How can this be?

 Cameron and I spent yesterday evening at 6th grade orientation!!  Middle school is right around the corner.

Easter

 Easter was a nice day.  The kids got up at 7 am sharp to find eggs.  The Bunny can still out smart them and they needed help to find all the eggs.  Mom and Dad promptly went back to bed after with the recommendation not to eat too much candy for breakfast!  I didn't take one picture of the kids in their Easter outfits.  That seems so unlike me.   I will blame the lack of effort on my back that was killing me that day (It is slowing consuming me).  I do have lots of pictures of them in their dresses for the wedding.  I will post them soon after I go through the 300+ pictures we took while in Utah!!

What is the Easter Bunny trying to say when he brings you your own deodorant?  #itistoughgrowingup!

Sunday night was spent in Sumner.  One of our favorite things to do as a family when the weather is decent is to have a family wiffle ball game.  This time we moved the game to the vacant trucking company parking lot to save grandpa's grass!

Preparing for the Bunny

 In hopes of not having them ruin their shirts, the egg dying was a shirtless affair.

I bought a dye set that turned your eggs into jungle animals.  Julia and Natalie LOVED it.  Cameron was not interested....

Everyone in my family will not eat a hard boiled egg to save their lives.  So each year, we color them, hide them, find them and then throw them away.  This year Natalie asked me, "What are you supposed to do with the eggs after Easter?"  When I told her most people eat them, she looked at me like I was crazy!  Imagine that.

Sleigh Runners

 Natalie's feet are exactly like mine.  They are the longest, flattest, thinnest feet.  Mitch so lovingly calls them sleigh runners.

3rd grader

Today Mitch had the opportunity to go visit Julia in her classroom and see her African animal report. She picked the African Gazelle as her animal.  She told me she would have picked the giraffe but she already made a poster for fun last year at home on the giraffe so she wanted to learn about something different. Her teacher told me that she used Julia's report as the example in class and because she finished early she was able to make another report on the lion using PowerPoint. 

                                
                                                                Pioneer Day!  

In honor of Read across America Day (Dr. Seuss's birthday) Julia's class put on a reader's theater-- Bartholomew and the Oobleck

(Julia was Bartholomew)

 

3rd grade music concert!

Volleyball and Basketball

Better late than never, right?  Looking through my pictures tonight I realized I never put up Julia's volleyball and basketball pictures!  This was the first time Julia has played volleyball and had so much fun.   It was fun to watch her learn the game and enjoy it.  The games were a little difficult because getting a volley going back and forth between the teams at this age is quite challenging, but boy was she cute.

The Pink Panthers

 

After numerous sports in a row starting last September it has been a wonderful break to have the kids in nothing for a month or two this spring and by nothing we still have piano, scouts, activity days, homework......  It has been nice to have a more peaceful dinner time!

L5-S1

Stick a needle in my eye back

For the past two months, I have been walking around like a gimp.  I have a herniated disc in my back at L5-S1 which is causing severe pain in my back, butt, thigh, leg, calf, and making my foot and leg tingle.  This has made it nearly impossible for me to do much of anything without being in pain and making me limp. Pain medication has been a staple as has ignoring pretty much everything I should be doing.  After finally getting in to see the back doctor and getting an MRI done I have a procedure scheduled on Tuesday to have a steroid injection in  my back directly into the herniated disc.  Sounds like a real party but sure hope this works or the next stop will be....back surgery.

I must really love my little brother because I travelled to Utah last weekend for his wedding.  13 hours each way sitting in a car was a real treat.  Sometimes love is painful, right?  Wouldn't have missed it for the world though.  Any excuse to have all my siblings together is worth it! What a great weekend we had, terrible back and all!!

Easter Bunny

 

For Family Home Evening we went to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny.  Lucy was not happy about it and either was Cameron.  Cameron didn't want to get his picture with the Bunny.  I told him that he didn't have a choice and he had about 8-9 more times of this until he was 18, that thought didn't cheer him up.  HA!  On the way to the mall Lucy and I had a misunderstanding.  I thought she wanted to read a book but she actually wanted to EAT a book.  

My mistake. 

 

 

Do I have a child or some kind of wild animal?  Holy Cow!!

 

 



Pedicure

And he is off....

 

 

Cameron left bright and early for Camp Casey this morning.  How is this possible?  I feel like he is still my little guy not old enough to do big things like this!

 

Wasn't this like yesterday?

 

 

 

He was excited, happy and really excited to ride on the "comfy buses."  His mom might have teared up on the way over to the school.  I will blame the excruciating pain in my back and not that my boy is growing up right before my eyes!

Melt my heart

 

I found this note sitting where Mitch keeps his keys.  This isn't her best handwriting or best artwork but I don't think you can find a sweeter note.  She is very creative and cute. I love how she did this all by herself.  Natalie is using about a ream a paper a day (I exaggerate but not by much!) creating cutting, drawing and writing.  It keeps her busy in the afternoon while her sister naps and the others are at school.  I love it!



Finaghty's St. Patty's Day Run

 

Our family participated in our annual St. Patrick's Day run.  The weather this year was just about perfect.  No RAIN and not too cold for a March morning. 

 

Julia and Natalie participated in the 1k.  Julia said "no way" to the 5k it is too long and cold. 

 

There were 173 runners in the1k.  Julia came in 2nd and Natalie 14th.  The picture below was at the very end of the race.  Julia almost caught the boy in first and I dare say that if she had been in the very front at the start line she would have had him!  Natalie really surprised me when came through the finish line, I wasn't expecting to see her so soon.  She is becoming quite the competitor!

 

Cameron ran in the 5k.  There were 401 participants in the 5k.  Cameron came in 21st overall and ran a 21:05 (6:48 per mile).  He got first in his age division, got a trophy and a gift card to Jamba Juice.  He definitely has the drive and guts to be an awesome distance runner! 

Cameron got orange running shorts for Christmas and because it is almost impossible to find BOY running shorts these ones are a bit big.  With the Orange shorts, yellow and blue shirts and black socks pulled almost to his knees I would have to say his style come from his FATHER!

 

The last stop on our traditional races is to Krispy Kreme.  Where we eat more calories than we can possibly burn!