On Monday afternoon we went to the pool at Delta College. We were supposed to meet several friends there, but only one other family showed up. The pool was surprisingly really clean and it wasn't too stressful to swim with all four of them by myself. Both Brooklen and Hurley jumped off the diving board (with life jackets) and Brooklen had a blast on the water slide. Kaiton really enjoyed the water and they had plenty of small fountains and other things for him to play in. After swimming, we headed to Larkin Park for Brooklen's baseball practice.
On Tuesday we spent the morning at the library. Brooklen and Hurley don't get to go to the public library much during the school year, so we spent a couple of hours checking out books, playing with toys, coloring, and making up puppet shows. When we got home, we had lunch, and then we colored easter eggs. Since we are not eating food dye in our house anymore, I decided to use natural dyes. We used yellow onion skins (orange), turmeric (yellow), spinach (light green/brown), and cabbage (blue). We also bought some really ugly ties from goodwill and made some silk eggs. They were beautiful! Next year, I will definitely blow out some eggs and make some of these for decoration.
Tuesday was a nice day outside. In the afternoon, we also whipped up some chalk paint and the kids painted on the driveway.
Wednesday was April Fools Day. In the morning, I mixed up some mac n cheese powder with some water and gave it to the kids. They were excited that I was giving them orange juice, but they were all super disgusted by the joke. To make up for it, I gave them a glass of milk. I had added plain gelatin, sweetened condensed milk, nonfat milk, and vanilla so it was like jello. They all thought it was funny and they were glad that it was tasty! I also froze Zaya's bowl of cereal. She was so funny. She didn't understand that it was a joke; instead she thought it was some sort of cool new breakfast. I think she thoroughly enjoyed chipping away at the cereal and eating it.
At dinnertime, I made a spaghetti pie. Although it was a fairly gluttonous dish, the kids all liked it. I also used some pound cake to make "french fries" and chicken nuggets (pound cake covered in frosting and a mixture of toasted coconut and cornflakes). Brooklen had gone to the dollar store with Rob and gotten some bugs to scare me with and he also had Rob give him some money so that he could buy an April Fools joke for everyone else (that Rob wouldn't know about). He told me about this joke because he was so excited. He bought a gumball machine and also a box of lemon heads. He told everyone that he had dessert for them and then he let them get a gumball; everyone was surprised when it was a lemonhead! I love that kid and his enthusiasm.
We also had a chance to go bowling on Wednesday morning. The three older kids played while I cheered them on and watched Kaiton. Brooklen won the first game and Zaya won the second game.
Thursday, we finally had time to go to Chuck E Cheese. My kids just can't get enough of that place. Brooklen and Hurley were focused on getting the most tickets that they could. I think all kids go through that phase. They didn't really care what games they were playing, as long as they could win several tickets at once. Of course, they also learned the lesson that the tickets at Chuck E Cheese buy crappy toys. They each had a toy break that afternoon. I tried to reinforce the lesson that we go to Chuck E Cheese because it is fun, not because you can win great toys. Zaya cared mostly about riding all of the rides at Chuck E Cheese. This worked out perfectly because Kaiton is at a perfect age for these too. He laughed and smiled constantly and got super excited every time I would put him on another ride. In the end, I think we spent almost three hours at Chuck E Cheese. I love that my kids can have so much fun there and I love that it isn't a really expensive activity.
On Friday we just hung around the house. The Nymans were home too, so the kids played over at their house and also at ours.
On Saturday, we went to Home Depot for a kids workshop in the morning. The kids made a chalkboard flowerpot holder and planted a gladiola bulb. Then, we came home and watched conference.
Today was Easter Sunday and also General Conference. I wish every Easter was on General Conference Sunday. We had such a nice, fun, relaxing day. We woke up and looked through Easter baskets, hunted for eggs, watched a church video, and ate resurrection rolls. We all stayed in our pajamas all day. I tried to convey the spiritual message of Easter to my children. I'm not sure how successful I was in conveying that message, but I hope that they felt the spirit and understand how much the Savior loves them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment