"Practice" Easter egg hunt

Saturday (3/22) we woke up to a few inches of snow...couldn't believe it. We had planned to take the kids to one of the many Easter egg hunts in town, but we weren't sure if that would be a good idea with the snow and cold or not. We changed our plans and decided to go to one at 11:00 (instead of 1:00) and it worked out GREAT!!! The church that put this one on did a great job! The shoveled out an area for the egg hunt, and had 5 or 6 different egg hunts based on ages. They also had free cotton candy, popcorn, and snow cones (funny to see those with snow all over too!). And there were carnival games and bouncing inflatables too! What a fun time! The kids played a few games, ate a few treats and then it was time for Ryan's egg hunt. He did good, got a few eggs and then told Chris "I have enough eggs"!! :) About 20 minutes later Hailey got to go. She said the same thing too...and we didn't want to get in where there were kids pushing and shoving for eggs. When we got back to our spots, she did share some of her eggs with her friend too that didn't get as many as she did (ahhh...what a nice friend you were Hailey!!). It was fun...and the kids enjoyed themselves. They were now ready for Easter Sunday!!!

First there were some games....


Then, Hailey waiting or her turn at the eggs!! and look at all the eggs they had! The church provided over 14,000 eggs for the hunt!!


Ryan during his egg hunt (with Chris); Hailey getting some eggs; sorting candy and toys after we got home (they actually didn't mind putting their stuff together!!).

Swimming update

I just have to brag again about Hailey...and swimming lessons. So, she started level 3 two weeks ago at Rocky College. She didn't want to go to level 3...she likes the level 2 teachers and is comfortable there. We finally talked her into trying it. The first night was hard!! She didn't want to do things, didn't know HOW to do things, and there were 14 kids there instead of 8-10! So, it was a mess and she didn't want to continue. She tried it again on Thursday and did much better and was DIVING too!! Last week she made even more improvements. They make the kids swim across the width of the pool. Hailey has only gone a little ways before so I was very nervous for this. Wouldn't you know...our little princess did GREAT!!! She almost made it the whole way, but got a little off course. She didn't give up though...kept going, took a break with her teacher, and then swam back to the edge! I am very proud of her and it is so much fun watching her grow and learn how to swim so good!! :) Keep up the good work sweetie!!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

After all the cookie decorating we still had to make time to dye the Easter eggs on Friday night (3/21). We thought we had enough eggs with 3 dozen...but they sure get done FAST!!!!!! The kids both had fun...and so did the adults. Ryan was spilling and splashing dye all over the place, but it was still a good time!! Hailey was drawing on her eggs with the crayon, dyeing the eggs 2 or even 3 colors, and adding stickers. She likes to "bling" her eggs to the max!! :)


Don't these look GREAT?!?! :)


A little video from Ryan during the egg dyeing process....

and one from Hailey too (talking a little "babyish" I might add too).

Easter cookies

Another holiday...another set of Easter cookies to decorate!!! :) We attempted to decorate St. Patrick's Day and Easter cookies at the "big house" but never got the time to do that...so those cookies went in the garbage can. The kids spend Thursday night (3/20) at Doug & Doran's since their daycare was closed on Friday (3/21). Doran had made the cookies before, and the kids got to help make the frosting, decorate the cookies, and of course taste a few things too! :) Ryan didn't last too long. It was too nice out (not that nice...but nice enough for HIM!) to stay inside (he wanted to swing, play basketball, etc). Hailey stayed inside and helped. She is quite the decorator now! Requesting frosting in bags with different tips (my aunts would be so proud of her too!!). She just loves it :)

Here is Hailey with one of her special cookies...a tulip. And, the second picture is of the 5 cookies that Ryan helped with, and the last picture are the ones that Hailey did.

St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

This has to be one of my favorite little holidays with the kids!! We always have green shirts to wear (and check out their socks too this year!!) and of course a super fun GREEN breakfast!!! This year they had green muffins, green scrambled eggs, green grapes, and green apple juice! They had fun watching things turn colors and helping make the breakfast this morning. :) Fun way to start off the day (and week)!!

Here are my CUTE kids!!!


And of course pictures of their breakfast!! :)


And, here is a St. Patrick's Day greeting/wish from the kids (all I did was ask them to say "Happy St Patrick's Day", and they remembered it was Kari's birthday and put that in there too! :))

And here is a song they have been singing all the time...super cute!!

At the end of that video, Ryan asks if you want to hear the "Shamrock song". They have never sang this song for me before...and I can see why. :) Hailey tried, but just couldn't remember all the words...but she tried and made it through. :)

"The Big House"

Last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to stay at the "Big House" in Lead, SD with my family. Despite the bad weather...and a minor accident by me...it was a fantastic weekend. If you want to see great pictures of the place, check out "big house". It really is an amazing house...and we could move in there RIGHT AWAY if they would let us! Here is a little picture show of some of the fun we had!! :)

First, just look at this house!!! Here are the main living room, dining rooms, and the fireplace in the main room.


Here is the basement....pretty!


And the room we stayed in (in the basement) with the bathroom too. The 3rd picture is of the loft area (also had 2 bedrooms up there as well).


We had craft time (painting Easter eggs, perler beads, coloring, etc)....and of course games (playing trouble!).


It was fun being all together on Sarah's birthday too! Happy 2nd Birthday sweetie!!


On Friday, the kids all went outside to help clean off the deck...and throw snowballs at me (behind the glass door!!). Then, they went down and went sledding too! There was SO MUCH SNOW!!!


A few miscellaneous fun pictures of the kids. (1) Allison, Ryan, and Hailey on the top bunk playing. (2) Hailey's make-up done by Allison! (3) Ryan decided to use the marker on his nose instead of the paper!


We even had an Easter egg hunt! This was a lot of fun for everyone....especially Sarah! She was so cute and had a great time finding the eggs! Ryan, on the other hand, just wanted to sit and open his eggs one at a time and wasn't worried about getting more. :) The "big girls" did great too! They had their own area of the house for their eggs.



On Saturday night the kids also got to go in the hot tub. They all loved that...and the big boys had more than their share of fun (I won't post pictures of that!!).


And, in the basement was a Foosball table....that was FUN too! Ryan of course loved taking all the balls for the game and playing with them, so it was an adventure trying to find all 4 of them before we left!

We also used the self-timer on our cameras to get some pictures of our family!

What a great weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!