St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is the girls' favorite holiday for some reason.  So we tried to make it fun!

It fell on a Saturday this year and that morning I dropped Eve and Halle off at the church to help Daddy clean (he was already there from a 6:30am basketball game - every Saturday he does this).  Abigail, Cora, and I got the house (semi) cleaned up then went to get a St. Patrick's Day breakfast surprise - donuts!  

Abigail volunteered to drive....

We all ended up getting home around the same time and when we went inside we discovered that the leprechauns had paid us a visit!  They'd left their tiny green footprints everywhere and the girls were quick to follow the trail!  So quick that pictures were blurry.....

Eve was very dedicated to following the trail exactly.  

We found that they'd left their treasure behind the door in Cora and Abigail's room.  

For some reason this was disappointing to the older girls?

Cora and Abigail were pleased, though!  Rainbow-y pots of gold!  No need to even remove the wrapping!

Once the excitement died down, we broke out the donuts!

St. Patrick's Day was the Saturday at the end of spring break, and I mentioned in the prior post that we had lots of ear infections on our hands.  Poor Cora was the most miserable and just wanted lots of snuggle time. 

The girls wanted oatmeal for lunch (don't ask) and we put it in the microwave like normal, only when it came out it had turned green!  More leprechaun mischief, we decided.  It happened to all the girls' oatmeal, although apparently, I only took a picture of Abigail's.  (I'm not sure why she's naked in all these pictures - sorry.)

That afternoon we made some green slime!  

Even Cora played for a bit without eating any.

Unfortunately, I let the girls use butter knives in their play and they scratched the table a bit.  Andrew was not thrilled.  Oops.  

But they made some tasty looking treats!

I'd been planning on making our annual meal of corned beef hot dish (my Great Grandma's recipe) but we'd had the missionaries over a couple nights before and I couldn't think of anything else to make.  So we had our St. Patrick's Day meal two days early.  That happens some times!

Spring Break

Spring break was early this year - March 12 - 16.  I can't remember what I was thinking, but Eve really wanted to so we signed up to take animals from her school again.  She was supposed to rank her top three choices.  She wanted to put ferrets as her #1, but I refused.  So rabbits were her first and guinea pigs her second, with gerbils rounding out the top 3.  We ended up with two guinea pigs, Raider Red (male) and Maggie (female and pregnant).  They were with us for 10 very long days. 

I let the girls get them out twice.  That was as much as I could do.  Of course, the girls loved it!

The Sunday at the beginning of spring break was Stake Conference and everyone had an extra hard time sitting still this time around.  I played with Eve and Halle's hair to keep them (and me) from going crazy.  

Halle's:

Eve's:

For some reason that I can't remember, we chose this week to break Cora of her blanket corner sucking addiction.  The one corner of her blanket that she constantly sucked on was brown and smelled like mold no matter how often I washed it.  So we tried!  It was painful.  She really missed her blanket and no amount of pillows or new blankets could make up for it.  It was a long week in terms of fussiness, especially once she got sick.  I'll say, though, that we stuck with it, I can't remember how long, but long enough that when I gave it back, she didn't suck on it anymore!  And hasn't since!  Victory!

On Monday of spring break week we visited Prairie Dog Town, hoping to see home babies!  But alas, just grown up prairie dogs.  Still fun, though!  We'll try again in a few weeks.  

Second (and last) time getting the pigs out to hold.  

Even Cora braved it this time!

We (I) had grand plans for the week, but time (and energy) just sort of slipped away.  We did do story time at the library with the Seegmillers, followed up by a visit to the Science Spectrum that afternoon!  Mostly for Eve and Naomi's benefit.  They never get to go since they're always at school when we do. 

The chicks and bunnies were there for Easter!

And in the children's play area, the huge water table is open again after lengthy construction.  Goody.  Cora was soaked.  

Cora has a few favorite books right now but the top of the list is a tie between Good Night Moon and Are Pirates Polite?  Eve and Halle both take lots of turns reading to her (thank goodness for two young readers now!) and Abigail will pitch in with books she has memorized.  Gives me a break!

All four girls came down with double ear infections during this week, so lots of trips to the pediatrician and lots of antibiotics.  And rest!

Finally time for the pigs to go back and spring break to be over!  They got to play in the tub under Abigail's supervision while I did one final cleaning on the cage.  Periodic visits from school animals helps me remember why I don't like pets :)

Overall, a relatively quiet spring break - Andrew had to work Monday - Wednesday then spent a lot of time on Thurday and Friday watching the girls so I could run errands.  Glad to spend some time, even if it was low-key, as a family that week!

February Stuff

Here's what we did in February!

One morning, Eve's coat pockets were feeling a little heavy so I investigated.  And found:

Halle drew a picture for Uncle Lance Smith's birthday!

More book reading!

Eve celebrated the 100th day of 1st grade by dressing like a 100 year old and doing a project!

She chose to use 100 cheerios!  Turned out pretty well!

Helping Mommy make pancakes - homemade, buttermilk pancakes.  We (the girls) have pancakes a lot, but usually just the Krusteaz mix with a few chocolate chips thrown in.  

Lots of sick time in February, so Andrew let them play video games on his computer.  Mostly Mario!

Sister selfies!

Halle loves to sleep in our room, although we only let her every few weeks.  She was excited to make this bed on our floor.  

Eve helping me push the cart at Costco.  She had had a really high fever up until the night before, so even though she was feeling better on this day, she stayed home just to be safe.  They want them fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school.  She missed Monday and Tuesday of school due to her illness.  We missed a lot of church in January and February too.  Lots of girls being sick.  

On Thursday the 15th, the girls and I went to the grand opening of Schlotzsky's because they were giving away 52 free sandwiches to the first 100 customers to buy a 6 pack of cinnabons.  We ended up being number 117 in line, but they kept giving them out until they ran out of cinnamon rolls, at person 120.  By the skin of our teeth!

I wasn't that committed to it since the restaurant isn't particularly close to our house, but since we had nothing else pressing that morning, we waited.  It ended up being about an hour total and we left with a punch card for 52 free sandwiches.  Not too shabby!

And six huge cinnamon rolls!

Nice weather means play group outside!  These kids sure have fun together :)

So much fun that we wear Cora out and she falls asleep on the living room floor.  

On Sunday, the 25th, a family from our ward stopped by after church with their son (about age 4) to say they wanted to give us this car!  They bought it last year for their son, but he never uses it.  It's the electric kind that drives when you push the gas pedal and the girls are in love!  It was so nice of this family.  The car has already seen lots of use (and a few fights that result in the car in time out) in the past few days.  

Cora's not able to make it go, but likes to sit in it.  

On to March!