Happy Easter!

It is 11:00pm... not quite Easter but close enough! The kids are in bed and the Resurrection Cookies are in the oven.... I'm not sure how these will turn out b/c my egg whites and sugar did NOT beat into stiff peaks... but we are hoping they will still turn out all right in the morning. The Easter story and process of making the cookies was the important part... The recipie said to turn the oven off and tape it shut (like the tomb)... Emily added a sticky note which reads, Do Not Open! We are hoping for hollow empty cookies in the morning. We'll see!



Here is a sweet sweet video of my boy reading The Glory Be from his beloved prayer book. Thank you Godmother Peg! It is very difficult to believe this boy ever had a speech problem. It has certainly corrected itself.

Good Friday Egg Hunt

The kids had Good Friday off from school and a friend of mine invited us to a cascarone or confetti egg hunt. We've never been to one of these and it sounded like a lot of fun!

The eggs were hidden all over the park and the kids quickly gathered them all up. This was very fun for Lia... though she wasn't as fast as the big kids. She only got 4 or 5 eggs. That was okay because after the eggs were collected the real fun of breaking them over each others heads began!

Sister gets brother.

Cute boy gets Lia.

David gets Mommy!

Wow! Look at all that confetti!

Fun!

Lia Tortilla

The little kids and I have a great schedule going... We have breakfast and do "school" time in the morning. Then we pack up a lunch and while the kids eat in child watch, I get to take a class like Body Combat today. Here is little Lia Tortilla.. I think this nickname might stick... it just sort of rolls off the tounge. Anyway, she got a haircut today and we are definetly making progress from the damage done back in January by her sister. We may be one to two months away from a complete recovery! Again, good thing she's so stinkin' cute!

And of note to Nana.... this adorable outfit is the one you gave Lia last spring. It took an entire year for her to grow into it but I think it was definetly worth the wait. It is so pretty on her! I think this may have to be her Easter Sunday outfit. Thank you again and we all send our love to you!

Austin Trip, Part Two

We spent Sunday afternoon at the Austin Nature Center. What an amazing place. Price of admission - Free! We started off at the science center where there were all kinds of hands on activities for the kids. Here is Mr. Big Eyes:

And Abram is all boy... He didn't think anything of picking up these bugs. Ewww...

Then we made out way to the Dino Pit. A huge sandbox with buried dinosaur bones. It doesn't get much better than this.

I think they found some big teeth...?

The next activity involved the kids stripping down to their undies and splashing in the creek... I didn't get pics of this but believe me... they had a ball! Then we went to look at all the animals, owls, hawks, foxes... and ended up here at the nature trail. Our two years olds were still going strong and were a bit disappointed to see that it was closed for the day. We'll have to leave more time for hiking the next time we visit.

We headed out at 5:00 after shutting the place down. It was a long ride back home but well worth the effort. A very fun Austin trip!

Austin Trip, Part One

We went to Austin this weekend to visit with our friends, Lowell and Cynthia. Together, we have six children ages 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 2. Needless to say, the kids had a ball! But goodness, it is not easy to get 6 children to look at the camera and smile! Here is the best one I got:

The weather was awesome and the kids were able to have a picnic dinner outside...

...followed by ice cream inside! It is amazing how quietly our children eat their ice cream.

Emily and Abram are still the best of friends. They also pose very nicely for the camera!

On Sunday, we all went to church together and got to visit with our friends Travis and Mary Alice while the kids got to play at the little playground by church. After that, we headed to one of our favorite Austin restaurants, The Hula Hut. Emily took this picture of me with Gabriella and Lia. So nice to have a daughter who likes to take pictures. Or rather, that allows me to be in a few of them anyway.

The wait was over an hour... but we found a table at the bar and were lucky to get quesadillas for the kids and Haleakaladas for the grown ups. The kids were awesome for us and we got a great big table inside fairly quickly. Here is a sweet picture of Cynthia and Gabriella.

I think all the big smiles show we had a great time... or maybe it was all those Haleakaladas! ;-)

We went to the Austin Nature Center after lunch... What an awesom place. I'll post those pictures next.

Rock Band!

Stan and Peg had us over for dinner last Saturday... They have Rock Band... or Lego Rock Band, the more family friendly version. It is a lot of fun... hard to believe how far video games have come along! I asked the gang to strike their rock star pose for this picture. And it is a very good thing we don't have this at our house! I would get nothing done because I would want to sing Ghostbusters on vocals all night long! Ah... memories of childhood.

Emma liked singing Ghostbusters almost as much as I did! She's fun!

And David, looking mighty serious on the drums!

Fine Arts in the Park, Friday Feb 19

Last Friday, Emily was able to attend an Arts in the Park Day with our homeschooling group because she was on Spring Break. I was very excited for her to see what it was all about since we have officially decided to homeschool her next year. The artist we studied was Mary Cassatt. We had checked out some books from the library to prepare... so Emily was familiar with her. Cassatt liked to paint mothers with their babies. I really like this one... because Lia always puts her hands on my neck or my face when she wants to be held. It is a very sweet and intimate gesture. Cassatt captures it perfectly here.

I got to lead the discussion for the 1st and 2nd grade table. We looked at this painting. The girls at the table liked the big flower on the Mommy's dress. We all agreed this was a morning scene after a bath. The kids pointed out that Cassatt often used mirrors in her paintings. I had an awesome guide with questions to ask our group and I was really impressed at how much all the kids had to say and how closely they looked at all the details.

David and Lia were more interested in playing... They had a good time too. It was a beautiful day.

David likes to climb rocks. He asked me to take his picture.

We had a picnic lunch and stayed for Nature club. The discussion was on parts of a flower. The kids got to take apart different flowers to find all the parts. It was a great activity for Emily. She was very interested and the hands-on part was great. She was happy to see her friend Grace Ann from choir too.

Here is what they learned:

I believe the talks are given by a master gardener and the kids are on a track to earn their junior master gardener certificates by following a set lesson plan. Everyone really seemed to enjoy it. The teacher led the kids on a nature walk after the discussion on a sort of scanvenger hunt to reinforce the lesson. I was really impressed and looking forward to being more involved next year.