Tulips 2012

We took our annual trip to the Tulip fields.  This year we had decided to have our family pictures taken professionally.  I will post those pictures soon.  Anyway, while we were waiting for our photographer to download the pictures onto his computer, we goofed around and took a few of our own photos.  We only had a short 10 minutes....here are a few that we took in that short time.

Easter 2012, Part 2

Easter Sunday brought us not only the Annual Egg Hunt with our cul-de-sac of kids, but it also brought Pink Eye to Peyton.  She woke up with a goopy eye that was no fun!  So, because I was teaching the 3/4 year old Sunday School Class, Grandma came to stay with Peyton and Madison and I went to Church.  After Church I still let Peyton participate in the egg hunt...I figured since it was out in the open and she was not in contact with others, it would be fine.  The kiddos had so much fun, as usual, with all of their friends.  We hide bags and bags of eggs in all of the yards in our culdesac.  The kids have free reign to hunt and search all over.

Here is a picture of the clan...yes these are just the kids that live in our cul-de-sac.  We have nonstop play dates!  We feel so blessed to have such a fun and great group of neighbors and friends.   

 One of our neighbors always hides a bag for each of the kids.  They each have to find their name. 

 Here is Peyton after she found her bag!

Madison found one of the eggs with a live frog in it!  There were 3 this year.  She was super excited.

Easter 2012, Part 1

On Saturday, the day before Easter, we went to an Egg Hunt called Operation Orange Egg Drop.  It was put on by a church in Portland at a park.  What happened was they had a helicopter drop 15,000 orange plastic Easter eggs from a helicopter.  They had all of the age groups split up and when it was time the kids ran and filled their buckets with orange eggs.  The eggs were empty and after all of the egg hunting was over the kids turned their found eggs in for a goodie bag.  It was nice because no matter if your child found 1 egg or 100 eggs, everyone received a goodie bag!  It was pretty fun to see all of the eggs dropped from a helicopter!  That was for sure the highlight!   

 Peyton was a little overwhelmed, and did not want to go out an pick up eggs with the mass crowd of kids.  So, she missed out on getting eggs.

Madison found so many eggs her bucket was over flowing!  She gave Peyton 1/2 of her eggs!  It was so sweet the way she wanted to give them to Peyton... we didn't even ask her to give any up.

Both girls were thrilled with their goodie bags!

After the egg hunt we were all hungry and stopped by a food cart area called Cartlandia.  There was any and every kind of food to choose from.  The girls had a hot dog,  Bry had a Philly Steak Sandwich, and I had Chicken Fried Rice.  It was soooo yummy! 

What a nice day!  We were happy to have a day with no rain and to finally get out and about! 

Maddie enjoyed a Huge shaved ice for a treat after lunch.

Birthday Celebration With Friends

My birthday celebration was continued a couple of weekends later with an outing with friends.  We went to a comedy club called Helium.  It was a pretty nice club and we thought the comedians were very funny!  When we pulled up to the club, Kieron and Teresa were surprised to see the ballroom where they were married was now the comedy club!  They were reminiscing about their wedding day.  We had them stand up where they had said their vows on their wedding day and Pat held a menu to marry them.  It was pretty funny! 

 We had a lot of fun that evening!  Thanks friends for a great night out on the town and the many laughs!  

Madison's Orange Belt!

In order to move up a belt in Taekwondo you have to pass a test. The testing is every 2 - 3 months and you have to be approved by the instructor to test. This means getting in front of the instructor and showing him a set of 28 sequenced moves (called Form). She also had to show a set of moves called Sparring. Madison passed all of her tests today and has moved onto the orange belt. She was so nervous, but in the end did a great job and stayed focused! I was very proud of her! It is nice to add some color to her uniform!

Good job Maddie!

Friends Morgan and Alex passed their belt tests too. Morgan moves onto orange and Alex is now a yellow belt! Great job guys!

The Children's Museum

On Wednesday we checked out the Children's Museum. Bry was off and was able to go with us. The girls enjoyed the many areas the museum has to offer....but they especially enjoyed the animal hospital/vet area. We spent most of our time there and the girls loved pretending to take care of all of the sick stuffed animals. It was pretty cute to see them so serious about their "job".

The light table and magnets.

A very rare picture... usually I am on the other side of the camera. I actually forgot my camera, and so Bryan took the pictures with his phone. I guess this is what I get. :)

Turning into Kitties

Looking at the x-rays in the animal hospital.

Dr. MacKender

Zoo Day!

Finally a Sunny Day! The girls and I had to get out into the sunshine. It wasn't exactly warm, but at least it was not raining. The Zoo was pretty busy for a Monday morning, yet is is still spring break for some districts.

Peyton loves to see the elephants. She wanted her picture taken with Sam, the not so baby elephant.

This was an owl Maddie was able to get up close to.

We can never go to the zoo without sitting on the statues.

It just seems to be the fun thing to do! :)

My Yummy Cake!

Bryan picked out a YUMMY birthday cake for me... Tuxedo Mouse Chocolate cake! The girls helped me blow out the candles. Bry was very kind placing only 3 candles on the cake!

A Wicked Surprise

For my Birthday my sister Cait surprised me with tickets to the Broadway musical Wicked (I thought we were going to get pedicures)! It was such a great surprise!! Here are all the girls before the show! She surprised me with a yummy Brunch before hand too.

Thanks sis for such a great birthday! I really loved the show and the girl time!