Spring Break!!!!

This past week has been our spring break, and since Dan is a teacher, and none of the kids are in school yet, it means a nice fun week for us! We all LOVE having daddy around.

We kicked off our week by going to the grand opening of a CiCi's Pizza and waiting outside in line for free buffet passes and had a free lunch. Kids had lots of fun eating pizza and playing with the big kids (which included a few of Dan's students)

That night for Family Home Evening, we went to the near by play ground for some fun and a picnic dinner. The kids loved the idea of having peanut butter and honey sandwiches for dinner. We called some friend who lived in the area had had lots of fun eating and playing together. They are a family full of boys and Aaron just LOVED it! He also discovered the slide and he LOVES that too!!

Wednesday, we went to the mall to let the kids play and to do some Christmas Returns (yeah ok, so we're lame...) anyway, the kids had fun playing, Aaron had fun wandering and Mommy had fun picking out new shoes for Aaron.

Thursday Afternoon, we went to the park with some friends and swung on swings, played hop-scotch (on the LONGEST hop-scotch I've ever seen - over 100 numbers! Drawn in chalk of course!) climbed, screamed, slid down slides, ran in circles after eachother talked, took pictures and peed our pants - well that last one was just Anna.... But we had fun and got tired!

Friday night we met a bunch of friends from our ward at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano for another picnic dinner. Grandpa met us there and the kids had a blast running around with all their friends and eating another picnic lunch.

Saturday we spent the day down at Grandpa and Grandma's house. we went in their (heated) pool and played with Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon. We grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs and relaxed.

In between all this there have been bike rides, walks, playing in the back yard, reading stories, and the usual fun stuff.

Now we didn't just spend the whole week playing, we got some work done too. We put a tree in our front yard (a real one!) we weeded the flower bed, sprayed the lawn, cleaned the house, got our garden box ready, and Dan even managed to get some school work done!

This week Aaron also discovered the joy of climbing. He figured out how to get on the table, how to climb on the couch, and how to get at daddy's computer. But most of all he discovered ths slide in our back yard, and that he can now climb well enough to get to it. So earlier today, he climbed up the ladder and went down the slide, all by himself. Don't believe me??? Watch.

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Haha, I feel like I say this every week, but I guess that's what happens when you have kids! Monday was the usual craziness that comes when you try to take 3 small kids to the grocery store and trying to do all the laundry! Business as usual, but we always end the day tired. :)
This week was also our week for having Preschool at our house. Having 6 kids age 4 and under roaming our house is always kinda crazy, but the lesson plans this week were rather sparse, so I had 6 crazy kids and nothing to do to keep them busy! Thankfully the weather was nice on Tuesday, so we spent alot of time outside looking for signs of spring.
Wednesday we went to a potluck lunch saying goodbye to a friend of ours who is moving away this week. I have been her visiting teacher for over 2 years now and feel like I have learned so much more than I taught. She is an AMAZING person that will be missed by our family and our ward. Wednesday was also the beginning of a much needed streak of rainy days. While it's rough on the kids to have to stay inside, we are grateful for it.
Thursday was Preschool again, this time with no outdoor release because of the rain. We talked about St. Patricks Day and the color green. The kids got a kick out of making green Jello.
Friday and Saturday we were just REALLY excited to have Daddy home!!!! With wrestling over, it was nice to have him for the weekend. We made a trip to Costco and played around the house.
Sunday (which is never a day of rest when church happens during nap time!) started with bread making which the kids HAD to help with. Then of course choir and church and home teaching followed by a Ward Dessert Party that evening. A busy, but fun day.
The kids have also been keeping busy. Eileen loves preschool and is such a social person. She loves being around other kids and is a HUGE helper to mommy. She always tries to do what she thinks is best. Sometimes she and I disagree about what that is, but once I convince her that I am right, she is ready to help! ("I know what you are 'just' doing, but if you really want to help me, I need to do this instead") She is such a sweetie!
Anna is still working on potty training. We have been mostly accident free, but I still don't get what the problem is! The only way to keep her accident-free is to have her go potty every half hour or so. Even then, once in awhile, she has an accident. Anyway, I'm trying to be vigilint and keep her going regularly, and so the (insanity invoking) accidents have been fewer and further between.
Aaron is climbing. All over. This week he figured out how to get onto chairs, the table, and the couch. Now that he is upwardly mobile, there seems to be no keeping him on the floor.
Anyway, there you have it, not too exciting, but crazy none the less!

Impromptu trip to Austin...

We have had a crazy week! Monday morning we went with our friends, the Tolberts, to the Discovery Museum down at the Dallas Fair Park. They were having a celebration so we all got free passes to go and play! The kids had so much fun!! Mommy went nuts (too many kids, too much going on and very hard to keep track of my little ones!) but the kids LOVED it. They made crowns, made dino tracks, listened to stories, played with bubbles, played with balls, learned about our bodies, pretended to be firefighters, played in the water and the sand, checked out crazy mirrors, and learned lots of cool stuff! There was so much to do and Eileen could easily have been happy there for many more hours, but the others needed naps and food, so we stopped for lunch and then went home to recover!

With Dan being gone so much recently we had all been missing him lots and lots. So this week when the opportunity presented itself to go with him on this trip to Austin, we jumped at it. (At least we jumped at it, once we convinced Eileen that it was ok to miss a day of preschool...) So Tuesday night we decided we were going and packed up and left Wednesday morning. Dan was driving the bus, so the kids and I followed in our car. Part way down we stopped for lunch at an outlet mall, (Aaron loved shopping for clothes there...) then we arrived in Austin that afternoon. We spent an enjoyable evening playing in the hotel room and then went to IHOP for smiley face pancakes for dinner. The next day we went swimming for a bit in the morning (until the kids lips started turning blue!) then nap time (much too short of a nap time for mommy!) and in the afternoon we found a playground near by while taking a walk. That evening the whole group (school kids and all) went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner and Dan let the girls ride on the bus. They LOVED it! They were so excited, and Eileen kept saying how she sat next to one of the kids. (She didn't, she sat next to one of the other teachers) Dan ordered a crab bucket and Eileen HATED the crab! It scared her! As soon as dinner arrived and we could eat I took the kids back for bed since they were rather tired and cranky! The next morning, we went to a nearby mall to get the kids wiggles out before strapping them into a car for hours. Eileen asked as we headed back to the hotel for lunch if she could watch TV during lunch again (we had brought bread and peanut butter and had been feeding the kids that for lunches) she wanted to watch Dora again. She wanted to watch the same episode that she had seen the day before. I had to explain to her how TV works, that it has different shows all the time. I love that she needed that explained to her, because it means she doesn't watch TV much! (I guess it's hard when we don't get any channels...) Anyway, we had fun, got exhausted and Anna peed in all her clothes, but we got to see daddy and do something different, and that made it all worth it.

The Zoo and beyond....

Wednesday we went with our friends the Alcalas to the zoo. Evan is 4, Sydney is 2 and Isaac is not yet 1. We all had a great time. We saw lots of animals and tried lots of things. We checked out the Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, Primates, Kangaroos and much more! We went to the kids area and played in the water, climbed on everything and petted animals. It was a gorgeous day! It was sunny and warm and perfect for a day at the zoo! We ended the day with a ride on the carousel where the kids has a blast (except Sydney) :( And the moms got a bit dizzy! Either way, the day was a success! (a success meaning, we all had fun, we all got tired and we came home and napped, and Mom didn't go insane!)

The rest of the week has been crazy! Dan left early on Thursday to go down to Austin for Wrestling State competition. The kids missed him lots (well for that matter, so did I) until he got back on Sunday afternoon. We had stake conference this morning and thankfully we were able to sit near friends who were very helpful and thoughtful (THANK YOU Gillian!!!!) and the kids managed to make it through 2 hours with mom only going slightly crazy! :) Either way, it was nice to have a Sunday where the kids got naps. So we survived the weekend with no daddy and while we aren't looking forward to doing it again next weekend, we know we can make it through.