3 in 1- Easter, Spring Break and General Conference

 A few days before Easter we were pleasantly surprised to find we had been "egged" by some friends in the ward.  They had hidden eggs all over our front yard and the kids were super excited.  We were in the middle of bath time when it happened.  I've never seen our bedtime routine go so quickly before.


Nadia had an Easter egg hunt at her preschool.  Thankfully she shared her haul yet again with Rowan who isn't allowed candy or treats at his school.

 Elsa didn't get to eat the Easter egg candy.  Poor thing.

 Easter morning came and went.  I made the mistake of waiting till Easter Sunday to give the kids their baskets which included new Nintendo DS games.  We don't play video games on Sunday, so the kids had to be patient and wait a whole day to try them out.  I was amazed at how patient and okay they were about that.

We got cards from Grandma and Grandpa Luke- the kids are truly spoiled with all the mail they receive from family.

Elsa got a little chocolate bunny too, but didn't seem that interested in it.

Spring break started and I was actually excited to have the kids at home with no where to go.  That feeling quickly went away after a long Monday of fights and disrespectful attitudes.  So we had an intervention and laid down some ground rules.  In order to do fun things over the break, there had to be no fights, no talking back, and sharing.  Then the kids got to pick out several fun things that we would get to do.  It worked wonderfully and we had such a good time even if we didn't go on a fancy vacation.  There were playdates almost every day, park outings, an actual adults only date with several couples in the ward at a local Mexican restaurant, yummy food, and just good times overall.

One of the things we did was have dinner a la campfire.  S'mores and hot dogs!  I took the opportunity to go through all of our files and provide plenty of paper to burn.

 While the fire was happening and I wasn't able to watch her, Elsa had to be an indoor spectator.

She was obviously much happier when she was able to be outside with the big kids.

 

Another fun thing we did was go to Monkey Joe's.  We hadn't been back since we first went there while looking for a place to rent in SC.  The kids were drenched in sweat by the time we left.

 Elsa's always making friend with random people.  She's the anomaly in the family.  She and this kid were tight!

And last, but not least, General Conference.  I tried making it more fun this year, with little results.  I printed off cutesy packets with games, we did Bingo for Easter treats, we played games while listening and we brought out the tent and sleeping bags.  General Conference is just not kid friendly.  Nadia later told us- "That was the worst movie ever!" 

 Now you see them...

Now you don't.

Just because

4/5 members of our house are sick, so I might as well blog if I can't do much else.

Just because I love looking at my kids sleeping.  This was a result of allergy medicine taken too early in the day.  Nadia RARELY naps, but I love it when she does.

Just because I love looking at Steve reading to our kids.

Just because washing cars can be fun.

Just because every evening deserves a little dance time before bed.


Just because said dancing will wear you out and again, I love watching my kids sleep.  Nadia and Rowan have a "sleepover" every Friday where they get to sleep in the same bed and keep each other awake until unholy hours.

Just because I love springtime in South Carolina.  Our street is lined with trees that all bloom at the same time.  It's gorgeous!

Just because every dollhouse needs a red room or so Nadia says.

Just because she sang it for several hours all day long!


Nadiaism

While passing Hot Dog Heaven, a local restaurant:

Nadia:  Mommy, I think I know why they call that place Hot Dog Heaven.
 Me:  Oh yeah?  Why is that?
Nadia:  Because the hot dogs die when you eat them and then go to heaven.

Adventures in Elsaland

Her latest accomplishments

Growing hair

Walking (first steps at 10 months exactly!)




Occasionally sitting still enough for a story

It's bathing suit season according to Nadia.

Catching some rays outside

Finding sports HILARIOUS


 Feeding herself.  She's getting to the point where she won't take baby food anymore.

Climbing to new heights.  She's a true monkey.

And last, but not least, getting tubes!  We had to wait forever (2 months, but it felt like eternity) to get some tubes in her ears to help with the back to back ear infections.  She came down with a bad cold just hours before the procedure and I was going nuts thinking that they would cancel the whole thing because she couldn't breathe through her nose and I know that makes things more risky for anesthesia.  She slept for maybe an hour that night.  I ended up driving to the hospital which was an hour away at 4am just so one of us could maybe fall asleep.  Thankfully she did, but as soon as I stopped the car outside the ER, she woke up.  We ended up walking around the hospital for an hour and a half waiting for things to open up.  They didn't seem concerned about her cold and went right ahead with things.  Unlike Rowan who was 6 months when he had his tear duct unclogged, Elsa was anything but calm when in the recovery room.  She didn't calm down until we were in the car driving home.  We got some very expensive ear drops ($150 for 7.5ml- I about died) and are looking forward to her being happy and healthy in the not to distant future.

Happy Birthday Grandma Dorothy!

Pseudo Easter Pictures

I didn't actually take family Easter pictures this year.  Steve and I had to give talks the week before Easter and everything was kind of a blur after that.  Lots of stuff is going on here!!  So here are some Sunday pictures we took on a day that wasn't so hectic.  We'll pretend like it was Easter and that we are on top of things here.

Steve took on the photographer duties this day I guess as we didn't get one of him.  He's just as pretty as ever though, even if you'll have to take my word for it.

You've Got Mail!

So one of the highlights of living far away from family is getting mail from them.  Rowan and Nadia are quite often the lucky recipients of letters and packages from their grandparents.  Grandma and Grandpa Luke are pretty consistent about sending letters to the kids and they LOVE getting mail from them!

This is Rowan assembling his Yoda Valentine from them.

This was a "just because" letter with artwork by Grandpa and stickers to accentuate his drawings.  These are definitely the kids' favorites.


My kids are so lucky to have such doting grandparents!

St Patrick's Day

For several years now, we've had a tradition of doing a leprechaun trap on St Patrick's Day.  Rowan loves the concept of it, but this year he procrastinated making his trap until an hour or two before bedtime.  It amounted to a cereal box with a trap top, similar to what he's done in years past.  Daddy and Nadia tried to put one together that was a bit too complicated and it ended up getting sprung by Elsa I think.  Rowan tells me that he actually doesn't want to catch the leprechauns anymore because if he did, they wouldn't leave him Lucky Charms.  Smart kid.

So this year, at Steve's suggestion, our leprechaun had a flame thrower.  Rowan thought that was the funniest, strangest thing ever.  I can't blame him.  So the leprechaun burned his way out of the trap and used Nadia's dollhouse furniture to set up a little party.  He left a green surprise in the doll toilet and took a bath with green shampoo with our rubber ducky as an audience.  Strange indeed.

 These boxes of cereal were consumed in less than a week.