why?

I know the question on everyone's mind is, Why haven't I blogged lately? I don't know. Probably because the next post I need to do is an Easter post, and that is so last month, who wants to even read a post about it, let alone spend an enormous amount of time uploading pictures and writing about it? I'll do it, eventually, but I'm obviously not looking forward to it.
I am looking forward to sharing these adorable pictures of my little Finney-girl, who is a stinker, but let's face it, darn cute.

And now for the grand finale...

Couldn't you just eat her up? These pictures were taken the week after Easter Sunday, because in a complete reversal from the rest of Christianity, Mormons didn't go to church on Easter Sunday this year. At least, we didn't. No sense getting all dressed up and fighting three little children for several hours in a church building when you can stay home and watch conference on your very own computer screen. Such luxury.

Easter Egg Hunt

I enjoy having things to look forward to--it helps me get through my days and weeks. I think sometimes I am looking forward to things even more than the kids, even if it is just a community Easter egg hunt. Imagine my disapointment when I came home from Dream Dinners the Saturday before Easter to find both older children in the corner and grounded from said Easter egg hunt, which we were supposed to attend that afternoon. I really was disappointed. I enjoy doing fun things with my family, and was unhappy that their behavior made this fun outing impossible. Fortunately, I realized that Finley was able to attend, so I took her to the Easter egg hunt while Keith stayed home with the other kids. The two of us had a great time, and I think she enjoyed some special mommy time, and hopefully the other kids learned a valuable lesson too.

Can you spot her little blond head? She was the littlest one there.

The parents were not allowed to help their children, so I was really glad a worker helped Finley. She didn't really get what she was supposed to do.

The eggs were all buried down in the hay and the kids had to dig to find them.

Finley ended up with 6 eggs, but we gave one to a little boy who didn't find any eggs. We had a fun time, and are already looking forward to next year when the other kids will be able to join us!

Kindergarten Field Trip

On Friday, April 2nd, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a chaperone for Sareny's class field trip to the Wildlife World Zoo. Her class only does one field trip per year, so this was kind of a big deal. As soon as I saw the note from her teacher asking for volunteers, I zipped off an email volunteering. The next day she sent home a note saying 9 people had responded, and they could only take the first five. I was pretty glad to be one of the lucky 5!
The kids were pretty excited to be on a school bus--this was a first for most of them. That may sound odd, considering that they are all in kindergarten, but the vast majority of students at this school are driven to school by parents.

This zoo has changed a lot in the few years since I'd been there last. They now have three buildings housing aquariums, and have penguins and an indoor sting ray petting pool.

We were the pink group, and I was in charge of 5 giggling girls! Left to right, Jaiden, Maddie, Sareny, Miranda, and Lisa.

I was glad that two of the girls' dads joined up with our group at the zoo. They each also brought a younger sibling along.

Sareny loved helping the little girls!

I love the giraffe feeding platform they have. It's pretty cool.

Several of the girls were really excited to see the zebras, and asked every few minutes if we were almost there yet. It was kind of funny when the five zebras all turned their backs on us.

I really like the white tigers they have here. This is in front of their area.

The ducks weren't very hungry, but the girls had fun feeding them anyway.

The day went by too fast! Soon we were headed back to the school. I think all the adults were sufficiently worn out, and a few kids fell asleep on the bus as well. Anyway, we had a really fun time with our little group of girls!

Smile

Yesterday was a super exciting day for Sareny. Her poem was selected as the winner for Kindergarten in the Alhambra School District! Last night, the poets were invited to the board meeting to recite their winning poem. She had memorized her poem, and was so excited and nervous! They had the kids sit with their teachers, who also helped them at the podium. Mrs. Jones brought Sareny a rose and a balloon,which was so sweet!

Her big moment!

Here is Sareny's poem:

Smile

Happy face

Playing, helping, laughing

Say cheese and

Grin

She did great!

 

Afterwards, we took a picture with Mrs. Jones and Dr. Lopeman, Sareny's principal. I loved how they really made it special for Sareny, and took time away from their families to be there for her.

And a picture with the proud mommy and daddy!

Way to go Sareny! And thank you to Erika for watching my other kids--it would have been miserable with them there!

Easter Eggs

We colored Easter eggs the Friday evening before Easter. I had boiled 3 and a half dozen eggs, and Keith thought I must have been doing eggs for an entire army or something, but I knew we needed that many! (I just have to point out that every single egg did end up getting eaten, so there! Boo-yeah!)

The kids showing off their faves.

Don't you just love Finney's mouth-wide-open grin? That's how she's started smiling lately, and I could just eat her up I love her so!

And here is the whole collection! It's kind of a tradition in my family that my dad makes a brown egg each year. I told Keith he needed to make a brown one, but he declined. Fortunately, Isaac stepped up and made a brown one, which he later picked out as his favorite. Quite surprising, since he absolutely loves blue.

So I was thinking the other day how sometimes our blog makes our life look more spectacular than it really is. Take this post for example. A lovely family having a great time coloring eggs. Well, here is the rest of the story.
Finley quickly got the hang of egg decorating, and started lunging and grabbing every egg within her reach, and plopping it into the nearest cup of dye, whether it had an egg in it or not. She was going through eggs way too fast, and clambering up on the table in her haste to get more eggs, which, of course, is not a good idea with 12 cups of egg dye just waiting to get knocked over. Keith told her she needed to wait for the eggs she put in cups to finish before she got another one, and she threw a royal temper tantrum. She had to be removed from the party for a while.
I had an entire cup of blue dye dumped into my lap. I was a little angry, and I think I could have probably been a little nicer. It's kind of hard to think of things like that, however, when you're on your hands and knees scrubbing blue dye out of the tile, grout, and off the tables and chairs, while your favorite pair of jeans is soaking in the sink, your youngest daughter is still carrying on with her tantrum, and your oldest daughter who just drenched you in dye seems more concerned with her egg than the mess and possibly ruined pants...You get the idea.
So while our life is far from perfect, I love these little kiddos. I'm so glad we get to spend so much time together, even if part of it does involve prying tightly clenched little fingers from my hair, or buckling a screaming child into a carseat while she is kicking and screaming bloody murder, or driving children to and fro all day long, or deciphering incoherent cries, or any number of mundane, and seemingly trivial tasks. A lot of those moments don't make it onto my blog, but in a strange way, I enjoy those moments too.

Disney on Ice

After our fun pranks on April 1st, we loaded up into the family van and drove downtown to the US Airways Center.

We bought tickets a few months ago to see the Disney on Ice show. I had gotten a flier in the mail that had tickets half-off for Thursday's show, so it made it pretty affordable. The following picture would be cute if Sareny hadn't closed her eyes, and if Finley wasn't giving the camera the dirtiest look imaginable.

The show was a lot of fun and featured some familiar faces.

My favorite part was when the princesses came out with their princes. It was so magical and romantical!

The show was really cool and 2 out of 3 children gave it a thumbs up. Finley was getting really tired by the end of the show and started trying to do her leg-kick thing down on the floor by our feet. I would have just let her, but she was also screaming her head off, so Keith ended up taking her out during the second to last song. The ending was awesome, with fireworks coming out of the castle. You can kind of see in the pictures, that behind the castle is the staging areas, and the characters come out through the castle doors. From start to finish, it was pure magic!

Fakin' and Eggs

We decided to try and make April Fool's day fun around our house, so on Thursday morning, our kids woke up to a delicious breakfast.

Isaac got brave and tried his egg and said, "Mmm, it's good."

Sareny didn't dare try any of it.

The eggs were made out of white and yellow chocolate, and the "fakin'" was made from caramel and tootsie rolls. Isaac ate most of his egg before I was able to switch out the plates with the real breakfast. I thought they looked pretty hilarious, and Keith took a plate to work that he set on his desk all day.

Sareny also took an apple to school for her teacher with a gummy worm in it. I made one for Isaac and Finley too.

After dinner, Keith and I had simultaneous sneezing attacks with a couple cans of green silly string. We had a fun, silly day.

Sareny's birthday

As I said in an earlier post, we went out to dinner the night before Sareny's actual birthday, since I had Young Women's on her birthday. She got to open presents before I left, and then everybody had fun playing with them while I was gone.
She was pretty excited to get a "Liv Doll." She got Alexis.

You can see by her face how thrilling it was to receive a wig for Alexis.

These accessories are essential to the Liv dolls.

She also got her first sets of Legos, which both kids and parents have had a lot of fun playing with. (I realize I should have said "With which we have had fun playing.")

Sareny also wore a special "Birthday Princess" badge all day, even to school. We met her for lunch and brought Panda Express and some yummy strawberry cupcakes. Keith had to run off back to work, but I stayed and read to her class, somehow keeping Finley from destroying the classroom while I read the kids Dog Breath and Ruby Bridges, my true story.
On Saturday we had a small party at Peter Piper Pizza. Keith and I made her a castle cake, which I think turned out pretty cute.

On the way to the party, I started worrying that the cake didn't look very good, but when we got there, everybody in the restraunt came up and said how cool it looked, and a few of them even took pictures! So I felt better.

I made some chocolate covered strawberries, which I artfully arranged around the bottom of the cake. I didn't really think they looked very good, but you were only allowed to bring a cake and no other food, so I figured if the strawberries were part of the cake, they couldn't object.

The birthday girl got a special hat and got to make her own pepperoni pizza.

The kids had fun running around and spending tokens like crazy.

Then she blew out the candles and everybody had cake and ice cream.

Lastly, she opened up her presents. She got some really cute and thoughtful gifts and, I think, had a wonderful birthday this year.