Happy Easter!

For Easter this year we headed down to La Grande to spend time with Christine and the family.  It was just a quick weekend trip but a lot of fun.  The weather was surprisingly beautiful and we all enjoyed feeling like spring had sprung.

The boys and their cousins minus Mason (he was still at church with his dad) in their Easter finest.  We had a nice time at church.  Christine was kept busy teaching Sharing Time and subbing for the primary pianist so I filled in for her filling in for the Sunbeams teacher.  It was fun to be teaching Tate and Jack's class.  It was the Easter lesson so I even got to show them the hand in the glove, spirit/body object lesson- a classic!

 On Saturday, we filled the backyard with candy and plastic eggs and the kids filled their baskets with the goodies. 

 Luke dropped his cute chick basket at the first sight of candy and just shoved it in his mouth.  Who can think of saving candy for later when there is so much to eat right now?!

 Thanks Kimballs for letting us trash your house and have an entertaining weekend!

 

Back at home, on one of the few beautiful weather days we've had, I found Buddy doing his reading under the "shade" of our lone tree.  The small red object is an egg timer, which he sets to do his required 20 minutes of reading each day (which he often reads past if he's reading an interesting chapter book).  It warms my heart to have a child who enjoys reading as much as his parents do.  I hope he keeps it up! 

Happy Birthday Ranny!!

The boys love birthdays.  Really though what kid doesn't, with all the cake, presents and fun they bring.  The boys couldn't wait for Ryan to get home on his birthday to celebrate. When I asked Ryan what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he started thinking about the delicious turkey we had cooked up in our Traegar grill at Christmas, with all the trimmings.  I figured, a turkey dinner really doesn't take much hands-on time, just some planning (especially with the help of things like Stove Top and Pillsbury crescent rolls).  So a delicious downsized Thanksgiving dinner is what he got.  

 

 After dinner we had our usual treasure hunt for the presents.  The clues were especially tricky this year because the boys helped me make some of them.  It's hard to decipher that a four year old's drawing of a blue stick figure with monkey ears is really his stuffed blue bear.  Luckily, Tate couldn't hold in the secrets of his clues for too long without showing Ryan right were he had hidden the next clue.

 I also tried to keep Ryan on his toes with a couple clues outside of the house.  And yes, Ryan is wearing rain boots and basketball shorts, while Grant has on my brown leather flats and PJ pants which have become capris due to a recent growth spurt.  The kid is growing like a weed and our family is a fashion nightmare.

 Ryan received several books and a 5-disk DVD set entitled The Art of the Precision Rifle that he has wanted for some time.  It was a complete surprise! (Okay not really, but at least I made him let me order it online myself and wrap it up as his birthday present.)

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father ever!  We love you!

That 70's Dance

Tate and Luke being sweet and groovy.  Solid!

 Occasionally Grant's school has a Friday night family activity (usually a movie and popcorn in the auditorium).  We had yet to make it to an activity because we have our babysitting swap on Friday nights but a few weeks ago, Grant's school was having a disco dance and Grant really wanted to go.  As in, he reminded me about it at least 15 times in the weeks before!

I decided we better head on over, if only to see the kids dressed up in our afro wigs from an old Halloween costume.  The afternoon before the dance, the boys were getting excited and we had several mini dance parties to some Pandora tunes.  

Grant striking a pose, Foxy Cleopatra style.

Finally it was time for the dance.  We put on the best disco outfits we could find and headed over to the school.  After we walked in the door, the boys proceeded to do the following...

Stand with their hands in their pockets and blank expressions on their faces. I'm not sure if they were self conscious about their outfits (though they never took off the wigs), or maybe there were too many kids running around hitting each other with balloons, but they weren't really in the mood for booty shakin'.  At least we got a sneak preview of what their future church dance experiences might be like.

Eventually, we were able to coax a mild bit of dancing out of Luke, who can always be counted on to please the crowd with a little diaper shuffle.

Luckily the school had different activities planned like a bubble gum blowing contest and pinata busting that helped break the ice for the boys a little.  In the end, Grant and Tate were ready to leave after an hour so we still had time to make it to the end of our babysitting swap and Ryan and I were able to go out for ice cream while the boys played at their friend's house.  Disco dancing and an ice cream date in one night, doesn't get much better than that!