Easter Vacation

A whole week off of school!  You would think with it being a holiday that everyone would sleep in... but we were all awake just after 6:00am.  Grrr!  Oh well.  After breakfast, Lennard headed out to the airport to work on his plane.  I sat at the computer (all day) and scanned Nichols' family slides.  The kids played 'old-fashioned' Monopoly for a while and then got to play with Maren!  

Mike, Melissa, Makenna and Mason are all in Mexico for the week, but Maren got to stay home with Mike's cousin.  They were going on a hike in Waterton and asked if we could watch her while they were gone.  Emma was in heaven getting to 'babysit' Maren!  She did a great job watching her.

Easter

Since it was our turn to host our Extended Family FHE, we decided to hold it on Easter and do a big Easter dinner too.  We got up bright and early to get the turkey on to the smoker to cook.  It's the first time we've ever tried something so big, so we were really hoping it would cook properly!

 We had a temperature probe in and it came to temp way faster than what it said.  We tried two other temperature probes too and they all came back saying that it was up to temp.  We took it off and wrapped it in tinfoil to keep it at least warm until we were ready to eat.  It smelled SO good! 

 We'd booked the church for the dinner which was nice since it was raining outside most of the day. I'd printed off a bunch of Easter coloring pages and it seemed to work well to keep the kids occupied in the gym and not running around in the hallways!  We also brought our basketballs and that helped too.

 After dinner, we had a super short lesson about Easter.  The kids had to go find 'eggs' around the gym and then put themselves in order for the story to make sense.  I think it went okay. 

I would have loved to have had more adult discussion about what they'd learned this week too, but it was hard with that many kids and being spread out in the gym.

We missed Rachel and Melissa and their families.  We were glad that everyone else was able to come though.  It was a fun Easter dinner.

Basketball Hoop

Back in December I found a really good deal on a basketball hoop.  We bought it with the intention of giving it to the kids for Christmas, but we ended up with way too much stuff, so we decided to save it.  We pulled it out this morning and surprised the kids.  It was awesome to see how excited they were!  They both helped us put it together... for the first half hour or so... then they went to do other things.  

Ben went over to Katie Sykes house to knit with her (he learned in her school class last year and has been asking to do more ever since!).  Emma went for a scooter ride around the block and ended up playing with a Fynlee B. for most of the morning.

 Ben came back to help just as we were finishing up.  He loved getting to pull the plastic off the backboard!

We pulled out the other basketball I'd bought and we all played basketball for a bit.  It's going to be a great family activity for us!

We ended up heading in to Lethbridge in the afternoon to get stuff for our Easter dinner tomorrow (with a few extra things for us...).

As soon as we got home and everything unloaded, we were back shooting hoops!  It's been a great day!

General Conference Weekend

It was a wonderful weekend getting to listen to our prophet and apostles.  We hung out in the basement and while Lennard and I sat, the kids played quietly (and listened... some of the time).  Ben got quite inventive with his magnet tiles. 

During the second session on Saturday, Emma layed down and fell asleep (which doesn't happen very often!).  She slept through the entire session!

Some more of Ben's inventions during the Sunday sessions.  Even though they were doing other things, it was amazing how many times they would hear something and make a comment to us about what was being spoken about.

I thoroughly enjoyed conference and had a few 'favorite' talks.  I loved Sister Becky Craven's talk where she asked if we were careful or casual in things like our Sabbath Day worship, our prayers and scripture study, temple worship, our appearance, how we minister to others, in what we read or watch, our language, etc. 

I also loved Elder Holland's talk about the 'Lamb of God' and how the Sacrament should be our 'most sacred hour of our week'.  Elder Bednar's talk about learning in our homes and how to teach our children about temple worship was amazing and made me want to study more.  They were all great talks and I look forward to reading them again.

It's Started!

For the past six months, my parents have been essentially homeless.  Their house sold and it's been a long, cold winter... and now it's finally warmed up enough that they are able to get started on their house!  Ross Bishop is building it for them.  Who knew you could be excited for a big hole in the ground, but it's such an exciting first step!  

The kids loved all the huge piles of dirt to climb on!  Ross was out getting stuff done, so we didn't stay long, but I'm so excited for my parents to have a brand new house!  

 And, they're going to have a spectacular view too!  Wow! 

Grand Concert

We were excited and surprised to find out that Emma had been chosen to receive an award and was asked to perform at the Grand Concert.  She was pretty excited to get dressed up and go on stage!  She even did a quick little curtsy before receiving her award!  Too fun.

Once all the awards were presented, the program started.

Emma was the first piano player to perform and she did a great job.

She was even more excited to find out (when we got home) that along with her award, she got $25!

The Grade 3 class at CES also received an award for one of their songs that they'd sung, so Emma got to take a picture with it and with two other Grade 3 girls that were there tonight.
 

Maelle Rowe, Emma and Fiona Hodge

More Festival

The kids each performed two numbers with their grades for the Festival.  They both did amazingly good.  I enjoyed listening to them sing enough that I ended up staying and listening to all the rest of the grades!  We are so blessed to have such a great music program in our school.

Festival

The kids performed in the music festival today for the first time.  They were both a little nervous, but they did so great on their individual pieces!  We are so proud of all their hard work and trying something new.

They played their duet tonight and had a bit of a rough time with it.  I had them play it again when we got home and it went a bit better... unfortunately all the files of them playing are too large to post here, so I'll have to find another way to share.

Arrogant Worms

About a month ago, Roger called and asked if Lennard and I would like to go on a double date to Fort MacLeod to see the Arrogant Worms.  We, of course, said yes, so Roger got the tickets.  We met them at the theatre tonight and had a blast!  It was such a great night.  We knew a lot of the songs and sang right along with them.  Hilarious!

 We ended up seeing Wayne Pedersen and his family there too.

 It was a fun night out!  Thanks for the invite, Roger!

Date Night

We've been trying to go out on a 'date' together for quite a while now, so Ben was excited to get to go to Lethbridge with me tonight!  He didn't want to miss Lego League this afternoon, so by the time we got in to Lethbridge, we didn't have lots of time before the movie started.  We stopped at the food court and shared some KFC for dinner and then we went to see 'How to Train Your Dragon 2'.  It was such a fun night together. (Next time we'll have to get a picture together!)

Ice Fishing

Ben has the best Cub leaders!  They arranged for the boys (and some of the dads) to go ice fishing this afternoon at Payne Lake.  Ben was SO excited, especially because Lennard got to go with him!  They didn't end up catching anything, so Ben was a little disappointed, but they had lots of fun anyways.

Cancer-versary

My brother, Roger, planned a surprise party to celebrate Trisha's 10th year of being cancer free.  We all went to the Movie Mill and watched 'Ralph Wrecks the Internet' together.  Before the movie, Roger had made a short movie of pictures of Trisha with some explanation of what a miracle it is that she is still with us.  She was told she'd be lucky to live 2 years after her surgery and that she'd never have kids.  Since her surgery, she has got married and had three beautiful children.  We are so grateful that she is part of our family.  What a wonderful miracle to celebrate!  

Extended Family FHE

The kids have been wanting to sleep in the tent downstairs again, so Friday night we set it up.  Emma tried it for a bit, but decided she didn't want to sleep downstairs and came up to her bed.  Ben slept there all night.  Then, last night, they both slept downstairs in the tent!  

 I'm not sure how much sleep they got, because as we were heading in to Lethbridge this afternoon, this is what Emma looked like!  Just a little tired!  She slept all the way to Shauna's and we had to wake her up to go inside!

 We had a big family FHE tonight and talked about the miracle of Jesus.  It was a wonderful experience.  Not all of us were able to come, but it was great to see those who could be there.

 We celebrated a bunch of the March birthdays... it's Mindy's and Brendan's birthday's tomorrow!

Charlie

Every time we go in to IGA/Family Foods/Carriage Lane Market AG Foods (whatever name it's called), the kids go say 'hi' to the horse.  This horse, "Charlie", has been there as long as I can remember and I recall riding it when I was younger than they are... so it's been around for a long time!  They always want to ride it, but we don't give them money to... they just get to sit on it and say hi.  Well, today, one of the workers gave them each a quarter and let them ride Charlie!  They were thrilled.  They each requested a picture to commemorate the moment!  ha! ha!

On Our Way Home

After a busy morning of tours of a rehab center, visits to Grandpa and getting all our stuff packed, we headed to the airport.  Once we got through security and to our gate, we settled down for a bit of a wait... unfortunately, it turned into a way longer wait than we'd planned!  Our flights ended up being delayed all the way home.  We had to get creative to keep the kids happy and not frustrated... thank goodness for the play place in Minneapolis that the kids were able to play on and get some of their energy out!

This is just one of the delays that popped up on my phone... 

 We were grateful for their tablets and pre-loaded movies too!

I tried to get a nice picture together with Emma... but about 10 pictures later all I had were silly faces and crossed eyes!  ha! ha!  What a silly girl.

We were all SO tired by the time we made it to Calgary.  There were huge lines getting through customs.  We were glad our luggage came out fairly quickly though.

We'd considered just getting a hotel in Calgary for the night, but Lennard and I were both feeling okay, so we just decided to load up and get home.  Super long day, but we're so glad we were able to go and see Grandpa.  So worth it!