Back to normal?

 We've had a busy week.  Full of the usual stuff - though not much park time since the weather has been cold and wet.  The kids had school as usual and sports and friends and activities.  

Aaron had soccer practice and a game on Saturday.  They won the game, but it was rough once since the ref wouldn't call anything for either side and the kids began testing the bounds of what they could get away with.  

Anna had a track meet - she is getting to where she can consistently clear 7' on the pole vault!  But it was an away meet, so we didn't get to watch.  

Evelyn is still loving gymnastics and is eagerly looking forward to her upcoming mini olympics that her gym puts on.  She is now trying to figure out how she could possibly get a bar or beam at home to practice on.  

Eileen found another things she wanted to do for an outing, she found out about a reptile and exotic pets show that was happening at the same convention center as the gem show.  So Saturday, we headed out and grabbed some lunch, but when we got there she wasn't feeling very good at first, thankfully walking around helped and once she got inside and was distracted by the animals, she was fine.  She loved getting to see and hold snakes, and bearded lizards and geckos and hedgehogs and rats and even some mantis'.  We had a great time together and then headed home in time for all the stuff going on in the evening.  

Anna had been gone all day for band day and Dan had a leadership meeting, then we had the adult session of Stake Conference.  In the evening, we had dinner together, then Dan and I headed to conference.  The talks were wonderful and I think my musical number went well.  Then it got done earlier than expected, so we met up with a bunch of people from the ward to get some dessert.  It was a fun evening and then we headed home for bed! 

Sunday session of Stake Conference was also wonderful.  The choir did a great job and they were a joy to sing with and direct!  The talks were all wonderful!  After church, we had some friends from the ward over for dinner and games and had a great time!  The kids had fun playing together and so did the adults!  

Spring is not here, but Easter is!

We have had a fun and busy week!  It started off with snow - enough snow to stick and cause a delayed start for the schools.  It then stayed cold enough and kept snowing/sleeting/hailing enough to keep a bit of white stuff on the ground for most of the week.  

Tuesday was back to normal stuff - school, preschool and sports.  I'm still loving playing water polo each week, but Tuesday was a rough night - I could just not make my body do what I wanted it to do!  

Wednesday was the last day of actual school for the week, so they were excited.  I picked up my parents at the airport early in the afternoon, then we enjoyed an evening together chatting and being together.  

Thursday was a crazy day!!  Evelyn found out that she was supposed to be at play practice that morning, but she hadn't been told and she had an ortho appointment that morning, so she was late.  Then in the afternoon the girls all had eye appointments...that we were late for...  We finally got home and Sandi came over with the kids to hang out and play.  We did some egg decorating and the kids had a blast playing together.   

Thursday night, my dad came with me to watch Anna and I play water polo.  Thankfully I had a much better night than Tuesday and it was fun having my dad there to watch!  

My dad taught James and David how to do Sudoku and now James is obsessed.  David was even able to figure it out a bit.  It was pretty cute!  

On Friday, Eileen convinced Grandma that she should try sushi because not all sushi had raw fish, and so she talked Grandma into taking Eileen and I out to lunch at a Sushi place.  We had a great time and Grandma decided sushi wasn't all bad after all!  

Evelyn had her band play-a-thon fundraiser all morning and into the afternoon at school, then we headed out to Taz's birthday party.  Eileen and Anna stayed home, but the rest of us went and had fun.  Taz was having his party at a paintball place.   The kids mostly had a good time.  Evelyn took one paintball to the hip and decided she was done, James only lasted a couple rounds longer before he took a painful one to the hand and was done.  (and these were supposed to be the softer ones!  Dan and Aaron played the whole time and ended up with a few good welts.  Jon said he'd give some one $5 to run a gauntlet with their shirt off and Aaron decided to do it.  He went though and got pelted good, and Jon was impressed enough to give him $20 for it!  lol  Aaron was a great sport about the whole thing!  

Saturday morning, we went to a park near Sandi and Jon's house and did an Easter Egg hunt.  Eileen helped hide eggs, and the kids all had fun finding them.  They weren't crazy about getting up before noon on a Saturday, but they had fun.  

After, we had lunch with Sandi and Jon and Dan took Aaron to his soccer game.  Then we went to see Sonic 2.  Dan picked up Eileen and Anna and took them home to get some cleaning done and I took the kids to the movie with Sandi and her kids and Grandma.  We had fun and the movie was cute!  

Sunday, we went to church and had a wonderful Easter program.  Aaron was speaking, James and David were singing with the primary, Eileen was directing the young women as they sang and Anna had a little solo with the young women and I did a solo accompanied by Anna.  My parents and Sandi came to watch.  :)  After Sacrament, Sandi and my mom headed back to Sandi's and my dad stayed and came home with us after.  In the evening, we had an Easter dinner with the family at Sandi and Jon's place.  We had a great (mostly) vegan dinner!  Evelyn and Kai were so cute - they kept trying to do gymnastic stuff together and were challenging themselves to get tougher - which included lots of time doing handstands against the wall.  They were also trying to see who could stay up the longest and trying to both do at least 10 min total.  

After, we headed home for scriptures and prayers and then Stake Choir practice.  I'm looking forward to singing with them next week - what a wonderful experience it's been to do this!  

Spring is here!!! ....maybe?

We had a great week - busy as usual, but fun!  David loves helping cook!  Dan decided to make macarons again and David was super helpful!  lol!  

 I started playing with the masters water polo team this week.  It's exhausting of course, since I'm out of shape and out of practice, but it was a blast!  Everyone has been really nice and it's been fun to get to know some of the people in the water polo scene here a bit better - it's a bit of a small community.  There were a lot of other coaches and refs there playing too. 

On Friday, Eileen and David and I went to the Gems and minerals fair.  Eileen used it for her outing and we went and looked at the gemstones and fossils and beads and Eileen got a snake charm and a couple bracelets and David got an elephant.  Then we headed out for Sushi for lunch.  We went to one of the Sushi places with the conveyor belt of sushi and David was so excited by it - he wanted to grab every plate he saw!  

When we got home, it was just in time to go get James, but it was hailing, so I drove to pick him up instead of walking, then I took the boys (James and David and Caleb) to the library.  James wanted to get a couple books that they had there and while we were there, they were doing a puzzle painting activity.  So they all painted puzzles and we brought them home.  

In the evening, the girls had their book club with their friends, then after, Dan had a guys night with some friends.  

The weather has been crazy this week - not only have there been crazy shifts during the days (rain, hail, wind and sun) but it has also gone from sunny and in the 70's on Thursday to Snowing now as I type this.  We have enjoyed the nice and sunny days with lots of fun time at the park, but everyone is amazed at snow in April here!  lol  

Saturday morning was crazy.  Anna had a water polo tournament this weekend.  I enjoyed watching her play and had a nice time chatting with another coach from the area during the games.  Evelyn also had a mandatory play practice Saturday morning, Dan and the youth had a Stake Youth service activity, and Aaron had a soccer game.  After we finished that, we used our get out pass to go to a nearby place and had fun in the arcade for a bit.  Then we finally headed home for dinner and Anna passed out on the couch and stayed asleep there until Sunday morning.  

I took this picture of Dan and David playing the driving game at the arcade because I found it so funny that Dan was having to push David's pedal for him so he could drive!  

I was leading singing time today during primary and we did the singing measles activity and I let the kids give me the measles - and they had a blast covering me with stickers and one of the teachers was sweet enough to catch a picture of it!  

After church were meeting and we went to a friends house to play games for a bit, then Dan had a meeting and Anna had another game, and Eileen had an interview, after all that, we finally got our much anticipated dinner!  

Dan had some fun playing Chinese Checkers with the kids and we had the first of our Easter week lessons for scriptures, then the girls and I went to Stake Choir!  We had a good turn out and I'm having so much fun with these wonderful talented people who are so willing to share their talents!  

Conference Weekend!

This week has been beautiful outside, so I've spent a lot of time at the park with the younger boys.  James has a group of friends that he meets up with there and they go and will happily play as long as their parents will let them.  I'm happy to have them playing outside and having fun, so whenever possible, we go!  

Anna had a crazy busy week - she had her jazz concert on Tuesday which was a lot of fun and she did a great job!  It's fun getting to watch her play her trumpet, we can hardly see her in the back on her euphonium!  Evie and I went and loved the show!  

Anna also had a track meet on Wednesday, She cleared 7' in the pole vault and now she's getting to work on turning during her jump which will help her get even higher!  She's really enjoying pole vault!  

Evelyn's foot was still hurting from last weekend, so we were a bit worried about her going to gymnastics on Thursday, but thankfully by then she was back to walking on it normally.  She really loves gymnastics, so I'm glad she was able to go and participate.  

Friday night, Dan and I went to see The Lost City for a date night.  We had a gift card and had a fun time watching the movie!  

Saturday was General Conference!  We made our 7 layer dip for the afternoon session and then after, David helped Dan start the smoked pork that we were supposed to have started on Friday.  (oops!)  He was so funny helping smear the stuff on the pork! 

Aaron had his first soccer game of the spring season Saturday at noon.  It went well, he's having to remember all he learned last season after just one practice, but he is enjoying it!  It helps that he's got a great coach. 

Sunday Dan made the monkey bread.  For some reason, the kids (especially David) kept calling it banana bread.  It came out perfectly this year!  YUM!  The only hard part was waiting for it to cool enough that our fingers didn't get burned!  

The conference messages were wonderful and our kids actually stayed there mostly listening for all the sessions.  That was by far the best behaved they have ever been for a conference weekend.