Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter

We had an amazing Easter holiday. 

First, as a family we did our Easter Resurrection Eggs for the 12 days before Easter. It was so nice to watch and listen to my children as they talked about the happenings of Christ. 
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Second, we had our family egg hunt. But this year I added a little twist. My visiting teacher told me about her family tradition in which the kids hide eggs for the adults. After the adults find all their eggs it's the kids turn to go out and find their eggs. 
So we did this as well. After hearing Mason and Hailey hatching a plan to hide the eggs in the trash can I advised them that if they made the egg hunt easy; we'd make it easy. However if they make the hunt hard... to just imagine what Dad might do. (Hide the eggs on the roof or up in trees) 

So while Mike, my mom (<--- she joined us for our Easter gathering), and I waited inside for the cue to go and find our eggs. 
These kids made it SUPER EASY!!! They put all the eggs in a circle and Hailey even pointed us in the direction of where to find this big circle of eggs.

Silly Kids! That was alittle too easy. :-)

Now the kids turn to wait inside. Grandma stood watch at the door to ensure no peeking or sneaking. And as usual we let loose each kid from youngest to oldest with a 5 second gap between persons so they can run and find some before they get trampled by the bigger kids. 

Cati was way to fast for my camera to catch her. And yeah- Mike's helping her out. She'll always be his baby girl in his eyes. 

Next Lily....

After her 5 second head start Hailey followed behind her....

and last but not least Mason. He charged out of our house like he's hunting for a million bucks.

So this year Mike and I added alittle more to our egg hunt. (Hey! Our kids are getting older. )


Each person grabbed as many eggs as they could but with 1 rule. Each person could only have 1 "star" egg which was their date coupons. Grab only their gift ( something small like new socks)
And only 1 Cheetos carrot
Their "Date" eggs were the first to be opened. Mason finally got a movie date.
Hailey found the dinner date and Lily received the ice cream date.
Mason, it's not a real carrot. Silly!
And our sweet Cati received the coupon for "Get Air" the trampoline park but since she's too young for that one ( we were hoping Mason or Hailey would have found that one) we changed it to a Boondocks date. She was perfectly happy with that. :-)
She's showing off her Cheetos. She told me, "I love gluten free cheetos."

Funny side note: Lily really wanted a yo-yo so for her one small gift she of course got one. So she's trying really hard to figure out how to walk the dog.
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Last, we went to the annual Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt AND Breakfast.
We've been going here for the past few years and just love it. While the kids get to see their friends I get to see mine. :-)
 One of my friends turning to tell me that my girls are so cute running together.
I know...they are :-)
 They loved it! Cati was memorized by her Elmo egg she found so this slowed her down alittle. Lily would help her (and other littler ones) put eggs in their baskets. I guess she wanted them to feel her excitement sooner than later.  After finding their 13 allotted eggs they went back to the benches to see what treasures they found.


And best of all- Mike came along! Since he started his new work schedule he had today off. YIPPEE!!!!


Only cool moms allow their kids to eat candy at 10am. :-)
 But now it's breakfast time. Lily was amazed by the size of her strawberry.


This Easter was truly amazing. I'm so happy that as a family we've found a way to celebrate holidays while  keeping our focus on Christ.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Double Dating Coupons

Right after our Neighborhood Egg Hunt our girls wanted to redeem their date coupons
The girls wanted to double date so after explaining that doubling their dates would mean "no big things" (big sundaes or longer playing time) they were fine with it. They just wanted to go together. Sweet♥ moment

First stop was Ducati's Boondock's Date. 

What can I say? Boondocks is close to our house so we go their often.


 (this photo above remind me of her baby photos)
 But they love it here.
 So we played tons of games. Won tons of tickets. And laughed tons more times than all of those combined.
 Prize time. Cati wanted Dad to take her on her date so here she is posing with just him.
 Lily and Ducati got matching owl necklaces.
 I mentioned to Mike that as much as these 2 girls fight they are more alike than they know.
 (Each picked a tiara, owl necklace, and a giant pixie stick. Only difference was color.)

Next and last stop was Lily's Ice Cream Date.
Our Princess Lily is very lady like in her ice cream etiquette.
 Ducati showing me her "Princess Santa" ice cream smile.

Double Dating sure was fun. But sure was exhausting. :P I'm ready for a nap.

Monday, March 25, 2013

FHE: Purity

I only blog this since
 1. I might need this again
2. someone else might need this

I searched on-line for a week and could not find anything that could help me teach this lesson to my children. Last week Mason eye witnessed his friends kissing behind the school. I for one was disappointed to see a bunch of 5th graders making out. Kids who I currently know and have known for years now. I was shocked and surprised since I didn't see that coming. 

So my mind started racing trying to find a way to each my kids about keeping their body and minds clean from sexual...things.... So I had to swallow my doubt, stop my blushing, and teach them first. 

Plus I've read in numerous books about parents waiting until they thought their kid was ready to hear about the birds and the bees to only hear them say, "Oh, I know that". The parent was too late. I do not want to be too late. 
So finding a way to keep this tasteful, age appreciate for Lily and Ducati, and get the point across I prayed about it and this is what I was prompted to teach. 

First I wanted to show my kids what "promiscuous" meant.
 So I grabbed some lipstick and this piece of glass from a frame and had the girls stand in line. Mason was so nice to play along (mostly since I told him he needed to help me). I put some lipstick on each girl and had them kiss the glass. Cati was Mason's 5th grade girlfriend. Lily was Mason's 6th girlfriend. Hailey was his summer gf. Each girl leaving behind a red kiss mark on the glass. And we just kept doing this until Mason was in 10th grade (16 years old) The girls were giggling and Mason was blushing by this time.

I talked with them that Mason has had about 10 kisses on his lips all before he's even allowed to date. So now things got interesting. I must of kissed his glass so many times that he couldn't even see through it.

A kiss from his Friday night date, a kiss from his lady friend, another kiss from his Saturday date, a casual kiss from his friend and so on. All this before he even leaves on his mission.

After everyone was done giggling I showed them Mason's glass. It was covered in lipstick. Mason must haven been kissed like 40 times by the time he was 18 years old. ( In reality he hasn't kissed anyone since a neighbor girl from when he was 5 years old)

I then explained to them that if their 'glass" was filled with kisses from all these other girls or boys can their soul-mate ever find them. Or even see them behind all this lip action. I held the glass up to Mike's face. And explained that if I was busy getting kisses from tons of guys I would have missed my eternal companion  But I wanted my kids to know as well that kissing is great... if you're married. Hugging, kissing, cuddling, all that jazz is wonderful and are suppose to be done with your husband or wife.
 

and how to do you keep your glass clean?

By keeping your thoughts clean. 1 jar says, " Girls. Boys. Kissing. TV. Video Games. Distractions". While the other jar says, " Faith. Testimony. covenants. relationship with God."
And the vase with water in the back represents our thoughts.



Mike helped me out by showing that if we keep our thoughts in the "good" jar we will be able to keep our thoughts, actions, and bodies clean. But if we keep our attention in the "distraction" jar we'll be making a dirty glass per say. And even 50/50 is something that needs to be worked on. So if they find themselves looking at cute girl or wanting to kiss someone we talked about how to change those thoughts so the wrong jar wouldn't get filled up.

In all honesty it was a stressful, uneasy, and bashful night for me. Talking about kissing, cleaning thoughts, etc is all something I'm not too sure on. But it's something that I need to get over and talk more about with my kids. These types of conversations can't be a once and a while sort of thing. Especial since kids are becoming more curious at a younger age. So purity, modesty, and sex will become a more constant topic in our household.

PS for FHE treat we had vanilla ice cream. Nothing says purity like the color white :-)

Dad's and Donuts

This post is long overdue. A couple of months ago Hailey's class along with the other first grade class had a "Dad's and Donuts morning"
The students sang songs, played games, and of course ate donuts with their daddy's. Mike told me that there was such a huge turn out. The thought of 60+ dad's taking work off or going in late just so they could eat donuts with their kids made my eyes glossy. All are such great dads especially Mike since he took the day off :-) 
Well the reason for the late post was because I wanted to post these pictures but couldn't find them....until last night. Yeah for finding them! I loved how Hailey drew Mike.
A few fun facts she learned about Mike during their parent interview time. And he learned that she loves tumbling, the color pink and red, and bacon. ( ummm....wonder why? (-:  ) This was a fun and memorable morning♥

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Daddy's Day Off

Mike will have about 2 days off a month (not including Sundays) and the scheduling is never known until either the day before or the day of. And today was one of those days that Mike told me the night before that he had the day off. Really? Super smile on my face. :-)

So Lily, Cati, and I had to cancel some plans, re-arrange a few things, and push aside some ideas so we could soak up every minute with Mike today.

So here's what we do on Daddy's Day Off:
 Early morning breakfast date at Denny's. Nobody minded waking up at 6am to eat breakfast with daddy.

 After breakfast we needed a quick stop for warmer coats and then off to Lowe's for the girls Build and Grow clinic.
 Nobody wanted mom's help today. Lily and Cati hovered around Mike wanting him to help them build their claw.
 Fine with me. I understood since this was the first time Mike was able to attend one of their building clinics.
 But even though it was daddy's day off we all chipped in to help him give his car an alignment. The girls gave up on helping so they went down for a nap while I helped Mike. I enjoyed this alone time with him even if I was covered in grease. :-)

Afterwards a quick trip to the thrift store to pop come tags. Hahaha- you'd have to hear the song to know what I'm talking about. Mike dedicated this song to me (song here).
 Taco dinner with Dad.
On Mike's days off I never cook. To me spending time with my hubby is more important than taking an hour to wash dishes and cook dinner.
 And Mike proposed me while eating dinner. Such a sweet ♥ heart :-)
Then puzzle/game time with daddy. See Ducati's huge smile. She's loving this time with her Daddy.


After everyone went to bed I was able to spend some more time and watch an entire movie with Mike without having to pause it and finishing it the next day. Happy dance!

We love these days. It's so much fun spending quality time with Mike.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Random Awesomeness

This week has been busy. But then again when does life ever slow down...maybe when you're dead. So despite being super busy we still made sure to find some time to have some fun. :-)

 Playing outside on bikes. Then inviting neighbor buddies to join in on a trike parade. This was so entertaining/adorable to watch them all.
Next watch some TV under an umbrella. Who doesn't do that know a days?


Hailey had a date with her grandparents. She enjoyed this time alone with them. ♥

 Last, Cati and I ending our 2 year long stretch and being able to enjoy an ice cream cone. Yummy!!
 I've heard of GF ice cream cones but I had no luck finding them at Whole foods when I went until today. Cati and I squealed in delight in the aisle. Happy Dance! Oh yeah!!
So this week was a nice reminder to be the good in the world. :-) ( our new family motto)