Easter Hunt

After church we had a egg hunt for the kids. A couple of months ago we helped out a friend by letting her store her trampoline at our house for a couple of months. Just long enough for us to really start liking it. A couple days before Easter weekend it was time to return it, the kids thought that was less than cool. So with Easter being this weekend we thought it would be fun to incorporate the hunt with surprising the kids with a new trampoline. I hid different letters in the eggs so the kids had to unscramble the word "trampoline". They were thrilled! At Easter time we usually don't give any gifts let alone a big one, but we thought we would have fun with how we were giving the trampoline to the kids this year.

Dinner was absolutely wonderful. I gained two pounds this weekend, that is how good the food was...A two pound rating. Matt is a wonderful chef. We had Matt's amazing gingersnap brown sugared ham, amazing garlic potatoes, asian salad and deviled eggs. I ventured out and made a carrot cake that wasn't too bad. We were lucky to have Yvonne join us for dinner. She is our neighbor from our old house, we just adore her. A wonderful Easter this year.

Soccer Season

Soccer season has begun! Logan and Hunter are both playing this year. That means practices or games every night of the week except Fridays and Sundays. Whew! I love watching them play. It is very entertaining at each level. In Logan's age group you'll find the butterfly chasers, shadow followers (really...we had a kid on a team who would followed his shadow the whole game) etc etc. In Hunter's group we start to see more strategy and game play being used. Fun times.

No Fun

We gave the kids the opportunity to earn some extra dough. They were less than thrilled about what the job was. Fill one bucket of rocks for a buck, each. They are usually pretty good about not complaining about their regular chores, this job was "beneath" them apparently. We told them it was completely optional, but for some reason they sulked and complained like their dog had died or something. Oh brother... They filled two bins...barely.

Betrayal

Have you ever seen such horror?

Jessica's front tooth has been taking it's sweet time falling out. Since way before Christmas it started to become wiggly. It is now Spring...

She likes for you to just "test wiggle", no pullsies...but the urge is too great while you are in there poking around, so I always go for it. Which always leads in a look of utter shock and then...
"YOU LIED!!!!!!" and they go off running crying.

Oh, I just can't help it. I keep hoping the outcome will be I pull the tooth lose and then they yell..."YOU DID IT!" but no...I inflict pain and distrust every time.

This time daddy tried...I am taking a break from being the persecutor. No success for him either.

FAMOUS...Front Page Wenatchee World Newspaper

Team Mighty Yodas heads to the finish line Saturday during Jr. Ridge to River. (World photo/Kelly Gillin)

(they were originally called Mighty Yoda's and it got changed to Running Lima Beans)

I Thought I Was a Good Mom... Until I Had Children

I watched Oprah today, and I about started to cry. It's topic was about the fact that for some reason we are trying to "fool" each other that we are doing it all and doing it well as mothers. They had all these mom's reveal their dirty little secrets of motherhood....oh do I have many. So if Jessica grows up and may become a mother herself, I want her to know it is completely normal and okay to not have it all together all the time. So here it goes...these are a few of mine....

JUDGMENT FREE READING

*I sometimes put earphones on with music so I can tune out my kids for just awhile, especially during Spring or Summer break when we have no break from each other.
* I hide in the bathroom sometimes longer than I need to be there.
* I usually only mop when people are coming for dinner or my parents are visiting.
* Most days of the week I don't shower until 11am...if I even get to it that day.
* If the kids are fighting and it ends in Moooommmm, most times I purposely tune out and pretend I didn't hear them, hoping they won't keep calling me.
* If my kids are thirsty I make them drink from the bathroom sink. They are flipping camels!
* I am horrible at getting my kids to get in the bath....does the sprinkler count?
* I skip pages during story time to get through the book quicker.
* I don't give my kids Tylenol when they are sick or they won't rest....unless they have a horrible fever...I am not a beast.
* I won't play Barbies or anything of the sort.
* I give the crappy candy to the kiddo's and sneak the good stuff for me.
* Usually my list is only half completed on a daily basis.
* I have a live in babysitter...meet the T.V.
* Sometimes my house looks like every drawer and cupboard vomited everywhere.
* In the car sometimes I tell them to just stop talking for a moment, or pretend to play the quiet game for 5 minutes of peace.
* Sometimes there are no clean dishes and the kids have to eat out of Tupperware and serving bowls...they actually think this one is cool.

This isn't of course how it always is, I love being a mother....but "motherhood" isn't always peachy. But I want my darling Jessica to not be as hard on herself as I know my mom was on herself, and I am on myself. Maybe I can teach her to break the cycle of thinking you have to be perfect all the time. It all comes down to doing the best you can, even if means feeding your kids cereal for 3 meals of the day.

P.S. Thanks mom...

Spring Has Come...finally

Spring is my favorite season. Many of my fondest memories as a child involve Spring...

• Walking down streets lined in cherry blossom trees and trying to pick the biggest bouquet to take home...(remember El?)
• Purple and yellow crocuses
• Making daffodil crafts in school that involved lots of tissue paper and white glue.
• Making daisy chain necklaces on the field during recess.
• Teachers bringing in vases of pussy willows.
• Birds singing, finding fallen blue bird eggs and bringing them home as wonderful treasures.
• The smell of fresh cut grass and lawn mowers humming
• Brighter days and awaking each morning to a world coming out of it's winter slumber...
  

My children are now creating their own memories of Spring. A big one each year is to visit the chicks, and rabbits, Jessica's most favorite Springtime activity...however the boys on the other hand enjoyed other Springtime fun, pretending THEY were the caged chicks and rabbits.

Jr. Ridge to River

SPEEDY CHEETAHS & RUNNING LIMA BEANS

Ridge to River is a very big deal for our little town. People flock from all over (Seattle and even Canada) to be apart of the Ridge to River race. It consists of a six legged race that begins with downhill skiing, then run, then bike, then kayak, then sprint to finish....It's a big deal. Anyway they have created a Jr. Ridge to River for kids to participate in. We put together two teams this year with five kids in each team. It starts with a run, a kayak, bike then ends with an obstacle course. It is very very fun for all the kiddo's. The boys team were The Running Lima Beans, and Jessica The Speeding Cheetah's...I made their t-shirts...well I made Jessica's team and Hunter's evolved to the making his to the Lima Beans...it's a long story.

Anyway we met at Walla Walla park with hundreds of other people and their kids and tried to organize the two teams. We went over and over all the technicals to make sure everyone knew what they were to do and when. We suited the team up with their time chips etc.. and promptly at 11:00am to all their posts. We waited and waited for Hunter and Carson our team runner to come down the race so they could tag our kayakers...all was well until......

I shouted to our paddler Alexis, "okay RUN RUN RUN!"

Before I could clarify that he need to run to his post and wait to be tagged...he ran down to the water and jumped in a kayak and started before Hunter had a chance to even tag him, he then went on to tag Hayden...you get the idea... oops!

According to them they came in first...(in actuality they should of been disqualified for starting before being tagged, but they don't officially disqualify children in these sort of things...thank goodness!) We chatted the whole way home about what went wrong and thought, "oh well the kids had a great time that is all the matters right?"....until....

We got a phone call later in the day from the race officials asking why our kids team came in four minutes before they even started...hmm...they noticed? Well they totally understood but explained that the newspaper wanted to print their picture tomorrow and they may print the mishap and that they were disqualified...not only was it their first official disqualification it was going to published...oh dear. Oh well.

RESULTS out of 44 teams in there age group:

RUNNING LIMA BEANS: Even with the 5 minutes penalty they came in 4th

SPEEDY CHEETAHS: 20th (not bad!)

FYI: Hunter and his team are completely unaware of any of this race drama, according to him, they came in first and they may put their picture in the paper tomorrow...let's just keep it that way for now.

Death Threats

We have a neighbor that has a dog named Ollie. This dog is let out every morning at 6:00 am. And every morning at 6:00am this dog proceeds to stand on his playhouse, stare at our house and bark. And then bark, bark bark. Our bedroom window is a few yards away from him. Uhhh!

For the last 2 years this has been the morning routine. Not everyday do we want a canine alarm clock...actually we never wake up at 6:00am . In fact we are night people. Anyway, as we lie in bed and are abruptly awaken each morning, Matt and I will come up with ways to quiet the dog...they keep getting worse. After Matt comes up with these elaborate plans during his confused angered slumber, I always follow with...no, you wouldn't really do that...right?

Disclaimer: We would never hurt an animal....just think really mean thoughts about his annoying barking.

Hanging at the Local Joint

Tonight we met up with our other halves and went out for pizza and bowling. As we kicked back and hung out at this small town bowling alley I felt like we were in an episode of Rosanne. Weird. Just add some bowling shirts...and no beer, and I am sure it smelled better here....anyway, I love these guys, Matt and I could sit and talk with Rick and Camilla for hours. We would of if our kids didn't rob us blind for quarters for all the candy and video games. Good times.

April Fools

Even though the kids tried to "get" each other all day, I layed low and didn't really do anything until we told the kids we were taking them out to ice cream. Matt and I had our little acting debut all planned out. As we walked out to the car I said..."Honey I forgot to get gas yesterday and I think we are almost out." (which was actually true) As we started driving he said loud enough for the kids to hear, "I sure hope it is going to make it." I then asked him if he brought his cell phone just in case we run out of gas. We had all the kids quietly listening to our conversation about not having enough gas....

{Now in reality we have run out of gas a couple of times before usually on a trip when we think we can make it to the next town... so the kids are EXTRA paranoid.}

Well once we get to a certain quiet street we purposely picked out, Matt threw the car into neutral and started pumping the breaks playing up the part... We started saying, oh no! we DID!!! They said, NO!! I said, "Look it's on the E" We then told the kids they had to jump out and start pushing. They looked at us with very stunned faces. The boys jumped out with daddy and began pushing. I finally couldn't keep it in and after shooting a quick photo told them APRIL FOOLS!

The kids played tricks on each other....

Hunter pretended he stepped in dog poop and after showing Logan he ate it...which actually was chocolate chips...he totally fell for it.

Jessica came downstairs holding a bunch of lego pieces in her hand and told the boys she accidental put the laundry basket on top of their lego creations (that took weeks to make) and broke them. I was amazed at her acting skills I must say. I was also very impressed that Hunter although very sad at first didn't strangle her but told her it would be okay.

Logan tried a few tall tales but every time he would try to tell the story he had to look the opposite way so he wouldn't laugh, giving himself away each time. What a cutie.