Livin' Life

Since Kevin teaches one high school class we were invited to the JSB, which is our schools version of prom. It was a fun, free night out and excuse to get dressed up and hang out with our friends, but boy am I glad I'm not in high school anymore!

Movie night with Daddy while I got to go out to dinner with my mom and sister.

The first of many fun trips to the water park with friends. This has been a great relief a couple times already in our 90+ degree weather we've been having.

Morgan has been taking a gymnastics class that she is loving. It is only 8 weeks so we'll see what she thinks when she is done. Ethan is in tee ball/baseball right now and loving that too.

Our little athlete, Hudson loves to play any sport with anyone who will play with him!

Otter pops! Summer is really here!

 We are reading Trumpet of the Swam with the older two. Morgan and I had sometime at home this morning because she was home sick from school. Hudson and Brooklyn somehow managed to stay busy enough to leave us alone so we could do this diorama together. It was a lot of fun! 

Spring Break

 We had Spring Break a few weeks ago and we were able to do a few fun things. We started off our break with a trip to the zoo with some friends. It was my first time taking all four kids on an extended car ride by myself. They all did great and we had a lot of fun. It was our kids first time to a larger zoo with big animals like giraffes and elephants. They loved it of course!

Fun with friends!

At the end of break I took Morgan and Annika to a tea shop for a tea party. I had given Annika a tea set and a promise of a tea party for Christmas a couple years ago and it was finally time to cash it in. The girls were in heaven trying on all the different hats and feather boas. Morgan talked in a little English accent most of the time, it was pretty sweet. She is really in to Fancy Nancy books so she was using all her fancy words. They got hot chocolate with whip cream and sprinkles and lots of cute little sandwiches and treats. We will definitely be going back there sometime!



Happy Easter

We were lucky enough to have two Easter egg hunts this year. One with our cousins after school so that Ethan could go too...

and one with our friends. Most of the same friends we have done this with  for the last 6 years. We keep adding to the bunch and it sure is fun!

Hudson and Brooklyn really had fun this year. They of course were quite preoccupied with the candy in the eggs rather tahn collecting as many eggs as they could. ( I love this picture of Hudson because it shows how he wears his hats these days. He loves to wear hats and he loves to wear them backwards. I think it's pretty cute!)

I enjoy reading Ann Voskamp's blog every now and then. On this link she describes making an Easter garden with your kids in preparation for Good Friday and Easter. We decided to do it with our kids and they loved it. Each night from Palm Sunday until Good Friday we lit a candle and read from the Bible. It was really meaningful to prepare our hearts for what Easter is all about. I think we have a new tradition started.

And then there was Easter morning. A morning we are all "supposed" to be happy and ready to celebrate. It was kind of a rough morning for us, Kevin and I were busy packing for our trip to the coast later that afternoon and I think the kids felt the stress. The bright moment of the morning was finding Easter baskets at the door that the Easter Bunny (aka Nana) left by the door. We did pull it all together though and managed to get a couple decent pictures. But I thought I should include the outtakes, because that's life afterall:)

One more with mommy because my birthday was the next day:)

Activities

We've been busy doing life around here lately. Here are some snapshots to catch you up!

A little street hockey. I know Kevin misses playing on the pond in Canada. For now our back yard will have to do.

This is what happens when you have two little girls, left over makeup from Nana and some stickers. What a good sport daddy!

This was taken a couple weeks ago, it was our first picnic of the year. I love warm spring days, when we can eat outside and play for hours without baking!

Our neighbors got a new fridge a couple weeks ago so I asked if we could have the box. I made Morgan a little house and she was loving it for a week or so. Give that girl a box and she is as happy as can be. Like my paper towel curtains?

Last week Monday Ethan and Morgan had the day off of school so I decided to try some of the activities I had pinned on Pinterest. We made some of this which was completely amazing. It is called oobleck and if you hit it firmly it is as hard as a rock, but if you put your hand in it gently is is liquid. It was pretty crazy and the kids had a lot of fun. We also did this which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun to be a little more intentional about our time off.

This is what happens when it is 78 degrees in March. The kids insisted on getting on the suits and getting in the water. I however am not ready for the heat of summer quite yet. I'm enjoying our 70 degree days just fine!

Festival Time

A few weeks ago our town celebrated our annual almond blossom festival. We had a cold winter so there were barely any blossoms out, the trees are finally full if them now. I had fun with the older two at the carnival at dollar night Thursday night. It was the first time I had been there since high school and it was fun to see it through my kids eyes.

On Saturday, Ethan and Morgan both ran in the 1 mile race. Ethan ran on his own this year with his buddy Mason. He did awesome! Morgan ran with Nana and Annika. They did great and actually ran most of the way. I ran the 8k and set a new PR for that race, so that was fun.

After the run I took Ethan and Morgan to the parade. Again it's something that is fun to see through the kids eyes. There are a lot of horses and trucks and a few princesses:) All in all it was a fun weekend filled with fun traditions.

Beach House Fun

A few weekends ago we headed to the coast for a long weekend. I think it is safe to say it was probably our best trip there since Hudson and Brooklyn were born. Everyone behaved well, H and B are getting older so they are easier to take places. As we were leaving I said to Kevin, "I genuinely had fun this whole weekend with our kids!" I know it sounds bad, but it has been a while since I've been able to say that. Just being real! It helped that the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I just really like the sunshine and warmth and I know my mood is affected by the weather too. Here are a few snap shots.

The girls and I made a cat in the sand.

It was so warm Ethan and Kevin decided they needed to go in the water...brrrrr!

Hudson often finds one or two toys and becomes attached to them for a day or two. This weekend it was this little football. It was HIS football and you better not try to play with it!

Waiting for the bagpiper. It was so nice we didn't even need jackets!

Fun at Dennis the Mennis park. I have a love hate relationship with this park. The kids love it, but it is so big and there are so many kids I am constantly counting our four. We lost Hudson for about 3 minutes this time....scary!

Our trip to the tide pools this time had us finding a star fish! All the kids were brave enough to hold it:) Morgan took care of letting it go back to his home. We are always thankful for our get away time at the beach!