Easter in Malad

 We met up with the cousins for a lovely Easter Saturday and Sunday in Malad!  Well, we first celebrated Amos' recent birthday with a cool race car cake.

 Here's the crew on Easter morning after they found what the bunny had left overnight. 

 The bunny was good!

 But nothing is as fun as Papa Lee's annual Easter Egg Hunt!  He spends what I can only assume are hours meticulously placing over 200 eggs in strategically scattered and difficult hiding places all over the entire Malad yard - front and back!  The kids bolt out the door and leave no stone unturned in their pursuit for candy.  Still, some of Papa's hiding places are so good, he inevitably finds 8-10 missed eggs over the next several months!

 It was a great weekend!

If only they could spend every day with the cousins!

And not to neglect the real reason for the season, Kolby and I enjoyed church and a special Family Home Evening with the kids opening special eggs filled with the story of Jesus' atonement, death and resurrection.  We love our Savior and I am grateful to Him every day to be able to spend my life and then next with this beautiful family.  In the sweet words of a favorite primary song, I'm trying to be like Jesus.

Recital Time!

June's started with a new violin teacher this year - Dana Harding.  June adores her and I'm pretty sure she likes June.  She is a fantastic violinist and her husband is an orchestra conductor and they both give us such nice compliments about June and her sweet violin skills.  They once told me she plays with fire and passion!  She did a great job at her recital!

Vote for Winnie!

 Winnie got up the courage to run for 5th grade student council! So did about 50 other students! We got to work on her poster - you can't go wrong with a Napoleon Dynamite theme, right?  We slapped it up on the hall wall with the 50 other posters.  I know I'm biased, but I liked hers the best. She also gave a very eloquent speech dressed as a bumble bee.  She explained why she would "BEE" a good choice.  You know how it goes, though.  With 50 kids running and only 9 spots, it was tough.  She found out that she didn't make it and had a good cry while we drove home.  I told her all the things I tried out for and didn't make - the important thing is that we try.  You know, like a good mom. We've also started a tradition of going out for "failure" dinners when we don't make teams, clubs, etc. Winnie chose Wingers and we ate in honor of her hard work and great attempt.  She was all but over the pain that next weekend when I got a text saying the school had chosen 12 students rather than 9 and Winnie was in!!! A failure dinner and student council? Maybe Winnie really can make your wildest dreams come true!

The Annual Steelhead Trip

 Kolby's favorite vacation finally rolled around! He starts getting the fishing itch the first week of March and breaks his gear out of storage to play with in the back yard.  The boys always head off to the mountains early in April and spend a week on the river "hunting" fish, eating pounds of fried spuds, and getting super smelly and dirty.

 This year, Uncle Curt got to join Kolby and Papa.  Curt and Papa both took a spill in the river this year.  Other than that, It's pretty much the same pictures sent home every year.  This is Papa's Disneyland. He never gets tired of it, and I think Kolby and Curt feel the same!

 Someone really wanted to go on the big boys' trip but didn't get an invite - some crap about being too puny to survive the raging river and giant fish.  So, mom did her best to set up a fishing hole at home.  I bet the big boys can't say they caught a shark!  Klive wasn't the only one who cried while the boys were gone.  I supremely rolled my ankle in a sprinkler hole while picking Klive up from school and had to spend the next three weeks on crutches.  It was one of those rolls that makes you instantly want to barf and pass out.  It was super awesome to put on a show for the crowd of other pick-up parents, hobble to my car with Winnie as a crutch and then not have a doctor husband home to assess the damage. A great time was had by all!

The Dirtiest April Fools Pranks Ever!

 It's no secret that Kolby and I usually do our darndest to prank the stuffing out of our kids on April Fools Day.  We especially love to pull pranks that will embarrass them at school in front of their friends and scar them for life! Well April Fools fell on a Saturday this year.  Kolby was working, I had procrastinated prank planning and I just didn't have it to give this time. So this year, the students became the masters!

 I have one irrational fear in this world, and it is this man.  Christopher Walken is the devil!  Just thinking about him makes my pits sweat and my heart race - not in a good way! My children know this. Those little stinkers decoupaged his face onto my breakfast plate to give me a good scare right out of the gate.  They assumed that sinister, ugly mug would send me straight to the toilet for a barf fest - right where Satan would be waiting for me!  If that weren't enough, I found his head tucked cozily into my bed that night.  Can you believe they went so far as to play the cow bell? Let's just say my prank planning for next year has already begun.  They'll never see it coming!

Spring Cleaning!

 So here's my attempt at cleaning out my camera and sharing a few gems from the spring. Klive's new-found phonetic skills really come in handy when he needs some privacy.  I found this note taped to his door one morning.

 Here's a cute one of our newest family member - Poncho.  Don't let that sweet face fool you though.  He's a biter!  It's a good thing he's old and missing most of his teeth.  He's very possessive of mom's lap and will sink his little chompers into anyone who gets too close!

 Here's some actual spring cleaning.  June's got a problem.  She can't throw anything away, always worried that it could somehow be turned into an epic craft project.  I forced her to gut her room.  It took three days and I'm pretty sure she spent most of the time snuggling her yarn and playing dress-ups.

 Winnie finally got out and enjoyed her prize for winning the spelling bee - a new bike from Uncle Buck!  Klive also gave roller-skating a try! Don't tell the orthopedic surgeon!

 Someone found the stick-on mustaches in the storage room.

 Hours of fun!

 Our neighbors invited us up to check out this sweet ride.  Klive would have given anything to climb inside, throw it into gear and climb over all the puny cars in the driveway.

 This is how I find Klive every night in bed.  He can't bear to think of a single stuffie spending a cold, dark, lonely night in his closet, so they all share his bed.

His three favorite things - his dad, his stuffies and a little x-box time!

June's been a member of chamber orchestra for two years now. They always compete against other schools in the spring.  This year, June played a duet with another girl from chamber. Her partner had been working on the piece for over a year in private lessons -Vivaldi's Concerto. Poor Junie had two weeks to learn and master it.  Let me tell you, it was tough!  She worked for hours every night.  The day of the big competition came and true to June form, she nailed it!  She and her partner took first place and also earned a superior rating.  We have such high hopes for June's musical future!