucky I am to be able to celebrate these special days with him because he is so great.  I am always amazed at his talent and energy to get things done and help other people.  I love when he comes home from a long day of work, and after dinner helps clean the kitchen and then plays with the kids before bed to give me a break.  He helps in our home tirelessly.  He is genuinely good, and kind, and thoughtful.  I love him and I love that he is the father of our children.  We are a lucky family to have him.
The kids and I worked hard all day grocery shopping, decorating, making a key lime cake (from a box), gift wrapping, and writing cards.  The more we prepared, the more excited they seemed to get.  By the time Mike came home, they were just bursting!  
We had a fun evening.  Right when Mike came home Kimball ran up to him with his present and said, "It's two chocolates and they're binnected (aka connected)!"  After the kids had shown him their wrapped presents and unique decorations, we had a nice birthday meal:  steaks, salad, homemade bread, and fresh California oranges. 
Then his parents came over and we opened presents.  Mike loves tools, so that's what he got, mostly (except for some binnected chocolates).  Kimball also picked out some flashlights to give.  Mike has a fetish for flashlights, and I couldn't help but noticing how similar Kimball is to his dad's interests already.  Then we all had cake and ice cream (it all happened to be green, I think the kids helped pick the flavor out).
Shortly thereafter, our neighbor came over to watch the kids and Mike and I headed out to go watch Oz at the theaters.  He and I really liked it.  It was a cleaver twist to L. Frank Baum's story and I was impressed Hollywood had created a movie with an actual moral to it.  It was a refreshing and relaxing 2 hour get-away. 
Happy Birthday Mike! 

Here's the kids all giving their presents at once.  They were excited!

Mike just read Elsie's card she worked so hard on. 

 I think Kimball is hoping Dad will share.

Mike's showing Peter how his present he gave him works. 

Mike blew his candles out from clear across the table!

Anna's first cake - it was a hit!

Green Lunches

Kimball is a bright boy.  When he was 2 years old, we were walking on the sidewalk and he yelled out in astonishment, "Look Mom, a triangle!"  When I looked down to where he was pointing, I indeed saw a triangle shape in the cement.  I was surprised and impressed.  He loves shapes and lines and what he calls "math".  What he doesn't love is colors.  Try as I might, this kid just doesn't care what color things are.  I've tried playing Candyland, he's not interested.  Oral quizes as we're getting him dressed, non responsive.  Even File folder games, he loves to match the colors, but don't make him talk about them!  So, when I was reading a friend's blog about teaching her son colors, I immediately was interested.  She used theme colored lunches in muffin tins.  Apparently they're very poplular, but it was the first I'd heard of them.  So I decided to give it a try.

 

All for the sake of this cute little stinker.

 I decided to focus on the color green (since he didn't seem to catch on to the color during St. Patrick's).  After a week of green lunches, I'm still not sure Kimball cares what the color green is, but it's still had great benefits to our home!

I bought them all their own muffin pans, and they were very excited about it.  Then I had them help pick out green food at the store.  They were coming up with all sorts of new ideas! One day I suggested we have left over pizza instead of the muffin tin lunches.  "NO!" they cried, "We want our green food!"  Okay, okay, they twisted my arm and I cooked them up some green beans and such.  All the sudden I was getting them to eat spinach, green beans, edamame, sprouts, and whatever else, as long as it fit into the muffin tin.  I was really blown away when we were at the store and they wanted to try some California roll because it had seaweed inside of it. 

Here's one of the meals I did:  Sushi, grapes, olives/pickles, 

 

 

Grammy's delicious green salsa, and pistachio pudding.

Elsie's trying the California roll.  "Not bad" was her response.

This may not be too phenominal in some people's homes.  My kids aren't super picky kids, but they are kids with many food apprehensions.  For me, this was ground breaking.  I took advantage and started teaching them all about the vitamins and healthy things inside green food, and why we can be like superheros when we eat them.  It worked like a charm. 

Kimball is taking a bite of a spinach quesadilla.  Mmmm.

This coming week we decided to eat orange foods.  I'm wondering if I can really get them to eat squash and sweet potatoes.  It hasn't worked in the past, but I have renewed hope.  We've never eaten meals out of muffin tins before either.  Plus, they picked them out themselves at the store.  It's been fun and I hope it continues to be fun. 

Great smiles!  Great fun!

Our "New" Oven

I am so excited about the new oven Mike got me this past week from someone selling it from the internet.  I'm am so grateful there are people out there who love stainless steal and are willing to sell their amazing appliances to "upgrade" to stainless steal.  At first I wondered why Mike was checking the internet for new ovens about 6 months ago.  Wasn't our oven working fine?  It seemed to cook food well enough for me.  But, I decided not to rebuttle a good deed, so I let him look without saying a word. 

Monday evening he traveled over an hour to pick this sweet thang up.  He came home at around 9:30 and began cleaning.  He cleaned and cleaned an already fairly clean looking oven until it looked new.   We didn't go to bed until midnight (I was on the computer).  Isn't he great? 
I must say, immidiately I was very excited about the dual ovens and clean range.  After cooking on it for a few days, I understand what I have been missing these long 8 years in this house with the former oven.  No longer am I having to light the gas stove manually every time.  It became to mechanical for me, I forgot I was even doing it.  My cakes bake on a level surface, my pans fit lovely on the stove, and  I can bake 6 loaves of bread all at once without having to play a game of Tetris.  I have been amazed at how uniformly cooked everything has been coming out of the oven as well.  We still have much to learn about this oven, but even so, I'm lovin' it. 
It's a love affair for me, really.  I have plans for this baby and me.  Oh, the things I'll be able to cook, the meals we'll be able to have!  I am very excited! 
I have the greatest hubby in the world to see a need, even when I didn't, and treat me to something so grand.  Thanks Mike!  You're the best!