Easter picnics

The week before Easter, we had two back to back Easter picnics to go to. The first was for our neighborhood and we got there just late enough that we missed the Easter egg hunt. We still had burgers and snow cones and got to visit and play.

Next we headed over to the ward picnic. Here we ate some more. Missed the Easter egg hunt again (Mom and Dad weren't as sad as the kids). And participated in the games. We had a lot of fun.

Matthew was not thrilled to do the three legged race.

Sarah and Shelby were much more enthusiastic. They even tried the 7-legged race.

Megan was an expert bunny hopper and gave the older kids a run for their money in the sack race.

All this partying wore Matthew out so he decided that hanging with Mom was more his speed.

Sarah's trip to the Grand Canyon

Sarah had the opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon with her 4th grade class. They left super early (at school by 4:15 am) and came back at bedtime so it was a long day! Here are some pictures she took with her friend and of the Grand Canyon. She chose the pictures to use and dictated what we should type.

Here is Sarah with her friend Kaitlyn on the bus before they left for their trip.

This is a picture of part of the Grand Canyon from the South Rim. They went on a little hike and studied fossils, which Sarah really liked categorizing.

Here's a picture where you can see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Kaitlyn and Sarah. (You can see them a bit better here than on the bus.)

The Colorado River.

Selfie!

On the way home, they stopped at Peter Piper Pizza for dinner. They had tons of food to eat and drink.

This was how they watched movies on the bus ride to and from the Grand Canyon.

New beds

Megan and Matthew were super excited to take off their flannel sheets and start using their new sheets. Matthew's have diggers all over them which is so exciting.  Megan's are covered in flowers.

Other Spring Break Happenings

We were able to spend some time with the Murrays who were in Arizona for a quick weekend trip. The kids enjoyed playing together. Avery is Sarah's age and Caleb and Sawyer are a few months older than Megan.

The kids made sand cars at the park. It looks like there's going to be a three-way collision!

We had a visit from Lep R. Khan on St Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, some nasty butterflies stole his hat. The kids were able to catch the butterflies with their nets.

Where are those pesky butterflies?

The kids found Lep R Khan's hat after the butterflies and were super excited by the treat they found in it (Haribu Gold Bears).

We went to the park a lot. Here's a big hole that Sarah dug with some friends. Works well as a couch too.

Science Center

We were able to go to the Arizona Science Center. Since we are members, we get in an hour early, which was great! We first went to Get Charged Up!, which is usually super busy, and were the only people there for quite awhile. The kids loved being able to do any of the activities without waiting. We also learned about morse code and amateur radio. Sarah was even able to talk to someone via ham radio, which she thought was neat!

Megan studies waveforms.

Sarah learning about magnetism.

We did an experiment that taught us about how plants photosynthesize.

Where daddy works

Conversation on the way to school a couple weeks ago:

Megan: What's that smoke?
Me: That's Intel.
Megan: Oh. (Pause) That's like a really far away country.

Note that the "smoke" is actually steam. And the "really far away country" was a little over a mile away. I love hearing kids' thought processes!

(As a side note, Matthew was concerned that daddy's work was smokey and thought that he should go to the rescue.)

Chocolate soup

Grandma O promised Megan that she would get her chocolate soup when she came to visit. Megan loved it! Grandma even gave her a recipe that said how to make it (take chocolate almond milk, heat if desired, add berries, bananas, etc, eat). Now when Megan sees chocolate almond milk, she says excitedly, "There's my recipe!"

Daddy, Megan and Sarah enjoying their soup.

Happy girl with her yummy recipe.

Recycled Treasures

Sarah and Megan in the recycle bin.

The kids have taken to climbing into the recycle bin and the trash bin lately.

Police/Fire Open House

The police and fire departments had an open house this past weekend. We were able to go in lots of different vehicles including a police SWAT vehicle. That thing sure is a beast, weighing in at almost 10 tons! We also saw some robots used by the police force as well as Mobile Operations and Tactical Operations vans. It sure was neat to be able to see the inside of the vehicles that we see driving around town. We were able to get the kids fingerprinted and they gave us nice laminated ones we can carry around with us. Here's a funny story about that: When the worker was giving Matthew his card, she said, "Here's your driver's license." I commented that when he was pulled over that night for underage driving, he could tell the policeman that he'd been told it was his license by the police department.

Kids with the police dog mascot.

Inside a police car. The kids decided they liked the seats up front a lot better than the hard plastic ones in the back.

Inside a fire truck.

Ostrich Run and Festival

Last weekend was the Ostrich Festival 5k run and parade. The kids and I went there to cheer on U and then enjoyed watching the parade.

Giving daddy five.

With Tutu, the Ostrich Festival mascot.

This weekend, we went to the Ostrich Festival. It was a lot of fun, as usual. We enjoyed watching the Ostrich Races, learning about birds and sharks, watching a magic show, seeing a couple of thrill circuses and feeding the goats.

Goats anxious for food.

Here are people's favorite shows:
Matthew: Watching the Rocketman fly out of his cannon twice!
Megan: Seeing the Cirque Adventure (a family of performers that did some pretty amazing aerials acts including an 8 year old girl who did an aerial act with silks 25 feet up in the air).
Sarah: The Shark encounter and the Family Survivor game show (one of her friends from church got to participate!)
Me: Birdman Show and Cirque Adventure.
U: Cirque Adventure Show.

Birthday Party Fun!

Megan and Matthew went to their friend's 4th birthday party. It was a blast with a clown who made them fun balloon creations and painted arms and faces with paint that glowed in the dark.

Megan liked her flower and Matthew was a brave knight with a sword and shield.

Yes, that's a scorpion!

Megan liked her pretty flower that glowed and had sparkles.

Preschool

We've continued doing preschool each week, although I haven't been great at taking a lot of pictures, particularly of the kids. Here's a quick recap:

We studied the letter "o" and talked about opposites. We read the story of Martha and Mary. The kids particularly liked watching the Sesame Street videos on opposites ("Around, around, over, under and through" with Grover was a particular favorite). They also enjoyed our opposite taste test (although they weren't big fans of "spicy" salsa or "sour" lemon). On Friday, we had opposite day, where we did things backwards. If you asked Megan and Matthew what that meant, they'd say it meant they got to wear their pjs all day. There were parts of the day they didn't like (eating dinner for breakfast and switching the order of preschool are not ok) and things they did like (wearing pjs all day, even to the library, and eating pancakes for dinner).

The food. We had sweet/sour, crunchy/soft, hot/cold, dry/juicy, spicy/bland and salty/not salty.

The following week, we talked about "p" and pigs. We read the Prodigal Son in the Bible and read a few different stories about the three little pigs and played the three little pigs game. We popped popcorn and made pancakes. (They always really enjoy any activities that include food.)

The next week, we talked about "y" and you (meaning them). We read about Jesus and the Little Children. One of our stories for the week was "You are Special" by Mac Lucado about how we are each valuable. Megan and Matthew made books about themselves and drew pictures of their families. We also talked about how amazing our bodies are. We exercised to see how our heart beat faster and we drew with our feet.

This past week, we talked about "m" and money. We read about the Widow's Mite. We made patterns with money, did coin rubbings and talked about wants versus needs.

Megan graduates!

Megan graduated from her Seal class last week and is now moving onto her Sea Lion class. She is super excited to learn "big arms." Here's the details from the article her swim school posted:

EVO Swim School is pleased to announce that Megan, age 4, has graduated from the Seal class level. She is now considered a proficient back yard swimmer with the ability to swim three widths of our pool (30 yards total) with a strong kick and great breath control. She can also jump from the side, get a breath on her back, and return to the side of the pool as a safety habit. She will be moving to the Sea Lion class to receive an introduction to the freestyle stroke with an emphasis placed on “big arms”. On behalf of Megan’s instructor, Ashley, and the entire EVO Swim School staff, we say…CONGRATULATIONS!

More LEGOs!

The latest LEGO creations!

Matthew's creation was an ambulance station.

Megan built a "klonk" and told us all about it. It has places to sleep, hang, stand in line, drive, climb in and get ice cream. Detailed photos of the "klonk" below.