Road Trip

 

Spring break was the middle of March.  We took the kids on a road trip to Colorado.  Our lovely Aunt Shanna offered to tend the kids while Edwin and I escaped for a few days.  (Uncle Ben was off in Mexico at the time, but that didn't slow Shanna down!)

 

This is Anne on the castles at our favorite park in Grand Island, NE.

 

No matter the weather we stop here and play for a bit every time we drive across the country.

The kids enjoyed their picture puzzles and super hero ring pops.

John may be too small for picture puzzle books, but he did enjoy a ring pop.

Poor John is just learning how to walk with shoes on.  He prefers to be barefoot, but it's still a bit chilly for that.

I do not know who took all the photos but I'm glad the kids snatched the camera and captured some good memories.

Little Savitri was sick, but Grace tried to help as much as she could.

Grace was definitely this photographer.  Beautiful job.

Aunt Shanna may have been loosing her mind by the end of our visit! 

John was happy to be out of the car!

Aunt Leonora was a big help with all the kids.  We were happy to see everyone for Uncle Ben's birthday.

Technology is the toy of choice in these parts!

Grandpa G did the dishes while Uncle Ben made his own birthday dinner. 

Great pizza party Ben!

Bruce is a wild man.  I don't know how Grace managed to even capture a picture of him!

 

Edwin interviewed for a job in Wyoming. We will be moving there in June!  Thanks to all the family who prayed for us, watched the kids, fed the gaggle of children and tended our frail sick bodies back to health.  We are looking forward to living in the mountains and being a few hours from many of our extended families. 

 It was an eventful spring break in may unexpected ways.

Colorful Art

 Grace and Anne were both chosen artists to represent their classrooms in the Children's Art Exhibit Downtown.  Here are the artists with their work on display.  It's been in the bank all month.  It was an exciting evening as we all attended the art social and treated the artists to snacks.

Grace, Anne, and James all wanted to be a part of the fancy quilt picture.  It's only taken two years to complete this project, but it is lovely. I shipped the quilt to Aunt Kathy to quilt on her machine and she quilted roses throughout.  I am happy with final results and we are eager to begin work on Anne's quilt.

WE LOVE LOTS OF COLOR!

Simple Daily Activities

Dancing to Cotton-eyed Joe is one of our favorite silly activities.  The experience has been greatly improved since these fabulous stick horses (thanks Aunt Jessica) joined the festivities.  The girls especially like that they have boots to wear now too!  We certainly have a bit of Texan in us still. 

Grace voluteered to play a piano solo for the ward talent show this year.  It was her first public performance and she did a great job.  She played an arrangement of "Pomp and Circumstance".

Anne also wanted to participate in the ward talent show.  She performed the Harry Potter Theme Song on her kazoo while wearing her Gryffindor robes.

Here are the boys of the family enjoying the talent show and supporting Grace and Anne.

James taught the family home evening lesson  recently.  The topic was eternal families.  He focused on the line, "families should play together often."  So we played super heroes.

I really like that Edwin used an apron for his super cape as he ran through the house with Johnny.

This was a great family night together.

snow and back again

 Grace and Anne got some mini pie tins for Christmas, so we made their favorite pies. Cherry for Grace and pumpkin for Anne. Anne wanted a fancy lattice top to match Grace's

 We had a pretty good snow storm in early february and had some fun playing in the snow. Then it all melted and we thought we might be done for the year.

 Last week we had another good snowstorm and we even built a couple of forts out of the piles of snow from shoveling the driveway. This fort is complete with a tunnel and some neighbor friends.

 John has been getting into more and more things and has even taken his first steps. Here he is getting into the pantry cupboard. You might notice the whole box of animal crackers he spilled in the bottom for easy snacking.

James and mom built this snowman in early February, but within a couple of days it had all melted.

Pre-school Painting

Jennifer has been doing a co-op preschool with a couple of other families. There are two girls and two boys in it. On this day, the other boy couldn't make it. Jen was teaching about fire, fire engines, and fire safety. Here the children are painting their fires. The girls didn't want to get too messy, but James dug right in.