How We Filled the Spring

For some reason the boys came home from school one day and begged me to kiss their cheeks with lipstick:

The boys begged me to let them take ice skating lessons again.  The last few times, I have signed them up, I spend the majority of class trying to get them back on the ice.  However, they had no trouble this go and improved a bunch.  They have one more class to pass off before they can take a hockey class.  They really want to take a hockey class.  The last 15 minutes of every class was free time and they spent a good portion of that time at the back wall watching the hockey players.

I hosted book club for a book which took place in England, so I used it as an excuse to host a tea party which was really quite fun.  I think that party needs to be repeated.

Pi Day was the day right after the big tea party and I had all these left over berries, so on a whim I made a triple berry pie.

I never grew up with Leprechauns coming to my house, but have decided to succumb to what I guess are societal norms now.  I had to work early on St. Patty's Day in surgery, so the night before I laid out little construction paper rainbow trails to pots (like pot and pan pots) filled with gold coins and some painting activities for each of the kids.  And I drew little Leprechaun foot prints all over the kitchen and knocked over the chairs.  The kids loved it of course.

I got a crack out of the excessive amount of fingers Camden drew on his picture of him as a missionary that he brought home from church one day.

The boys are getting much easier at the grocery store.  I don't even really mind having to go with them anymore.  One day they asked me to put them in this pink car cart, but Carter was too embarrassed to smile for my picture.

Olivia made this map pf a town (Megandia) one day when I was working and Megan was babysitting.  Complete with sushy, target, zoopas, a fire station and phone store.

Olivia had been begging me for going on two months to let her cut bangs.  I resisted and resisted because I didn't think they would look good and would be such a pain to take care of.  But, I finally decided that I control so much of her life and that this was something she was big enough to make a decision about on her own.  And worst case scenario, if she hated them it was just hair and would grow back.  But, the bangs actually turned out really cute.  In fact, her cute new do inspired both he Aunt Benazir and Babi to cut their bangs.  And her hair is so straight that even if she goes to be with wet hair, as long as you brush the bangs down before hand, they lay perfectly straight in the morning.  The only annoyance is having the trim them more frequently.

Our yard is looking great this spring.

I think this is a foreshadow of what the summer holds for us.  Loads of kids at our place every day.

Teacher Nance got a new puppy.  She's quite the hit when the kids are getting their haircut these days.

The boys are starting to have an opinion about how they do their hair.  They were asked to sing at Belair one day and kicked me out of the bathroom while they spiffed up.  They sang Gethsemane and Praise to the Man with Braksen Davis.  Kassie and I sang too to help hold the tune, but honestly they did great, and I mostly cried through all of Gethsemane ("Gethsemane...Jesus loves me"...sung by 3 sweet 5 year old boys with do that to you).

We have the garden mostly planted and of course thanks to Derek is is thriving.  I have already harvest broccoli and the lettuce and kale is ready too.

One super hot spring day, the kids begged me to fill the pool so I did and we had all the neighborhood over playing in the water and lounging in the sun.

Liv had Hallie over for a playdate one day and insisted that Grandma come too and teach Hallie how to make her famous gram cracker covered bananas.

Liv came home with this paper from school stating that if she could choose one family member to hang out with it would be Aunt Kylie because she's super cool and they could go shopping with their other Aunt Benazir because they're super cool.

I caught the boys in the car the other day taking turns listening to each others hearts beeping.

This was the boys dressed up as dogs for one of their puppet shows during Let's Play Music class:

Here's cute Carter enjoying this fort that he built himself with the supplies Aunt Kylie gave them.

Derek announced that he was going to go hiking one night this week all by himself.  I didn't love that idea.  He said he'd bring the dog then both boys begged to go with him.  He wasn't sure they would lend well to getting much exercise and warned them that if they came they had to walk the whole way...he was not going to carry them.  He came home pleasantly surprised at what good hikers they were and said they are ready for big boy hikes.