Easter 2018

This year, Easter was the very first Sunday in April, which also happened to be General Conference Sunday.  So we didn't have church.  But we did our usual Easter traditions: hunting for jelly beans and making Resurrection rolls.  I did leg of lamb for dinner this year and it was so good.  I wanted to do strawberry pie, but there were no strawberries to be found anywhere.  I think there was a crop shortage due to flooding or storms, or something like that.  So we had banana creme instead and ate it all.  We'll be able to wear our Easter clothes to church next Sunday, which is great because I  have one more week to work on my skirt.  This may be the last Easter that I can do matching dresses and skirts.  I don't know when Eliza will outgrow liking it, I will do it for as long as I can.  I got the boys all light purple ties that were similar in coloring to the dress fabric, but the ties all have different patterns.

Last Week of March

Eliza was trying on a new (to her) outfit and wanted opinions on it, so I snapped a picture and posted it online.  She just looks so cute and sophisicated here.

Caleb got braces on Monday.  He will have them on for probably two full years.  We were able to use money from our tax return to pay in cash for them, which was nice.  I seriously can't believe how expensive braces are.  All together, we have spent nearly $10,000 on braces for three kids!  (And Eliza will need them again later, she is only in Phase One!)

 Annmarie figured out all on her own how to write her birthdate of March 14th. 

I snapped this picture of Eliza because she just looks so cute and comfy with her hair in a bun, dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans and wearing her glasses.  She really is growing up to be quite a beauty.

We went to an Easter egg hunt with some other families in our ward.  Nathan loved looking for eggs.  I invited Paige to come and bring Autumn and Brock.  Travis, Eliza, Jonah, Annmarie, and Nathan came with me.  Caleb and Westley stayed home.

Busy Saturday

This morning I took Eliza to the Japanese cultural celebration at the library.  I tried to get all of the other kids to come, but they refused.  It was too bad because if Aaron and Kaori were still here instead of living in Japan, they probably would have come with us as well. I did send out an invite to Adam and Eve but they did not come.  Eliza loved learning to fold origami with the Japanese woman who was instructing us.  We also watched a few different Japanese dances in the foyer of the library.  I love learning about other cultures!

Then I took Westley, Caleb, and Eliza to the the 50 Year celebration for J.J. Pearce High School.  My older brothers, Jordan and John, graduated from J.J. Pearce in 1993 and 1994.  I was a sophomore at J.J. Pearce for about six months until we moved to Utah that year.  We searched the class panoramic pictures for Jordan and John but could not find Jordan.  We did find John and I took a picture of the section he is in.  Can you see him? 

We listened to the brass quintet play some songs and stayed for some performances from the choir as well as walking around the school.  I didn't really run into anyone I knew, other than my old gymnastics coach's wife, Mrs. Larimer and one of my former gymnastics teammates, Scott Hrnack, who I'm sure had no idea who I was, as I was not even on his radar despite being one of only eight gymnasts on the school team (four girls and four boys).  I did move right when competition season was amping up, though, so that probably has a lot to do with why he wouldn't know me.

It was fun to see Pearce, but it would have been better if Jordan and John had been there with me.  Jordan would have loved it.  I almost bought a stone to be dedicated to Jordan for the quad where they are building some sort of statue or something, but it was $50, and in the end I just chickened out of spending the money.  I'll probably regret that decision.  After walking around Pearce, it made me really glad that I moved and went to Bingham.  Don't get me wrong, Pearce was a good school and I made some pretty good friends when I lived in Richardson, but I think high school ended up being better for me at Bingham than it would have been at Pearce.

Wylie ISD Celebration of the Arts

The school district puts on a big celebration of the arts for one week. We had three kids participating in different parts of the event.

Eliza was in the fourth grade All-district choir that put on their choir concert for the event.  She had to audition for this choir back in September and has had rehearsals every week for the whole year up until now.  It has been a good experience for  her.

Jonah had a clay sculpture in the art show.  Each grade from each school was represented and only a handful of students were picked to display projects.  Jonah's clay pig was chosen to represent sculpture/ceramics for first grade from Groves.

Westley also had artwork in the art show.  He is a very talented artist.  His teacher wants him to take A.P. art.  He loves art and drawing but he's not sure he wants to get into it on that deep of a level.  But his self-portrait is the drawing in the upper right corner of this photo.  He really is a great artist!

Award Assembly

Groves Elementary had an award assembly  for the third term of school.  Eliza earned an honor roll award for having all A's all term.  I don't think there has been an award assembly in which that she hasn't received an award.

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Jonah also earned an award.  He earned the "Shining the Way" award from his class for the term.  Only one student from each class gets this award each term.  It is the district's citizenship award.  My kids are such great students!

I can't believe we are now in our last term for this school year. Man, it has gone by fast!

Yard Work

This week while Corey has been off, we have decided to make our yard look better.  I planted marigolds near the front door (they are supposed to be good for repelling mosquitoes) and we weeded the flower beds and added dark mulch.  We also had to take out the old barrier between the flower beds and the grass because it was coming out and Corey put a new barrier in.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to snap a picture of the finished yard today.  Maybe I will later.  The kids had fun playing with the old barrier like it was a maze or obstacle course.

Silliness

We didn't really do anything very exciting over Spring Break.  Watched TV and movies, played some games, celebrated two birthdays.  We did spring cleaning too, which the kids didn't like.  I cleaned out the kids' bathroom and went through all the girl bows and hair accessories.  We gave what we couldn't use any more to our cousin, Autumn, who just turned three. 

Westley spent the week with mostly unwashed hair and a baseball cap on.  And he got a new white shirt from an uncle.  He thinks it's too big, but I think it fits about right.  It might be a little big, but he'll grow into it soon enough. 

Nathan loves to lick the powdered sugar from the pancakes/waffles that we have.  I had to get a picture of a toddler's joy.  Toddlers just have so much joy over everything they do and see.  I love it!