What do you get with 9 rolls of paper towel and 4 kids?

A Fun Mess!!!

Joshua was away at school, so I did a little laundry, helped the kids pick up toys, got them all dressed, hair combed and teeth brushed, made beds, vacuumed, then went to get myself ready for the day.  To keep them busy, I put on Kung Fu Panda and went upstairs.  I took my time knowing there was nothing to get to until this afternoon when the kiddos had their end of year class parties.  After about 45 minutes, Jaxen came up and wanted to ride bikes.  I told him to clean up his mess downstairs and we would go outside.  Off he went.  Gracie then came up and said she too wanted to ride bikes but there was a mess downstairs.  I told her to pick it up and we would go outside.  Off she went.  5 minutes later, Gracie came back up and said it was too hard to pick up and she was tired, so I called Morgan upstairs to tell her to help.  She came up and firmly said that there was too much paper to pick up.  My mommy alarms were triggered, and I went downstairs to see what was up.  Here is what I found:

I fun pile of paper towel to jump in and throw around.  Trying not to yell or laugh, I had to admit it did look like fun, but they all needed to pick it up.  Three garbage bags later, the mess was cleaned up and we were able to go outside and ride bikes.  I know this is a test, but the Lord sure does have more faith in me than I do in myself.  I'm still trying to figure out why they all came in three years.  It really is testing my patience and endurance levels, but you gotta love them anyway.

Preschool Graduation Again!

It's that time of year again.  School is officially out for us and summer begins.  For Morgan this means graduating from Preschool and preparing for Kindergarten next fall.  For Mommy this means finding constructive activities to do all summer, while waiting for school to start in the fall.  Here are some pictures from Morgan's special night.  (Some of them are not so great.  I think our camera that is five years old, is on it's last leg.)

Grandma comes to visit!

Grandma came to visit this year during Tulip Time.  We had a great time.  We went to a parade,  ate cotton candy and carnival food,  saw the Dutch Dancers perform, saw a performance of music and medleys,  helped at Jaxen's school, visited Deana's Playhouse, watched "How to Train a Dragon", went on a field trip with Joshua and visited the dentist.  We had fun showing Grandma our school and what keeps us busy each day.  I think she went home tired, but happy.  We hope this becomes an annual event.  Next year the kids want to take her to the craft fair and fireworks as well.  Here are some pictures from the parade we went to.

Just us Girls!

When I was in grad school in Kalamazoo, we had the opportunity to attend a few broadway shows at Miller Auditorium at half price.  I miss that particular benefit of being a student. One of the shows was Beauty and the Beast.  We liked it so much we took our friends daughters the next night and one of them said later:  "That was the best movie I have ever seen."  Well, Beauty and the Beast came to Grand Rapids this month, so I took Morgan and Gracie.  Our good friend Sherri came a long to help.  We started out with lunch and then off to the show.  Some parts were a little scary for Gracie, and it was a little long to sit the whole time, but they did fairly well.  Luckily we went to the afternoon show, so there were a lot of little girls moving around and enjoying the show.  Their favorite part was the end when the Beast turns into the Prince and Belle is dressed in her princess outfit.  It was fun sharing it with them, but next time I might wait until they are a little older, so they can truly appreciate it.  I myself loved seeing it again.

April and Part of May

I need to start updating more often.  I keep putting it off because I'm either using my ipad to check email, or Morgan and/or Ryan are on the computer.  Anyway, here are the activities we did in April and part of May.

Morgan lost her bottom two front teeth.  Ryan was concerned it was a little early, but after talking with friends and family (and a quick google on the net) we found out everything was okay.  She was a little freaked out at first and cried because they were gone, but as soon as the tooth fairy came, she was all smiles.

Jaxen and Gracie had a bike parade at school.  When loading the van, I asked them if they wanted to take their two wheelers or their big wheels.  Gracie is afraid to ride her two wheeler so she quickly chose her purple big wheel.  Jaxen wanted to be like her, so he picked the red big wheel.  When we arrived at school, all the other kids brought their two wheelers and Jaxen was upset.  He wanted me to go home and get his.  I had to take Joshua to therapy and couldn't go home to change the bikes.  So, at the time of the parade, Jaxen refused to ride his bike, as you can see in the pictures.  It was a fun afternoon.

Ryan's niece Megan was married on May 3rd in Nauvoo, and we were all able to go and participate.  We spent our time seeing the sites and visiting with family.  The kiddos really liked the fact that each night before bed we spent an hour or so swimming in the pool.  Needless to say, they had a blast.

Group shot the day before the wedding.

Kids on the statue in front of the temple.

Family Picture in front of the temple.

While out front taking pictures, we ran into my next door neighbors from my childhood, Janet and John Woffinden.  What a small world.  They had traveled from Utah to see the temple, while we were there from Michigan.

Family pictures after the wedding ceremony.

Kids posing for the camera in Carthage.

After our trip to Nauvoo, Grandma Jean Ann came out and spent the week of Tulip Time with us.  We went to a parade, ate carnival food, saw the Dutch Dancers, and dozens of tulips.  We had a great time showing her around.  While she was here she also helped in Jaxen's preschool, played at Deanna's Playhouse, and went with Joshua to Teusink's Farm.  We kept her very busy and wore her out, but she enjoyed her time with us.  We are hoping she will come back next year.

Grandma and the kiddos at the beach.

Rachel playing in the sand.

Morgan and Jaxen posing in front of the Tulips.

Morgan and Gracie in front of the tulips.

Morgan has been asking me for weeks to get her ears pierced.  I wanted to wait until her birthday, but while Grandma was here we found ourselves in the mall and she asked again.  So, here is Morgan getting ready to get her ears pierced.  She was very brave and didn't even cry.   Wow she is growing up.

March Activities

The kids all dressed up for St. Patrick's Day.  Ryan bought them each a green necklace to make sure they were wearing green.  They were very happy to show off their outfits.  Joshua unfortunatly came home sick from school and threw up all over his green outfit, so he is not pictured.  He is actually laying on the floor in pajamas, wrapped in a blanket and feeling miserable.  Poor boy.

Morgan was invited to a birthday party for a girl at school.  The theme was "Hello Kitty."  Morgan was so excited to come home and show off her Hello Kitty face paint and new flip flops.

The end of March, I had a 2 day conference.  Ryan was in charge of the kiddos while I was away.  To keep everyone happy and getting a long, Ryan does best when they are busy busy busy.  He took them to the zoo, to McDonalds, Deanna's playhouse, the park and anywhere else he could think of.  By the time I got home, they were all exhausted, including Ryan. 

Last weekend was a very nice weekend, so being the beach lover that he is, Ryan wanted to go to Oval beach for a family walk.  It was very cold with the wind blowing in off the lake.  The kids loved it.  They ran around gathering shells and rocks and fighting over who got to walk the dogs.  It was a nice cold day.

This week is spring break. It actually started on Friday and since Ryan had it off for Good Friday, we tried to do some fun things.  We attempted the zoo, but it was a little too crowed.  We then tried the park, and it too had a lot of people.  So, we ended up at good old McDonalds and played in the play land.  Since everyone was outside, it was quite deserted.

Ryan has been reading everynight to the kids before we go to bed.  Their current favorite is a book called "Pickle Things."  It is very cute and considering where he works, very appropriate.