Brooke's Orchestra Concert

Last night was Brooke's Orchestra concert. The kids did a great job. The teacher picked mostly music from popular movies and TV shows so that was really fun. The concert was only 35 minutes (big plus).

Now - you can enjoy all the lovely pictures I took, because yes, I am THAT good of a mom!!

(if it helps you, she is just about dead center in the picture) I am available for weddings, births, and any other special events you would like documented!

Who is in charge here, anyway?

So the kids woke us up this morning all excited about the fort they made and how we just had to come and see it. So this is what we found in the living room:

Normally this kind of mess would put me over the edge, but you know, Jeff coming home and telling me he has cancer has sort of changed my perspective - who the heck cares!! Right. I could clean this up in about 5 minutes if I really wanted to so "Let them be little!"

My Grandma is 80

My grandma Von (Yvonne) turned 80 April 10th. We had a big family party for her. I chose not to attend, because it was the same day as the funeral for my friend, but I thought I would honor her with a blog post and some pictures that Brooke took at the party.

(Isn't it great to have kids that are old enough you can give them jobs. Now I just need to find her camera.)

This is the gift idea I had for my grandma - Kim helped a lot with the actual execution of it. We framed it in a black frame.

Easter

So contrary to popular opinion - I am a really bad mom!! I was so lazy this Easter because we ended up not going camping (grrr SNOW!!) that I barely got around to doing anything traditional.

The Easter bunny usually comes to us on Saturday - but she was extra busy (or hadn't gone shopping, I forget which) so instead he came to our house on Sunday. However Sunday we awoke to - you guessed it, more snow - so it was a good thing we had left the door unlocked so he could come in and warm up. While he was warming up, he hid our eggs and baskets downstairs.

Now to the really bad mom part. I told my kids we would color our eggs between conference session. Then come to find out I had no coloring - but they had already forgotten by the conference break. I had already boiled the eggs so I thought I would make Deviled Eggs to go with dinner. Surprisingly enough, I was too lazy. Then - I thought - I really should let Gage color them, but other things kept distracting me on Monday (it was a sad day - but that is for another post). On Tuesday when I took Brooke to orchestra at 7:30 I decided to run by Wal-mart to see if they had any good Easter Clearance. They had these COOL egg spinners. So for $2.50 I was all in!

Then the rest of Tuesday morning - I was lazy so Gage and I still didn't get around to coloring. Wednesday was busy with appointments and such, but I am leaving town tomorrow (Thursday) at noon - so finally at 8:30 at night - right before bed I said, let's color these eggs!! So I brought out the spinner and we went for it.

Courtney is super gangster - right!

I was going to fake this post and back date it like I had done this actually when I should have, but what would be the fun in that - and you know me too well anyway!! (And don't you just love the way I cropped those pictures and made them all cutsie for you - I will be offering classes soon!)

April Fools/Courtney's Birthday

So, my sweet little Courtney was silly enough to let me do her birthday party on April First - crazy kid!!

We had lots of fun! First we played stick the booger on the nose.

Then we played take a dare or pie in your hair. (She really did choose the pie in her hair!!) It was a shaving cream pie - I am too cheap to use whip cream.

Then we had a crazy menu dinner at Chez Andrez. It was quite the menu, but I can't share it here just in case I want to use it again - I don't want the key floating around out there. But I would be happy to share it if anyone is interested.

We finished out with a lovely "cake" made by Aunt Alicia. This was actually made with Courtney's Giant Cupcake Mold, but it was actually rice crispie treat so she couldn't really cut into it. Pretty funny.

**Just a side note: Last year for April Fools breakfast I made giant ostrich eggs for breakfast. That was marshmallow cream and a peach half. So this year I went the opposite and did tiny eggs made with melted white chocolate and a yellow M&M - Way fun!!

***Yeah and FYI Courtney is now 12 and enjoying YW. (Mom is a little freaked out!)