New Mattress

We got a new mattress yesterday.  Which means the kids spent all day today playing on our old one.  They have had the mattress every which way it will fit in that small playroom.  It's been a house, boat, dungeon, wall, trampoline and everything else they could think of. 

Here they are eating carmel corn and watching "I'm A Mormon" videos on mormon.org

Feather Earrings

This is what happens when Dad takes Anna Elise to go pick out some feather earrings.  Everybody loves them.  I think they make her look so old - I don't know if I like Anna Elise growing up!

Playing

Today we played with all of Calvin's toys!  He wore his new shirt.  Played with Legos.  He fixed the playhouse in the back yard.  They played the frog game. We also went to Target to pick out a toy to buy with his money from Grammy.   He got a nerf gun (he does every year).

Playing Calvin's new game - flipping frogs into the spinning tree.

Calvin is wearing his new tool belt and hat and hammering nails into the playhouse.

Celeste climbs right up in to the playhouse and waits for someone to take her down the slide.  It's when she tried to climb back down the stairs that I got nervous. 

Happy Birthday Calvin!

Calvin turned 7 today!  He had donuts for breakfast, Mike took him lunch at school, and then we had ice cream cake for dessert!   Mike came home early so he could open his presents before dinner.  He had a great day!

Opening presents

Singing to Calvin - his mint and Oreo ice cream cake

He did a good job blowing out all 7 candles

Raisins

Celeste loves raisins.  Here she is buckled into her highchair (notice the criss-cross straps, the only way to keep her off the table) eating her raisins.  She did manage to lean forward and snag the container.  She then placed the ones she wanted on the blue lid and ate them from there.

Summer Dresses

My mom made matching dresses for the girls.  They weren't really in a cooperative mood for the picture!

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at school.  The kids had a lot of fun with this one.

Baby Doll

My girls usually get a baby doll for their first birthday from my Mom.  It usually takes several months before they take any interest, but eventually their mothering instincts kick in and they play with their baby.  A couple of weeks ago Celeste discovered one of her sister's baby dolls and she loves playing with it!  At only 11 months she is holding, patting, and kissing this little doll.  I love watching it and today I was able to catch her with the camera.

 holding

 kissing

patting

I'm realizing our baby doll needs some clothes!

Storybook Character

It's library week at school for the kids.  They get to dress up all week.  On Monday they took their slippers to school.  They were able to put them on curl up with a good book during the day.  Today they dressed up as their favorite character from a book.  Anna Elise was Laura Ingalls and Calvin was Ralph S. Mouse from The Mouse and the Motorcycle books.  Their costumes aren't necessarily accurate, but they were very pleased with them and so excited to go to school today.  (Thanks for the bonnet Emily)

Ice Cream

Today after dinner we had ice cream.  Celeste tried a fudge bar for the first time.  She made faces because it was cold, but really enjoyed it!  I had to laugh at Calvin, he had a messier face then Madeline or Celeste despite the fact that he is older.  It reminded me of my brother - he was the messy eater at our house!
Then there is Lilah.  She just has a hard time with ice cream on a stick - she took too long to figure out how to get it all off and it melted all over her!

 I had to chase Calvin down to get his picture, he didn't really want his messy face documented

 trying to figure out the best way to get it off the stick

Look at her arm!  It's all over her feet too!

Shameless Self Promotion X 2

First, I am hosting a Jewelry Brunch on Saturday, April 21st from 11 - 1.  Everyone is welcome,  just make sure you RSVP!  If you can't come but you are interested in ordering (or just looking at, I always like to look) Premier Design Jewelry let me know - if you are local I can lend you a magazine. If you aren't local I can either mail you one or I can email you some of the scanned pages from a magazine.  They have a website, but they only show a few of their pieces.  If you'd like to order jewelry, I get a better deal on orders placed before the show - but I can take orders through Tuesday, April 23rd.

Here is a picture of one of their necklaces.  I love Premier Design because I love the look of their jewelry but I also love their golden lifetime guarantee - if it breaks in the first 60 days it's replaced for free and if it breaks anytime after that it's replaced for only $5! 

Just a reminder, Mother's Day is coming!  So if you have a mother to purchase a gift for or if you are a mother and purchase your own gifts then this would be perfect! 


The second promotion is a competition that our N-Hance business in participating in.  N-Hance's corporate Facebook page is hosting a competition for all of the N-Hance franchisees.  They are trying to spread the word about N-Hance in social media.  Whoever can get the most votes for their 'before and after' picture wins some great prizes (and we could use the prizes!)  So if you wouldn't mind helping us out, we really need votes!  You have to have a Facebook account, like N-Hance's FB, and then vote for Mike's picture.   Here is a link, it takes you to our picture on NHance's Facebook page, it will prompt you to like NHance, allow their app, and then you can vote, make sure to follow the process all the way through). It would also help us if you could spread the word by sharing this on twitter, FB, pinterest or wherever (there are buttons to do this after you vote), but we only get credit for actual votes.  (I had friends like my link and share it, but without a vote, it doesn't count for anything).  We have about a month - so the earlier we spread the word, the better =).

I don't really like being pushy, so excuse the shameless self promotions.  I promise the next post will be about my kids =).

Thank you so much for your help and support!

Spring Break Friday

For our last day of spring break we did another craft.  (I buy craft kits at Target when they are on clearance for 75% off, otherwise we wouldn't do anything creative around here).  We made 'ice jewelry'.  The kids loved it - even Calvin.  Doing 'girl' stuff doesn't really bother him.

Check out their bling 

This evening Anna Elise and Calvin are going to a baseball game with their dad.  They earned a free ticket through their school by reading books at home.  I'll find something fun to do with the little girls at home.

Spring Break Thursday

Today we all went to the park for our playgroup.  A couple other families showed up and the kids had fun playing and going on a trail with one of the dads.  Calvin managed to walk through some nasty mud and his shoe was sucked off.  Luckily I was able to rescue it, but it was not pleasant.  No pictures of that - I wasn't able to use my camera with muddy fingers!

Spring Break Wednesday

Our adventure today was going to the Science Museum.  I made the kids go to a couple of other exhibits before playing with their beloved blue foam blocks.  The 'Science Unplugged' section that my kids love and that houses the blocks is being renovated.  They had moved most of the displays to a much smaller area and only moved maybe 30% of the blocks.  I was actually glad that we got to do other things!  We went by the beach exhibit and looked at different kinds of sand, some real sea critters, and we played with the video music 'thingy' (yes, very scientific, I know).   We also learned a little bit about arches and we played in the motion section for a while.

  The TV shows the kids as well as 'notes'.  They play music by jumping up and down the stairs and playing these 'notes' with their bodies.

 Anna Elise and Calvin (with some help from mom) made an arch with heavy (but soft) vinyl blocks.

I kept putting Celeste's pacifier in that hole.  She would press her face up against the hole and stick her little arm down the hole trying to get it.  She liked the game a long as I periodically got it out for her.

Spring Break Tuesday

Today I had to work and didn't get home until 5:30 - so for our spring break fun we went out to dinner, had ice cream at home for dessert, and the kids are sleeping 'somewhere fun'.  They are all 4 on the blow up mattress.  They never make it, usually 1 or 2 of them get 'cancelled' by their dad and end up in their own bed.  We'll see if they make it tonight!

 Celeste and Lilah hugging after dinner this evening =) 

Spring Break Monday

Today our spring break fun continued.  We tried to do a craft, but it did not work, so we settled for painting.  This afternoon we went to the park where the little girls played and Calvin and Anna Elise flew Calvin's kite.

Happy Easter!

This morning we colored eggs.  Then we quickly got ready for church.  I substituted for Lilah's Sunbeam class.  It was such a great way to spend Easter Sunday - telling the Easter story in it's simplest terms to these sweet little spirits (well some of them have 'bigger' spirits then others).   After church we ate leftover ham and deviled eggs.  We had a great Easter.  We are so thankful for the Atonement of our savior.

 

 The girls.  It was suppose to be the kids.  Calvin was on the floor throwing a fit and Celeste refused to let anyone but mom hold her.  So it became a picture of the girls (sorry, I haven't put my makeup on yet).

Calvin finished his tantrum.  Celeste still refused to be put down or let anyone hold her.  So here are the older kids...

Easter Fun

Today we had some friends over for an Easter craft, an egg hunt, and Easter dinner.  We all had so much fun!   We should socialize more often!

 

Bunny masks!

 Can you see the egg on the hoop?

 She got it - much to Calvin's dismay, who tried first and didn't quite make it.

 Calvin finding eggs up in the playhouse

 Madeline looked for eggs wearing her mask!

Busch Gardens!

Spring Break started today!  Our half day got switched to a full day off (unused snow days) and so we started our spring break fun early!  We took the family to Busch Gardens.  I was able to get free preschool annual passes for Madeline and Lilah (Richmond friends, I think they are still available for kids 5 and under!).  Right now the fun pass is the same price as a day pass - so we can go back as many times as we want until September!  On Friday we got up, packed our lunch, and headed to Williamsburg.  We had a blast!  We spent some time at the 'kids parks', Mike went on an adult roller coaster and he took Anna Elise and Calvin on a 'medium' roller coaster.  Mike made me take Anna Elise and Calvin on that big drop ride - we all survived!  We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and then home to bed!  What a fun day!

 Lilah's first roller coaster.  She looks too little to be going on a roller coaster!

 There we are!  Mike and Celeste had to sit this one out.  About half way through I thought 'Wow, this is a pretty good roller coaster", I glanced down at Lilah and her face was frozen into pure terror.  I could tell she wasn't breathing, but she said she liked it and went again!

 The kid version of the 'drop ride'

 Celeste ate Pirate Booty during lunch.  She basically got whatever she wanted, she'd been sick earlier this week and was not real happy today.  We carried her for most of the day.

A little horse ride near the Clydesdales.  The kids were so excited to pet a real horse and Celeste seemed mesmerized.  They are so big!

Calvin seeking his thrills on the ladybug ride!