April 27th...

and snowing....

Spring? Please come soon!

Easter

The Easter Bunny found his way to our house. As you can see the egg finding was a little intense at times. The Bunny also hid the movie Pinocchio. Natalie was so excited when she found it she almost passed out with joy. No kidding. The eggs didn't compare after that.



I am not sure what the Easter Bunny was thinking when buying the candy this year. Normally the Bunny is usual pretty conservative but this year, candy overload! There was enough candy for 15 kids not just 3. I guess you should NEVER go shopping while hungry. Cameron had a terrible stomach ache by the end of the night. After looking in his basket I couldn't believe how much he had eaten! YIKES. We will be riding a sugar high for the next week.



Here are our Easter dresses. I didn't get a great picture of them, mainly because we were running out the door and I couldn't get them to put down their toys. Oh well....



I bought Cameron a new Easter tie because I knew he would never wear a vest and a long sleeved shirt so I skipped those. But could I get him to wear his new tie to church on Sunday? Nope. We did however have a nice Easter and enjoyed spending the weekend with our Grandpas and Grandmas.

2nd Grade Music Concert

Cameron's music concert might have been the cutest thing I have seen in quite some time. I loved it. They sang some really fun songs. I loved the Caissons and Anchors Away songs the very best. Cam sang with GUSTO!



Cameron's turn on the xylophone.

Easter Eggs

The annual coloring of the eggs. Whose idea was it anyway to have a holiday using color dye and children...not the sharpest tool in the shed?!

Positive Affirmations

Cameron has been helping me with my daily affirmations. Each day he brings me a paper that he made at school with a cute statement on it. Thanks Cam for the daily boost.

You know... I AM good enough, smart enough, and dog-gone it people like me!

Track Meet

After Cameron's baseball game was rained out on Thursday, we decided to go watch daddy's track meet in Issaquah. Nothing says track meet like 40 degrees, raining, and windy! It was cold and wet but we seemed to have a good time. Natalie told everyone she saw that her dad was firing the gun. We even got to hang out with Papa for a little bit. The pictures below are from the "papa-razzi" himself! Cameron got to ring the last lap bell for the 3200 meters and loved it! Despite the cold it was fun and memorable. And by memorable, I mean in the end when one of my children who shall remain nameless had a bathroom emergency that will be seared into my brain forever as one of the worst I have ever experienced. I kid you not. The absolute WORST. Nothing like making memories!!

Junior Mints

We call Julia's eyes Junior Mints because they look exactly like them...so big, round, and brown.



Natalie lovingly started calling hers blueberry eyes. It is amazing how two sisters can look so different and so much the same all at the same time!

Wacky Hair Day

Today is wacky hair day at school. Julia was EXCITED! Cam told me for the 3rd straight year, "maybe next year..." he just can't make himself do it. Have a mentioned that he is such a sweetheart?

Easter Bunny

Field Trips

I have had the opportunity to go on field trips with both Cameron and Julia in the last two weeks. There are so many chaperons that volunteer that I was only assigned my child and one other. It was nice to spend some time with them. Cameron and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo and were able to see the exhibits that showed the rain forest and South American animals. We had such a great time that I didn't even take any pictures, but got this cute note from Cameron the next day.



Julia and I went to the Children's Museum in Seattle. It is so fun to see Julia with her classmates. She is so social and loves to be around the others. Julia and her friend Ava walked around the whole time holding hands, it was so sweet.

Good-Bye Old Friend...

After 11 years of friendship we said goodbye to our old couch. Mitch and I got the couch right before we got married and we each paid half for it. Unfortunately for Mitch this time around my half is from the same bank account as his. We decided that it was time for a new couch before someone turned us into the Department of Health for how dirty the thing was...white is not the best color with kids! Before getting rid of the old couch we took it apart and found lots of treasures that have been missing for a long time. Cameron found his missing puzzle piece (of Connecticut) to his states puzzle that he had been missing for over a year. Hooray for a new, clean couch!!

Julia and Dylan

We don't see our cousin Dylan very much but the last week we got to play with him twice! Although Cameron and Dylan are only a few days apart in age, guess who loved hanging out together?

Fake

Natalie's new vocabulary word is fake. She tells me all sorts of things are fake. The last few Sunday's after I curled her hair and bangs she has looked in the mirror and said "My hair looks fake!" Today I was looking at some Easter dresses online and she was looking at them too. I asked her if she liked a certain dress and her response was that "the dress looked fake." I have no idea where she is coming up with this stuff and I would love to understand what her definition of fake is. Funny kid.

Tea Time

For mom's birthday I wanted to take her to a place called "The Secret Garden" for lunch. It is an old Victorian house that is about 200 yards down from my mother in-laws house in Sumner. They have converted the downstairs of the house to a tea room. It is so fancy, fun and delicious! I had been there before with Sondra and my sister in-laws and thought it would be nice to bring my mom and sisters to enjoy an English tea lunch. With Kara being in town this was the perfect opportunity to go. We sure missed Kierstin and Amy and talked about the time when we could all go together.



The lunch is a slow progressive lunch that is fancy: finger sandwiches, soup, salad, sorbet (to clean the palate!), scones, and little finger desserts, and of course your very own pot of tea! (We are all tea amateurs but loved the herbal peppermint, peach and apple tea.) There is tons of fun little spoons, strainers, tongs and tea cups that make the environment so fun. Things got a little crazy...and we ate almost all of the sugar cubes in the jar (we brought the kids home their very own sugar cube...they loved it!). Laura was the only one to join the clean plate club, she was able polish everything off!! I came in a close second. Thanks girls for the fun time!



A shout out to my dad who was kind enough to watch all 6 kids while we went and was even brave enough to take all of them on a trail hike and then to Krispy Kreme! What a guy!!

We Might Be Giants!

Our cousins came to visit us for their spring break and we sure had fun!! I don't think anyone took pictures but they were sure cute. I think I need to state for the record that my kids are ginormous compared to their cousins. Not sure what kind of crazy genes Mitch and I possess....but it is like they are giants. It is a shame no pictures were taken to document the giantism. Julia and Anna are the same height. Jules might be a smidge taller...oh by the way Julia is 5 and Anna is 7. Ashely and Natalie are the same height with Natalie outweighing Ashley hands down, Ashley is 5 and Natalie is 3. Probably the most drastic look is when Julia and Ashely who are six months apart stand next to each other. It is crazy!! The kids played and played. I wish I had recorded all the cute things that went on. Here are some highlights:

* Natalie and Ashley holding hands and walking around for the first hour that they saw each other.

* Jefferson and Natalie playing with each other and Natalie asking J what his favorite color was

* Cameron and Anna sitting next to each other and one of them saying to the other, "I sure have missed you"

* Cameron and Julia jumping out of the car before the car was stopped when they saw all the cousins waiting for them patiently to arrive.

* Julia asking Ashley if Coos Bay was in North America (Can to tell what she has been studying in school?)

* Anna telling her mom that our house was the "wrestling house" therefore no need to comb her hair before she came here. There was no point.

We are so glad that some of our cousins live just a little closer!!!