Oregon Trip

Birthday

Today is my 29th birthday! And I think this is one of the best birthdays ever, especially in the last 7 years since having children. Brad was home all day and cooked amazing food. I got to sit and watch conference and relax and do exactly what I felt like doing. It was fabulous and I was completely spoiled. 

Breakfast: caramel french toast, sausage patties, fresh berries and custard.

Brunch: lox on a jalapeno bagel and fresh squeezed, icy orange juice

Lunch: 3 cheese grilled cheese and home-made creamy tomato-basil soup with fresh mozzarella balls.

Hail storm

Brad in the kitchen doin' his thing

Bacon wrapped, goat cheese poppers

Ruth wrote a song and then performed a swan dance to Will's drumming. It was very sweet.

We were so full from all the goodies that we skipped dinner (we're saving it for tomorrow) and went right to dessert! Cookie dough ice cream on triple chunk brownies with peanut butter and hot fudge!

Easter Playgroup

I started a weekly playgroup that meets at church every Thursday morning. A friend suggested we do an egg hunt today, which I was a little hesitant about...I'm not really a party thrower. I sent out a text message to everybody to bring eggs, or not, either way we'd have a hunt this week. Caroline hid all the eggs. She brilliantly hid them in two areas. There was a 2 and under area in the flower bushes and a 3+ group in the grass and trees. 

Everybody loved it and no one was run over!

Claire, of course, begged for help to climb the tree after seeing Ruth and Will up there. Once I stuck her up there I couldn't get a smile to save my life. She was convinced she was going to fall off.

Kids

 These are some pictures from recently that I never posted, but really like.

I really like this picture because she looks so thoughtful and calm

I like this picture of Ruth. She looks so grown up for my Ruthie-bear, but still young.

I like this picture of Buddy because it reminds me how strong he's become. He's not a little kid anymore, and he's not as intimidated by things any more.

I love this picture because it shows their personalities: Ruth is very studious and Will is a goof ball who LOVES to goad his sisters.

zoo, bowling, spa

St. Patrick's Day

We went to a St. Patrick's Day corned beef and cabbage dinner!

A few activities

Leprechaun hunting. Funny story: Will turned around to give Ruth a hug and ended up pushing her in the pond!

Ruth was completely shocked when we discovered this little table and chair and bench. She kept saying, "Now we know they are real! I thought they were pretend, but they're real!"

We made rainbows and shamrock eggs to eat!

Today in Homeschool...

I feel like the majority of my daily energy is rarely documented. I spend so much time thinking about, planning and executing homeschooling activities, but because it's not out of the ordinary, it rarely is blogged about. So here are a few snippets from our day today:

Claire colored each page of her book a different color, so I wrote the name of each color on the page. Then she told me the name of different shapes that I drew on different pages and then she colored them in. 

The older two decided to make different versions of the "3 Little Pigs." Last week we read multiple versions of several classic stories. Their favorite was, "The 3 Little Javelinas." Ruth's story is about 3 meerkats and the big bad hawk. Will's is about 3 saber-tooth tigers who are attacked by the Terror Bird!

Library time

Also, I figured it's time I wrote about this so there is a record of it somewhere. Valentine's Day this year I had yet another miscarriage, I was 9 weeks along. The kids didn't know so it wasn't devastating to them like it was two summers ago, which I'm thankful for. It's taken until now for me to be okay with it. I really would like another child and don't want them separated by too many years, but alas, the timing was not right. For now I'm, once again, trying to get control of my body and make healthier choices.