Did April Fly By in the Blink of an Eye??

After we got back from Utah, life got pretty busy...even busier than normal.  We went right into Easter with parties, egg hunts, egg decorating, and cascarones!  This year we celebrated with AM on the day before Easter and it was really nice.  We made the egg hunt a little too difficult so we had to provide lots of hints for the kids to complete it.  Lots of fun though!

Then we celebrated B's birthday!  It was mid-week so the celebration wasn't quite as elaborate, but he got a donut birthday breakfast cake, a yummy sushi dinner, and a scavenger hunt (made by Elina) for his gifts.

After that, we spent a lovely weekend at our favorite state park, Inks Lake.  We stayed in cabins with my good friend (Evie's 1st grade teacher) MV and her family.  It was such a great time.  The weather actually turned windy and cold on Saturday so we went to visit nearby Longhorn Cavern for some shelter.  It was an amazing cavern tour.  It's a cavern system that was formed by a river, so it's very different from the caverns we usually go to.  The tour guide had dry humor but was so knowledgeable.  We were always scared he would get upset with us (if we didn't go the right way or if we didn't stop at the right area), but we still had a great time.  Our favorite section was the dolomite area because it reminded us of the slot canyons in Arizona.  Just beautiful!  There was also a huge crystal area that the kids fell in love with.  Each kid whispered in my ear how much they wish they could hammer the crystals out to take home.  This was a really impressive cavern!

Besides that we hung out, biked, hiked, fished, and swam a bit.  The wildflowers were out so it was so pretty out there.  We can't wait to go back next year!  B's only request was that it not be on the weekend right after his birthday.  He'd prefer to sleep in and not pack up for camping for his birthday.  I guess...

This is still one of our favorite places to go to as a family...

Then we got back and it was time for Fiesta at school!  This meant crazy sock day...

crazy hair day...which was fun this year because we did the hair-coming-out-of-the-soda-bottle crazy 'do...Evie did it one day and then Eulee copied it the next day.  SO cute!

Fiesta also includes a parade, in which the 1st graders have to make a hat to commemorate a favorite book.  Evie did hers on The Day the Crayons Came Home.  Eli actually did the 1st book in this series when he was in 1st grade, so we just revamped his old hat and called it good.

After the parade, the 1st graders also performed a dance.  It was awesome because it was actually a NEW dance!  Discovery School rarely veers from tradition so this was a welcome sight.  The 1st graders did a wonderful job with this new dance.  And I learned that Evie (along with 2 other girls who take dance class) can really shake her hips!  She was awesome out there!  See if you can pick out the 3 dancers in our class when you watch the video.

  This was definitely a whirlwind of a month. I mean, when you have kids everything always seems to fly by, but after Spring Break time seems to go in fast forward every single year. Such good memories and such fun times! We are always so thankful we can have all these wonderful opportunities and experiences.  We love it all!!

Skiing for the First Time with Old Friends

We finally made it out to visit our dear friends KT and her family!  We've known each other since Elina was about 1 years old and we used to live in the same neighborhood.  They moved away to Hawai'i and we never got our act together to go see them.  (Shame on us!)  Now they are in Utah and we decided to take the kids to see snow!  It also helped that ticket prices dropped, so we just had to take the opportunity to go.

We spent 4 days in Utah and had the best time!  

TUBING

We all loved tubing at Gorgoza Park!  It's a workout pulling your tube from the bottom of the hill to the conveyor belt, but it was totally worth it.  Eulee could only go on the lower hills, but the older kids could get towed up to the upper hills.  The kids tubed for 2 hours and were exhausted! 

 Afterwards, the older kids got to ride on snowmobiles.  They thought it was so cool!  

The kids really had so much energy this day.  We had all woken up around 3:30am to get to the airport.  We arrived in Salt Lake, met KT, changed our clothes and went tubing.  So afterwards when we went to eat a late lunch, Eulee was falling asleep WHILE she was eating.  She had a zoned out look on her face and while she was chewing, her eyelids were closing.  I laughed so hard!  None of our kids have ever fallen asleep like this!  It was awesome!  Poor girl was so tired.    

SKIING

We spent a whole day skiing/snowboarding at Snowbasin (15 minutes from KT's house) and put all the kids in ski school.  The kids all loved skiing and learned a lot in a day.  Even Eulee thought it was great!  She didn't last the whole day though...she didn't go out on the last run of the day with the ski school and after we picked her up, she was too tired to go back up with us.  The other kids begged us to ski with them.  It was awesome!  What was funny was that their version is skiing is doing the pizza with zombie arms the whole way down!  Hahaha! So we definitely will have to go back!  

While the kids were in ski school, the adults went skiing.  I stuck to mostly greens and did 1 blue.  B ventured out on his own at the end and did lots of blues.  We realized that we definitely miss skiing and snowboarding.  It's beautiful and fun...and it's a great workout!  

Look at how worn out this little girl was...

HANGING OUT

We did a lot of hanging out at KT's beautiful home.  Their backyard is gorgeous and we ate a lot of meals out there.  We especially loved the huge fire pit.  The view from their house is also crazy-beautiful....the sunsets were amazing.

They were so nice to let us stay with them.  It was definitely a party with 10 kids and 4 adults!  The girls all slept in the living room and the boys all slept in the bedroom.  

SALT LAKE CITY

On the last day, we went into Salt Lake City and checked out the Museum of Natural History.  Y'all know our kids love museums so they were in heaven!  

KT also took us on a quick tour of Temple Square.  The place is just beautiful!

We had such a wonderful time with KT and her family.  All the kids had buddies to play with.  Elina was reunited with one of her oldest friends, LT.  I got to spend time with KT and catch up.  

Look at what these 2 girls looked like BEFORE...they've really grown up!

The worst thing was that I had been sick since Spring Break and never got completely better.  Then after skiing, I was feeling just rotten.  Everything had progressively gotten worse and after that day my body was just done.  I spent a lot of time in bed...just coughing and feeling miserable.  I was sad that it took some of my time away from catching up with KT, but there was nothing I could do about it.  

We took a late flight back home and the next day (Wednesday) I physically didn't have the energy to take the kids to school, so I let them have one more day at home.  Later I went to a clinic and they told me I had bronchitis and gave me lots of drugs.  So now I'm finally getting better.  Yay!

B has always dreamed of our family taking skiing trips and I think are finally at the point where we can all do that now.  I'm so excited that they all had a great first experience with skiing.  We just can't wait to go back to hit the slopes next year!

We miss KT and her family a lot.  We definitely want to try to visit again...maybe for another ski trip??  Thank you, KT, for your friendship and hospitality.  Y'all are the best!

Evie Turned 7!

This year for Evie's 7th birthday, we went with a semi-slumber party theme.  She wasn't going to have a party because we already had plans for a family vacation soon (more on that later), but she told me she didn't want a party with a theme...she just wanted to hang out with her friends and have fun!  So we caved and let her have a little party at the house.  This girl rarely ever asks for anything, so it was difficult for us to say no to a little gathering.

B and I worked on transforming our living room into some sort of dreamy theater with lots of purple.  We were actually pretty proud of our work here.  Lots of fabric draping and string lights.  Eli even said, "It looks pretty fantastic in here!"  Ha!  Now that's a compliment.

After an all-day field trip with the 1st grade class (meaning I was already pretty beat), the girls from Evie's class came over to the house.  We had a lot of fun!  There was...

A DANCE PARTY!

I had the disco lights out and the girls danced to Moana songs.

CAKE AND PRESENTS!

For the party, Evie opted for one of our favorite ice cream cakes from Cold Stone.  Evie got lots of fun, crafty gifts...and some Playmobil stuff (which she's totally into now).

A MAGIC SHOW!

Elina put on a magic show with all her card tricks.   She really wants to start doing birthday parties for little kids, so this gave her some good practice.

Then all the girls rotated taking showers to get into cozy PJs.  Then the girls lounged on all the pillows, grabbed some snacks (with these awesome movie trays I bought on Amazon), and watched the movie "Sing."  

While the girls snacked and watched, Elina and I painted the girls' nails.  Ooooh-la-la!

This was definitely a girly party...and totally fun!  The girls were great and well-behaved.  Of course, B and Eli left to go to an arcade.  Eli didn't really want to have anything to do with this party.  Ha!  It might have something to do with the fact that at Evie's Tea Party birthday party, B and Eli both had to be butlers.  =)  So I don't really blame him for wanting to leave.

During Evie's birthday week, she was Student of the Week...which meant she did all the classroom jobs, including leading the Pledge.

She was also Professor of the Day and taught the class the difference between tortoises and turtles.  She was so excited to bring Elina's tortoise, Bubbles, into the class!  He behaved really well and didn't poop or pee on anything...normally, when he's nervous he'll start going to the bathroom!  Bubbles was definitely a hit!

Evie played hooky on her real birthday.  She started with some blue birthday pancakes.  I was having a little trouble with my pancake pen, so my letters came out wonky.  Then we dropped Eulee off at school.  Evie really felt like a celebrity when we dropped Eulee off.  She was visiting different teachers and making it a point to let people know she wasn't going to class!  Ha!

Then Evie and I got to enjoy a date at our favorite breakfast joint.  (Yes, she ate breakfast twice that morning!)  Later we picked up Eulee and we all went to the zoo together.  Evie got to plan our trip--so she fed the giraffes and the lorikeets and rode on the carousel.  The lorikeets were pretty crazy that day!  One flew onto Eulee's head and just started climbing down her face to get to the food.  Luckily, Eulee doesn't panic about things like that, but I couldn't believe it!  

When we got home we did cake and family presents.  Then we played a few Minute to Win It games.  We ended the night with a meal at her favorite restaurant--Red Robin!  Yay!

Evie is just the sweetest, most patient girl.  She loves girly things, but she also loves to wrestle.  She loves drawing, camping, fishing, dancing...her interests are all over the place and that's what we love about her.  She just goes with the flow and always has fun.  But because she likes so many things, sometimes it's hard for her to pinpoint exactly one thing that she likes the best.  

Happy 7th birthday, sweet girl!  Can't wait to see what this year has in store for you!