Old Navy

We don't go very often, but Kate wants to do this everytime we go.

April Fool's Day

I made these beauties for breakfast on April Fool's Day. Too bad the extra 1/2 CUP of salt I put in the dough made them disgusting. The kids fell for it though. It was hilarious watching them try to eat them. (I did have a good batch cooking in the oven so that they got some cinnamon rolls.)

Baseball

Luke had his very first baseball game ever last Saturday. Spring baseball in Portland is cold and rainy. It even hailed during the game, but we kept going.

Luke had one good hit during the game. He missed a few times and wasn't having a very good time, but then he got a hit and made it to first base. We have been practicing everyday and he has already improved a lot.

Luke was thrilled to be on the Red Sox.

Luke is really good at fielding grounders

Luke is number 5. No one caught this ball, but they looked pretty good trying. I think little boys in baseball uniforms are so cute!!!

Practicing for the Spelling Bee

As we were practicing for the spelling bee, I thought it was so fun to watch Allie spell that I had to video some of it. We would work on her list of 1000+ words like this testing to see which ones she needed to practice for an hour sometimes. Then we would take a break and do it for another hour. She is just amazing. She was like a robot. (And so that you don't think I'm a mean mom, it was her choice to practice that long.)

My Birthday

It's been a fun birthday year. Some great friends took me to lunch to celebrate and that was a lot of fun. And then I got to go to dinner and the temple with some more friends (not for my birthday), but still made my birthday week fun.

We have a tradition in our family that on your birthday, we do things that you like to do for the day (or on the weekend if your birthday isn't on a holiday or weekend.) Mike had to work, but the kids were out of school for the day. So I decided not to really be a mom, but more of a fun babysitter and not worry about healthy food, a clean house, dirty kids, etc. It was great!

First thing, I slept in and let the kids watch some mind-rotting TV. Then we went to Ikea for breakfast and some shopping. And I wore a pony tail all day and didn't feel bad about it because that's what I like to do!

Luke scarfed down all of his breakfast and half of mine. He tried for Kate's but she was very protective of her plate even though she wasn't going to eat it. She screamed "No! Mine!!!" everytime his little fingers inched their way toward her plate. But I didn't mind because today I was their fun babysitter and not their mom.

Kate's new smile for the camera face. I love how she's eating her ketchup with a spoon. She was licking it out of the cup and I overheard a little girl say to her mom, "Eww!!! That kid is just eating plain ketchup." Then they gave her that "You're a weirdo look." But I didn't mind because I wasn't Kate's mom today and it is a little weird to eat ketchup plain.

Luke took this picture.

We watched the planes take off and land--one of my favorite things to do.

Then Mike called and said that he could meet us for lunch, so we took the kids to a place with a playland so we could sit and chat. (I don't cook on my birthday--it's part of the deal, and since I wasn't being a mom, I didn't worry about what they were eating.)

Last summer when we went to CA, there were ads all over the place for 20 McNuggets for $4.99. Luke really wanted to try that but we (conveniently) never got around to it. Apparently the promotion is back. Luke says the signs and wanted to try it. He was sure he could eat all 20. We were sure he couldn't. Well, he did. It was gross to watch but he ate them all. He was so funny--he would say, "Well, 17 more...." and then "8 more...." and then they were gone.

We even got stopped by a train--another thing that I love. (That comes from being a kid and getting stopped by the train and watching to see if it was my dad driving by) And, as if that wasn't good enough it was a real train--a freight train--not one of those wimpy-public-transportation-glorified bus-trains.

After eating bad food all day, we decided to enjoy the "warm" sunny weather and go for a bike ride. Just loading the bikes on the back of the van makes me happy.

The kids were cute and tried hard not to fight or be crazy because it was my birthday.

Luke was drawn to all the muddy puddles. When he saw one, he would speed up and swerve over to it. And since I was just the babysitter, I didn't care about all the laundry I would have to do.

I still can't believe that kid ate 20 McNuggets.

Okay, so this might have been my favorite part of the bike ride. Allie got stuck in mud. She wasn't happy that she got all muddy and had a tough time getting out of it. She has a thing about being dirty or wet when she isn't supposed to be. It was pretty funny. Then on the way back through the tunnel, Luke got really excited and tried to go too fast and lost control in the mud. It would have been a dirty wipeout, but he ran into the fence instead. He wasn't hurt, so it was okay to laugh. And we did. A lot.

Then when Mike got home, we left the kids and went to a Mexican restaurant that I had found a Groupon for. How exciting it was to find out they had a live Mariachi band. Combining that with a TV showing Jimmer's highlights and it was the perfect place. It turned out to be really loud, but it was cool. We were only people in there who weren't Hispanic and the band spoke to everyone in Spanish.

I wish I could play trumpet in a mariachi band. That would be cool!

The food was the best Mexican food I have ever had in Oregon. Super authentic, almost like home. (Plenty of leftovers for tomorrow!)

They even had dancers and they did the Mexican Hat Dance and some other dances.

And then, because it was Groupon we could splurge and get dessert. And I picked flan, because I really, really like flan.

In the newspaper today....

Allie was in the newspaper today. She won her school spelling bee last month and will be competing in the Portland Regional Spelling Bee this Saturday. She has been studying like crazy. Last year, she went to the West Texas Regional Spelling Bee so she was really excited to make it again. Hoo new she cud spel so gud.

***the words under their names are the words they won with

Snow Storm

Yesterday we enjoyed some of the leftover snow from our "Big Storm" that we had overnight. Although it wasn't what they expected, the storm did persuade the powers that be to cancel school . Even Michael got to stay home with us. Allie chose to go to a friend's house instead of sledding in the muddy snow with us. Kate loved the snow. She made a tiny snowman, a muddy snow angel and rode the sled with us. I thought it would scare her, but she really liked going fast and tumbling off at the end.