Happy Birthday to Mama

I had a great birthday last month. Scott took me away for a night together the weekend before. It was nice to just be the two of us and not have any kids waking me up in the morning. John watched the kids for us and even got them all ready for Ethen's football game later on Saturday. I am a year older and don't really mind it, but do feel like I am looking older. I guess I should since I have an 11 year old son. The candles on my cake were 33 +1 but the kids kept saying I was 331. It was pretty funny.Scott brought the beautiful flowers to me while I was at work with each of the little kids carrying a balloon. They made me smile all day and everyone at work was so impressed with him.
Mom sent this adorable flower cake. It smelled so good.

The Flying Trapeze

Ethen is getting pretty good at his Yo-yo tricks. Here are a few

Stop And Go

Brain Twister

Easter

Kia's favorite part of Easter was the ham bone. She chewed on that thing for a few days.

Egg Decorating

This year Scott had the great idea of making rice krispie shaped eggs dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. That was a fun project. We also did some traditional egg dying as well. I found a great trick for little kids to avoid splashing the dye and dropping eggs...wire wisks. These pictures make the activity look more relaxing than it actually was , but we got it done and in the end everyone was happy.

Easter Egg Hunting

We live in a great neighborhood that puts on some fun activities for the kids. Every year we have an Easter egg hunt and games for the kids at the neighborhood park. The sugar rush started the weekend before Easter and still hasn't worn off yet!

Super Fruit

Did you know this? Glad I have been eating them my entire life thanks to my New Zealand roots! But I need to eat them more often now that I know the greatness in these little guys.
This tiny, nutrient-dense fruit packs an amazing amount of vitamin C (double the amount found in oranges), has more fiber than apples, and beats bananas as a high-potassium food. The unique blend of phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals found in kiwifruit helps protect against heart disease, stroke, cancer, and respiratory disease. Kiwifruit's natural blood-thinning properties work without the side effects of aspirin and support vascular health by reducing the formation of spontaneous blood clots, lowering LDL cholesterol, and reducing blood pressure. Multiple studies have shown that kiwifruit not only reduce oxidative stress and damage to DNA but also prompt damaged cells to repair themselves.
Kiwifruit are often prescribed as part of a dietary regimen to battle cancer and heart disease, and in Chinese medicine they are used to accelerate the healing of wounds and sores. The riper they are the more nutrients so let these puppies get good and ripe. They taste better when ripe as well :) Now go get some KIWI!!!!

Such a good sport

Kia is so good with the kids. Luke and Paisley sure had fun with her one morning.

Luke really is INCREDIBLE

Spring is Here?!

It is officially spring according to the calendar. But we were hit with a sudden snowstorm last night. It was especially crazy since the day before we were out in our shorts and t-shirts getting sunburned while camping.

My dogwood tree about to bloom and now covered in snow

Spring Break

This week was spring break for the kids. We spent a few days at a great YMCA family camp with lots of good friends and temperature controlled cabins with running water. My kind of camping. Some great campfires to sit around and perfect weather for the kids to run around with eachother from sunup to sundown. This has become somewhat of a tradition with friends and the kids have such a good time. John came up for a night and a day to hang with the family and almost insane amount of kids that are together at these events. This year we were even served 4 of our meals and it was pretty good food too. We had putt-putt golfing , rock climbing, archery, hay rides, candle making, canoeing, fishing, and games to keep everyone occupied.

Luke baiting his hook with sausage

Paisley collecting arrows

Just a little muddyThis ride is a bit more tippy than the canoe

Luke's Sunday School picture

Not sure what to say about this picture Luke drew. It gave his primary teacher a good laugh.

Yo-yoing

Ethen has found a sudden fascination in yo-yoing recently. Luckily Scott learned from his father (yo-yo master) and is able to teach Ethen a few tricks. All Ethen could ask us is if we could go to the store to buy a yo-you all week. He lost his blue butterfly one and had to get a replacement. Uncle John made his day and brought a yo-yo to him (thank you John). So he has been working on a few tricks and now is checking out every kind of yo-yo there is online. He makes some funny faces while doing tricks :) But I sure am relishing that he is interested in something non tech. Back to some good old fashion kid toys!!!

Ethen rocking the baby