Happy Easter!

Here are the ladies of the family, all dolled up for Easter Sunday. We had a lovely Easter, with some baskets of goodies in the morning and lamb stew with homemade artisan bread for dinner. Wish we could have been with family and friends, but luckily we like each other in this house. Most of the time.

Ian turned 4!

Ian turned four on St. Patrick's Day. It was a Sunday, so we went to church in the morning (but not before eating lucky charms with green milk!), and then in the afternoon we played some Transformers games I found online and had some chocolate cake and presents. Fun times!

March happenings

The library hosted a Pinkalicious party in celebration of a new book, Emeraldicious. Wow: cupcakes, hats, games, activities, a runway walk. It was fancy. And girly. And so fun to enjoy with my girl. 

Playing with Declan at the park. I love his green eyes.

Ian at the Mason's Easter Egg Hunt.

Declan at the egg hunt.

Audrey at the egg hunt. She would only pick up pink eggs. Love how girly she is.

Our St. Patrick's day projects.

Audrey and Ian took a six week Saturday morning soccer class. They had a good time.

Out at the Botanical Garden with our friends TJ and Bentli over Spring break.

Family fun

  Mr. B and Declan, enjoying some McDonald's ice cream. The kids earned a McDonalds' trip after earning a jar full of marbles for being good. I am not a fan of reward systems and was grateful to get this one done and over with. I only started it because they really wanted to go to McDonald's and I needed to have a reason to go there. Worked.

Mr. B reading to the kids. I thought it was so sweet that they were simultaneously listening.

 There are MLB Spring Training fields very near our home, and we thought it would be fun to watch a game as a family. Not so much. The kids were super bored, all they wanted to do was get cotton candy and popcorn, and run around. We left at the sixth inning. Mr. B says, we tried, we were together. I said, that was a Fail. 

Renaissance Festival

 Last Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival. It was a little over an hour away, on the other side of Phoenix. I read about it and HAD to go. We spent the entire day there, and also our entire Costco rebate check, and it was totally worth it. Everyone come visit us in February or March and we will take you there. Audrey got to be a princess and meet the King and Queen, we watched a Jousting tournament, saw so many neat demonstrations and clever performers, ate awesome food, rode camels and elephants, and more. 

We love Grandma

My mom came out for a week in February to visit us, and we loved having her here. We spent the week doing our normal schedule, and I enjoyed her company so much. She is my favorite person to talk to. Here are some pictures of the kids coloring and doing homework one afternoon during her visit.

Amber!!

My good friend Amber came to visit us from Atlanta. I have missed her and my Atlanta friends so much since we moved, and it was a great boon to have her here. We enjoyed all of Saturday on a girls' day out, eating out, pedicures, shopping. We even went to the gym. I can't wait to do it all again when I go visit her this fall!

Declan gets sick

We all got sick over Christmas break, but Declan was the healthiest. However, after we got home, his symptoms wouldn't go away and eventually got worse. I took him to the doctor where he was diagnosed with a sinus infection and was given this breathing treatment for about 15 minutes (followed up with an antibiotic.) Sweet guy thought it was amusing at first, and then he just cried a lot and tried to take it off. He looks so pitiful!

Declan has been really into books lately. He wants to be read to, he carries them around like loveys, and he reads to himself. Love it.

Ian the performer

We read scriptures and stories every night as a family, and we have the kids take a turn by reading lines for them to repeat. A couple weeks ago, Ian read his verse with gusto, and happily agreed to a repeat performance for the video camera. What a ham.