Easter weekend

I started off Easter weekend by helping out at the preschool in Alice's class on Friday morning. They needed a hand since they were doing the egg hunt and Easter party that day. They had bought a new bounce house and let the kids play on it while the teachers hid eggs in the classrooms. It was too wet to hide eggs outside. So I helped watch the kids while they were on the bounce house and I ended up needing to go inside to help kids climb up the ladder that leads to the connected slide. It was so loud in there and chaotic. Another teacher was there to help me so at one point we switched places and I helped on the outside. Unfortunately helping inside the bounce house was not good for my back because it got tweaked and hurt the rest of the day and weekend. I was still able to do things though. 

Anyway, it was fun watching the kids do the egg hunt. Each student (there are 12 of them) brought 12 eggs to share for the hunt. After the hunt was over they divided them to make sure everyone got the same number of eggs. I loved that idea! Then they had their snacks and treats. Afterwards, they colored some pictures and had a story about Easter. One thing I love about having Alice at this preschool is because it's at a church they constantly talk about Jesus. They even pray at the beginning of class and before they have their snack/lunch. They also start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm so glad that we spent the extra money to send her to this preschool. The teachers are great and it's been a very positive experience.

Snack time!

At the end of class they get to play with toys. Alice was building a swimming pool with blocks.

Charlotte had stayed home from school on Friday because she was coughing quite a bit. She was able to go to my in laws while I was at the preschool. We used the nebulizer to help her cough. Fortunately it did help and she was doing well enough to go to horse camp on Saturday. They were able to do some riding before it rained. Charlotte made a picture for her craft at camp.

It's a picture of her riding Lucy, her favorite horse at the horse camp. It's pretty much the only horse they use for riding at the camp. She hung this picture on her wall by her bed.

Curtis was going to build our own barn door for our project but did some calculating and discovered it was actually going to cost more to build than to buy a kit. He had to return the hardware he had already bought. The kit he picked out was unpainted so we primed it that day and finished painting during the week.

We'll get a better shot of it after it's hung up but this was our painting station. I had to park outside for a few days.

Curtis had received a gift card recently as a little bonus from his boss so we decided to use it to take our whole family to the movie theater, something we haven't done in a LONG time. We were excited to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie. Well, most of us were excited. Alice was ready to go after we emptied the popcorn bucket. She went with me to refill the popcorn bucket a couple of times during the movie so that helped. The movie was good but unfortunately, I was very disappointed that they felt like they needed to make Dumbledore a gay man. While they didn't show anything inappropriate, not even kissing, it still made me uncomfortable to watch when hearing about two men who were in love with each other. Hollywood is constantly ruining movies that would have otherwise been good by adding stuff like this to it. And the fact that my kids were all there watching it did not help.

Later that night Curtis was working on priming the door and I boiled some eggs for coloring. Curtis had started watching one of the Avenger movies while painting and brought the movie back inside to watch while coloring eggs. My boys have decided that they are done with coloring eggs. They sat and watched the movie instead. Charlotte and Alice didn't need much help and were really getting into it. I boiled 24 eggs to color and they were so fast that they did all but 2 or 3 eggs. By the time I was ready to paint an egg there weren't any left! Curtis was prepping an egg with invisible spots and told me I could finish it. 

Nikki only got to do one egg also and it's the fancy one in front. She painted dots on it with acrylic paint. She wanted to do more eggs but the little girls were too fast.

OH, I almost forgot to mention that on the way home from picking up Charlotte from horse camp we had the discussion about the Easter bunny and Santa, etc. not being real. Her friend from school kept telling her that they weren't real and so she had been asking us about it. We decided it was time. She took it very well. We even told her that now she gets to be on the rotation for being a helper. That night she helped hide 2 of the 4 baskets (Nikki didn't want one this year). After we told Charlotte she thought about when we were at the cabin and asked if grandpa was Santa. "It couldn't have been Dad because he was up taking pictures of Santa". Yep, she guessed right. Smart girl! I have to admit I am relieved that she knows now because she's getting to the age where she's asking more questions and figuring things out. And I know it's supposed to be in good fun to have our kids believe in these characters but part of me always feels a little guilty for lying about it. But if you think of it as pretending, the same way the girls pretend when they play, then it's not so bad.

We were up around 7:30am Sunday morning. Alice was the first one to look for her basket but it took her awhile. She gave away the location of Garrett's basket. Oops! I think the "Easter Bunny" did really well this year though as far as gifts in the basket. They were given some chocolate and their own craft kit. 

Mustang car model to build and paint. He loves it!

Bead pets. They are bead animals/objects that hang on a keychain.

Alice got a no sew fleece blanket. 

Jack loves Dr. Pepper and Coke so he got a classic Coca Cola car.

They all started their projects before church since we had time. Garrett was probably the most excited about his project. He says he has a new hobby now.

Lots of little pieces to glue onto that tiny engine.

She made a kitten and a lizard.

We went to church like normal that day but the unusual part was after Sacrament Meeting we all stayed in the chapel (after a 5 min break) where there was a video presentation that included church videos of Christ's resurrection and also video testimonies from our missionaries serving from our ward, which were three. After the video we all proceeded to the gym to have a linger longer with a veggie tray, cookies, milk and water. And we just walk around and visit each other. It was nice.

Later in the afternoon we invited a couple of neighbor kids over for the young kids to do an Easter egg hunt. We had about 50 eggs and our girls don't need that many. But at the end we did what the preschool did and divided them up as close as possible. It was an odd number. Then there's no complaining and everyone's happy.

Bryston, Alice, Brooklyn, Charlotte

Our Easter dinner consisted of steak, hot dogs, pasta salad, deviled eggs and green salad. We took advantage of the nice weather and ate outside on our picnic table. It all tasted good!

Even the cats ate their wet food outside with us.

We ended the day with watching Relative Race together in the family room. We brought Alice's blanket from the front room so we could work on it. Charlotte was getting into helping but unfortunately I had to fix several rows where something wasn't quite right and so she decided to just let me do it. Alice didn't care who did it, she was just anxious for it to get made. I guess she's not quite ready for this type of craft.

Alice and Charlotte at least got to pick where the picture adhesives would go on the quilt. She loves it!

It was a great Easter and nice to just spend time together as a family at our own home for a change.

Making some changes

 April is off to a bang. Right after spring break was over Alice had a field trip with the preschool to the Nampa Public Library. When we have field trips with preschool that means that parents are supposed to come with them to help supervise the kids. They gave a tour around the first floor, which is the kids floor, and we even got to go back and see the conveyor belts where the books are returned and sorted into the corresponding bins. It was neat. Then they had story time with the kids, did a craft and played with some toys.

They are building with giant magnets.

The craft was making this owl mask.

The very next day was Charlotte's first day going to horse camp at Harvey Horse Camps in Kuna. She loved it! I was able to get a picture of her standing next to one of many horses they had in their stable before I left. She told me she got to ride a horse bare back today for the first time. Of course someone was there to lead the horse around. Charlotte loved it so much that she was telling me on the ride home that she wants to live there. 

Curtis also decided to start the task of widening our doorway that leads from the dining room to the hallway of the family room. We had a very difficult time moving couches back there a few months ago and so something needed to be done. After removing the old door and doing some cutting we added 5 inches of space. Of course when we put on the trim it won't be that much extra but still at least 3 maybe 4 inches wider than before. We will also be replacing the door with a sliding barn door. We finished the doorway just yesterday. Next step is making the door and hanging it.

We were able to reuse some of the old trim. The brown trim is new.

We both painted it together. On Saturday we did primer and one coat of paint. Then I did the 2nd coat of paint yesterday morning.

After work yesterday Curtis did the caulking to fill in the cracks.

Ta da! The doorway is done. Next, build the door!

The same day of conference after Charlotte got back from horse camp I later took the girls and Garrett on a walk near our neighborhood. We walked in front of the Sands Point neighborhood which is next door to ours. There was no water yet so the girls had fun exploring on the rocks.

Sitting where the waterfall would be.

It was like going on a hike. They even crawled through the short pipes that went under the sidewalk. They had so much fun exploring down there.

Well, that very same evening Charlotte got a little stomach bug. Thank goodness we were able to stay home and watch conference the next day. She was feeling good on Sunday. We went until Tuesday before Alice and Nikki both got sick. Nikki's started as a sore throat for a couple of days, then stuffy nose and then late Tuesday night she puked 3 times. She was in so much pain from the combo of puking and having menstrual cramps that I thought I might need to take her to the ER. I said several silent prayers while I sat out there with her in the front room. Thankfully the thought to get a heat pad came to my mind and eventually she settled down and was able to go to sleep. The next day she felt better but Garrett stayed home with his stomach hurting.

Garrett's stomach was hurting Thursday morning as well so he stayed home again. I thought he was going to miss his jazz band concert. He never did throw up and then felt good in the afternoon so we went ahead and took him to the concert. He felt even better after having gotten out of the house for the concert.

He got to wear his new hat. 

With all the sickness last week I went around cleaning doorknobs, light switches, etc. Then I decided to try again on cleaning my bathroom floor. There was a dirt and hairspray build up that has been getting worse all the time. I had tried cleaning it years before but couldn't get it off. Well, I had the thought to try the bleach cleaning spray but to let it sit for at least 10 minutes before scrubbing. It worked! The floor looks so much better. I hadn't intended on cleaning the whole bathroom floor that day but once I got started I couldn't stop. I cleaned the trim around the walls as well. It looks so much better! The only problem is I couldn't get the yellow spots off the floor that are under our rug. I tried lots of different things for that but nothing worked. Our kids' bathroom used to have a yellow spot almost as bad but when I started hanging the rugs up on the tub and letting the sunshine in, eventually the yellow went away (mostly). Unfortunately, my bathroom never gets direct sunlight through the window. I'm still hoping that maybe more light and air will help the coloring. We'll see.

The lighter square next to the dark area is the first square I tested. Above that is where the rug usually is and you can see the yellow.

So excited to finally get this gunk off the floor!

The trick is to let it sit and soak so that it can work.

This picture was during my experiments for trying to clean the yellow spots but you can see the rest of the floor that I already scrubbed to get the darker stuff off from the hairspray and dirt.

After rescheduling several times I finally had my appointment with Melissa to do my hair. I decided I was ready to try some color in my hair again and wanted highlights. I haven't had color in my hair for probably 10 years. I also decided that since I was there I would have her give me a trim as well. 

The before shots:

I took some pics a couple days before so I could see the color of my hair and try to decide what I wanted to do.

Here's the before at Paul Mitchell school.

It took a lot longer than I expected it to take but I guess that makes sense since it is a school and Melissa is just learning. Not to mention I have a lot of long hair. I was there from 8:30am to about 2pm.

The after shots:

I decided to have Melissa straighten my hair since I haven't done that in a long time and since it would be easier to see the highlights.

And here it is with the curl. Sometimes I'm not sure about all the blonde because it looks like too much but I do like it!

I couldn't forget to post about the pinewood derby that Jack participated in last week at mutual. Garrett and Nikki were sick that day so they weren't able to go and their cars weren't ready yet (and it was a combined activity). Jack was funny because he was trying to lose on purpose. He put next to no effort into designing his car. The only rule that night was that the car had to weigh 5 oz or less. Jack's car weighed 4.7oz. and the only thing he and Curtis did was spray some lubricant on his wheels. Apparently the lubricant was all he needed. He ended up getting 4th place! 😂 I think if he had made it weigh 5 oz he could have won. It was cool to hear that girls won 1st and 3rd place. We weren't there to watch but we heard stories later about Nikki's friend Logan getting the crowd to cheer for "the block" which was Jack's car. Wish I could have been there to witness it but it's fun to hear about it.

He wrote "Team Failure" on both sides with a sharpie.