Spring Break???

We (well, I, lol) had decided to not take an Easter break from school since we are SO close to finishing up our school year, but man, with all of the fun we had this week (after our school work was done), it sure felt like we had experienced a traditional "Spring Break!"

On Monday, I went to my sister Jenni's house to watch her littles...per usual...but I decided to make our craft this week, Easter themed, and then Auntie Cheech (me) also sprung for the movie HOP at Target for us to watch after the movie. But first to the craft...

We made the game pieces to a Tic-Tac-Toe game...









And then it was time to PLAY!



First, Brady beat Wyatt in the game...



And then it was Brother vs. Brother. Everything started out cool..



But "the champ" hit a hot streak, and little brother knew where this game was headed...and so did I! :0(



Yep! :0(



Ummmmm...who wants to watch the movie HOP now!?!? LOL!

You can't watch a movie without popcorn...and early-bird-Easter-candy... :0)







On Tuesday, after school, the kids and I drove up to L.A. to my sister Anna's house, to surprise their other cousins, and spend the day with them on their Spring Break!!! Auntie Cheech thought Monday's activities went so well with the first set of cousins, that we just did a repeat of the activities with the L.A. cousins too. Sooooo, first the Tic-Tac-Toe game, LOL!







Game time baby! Oldest Brother vs. Youngest Brother first...



And then we had a game of Middle Child vs. Middle Child...that's right, Auntie Cheech and Jackson squared off!





And then it was Youngest vs. Youngest...yeah, they needed a LOT of help from older siblings...if I remember correctly, "they were both winners."



Movie time!!! :0)



Auntie Cheech always remembers the snacks!



After the movie, I surprised the kids with some fun water time. Grammy had sent the L.A. crew a new pirate pool in the mail, and I got to break it in for the first time! The kids LOOOOOOVED it!!!



Jackson's nick-name is "Pirate", and so he didn't hold back rubbing it in the other kid's faces that this pool was prooooooobably more his than theirs, LOL! He takes his nickname seriously!...He was the only kid shouting "Walk the plank!"...and Wyatt was instructed to "walk the plank" too many times to count! Here's Jackson in action....



When I got the canon/sprayer working on the pool, it was first used to water the plants...



And then they started showering themselves...



And then it progressed to all out war on each other (in the very BEST way!!!)...





I'm not sure who had more fun...the sprayers????...



Or, the sprayees????...







Eh, "Tomatoes"..."Tomahtoes"...They ALL had fun!!!





I loved seeing my Bea in a bathing suit again... :0)





And a special shout-out to my nephew Nathan who looked adorable when he put a flower behind his ear. :0)



On Wednesday, after school, and after our MOPS leadership meeting, some friends (shout out to Lori and Sallie!) and I took our kiddos to play at the huge fountain outside of our new worship center at church. Such a FUN outing!!!















I loved watching my Bea dance on the rocks...









On Friday, out-of-state-family came in to town (shout out to P.J.!), and we got to meet up with them at my Grandma's house...



Great-Grandma Sallie has the craziest toys at her house! :0)



In school this week, Beatrice wrapped-up her first year of pre-school by finishing off with the letter "Z"...



The kids painted Zebras...







And in Science, I forgot to put on the always-fun-always-goofy-safety-goggles, but we experimented with "Jiggly Jewels". We first made the coloring potions. We had to mix color combinations...without mixing the actual liquids together...but with crossing them in the light...



And then we got to start mixing the colors. Beatrice was the pourer (she's working on her (steady hand")...



And Wyatt was the mixer...



Then we got to add our crystals/jewels...







By the next morning, we had Jelly Jewels!!!





And then we were curious what would happen if we left the jewels out of the liquid. Would they stay jelly? Would they turn back to white? Hmmmmm... ;0) By the next morning we discovered that they were no longer jelly, but they did hold their color!



One of my favorite pictures of Beatrice this week...



One of my favorite moments with Wyatt this week was working with him on his puppet show for Easter. Last year, he had done a Scooby Doo puppet show for the family, but it was a looooooooong performance with almost zero plot. :0( So this year, I told him that he could do the puppet show again, but that he had to write a script! And so he did...



And then he practiced his performance, over...



And, over...



Unfortunately, after all of his hard work this week, he forgot to bring his puppet show TO Easter! :0( But more about our holiday weekend in a separate post! :0)

A personal highlight for myself this week: After being obsessed with the television show "24" for the last few months (I just started...and finished...watching the series on DVD)...I had been resisting the urge to purchase some "Jack Bauer" fashion items....BUT my lovely Stepmom surprised me this weekend with a Jack Bauer shirt!!! :-0



"Jack Bauer...could choke you with a cordless phone"....oh my word, I.am.in.LOVE! :0)

Gardening...Chubby Diary Style

Living in a condominium, with no yard, makes it pretty difficult to grow a garden of our own. So I had to get creative. At Auntie Cheech's crafting/snack Corner, we made the TASTIEST crops...and soil!

Everyone got their own seedlings to plant...





Then we worked our soil...



...planted our seeds...



...added a little top soil, and then "wa-la!" (some of my readers will get that "wa-la" joke)...





Our garden was rather tasty...



Right, Sammy-Sam!?





When we weren't "gardening" with our cousins, we were playing outside...





Although, not everyone wanted to be outside, lol!...



A good part of our week was centered around preparing for the Easter holiday. The kids had so much fun decorating our house for Easter...



In MOPS this week we put together over 40 Easter baskets for less fortunate children at our church...



And through the magic of creativety, at Awana this week, Beatrice and her fellow Cubbies recreated the Resurection story using an ice cream cone, marshmallows, and other confections...



In school, Beatrice learned about the letter Y...



And so we made Yellow Buses...







We read lots of books this week. Well, some of us used our books for reading...others used their book for a quick game of "hide and seek"...





We ventured to the park with our friends...



And something totally cool happened there! Unfortunately, Wyatt (7 years old) still doesn't know how to propel himself on the swing. Last summer it was my mission to get him riding his bike without training wheels, learn how to tie his shoes, and learn how to swim...and praise God, we accomplished those things. THIS Summer, my goal is for him to be able to swing on his own! While we were at the park this week, I thought we would get an early start on these lessons. While I was working with Wyatt on the swings, I looked over, and at some point Beatrice had joined us. She was following my instructions to Wyatt, and the girl was swinging on her own!!!





I was so shocked, and impressed by her! :0) But yeah, Wyatt still needs more lessons, lol!

And finally, this week we had some fun happenings with a...leaf blower! We visited Grandpa "on the job", and Wyatt was allowed to operate Grandpa's leaf blower. It all started off innocent...



Until he started pointing it at his sister...



And then the fish fountain! (Have you ever seen a "flying" fish!?) :-0



Yeah, Grandpa definitely needed to regain control of the leaf blower, LOL!



So that was our week. We are so excited to see all of our cousins in this upcoming week, and celebrate the death and resurection of our Lord Jesus Christ!