A whole new world

Last night Lucy learned to ride her big bike with training wheels.  She was in pure heaven.  She might be the cutest thing ever.

Camp Casey

Bright and early my Julia left for Camp Casey.  There might not be a more excited child to go.  I asked her if she was going to be sad or miss me and she said "NO."  I told her the correct answer was "I will miss you mom but I will be fine!" No homesickness for this girl.

How can she be this big?  It seems just a few days ago she was like this:

Hippity Hoppity Easter Is On Its Way

Discovery Playtown

There is a new place in Maple Valley for little kids to play. It is a town with different shops for the kids to play at.  There is a restaurant, an animal hospital, a post office and grocery store, a salon, a fire station and also a play house with a tree fort and slide.  I have taken Lucy a couple of times and she is so cute playing. She could literally spend all day there.  Usually after 2 1/2 hours I have to drag her out of there to go home.  There are benefits to having all your other siblings in school!

One of the times we went it was really crowed and Lucy spent a good majority of the time cleaning and picking up the house.  Other kids would come through and make a big mess and then she would clean it all up.  She was busy sweeping, mopping, putting the baby to bed, cleaning the table.  Here she is washing the windows.  Wish I could inspire her to do these chores at home!

St. Patrick's Day

Normally to celebrate St. Patrick's Day we don't do much other than wear green and go to our St. Patty's Day run.  But this year I decided to bust out my Cricket and make a few decorations and what would a holiday of sorts be without a treat?  None.  So it was required that I make grasshopper pie. :)

We had the best weather we have ever had for our St. Patrick's Day run.  No rain and not too cold.

Cameron and Julia ran the 5k.  Cameron is so close to bursting through that 20:00 minute mark.  He ran a 20:11 which is about 6:30 a mile.  Julia ran a 28:28 and got 3rd place in her age division.  She loves her new girl runner bobble head trophy!

Natalie and Lucy ran in the 1k.  The night before the race Natalie woke up throwing up.  The next morning she said that she was feeling ok and wanted to run.  We sort of had our doubts but let her do it.  She spent the next two days throwing up on the couch.  Poor girl, what a trooper.  Lucy told us that she didn't want dad or mom to run with her this time, "she is a big girl."  She was making me laugh that whole day when she kept asking me what k she was.  I had no idea what she was talking about until I realized she was asking how far her race was---1k!

Retro Day

Today is Retro Day at school.  I think it is funny that retro is 80s and the style now is 80s.  Not too big of a stretch to come up with clothes.  I did buy a crimper and the girls are LOVING it.  Ha ha!  Lucy was confused as to why this was dress up day at school and why they were wearing what they were wearing. 

Lucy's hair crimped is so cute.  It is FLUFFY!

February 29th-Leap Day

Natalie and Julia planned an extravagant Leap Day party.  Only fitting for a party that only comes around every four years. They made a check list of everything that the party needed to include.  It was a rather long list and I had to nix a few of the items such as "multiple types of cookies" because frankly I just don't have that much time!  I did let them choose their top choice of cookie and we made those, sugar cookies in the shape of 2s and 9s.  The decorations were darling and we even had some activities to go along with our party.  

   

Since it was Monday night and Family Home Evening I put together a special project that will hopefully be fun on our next Leap Day party in 2020.  We made a time capsule and put in some things to open up on February 29, 2020.  We filled out papers about us (our favorite things, our friends, etc..), traced our feet and our hands, measured how tall we were and took pictures of what we looked like in 2016 and put them in a special box only to be opened in 4 years.  We then took a short home video that we will watch in 4 years and laugh at because we are dorks.  Happy Leap Day!

   

Mid-Winter Break

For Mid-Winter Break we decided to visit our cousins one last time before they move back to Utah.  It had been awhile since we were down in Coos Bay and were a little sad that it wasn't the middle of the summer instead of the winter.  We had a good time playing and enjoying the beach despite the cool weather.

As you can see, Uncle Mitch had a good time with Charlotte and her dog Pepper.  Lucy spent the whole time we were there screaming about the dog.  One would think she would warm up to the dog eventually---NOPE.

These two are so cute. 

Charlotte and Lucy slept in the same bed.  We couldn't believe that they actually went to sleep.  We could hear through the door Lucy telling Charlotte that it was bedtime and that they needed to stop talking and go to sleep.

We spent some time in Bandon and got the biggest ice cream cones I have ever seen for $2.  In case you were wondering yes, Natalie over ate (of course) and threw up all over the floor that night.  What would a sleepover be without one of the Stuard children puking?  We also spent a LONG time in the gift shops looking for the perfect souvenirs.

The beach was cold and Lucy was disappointed that we didn't bring her swimming suit.

On the way home we wondered what it would be like to drive the whole way to Washington taking 101.  The answer is a very LONG drive home.  We no longer need to wonder!  We made some stops along the way and tried to take a family selfie that was more of a fail than a success.

Lucy not feeling the love

I realized after looking at my pictures that almost all of  them were of Lucy and Cameron.  The other two were never around.  They were playing, playing, playing!  Thanks Olanders for letting us come.