Spies

So C discovered someone had been sneaking Easter candy and left the wrappers behind the pedestal sink in the powder room.  He decided to set up a sting.  He put a motion sensing camera in the bathroom and waited.  And it worked!  He got a picture of the culprit!  You better watch out, trying to sneak candy at our house.  You never know who's watching....

Easter

We did all the traditional things for Easter, including coloring eggs, hunting them in the backyard, going to church, and eating ham for Sunday dinner.  I really need to come up with something unique for our Easter celebrations.

We didn't have much luck with Easter photos, alas.

Monday, the boys also had school off so we drove out to Harper's Ferry, WV.  We hired a tour guide for G's parents and friends of theirs who are missionaries nearby while G took the kids around on their own tour.  He had done the full tour with the Boy Scouts a couple of years ago.  I love Harper's Ferry.  It's got a long and interesting history, the scenery is gorgeous and there are a variety of options of things to do, depending on the attention span of your kids!  Plus, as the guide said, up to 100 trains a day come through and our kids LOVED that.

Watching the train

From Jefferson Rock

We decided to stop by Antietam on the way back.  I remember it being doable in a short time, but that's because the last time we went, there was no M and the boys were really little so we just let them run around outside.  There is a nice visitor's center with a small museum and an audio tour that would be fun to do, but everyone was tired by then, so we watched a film in the visitor's center, walked around outside for a bit to look at monuments and cannons, then drove over to the observation tower.  I just realized I took the other pictures there with my phone, so this is it:
 

 

They were pretty tired by the time we got home, but I'm really glad we went.  I'm looking forward to more adventures this summer, now that we have no naps and no diapers to contend with!

Spring Break

By the second week of April, we were finally enjoying spring-like weather.  G's parents came into town and we were looking forward to a trip to southern NJ for spring break. 

Before we left though, we stopped by the elementary school for J's Bio-Wax museum.  All the 3rd graders researched an important person (mostly from history), dressed up, and "became" that person Friday afternoon.  They were frozen until we pushed their buttons, then they gave a short talk about themselves.  Can you tell who J was?

Most people couldn't.  He was the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion!  I love Francis Marion.  I had a huge crush on him in high school (I know; that's probably why I didn't date much...) so I was very pleased when J came up with that idea all on his own.

He did awesome, and it was fun to go around and see who all the other kids picked.  There were a lot of Rosa Parks and George Washingtons, of course, several Oprah Winfreys, two girls who picked Elizabeth I, and a great Elvis who was Indian.  Awesome.

Monday morning, we packed up and headed for the beach.  We got there in time to run around in the sand for a while in the afternoon.  It was nice and shallow, so there was a lot of beach at low tide.  We saw some snails crawling around ("Those shells are moving by themselves, Mama!") and found some really nice shells.  The boys loved that there was "quicksand" that they kept sinking into.  Yuck.  I don't know if that was oil or what but it was not sand or normal dirt.

But we were lucky to have that afternoon because Tuesday it POURED rain.  During one break in the storm, we went out to Cape May lighthouse and climbed the 199 steps to the top.  The boys loved that, especially the gale force winds at the top.  They chased some waves at the beach while the grandparents and I took M into the little museum which was full of slithery creatures that she adored.

Lighthouse hair

We got home in time for the storm to hit again.  We were glad we weren't in a tent.  The temperatures dropped dramatically, so we went to the zoo.  It's a pretty nice zoo but because of the cold, all the animals the kids wanted to see were in their houses, so we missed the snow leopards, giraffes, lions, the tiger, and most of the birds and smaller animals.  :(

M really wanted to pet this swan.  It really wanted to nip her.

J really, really liked the aviary.

Then the stomach flu hit.  So Thursday, G graciously stayed home with the three youngest, and I took C and the grandparents to take a trolley tour of Cape May and another tour of a Victorian house.  That was really interesting, and the architecture in the town is adorable.  That's what comes of a resort town built by rich vacationers!

All in all, it was a nice week and the kids loved the house and the beach and all the time they got to watch PBSKids while stuck inside...  I am still hoping that next spring break (after two in a row spent shivering), we get some nicer weather!

Shenanigans in the back seat.  The reason they rarely are allowed to sit together.

C was glad he brought a tripod.  He had fun taking pictures from the balcony.

Scenes from Conference Weekend

Just some images from our General Conference weekend (see lds.org).....

 

J fixed the bridge he built (that someone sat on) and it went back to work transporting cars over the lava.

 We made our traditional conference bread.  So yummy.

 M helped me roll out the dough and C photobombed.

S checked our line on Family Search and even though this image is hard to read, he discovered that we are descended from Adam and Eve.  He and J like to look through all the lines and see how far back they can go.  This is pretty much the end.  :)

 Here's the conference bread, in its cinnamony sugary goodness.

After weeks of barely letting me put in ponytails, M decided she wanted her hair like Elsa's Sunday afternoon.  Umm.... My braiding skills are a little rusty, but it turned out better than I thought it would and she felt like Elsa.

A little between-sessions game playing....

I didn't get a photo of the coloring, coloring, coloring, and conference bingo playing that went on.  But trust me, there was a lot of that too.  :)

Sponge Hat or A Contribution to Higher Learning

I should be prepping for Joy School, which I'm teaching tomorrow, however, I wanted to record this. 

This morning, I took M to the university for a study the Early Childhood Dept is doing on how preschoolers respond to emotional cues.  Something like that.  They had her wear this "hat" with electrodes on it so they could measure brain activity while she did part of the testing.  I thought she would baulk, but the researcher did a great job of telling her how awesome it was.  It was, too.  Check this out:

(They took a photo for me!)

We spent about 2 hours there (plus sitting in rush hour traffic on the way... argh!).  She had a great time and earned $40 for her mission/college fund.  Not bad for a 4-year-old!  I told her before we went that she would get a prize at the end, and she said she really wanted a monster truck.  I warned her that they might not have that kind of prize, but guess what?  They did!  They had exactly what she wanted!  M was so excited.  Then we stopped at McD's because it was lunchtime, and she got a unicorn/pegasus/pony as another prize.  She could not stop talking about them the rest of the day, much to the chagrin of two of her brothers.  :)

Blue Thunder

To round off a lovely day, she came with me to pick up C from the middle school for an orthodonist's appointment (she loves going there and playing in their playhouse) and got to pick the treat for FHE.  She was on a high all day.  I'm not sure if it was the prizes or the adventures or the fact that she (finally) slept past 8:00 this morning, but whatever it was, I'll take it.

Pajamas

I have a problem with accumulating fabric.  I have so much fabric.  And I have a hard time throwing away scraps even because I think I will - and often do - use them for projects.  I made some mermaidens for a school auction and used up some of it, but I've had a stack of flannel and fleece staring at me for weeks and I finally made time to do something with it. 

Mostly, I turned it into baby blankets for friends and for Project Linus.  But one piece I decided to use to make M some pajamas.  Does she need more pajamas?  No.  But really, flannel covered in cats?  Who could resist? 

I couldn't find my pattern that I normally use, but after a quick online search found this awesome tutorial for making pj pants without a pattern.  Seriously, it's genius.  Her folding idea is genius.  If I hadn't waited to make sure of M's waist size, I really could have had them done in 15 minutes.  Since I waited, M had to help pull out pins, press the pedal for me, and push the back button.  That stretched the total time out a bit.... but it was worth it.  She feels like she made them, too, and she loves them.
I even got ambitious and did a little applique on an undershirt, even though I didn't really have the right materials.  It turned out pretty cute.  Maybe I'll have to learn to do it for real.





You can sort of see the shirt.  She wasn't being very cooperative...

Leprechaun Trap

S's 1st grade class built leprechaun traps this year.  To say he was excited about it is an understatement.  Lucky and Lucy the Leprechauns have been visiting their class each night, causing trouble.  Every afternoon, he came home and discussed with J what he could do against sprites who could tip over the teacher's chair and write on the chalkboard.

He put the bottles on there, hoping the leprechauns would slip and fall in.

I was proud of him because he took the initiative on the whole project.  All I did was tell him where the big cereal box was and find him green paper.  He designed and built the whole thing without even needing to be reminded.

The gold is to lure him in and the tape so that he'll get stuck.

We sent it in on Friday, not trusting it to survive the weekend unscathed, only to have school cancelled today because of a snow storm!  S was glad to know that if the leprechauns made it through the snow, his trap would be there to catch them.  :)  For a boy who doesn't believe in Santa and doubts the Tooth Fairy's existence, he has become surprisingly enamored of leprechauns!

Speaking of snow, here are a few photos from this morning.  We got about 8" overnight and this morning.  Crazy.

 

Lots of perfect snow flakes fell while we were shoveling.  I wish I had a macro lens to capture them.  We had lots of fun looking for different kinds.

 

 

It was perfect snow for sledding.  They made the track slick enough to ride all the way into the front yard.  Fun but I admit I'm hoping this is the LAST snow storm this winter!