March Fun

At the beginning of March, John and all his siblings got together in Arizona for a family reunion. His sister Becky has been fighting stomach cancer and they were all going to visit her in Washington, but she told everyone she really wanted to be together in Arizona, where they grew up. John's family has a tradition of collecting ASU cups after basketball games and of course they couldn't pass on another opportunity to do that. John is a cup stacking master. Thankfully he did not bring them all home with him.

They rented this really nice house with a pool in the backyard. John finally had a chance to show off the crocheted shorts he bought with his birthday money from my Grandpa. That's my man.

While John was away, the kids and I hit up family night at the YMCA. It's every Friday and we have been going pretty regularly lately. They have games and crafts for the kids to do and it's free! It's a great way for the kids to run off some energy that they seem to be building up from being stuck inside so much. This time when we went they had out these old blocks that I haven't seen in forever. I remember playing with them when I was little and it was trippy to see them again after so long. I am impressed they still had them!

A big focus of this month was getting ready for the school's Variety Show. Netta and EZ were both in acts this year and they both sang and danced to Perry Gripp songs. His stuff is awesome and so fun for kids. Netta performed a song called "Space Unicorn" in this spunky outfit. She did such a great job and everyone was impressed that a 1st grader would get up on stage all by herself and perform with such confidence.

EZ and his friend Ethan performed "Burrito Van." Sadly, I don't have any pics of them in the van. All I have is this pic of the work in progress. Don't worry though we have plenty of video. I was actually pretty darn proud of myself for making the van, but then I had to threaten people so they wouldn't break it since it was the only box I had that was the right size. I kept saying "it's a prop and not a toy." I am sure a lot of kids thought I was mean, but hey the van lasted and it is actually still going strong at our house. EZ and his friend nailed their acted and became minor celebrities. A couple times when we have been out and about kids have come up to EZ and been like "Hey your the burrito van guy." It's hilarious.

EZ also had his piano recital this month. I actually love that his teacher does it earlier in the year before all the end of school year craziness starts. I also loved that she kept all of their pieces short so that even though there were a lot of students the whole thing only lasted an hour. EZ memorized his piece and didn't really make any mistakes. He loves playing the piano and I love that he wants to practice and when he has a hard piece he wants to figure it out so he keeps trying and trying till he gets it.

Kingston has been taking swim lessons as part of his preschool and they had a special day for the parents to come and watch. I was hoping by the end of this year that he would be able to swim on his own a little. That doesn't seem to be happening, but he is way more comfortable in the water than he was before.

This month was packed with stuff for EZ and he got to participate in his first Pinewood Derby. He made an Enderman car, because I already had black and purple paint and it was a really easy thing that he could actually paint. We watched some youtube videos to help us learn some easy tricks to make the car faster. Sadly, he didn't win any races but John said all the cars we were really fast and everyone was separated by hundredths of a second. That is some crazy competition for cub scouts, but I am sure that has more to do with the dad's then the kids. ;) 

EZ has a buddy from Church, who happens to live like 2 doors down the road, named Ryan and his sister is on the high school robotics team. When they had their big competition at the high school, EZ spent all day there. He loved it and is super excited to be able to do something like that when he gets older. They actually have a lego robotics club once he hits middle school and then the regular club in high school. I am excited that even though we are in a small town, our schools still have such amazing programs. And since it is a small town, you can actually participate in the programs if you want to and not fight for spots.

February, Finally Something Better Than January

The snow days continued into February. The specter in this photo is John on his 3 round of shoveling that day. His back my never be the same. We really need to invest in a snow blower. 

There was one day in February that the kids actually got to play outside on a snow day. It has been so cold that we have hardly played outside at all. In fact we had some snow days purely because it was too cold to go outside. What fun.

The first grade put on a little musical thing about families. Netta was so excited to have a solo and she rocked it. Also, the night of the performance one kid with some solo lines was a no show and Netta got to fill in because she basically had the entire thing memorized. She's our little performer.

Being snowed in so much has kind of turned me on to crafting, since I am bored out of my mind. I was pretty proud of the kids Valentine's Day boxes this year. I think being trapped inside has also fried some of my brains cells since I spent forever making the little pony on Netta's box, when in hindsight I should have just slapped one of her plastic ones on there and called it a day.

Being trapped inside has also awakened a desire to bake all the time. It's not great for my waistline but it's fun and yummy. I have been trying out some new recipes and I actually won a baking contest with a Tres Leches cake I made for a church party. I was lucky enough to win these awesome workout tapes, although I could have just borrowed them from my mom ;) Now if only I could awaken a love of actually cooking dinner and not just dessert.

My parents came to visit over President's Day weekend, which was awesome, but sadly we missed out on a bunch of out time together when they got stuck behind a huge accident on the Toll road and their 6 hour drive turned into a 12 hour drive. Luckily, all of us adults were still able to go out to dinner on Valentine's Day and my dad was able to help EZ work on his pinewood derby car.

EZ has really been loving cub scouts and we all had a fun time visiting the fire station as a family. I love that we have cub scouts through the church, but sometimes I wish the church just had it's own program for the boys like it does for the girls, because it requires a lot less man power and a lot less money. But since I don't think it's going to change anytime soon we are just going to enjoy scouts. 

I almost completely forgot to blog about 3 important things. Probably because there aren't any pictures to go with them. Anyway, the snow days were eating away at my sanity and John noticed so he surprised me with an early Valentine's Day trip and booked me a package at a spa and then sent me to South Bend by myself for the night to get dinner and shop. It was amazing and so is he. Then on my birthday my friend Amberly had our family over for dinner and then surprised me by having a bunch of other friends there and she told me she would watch our kids for us one weekend whenever John and I want to get away. I totally didn't expect any of that and it really made me feel loved. We hit our 1 year mark in Michigan this year and everyone kept asking me how I feel now and while I still am not in love with living in such a small town, having good friends is making a huge difference.