Date Nights

  The week that Jon and I were leaving for Paris, Jon took the kids out for some special date time.  He took Hallie and Rachel out for dinner and a movie.  Both girls ordered 3 different meals, and ate everything they ordered!  After dinner they went and saw The Croods.  They had so much fun being with their dad (this is the only picture I have -- the others are on Jon's phone).

The next day was Kale's turn.  He was so excited because Jon was going to take him to Boondock's.  I'm pretty sure he told everyone he saw about the huge slide he was going to go on.  We got Kale some new sneakers, just because he needed some, and didn't wear them until his date with Jon -- knowing he would be wearing new shoes was the only thing that made the waiting bearable.

 

 

Also, Becky came over before we left for our trip and helped Hallie to make a cute little apron.  Hallie loved it so much that she wore it to school like a little dress.  Sky, not to be left behind, also wore one of our old aprons all day long.  Unfortunately, the one Sky wore was not new and dress-like, but she still seemed
happy.

Conference

 

Since Ryan is in the choir, the Snarr's always come to our house for the Sunday session of general conference.  We had 2 viewing areas this year -- one was upstairs in our family room, and the other was in the basement.  We decided the basement would be the central gathering place for the kids so when the younger ones got too bored they could just run down the hall and start playing with the toys.  By using this arrangement we were assuring that the adults would be able to hear the greater part of the talks.

We printed off some listening activities for the kids to do while they listened and they busily filled out their worksheets and listened.  I think Alyssa and Rachel watched both sessions.  Pretty impressive for 8 year olds.

 

 

 I decided not to do cinnamon rolls this year, and instead we just did cookies.  I thought it would be no big deal, but it turns out Rachel was pretty disappointed.  Looks like cinnamon rolls will be back on the menu for next conference.

 Becky had brought a little sewing project to work on, and Hallie was enthralled by everything she did.  Sweet Becky let Hallie stand right up with her the whole time she worked and answered all of Hallie's questions.  She even agreed to come by later this week and help Hallie learn to sew her own apron.  Hallie is ecstatic!

  Since Sunday was Peter's birthday, the Snarr's brought some birthday fun with them.  There was cake and ice cream, and Ninja Turtle masks for all.  The kids were in heaven.  Sky loved her mask so much, she wouldn't take it off while she ate.  And actually, Kale has worn his mask constantly since Sunday and is pretty upset any time I tell him to take it off.

Easter

 We celebrated Easter with the Snarr's this year.  Since my parents are on their mission, and Jon's family celebrated early, we were left to be the adults this year and make  the Easter dinner.  

We met at Becky's house and the kids had an egg hunt, and then we had dinner.  The kids were so excited for the egg hunt, but none more so than Joshua.  While the other kids were exiled to the basement so eggs could be scattered, Joshua sat on the top stair and would point out where he could already see the eggs hiding.  Sky and Joshua were supposed to have a head start, but the other kids were too anxious to wait, hence Sky's super sad face.  She wanted to be very first by herself!

 

 

 

 

 

The kids...

 

 You may have concluded by looking at these impressive pictures, but we now have 2 more kids who can ride a 2-wheeler.  Jon took Hallie around the block a few weeks ago until she had it (and she caught on pretty quickly).  Kale really wanted to learn how to ride the 2-wheeler last summer, so he made Jon take off his training wheels, and then could never ride his bike.  So, as soon as it got warm enough outside he just started trying to learn by himself.  Kale has been outside every day this week starting at 9:30 and has been outside almost all day.  He finally got the hang of it yesterday.  I loved watching him out there (it was too cold still for me to venture outside) trying over and over again to stay on his bike.  I love that he didn't give up when it was hard for him, even after seeing how easy it was for Hallie to pick it up.  I'm sure lots of kids (and adults for that matter) would just assume they couldn't get it, but not Kale.  He just kept trying and falling, and then trying some more until he got it.  We've got some pretty awesome kids.

 A few days ago Hallie and Kale were playing at friends houses, so Rachel and Sky were left to their own devices.  I thought Rachel might hermit down in her room and just read as she is wont to do sometimes (who knows where she picked up that habit), but instead she thought up lots of fun things to do with Sky.  They played outside together, and then came in and had a tea party -- with Rachel's real glass tea set -- with a select few dolls and animals.  Then they made bracelets and had reading time.  I just loved seeing the 2 of them play together without the other kids -- it's such a different dynamic than when they're all together.  It was such a sweet moment for me to see how loving and attentive Rachel was to Sky.

 And now one last thing.  The girls were in their school musical last week -- it was Alice in Wonderland.  Rachel was a card soldier and Hallie was a white rabbit.  They loved it!  I felt so proud watching them perform their little songs with their groups.  Both girls knew all their words and actions and they were both among the most responsible kids in their groups (I know because I had to help out at lots of practices).  Thanks to those who came to support them in this -- it really meant a lot to them.

Last night, as I was going through Hallie's backpack, I found a paper she had done at school.  At the top she had drawn a picture, and then underneath it she had written this: "I can be honest.  I can cep seqits."  I puzzled over this for most of the night, trying to figure out whether she was learning Spanish (because any word that has a q in it is obviously part of the Spanish language) and what it could mean.  I finally realized that the second part said "keep secrets".  Since Hallie can't say her r's, it sounds like "secwets" when she says it, and "seqits" was how she decided to spell it.  It made me smile.

Check This Out...

Last night when I went to tuck Rachel into bed, I found her sitting in a big circle with all of her animals skirting the edges of a huge blanket.  She was just getting ready to read to them.  The girls had cleaned their rooms earlier, and instead of putting all the toys away, Rachel had set up all her animals and dolls for story time -- she read to them for 40 minutes before bed.  I love her so much!