Spring Break Day FIVE- dying eggs and movie night

Friday was kind of a hodge podge of days. We started out low key. Carter had missed his nap the day before so he really needed a good one. I told the kids we'd dye Easter Eggs while Carter napped. So the morning was spent hanging out. Leah drew some nice pictures on Brandon's Doodle Pad, the kids all painted some pictures with Crayola paints they got for Christmas, and I discovered that I have a few tomato plants growing. Some seeds must have lasted through the winter and began to sprout. I didn't even notice them because my rosemary bush is taking over my little garden spot. But it was very exciting to find them. Carter played with a pancake for quite some time. This may not sound very exciting because he didn't actually EAT the pancake, but he usually doesn't even want anything to do with food. So this was a major step in his eating issues. 

While the kids finished up their Egg Dying, I pulled out some of our yummy strawberries and dipped them in chocolate. Boy were they delicious!

 That night we went over to the Bennett's house to watch a movie in their backyard. They have a big projector screen they set up. It was so much fun. We watched "Hop" of course, in honor of Easter. I was afraid we weren't going to be able to go since Carter was still not feeling great and it was a chilly night. I didn't want the older kids to miss out on all the fun though, so Paul offered (ok, so maybe he didn't really "offer" per say, but whatever) to stay home with Carter while I took the other three. It was such a fun evening snuggling up, eating lots of yummy goodies, and chilling with good friends. I'm gonna have to talk Mindee into making that a regular occurrence. 

Well, that's it. We survived Spring Break. It was lots of fun, but I'm exhausted. Saturday Paul and I got to go on a date during the day. We started at The Cheesecake Factory and ended with an oil change and trip to Target. haha.....oh well. It's the being together part that matters the most. We had lots of fun. But I think if we'd have had time, I would have LOVED to go to the movies. 

Leah got to go to a birthday party that evening and then it was bath time and off to bed for Easter Sunday. 

Happy Easter

Look, an actual family picture. With all of us in it.... and everyone looking at the camera. Taken before church, where PAUL was actually HOME! Okay, so it was 7:55 in the morning, but whatever. I'll take it. 

I actually like this picture better, but as you can see, Carter has his hand in his diaper, so it couldn't be the chosen one!

(I think the major downfall of using the self timer, is that the

 person who jumps in the picture at the last minute, in this 

case ME, looks a bit STIFF). 

Spring Break Day Four- Fish Hatchery

So even though Wednesday was a bust,  I was determined to get out on Thursday. Poor older kids were going nuts at home. Paul gave Carter a nice, but quick (Carter was screaming his head off) priesthood blessing on Wednesday night and in the morning Carter's fever had finally broken and has not come back. yay! He still has a runny nose and is coughing a bit, but that is much more manageable. 

So we headed out to the Fish Hatchery to feed some trout. The kids love coming here. We packed lunches and set up a picnic. The kids ran around. We spent lots of dimes getting fish food. I think everyone had a great time. On the way home we stopped for some farm fresh strawberries (YUM!) and then hit Red Mango for some delicious Frozen Yogurt. 

It was a nice outing. When we got home though, Carter was pretty much done from missing his nap, and spent the rest of the afternoon being mr. cranky pants. He fell asleep from sheer exhaustion around 4. He only slept 30 minutes but that was enough to keep him up till 10. Whew! What a night. At least he slept through it once he finally got down.

Cute little Ellie digging into some doritos.

Miss Baylee. Wouldn't know she was getting the sniffles too. She's a sweetie. Albeit a very 

SQUIRMY sweetie. For one so tiny, she can definitely get around. 

Feeding the fish.

Pretty girls!

Carter even got in on some fish feeding action. Although he was trying to get IN the water with the fish after a while. I had to hold on to him pretty tightly. 

WOW!  A group shot. That hardly EVER happens. Thanks Becky.

Spring Break Day Three- SICK

So my little man is definitely sick. After he woke up from his nap yesterday, I noticed he had a temperature. I made a quick trip to the mall where he mostly just laid in his stroller looking oh so sad, then we headed back home. I had a primary meeting, so Paul got the kids to bed. Today is a bust. I was suppose to take the kids to Magic Mountain to finally break in our new passes. But alas, we are not going. My poor older kids. This is now the second time we've geared up to go, just to be let down. Here's hoping Carter gets to feeling better soon. He still had a fever this morning when he woke up. I gave him some medicine and he seems to be doing a bit better. Definitely cranky and clingy. Runny nose....all that fun stuff. But at least he hasn't thrown up again. 

On another "fun" side note, Paul dropped his IPad last night on his way out to his car to leave from work. Shattered his screen. Not really fun!!! We're hoping we can just get the screen replaced because a new IPad definitely isn't in the budget right now. Not after our recent water heater purchase. Ugh.... Oh and Paul got a jury duty summons in the mail for early May. I feel our summer vacation slowly slipping away. *Sigh* 

(wow...such a downer I am today) 

A quick back track

I'm lucky I get to go in to my girls class a couple of times a month. I know it isn't much and sometimes I'm not always in the mood to go, but I'm always glad when I do and always have a good time seeing the kids in their classrooms. 

Leah had a little Easter party the last day before Spring Break. They got to decorate bunny cookies, dye an egg, play pin the tail on the bunny, and go on an egg hunt. I loved how each child had his or her name written on their five eggs so that the "hunt" lasted more than a few minutes.  

Leah with her best school buddy, Gracie. These two are so cute and I hope they have lots of years together as friends and classmates.

I don't know where she comes up with these silly poses.

And I don't know why we watched Conference on our computer when we could have watched in on our big TV. Ask Paul???  He set it up.

Spring Break Day Two- The park

Thought we'd take it easier today and stick around town for a park day. Most of my friends went down to the beach, but after a rather unfortunate incident at the park, I'm really glad I didn't go. Everything was going fine. The kids were playing nicely. Yada yada yada. Then, while I was feeding Carter a bottle, he choked a bit and then proceeded to throw up.....everywhere. It wasn't good. I cleaned him up the best I could, poor Tina got sand to dump on the sidewalk to cover the throw up, I packed up and headed home. I gave him a bath and then put him down for a nap. I'm still deciding if he's not feeling well, or if it was just Carter being his normal throw up self. He has started to get a bit of a cough, so we shall see. I certainly hope he's okay.  I swear we just all got well around here. 

So, no pictures today. I'm hoping to make it to the mall this afternoon. Gotta get some make up. I am completely out of foundation. That's not good. 

Spring Break Day One- Aquarium

Day one of Spring Break started with a trip down to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. We have passes that expire the end of  June so I thought we better take advantage and make a trip down there. I'm hoping to get one more trip in before my passes expire. It was a great day down there. The weather was perfect. Beth met me down there with her kids. All the kids all did great (well except for Brandon who refused to stay by me....like AT ALL!!!) But other than that, it was a fun trip. We packed lunches and ate them while the pigeons flew around hoping for a morsel here or there. I swear it was sheer luck no one got pooped on. Yuck! We walked around and saw all the fish, let the kids play in the play area, touched some jelly fish, sea anemone, and sea stars, and let the kids run around the water fountain outside.

Kind of a blurry picture. I must remember to bring my real camera more often and not just use my cell phone camera all the time.

Brandon insisted I get a picture of the seal lions even though they never swam close to us.

Outside observing the shark tank.

Oh how I love these two little girls together. I love to see Leah play with Audrey so nicely. She's kind of mothering to her. It's adorable. They have lots of fun together too.

Another blurry picture (sigh).

Carter spent a lot of time in his stroller cuz he's not too good at staying close to me or listening when I tell him to come. For that matter, neither is Brandon, but he's older and I can't pin him down in the stroller. I tried. It didn't work. 

This picture almost looks real.

Don't ask me WHAT Leah is doing? Crazy, silly girl. 

Beth and Cole got in this picture, but you can hardly see them. 

Mr. Joe Cool!

On the way home. Brandon was cold and tired and a bit grumpy. Okay A LOT grumpy, but whatever. He was using my jacket as a blanket and his jacket as a pillow. I tried to sneak and take a picture but he caught me and wasn't too happy about it.

After the Aquarium, I decided we hadn't done enough that day (haha, yeah right) and went to the park with Tina. We were only there for a little while, but the kids all had fun. Well, except for Brandon who was still grouchy and refused to get out of the car until I threatened to take his IPad privileges away for the day. He was mad because he wanted his gun and sword to share with his buddy Elijah and I didn't get them before heading to the park. Sheesh! 

By the time we got home, we were all beat. The kids all took a bath, had dinner and watched a cartoon. Then it was early bedtimes for everyone....including me.

Oh, funny story real quick. Leah got up and got dressed in all blue this morning. She told me she thought if she dressed to look like water, that maybe the fish would like her better and come swim by her. I got a good laugh out of that one.