"The Forest"

The kids and I have a new favorite place. The kids call it "the forest" or "the duck pond". It has both...AND a playground. It's like heaven on earth, kid-size.

This was our trip there last week.

This was right before Hope accidentally stepped in the stream.

This is immediately after.

She was disturbed at first, but Noah and I kept laughing and she eventually got over it. Thank goodness cause she could have thrown one heck of a fit.

Further up the Provo River Trail we found another park. Eden decided she was too tired to go on so Noah carried her for a minute. What a studly little man.

This week we went again, and Eden was being especially funny. She wanted to bring her back pack so that she and Noah could play "ghosts" (Luigi's Mansion) a game they've been playing around the house all week. I knew she had some toys in there, but I didn't really bother to check exactly what she had. She surprised me when I turned to see her grab juice from her back pack, chug it and put it back in, just like a professional backpacker. She came prepared, which is more than I can say for the rest of us.

Eden was very happy to be on this adventure. She kept grabbing leaves while jabbering about making a cake. Then she would pick up sticks and wave them around while singing her made-up songs. She kept up with big brother and sister but took one wrong turn and fell in some really thick mud by the stream. As it was happening, scenes of the Swamp of Sadness in The Never-Ending Story flashed through my head. Remember when Atreyu makes really dramatic facial expressions while he is trudging through the swamp?

Unfortunately, my attempt to document the moment didn't do it justice. I had thought about snapping a picture before picking her up out of the muck, but then a 22 year old version of her little voice interrupted that thought with a "MOM, how could you?" She was not happy about the mud and whined about having to go home and take a bath. After scraping most of the mud off she was good to go and eventually found a little spot to clean off her shoes in the water. But then of course she didn't want to wear them because she said, "there water in nem."

So from then on she went barefoot. Like this.

She didn't get to follow Hope and Noah in the wooded areas, she had to stay on the grass, but she didn't seem to mind.

 Her hair is getting longer and she is growing up so fast.

I took what I thought were some really good shots. I was so excited thinking about how cute they were going to turn out and was even considering framing a few. Then I got home and realized that most of the ones I was so excited about turned out incredibly blurry.

 

I think they were playing the hobbit. See below where Noah is thoughtfully touching his chin.

Hope said several times that she was sure she could climb this tree. She didn't get very far, but seemed satisfied with the distance she did make.



 

After exploring we unloaded Eden and Hope's bikes from the van and rode up the Provo River Trail for a little bit. 

Noah thought Eden was quite funny on her little tricycle cause her little legs would pedal so fast and she would hunker down like she was really flying. 

 

She must've been working hard cause she got thirsty and had to pull over to get into her well-packed bag.

 

I got such a kick out of watching her with that bag. Getting out her drink and then, zipping up her bag, just as though she had been hiking and adventuring for years. Finally she decided to drink and drive. She almost caused several accidents on the trail....seriously. You can't tell by the photo, but she is moving while she is chugging that apple juice. Dangerous stuff.

She also had a mini magnifying glass in her backpack that she pulled out and kept stopping to check out bugs on the pavement. Then she held it up to her eye like a monocle and looked all around her while she was driving....another hazard. Several more accidents avoided. Her first lessons in distracted driving. 

 

We decided to make this place a weekly outing. Next time I think we'll follow Eden's lead and bring some water bottles for everyone - and some water shoes for the Swamp of Sadness.

Eden's Joy School Graduation Party

Little Eden made some cute friends this year and LOVED school- except when I was teaching. I don't think she actually considered it school when I didn't drop her off somewhere. She was so excited each Wednesday morning (she called it her "school day")...until after preschool was over and then she was so disappointed that she didn't get to go somewhere for school.

This year she learned the days of the week, how to trace, how to glue lots of things, how to color with effort instead of just scribbling, and lots of social skills. All the girls learned this little saying, "You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit." Which is actually something that Hope learned from one of her classmates early in the year and I applied during preschool when all the girls wanted the purple cup. I only have two purple cups. Lesson learned....buy the same color for all the girls. Which is why I brought them all a purple balloon for graduation.





For graduation we had a water party in Mrs. Sandi's backyard. The kids had a picnic and then played in water.



Eden & Lilah watering flowers.



Eden with Mrs. Sandi (Brooke's mom).



Eden with Carter (Lilia's little brother). Eden kept jumping and landing on her bum in the pool with would splash poor Carter in the face. Thank goodness he loved it.



Lilia, Brooke, Eden & Lilah



Singing ABC's & the Days of the Week song.



Getting her diploma that Mrs. Aubrie (Lilia's mom) made. They are super cute and I'm so glad she thought to do it.

 

Aubrie was also thoughtful enough to get a picture of the first and last day and give a copy to all the moms. Thanks Aubrie!!!

 First Day

Last Day

 

Brooke, Lilia, Lilah & Eden

Look how they've grown into little ladies!

Easter 2013

Just like Santa Claus, we don't do the Easter Bunny here. The only time I am really bothered by the lack of belief in magical beings in our household is when I see how excited Hope gets about the stories from her friends about the Easter bunny or Santa Claus or a leprechaun. I am impressed that even though I have straight out told her that there is no Easter Bunny and that the real "Santa Claus" died a very long time ago she still believes. (I've never told her that leprechauns do not exist because quite frankly I still think they might. Shhh, don't tell Ben!)
 

 Even though we don't do the Easter bunny, we still do the other fun elements of the holiday.
 

Saturday we had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt and that began the weekend's sugar fest. I had to talk Noah into participating and he still didn't want to carry a basket so he just put his share in with Eden's.

 

 

Sorry for the blur - they were moving fast!

 

 

Eden is going through a phase where she talks like a pirate out of the side of her mouth like shown above. Here she is telling a sister from our ward that she "wants candy now."

 

 

Eden and Hope with Hope's friend Aubrey and her little sister Brooke.

 

 

On Easter morning the kids stood outside the computer room waiting for the okay to be let in.

 

 

You can see they are very excited, and daddy doesn't disappoint. He always goes overboard with the presents.

 

 

We tried to combine spring shopping with Easter so in addition to Easter baskets, the kids also got some new outfits.

 

 

Then it was time to hunt eggs! Ben wanted to fill what seemed like a thousand eggs the night before. The kids got so much candy it feels like Halloween around here. However, it did prolong the actual Easter egg hunt, which was fun.

 

 

At first Eden would pick one up and open it, then throw it on the porch after getting the prize out. Daddy became her egg-hunting assistant.

 

 

Look at my beautiful girl. She is growing up way too fast. Luckily, just when I feel like she's getting too big, she throws the most unbelievable crazy tantrum to remind me that she is still my baby...and very spoiled.

 

 

Noah spotted all the eggs on the playhouse and would roll a couple down the slide to his baby sister. What a good big brother. :) Also, check out the pink bat in the tree in the background. Daddy got creative and used the bat to put an egg up there.

 

 

 

Look at all those eggs!

Now look at what seems to be tiny grave sites in our backyard. Last year Ben dug these tiny little gardens. He did it while our fence was still down, so I'm sure we freaked out more than one neighbor with what looked like our own personal graveyard.

 

 

Noah's basket was so full that he kept dropping eggs, so he transferred them all to a box so he could get more.

 

 

And finally Eden's bucket was full. Tricky daddy filled several of the eggs with silly notes and Eden ended up with all of them. She was quite disappointed to find empty candy wrappers and paper in a few of her eggs.

 

 

This Easter I wanted to make sure that the children understood why we celebrate this day and that it is because of Christ and not a gigantic bunny littering people's yard with eggs. So, I showed them a video about the resurrection that may or may not have been age appropriate. Ben doesn't think it was, but it definitely could have been worse, and I got it from lds.org, so all in all, I think I am okay with it. It did make the children a little sad, but they quickly got over it and continued eating their candy. Later, during one of the talks in sacrament meeting Hope told me that the lady was talking about the same thing that happened in the video we watched. She has had a lot of questions about Jesus lately and I think it was helpful for her to see Him in the form of a person and make the connection that He died for her so she could live again.

OR...

soon she will start having some major issues resulting from watching the video. Only time will tell. Moving on. Happy Easter!