New night-time rituals...

With My dear hubby's dad in town for a visit, i've moved all of the kids into one room to free up a 'spare' room for him. It works out o.k. where the kids are all still pretty young - they just view it as a perpetual sleep-over party. However, this does make for some rather entertaining bed-time issues. I still put the kids to bed @ 8PM, and then i'll sing songs with them (review the primary songs for the year, etc.), but then i can't LEAVE the room, or things will get WAY out of hand. So, i've taken to setting up my little piano light in there, and practicing the guitar until they finally drift off. The kids think it's pretty fun, and i do have my own cheering section (literally!) The negative comes in that the boys fall asleep within a half hour, but the girls will hang on as much as 2 hours later!! It's taking a toll on my poor little fingers; I'm sure it'll be great in a couple of weeks when i've built up some calouses, but until that happens, i think i might start reading my own scriptures in their room after i do a half hour of practice. It's either that, or invest in some finger-tip bandaids ;-)

Easter Sunday

A had so much fun dressing up for Easter Sunday this year. One of the families I teach piano lessons to loaned her a dress for Sunday, and A just felt like a princess! We bought new shoes the week before, dressed her up, curled her hair, and had a marvelous time letting her primp ;-) Church went wonderfully, and she got many compliments, so she was bouncing off the walls with happiness.

After church, we headed home for Easter dinner (venison roast and veggies - ya gotta love KY!) We let D and A help hide the little ones' easter baskets, and they had almost as much fun doing that as they did finding their own baskets. D was the one who had the roughest time finding his basket (i LOVE being sneaky to the mischievous kids!)

Then we had the rip into the baskets fest, and the aftermath, which was somewhat like Christmas: Wrappings, toys, and candy all OVER the house! The favorite toy for this holiday was the 'ball launchers' that i'd picked up for each of them at walmart; even my dear hubby got into that one!

I was pressed a little for time in prepping for this easter, so i cheated and used a pre-prepared basket as the 'base' for each of the kids, and then added things to it to individualize them more. One of the things i LOVED about the baskets were the cute hats that came with each one. I'm a sucker for hats on little kids! C, in particular, enjoys wearing hers around,... she woke up this morning SO upset because she couldn't find it!!


Of course we had to have the requisite easter egg coloring. I took TONS of pictures of all 4 of the kids together, and this is the only one that even turned out halfway decent. It's MUCH easier to take individuals; speaking of which,... we haven't had a family picture since before C was walking; we're going to have to get on the BALL!

Spring Break!

Monday - we went to Kid's Place up in Lexington! We picked up a friend, which made me as the only adult, with 5 kids under the age of 8 to keep track of. We set up our buddy system, and had a marvelous time!

D found a friend his age, and had an awesome time playing tag and chasing through the various obstacle courses. He's much more gregarious and social than I EVER was as a kid.



C's favorite area was the ball pit! she spent 3 quarters of the whole time in there. I was able to convince her to come build 'houses' with me out of the large blocks.



A was a HUGE help to me! She 'buddied' with the hardest kids, and helped me keep track of and entertain everybody, and distract them to another activity in case of imminent melt-down. My munchkins did allright, but our extra tag along (E's age) wasn't used to being THAT active for such an extended period of time; she was WAY ready for a nap by the time we finished up.

E enjoyed everything, and was much more active and outgoing than the last time we went. He finally overcame his fear of the fire-man's pole, and did multiple rounds on every area. However, his love for the evening was playing the games with his tokens. His absolute favorite was playing toddler air-hockey with our tag along friend, and running a close second was the candy crane-game, where he could direct the crane to pick up and drop off candy for him.

A's class at school has been incubating eggs, and some of them just started hatching yesterday (April fool's day) She was SO excited when she came home! She had to draw a picture of the chicks (named, of course), and herself to commemorate the occasion. It fascinates me how she drew corner picture frames also; she does love her art!!

Blue and Gold Banquet

With the pinewood derby pushed back into february due to weather, the Blue and gold Banquet was pushed back to March. The highlight for the boys was their cake decorating competition (which also made for cheap and easy dessert planning ;-) D finished his late Tuesday night, and then i had to hide it in the oven all day Wednesday to keep the little kids from touching it. He did everything from start to finish - made the cake (from a mix - slackers that we are.), poured it into the pans, put them in and got them out of the oven (he was so proud of himself! - he didn't get burnt at all!), he mixed the frosting, frosted the majority of the cake (i helped on the sides), and then planned and laid out his 'decorations.' He went for a take-off from "The Museum" - he really enjoyed that movie. He even printed out small people on card-stock to have walking around his museum. 'Course i did have to limit him to just dinosaurs and pirates, he wanted to goo ALL-OUT in adding in more things, but we just didn't have the space on the cake ;->

The banquet itself went well, although i'd slacked on my responsibilities as Advancement Committee chair, and was still calling around the night before to find out what the scouts had earned. Luckily, my loving hubby works in lexington and was able to hit the scout office after work. He's so AWESOME!

Clothes shuffle

Moving into spring and summer, so we started the clothes shuffle. I started with E, unpacking the boys 4T (he FINALLY fits those!!), and got rid of a huge load of clothes to goodwill that are just too small, or that he won't fit any longer by winter next year. E was just ecstatic with having 'new' clothes! He particularly liked the batman PJs that were a hand-me-down from D - complete with cape that connects to the back. He ran around all night looking behind him at the cape ;-)

Primary Activity

A little while ago, we had a primary activity. It has taken me this long to get the pictures off of the camera and onto the computer (we've been busy lately.) My 2nd counselor spearheaded the activity - starting with a 'plane ride' into their mission areas - sending them in groups to six different stations where parents talked about their mission experiences, the kids made their own 'pass-along' cards, and had zone conference. A and E were in the same group - and he just loved following and tagging along after her.


D was obsessed with the foreign currency - counting it all out, and making piles. After the different areas and zone conference, the kids got to do some fun p-day games and activities.

I was in charge of the 'pin the tie on the missionary' - but didn't get a chance to take any pictures of that because i was so busy. E really enjoyed the missionary dress-up relay. A, as per her usual, took painstaking time and included much detail on her pass-along cards; very perfectionist and loving every minute of it ;-) We finished off with lunch that included foods from all the 'areas' they visited.