Lucy-ism

Me:  "Lucy, one more spoonful and then you need to stop so you don't get sick."

Lucy (As she is digging into the bowl):  "I already said that to myself."

Milestone

Today was my last Story-time at the library.  Ever.

I have been going to story time since Cameron was a little guy with the same story lady, singing the same songs, reading the same books week after week, month after month, year after year.  Today was the last story-time before summer starts.  Lucy will be going to all day Kindergarten in the Fall and so today was my swan song.  What a strange feeling.  There are becoming more and more things like this as Lucy is preparing for school.  I have no more babies.  I do admit I am both sad and glad.  Today looking around the room I felt like the old mom in there.  I think it is time, but now what to do with my Tuesday mornings at 10:30? 

Wiggly Teeth

All the girls have had wiggly teeth...

Julia lost her LAST baby tooth.  

Lucy has her FIRST loose tooth.

And Natalie, well Natalie has a loose tooth again FINALLY.  She has been corresponding with the tooth fairy over the last few months about this dilemma with some drama thrown in.

Exciting times!

Notes

Doesn't matter how old they are.  I love to find these notes...

Easter

We did in fact celebrate Easter despite my lack of pictures.  I didn't take any pictures of the egg dying and hardly of Easter morning.  It might have something to do with the fact that when you have a 13 year old it isn't as cute to take a picture of dying eggs and also with  9 am church and I was in a hurry!  The Easter Bunny still has a edge on the kids and can hide the eggs good and hard.  We also were lucky enough to go to an Egg Hunt at Grandpa and Grandma Swany's and also the Clayson's.  The eggs hunts turned out to be very profitable events and by the end of Easter the kids had pockets full of money.  Who knew Easter was such a cash cow?!

Easter morning selfie minus dad

THIS

This might be my down fall.... I took this pic last week.  Today I went to Wal-Mart and these were 70% off and rang up as .88 cents.  Heaven help me.   I have no will power.

Spring Break

Spring Break has come and gone.  The kids were good but with such crappy weather this Spring it was hard to come up with things to keep us entertained.

Mitch took Monday and Tuesday off and got to hang out with us.  In between rain showers we went on a family bike ride.  This is going to be a challenging year of riding with Lucy wanting to ride her own (it is a bit of a slow ride).   A few of the kids need new bikes before summer arrives.  Natalie looks like a giant on her little bike.

We also took the family shopping at WinCo. (I mean what memories of Spring Break!)  The kids find that place fascinating.  Mitch calls it "A WinCo experience"  and if you have ever gone to the WinCo in Kent, WA then you know what I am talking about. It is a shopping trip and life lessons all rolled into one.  On the way there we passed this really cool rock climbing wall park in Kent.  We had some fun before it started to rain.

  Tuesday we spent some time in downtown Seattle on the Water Front.

The kids are really big into buying souvenirs with their allowance lately.  Sometimes I have to stop and ask them, "Is this something that we really want to spend money on remembering?"

My zoo pass is expiring at the end of the month so we spent a day at Woodland Park Zoo.  The weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do...rain, wind, sun, cold...we had it all.  We had a really fun time looking at the animals.  They have a baby gorilla that was just darling and we saw a kangaroo with a baby in its pouch.  That was probably the highlight of the trip, that and me not getting lost driving there and home.

Friday afternoon we went to see Beauty and the Beast.  Popcorn and lemonade for lunch!

By the time school started again, I needed a vacation from my kid's vacation!

A HORSE

After Lucy's non-stop talking about riding a horse, Mitch was able to ask a man in our Stake that he works with if we could come over and visit his animals.  The horse was kinda skittish so the kids weren't able to ride it but got to brush, walk and sit on the horse.  Lucy was in HEAVEN.  They also got to feed the cows and collects eggs from the chickens.  The people had a dog named Lucy and the kids thought that was hilarious.  We hoped that this might have pacified Lucy and her horse drama.  It seems to but on the way home from visiting the horse she did say, "Well I still didn't RIDE a horse."  MERCY.

The kids have been asking and asking about a pet.  One is in the works.... we are hoping that it will work out.  We don't dare tell the kids about it until it is a 100% done deal.
We decided that something needed to be done about pet.  Natalie has been writing multiple papers about her DEAD guinea pig in school.  So much in fact that her teacher is aware of our deceased friend and has written him into the class's math story problems...Chocolate the Guinea Pig has a cage that is 12 in x 20 inches...) You get the picture! YIKES.

Easter Bunny 2017

Who is this group of big kids and where did my little kids go?

Natalie and the Easter Bunny comparing foot sizes....

Shoes

Lucy can tie her shoe! This girl is persistent.  I helped her some but she was determined to learn and she just practiced till she got it down.  For whatever reason this is one of the accomplishments of childhood that I take a big sigh of relief when it is accomplished.

Last week we took the kids to the mall to get new shoes.  And when I say they needed new shoes, I really mean it.  This is what SEVEN pairs of shoes looks like.  That is a lot of money sitting right there!

It's beginning to look a lot like

.....General Conference time!

Winner!

I won the Stuard Family NCAA tournament pool.  What does the winner get?  Bragging rights. The boys don't want to talk about it. ☺

Report Card

Natalie brought home her report card last Friday.  I LOVED the comment that her teacher said about her.  It sums Natalie up perfectly.  She comes home everyday with a HUGE smile and tell me why this day was the "best day ever."  Usually it has to do with something she is writing about, reading, or a science project they are doing in class.  Sometimes it is just because it was library day or she got to buy chicken nuggets for hot lunch.  I received an email from her teacher not too long ago that said in the subject line "I love your daughter" and then in the body of the e-mail "That is all."  These are the things that make me happy.

Sorry Tournament

These kids love their dad.

Night Headband

For the past week Lucy has insisted on wearing a "night headband" to bed.  We couldn't figure out why she was so insistent until yesterday. As I watched Julia wash her face before bed, it all made sense.  Julia uses a headband when washing her face.  Lucy thinks Julia sleeps with it on because she puts it on right as she is getting ready for bed.  What a funny girl. 

On another note... Lucy has decided that for Spring Break she wants to ride a horse.  She literally talks about it 20 times a day.  If anyone knows of a place I can get this accomplished I would love to hear it! Where does she come up with this stuff?!

For the past few months Cameron has grown his hair out, it has been so cute.  It all ended this week when he convinced Mitch to give him a buzz.  They had a little fun in the hair cutting process.