Spring Break 09

We headed off to Grandma and Grandpa D's to start off Spring Break. The kids love Grandma and Grandpa D's house because there is always something cool to do that they don't get to do anywhere else. This time, Grandpa let them sketch a drawing on canvas and paint it with acrylic paints. They worked all morning as the Rolling Stones played in the background. Grandpa sure knows how to let the creative juices flow.Here's the finished project: Jake painted a Pokemon and Bree painted me in my polka-dot dress in front of a house.

Meanwhile, over at Aunt Nat's Luke and Sawyer spent the day swapping sippy cups. Here's Luke with Sawyer's. Sawyer is just so agreeable about the situation. They are sooo cute!!!
Then it was off to Disneyland and California Adventures with the other side of the family. Here are a few highlights (I apologize, being selective when it comes to posting picture is not my thing).
This is Luke's first ride on Heimlich! I love this one with his little finger pointing to what he sees.Isn't he so cute!!!!Grandma, Tiffany and I had all the little kids with us while the big people went on the water ride, so we went over to bugs life. We wanted to ride some of the little rides, and it started out great, but when Luke and Addie got in line for the lady bug ride, we had no idea what we were getting into. Grandma and I had 3 babies and Addy. As we boarded the ride, we were informed that we couldn't hold anyone on our lap. The ride started and it spun us around out of control! Just like the Tea Cups. Some kiddie ride! The poor babies were pretty much on their own. (Don't tell Alayne or Jaimee.) We were so glad when it stopped. We soon found the others and opted for the more mellow hot air balloon ride. We parked here after Buzz Lightyear and just as we were moving on, someone told us that the people who were sitting here before us had a child who just broke out with chicken pox. I'm sure Luke licked that railing he's leaning up against. Anyone know the incubation period for Chicken Pox?Bree loved hanging out with Addie!And we found our friends from home there, the M's! We got to go on lots of rides with them and it was great to see them. Lisa and I were hoping Bree and Jake would get to dance in the HSM3 show, but it didn't happen. Jake M. and Bree did get to ride a roller coaster together. My Jake had plenty of comments about that! My Jake rode the Tower of Terror with Jake, Tyler, Todd, Trev, Alayne and Mike. Jake was terrorized just waiting in line for the ride. But he braved it and even liked it in the end!Trev, Addie, Alayne, Jake and Troy on the Rocket Ride.

And we got to catch up with Jackie, Mike and the Coffmans at Disneyland. (Thanks Robyn, for the picture!) I think Jake gave her the biggest hug on record to date when he saw her. We love you Jackie!!

Me, Addie, Jake, Bree, Jaimee and Kaylee. Small World was the last ride of the night. Then we went to a late dinner at IHOP where Jer spilled a full glass of ice cold water on Jake, Kaylee screamed and Tyler threw up all over his dinner. IHOP is not the Happiest Place on Earth.

Back at G-ma's house, Luke loved taking care of Megan!

Saturday, we went on a hike. The kids loved it almost as much as Disneyland.
That's Trevor up at the top with Addie.

Nothing like a picnic lunch after a long hike!

The Weather Man Strikes!

The local news came to broadcast the weather from the kids' school, so we raced out the door and made it just in time. There was a huge crowd and the kids had fun. Breanna's teacher told me that Breanna cried when the helicopter landed because she thought it was so amazing. That's my girl!

Here's a close-up of the weather man. Can you spot Jake in the crowd? Look to the left and back of the weather man's elbow.

Breezy and her girls. The girl in the red jacket is a friend of Breanna's who came to church with us a few weeks ago. Breanna is a great little missionary!



Jake and his friends. Jake loves to have fun and it is rumored that he's somewhat of a class clown! Fortunately, he bears a strong resemblance to his teacher's son, so he immediately won her over. Or so he says!

Just thought I'd throw this one in of Whoville Hair Day. Gotta love Dr. Seuss!

Jake's Bear

Jake recently earned his Bear! He loves scouting and he's really motivated to earn awards. Way to go Jake!

It's tradition to pin your mom and give her a kiss for helping you when you reach a milestone like this, but Jake decided he was too cool to kiss his mom. Sadly for him I'm still bigger and stronger than him (barely) so I got my kiss alright.I love this picture. The boys in each den were asked to come up to the front and dance to different kinds of music. Can you say boycott?. I guess this is a glimpse of what the girls have to look forward to at stake dances in a few years!

Zoom Zoom

Luke's friend came over a few weeks ago and this is what they did. I love how he was so content to push and she was so content to ride. They were giggling and having so much fun. It was a perfect day for a sweet ride!

Stalker Mom

Once again I'm proving to be one of those moms. It all started when Breanna brought home a field trip permission slip. Her class was going to the Children's Museum. As Bree was begging me to come, I thought, "Finally a Luke-friendly field trip! - Hooray!!" I wrote a note to her teacher saying that although I could not be a chaperon, Luke and I would meet up with them at the museum. Breanna brought my note back with a note from her teacher that said they were not allowing parents other than chaperons to go and she was sorry but I would not be able to come.

You can imagine what a complete coincidence it was when Luke and I ended up at the Museum on the same day as the field trip. These things can happen.

Luke loved cooking and licking the fake ice cream cones that thousands of other snotty nosed kids have fondled (he's the 3rd child, it's okay). We were having a great time.

And you'll never guess who we bumped into!

I actually thought we had lost Breanna at one point because she wasn't with her group. But she was just out picking flowers. She spent forever at the flowers, but at the end of the day, she said the Noodle Jungle was her favorite part.

And riding this thing-a-ma-bob:

And you'll never guess the mighty force that's powering this machine:Good thing we came!

Luke's favorite part? I would guess this:

What's this?

Must be a hat.

"Oh I get it! Look mom, you eat it!" Now that's gross.

We did end up seeing Breanna's teacher and she was very nice. This week I signed up to read for Dr. Seuss day and I got no resistance whatsoever! I guess it pays to be a Stalker Mom!

Hymns in the Home

We know that hymns are important and should be integrated into as many aspects of our family life as possible. I think we may have crossed the line with this one though. Here's a glimpse of what you might find if you stop by our house on any given Sunday night. (Jeromy's on the piano and if you listen really closely, you can even hear him sing. Jake, sensing that something was not quite right with this picture opted out. He's sitting by me with his nose in a book, which is probably his favorite place on earth.)

Nesting

Last week, we got a tip that there was a pretty cool bird nesting in a cactus at our post office, so we took the kids over to see what we could see. Any guesses???
Pretty cool, huh? This momma owl did not take her eyes off of us for one second!

The Horror!

We bought our piano over a year ago and it has been one of those purchases that has more than surpassed every expectation we had for it. I can't even begin to say how much I love this piano! I have always wanted a black upright, but knew that the dust would drive me nuts as well and slime of the little people I live with, so I didn't think I'd have the guts to actually buy one. But when I saw this one, the price was too good to pass up and so we went for it. When I told my mom, she said, you're gonna hate those fingerprints!! Well, mom, I must say that I am pretty religious about keeping the piano wiped down and clean. So, you can imagine my utter disbelief when this showed up on the picture: It's actually pretty funny because I thought I was doing such a phenomenal job keeping it clean! Ha!Oh well, grodey or not, I love it and the little people who slime it daily!

Here are some more pics of my little slimers doing what they do best!

Confession

So, here it is. I am a former teacher. Education is my thing. I love learning and teaching and because of that I should embrace everything that goes with it. So why does my stomach literally churn when the kids bring home big projects?

And so it was, last week, Jake came home all excited about the 4th Grade Invention Convention. Jake had several ideas he was toying with for the convention. A time travel machine. A baseball embedded with an electronic device that could measure how far a ball was hit. A waterproof laptop bag. A gadget that could control people's minds. I thought it might be a good idea to invent a device that would make his mom love school projects.

We settled on this invention instead:

Springo-Shoes

They help you jump higher and get those hard-to-reach things on the top shelf.

Okay, not the most original idea, but certainly do-able. Happily we finished the project a day ahead of schedule and I can cannot tell you the glee that consumed me when it was done! Now we just have to figure out how to get the springs out of his shoes so he can wear them again - ha! (Jake actually loathes these shoes even more than I loathe school projects, so I think getting new ones will be just fine with him!)

And I have to admit, I was really impressed with Jake on this. He really thought it through. He typed most of it out and did some pretty cool graphics for his display board. And it was fun to work together as a family to create this super fantastic invention. And even though this might not be my favorite thing to do, at the end of the day, hey, I have my dream job! I count it an honor to be the mom of the 3 most spectacular kids in the entire universe!