Easter

Our Easter, in a nutshell:

We got back from our trip to Illinois the night before at about 11pm.

All the kids slept in.

I got up,

got baskets ready,

and finished my lesson for the Young Women at church.

Ran around like crazy, feeling stressed.

Wished we had a peaceful Easter morning.

Tried to think about the Savior.

The kids had breakfast (cereal),

got bathed and dressed for church,

begged for their Easter stuff,

got scolded for begging for their stuff.

Finally got into their baskets right before church.

Threw everything around,

and made a huge mess.

Ate all their candy.

Then we went to church.

Thank goodness the spirit at church was strong!

Next year I'll try a little hard to be on top of things so we can really enjoy Easter and focus on Christ.

Thank goodness for our friends, Chris and Valerie Auger, who invited us over for Easter dinner.

It was spectacular, and we finally got to breathe a little after a hectic morning.

Grabby, Grabby

At about 3 1/2 months old, Colten started grabbing things with his hands.

Then whatever he grabs goes straight into his mouth.

Ashton always shoves her fingers into his mouth because she thinks it's funny when he sucks on them.

I just hope they're fairly clean.

Oh well, he's building up immunity.

More proof that Colten gets tummy time.

He's even rolled a couple of times now, on purpose.

Five months old, our quickest one yet...

It's a whole new world of exploring for this little one.

First Grade Program

Again, Ashton had her Program after Cayden's this year, so for the past few months she has really been looking forward to her turn.

The First Grade did a Back to the Future theme and focused on American presidents, and money. Ashton got to talk about Abraham Lincoln and why he is featured on the penny.

She had a pretty long line and worked really hard to memorize it.

She did a fantastic job!

Ashton gets pretty nervous, so we had to work with her to speak clearly, and slow down.

The kids had lots of songs to sing with the program.

It's been entertaining with Cayden and Ashton each year because all the kids pick up on the songs, so we hear them around our house for months!

It'll be interesting next year because they repeat the programs from year to year, so Ashton will be doing the same program next year that Cayden did last year, and Lillian (I can't believe she'll be in Kindergarten!) will be doing the same one Ashton did last year!

They love those programs so much, and feel so proud of themselves when they do them.

Cherry Blossom Extravaganza!






This is what the Cherry Blossoms are supposed to look like.  We've had such a cool spring this year that the trees were barely blooming on the first day of the festival, thus no pictures of our own. 



Our last day with the Stones was jam-packed with tons of things to do.

It was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, so we planned to ride the metro downtown and go to the National Building Museum, and the back to the monuments to walk around and see the blossoms.  After that we stopped in Alexandria, rode the Trolley up King Street and met up with some more Tucson friends for dinner before heading home.

Whew!

A big part of the Festival for kids was held in the National Building Museum.  Schools and businesses set up booths where kids could learn about Japanese culture and make some crafts.

No surprise, it was packed!

And extremely warm.  I suppose it's a good thing that Colten is still stroller-bound, so that everyone has a place to dump their coats!  I don't think he minds, though.

After we crafted our hearts out, we hopped back on the metro, bound for the National Mall and the Washington Monument.

The kids did super with all the walking they did!

We had such a beautiful day, but a little chilly.  I suppose we can be grateful for the exercise to get our blood moving.

From the Washington Monument you can see a lot of the main DC sights; the White House, Capital building, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and across the river to Arlington.

After gathering our energy, and escaping the wind at the Washington Monument we set up for the Lincoln Memorial.  It's probably about a mile walk in between the two, and very pretty.  Unfortunately the reflection pool is under construction, otherwise it would have looked a lot better.

All the kids (minus Colten) lined up on the steps:  Seth, Jonas, Ashton, Cayden, Mason, Lillian and Maren, with Tina off to the side.

After seeing Lincoln, we headed back up to the metro stop.  On the way the kiddos needed a little break, so the stopped to climb all over this tree.

We took the metro back to Alexandria so we could meet up with another family from Tucson (I'm always amazed at how all the Tuscon people Andy grew up with stay in touch after so many years!)

We got off the metro with our hoard of kids, and then boarded the free trolley that takes you all the way up King Street.  I spent the ride looking out the windows and thinking about how much fun I could have shopping there!

We met up with another John and his family for a big pizza dinner.  Between all of us we had 12 kids.  YIKES!  They all did so well, all day.

After dinner, and saying goodbye to John's family we hopped back on the Trolley,

back to metro and then home.  It was a truly packed, busy and fun day.

We sure enjoyed our visit with the Stones.

We LOVE when ANYONE comes to visit us!

New Friends

The second day the Stones were visiting we went up to Mount Vernon.

George Washington was a pretty inspiring and innovative guy, and his home and grounds are beautiful, but since I was already pretty familiar with all of it, I just got to be entertained with all the kids.

Lillian and Maryn were inseparable throughout the visit.  They had similar likes and interests, so really had a grand time together.

Cayden and Seth are the same age and seemed to bond over their respective Pinewood Derby experiences.  It was so nice that there was actually another boy Cayden's age!  It seems like we are always surrounded by either girls, or boys a lot younger than Cayden.  That, combined with Cayden's independent personality generally leave him the odd man out.  So I was really happy that he had fun with Seth. 

Ashton, however, felt a little left out.  She's the social butterfly, and thrives on being the center of attention.

She had a few pout episodes.

I just thought they were funny.  We encouraged her to go join in, and eventually she did.

Carnival Time

It was carnival time at the kids school again, so we forked out our money and walked up the street.

The kids enjoyed themselves, as they always do.

And again, their favorite activity was the face painting

Ashton, Lillian and Mason all stood in line (a LONG time) to do it.

Cayden opted out this time.

He found other ways to occupy his time.

This year was a little lackluster for us.  But the school deserves our money.

I'm sure we'll go again next year, so you can wait with baited breath for more face-painting pictures and carnival commentary.