Let's rewind for a minute to the end of March/first week of April. We lucked out having the same spring break as our Logan Jenkins cousins! Made the week even more fun! We jumped right into spring break with Cal's birthday on March 27th, our Primary MTC activity on the 28th, General women's conference that Saturday night . . .
. . . Sydney and Kaitlyn here for game playing and a sleepover after women's conference, 9am sacrament meeting in Santa Paula the next day for Madi to sing "Gethsemane" (again), and then a family dinner/birthday celebration Sunday night!
It was quite the weekend just leading up to our week of Spring Break fun!
On Monday, March 30th, we kicked off our first official day of spring break by going to Silverstrand with all the cousins. It wasn't the warmest day, but that never stops kids from having fun!
Austin's cool find:
Tuesday we all met up at the Santa Barbara Zoo.
Love having cool older cousins for my kids to look up to!
There are all sorts of great animals to see at the zoo, but "the hill" always ends up being the highlight of every zoo trip! I have to say, it is pretty entertaining - especially with a big group going down!!
Please excuse the picture overload of "the hill", but it's definitely an experience that needs to be documented!
Oh ya, the stomach slide is a favorite of my girls!!
Cal's not the daring type though and likes to stick to sitting on the turtle . . .
. . . and climbing on the ropes!
Tuesday afternoon, after the zoo, Evan and Austin came over to play while Tanna went and visited her friend. Calvin was in heaven with the boys here! They raced cars and trucks and built the coolest lego creations (legos are always a highlight when Evan and Austin come over)! We ended the night with a couple games of skip-bo and fun with our butterflies!
These 4 are all almost exactly one year apart - Elle kindergarten, Austin 1st grade, Madi 2nd, and Evan 3rd grade:
Wednesday, April 1st, the cousins all took the train into LA to go a science museum, but my kids and I decided to stay local so we could attend the annual Village of the Park Easter egg hunt. Every mom brings a treat to share and 10-12 eggs to hide, then the kids go find eggs and play games. It's always a lot of fun!
Elle fit in a play date with Taylor after our egg hunt - one of the things she'd listed on her "spring break list of things to do" - which I should also note here that it must have been a pretty successful week since we did everything on Elle's list!
At 5pm I took the kids to Pump it Up for an evening glow jump!
Terrible pictures, but a TOTAL blast!! Wish we could have stayed longer!!
There was a little section to build your own forts which my kids totally got into:
We played until 7:30, then picked Spencer up from work, picked up our car from getting brake work done, and called it a day!
Thursday, we met up with our regular park crew for a little birthday celebration for Ella Nelson. It's usually just Cal and I who go play on Thursdays so it was a treat to have the girls and older friends there. After that we met up with Spencer at Costco for shopping, lunch, and ice cream. Next we went to the library and then home for stories and game playing. The Terry cousins stopped by for a short visit around 5pm to bring Cal a birthday present. My kids get crazy excited when people (especially cousins) come to visit, so their pop in was definitely a highlight!
On Friday the kids and I spent the morning cleaning and doing "Saturday jobs" since my old college roomie was coming into town with her one year old and dog! Ashley, Ava, and Gimli got here at 2pm. Ashley got unpacked and settled while I took Madi over to Brooklyn Bell's 8th birthday party at 3pm! It was a painting party - so Madi was in heaven!
Brandon made easels for each girl and they had an art lesson and each painted their own owl.
Best party idea EVER in my opinion. Lindsey pulled it off with flying colors! Even the food fit the painters theme - check out these palette cookies!
We picked Madi up at 5pm, grabbed some pizza, and headed back to the house for pizza / popcorn movie night for the kids and roommate bonding time for Ash and I. We stayed up past midnight talking! There's something to say about the relationships I have with those who knew me before marriage and kids - especially those who have lived with me and know all my weird quirks, obsessions, and annoyances. Ashley and I were able to pick up right where we left off - like nothing had ever changed! Loved it!
Saturday morning we settled in for our first session of General Conference. Now normally nothing would interfere with conference weekend, but with it being Easter weekend, I really wanted to check out the community Easter Eggstravaganza. Since we didn't have much time before second session of conference we just walked around for a bit and then waited in line for the pony ride! So glad we did - the kids all loved it!
Even though we spent the majority of the weekend at home, it was great to be able to enjoy having a baby around - everyone adored Ava (wish I would have taken more pictures)!
Having Ashley's huge dog around was also pretty exciting. Everyone took their turn going to play catch with Gimli.
After Spencer left for Priesthood session, we made dinner then took the kids to the park. We ended the night with making our tomb cookies - which sadly did not turn out again (last year was also a flop). Sad to say I probably won't do these again next year. I love the message behind the cookies, but it's such a let down when they don't work as they're supposed to - and such a waste of a cup of pecans!
Sunday/ Easter morning I was up early to start on our conference cinnamon rolls.
I heard a lot of comments from people saying how much they loved celebrating Easter the same weekend as General Conference, but I sadly could not agree. I love our Easter traditions - like really LOVE them! I love our nightly devotionals the entire week before Easter, our Easter meal, our egg hunt, and our complete focus on Christ - new birth / new life, and nothing about an Easter bunny that brings stuff. I always want our kids to remember Easter by the pictures that hang in our kitchen all week long.
Oh how I love the spirit that this holiday brings into our home. It's the one holiday that I'm completely satisfied with the traditions we've established.
But then I also LOVE General Conference weekend and the things we do to get excited about hearing the words of our Prophet and church leaders. It's a weekend we all look forward to with great anticipation. I like nothing else to interfere with conference and even though these two events are both wonderful, uplifting things, it was hard for me to combine the two. It was killing me to be making cinnamon rolls when I really wanted to be doing our morning Easter devotional - opening the "tomb" and taking about why it was empty. It was just a bit of a disappointment.
Conference was wonderful though and I was super pleased with how well Madi listened and took notes.
I loved our great conversations between speakers - during the songs, when Elle or Madi would ask us to tell them what that speaker had been talking about (those things that had totally gone over their heads).
We said goodbye to Ashley, Ava, & Gimli after Sunday morning session.
We enjoyed a nice and quiet second session of conference with just our family. After second session we let the kids have their egg hunt.
Finding all sorts of treasures inside was the best part!
Just one more thing I found disappointing about sharing Easter with General Conference - I never got an Easter picture with my kids all dressed up. This wasn't even Elle's Easter dress - just a fun one to wear for watching conference. I need to reenact Easter on another Sunday so I can get the traditional Easter picture!
It really was a wonderful weekend though. I am so very grateful for this sweet family that Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I love the traditions we've created and the fun we have together.
3 comments:
I agree with the Conference/Easter thing. Before kids it didn't matter as much to me. But now, its hard to fit everything in and I was sad for no "Easter Sunday" pictures this year. Love the picture of the 4 cousins- I did not realize they are all just about a year apart!
I love your Easter traditions and the daily reading of Christ's last week on earth. I will always remember when I was babysitting one year and it was during Easter week. I loved how excited the kids were to participate in this sacred tradition. xoxox
Anie I just love it!! I'm so glad that we were able to make it down for spring break! I wasn't long enough!! I should've taken the food out of my mouth before you too the picture oh well! it was great spending time with you Kaitlyn and Spencer!! Wow madi's hair is really pretty!
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