Easter Weekend: A Day on the Farm

This year we traveled out to the Myrick homestead to color our Easter eggs this year. Jonah has entered a phase where you can tell he's not having that much fun. When you snap photos, it shows. Katie John is having a great time though. She colored many patterned and colorful eggs.
Keira and Sariah did the most eggs. John helped out so that Keira didn't get colored herself. All during the day a big bonfire was burning the extra orchard sticks. We spent a while sitting around the fire, even roasting some marshmallows YUM! Julie grabbed my camera from me and took this nice photo of Katie John in the grass near the fire.

Lucas and I are having a fun time! At this point I think we'd watched the men (Jesse, John, Jonathan and Shaun) attempt a few catapult launches. There is always an element of excitement and danger when you see grown boys dangling from 30 feet up in the air trying to swing the arm of the catapult down for the next launch.
Julie (still with my camera) took the girls to the field next door where some baby goats lived. The baby goats were very cute and loved to nibble hair.


Look how cute, all looking the same direction. It's harder than you think to get a kid to cooperate. I had a fun time looking through about 150 photos and I have yet to watch the two videos. I guess I should do that.
Jonah and Mason have fallen into the starcraft hole.

Grandma Betty came out for a visit and we got this cute picture with her holding all the babies. Lucas is about 3 1/2 months old, Sofia and Caleb are about 8 months. A behind the scenes photo would have been hilarious as we all tried to get the babies to look and smile.

Sariah and Keira wrap up our day with a fun photo near the bonfire. We had a great time!

Laundry Day

Lucas was helping me with laundry today. I do a LOT of laundry. We took this picture document all the fun we were having!

The Zoo 2

Spring break is notoriously hard for me to organize fun things for the kids. This year it came quite naturally after we started the week off with a fun birthday party for Jonah with Mason and Max unexpectedly spending the night for added fun. Christina came Tuesday night to pick up her boys and Jonah for a few days of running and leaping at her house. Also on Tuesday Katie John had a playdate with her friend Lauren who had just gotten a baby guinea pig. Katie John also had a scheduled playdate on Wednesday with her friend Norena. That left me with two small girls and a baby in need of something to do. The zoo seemed like the perfect thing.
By going earlier in the day than our last zoo visit we were able to see a few more animals. The orangutans were out and playing. The otter was running around and we could actually see the bongos. Sariah is doing a school project on the Red Ruffed Lemur so we were hoping to see one. Sadly they only had Black and White Ruffed Lemurs. She wanted to so badly to draw a picture of one.
For a special treat we rode the merry-go-round. Both girls had a blast!
Now, this whole time Lucas was being toted from one enclosure to the next without really caring about the animals. He slept a lot. After the merry-go-round he was wide awake. Recently he's learned he has a tongue. It's quite cute seeing him constantly stick it out. So while we rested in the shade from our long walk we laughed and took pictures of this cute boy.

This was a fun opportunity to spend time with just my two smaller girls and Lucas. It's not often we have time for such activities during the busy school schedule. Spring break this year so far is full of fun, what will we do with the rest of our week?

Jonah turns 11

I can't believe our little boy is getting so big! It seems like life is really flying by! Jonah has been looking forward to this birthday party for a long time. We planned a big bowling and laserX birthday. He was able to invite 5 friends: Mason, Max, Jacob, Mitchell and Joey. Since his birthday landed during spring break we were able to have the party on his actual birthday. The boys arrived and then zipped off to the bowling alley. They played for about an hour, poor Jonah came in last with a score of just 63. It seemed that the boys preferred the laser tag game and talked about it non-stop when they came back. The off-site activities took longer than expected so I had to contact parents and let them know to come later to pick up their boy(s). We quickly lit the candles and then sang happy birthday.
Jonah was very happy with his bowling cake and did his best to blow out the strategically far apart candles on the first try. Happy Birthday Jonah! We are blessed to have you in our family!

Backyard Campfire

On a whim I decided that we needed to have a backyard bbq - camping style. I gathered a bunch of small sticks that had littered our yard for too long. It was time for them to go. Starting the fire was pretty easy and soon we had a good little fire going.
I showed the kids how to sharpen their sticks with a pocketknife. After everyone got going with their hot dogs, I was able to throw a couple of hamburgers on. Yum! There is nothing as tasty as a fire toasted hamburger!
The kids roasted quite a few hot dogs and then ran off to play a game of Frisbee. John, Jonah and Katie John ran back and forth playing for quite a while. Jonah is caught here (pictured above) leaping for the Frisbee with much enthusiasm. The small Frisbee is hard to see, it's that little white blip right in front of his hands.
Keira, Sariah and Lucas sit to the side playing in the green grass. As soon as the sun seemed to be going down we got out the marshmallows and started roasting. I love marshmallows! And roasted ones are even better! What a fun backyard adventure we had today, we should definitely do this more.

Grammy and Grandpa Visit

Yay! Grammy and Grandpa are in town for a fun visit. They have come to meet, hug, cuddle and laugh with Lucas.
A fun filled outing to John's Incredible Pizza was full of opportunity for fun. An indoor roller coaster, Twister, arcade games and an indoor playground were all part of our adventure. The kids had a blast, literally running from activity to activity. Grammy and Grandpa sure know how to have fun!
During our down time we had a nail day. Grammy is pictured painting Sariah's nails. Everyone that wanted got paint and decals.
Grammy's visit continues with a trip to the zoo. We haven't been in years. Check it out, Keira has an "enormous" wingspan!
The giraffe paddock... look at all the happy faces!

A trip to In-n-Out is always on the to-do list when anyone from Washington comes into town.
As always we are glad when family come into to town to visit us. We love getting hugs and getting to hear all the news in person. Thank you Grammy and Grandpa for the entertaining visit! We love you!

San Juan Sings! West 2011

Katie John is in choir this year. She has been practicing lots of songs for this performance which included 11 other schools.
What was your favorite song? "The star-spangled banner was my favorite song."
How many kids were there? "Like about 200 kids."
Do you like singing in the choir? "Yes! It is really fun."

This performance took place at Arcade Church. It was amazing to see all these kids singing first separately, then together. I enjoyed the whole performance.

Lucas and his Invisible Friend

Lucas is a very special baby indeed! He has a "special friend" that only he can see. This phenomenon has been witnessed by our family and only just a few visitors over the last few months. I can't exactly say when it started happening... maybe a month or so ago. He would consistently stare at our back door and just giggle. We don't use that door very much, especially in the winter. So we were confused at first, wondering why he chose to watch the door, it wasn't going to open. Watching him look lazily around the room and then lock on the same spot on the door each time, laughing and giggling for sometimes several minutes. It's quite amazing! We imagine that he has a special angel looking out for him. An angel with a sense of humor! Recently he's looked to the door less and less. So this was my chance to try to catch it on film. The above picture is him actually smiling at his angel. There is no kid off frame dancing a jig to get him smiling. Just a plain white door.

Spring Pictures

School fall pictures: didn't buy them.
JC Penny's: didn't go.
Now it's spring: drats.

Jonah seems to be growing taller by the minute!
My hopes are to get all five kids done in the next week!

Cousins

Mason, Jonah and Max pause for a picture at my Dad's birthday party. Today was an early day out at school so we were able to attend the party that evening all the way out at my mom's house. Happy Birthday Daddy!

Green Day

Every year for St. Patrick's Day the kids dress up in green. At school they get a special "green" ticket to spend on special prizes at the end of the school year. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Boy

Lucas is a fast growing boy! This is a 3-month outfit that I put on him today and quickly realized that today would be the only day he'll fit this outfit. He has so many cutesie outfits to wear, I had to dig to find this one in the bottom of his drawer. We are just now 2 months old and growing pudgier each day. With the limited wearing options, I decided to have a photo shoot with him and his "happy" outfit. How cute is he, with his fun new smile?

One of My Creations

I've been looking for cute apron patterns on and off over the years. Recently I came across a pattern full of retro aprons that I liked, so I bought it. This cute apron I made from that pattern for my visiting teachers' daughter. When I was shopping for the material, I saw an example of this apron. I chatted with one of the ladies that works there (I know her from church) and she showed me how she'd had trouble with the flounce and improvised a fix. It's always nice to see a finished product. Knowing that I already had the pattern, I felt compelled to attempt it. As always it takes me a bit to understand the sewing instructions. About the 5th time through, and a day later, it finally dawned on me how to attach the flounce the way the instructions intended! It was truly a light bulb moment. It was so clear! Why didn't I understand it before?
Anyway I finally got it all put together in time for her wedding shower. Isn't the material fun? I even improvised and stitched bright blue (matching of course) thread around every edge. I am very happy with how it turned out. Now... if I could only get it together to make myself one!

Matthews' Boys

John and his two boys! I thought this was a fun picture that documents the handsome men in my life!

Cute

The girls wanted to take a picture with month and a half old Lucas. What cute kids!