Strawberry Obsession

Demzi has taken her strawberry obsession to a new level. She has always loved them but I love finding all her new strawberry artwork. 

She had to do a "how to" presentation in school and did hers on "how to draw a strawberry." 

She has also nicknamed herself "Strawberry Demzi" and signs her papers this way.

I love it!

Spring Snow Storm

When Harvey saw it was snowing when he went to bed he got so excited and told me that when he woke up he was going to build a snowman. I told him that it was just a spring storm and we wouldn't get that much. We were all surprised the next morning to see we had a few inches, one of our best storms this year. It was great packing snow too. Knowing the snow was not going to last we made sure we got out there in the morning to build our first snowman this year. It melted by lunch time but Harvey was so excited to just be able to build a snowman and play in the snow (something we have seriously missed this winter).

Jordan River Temple Open House

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the temple open house bright and early (our tickets were for 8). I love the temple open houses. I love the peace of the temple and I love to be able to share that with my kids.

Thompson Egg Hunt

Friday night we met up with my family for the Easter egg hunt. We had it at the church since it was cold and rainy that night. We started out with yummy breakfast for dinner and then we hid eggs and turned everyone loose.

During the egg hunt I figured I could help my kids/take pictures or look for money eggs. This year I found $50 which means I didn't get any pictures (except of dad's face when Ryan found the $100) and my kids were all left to fend for themselves. Luckily they all did alright for themselves, I ended up sharing with Tad and my dad shared with Demzi. 

After everything had been found spent the rest of the time just enjoying being together it was a great way to end our spring break.

Wrinkle In Time

Friday morning we met up with my family to go see Wrinkle in Time. The kids were excited to be able to hang out with cousins again and see a movie before it comes out to rent (we're cheap like that). We were all really excited to see Wrinkle in Time, too since it's one of our favorite books. We all came out wondering if we would like it better if we hadn't ever read the book and I think the answer is yes. We were just comparing too much, although my boys who hadn't read the book liked it.

Funtopia

Wednesday after the hike we headed home to get stuff done/nap before going to Funtopia in the afternoong. My kids love climbing here and are constantly asking to go. I wasn't sure if it was worth paying for Harvey or not but ended up having a coupon for a free hour so figured I would let him try it out. He didn't love it. He is still light enough that the ropes kind of hold him up off the ground and he didn't like floating so much. He did try a couple of walls (he will tell you he climbed a giraffe and a dinosaur) before deciding he would rather just stack the blocks.  Everyone else ran from one thing to the next making the best use of their hour climbing. If it had been up to them they all would have loved to stay for another hour but reservations were full so we were forced to be done.

Battle Creek Falls Hike

Wednesday morning was supposed to be a little warmer so we met up with Alicia and went for a little hike. I barely saw my older kids the whole time since they all ran ahead with Alicia's kids.

Harvey was fine walking but was going so slow and Max was more than a handful. I ended up going back to the car to get the backpack for Harvey to ride in. I couldn't carry him and fight Max. Max doesn't do well being behind people and spent the first half of the hike barking spastically. Luckily he got mellower as we went.

By the way down I was finally feeling a lot more in control of things. Luckily the kids had tons of fun despite how stressed I felt.

Zoo with Bensons

Monday of spring break Heather, Holly, Steph and I planned on meeting at the zoo. It was a little chillier than we had anticipated but ended up being the perfect day to go. We were able to see all of the animals and they were so active (we got a little bit more of an education than we bargained for at the gorillas).  It would have been nice to be a littler bit warmer but because of the cooler temperatures we didn't have to fight the crowds, which is why we have so many pictures of the kids. It got towards the end and they would see another statue and yell, "Picture!" and go arrange themselves. We made it through most everything by lunch time, ate our packed lunches and then finished up by going to see the elephants before heading home. By the time we were ready to go the wind had started gusting pretty hard. We were glad the weather held up while we were there.

Sunday Walk Around the Lake

Our between conference sessions walk around the lake to see the turtles.

Random March

Harvey woke up from his nap one day and asked if we were going to go to "alligator zoo." When I told him no he was very put out.

Tad's picture of the Lorax from Dr Seuss's birthday

Tad has the best hair, it holds it's shape so well! I sometimes like to play with it and pretend that I'm going to send him to school like this.

Harvey woke up from his nap with some amazing bedhead. I love when his curls start showing. He was so tired when he woke up he was pretty out of it.

My kids found one of our old baby ties and decided that Max needed to get ready for church too. He didn't seem to mind it either, I think he kept it on the entire day. I finally took it off and my kids were so disappointed.

Liam's St. Patrick's Day picture.

The St. Patrick's day cup stacking triggered a weekend of nonstop cup stacking. The kids were table to use all the cups and make one giant stack.

Benson Egg Hunt

We had the Benson egg hunt after the Saturday afternoon session of conference.  We started with the egg hunt. Harvey was so excited about it this year, he had been asking for weeks when he got to find eggs. He sometimes skipped over the candy that was just laying in the grass but for the most part was able to do his thing without any help.

After the egg hunt we had dinner and then let the kids play while we hung out and the guys went upstairs to watch the priesthood session. It was so fun to be able to just hang out and relax.

Egg Dying

I found the best egg dying kit this year. You squirt the dye into a ziploc back with rice in it. Then you put the egg in the bag and move it around. No splashing/spilling dye, it took so much of the stress out of this activity. The eggs turned out really pretty and speckly it was a lot of fun.