Hoppy Easter

Easter weekend was a busy one for us, it was the beginning of spring break for the kids and we were getting ready for vacation!  We were all excited to get that last day of school out of the way so we could have fun.  The kids made a little gift for their some bunny special (teacher's). 

Matt and I went up to UNR and had lunch with Kelsey and we dropped off an Easter basket I had made for her.  Matt thought she was a little too old for an Easter basket.  Are you ever too old?  I used a storage box for the basket (multi use in college is a bonus right), and I filled it with things like shampoo, shave gel, razors, screen cleaners, and some cute spring page markers, etc.  I know I would have loved to get this in college, and I think she did too.

The night before Easter the kids put out some carrots and left a note for the bunny to let him know they were going to Las Vegas in the morning and to not hide the eggs too hard since we would be leaving early.

He didn't hide them too hard...in fact he didn't hide them at all!  Surprisingly the kids weren't even upset, in fact they were just too excited to get them packed in the car.

He made a big drop for both of them.  Their baskets were filled with all kinds of thing they could use on vacation. 

They got a new beach towel, sandals, sunglasses, sunscreen, and a new book to read at the pool.  They also both got some pool toys.

Sadi was testing out all her new treasures, and I was rethinking these squirt guns....pretty sure I was going to regret those.

We packed it all up, and were off to soak up some sun!

Tricky

So April 1st crept up really fast this year.  I had every intention of playing some really good tricks on the kids this year....BUT this last month has been very busy.  With Matt out of town with work I was pulling double duty every night, and working at the school a lot.  The night before Chase said "I'm so excited for tomorrow!'.  To that I went O crap (in my head).  I was too tired to even think about it but did have one thing in my pocket I hadn't told them about yet.  Maybe the best trick was to not trick them at all?  The morning began early with Chase asking and wondering what was for breakfast...I had no tricks.  Then he was completely convinced that I had changed all the clocks in the house and he was adamant he was not falling for that trick...he was sure I made him get up early...nope.  Before school I told them that we were going to do something exciting after school.  Uncle David was going to come take us to dinner (which we had previously arranged a few nights before since he was going to be in town).  Ahhhh...finally Chase thought I was trying to fool him.  "Yeah right Mom, David is going to drive 7 hours to take us to dinner!  Sure!  I'm not falling for that one".  As I told them goodbye I heard him tell Sadi "I bet she's gonna hire someone to drive a blue mustang and park it at our house and have someone pretend to be Uncle David".  Apparently sometimes the best trick is no trick.  Uncle David was here after school and as soon as Chase saw Uncle David's new blue mustang he believed I really had hired a decoy.  But when they saw it was real they were thrilled!

Uncle David treated us to a very nice dinner.  We went to my favorite (Olive Garden).  The kids tried something new for the first time..Calamari.  Of course we waited until they tried it to tell then what it was.  Sadi said "Wait!  What?  This is Squid?  I love Squid!"

And of course, there was dessert.  We ordered a few things to share.  Sadi took care of the chocolate mousse cheesecake pretty much by herself, and Chase was all about these powdered sugar donuts that you dip in chocolate.  Chocolate overload!

Dinner was great, but the company was even better.  I couldn't actually let the kids go to bed without any tricks, that would just end in a lot of paranoia I think.  Someone needed help wiping themselves in the bathroom....

There was some bad doggy business happening in Sadi's room.....

and some of you may know about Chase's weird phobia of napkins well, I told him I made him a special quilt....

too far?  I think not.  That would be putting them on him in his sleep(don't think I didn't think about it).  

Stripped of the title

Last night was the Pinewood Derby.  Chase has held the title for the last year as the champion, and he was ready last night to defend his title.  He designed his car to look like a hot wheels race car.  Last year his car was number 71.  This year he decided 72 was the lucky number.  Funny thing is one of the other boys also numbered his car 72.  What are the odds of that?

First thing was to Pit Stop to pick up a pit pass and for the official weigh in.

Once everyone was up to code, it was time to race!  They decided to do things a little differently this year and run a looser bracket at the same time as the winner's bracket (I think so everyone had more race time). 

Chase's car ran the most races, and smoked almost every car.  It was a big crowd, and lots of judges. 

He raced the final races with the winner of the looser bracket and it was close!  Good thing for cell phones with slow motion replay.  After several runs, and 4 or 5 replays by the judges, his reign was declared over. 

So he stood proudly at second place.  The winner?  The other number 72...guess it was a winning number after all.

It was a fun night, and he is already talking about his car design for next year.

It ain't easy being green

Well another year....another trap, and we still did not catch that tricky Leprechaun!  Chase was SURE this year he had it figured out, if he told him exactly what to do (Do not stay in here until 8 a.m. as the sign read) he would surely do the opposite.

Well in the morning we found he had STOLE all the pennies we left out as bait, left glitter EVERYWHERE, and of course made his yearly pit stop in our bathroom to take a tinkle. 

 He did leave each of the kids a treat with a note attached that read:

HA HA! HEE HEE!

Try, try, hard as you can,

You'll never catch a leprechaun!

We're much too smart,

And much to quick.

I know better than to fall for your trick!

But, I'll leave you a treat before I go,

A little bit of a tasty rainbow!

 He also left a "magically delicious" breakfast that Sadi was pretty excited about.

We put on our no pinching clothes and were off to school,

but not before I packed them a overly lucky lunch, filled with lots of green and of course lots of jokes.

We also made a little gift for our special teacher's who we're very lucky to have.

Due to having back to back sport practices that night we had our St. Patty's day dinner a wee bit later (the next day).

We had Pot o' gold potatoes, and rainbow salad (basically just a chef salad with all the fixin's).  Easy and delicious.

 We ended the night with some beer....

ROOT...ROOT BEER!

Spring Break, Spirit Week, and PTC

To say this past week was busy would be an understatement.  Kelsey was on break from school but the little's were not, so we tried to fit in some fun (amongst all the to do things).  We started the week out with a girls day out and went to see Cinderella...loved it!  A must see I think.

This week was spirit week for Chase and Sadi (besides P.T.C., half days, starting new sports, and St. Patty's day..whew!)  Monday was crazy hair and sock day.  Usually I try to do something really creative with the kids hair and this year was a no go for either of them...they were content with just messing it up (and adding a few bows).  Sadi thought wearing one tiny sock on one foot was pretty crazy.

While it was crazy for the kiddos at school Kelsey and I got some stuff done.  We took her to the Oral surgeon for her wisdom teeth removal consult (holy big bill), got new haircuts, went shopping and out to eat, and some other stuff I am not allowed to mention...think she's got a license to?

Chase and Sadi sported their favorite college one day,

and we rounded out the week with hats and sunglasses.

In case this week wasn't busy enough we also had to squeeze in Parent Teacher Conferences.  I met these two after school to see how they were doing.

Of course no need to worry, they both got straight A's and their teacher's raved on and on about what good kids they are.  So proud of them and how hard they work in school.....now, if we could get some of those "quiet kids" at home more often that would be GREAT!

DUST DEVIL BASKETBALL

Basketball season ended a week ago, and tonight Chase's team got together for a pizza party at our local pizza joint to celebrate their almost flawless season.  We won every game all season with the exception of one game.  Took it to the Championship game and lost.  BUT, I have to say we had the most fun, and the BEST coaches.

Because we had such great coaches, we had to get them a little something to say thank you.  I bought these little buckets and filled them with some goodies for them and attached a cute note that played on all the things I put in their buckets:

We SKORed big getting you as a Coach.

You taught us a lot in spite of the fact it

seemed we were in the MILKY WAY sometimes.

And even though we had some WHATCHAMACALLIT shots,

and BUTTERFINGER's on the court you always had words

of encouragement.  Because of your coaching, we made plenty of shots,

had some FASTBREAK's, and executed a lot of really great plays. 

Thanks for all the EXTRA time you put in for us and for

planting the SEED of teamwork!

Then for the team we made some goodie bags filled with pop rocks with a note attached that said "Being your Teammate rocks!"  A HUGE hit with the boys.

 It was a fun night with good food and even better friends....

We hope we see all these boys and coaches next year on the court!

Is that a Woket in your Pocket?

Today was Dr. Seuss's Birthday...hooray!  My kids look forward to this day every year.  We started the morning with some Hop on Pop pancakes and a side of Moose juice.  Sadi wasn't too sure how I got Moose juice...I squeezed it of course!

I had made them and their teacher's a cute little pen to remember what day it was.  Inspired by Horton hears a Who:  "A person's a person, no matter how small".  They all loved these fuzzy pens.

I secretly packed them a very Seuss lunch.  Green egg and Ham, 10 apples up on top applesauce, One fish two fish goldfish, some pink yink ink (strawberry smoothie), and Yertle's Carmel turtles.

And their snack for the day was a bag of peanuts with a quote: "You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, You can steer yourself any direction you choose!"  Apparently these were a big hit on the playground.

I had meetings right after school and so I knew it would be a late night getting home to do homework.  Since we always have Reading homework  I had set up a reading corner with a new book (and a bunch of other Dr. Seuss books) for when we got home. 

They loved this and I didn't even have to ask them to do their Reading, they sat down and read for a good hour!

 We ended the night with my attempt at a Cat in the hat dessert...Strawberry shortcake. 

Isn't reading fun!  Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!