Kids, kids, kids...

This past weekend we took the kids shoe shopping.  ALL 4 of them have been wearing shoes that are two half-sizes too small.  And, of course they all needed two pairs of shoes (one for church and one for play) AT THE SAME TIME.  Thank goodness it was BOGO time at Payless.  Still cost a bundle, but oh well. 

Then Saturday night I went through their boxes of summer clothes and realized 3 of the 4 have almost no summer clothes in the right size.  What does that mean?  Shopping trip :(

Well, a couple weeks ago I won a $50 gift card to Target from a blog.  It came in the mail today!  Yay!  Couldn't have been more perfect timing. 

A couple weeks ago Evan got an assignment to do a diorama.  His happened to be on dinosaurs.  What's funny is that a couple weeks before that I had the thought that we've never had to do a diorama or really even a project for school with any of our kids.  He took great pride and was very excited to get to draw his own background for the box.  He picked out a couple pictures from his Zoobook and tried to draw them.  He actually did really well.  I let this be his own thing and he decided what he wanted and we did it.
  I was going to get real sand and glue it on the bottom and add some fun things to it, but we decided to keep it simple.  It was very simple, but he had a fun time doing it and was proud of his work.

Love

When I've exercised and need to take a shower I'll put a movie on for Kamri and Miles to watch.  This is the only way I know Miles will actually sit and not get into anything.  After I got out of the shower one day Kamri was huging Miles to "protect" him from the scary part (aka the witch in Tangled).  It was too cute!

Easter...

Here are their Easter outfits.  I don't always do "Easter outfits".  I really only do it when the kids need new church clothes anyway or when it just kind of happens.  Which was the case this year.  Last April (2010) I found out about this etsy shop that has different fabric for dresses already cut out for you.  All you need to do it sew the pieces together to make the dresses.  I love making dresses for the girls, but HATE cutting out the pieces.  So I got one kit in each girl's size and was planning on making them, but come this March (2011) I still had yet to even open the package. Both Kamri and Sara needed new dresses so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have them matching on Easter.  And then I couldn't leave the boys out so I got both of them matching ties that coordinated with the girls' dresses.  They looked soooooo cute all together and I love the dresses. Miles especially loved the attention he got when we put his tie on.  He totally hammed it up for the camera.

We had an Easter Egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's - 17 eggs for all 17 grandkids including an egg filled with a certificate for a free shake - YUM - and an empty one to represent the tomb.

Waiting for the hunt to begin.  They had the hunt split up into ages.  The younger kids in front with easily accessible eggs and older kids in back with eggs to hunt for.

He's a goober

It is a chore to get all the grandkids in a picture together.

He loved the eggs

Afterward, my mom and dad had a little devotional about the resurrection and the kids surprisingly sat pretty well for it.

Instead of doing baskets on Sunday, we did them on Bunny Monday.  I like to concentrate on the resurrection on Sunday and Sunday tends to get a little too filled with other things so starting last year baskets are hidden and found as part of our Monday Family Home Evening activities.  The kids don't mind at all and actually asked if we were having Bunny Monday. (Plus, we just use the candy they get from the egg hunt in their baskets.)  the kids make their baskets each year so they are disposable and I have one less thing to figure out where to store.

Sara's was in the microwave

 Evan's in the shower

And Kamri's in our linen closet

 I made each of them their own memo-size clipboard with their name on it and made a pad of paper for each of them and included a pen.  It was super simple, but Sara kept telling me how much she loved it and what a good Easter it was.  I love how simple things can be and the kids will still love it.  It was a good end to our Spring Break week.

 

Zoo day

We also took one of my nieces to the zoo with us.  For her birthday back in August we told her we'd take her zoo with us.  It took us a while to get theer, but we finally did.

The tigers were especially active.  We don't usually get to see them moving around much.

Cleaning day

I told the kids we couldn't have all fun and no work so one of the days of spring Break we spent a little bit of time cleaning.  They actually had a good time and Miles was so happy to help.

 We even had Tinkerbell visit and do some vacuuming.

Start of a long spring break...

My kids' school gets out for the whole week for Spring Break.  That means 9 straight days of being together 24 hours a day.  To be honest, I was not really looking forward to it because my kids get in the car already arguing when I pick them up after school.  So being together ALL THE TIME was going to be trying.  So I decided we needed some activities to keep us entertained.   

About a month before Spring Break started Ben and I came across a sweet deal for a hotel in the same city Ben now works (40 minutes away).  We got a one-night stay for 60% off.  So we decided to use this as one of our keep-the-kids-entertained-thus-not-fighting activities.  

The kids really wanted to see Dad's new office so that Monday we went down and met Ben at his work so he could show us around.  The kids wanted to ride the elevator and climb the stairs all 8 floors.  I think they made it to the 4th floor (I waited at the bottom) until someone complained so they headed back down.  Then he took us to their "cafe" and we got a fun dessert.

The kids and I were going to go chill at the park until Ben got off work, but, of course, it had to be pouring rain so we just went to the hotel and waited for him there.  The kids had fun watching Scooby Doo and other shows they don't normally get to see while I relaxed and read my book - surprise, surprise.

We went to IHOP for dinner because kids ate free in April. Then we headed to a taxydermy (gross) museum.  I have to say, it was a lot of fun.  The kids loved it. 

We were there at the perfect time because they were doing a reptile show and the kids got to pet a snake and a lizard.  I stayed far away but they thought it was pretty cool - even Miles. 

They each got to choose one animal to take a picture in front of.  Here are their choices...

Miles got freaked when he turned around and saw a HUGE bear.

Then we headed back to the hotel for some swimming....

(oh my goodness - look at that face and those eyes.)

Looks like we need to get Kamri in some swimming lessons.  She's still a bit frightened of the water.

Then of course, some basketball with Dad before bedtime.

They thought it was pretty cool they got to stay up until 10:00.

It was a really fun time just to get away even for one night.  We weren't far from home, but it was something different which is always good.