Easter

 Easter is one of my kids' favorite holidays. In fact, it's a close call between if they like Easter or Christmas better! I think they love the idea of searching for eggs. I always love Easter because it also means that Spring and warmer weather is coming! We had a much warmer Easter this year which was really nice. 
I was in charge of Play School on the Thursday so we did an early Easter egg hunt, decorated eggs with our new Eggmazing Egg Decorators (they spin the eggs and the kids use markers), and we also did games and crafts and had egg popsicles I had made out of yogourt, fruit and granola.

 On Saturday we had the real egg hunt at Kellie's house, since they have a bigger backyard and more places to hide the eggs. There were money eggs, candy eggs, and eggs filled with toys. The kids had SO much fun finding them and opening them all up. Then we decorated eggs with dye and also my markers and eggmazing decorators again...the kids were obsessed with these this year! Leo was being a little hard so I missed most of the egg decorating and took him for a drive. Afterwards, Cindy had the older kids over for the rest of the day. She had them decorate cookies, bought them matching outfits, and gave them Easter bags of stuff. They had the best time.

On Sunday, we gave the kids Easter gifts from Jeff and I. My mom always did this when I was a kid, so I followed tradition. It was really just things they needed like boots and clothes, and some bubble guns, which they loved!

Church was wonderful because of the musical numbers and the focus on our Savior. Every Sunday morning is when we do our gospel study together as a family and I have really enjoyed my time with the family and teaching the kids. I especially love when they ask questions. The kids learned lots about Jesus' last week on earth and how he died and was resurrected. After church, Bentley and I had some fun playing board games and doing her nails with the Easter stick-ons from Grandma. 

 On Monday Grandma Nielson came to visit and drop off their little Easter baskets as well. Otherwise we just relaxed and played in our backyard. The weather was gorgeous! We all had a great Easter, and were definitely worn out from all the fun.

March - A Taste of Warmth

When March comes, we are always so done with the cold, snowy weather and ready for some warmth and sunshine. This year we were blessed to have a taste of some really nice weather in the middle of March! 

For St.Patrick's day we didn't do much except for celebrate it at Play School. Jaycie was in charge this week and she did such a great job with it. The hunt for the gold coins with clues along the way is always a favorite. Leprechaun names, tattoos, crafts, fruit loop necklaces, and those rainbow cupcakes were adorable! Play School is one of my favorite things. It's always so fun for the kids and great to catch up with the other moms as well! The kids were also very obsessed with catching a leprechaun this year. Jeff helped them make a trap and they spent many hours trying to catch one. On St.Patrick's day we even found some green pee in our toilet! Silly leprechauns!! We also ate lucky charms for breakfast which we were all very excited about.

The day the weather turned warmer Jeff and I took the kids all the way to Nakiska to go tubing down the hill. We went with the Bennett's and it was such a blast!! It was the perfect day because it was warm enough you didn't need mittens or hats, but we caught it before any of the snow melted so we still got a great tube ride down the hill. The kids were a little nervous at first, but it didn't take long for them to get used to it. By the end Bentley was doing it all by herself, but we still had to help  Deacon. It was really fun to all link together and go down at the same time. The kids giggled and had so much fun playing together. What a beautiful day in the mountains it was. So good for the soul!! It was also nice to not worry about Leo because Tamara was nice enough to watch him for us while we went. Afterwards we headed to a pie party at the church that night, so the kids had a fun-filled day. 

 While the weather was warm we got the urge to do lots more outdoor things! So, we got memberships to the zoo. We didn't go a lot last year, so it was really fun when we went again. The kids had a blast with the penguins who would chase Bentley's hair, it was so cute. We got to see the hippo walk right into the water. The giraffes and gorillas are always cool, and we made sure Leo saw his lions. We all had a great time, and went back again for more another day with Emily Whiteley.

One Saturday I went with Cindy and all the kids to heritage park, but we didn't realize the outdoor things hadn't opened yet. So, we played in gasoline alley, which actually ended up being really fun. They had a little scavenger hunt going on where you had to do all these different games and fill out a question sheet and get a bunch of stickers. Anyways, we all had a good time there. Afterwards we checked out the new library downtown. It's such a cool library with so much to do inside. It was a busy but fun day!

My next door neighbor, who's been trying to have a baby for a very very long time, was finally able to get pregnant and had her baby in February. We got to meet Keala and hang out with her for a while in our front yard when it was a nice sunny day. The kids thought she was adorable.

More Play School fun, being a doctor. Bentley's also always improving her drawing skills and I thought this picture was really neat. 

 Deacon is such a boy. He brought in this chair just so he could have a place to sit to take off his shoes! Also, I finally let him have color in his hair when he got a haircut and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. And then one day Leo wanted some of his apple so he shared it with him...but couldn't give it up himself so they awkwardly both ate it at the same time! So funny. 

 We were getting pretty excited about park days! The snow was still melting but it was nice enough to play at the park with friends. This community has some awesome parks.