Spring Break 08'... Where is Spring?

I feel like I have been away from the computer for so long. I will try and keep this short...but there is so much to write about and we had a VERY busy week! We went to Cannon Beach for Spring Break all last week with Errin, Jeff, Jordyn, Jacob, and Austin. It was not like Spring at all!! We had a lot of snow, hail, rain, and very little sun. It was still relaxing, just not a lot of outside activities on this trip.

The first picture is from the yard of the beach house...but if you look closely you will see snowflakes falling on the rock! :) Not a common sight!

Here is our drive to Seaside to take the kids swimming... humm? Where is Spring? The kids did have fun at the indoor pool. We could see the snow falling while we were swimming.

On one of the few

dry moments the kids went outside

to feed the seagulls. This is always a good time. Jacob is

smart, he has his hood up. :)

This was Peyton's first beach trip. We stayed inside for this trip...it was just too cold to go on the beach. So we watched the kids feed the seagulls from inside.

Bryan and Peyton hanging out in the most

comfortable rocking chair in the world!

Just enjoying a lazy morning! All in all we had a good time.

Madison LOVES playing with her cousins!

She was very tired at the end of each day!

We headed home on Friday afternoon.

On Saturday we had 2 birthday parties to attend. Jake was turning 1 (A little boy of one of Bryan's Firefighter friends) HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE! We had a lot of fun seeing how grown up he has gotten...time goes by so fast. One year olds are so fun!

We also went to a birthday party for our friend and neighbor Kieron he turned 29 years old "again":). Teresa (his wife) rented a Hummer Limo and we headed out with a bunch of friends for a night on the town! Lot's of fun! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIERON...thanks for the memories! :)

On Sunday...the last day of Spring Break I took Madison to a Play at the Northwest Children's Theater. "GO DOG GO" Based on the children's book! This was so fun. I love any kind of theater and seeing it with Maddie is a double bonus. I took her to Beauty and the Beast at the same theater and she loved it too. I am amazed at how she will sit so still and watch a 2 hour show.

We had great seats in the front row!

Here is a picture of Maddie and her favorite character from the play...of course, it was the pink "dog", who wore the fancy hats! Wow, what a busy week! I could keep writing and writing tonight but I will continue tomorrow with part two...my Birthday and back to work!

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny did pay us a visit last night. Lots of fun goodies! Maddie was very excited!

We had bunny pancakes for breakfast! With chocolate chips.

Happy Easter!!

Easter Egg Hunts and a Family Lunch

This morning we went to an Easter egg hunt at the local Albertsons. This may sound a little silly but it is really great! I have taken Maddie since she was 1 to this egg hunt. It is indoors, warm, and they give great candy and even other prizes. She always gets a basket full. This year she had lots of Butterfingers, Baby Ruths, Robin Eggs, Kit Kats, she even got a couple of eggs with papers inside so she won 2 bags of baby carrots and a box of fruit snacks. Wow... much better then hard, soggy, candy that has been sitting in wet grass. :) Peyton was even a happy camper! :) Next year she will join in the fun! After the egg hunt we came home to get ready for all of the "fam" to come over and have an early Easter lunch. Bry has to work tomorrow so we thought it would be fun to get everyone together today. The girls were spoiled by their Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents (like always!). Easter baskets galore!
Peyton's first Easter Basket! Thank you Uncle Chris and Aunt Stacy! It was about as big as her!

We had a yummy lunch and then an Easter Egg Hunt outside for Maddie. I think this is the first year it has been sunny and not raining or sprinkling on Easter! It was nice to have the hunt outside.

This was a fun day! We are blessed to have a wonderful family! We enjoyed having everyone over!

Maddie went to bed worn out and with the hope that the Easter Bunny will pay our house a visit tonight! HOPPY EASTER!

Yippee Spring Break!

It's Spring Break! YIPPEE!! It is always CRAZY BUSY just before break because I have conferences until late and the days are very long! At least it was not as bad as in years past. I am part time, so I only had to work late two nights instead of three. For break we are going to have a fun filled Easter weekend with Easter Egg hunts on Saturday morning, Easter lunch with family Saturday afternoon, Bry works on actual Easter Sunday, going to the beach Monday - Friday, we have 2 birthday parties on Saturday, and I am taking Maddie (she doesn't know yet) to a play, "Go Dog Go" by the Northwest Children's Theater, on Sunday! Wow!! After putting all of that into words the thought came to mind.. would this be a break, or does it sound like we will need a break after our "break"? Hmmmm... at least it all sounds like fun! :)

Tomorrow I am going to help in Maddie's class for her Easter Party. It is always fun to help and I enjoy working with the 3 year olds. We are in charge of making Easter Egg sugar cookies with icing. In preschool we can still bring homemade treats. So... Maddie and I got to it and made cookies. I will have to say my patience level was a little low today, but we made it through from start to finish...despite flour spilled all over the floor, "sprinkles" overload on some of the cookies, the counter and the floor, and Maddie REALLY wanting to make Valentine cookies instead of Easter cookies.

I hope the class enjoys them... a lot! :)

Note the flour beard. :)

This is serious business!

Is there such thing as a 3 year old debate team? If there is let me know and I will sign her up tomorrow. She has an answer for everything. Here she is arguing that we should make heart shaped Valentine cookies. Why? Just because she wants to! :)

OK... so she won the debate and with the last of the dough I let her make the heart cookies. The bottom 2 were all on her own.

She gathered up all of the little pieces left over, rolled the dough, and created these yummy masterpieces! :)

Coloring Easter Eggs

This is the first year I've colored eggs with Madison. Last year she received a Dora Egg Coloring Kit as a gift. I mentioned to her we would have to color eggs this year with her kit that she discovered in our "Easter decorations box". She was soooooo excited and could not wait to get started. I told her we could color eggs after the eggs were hard boiled, cooled, and Peyton was in bed. Wow for a 3 year old it felt like forever! She asked about them every 5 min. for about 2 hours straight! So, when it was finally time to color the eggs I was just as excited as she was!


Getting started!! Can't wait!!!

Picking colors!!

These were her favorite ones. If you notice, some of her fingers are just as colorful as the eggs.:) Coloring eggs brought back fun memories of when I used to color eggs with my family, I was probably just as excited as she was! It is fun to relive and be reminded of how to be a kid again!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We tried to show our Irish Spirit by wearing green today.

Even Peyton joined in the fun!

Madison made this at school last week and she was very proud. She goes to school every Wednesday and Friday. She is getting very good at cutting on the lines. :)

We hope you all had a great day and didn't get pinched! :)

Maddie's First "Fork"

I did not get to blog yesterday because I was so tired after a long day with a very "emotional" 3 year old. She mentally wore me out! I have learned that the terrible 2's were not so terrible after all... 3's have really given us a run for our money :)! So anyway... I will make up for it tonight.
Bry was working 48 hours and just got home this morning. Peyton has been sick for the last 4 weeks with a cold, congested, runny eyes etc. She was finally a little better today, at least her eyes wern't as bad! Yippee! We went to Church and then out to lunch. Came home and Maddie and I took a much needed nap. I went to the grocery store then Tracy joined us for Pizza. This day just flew by!

On Saturday, in the morning, I mentioned to Maddie that we should make a fort sometime. She got so excited jumping up and down and then asked me "Mom, what's a fork?" I explained to her it was a "fort" and it is like a little cave or tent you can climb in and play, we could make it out of blankets. She could not wait and I promised her we would get to it after she was dressed and ready for the day. I think I was a much better "fort maker" when I was little! Here are the final results... good enough to satisfy a 3 year old.

She continued to call it a "fork".
She said, "Thanks Mom for the Fork!"



eating grapes in the "fork"

knocking down the "fork", again!!

After a day of shopping and a yummy chinese food dinner with Grandma MacKender we came home and I got the girls ready for bed. After a long challenging "emotional roller coaster" day I tucked Maddie in and told her, "I hope you wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow." She pointed to the Left side of her bed and said... "This side Mom?" I just said, "If it makes you happy." :) Even when the majority of the day was tough I was able to find a few little things that can still make me smile! When all is said and done, it's the little moments that matter most!