Easter festivities

I made the invitations for our church Easter breakfast.  

The food was yummy - bacon and french toast.  Someone brought chicks for the kids to look at, which Savannah loved.  And the kids decorated bags and did an egg hunt.

The Easter bunny went crazy this year, bringing treats AND a trampoline!

They love it!

The dreaded Easter photo shoot... I love how the dog jumped right in this one and smiled.  :) 

                     
                            Pretty girl!  She let me curl her hair and wore one of my necklaces.

We got a few good pictures and several outtakes, as usual.  

Lucky day

We celebrated our friend Annie's birthday and did some St. Patrick's Day crafts for pre-school.  

We also did some Easter crafts and goodies:

Marching back a few months...

                     I just realized that I didn't finish March!  Here are some outings and such...

I made a raspberry lemon cake for the Relief Society birthday celebration - looks a little funny, but it tasted good!

April pre-school

I have been busy!

I know people say they are busy, and they probably are, but I wanted to document what it means for me to be busy.  I had a lot of things going on this spring (and into summer).  May is always a busy month, as school is winding down and Jared's birthday is in May.  But this was a particularly busy time this year, trying to get ready for a 32 day trip this summer, which began 2 days BEFORE school got out.  I originally sat down and made this list because I was going to show Alex everything that I had done, so he might appreciate my contributions a little more (I don't think he knows the extent of what I actually do).  :)  But I never showed it to him, and now I just want it for a reminder of this season of my life.  I make lists quite often and get some of that stuff done.  I like to be able to check things off.  This time I did the reverse and made a list AFTER the activities and things were done.  I was pretty amazed when I actually saw what I was able to accomplish.  I bet you have some similar lists - we are all blessed with pretty amazing abilities and strength!  Here is what I did in about 7 weeks:

Church: 3 sharing times (teaching time for kids - spiritual lesson)
             1 singing time (teaching songs)
             birthday gifts for kids and teachers
             Mother's Day craft pictures and surveys
             scripture study group leader substitute for 1 week
             on-line training for cub scouts
             temple visit
             visiting teaching
             Jared's faith in God requirements

Cub Scouts:  plan and lead cooking activity for the Bears
                   Bear cookbooks x 6
                   Carnival invites
                   Leader awards (and activity for the Bears to make those awards)
                   Jared's bear requirements; plant a garden, hike, service project, shop for and cook meals, BBQ for the Bears

Pre-school: weekly crafts
                  end of year scrapbooks x 5
                  Mom's gifts
                  Party

School:  Kindergarten evaluation and registration
             Letter to superintendent
             School district appointment
             School forms to junior high
             Ben Franklin costume
             teacher appreciation gifts
             pictures of Nathan from K-6
             end of year teacher gifts

Appointments:  immunizations for the dog
                         dentist for all
                         Jared - orthodontist x 2
                         Nathan and Weston - school immunizations
                         dermatologist (me)
                         opthamalogist (me)
                         eye doctor (me)
                         wisdom tooth out (me)
                         ear infections - Weston and Savannah
                         pink eye - Weston and Savannah
                         sore throat - Nathan
                         oral surgery (Alex) - glad it wasn't me, but I had to deal with his misery and pain...

Home:  Cleaned house entirely 6 times
            staged pictures for home rental
            ordered new towels and bed linens, etc
            new windows throughout the house
            painted window trims
            painted guest bathroom
            ordered and put together new kitchen table
            ordered new printer
            cleaned out freezer, fridge, junk room, and Lego room
            organized kitchen
            de-cluttered - listed and sold several items (made over $300!)
            de-junked back yard, filled in holes
            cleaned outdoor table and chairs
            never-ending laundry and daily chores

Sign-ups:  Swimming lessons, Safety Town, Scout camp, kids bowl free

Special occasions:  Jared's birthday - presents, cake, meals
                             Weston's birthday - presents, party plans and supplies
                              Alison - baby gift
                             Co-host baby shower - invites, group gift, diaper cake, dessert
                             Memorial Day plans - meals and outings
                             Mother's Day picture collages

Vacation:  Arrangements for the dog
                bath for the dog
                clean out suburban
                extra key for suburban
                reservations for 32 day trip
                plan activities
                print out maps and directions (yes, I still do this!)
                gather items/clothes
                pack
                mail arrangement
                food/snacks - make banana bread
                house clean/trash out/fridge empty
                clean out school lunchboxes
                PASSPORTS x 6!

outings and activities:  Rockin' Kids, drive-in movie, hike x 2
                                   pack meeting
                                   Just Serve trash clean-up
                                    weekly scouts
                                   scout camporee
                                   Father & Son's / Girl's Night
                                   birthday party
                                   1st grade play
                                   School Open House
                                   Primary presidency meetings
                                   Relief Society service activity
                                   Bear BBQ
                                   Baby shower x 2
                                   Cub scout carnival
                                   temple youth baptisms
                                   school talent show
                                   6th grade party
                                   6th grade graduation
                                   geology picnic

Misc:  haircuts for all
           order checks
           sew PJ's
           new cell phones
           ran 10 miles on average per week
           meeting the physical and spiritual needs of a family of 7  :)

AND Alex was gone 3 weekends (F/Sat) out of these 7 weeks!

And then this summer... we took a 32 day vacation, and immediately jumped into scout camp, more appointments, swimming lessons, baby-sitting, and church responsibilities.    

I would say I have been pretty BUSY!  That's why I have not blogged since April.  I have 2 weeks left of summer - probably the calm before the storm.  Or maybe then I can finally rest??  :)

 

Off to receive spiritual instruction...

at the priesthood session back in April!  Yikes!  I am so far behind on blogging.  I am still back in April...playing catch-up here.  I took this picture of Alex and Nathan right before they went to the priesthood session of general conference (satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City), for all boys and men 12 years and older.  This was the first time Nathan got to go.  I'm not sure if Nathan was excited to go sit and listen to talks for 2 hours, but he enjoyed hanging out with Dad.  They went out for dinner with friends afterwards, so it was worth it!  

shooting hoops

Owen, Jared, and Nathan played basketball this year.  Jared and Owen played YMCA ball, hoping to have friends from school on their team.  Jared had a few good buddies, but unfortunately Owen didn't get any classmates on his team.  It's most unfortunate for Owen since he is a very social kid and the main purpose for him was to hang out with his friends.  He didn't get any of his requests and no kids from his school were on his team.  I think he still had a fun season, although he wasn't very aggressive.  If he did get the ball, he passed it off quickly or dribbled outside of the 3 point line, where the other team was not allowed to steal it.  

Jared had a fun season, playing with a few good friends from school.  It was a little more exciting to watch than the first graders, as the older kids were more aggressive.  Jared got some good shots, and it was fun to watch him smiling out there.  He had a big smile on his face with every shot their team made.  I could tell Jared was having fun out there.  They won about 2/3 of their games. 

Nathan played in a more competitive league in town.  The teams in his league were drafted, so he didn't have any say in who was on his team.  Nathan definitely got on a better team this year.  Last year, his team didn't win any games.  This year, they only lost 2 games out of 9 in the regular season, coming in second in the league.  Their first loss was a close one, only losing by 3 points in overtime. Nathan made a shot in the last minute of overtime to put their team up by 2.  He thought it was going to be the winning shot, but the other team scored a 3 pointer and one more shot.  They had one more good look at a 3 pointer to tie it up, but it just rolled out.

Their last regular season game was against the other top team in the league, with which they were tied for first, both only having one loss.  So it was essentially the league championship game, with the winner claiming the title of season champs.  It was a great game to watch, and Nathan scored 8 points that game (his season record).  Nathan's team got down early on, but came back to tie it up 48-48.  They ended up losing 50-48, but it was by a controversial call at the end.  With 3 seconds left, the refs called a foul on Nathan's team, but it was a really poor call because the other team charged into Nathan's team (sending 2 of Nathan's teammates to the floor).  The guy wasn't shooting (not even close to the basket), but their team was in the 1 and 1 bonus, so they got to shoot free throws.  To their credit, they made both free throws, winning the game by 2 points.  It was heartbreaking to lose on such a controversial call.  That game should have been determined in overtime.

They were hoping to get redemption in the tournament, but unfortunately they lost in the first round.  Surprisingly, the season champs also lost in the first round.  Nathan's team lost to the tournament champions, a team which only won 2 games in the regular season.  I guess that team had a post season surge.  Anyway, Nathan had a good season, and he still has a pretty sweet shot!  One amazing thing - Nathan was one of the tallest guys on his team (they were a little lacking in height), so Nathan got to guard the big guys and got most of his team's rebounds.  Who would have thought that Nathan would be doing tip off and playing the post position?

(The teammate in the bottom right picture and number 0 in the top right was their point guard and MVP.  He's a really good player - we'll be watching for good things from him in the future.  If Nathan's lucky, they'll get to keep playing together...)

(Except for the team huddle, these were good pictures - because I didn't take them!  I bought them for $2.50 each.)