A fun-filled April Fool's Day

I've gotten into April Fool's quite a bit in the past, but this year I only did one little prank. I opened 2 bags of cookies, poured out the cookies, and put Goldfish inside. Then I sealed them up with double-stick tape. (Idea from FamilyFun.) It actually took some convincing to get the kids to eat something before we left to take Cat to school (usually we don't since she gets breakfast at school and we always seem to be pressed for time). Jack didn't seem to notice or maybe didn't care that he was eating Goldfish instead of cookies. Cat was amused but not at all annoyed or upset.

April Fool's Day was also her school's Wacky Tacky Hair Day. So she slept with her hair in 4 braids the night before and had some nice poofy pigtails for school that day. Can you tell that she was excited?

And April Fool's was ALSO her school's Field Day.
Here, Cat is sitting with her class. Can you pick her out?

Cat with her teacher:

Cat with her BFF:

All ready for the next event!

Almost Cat's turn for the Potato Race. (No, not Potato Sack Race.)
In this event, each person had to use a hockey stick to roll a potato down the field, around a cone, and back to the starting line. It took a while, especially considering the fact that I'm pretty sure most of these children have never even seen a hockey stick, let alone used one.
But they had fun!

After school, Cat went outside to play. She thought it would be fun to cover herself in mud. Oh, and she covered her brother in mud, too. (Jack didn't think it was so fun.) Below is a picture of Cat's muddiness.... but she was having so much fun getting dirty that she got even muddier after I took this picture.

Thank goodness Ben got home early so that he could address the muddy children while I made dinner. Cat was dirty enough at that point that he decided she should remove her clothes outside and hose herself off before getting in the bath. Yeah. It was bad. But she really had a blast getting dirty. Is there a word for a girl who loves all things girly, and also enjoys pouring mud on herself? Hmm.... well-rounded?

That night we had a family movie night and watched a new movie together. Cat had been begging us for cotton candy for a few weeks, so we splurged and spent $5 on 3 little tubs of cotton candy at the grocery store - we only ate 2 of them - but it set the tone for a fun night of hanging out together.

Cat dubbed it "the best day ever."

Paint Making

It was pretty rainy here a couple of weeks ago, so we didn't spend very much time outside. One evening, Cat kept begging to go play outside and I wouldn't let her. I was feeling like a pretty bad Mom, though, and after a while I finally gave in. We all went out to the front patio for outside time. As always happens, the kids had a great time doing whatever. On this particular day, that was "making pink paint."

The process was pretty simple.
1. Collect petals and leaves to tint the collected rainwater pink.
2. Stir with sticks.
3. Get eaten alive by bugs.

We stayed outside as long as we could stand it, at which time we went in to enjoy dinner bug-free.

Colin's Bday

We got to celebrate my nephew's birthday with him at Chuck E. Cheese's.
(Where a kid can be a kid.) It was so fun!

C & J did a little driving and a little bike-flying.


The girls tried out the horseback riding.


And of course, we enjoyed some cake.

Cousin birthday parties are the best.

We were so glad to be able to celebrate with you, Colin!

Coloring Fun

Cat missed 2 days of school a couple of weeks ago because she had a stomach bug. She was a trooper, though, and we were so thankful that other than some unpleasant diapers, the rest of us were okay.

We decided to do a simple crafty project that Friday morning to keep everyone happy and busy for a little while. I printed out some simple pictures online and did my best to re-create them on large sheets of paper.

I drew Jack's "Circus Train" first. (Of course, it only has a giraffe, a gorilla, and some balloons. Perfect circus, right?) I was hoping he would stay busy coloring while I got to work on Cat's princess, but this is about all the coloring he did on his own.

Once I started drawing Cat's princess, all Jack wanted to do was color on her paper. So once she could begin her coloring, I sat down with Jack and did a lot of coloring with him... or maybe he told me what colors he wanted different things to be and I colored it for him. But at least we worked on it together. :-) And now it hangs proudly on the wall in his room.

Cat spent a lot of time on her princess. She colored, glued on some fabric scraps
I gave her, and even added some sequins and pompoms.

Hers is now up on the back of her bedroom door.
There, she can admire it, but Jack and Eliza
aren't likely to pull things off of it.

Chugger Cheese's

A couple of weeks ago I was outside with the kids.

Cat and Jack were out in the grass and I was hoping that
Eliza would hang out with me on the deck.


She didn't stay long, once she saw all the fun that Cat and Jack were having.
(It's hard to crawl in a dress! Ready for her to start walking right about now...)

Some friends in our ward gave us an awesome play house a few months ago and Cat plays with it all the time! On this particular day, it housed Cat's latest entrepreneurial endeavor: Chugger Cheese's.

Look! Soup!

Delicious.


Come on in and meet the friendly staff.


Cat: owner, executive chef


Eliza: sous chef


Once you finish your meal, we invite you to enjoy the view from the rooftop terrace.


"There they go... hanging from the rafters again."

And feel free to climb a few trees as you explore the extensive grounds.

But beware. You might get moss stuck on your bum.

"Y'all come back now, ya hear?"

Not Too Big

A few weeks ago I was cleaning up these baby toys that I picked up from
one person and was preparing to bring them to another person.
(They'd been in someone's garage for a while...)

I couldn't clean them fast enough for this little guy to jump in!

We haven't had an exersaucer or walker or anything with Eliza,
so she had fun playing in them too.

What was that that Pres. Eyring talked about during his talk yesterday regarding
children getting involved in service so that it can benefit the whole family?

See - the kids were contributing to the service by testing out the toys and getting them all warmed up for their new owner. And they enjoyed every minute of it.

This ain't no April Fool's joke.

Written by: Brett

Illustrated by: Cat


Guess what our family is doing?

That's right. We're packing up and moving out.
(Not until July though.)
Here are a few clues as to where we are going.

1. We could easily justify using one of these to get there.
Although, we are thinking that we will drive instead.
Side Note: I suggested Cat add something to this picture to make sure everyone would know she drew an airplane. My thinking: clouds. Her thinking: label.


2. This place has lots of these.
Side Note #2: When I suggested Cat draw mountains she said, "I'm good at drawing mountains." Definitely.



3. We'll probably see plenty of these, and maybe us Southerners can even figure out how to make one.


4. We'll be within an hour of this.


Have you figured it out?

Yep, that's right. We're headed to Utah.

Why? You may ask.

Well, because Ben will be getting this.


Here.

Side Note #3: After looking at these pictures, you probably won't be surprised to find out that Cat recently decided she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She gave herself a satisfactory Elmo stamp on each page, and a "0-" (which, I believe, means the same thing as "-0")


This has been years in the making. We were so excited when we received Ben's welcome packet in the mail, and we were able to start making plans and moving forward with this goal. Moving is stressful. The MBA program won't be easy. And we're really sad to leave most of our family and many good friends here and in the neighboring states. But we feel blessed to have this opportunity and look forward to the next big adventure for our family!