Happy Easter and Birthday and Birthday!!

Ya, I know, I'm just barely getting around to posting Easter and birthday pictures... But here they are:


Weeks before Easter all my kids kept asking me if I picked up the yarn, and did I get big skeins of yarn, and so I decided I couldn't string the house again this year. I don't mind doing repeats, but I don't like to be predictable. So for the little kids, Rik took pictures of different places around the house, and the pictures were their clues. Pretty simple. For the big kids, I sent them on a "one word" scavenger hunt. Like here's an example: Kayden walks up the stairs and says, "Mom, are you kidding me?! My clue is "wall?!"" With only one word, the clues were a little on the broad side. It took them about an hour to finish up. I had clues like shelf, basket, fake flower, window, Junie (it was on one of the Junie B. Jones books), chair, pillow, blanket etc; The kids liked it, and it was really easy for me. This is a good thing, because lately (like the last 3 years), I have had so much going on that I can only focus on one thing at a time, or one day at a time. A few years ago I decided my calendar was making me grumpy every day. I would wake up, take a look at it, see all that I had to do for that day, get overwhelmed, and grumpy. So I decided to do away with the calendar and just wing it day by day. For the most part this works out ok for me. But occasionally I schedule a dentist appointment at the same time as preschool, or visiting teaching at the same time I'm teaching piano lessons... but I can usually work it out. But I seem to have a hard time planning past today... ya, I know, it's because I not actually PLANNING anything. So that meant that Easter was shopped for and planned the night before Easter, and the boys birthdays were done at 1:00 in the morning the day of their birthdays. It all worked out though, and I guess that's how it's going right now.

We did all the normal Easter things, coloring eggs, Easter egg hunts, new church clothes, and yummy food. I wanted to try something a little different with the food though. I thought it would be kind of interesting to focus a little bit on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, so that the kids knew why those things were on the calendar. Then I thought we would try some traditional Jewish food for Sunday. I told Rik about my plans, and he said that didn't sound very good, and he wanted BBQ hamburgers, which is traditional... um... July 4th food... but ok, so that's what we had!


McKay's birthday was the following Wednesday. He turned 6. Can I just tell you how much he has changed in a year? I am so proud of his accomplishments of the past year! He is doing so well in school, and has FAR exceeded how I thought this year was going to go. I took him and his friend Tate (both born with the "Star Wars" gene) to ride the bumper cars. He wanted pancakes for dinner (which is what he had for breakfast too... he can eat 6 in a sitting!), and he wanted rice pudding instead of cake. He got a new bike this year, partly because he outgrew his old one, but mostly because he learned to read this year, and kept asking me why his bike said "Girl Power" on it. Darn those hand-me-downs from your sisters!


Kayden's birthday was the day after McKay's and he turned 15 this year. So far he has been a pretty good teenager. He cares about his grades, works hard and meticulously, has the cleanest room in the house, serves at church, seems to have found his niche running on cross country and track, and is very responsible. He does seemed bugged though. Bugged by his siblings, bugged by his parents, bugged by some school assignments/teachers/classes, bugged when he has too much to do, and bugged when he has nothing to do. I was telling my mom about one of his "bugged" moments, and she reassured me that they out grow that. She told me that when they get home from their missions and right up until they get married, they are a lot of fun! WHAT?! That's all I get? And I have to wait how long?! My mom needs to work on her pep talks I think... Kayden wanted Texas Roadhouse for dinner, and asked for strawberry shortcake for dessert. He got private driving lessons for his birthday. Ya, I know... I can't possibly be that old. He'll be driving all over by July (with a responsible adult.) I guess that's what happens when you start having kids when you're 13... or something like that... We got a new van a couple of weeks ago. I decided that with Kayden driving, I wanted something a little more reliable and safe. Not that I'm worried. Much.