New house

Two weekends ago M&D went on a short trip by themselves and left C and myself with friends for the night.  Just as they were getting ready to leave, Uncle B stopped by with a new house for C and me.    So when M&D got back early Sunday afternoon, they raced to the house to wash the house and set it up for us before we came home.

After a good washing, the house needed to dry before it was put together.

The finished product, with a brand new bench to sit on.

M&D were so excited to bring us home and surprise us.  What they didn't realize is that I had a surprise for them at home.  Uncle B told us he had dropped off a house and I was ready to show M&D Uncle B's house in the backyard!

C and I trying out the house.....

and the bench.

Sisterly love.

 

We even had visitors that first afternoon.  C is welcoming them into the house--If you look closely, it is up on the roof.

A closer look.

As M laid on the grass enjoying the sunlight, she watched the 15 or so butterflies flying around the branches of the willow tree as we played underneath.

Gymnastics

Ever since my gymnastics class ended last year I've been begging M to let me go again.  In the fall the class times were not convenient for M as they were in the middle of the afternoon.  She finally told me that she would check down in the valley and see if something would be available on a Saturday morning.  At the end of April I was finally able to go to my new gymnastics class.  I have so much fun.  I actually get to do bars, jump on a trampoline, slide down into a pit full of foam and do all sorts of other fun things.

 

Below is one of the tumbling routines I was learning.  We even get to swing on a big rope at the end!

I won't be able to go all summer, but come fall M has already thought about maybe putting C in also.

Easter eggs

Saturday afternoon we dyed eggs so that they could be hid the next morning after church. It took us a little bit of time as we had an egg mishap the first time we boiled the eggs. Aunt M was teaching M the proper way to boil eggs and so preceded to tell her that after rinsing them in cold water, you need to shake the pan to crack the eggs so they are even easier to peel. M wasn't quite quick enough to stop her by saying, "But not until after we dye them!!" So we had to get more eggs to dye, but we had really good egg salad Saturday night and deviled eggs Sunday dinner so it wasn't ruined at all!

L being a goof ball!!

All ready to dye that egg blue. You have to get above the egg to really get a good view!

Focused on coloring that egg just right.
Didn't we do a pretty job with all our eggs?
Easter morning we woke to find our Easter baskets on the table.
The whole group ready to search for eggs.
Wearing your basket around your neck like a pretty necklace keeps the hands free for finding eggs. However, once the basket gets full, the eggs keep falling out when leaning over, so the verdict is probably not the best method!
What a great example of teamwork!
Finding that egg hidden in the foundation.

L had to really climb in the bushes to reach the very last egg.

Counting the eggs to make sure that all of them were found. We did have to go back out to find 3 hard-boiled eggs that were really well hidden.

Playing in the park

For Easter we made a quick trip up to MN to stay with Uncle S and Aunt S. It took almost all day to drive on Thursday, so on Friday we went to the park in the morning to run off some energy. After driving to find pizza, we went to the nearby state park to go on a hike and check out some camping spots for a planned family reunion this summer.
Saturday we went again to the park to hang out and run off some energy. We took Aunt M with us also.

Back at the house, there was other games going on in the living room.

Family pictures

We took family pictures a few weeks ago. Because S&S live so far away, we decided we could photo-shop them in.

So when we went to see them at Easter, we had to have them poise for their family picture.

Since pictures were being taken, C and I decided to get in on the action. A friend let us borrow pretty hats and dresses for Easter. As C says, "A pretty dress makes you a princess everyday!"We even let Leif take a picture with us.

D and Uncle S also took their picture in front of the house.

Since the brothers took a picture, the sisters had to take one also.What a wonderful family.

Easter Sunday morning.....hanging out on the rails.

Going crazy....

On Saturday, D told us after lunch that we were going to go crazy. Last weekend, that meant getting ice cream, but yesterday D&M had different plans for us. We went out to the event center and found a castle on ice and dancing stars!

C and I shared a snow cone in a fish and some popcorn in souvenir buckets while we watched all our favorite friends dancing on ice.

The Grand Finale!

It was a great afternoon of going crazy!

Enjoying the show. We clapped after every song and danced to the music.

Bouncy castles

Saturday morning we went to a friend's birthday party at a bouncy castle gym. It was lots of fun. There were 3 castles, 2 slides, four game stations, a climbing wall and a playhouse for the littler kids.

C was a little afraid of the bigger kids, but she found a few castles to bounce in.

It was a sibling birthday. 2, 4 and 6 within 3 weeks of each other. The older two were friends at Y school with me last year and weekend playmates now that they've moved down to the valley.

It was a great birthday party.

Green Patrick's Day

On St. Patrick's Day, we decided to eat all things green. M added food coloring to our pizza dough. C and I helped her roll out the green pizza.

Our finished product! D ate it without looking at his piece because he said it looked like mold, but it tasted really good.

Since it was such a beautiful day outside, we had a picnic lunch outside. Can you believe it....70+ degrees on St. Patrick's day?

For supper M made us green eggs and D grilled ham steaks.

The day started off with us enjoying our backyard and the balloon that happened to be in the neighborhood.

C's favorite show lately is Dora. She loves stopping Swiper from taking all of Dora's stuff.

The week leading up to St. Patrick's Day we made lots of green things at school. The teachers also reminded us to wear green so that we wouldn't get pinched. With all the emphasis on green, I misunderstood what the name of the day was.
So happy Green Patrick's Day everyone!

Big Girl Bed

C is trying to transition to her big girl bed. It is quite exciting, so sometimes when she gets out of bed too many times, she ends up back in her crib. But she is trying and begs most nights to start out in the big girl bed.
On the down hill side of sleeping in the crib.
The first complete night of sleeping in the big girl bed.

I was helping C get used to her bed.

Aqua Sand

For my birthday last summer, I got a art project called Aqua sand. We finally got it out to play. M was really awed by it. She can't explain how it works, but it is really cool. The sand repels water. So when it floats on top the sand is still dry. When you get it down into the sand, the sand sticks together and the water forms pillars around it. Very cool.

C and I have some fun times playing with it, because once we get done dumping it into the water and building different sand dunes, you just dump the water and collect the sand to reuse.