Happy 6th Birthday Calvin!

Calvin turned 6 on Tuesday!  We opened his presents and we had cake on Monday night.  Then on Tuesday for his birthday we went out to dinner and he went to the store to spend his birthday money from Grammy.  He bought a gun, of course.  Calvin keeps us on our toes!   He is taller and bigger then his older sister.  He eats more then I do, but I think it all goes to making him taller!  He enjoys school but doesn't particularly like homework.  He does well with math and is reading quite well despite his inability to sit still long enough to practice very much!  He doesn't stop moving unless he is asleep.  He falls asleep very quickly - if we can get him to stop moving!

Easter

Our Easter celebrations started on Saturday morning.  We had a ward pancake breakfast at the church (at 8am!) and then an egg hunt.  The kids had a great time and had too much candy to eat! That afternoon they got their Easter present, instead of baskets we got them a movie and they had fun watching it.  On Sunday we went to church - the girls all got Easter hats.  I even had a 'new' Easter dress (thanks for letting me borrow it  Rachel).  That afternoon we hid a few of our own eggs and let the kids hunt for them.  We color code the eggs so each one gets a certain color, each of the kids had an empty egg to represent the empty tomb - they didn't seem real impressed =).  We had a yummy dinner that ended with Strawberry Creampuff Pie!  I am thankful for the opportunity to teach the kids more about the atonement and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ and for the freedom to worship him.

    

Calvin didn't want to pose by himself, he insisted on Anna Elise being in his picture.

 

The three girls

Spring Break

For Spring Break this year I decided that we would be better off at home - so we crammed our vacation in one big stay-cation day!  We got up and had donuts for breakfast, packed our lunch and headed for the zoo.  We decided to stay local and went to the Richmond zoo instead of driving all the way to D.C.  The kids had a great time!

 

 Waiting in line to get in.

 

 Lilah kept trying to sneak bites of the animal food.  I finally told her to just eat one - she took one taste and then left them alone the rest of the trip..

 Calvin feeding a parakeet

 Anna Elise feeding a parakeet.

 Lilah feeding a camel

 Madeline feeding a camel.

 

Madeline and Lilah got to ride the carousel with mom.  Anna and Calvin got to go on the sky ride with Dad - since Dad had the camera we don't have pictures of their ride!

We were worn out and as soon as we got into the car Calvin and Lilah were out!  We took our time driving to the movie theater so they could get a little nap.  After filling mom's purse with treats we saw Rio and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  Calvin just laughed out loud at the whole thing. 

 We headed back to our side of town and decided to stop by the house for just a minute.  Mike went in to grab what he needed and while he was inside a huge branch broke off of our neighbors tree and brought the power line that connected to our house down to the ground.  The line came off of our house, but stayed connected and we still had power  - which meant the line was live.  We wouldn't let the kids out of the car.
We called the power company and then headed off to dinner.  After dinner we got ice cream cones and went home.  The kids sat on the porch eating ice cream while we watched the 'worker men' start fixing our power line.  We never lost power which was a relief to me - the last thing a very pregnant woman wants on an almost 90 degree day is too lose her A/C!

That's how to enjoy an ice cream cone!

Wacky Hair Day

This week at school they have a different theme each day.  On Monday Anna Elise and Calvin went as twins, on Tuesday they got to wear their slippers, and on Wednesday it was wacky hair day.  

Yes, Anna Elise is frumping and glaring - she wasn't happy that morning.  She is my 7 year old teenager!

The Little Girls!

Madeline and Lilah are my little girls.  They protest that title very loudly.  Madeline is only to be called pretty.  Lilah prefers tiny to little, but they are my little girls.  After combing their hair one morning they insisted on photographs.  They hammed it up and we had a good time with the camera.  Here are just a few. 

Daddy's On TV!

NHance, Mike's franchise, has produced a TV commercial.  For each franchisee, they added their own part to the end of the commercial.  Mike got his copy in the mail today.  He played it for the kids and they were VERY impressed!  It's not actually playing anywhere right now.  It most likely won't make it on TV (don't tell the kids).  Mike plans to get it up on our website and business blog.  I'm going to post it here for your enjoyment =)!

(Disclaimer:  Not the most flattering depiction of Mike, he is much better looking in person!)