April Recap

This month was a full and exciting one for us.  We got a trampoline after years of wanting one and it's been everything we dreamed of.  We are out there jumping on it all day long no matter the weather.  It has been so much fun we've hardly gone to any playgrounds all month because we have all the outdoor entertainment we need right here.  Benjamin has learned how to do forward handsprings and forward and backward flips in the air.  Bella and Christian just love to chase each other and play silly trampoline games.  It's been such a wonderful purchase.

This month was also General Conference for our church.  This was my most prepared conference to date.  I had different activities for each of the four sessions to keep the kids engaged and excited.  Their favorites were drawing pictures of what the speakers were talking about the taping them on the wall by the speakers' pictures,  making themselves crowns so they were "King and Queen Conference,"

building a lego temple, setting up our tent like King Benjamin's people, baking a "conference cake" from scratch (and even making the icing from scratch - my first time ever doing that), eating the snacks from our 72 hour kits and restocking them with fresh supplies, and working on the workbook I found online.  It went wonderfully.  I was amazed how much they remembered when discussing things afterward - especially due to the pictures they drew.  Best conference yet, I think.  Here's how Kelly and Christian spent a large part of conference on Sunday. :)
 

Kelly also celebrated his birthday in April.  He wanted to go to Benihana for dinner.  I'd never been there and expected it to be like my other sushi restaurant experiences, ie. eat tiny amounts of lousy food that cost WAY too much money, leave hungry, stop at Taco Bell on the way home.  I was pleasantly surprised by Benihana, though - it was really good food and the kids LOVED watching it all be cooked right at their table.  The chef was a lot of fun and did cute things to entertain the kids.  It was a wonderful evening.  Wish I could say that about his birthday cake.  It tasted great, but about 20 minutes later, I got deathly ill and spent the whole night awake, throwing up chocolate cake and then just throwing up, long after the cake was gone.  Since I was the only one who got sick, I don't think I can blame the cake, but the timing of the whole episode makes me not want to eat cake for a long time.

Also this was the month that Christian finally potty trained!  Little Man has been dry for several weeks now and we couldn't be happier!  We are officially pull up and diaper free in this house!! Yay!  He's even stayed dry at night.  It's awesome.  Now we need to work on his aim.  My bathroom reeks of urine as he has yet to master the art of shooting at his target.  My walls, floors, tub, and even occasionally the counter tops get a daily soaking.  I clean up as much as possible, but when he's rewetting them every couple hours, it's hard to keep up.  He, of course, thinks this is hilarious, but we are all hoping he gets the hang of it soon.

Speaking of Christian, another cute story.  The other day a toy of his broke and I made a comment about "cheap chinese junk"  He asked me about it and I explained that a lot of things we have are made in China - a country far from here.  He looked at me with a serious expression and asked, "I made in China?"  I explained that no, he was made in Heaven by our Heavenly Father.  He said nothing more and I thought the topic was closed, but several days later he came to me with another object, I forget now which, and asked, "This made in China or in Heaven?"  Apparently those are the two places everything comes from!  Only two options available. :)

 Looking through these pictures, I just realized that Christian is wearing the same shirt in nearly all of the except for the one above where he's wearing his pajamas. :)  Guess I know which shirt of his is my favorite!

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter week, capped off by a gorgeous Easter weekend.  All week I tried to keep the focus on Christ and what Easter really means.  We read scriptures and had a Family Home Evening lesson on it.  However, I also really love the fun non-religious traditions that surround Easter.  We colored eggs several times with friends.

I had a blast getting the kids things for their Easter baskets.  It was so fun to see their excitement and Bella thanked me for her gifts and told me how much she loved them at least 20 times over the course of the weekend.  That was so sweet.

We also had a fun Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  I put lego pieces and Disney princess names in the eggs and when they found them, they either got the new lego set it belonged to (Benjamin) or the corresponding princess doll (Bella).  Christian was excited either way!  He just loved calling out the colors of the eggs he found.

Kelly's present was a new kayak which the kids enjoyed even without any water.

Bella also wanted to make Kelly an Easter present, so she made this:

"It's a ship that says I love you" she told him. Kelly and I looked at each other and both tried really hard not to laugh as we started quietly singing, "The love boat!  Exciting and new!  Come aboard, we're expecting you!  The love boat!"  Boy, those 80s tv theme songs stick with you a long, long time,don't they?

On Saturday we also had a BBQ with friends at a nearby park.  We had burgers and hotdogs and roasted marshmallows.  The weather was wonderful and it was so much fun to spend the day outside flying kites, playing on the playground, and just enjoying the time with friends.

Bella's favorite activity at the park was playing with her newly acquired princess dolls.  At one point she had all their dresses lined up and all the girls in a group in front of them.  I asked her if they were in a dress shop and were trying to decide which dress each would buy.  She replied matter-of-factly, "No, their dresses are all bloody because Ariel fell off the cliff and died and sprayed blood on them, so they had to take them off."  Truly a little girl sandwiched between brothers.