Talent Show

Emily participated in her school talent show and I've finally figured out how to get some video on here, it's only taken what a year? Anyways, here she is playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and reciting the poem Sick, by Shel Silverstein. Unfortunately we don't have a very good video recorder, so the sound is not great.






Ok, I am still having a hard time figuring this out. Let me know if this works.

Happy Birthday to Kate!

I'll admit I'm a little depressed writing this post. My baby is one now! How can this be? She's such a little joy to have in our family. Her actual birthday was on Wednesday, but we decided to wait for Grandma and Grumpy to get here to celebrate. So here's the party!

She knew just what to do with her fruit pizza. The fruit pizza is a bit of a tradition. It makes me feel better than putting a big frosted cake in front of them.

Oh yeah, this is yummy!

She loved the little glow worm Grandma and Grumpy gave her. It was sweet to watch her look at it.

Why open a present when you can sit on it. :)

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...... Can you see the tear rolling down her cheek? Kate's been a little out of sorts lately, maybe she feels the same way about her birthday as I do about mine.

We love this girl!

Easter

I just wanted to post some pictures real quick for my fam. I have always wanted to do the matchy, matchy thing with my kids, so I did and I think it's pretty dang cute if you ask me. :) We still haven't done the Easter egg hunt, so sorry no pictures of that yet.

My kids crack me up. It's amazing how little it takes to make them happy. Case in point, Geoff pulled a palm tree out of our garden this afternoon. The kids immediately started gathering the palm fronds and buliding them a "tiki house." They do this kind of stuff all the time. Give them a box and they will play for hours in it. It's amazing to me how entertained they can make themselves. It really does support the idea that kids don't need you to buy them loads of stuff to make them happy, but you do have to go sit in the fort for awhile. We are supposed to dye Easter eggs this afternoon, but they are too busy building their fort to care about the eggs. Don't worry they'll come around.

The engineers at work.

Now that the work is done Ryan can come and relax.

The "tiki room"

Complete with fans

I just thought that this photo was hilarious. We took the kids out for pizza, something we rarely do, and a 1970 World Series baseball game was going on. You can see how interested in pizza our boys are.

Nate the Slugger

I don't have much to report on. The kids are good, life's trucking along. I did have a friend send me some pics of Nathan playing baseball so I thought I would share. Easter pictures coming soon....

Leprechaun Trap

So I had to follow up on the kids Leprechaun traps. Here is the trap that they ended up making for our house (the school one is already turned in).

So I asked the kids what exactly they would do if they caught a leprechaun. Emily responds, "I would tell him not to tell me where his gold is and then he would(reverse psychology). Then I would show him to my class." Nathan responds, "I would ask him again and again and again where his gold was until he told me (torture)." The pencil and paper sitting in front is Emily's note to the Leprechaun telling him not to tell her his name.
So I followed up with what they would do with the gold once they found it. Emily had many, many things that she would do. The two I found most impressive were put some in a savings account and pay tithing (However, I'm not really sure that the church wants your tithing paid on stolen money.) Nathan said that he would buy me a log cabin and a truck, hmmm. Is that a gift for me or for you Nate?

Oops!

I honestly didn't realize that it has been over a month since I've updated the blog. Sorry! I have lots of new pictures to add though, does that count for an apology? We've been busy, but seriously who isn't?

Nate had his opening day of baseball last Saturday. It's big doins' around here and to be totally honest when Geoff and I first moved here and saw this parade we thought it was ridiculous. Now, nine years later, Geoff is marching in it next to Nate.
Ryan also had his 3rd birthday! Here's what he wanted for his birthday: candy, cookies, cake, ice cream, pancakes with syrup and a hot dog. Yeah right! The child hasn't figured out his mom is a sugar Nazi. We did take him to breakfast that morning and let him have a hot dog for dinner. I found this funny Indiana Jones had with a whip that plays the theme song when you push the button.. that's been fun. He had a good day though. And he gave us the greatest gift a three year old can give, he's potty trained!!
I participated in my first 10K trail run. It was killer, but actually pretty fun. I'm doing an 8K this weekend.
Kate has discovered the toilet and loves playing in it, GROSS! She is so fun and walking around stuff more and more. She seems to change everyday.
Em is getting ready to participate in the school talent show. She is going to recite the poem Sick, by Shel Silverstein and play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on the piano. If you had told me even a year ago she would want to do this I would have laughed. I guess there is something about 3rd grade.
Between work and church Geoff has 2 full time jobs. So we are glad when he shows up every once in a while.
I'm afraid tonight I'm going to be roped into making a Leprechaun trap. Who ever started this tradition? We've already had to make one for school and now the kids are convinced that we need to use the safe to trap one, seriously? I barely remember this holiday growing up and now I have children who are convinced that not only do Leprechaun's exsist, but are determined to catch one and then what? Steal his money?I know, I could just tell them the sad truth, but they do get pretty excited when the milk is green or even better the toilet water. That will go over well with Kate playing in it, ha ha.

Kate trying to fall out of the stroller, the girl is crazy!

It's a proud moment to see your son's name on a jersey. :)

Indiana Ryan, hee yah!

My big three year old, he's so cute!

The mohawk.

Taylor recently had her 10th birthday!

Just cause, how can you not love a face like that?