Charlotte's Web

I'm very behind in blogging! A few weeks ago we went to a play with our homeschool group. It was a wonderful rendition of Charlotte's Web. We read the book right before. The girls loved the play!

Mia wanted her friend Claire in the picture.

Right outside the building there was a cool serpent structure to play on. It was a bit nippy outside so we only played for about 10 minutes.

Our next play is Fancy Nancy (Anna's favorite book) in May!

Busy Busy Sunday

What a busy but fun day! We started out by going to 9:30 AM mass. After that we headed to the park as there was a nice breeze and it was perfect for kite flying. In spring it is usually calm or furiously windy around here so we had to take advantage.

Somehow I only got a picture of the kite string, but not the kite! The kites went up really high with very little effort.

We also brought their clubs and foam golf balls for practice.

After about an hour at the park we headed home for lunch. After lunch we were off to a Masters party. Dan watched the golf tournament, Anna ate, Mia played Minecraft with the boys and I visited with some friends.

After about an hour and half there we headed to a drum show.

We learned about the origins of drums (Africa) and how the technology traveled around the world and changed. I love theses monthly programs where the kids get to participate.

After the show we had a bit of drive to visit the new puppies!!

This was our first time seeing them in person. In two weeks we get to go back and pick ours!

After the puppy visit we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then headed home. The girls were EXHAUSTED.

Arizona

A few weekends ago we decided to make one last winter trip to somewhere warm. We chose Phoenix this time. It was not the brightest choice with Spring Training and Spring Break in full swing! Most hotels were already filled and airline tickets were pricey. But we had credits on Southwest we had to use soon or they would expire so the flights ended up being free. The hotel we finally found with vacancy was a Hilton resort, and a little past its prime. But it had a pool and that was pretty much our only non-negotiable. The service at the hotel ended up being some of the best we have ever had!

Mia found a grasshopper on the balcony and spent a lot of time catching and playing with it.

Every night we ordered Room Service for dinner. The prices were really reasonable ($8) for a kid's plate and really healthy. Mia and Anna ordered the salmon, asparagus and mashed potatoes dinner all three nights. All five of my kids have been big salmon lovers. It was great not having to sit in a restaurant with kids exhausted from swimming!

We spent most of our days the same way: going out for breakfast, playing in the pool and then relaxing in the room watching T.V. We did venture out once to a park where they chased pigeons and drank smoothies.

I think this was our very first vacation with the girls where there was no event or family member to visit. It was just nice spending time together.

Ramblings

Another random post is here! You can read about a bunch of unconnected items happening in our life.

The last week we have all had a sort of mini-flu, except for Anna. I am really hoping I didn't pass it along to Paige.

This weekend we watched Maks so Becky and Arek could go on a baby moon. I had never heard the term before which puts me over a certain age. But not as old as my daughter might think. As I was tucking Mia in the other night she asked for a story about when I was a little girl. It started like this.

"When I was young I rode my bike to school." Then she interrupted me.

"Why didn't you take the horse and carriage?"

Seriously!!!????

Back to the weekend. I told you it would be random.

There was robot-making fun.

And a cute picture of Maks eating off his new tractor plate with his cool shades.

We just finished reading Rumpelstiltskin when we stopped by our library to drop off some books. And as if someone in the universe knew this would be a random post, a lady was spinning wool into yarn right there. She was not in the library, but by the book drop.

We left the creepy random spinning wheel(I still don't know why it was there) and headed to another county's library for a Ninja class. It was totally lame.

They made swords.

They also fished little ninjas out of popcorn. I asked what the popcorn represented and I got a blank stare. Popcorn, I guess. ???? She did say it was all about chopsticks after I looked confused.

They did have to go through a maze made of tape after which they could use their swords to stab their victim. Hmmm, my bad. I should have looked up the definition of ninja before we signed up.

A ninja (忍者?) or shinobi (忍び?) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, and open combat in certain situations.[1] Their covert methods of waging war contrasted the ninja with the samurai, who observed strict rules about honor and combat.

Okay, onto the next random thing. Mia is starting to read to Anna. It is so cute. And Mia is reading well enough that she is holding Anna's attention. Win, win. Mia gets reading practice and Anna gets listening practice.

So I was wrong. Beth's labor was not 47 hours, merely 43. Snicker. You can read all about it here.

And lastly, I just had a professional treatment at Anna and Mia's Beauty Spa.

Not exactly the pedicure I was thinking about getting for our trip to Arizona Thursday. I might have to tweak it a bit.

Was that random enough?

More Trip Pics

Tomorrow I go home. I miss everyone back in Colorado! Here are a few more pics from the trip.

Paige is ready to go grocery shopping.

This little hold gets her to stop crying every time.

Grandma Berta comes to visit.

Alfred is not numero uno anymore.

Enjoying my last 24 hours here. We just came back from a walk in the beautiful Seattle sunshine.

Saint Patrick's Day

I am in Seattle visiting this little munchkin.

She is so cute! I went with Beth to Paige's two week check up and everything is great. She is at her birthweight now and so she doesn't need to be woken up every three hours to feed. (So glad this was not the practice when I was having babies.) Dan and Becky are holding down the fort at home!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I was to have a Saint Patrick's Day coop at my house today, but instead had it last week.

We made a fruit kabob rainbow.

Then we made green "ice Cream" with frozen bananas, yogurt and spinach. They all loved it! Everyone was brave enough to eat spinach. Then they asked for more and more when they realized the spinach didn't change the taste but just made it green.

I read a book on the origins of Saint Patrick and we talked about leprechauns. We sang a leprechaun song and then we found clues he left all over the house. After much investigation we found his pot of gold! But alas, we didn't catch him. :(

We played with green play dough.

And everyone created a picture craft. We painted rainbows with our fingers and made shamrocks with potato stamps. A little glitter to our pots made them look like they were filled with gold. I still have glitter all over the sun room!

I was glad everyone was able to make it with the date change. It was a Saint Patrick's Day to remember.

Father Daughter Dance

Saturday night Dan took the girls to the Father Daughter dance. He met up with Stel and Lorelei there. The girls were very excited to see Lorelei go to the dance.

This was the first time taking two girls and Dan was a little tuckered out when he got home.

The theme was... surprise! Frozen! Was there no other movie made in the past two years?????

Anyway, a great time was had by all, especially Michelle and I who went out for a girls night!