HAPPY EASTER!

Snow in April?

We've been having snow here in Rochester for the past two days. When I picked up Andy from school yesterday we had this conversation:

Mom: Hey, Andy I guess the weather can't decide if it's winter or spring.

Andy: Yeah, it's more like Sprinter!

Update

Been a little busy.... here's an update. Sorry I meant to do it chronilogically, but did it backwards.

My kids have been going through a "Star Wars" phase. I found a "Star Wars" cookbook at the library and decided to try out some of the recipes. One night for dinner we had TIE Fighter Ties with Yoda Soda and Wookie Cookies for dessert.

Michael enjoying a Wookie Cookie (a glorified chocolate ship cookie)

Nate also eating Wookie Cookies

Andy enjoying a TIE Fighter Tie

Haley also enjoying a TIE Fighter Tie

The TIE Fighter Ties. A pig in the blanket with the blanket in the shape of a TIE ship.

Yoda Soda. It was way too sour, so we had Sprite instead.

The Wookie Cookies

Over Spring Break we were not able to go anywhere, so we decided to have a fun April Fools Lunch with our good friends, the Paulsens. It was a "trick" lunch. We had "sushi" for lunch, quesadillas for dessert and red punch to drink.

Here is my happy Nate.

Abel showing us the "innards" to his "sushi" (a gummy worm)

Tessa enjoying her red punch (really red Jell-O)

The red Jell-O drink was Matthew's favorite part of the lunch.

Andy showing us his piece of "sushi". Can you tell he'd just had a crying fit?

Yummy sushi!

Haley helped me make the "sushi". It was really Rice Krispie treats with a gummy worm in the middle wrapped with a fruit roll-up. A nice healthy lunch!

Nate had his last Pinewood Derby. We were combined with 2 other wards, so it was boys and cars everywhere! Nate wanted to copy the car that won last year to the "T". He didn't win like the car last year, but I was very proud of his great sportsmanship. He came in third for the Webelos, which I think, is a great accomplishment! Way to go Nate!

My friend, Nicky, started the tradition of the rootbeer trophies. The bottles have a car glued to the lid. It's great fun! Nate's certificate said that he had the "most geometrical" car.

The week before Spring Break, our elementary school, Elton Hills has their "Spirit Week." Each day there is a theme. One day it was "Wacky Day". Here's our wacky Taggarts -

Michael was going to have me spray his hair like his siblings, but he got too nervous. Here he is posing for a wacky picture!

Haley did her own hair, I just sprayed it. Here's the back view.

Front view

Haley always gets in the spirit of things and goes all out. She has the type of personality that she can do this without feeling scared. She wore mismatched pjs with wacky socks

Andy wanted his hair 3 different colors.

Nate showed his school spirit with the black and red (Elton Hills colors)

I asked him if he wanted to dress wacky as well, he said "I am. Black pants with white socks."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! The Leprechaun left green cookies with green frosting and a gold $1 coin for each of the kids.

Haley set the Leprechaun traps this year. She set the usual top hat one with her ladybug necklace as bait. She said that she did that because Leprechauns like shiny things. The Leprechaun always turns our milk green, so she wanted to set a trap in the fridge this year. She was hoping that a gold $1 coin would intice him enough to fall through her trap. But it didn't work, as you can see from the letter above.

Two Months Old, Already!

My sister-in-law, Meredith, does this really cute thing where she shows pictures of her kids all the same age. I'm stealing your idea, Meredith, I hope that's okay!

My baby is two months old today! It's a bittersweet day for me. I am so grateful and feel so blessed that she is growing well, but when I look at how fast she has grown in such a small amount of time, I'm sad that she won't be a baby for long.

Alina Kay at two months.

Michael John at two months (for some reason, I couldn't find a photo of just him).

Andrew Charles at two months.


Haley Nikole at two months.

Nathaniel Hatch at two months (in a baby tux for Meredith's wedding).

My Haley Baby turns 9!

Why do my children have to get older? Why can't they stay this small and cute forever?

My Haley turned 9 on Feb. 13th. I can't believe she's been on this earth almost a decade! Haley is a very helpful, sweet, and reliable girl. She has been an enormous help since Alina was born. I can count on Haley to feed her a bottle or calm her down when she's fussy. She's such a great little mom. Although, she drives her brothers crazy when she tries to be the mom where they're concerned ("Nate, please come put your boots away.") I'm grateful she's in our family.


These two pictures where taken on Haley's actual birthday. The girls were dressed for church and one of the boys mentioned that they were dressed similarly, so of course we had to take a picture!

We had Haley's birthday party on the Saturday after her birthday. We had her party at the Rochester Athletic Club just like Andy. It was such a help for me to have it there since Alina is under 2 months old. Haley wanted a cookie birthday cake. This was what she picked out at Sam's Club. I thought it was kind of cheesy, but she wanted the one with the most frosting on top. She LOVES frosting!

We requested to have Nikki again, since she had done such a great job with Andy's party. She had a lot of fun games planned for the girls. She came up to me afterward and said that we had the nicest kids that she had seen in her two years doing birthday parties. We do have nice kids.