Coloring Easter Eggs

Today was the day we colored our Easter Eggs.  It began with PUTTING THE MONSTER TO BED :)!  Really, a 2 year old TRIES to help but after he dumped the first cup of vinegar on himself, we thought nap time would be better suited for him! I know I went overboard on the pictures. We just had so much fun!!!

I told the kids that tonight the Easter Bunny was going to climb up into our fridge and steal the Easter Eggs. This is their reaction.

Really kids, this is a surprise to you?????

This LONG LONG LONG week!

Sew, this Friday Lorén had to do a Planet Project.  She decided to make the planets out of buttons!  She was so cute seeing which one was the right color, size and texture :)  She picked a pearlized one for earth because it looked like water.  Jupiter was huge and had lines.  Saturn had a ring :) And the "twin" planets were very similar in size and color.  She put so much thought and effort into her project.  AND she sewed for the first time!  She stuck herself a few times but never cried! I am so proud of her!

Zach watched the basketball games with daddy.  Its amazing how much this boy loves sports!

 Look at this face!  Ha!

And this is what boys do before going to church.  Yes my precious sons :)  They look so much alike and yet. . .

Grandma and Grandpa came in this weekend!  

 And they brought Ryan!

And of course Lorén had her first fashion show!  She was so excited!  She begged me to take her outside to do a photo shoot.  It was so bright that she could hardly keep her eyes open!

I love this one!  Laughter!

She did so great at her fashion show!  Every lady there flipped out over how pretty she was, how beautiful her hair is.  Lorén was so confident and lovely!  She did so great!!!!

I am so blessed to have this lovely gorgeous girl in my life!

 Daddy and his older two!

 I just loved this picture of Grandma holding her girls hands.  Love.

Then the Leprechaun Got Trapped!

Well, at least mommy made them think they got him. . .for a bit!  

Then the kids got to wear Green to school *as long as they had one piece of uniform on!  Ha!!!

Today was a "Good Mommy" day!  Mike had to go to an early morning Elders meeting and I was home with the munchkins on this cold St. Pat's Eve.  So I decided that - seeing as it was only 32 degrees out - we would forgo the Annual St. Pats Parade for a nice WARM St. Pats Celebration.  We started the morning with our traditional "Daddy Is At Work Breakfast" at Pauls' Donuts.  Basically it's a reason for me to 1) get out of the house and 2) Get a cup of coffee while the kids eat donuts.

While driving there, I get a text from Joel Keen that says, "Are you ready for some Big 1's".  I almost couldn't see the road I was laughing so hard.  He told me that when we got home there would be "BIG CUPS" there.  I was a bit scared but seeing as my mind (and his) are frozen in their 12 year old state and are constantly in the toilet, I was super excited!  As I pull up the kids start screaming "MOM, LOOK WHAT THE LEPRECHAUNS LEFT US!" Again, I almost fell over laughing at Leprechauns leaving us the big ones!  But here was our St. Pats Surprise from our awesome Pastor!

  

I barely had the car in park before they were jumping out to claim their prize from the 'Ole Man Keen Leprechaun!

When we got inside I told them we would be making Leprechaun traps.  Now thanks to Lorén's teacher she came home a day ago saying that we needed to build a Leprechaun trap.  Apparently they read about them in school.  If you trap one, you get the Leprechauns pot of gold.  (OOooookay).  But I thought, "Heck, I'm going to have a good mommy moment."  So, I gave them supplies and let them go to town.

I have a confession to make.  As a teacher I used to get so MAD when I gave an assignment to the kids and I could TELL their parents did most of it for them.  It irritated me to no end.  Well now that I'm a mom I need to take of my own Parental Perfectionist Hat (as my co-worker used to call it) and let them do their own projects.  I really wanted to jump in and say, "Oh just do this or that" but I bit my tongue because this was THEIR project and they needed to make it their own.  And look at what they did. . .

So please remind me to always shut up, let them be creative and enjoy seeing their beautiful work!!!

In other news, I decided that the teachers needed a little teacher gift.  When I taught first grade it always lifted my spirits to amazing heights when I received a gift letting me know the parents appreciated me.  It always made getting through the day/week so much more rewarding!  So from time to time I try to give the teachers a little something to let them know that I appreciate them. . .and not just on Teacher appreciation week.  So I always hated February and March.  There never seemed to be breaks and the kids were just extra hard.  So I decided the teachers needed a drink. . .and chocolate. . .or both . . .together. . .In a cupcake!  Oh yes!  They got Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!