Easter

We did the usual for Easter this year.  We went to church then went to my aunt's house for a yummy lunch, bunny cake decorating, and egg hunting.

All ready for church.

I'm shocked we got a halfway decent family photo.

All the critters eating lunch.

It's not Easter without decorating the bunny cake!

I was a little sad that Ethan wasn't excited about decorating the cake this year.  I had to drag him inside and he only stayed a few minutes.  These critters were our decorators (plus Kai and Ruby).

My main squeeze.  :-)

There might have been more egg thowing than hunting.  Who can resist throwing a confetti egg?  ;-)

This was from the Bunny Brunch at church.  Makes me sad to see that my kids are almost bigger than the Easter bunny!

Soccer Time

T-ball wasn't Caleb's thing.  So we decided to try him in soccer.  He said he wanted to play and we thought we had a friend to sign up with, but unfortunantly they ended up not signing up.  The soccer situation was less than spectacular.  His coach spoke Spanish most of the time since most of the kids on the team were spanish.  Other than Caleb there was only one gringo on the team (well, Caleb is only half I guess).  I kept telling Caleb to listen to his coach and do what he said but Caleb would run up to me and say, "He's speaking Spanish and I don't know what he's saying!"

Also, most of the practices consisted of them playing a game of soccer against each other.  There wasn't really any coaching on the fundamentals of soccer.  All of the kids on the team except Caleb had played before.  It seems that he should've been placed on another team.

Some of the time he trucked along and tried to hang with the other kids.  But most of his time was spent running off the field to sit with me.  It just wasn't a good fit.

Yep, that face pretty much sums up how he felt about soccer.

He made it through about half of the season and then I decided to pull him out.  He wasn't learning anything and was staying frustrated.  It wasn't a positive situation for him to be in. 

He gave a good effort...but soccer just wasn't for him....especially not with that coach.

2nd Grade Open House

Ethan had Open House in April.  I always loved going to Open House as a kid.  He was excited to show us all the things he had been working on all year. 

I liked to look through the folder to see his progression since the beginning of the year.  And his handwriting is much better at school than it is at home.  ;-)

They read a book called Flat Stanley and had a project about it a month or two before Open House.  He created a "Flat Ethan" and got to choose who he wanted to mail it to.  Then that person had to take pictures and write about all the adventures they had with Flat Ethan. 

A special thanks goes to Nick and Hilari for showing Flat Ethan a good time.  He went to a basketball game, played with their dogs, and went to a BBQ.  It was too cute!  Ethan was so excited to read about the adventures he had as Flat Ethan.  ;-)

A Camping We Will Go!

We went camping with the Joyce's last month.  The kids had a great time hanging out with nature.  They went fishing, exploring, and bike riding.  No swimming this time...too cold.  It was nice and warm during the day but the water was definitely not ready for swimming...although they did often beg to swim. 

Thanks for letting us borrow your truck (and your hat) Papa!

The wild bunch.

Caleb and Maddie were so cute playing with their shadows!  Just like Peter Pan and Wendy.  ;-)

They also enjoyed playing with doodle bugs in the dark.

We had one of the worst nights of sleep in the tent.  It was super windy and got really cold.  We had blankets but we were all waking up shivering and our feet were frozen.  We definitely need to get some sleeping bags...or a camper!  But the kids love sleeping in the tent.  We ended up all piled together and used our body heat to keep warm.  It worked really well except our feet were still cold.

Daddy and Ethan fishing. 

Little explorer.

Buddies.

This picture doesn't do the steepness justice.  They hiked down to the water and gave me a heart attack.  Those rocks were super slippery and steep!

"Can we at least put our feet in the water?"

Super sunny and windy!

Found some great sticks while hiking.

Yes, they wanted to take this home...we didn't.

Lunch time.

Tired boys.

We camped in the same spot as last time with this big tree.  The dads helped them climb up for a pic.  Notice Caleb is missing.  He begged all day to climb the tree.  Then once he got up there he freaked and wanted down.....

...then he threw a fit because he wanted back up.  So the look on his face in this picture is half panic half excitement.  Little turkey.

Yep, barely got away from camp and he passed out. 

Caleb lost a tooth!

He came up to me a few days before complaining that his tooth was hurting.  I was thinking "oh great, he has a cavity!" But then I looked in his mouth and his tooth was barely hanging on!  He lost it a few days later while eating a crouton.  Classic Caleb.  ;-)

Ethan's 8th Birthday

Mondo and I were a little done with big birthday parties for the kids so we decided to tone it down a bit this year for Ethan's birthday.  Of course, I don't know if having six 7/8 year old boys under one roof is toning it down.  ;-)  We had a slumber party filled with pizza, sports, and donuts.  He had a really great time.  And I am thankful to my wonderful husband for taking control of all of those boys!  But really, they did great.

Pizza time!

They stayed outside most of the time playing sports.  It was cold and drizzling but they didn't care!

Present time!

...and then some basketball.

Ethan got really into watching "Adam 12" with Papa.  He requested a "One Adam 12" cake (the say 1-Adam-12 over the walkie talkies on the show so that's what he calls it.)

Will, Tyler, Colton, Liam, and Brock.  Great gang of boys!

Yep, that's all they ate!

Playing with new toys.

All tucked in watching Mr. Popper's Penguins.

 

Caleb was a big boy too and wanted to sleep on the floor.  I took him to my bed later because I didn't want him to wake up in the middle of the night and freak out.

Donuts and home made pigs in a blanket for breakfast.  They TORE UP all of those donuts!

More sports!

I was worried about Caleb getting left out but they were all great with him and he had a great time!