Eggs, Hunt(s) & Easter Celebrations

Oh Easter!  I just LOVE Easter!  And this year we were blessed with super weather!  Finally it was warm!  It seems like years since the last time we enjoyed such sun on this glorious day!

We started out Easter weekend from our favorite visitors to the North, my sister and da' boys.  Those sweet, sweet, never sit still, get into everything, sweet boys!  Why did I think that dying eggs would be a good idea?  Hmmm... it actually wasn't all that bad.  Just a few spills and a few cracked eggs, but hey, they were hard boiled so not a big deal.  The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and we're so happy that they are moving to MN!  The girls wanted to dye more eggs so the next day we made some more and Brian got to have a little creative fun too!  

Easter morning came early, like usual, and the girls were on the lookout for their baskets and eggs.  Brian and I are amazed at how NOT good they are at looking.  It's alot like looking for something they've misplaced in the house.  Not sure why one wouldn't look UNDER things?  Some day they'll catch on!  The rabbit is getting trickier every year with the older 3 girls.  Even the cardinal was a little puzzled with the "robin" egg sitting on the feeder.  They all had alot of fun and were able to find all their eggs after about an hour or so.  We got dressed, looking pretty in the Easter attire, headed to mass to celebrate and then headed to Wabasso for lunch with the Salfer's (thank goodness they left some food for us) and then later in the afternoon to the Moore's for dinner and more cousin time.

April Happenings

We'll start off April with photos from Caitlin's first track meet.  She is loving track and has decided that the 200m dash is her favorite event.  She usually runs the 200m, 4x200m relay and triple jump.  She did have a try at the 400m and didn't like it too much.  She's definitely drawn to the faster races.  Overall, she's improved her times and is having alot of fun.  The Jr. High only had 8 meets scheduled and they missed 3 due to weather...we've froze our butts off at the 4 we went to and tomorrows meet, which is the last, is supposed to be 80 degrees!! Yeah!

Natalie, Lauren and I went on a mini field trip to the pet store and mall in Mankato while our van was being worked on for a few hours.  We ended up walking even though it was a little cool and windy from Toyota and our first stop was Pet Expo.  Lauren was infatuated with the fish and couldn't stop saying "fsh,fsh fsh"  The excitement brought pure joy to my heart.  She didn't like the ferrets though. They were "playing" in their glass cage and she got scared when they ran toward her...Can you imagine?!  It was pretty funny.  Natalie was bouncing from animal to animal and I could barely keep up with her.  After the pet store we headed to the Mall and spent some time in Barnes and Noble.  I kept busy running after Lauren and reshelving books.  :)  Natalie could probably spend hours in there looking at books and playing with the toys.  We then headed to Scheels to say hi to Amy and ride the escalator.  Then I let the girls play for a bit in the germ infested play area.  They seem to enjoy it, I don't.  Extra hand sanitizer after that stop.  We ran a few errands after, hopped back on the stroller and back to Toyota.  We walked almost 2 miles when all said and done!

The 2nd grade class have been preparing to receive their 1st Communion and part of tradition they act out the last supper (Seder Meal) at one of their prayer services.  It's quite exciting to a 2nd grader! 

Thanks to my mom coming and watching Natalie and Lauren, I was able to be a chaperone for Emily's 5th grade class trip to the State Capitol and MN History Center.  In all our years at JI, I've only chaperoned one trip.  Amazing!  It was a great day!  I hadn't been to the Capitol in many years and it brought back fond memories of when I was there with my 5th/6th grade class.  The History center was great too!  I had never been there and the kids LOVED it.  It was nice to spend a day with my brown haired beauty!

The last event in April was the Regional Science Fair at MNSU in Mankato for Emily.  She and the other kids from JI did really well.  Emily ended up getting a Purple ribbon and then 2nd place overall in her age/catagory division.  She received a $40 gift card to Walmart.  Not bad for a days job!

March Endings

Ok, so I left off quite a while ago and there has been a TON of things that have happened in the last 2-1/2 months so lets begin with the end of March...

The 2nd grade class led mass and Rachel had the honor of being the Lector.  She did a fabulous job and she looked super cute! :)

We had Kindergarten round-up for Natalie, which she absolutely loved and is so excited to start!  She's pictured here with two new friends, Noel and Reagan.  I think shes going to have a really fun Kindergarten year!  The class looks to be a little heavy on the girl side but we're used to that!

Some silly random photos i thought were cute... Lauren after eating an Oreo

And Natalie and Lauren hanging out with mom watching some cartoons...

The last week of March brought some pretty nice weather and when Brian was off studying the girls and I headed to the park to have a little fun...maybe a little too much fun... Lauren's first time swinging (not as an infant) was a memorable one!  She loved it so much that she puked all over herself and the swing from laughing so hard.  I had nothing along to wipe the puke up with so I used her sweatshirt.  She also had it all over her pants so I stripped her down to her onsie and our park fun ended.  Good times....:)