A Bit of Randomness

Normally if Finley disappears for a few moments, it means big messes, big trouble, and lots of cleaning on my part. This time when I went to see what she was getting into, I found a cute little tea party.

One Sunday when the end credits started rolling on the movie with a catchy song playing, Sareny and Isaac jumped up and started walzing around the room.

I made some cute hairbows. (Except for the purple felt one--if you're reading this, Amy, yes, that is yours. oops)

In February, we went to the neighborhood park for a little picnic. While the kids ate and played, I started my first day of my new running program around the little cul-de-sac. That first day of running was perhaps the most difficult and brutal, despite being short distances.

And the last item in this ecclectic bunch of thoughts and pictures is from the camping trip we took during Sareny's spring break. We camped about 10 minutes from our home, and had a great time.

I loved all the little parks right at the campground.

That's all the pictures I took at the campground, but we had a fabulous time with our friends the Johnstons. The next morning, we stopped at the nature center before heading home.

And I just liked this parting shot of the kids racing to the van.

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.

Random Cuteness

The three of them piled onto the rocking horse the other day, and I thought it was pretty silly.

Sareny's school invited families to join them for a Thanksgiving lunch. The food was pretty nasty, but the kids were so cute! I had no idea the kindergartners would all be dressed up and I didn't bring my camera, so I had to get some pictures of my little pilgrim later on at home.

I wonder if the Mayflower pilgrims had some similar moves?

Finley is always poking her little tongue out. I love it!