Spring Break Day 4 - Friends & Play

Angie, Daisy and Landon came over today to hang out. We see them during long holiday breaks and in the summer, so it's quite a treat. Daisy and Heather decided to play dress up, and here they are modeling their Babushka look...

We joined Michelle and the Holbrook clan at Soup Plantation for lunch. It was Shelly's 40th today! Happy Birthday!

After saying good-bye to friends, taking a short nap (mom and dad) and getting a little video game time in (kids), we drove to Subway to pick up dinner, and then we were off to eat at the park. We had intended to do a beach afternoon, but it was windy and considerably cooler than yesterday. The park (Plavan) proved the perfect spot with it's different play areas and larger equipment perfect for taller kids.

Heather spun Jenna in circles on the tire swing for quite some time.

Dad gave several pushes on the swing. I'm glad no one fell off or hit the bars. Oddly, Jenna had to sit down minutes later because she wasn't feeling well. It might have been the spinning and swinging?

Lauren joined us and we all participated in a game of Ball Tag. The only pic of myself was of my bottom which Jenna captured while resting in her chair. I promptly deleted it, but everyone in our party will vouch that I was running amuck with the kids.

Kelly is contemplating his next move. I don't think our girls knew that they had two highly competitive parents in the two of us. I think they were shocked to see how fast their mom and dad could run!

The girls watched Planet 51 tonight with their Dad. I listened from the other room while becoming engrossed in selecting photos from 2005 to upload to Sam's Club. 2005! I'm five years behind on my scrapbooking. *deep breath*

Spring Break - Day 3

When I am gone, my blogging journal will offer a beautiful picture of what I did with my family. Those poor grandchildren and great-grandchildren of mine won't have a clue that their ancestor was human. Of course I am not a deceitful person, so before I tell you what we did this afternoon, I'll give you the cold, hard facts.

We slept in until 9:00 a.m. We were in our pajamas until 1:00 p.m. There was serious danger today of cataloging another Couch Potato day. The girls were on Play Station with Lego Star Wars II for that entire time. I was on the computer. It was not a pretty sight. There you have it. We are totally human, and totally prone to the same behavior as everyone else.

As I peeled myself off the couch and reluctantly headed to the shower (at 1:00 in the afternoon), I knew I didn't want to let the day go to waste. I LOVE that my girls are home, and tempting as it may be to lounge, it is an extreme blessing to get them to myself for a whole week with no homework or schedule to worry about. I miss them being little when there was so much unscheduled time that I took it for granted. Not this week. To heck with the housework! Bring on the fun.

We put our bikes in the back of our truck and drove to Yo Yum Yum, a yummy yogurt shop down the street. After a delectable cup of yogurt, we drove to Mile Square Park and hit the walking/bike trails. There are a couple of small lakes and several play grounds throughout the park. We explored quite a bit of the park on our bikes until we found a play ground suitable for taller kids. It was a warm and sunny afternoon which was great for our ride. Later in the evening, we invited Caleb and Sarah over for a little Fort/Movie party. They watched The Squeakuel in a fort setting and munched on Kelly's home made kettle corn.

So yeah, although we had a slow morning, we got a little bit of activity in that we normally wouldn't get to do during the school week. Yay for Spring Break!

Spring Break - Natural History Museum

Monday was spent reacquainting myself with months of clutter than needed addressing. The girls played video and computer games, watched t.v. and generally lounged most of the day in doors.

That was the only day for which cleaning and couch potato syndrome will be tolerated! It's SPRING BREAK!

Tuesday we spent at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles with our friends, the Holbrooks. What a great day! Most everyone voted that the Gems were their favorite as we all looked for our birthstones among the rocks. It was cool to see what turquoise looked like before it was made into great jewelry. We also enjoyed the Discovery Center where the kids tried on animal skins, stood next to a giant polar bear and looked at creepy bugs. The California History wing was awesome and our 5th graders enjoyed finding explorers that they learned about pictured on the walls. We are looking forward to returning when the dinosaurs are back. Here are just a few photos from our trip...

Easter Sunday

We began our morning listening to General Conference. It was nice to stay comfy and watch from our living room. I missed getting dressed up in our Easter finery, but only a little. The messages from Conference were wonderful!

We did a little basket opening and indoor egg hunt just as Conference was beginning...

...and then had an outdoor egg hunt later in the afternoon.

No family for Easter this year, not even a grandpa. But we had to shoot the traditional "who was at dinner" photo. I love my cute family. There were many messages from Conference this weekend about family. I can't wait to review them all.

Random event: The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Mexico around 4:00 p.m. Kelly was cooking, the girls were playing in the living room, and I was pulling some towels out of the cupboard. The movement reminded me of a fun house without the fun. We stood in our door ways for at least 30 seconds waiting for the house to stop moving. I could see the mirrors on our closet doors moving, and poor Heather was shaking more than the earth. Very freaky.

Eggs, eggs, eggs...

Running Behind

Without wanting this to happen, I've lost time the last few months. The closer we've gotten to performing the oratorio, the worse it's gotten. So many things to manage and organize on top of life happening that my home went to the bottom of the list. That can't happen again--lesson learned.

It's Saturday, the day before Easter. I have basket fillers and little gifts, which I need to be happy about. However, there are no decorations, no special dinner planned, and we missed a trip to the see the Easter Bunny at the mall. Who had time to go to the mall? Shame on me.

I'm going to scramble and pull this off somehow...

Concert Night

Two concerts successfully completed! The soloists were amazing. The orchestra was outstanding, and the choir did a pretty good job too. Both concerts received immediate standing ovations, and each lasted about five minutes. The second concert got an encore performance (sorry first concert, there was no time). The comments were fabulous.

My girls like the kids' numbers and some of the choral numbers. They loved one of our soloists' dresses and her long sparkly earrings. Kelly said they were squirmy, but both girls said they liked it. I was happy that they got to come see their momma in action.

Tonight, we record it all!