Spring Outings

The warm weather, though intermittent, has been so wonderful.  Last week we made a spontaneous trip to the farm when we couldn't stand being inside on such a gorgeous day.  We lucked out and got to see some little piglets who were only a few days old.

Today we couldn't contain our excitement any longer and went to Greenfield Village although the weather still wasn't ideal.  They opened yesterday and we almost went, but Greenfield Village in a snow storm just isn't any fun.  Today was as long as we could wait after having waited all winter, though.  Even Christian told me as we were going home, "I love Greenfield Village.  Can we come back tomorrow?" 

The Henry Ford home was our favorite today.  Every time we go, in addition to all the things they love (carousel, train, model T, horse carriage), I make them go to at least one thing I'd like to see.  I have been going to Greenfield Village for 8 years and had never been in the home of its founder.  So that was my choice for today.  The guide in there did a great job with the kids.  She took them from room to room, and rather than tell a bunch of history that they would tune out, she asked them all sorts of questions about what they saw in each room, had them guess who might sleep in that room (boy/girl, old/young) or what that room might be used for.  It held their attention the whole time and they later said they really enjoyed going in there.

  

Christian was so cute when we were riding in the 1914 Model T.  He'd wanted to sit up front by the driver and he was so excited.  When the driver asked him what he liked about being at Greenfield Village he turned to him and with the biggest grin on his face said, "This is my first time riding up front in a car!"  We won't be going back tomorrow, but I'd go back every week to see that grin.

Letter from the Frying Pan

I have a tendency to be hard on cookware.  Teflon pans have short lives in our house.  I cook on high, use whatever utensil is convenient, and hate hand-washing when there's room in the dishwasher.  It drives Kelly crazy.  A true testament of what a wonderful man I married was what I found in the kitchen last night after I put the kids to bed.  Kelly had bought yet another new pan after our old one started to flake teflon and rather than lecture or scold, he put the pan on the stove and laid a note inside that read:

Hello, thanks for taking me in…I’m glad you brought me home after the long interview process.  Let me tell you about myself

I prefer wood and soft silicone utensils because metal might hurt me.

I’m very large and will last a long time.

Please be gentle to me; I don’t like high heat or anything abrasive

My spot changes color when I’m ready to cook.  Just give me a few minutes on medium to medium-high heat and I’ll be ready.

I’m oven safe to 450 degrees and definitely prefer a nice

 hand washing to the dishwasher.

I also like long walks on the beach, but strangely no one seems to care.

Anyway, please be nice to me and

I will help cook your food for a long time ;)

Love,

Your new frying pan

I laughed out-loud.  You better believe I'll try my best to make this one last.  Such a funny man. Side note: It made me wonder if I could leave him a letter from the dirty socks he leaves on the floor by the bed every night. ;)

Some Things Never Change

It was a glorious warm day today so we rode our bikes to the park.  We had a wonderful time playing in the warm sunshine and then, as they do EVERY year, they discovered the gigantic puddles that form on the far end of the park as all the snow melts.  In case you might think that this year they'd be more mature and NOT soak themselves top to bottom in mucky water, think again.

My kids in 2011 (and really I could post similar pictures for every year):

My kids in 2014:

Although, I should really clump myself into the "none the wiser category" since I keep bringing them to this same flooded park every year.  Alas, I chalk it up to the fact that it just makes them so incredibly happy!  Only, this year Bella showed a bit of her diva self and wouldn't let herself get wet above the waist.  Sad some of that childlike care free nature is already fading.  Happily, the boys had no such qualms.

Wonderful Conference

We had a great general conference weekend.  I hope every who watched it enjoyed it as much as we did.  The kids were awesome - they listened, participated in our activities, and had a lot of good comments.  I was really impressed with them.  It was the first time since Benjamin was born that we've been able to listen to all four sessions in their entirety.  It was amazingly spiritual.

I had tons of papers with coloring activities and other conference-type things to do in our tent.  Then we had our traditional bingo game of listening to and marking off topics mentioned until a bingo is reached.  Then we had our bowls of treats from which they could grab one each time they heard a certain word mentioned - temples, Jesus, prayer, etc which were posted under each bowl.  They love that activity best.  We also had my favorite - our apostle mural.  I put up pictures of all the apostles and any member of the 70 that we find particularly interesting and we draw pictures about their talk as we're listening.  Then we put them up when the talk is done.  By the end of conference, our entire wall is covered. It is so fun the following night during family home evening to go over the pictures, look at all our "amazing" art work, and remember what was discussed.  I never want to take it down.

It was all over way too fast.  I love listening to the prophets speak.

Getting So Excited!

It's that time of year again!  General Conference.  We are so excited!  We have been planning and preparing all week.  I made a prophets and apostles memory game that we've been playing every day to help the kids learn all their names. We also played a game on Sunday in which I played snippets of talks from last conference and they had to tell me who was speaking without looking at the screen.  I loved it when I was about to play the next clip and they'd say, "Wait!  Don't!  We want to keep listening!"  For this weekend, we've got our activity packets, our ingredients for our traditional conference cake, our bingo boards and snacks.  We are set.  Now we just need to set up our tent!  We love General Conference weekend.