Teacher Appreciation Week

During Teacher Appreciation week at Brody's school, the kids were asked to do a few things for their teachers every day, like making cards, bringing food for a luncheon, donating money for a class gift, and bringing in flowers for her.  For flower day, many kids had very nice arrangements while some picked flowers on the way to school.  It was all very cute.  I urged Brody to take a different route since I really didn't want to buy anything.  He loves to paint and I'm that mom that always says no to painting in the house.  So, when I suggested it, he was so excited.  He painted this all on his own.  I think it looks pretty great and I am definitely one proud momma! :)

April General Conference

This is how much our kids loved General Conference this year.  Too funny.

Brody:

Piper:

Mommy and Daddy Daughter Date and a Playdate at the Lake

One of the nice things about not being in school yet is getting to go on little dates with Daddy and Mommy!  In the end of March, John took off work on a Friday and took us girls out to lunch with him.  We had lunch at Gandolfo's for some delicious sandwiches.  Piper soaked up all the attention and was loving every minute of it.

 She loved not having to share her Daddy with anyone else.

After lunch and a Lowe's run, we picked up Brody and his friend and fellow classmate Thalia from school and surprised them with Thrify's ice cream.  The kids enjoyed their cotton candy ice cream (yuck!) and then we took a walk and explored the lake.  By the way, these two are quite funny together.  They very much admire each other and seem to be great friends in class.  She lives in our neighborhood and her grandparents and Dad used to lived downstairs from us in our old apartment.  Small world.  We have become fast friends and sometimes I help her mom out and take her to and from school.  The kids love when Thalia rides with us.  She is a sweet girl.

Brody thought feeding the ducks ice cream was a good idea.

 Having fun getting that sugar out and climbing on the rocks.

 We spotted some sunbathing turtles along the way.

It was a fun and beautiful day and a great start to the weekend ahead.

Another King's Victory

Back in March, my brother-in-law, Brandon, invited John and Brody to go to a Kings game with him and Brooklyn.  Brandon gets hooked up with tickets from his work, so he was very nice to invite them.  Being the Kings fans that my boys are, they were very excited to go.  The kids had a great time laughing and eating.  Along with a bunch of other food, John bought the kids popcorn, which won him the favorite uncle/ daddy award.  

 Brody and John after the game.  The Kings went on to win that game and an amazing rest of the season by winning the Stanley Cup.

 Brooklyn and Brandon.

Thanks Brandon!  They look forward to be asked many more times this next year! ;)

St Patrick's Day

I'm back and I'm determined to get caught up and quickly. . . 6-month catch up - here we go!

So, back in March, St Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year and we were happy that Daddy could join in on all the fun.  The kiddos woke up to Leprechaun footprints that lead right to the fridge and turned our milk green.  I remembered late the night before and realized I better do something.  The kids loved it, but Brody saw right through the act and said, "Mom, those footprints are not real, I saw the tape on the bottom."  He still loved it, though. 

John usually takes the kids grocery shopping on Saturday mornings and this time the kids came back with some breakfast treats.  Lucky Charms for Brody. . .

and a sprinkle donut for Piper.

After breakfast, we took the kids to the Discovery Science Center.  It was a wet, cold day and, as you can imagine, it was packed.  It was still a lot of fun, though.

 Brody is getting better at climbing the rock walls.

Piper stuck to her favorite, the slides.

Cool Tornado

Bombs away!

Piper's turn to climb.  She is much more cautious than Brody is.

They were having a Star Wars exhibit, which is why we went in the first place, and it was filled with props, models, and costumes from all the movies.  Pretty awesome for any fans.  The boys were very excited and we spent a lot of time in there checking everything out.  Here is the X-wing (the picture commentary is coming from John.  I really have no idea the names of anything, much less remember what happened in any of the movies.)

Y-wing

Chewbacca's suit.

Pod Racer

Jawa and young Anakin Skywalker

 Imperial Star Destroyer

 Millennium Falcon

Luke's speeder

Yoda

 

Types of different lightsabers that the characters had.

John and his Stormtrooper friend.

Luke's fake hand after it was shot in Return of the Jedi.

Anakin's fake arm after his was cut off.

Darth Vadar's suit.  There is one happy kid and Daddy.  Definitely one of Brody's favorites.

The ins and outs of this famous helmet.

 

 AT-AT

C3-PO

He was pretty happy to see R2-D2 also.

 Princess Leia's costume.

 

The Roger Roger guy.

The first C3-PO that Anakin built.

Some stuff from the The Empire Strikes Back.

Anakin's and Obi Wan's costumes.

After the Star Wars exhibit, we went upstairs and checked out the rocket outside even though it was still really wet.  Piper was afraid to venture out there, thinking it was actually real, but Brody and John had lots of fun.

Then we enjoyed hanging out in the hockey area trying to take shots.

Their new grocery store section was all competed now and we had fun taking a computerized cart through and pretending to shop.

That ended our fun day at the science center.  We always welcome family days with Daddy, especially during the busy season.

On a side note, I made this massive cake for my hubby.  It is a red velvet cake (his favorite) with a middle layer of cheesecake.  It was exactly as rich as you are imagining it would be.  It was intended for a Valentine's Day gift for him but, with my birthday so close, I waited to make it later.  It was my first attempt at cheesecake and red velvet cake from scratch.  While it was a great accomplishment for me, I probably won't be making it again.  I had to bring it to a few parties before I could get rid of it.  Plus the two bottles of red dye kind of grossed me out.  It looks pretty, though, and it could contend with a Costco one on its size.  I got quite a few compliments about the taste too.