Easter Sunday!

I never did find matching Easter dresses for Elle and me
Elle looks cute in hers though!


I was in charge of sharing time.  No pressure.   It’ kind of stressful trying to fit a meaningful, spiritual, yet interactive Easter sharing time into 10-15 minutes!  Luckily, the sharing time outline had great ideas.
In Jr. Primary,  I had several of the children hold up pictures about the crucifixion and resurrection.  It was amazingly quiet as I told the story of each picture!  (Although, a couple kids were holding them upside down or too low to see.)
Then, (as the manual suggested) I had some of the kids come up to represent people who had seen the Savior after He was resurrected.  (Mary, the disciples, the Nephites, Joseph Smith, and Sidney Rigdon) I put a little sign on them and everything.  I told them about each person’s experience, and they all sat very still and listened!  It was very cool.
For Sr., I also had a bunch of them hold up pictures, but I made one of them come up and rearrange them in the right order.
Then, for the witnesses, I had them wear the signs again, but they read the accounts right from the scriptures.  I was worried it would be boring, but everyone was very still and reverent.   Elle said I did a good job.   She added: “And I’m not just saying that because you’re my mom”
I was so relieved!

After we got home, we ate Easter candy and dyed eggs.  We used the pink, green, blue, and red color tablets, then Chris dumped the rest in another cup.  His egg was a weird color.




We had dinner with some friends, so all we had to bring was a vegetable and some Angel Food cake for desert.
It was a great day!

Catching up

 

The other day, I had a blog post all ready to go, but then I never got around to finishing it.  Now  I’m behind.

So, I’ll just have to make this an extra long post.

Ahem. . .

Elle set this work station up for herself last week.  I guess this is what she’ll look like as  professional someday! (Of course she’ll probably have an actual computer then )

And this is Sunday dress and hair from like, two weeks ago.

In case you can’t tell, she’s wearing my shoes.  I guess this is what she’ll look like as a stylish teenager.

Chris and I made a banana cream pie for dessert (also a couple Sundays ago), and I had some leftover crust.  Elle used it to make a baby lemon-meringue pie from her kids’ cook book.

I guess this is what she’ll look like as a famous chef someday

Saturday was a beautiful day!  If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was summer!  Elle and Chris walked down the hill to get ice cream then played at the park.  Later he decided we MUST have Barbeque something for dinner, so the two of them picked up a couple of stakes that were on quick-sale.  We had probably 1/2 of each stake leftover! (they were big)

Elle decided she should commemorate the occasion as the Statue of Barbeque!

I guess this is what she’ll look like as a famous statue someday

 

Wait! there's more!

 

 

Last week sometime , we had the strangest weather day!

It rained (not too unusual)

Then it SNOWED:

Then HAILED

Then it was sunny-ish, then it rained again!

To make this even more strange, Elle had drawn a picture earlier this year that was just like this day!

It’s windy, raining , snowing, haling, with lightening and thunder!

Maybe she should be more careful with what she draws from now on!

A Marked Woman

 

Have you ever been to the store,  gone home, then realized you forgot to get something ?

(Or, maybe you just like to shop at the same place a lot. . .)

Well,  I was at Costco the other day and this very same thing happened to me.  I had to go back two days later to pick up whatever it was that I forgot.

As I was going through the mark-off-your-receipt line, the guy who marked my receipt was like, “Do you  come in  here every day?!”  Which was kind of creepy since I don’t remember ever seeing this guy before.  So I  gave some non-committal mumble and moved on. 

I could not for the life of me figure out why this guy said that!  How would he even recognize me anyway?!

Then I remembered-- I’m a marked woman now. 

 

Today, I went to Old Navy while Elle was at school in search of cute matching Easter dresses for her and me.   We  looked during spring break with  no success.  I wandered all around the store and picked up a bunch of things knowing in the back of my mind that I’d probably take it all back.

Well, anyway, when I went to check out the guy said, “Didn’t I see you in here the other day?”  Again, I was like “Weird!  That’s the second time that hap—oh ya, my scars.”

So, alas, I can never commit any crimes because I’m totally recognizable now! (darn!)

 

Happy National Licorice Day!! (YUM)

There is no candy I love better than Red Licorice,  so I was so excited when I found out there was a holiday dedicated to this wonderful treat! 
That Day has finally arrived! 

I  personally love both red and black of all brands (that I’ve tried so far.) No—wait, I tried some salty licorice from some guy at Chris’ work, and that was disgusting! Way too salty.   Although, I have had salted black licorice that I did like.

Hopefully you are a licorice lover yourself! 
Take my anonymous licorice quiz as we drool over the many flavors of licorice together!
There are only two questions, but you can have multiple answers for each.
So tell me, Red or Black? (or some of both?)

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Matching Sunday Dress and Hair

Today, even though it was Fast Sunday, I convinced Elle to wear her choir outfit so she could match me:

Isn’t she cute!

Here we are together:
It was a little fuzzy because I had to take it myself with the timer.  (Chris was already at church in bishopric meetings)

Unfortunately, when I ran in to take my seat, my hair got in my face.  We were running late, so I had to call it good.  No second chance.
I did get a better one of Elle though:


Happy Sabbath!

Now THAT’S What I’M taking about!

 

Today was another real spring break day!

Sunshine!

Almost 60 degrees!

No wind!

Flowers popping! 

Elle went to the park with her friend, then came home, and we headed to another park by ourselves.

Unfortunately, Elle accidentally slipped down a soggy hill and covered herself in mud.

And tears.

 

So we came home, cleaned up a bit, then set out to make fun things out of nature!

Mine is a French artist.

Just in case you can't tell, he's holding a paintbrush and wearing a beret.

I made a little easel too.

You can tell that there is really only one person in this house with artistic abilities.

But, hey, it was fun!

(And it really helped to dry up those tears too)

 

 

Here's Elle's elephant (with a rider)

and it's food: bananas, corn stalks, and hay.

It has been a very fun week even if it wasn't sunny the whole time!

 

Spring Break!

 

Elle has all week off for spring break!  On Monday, we went swimming at the local indoor pool for a couple hours.

On Tuesday, Elle spent the entire (like from 9:30-7:30) with her friend.  You can read all about their fun day at the beach here

 

Today was sunny!! We were so glad because we decided to go to Pike’s Place and have lunch with Chris.  My friend (the one who did the blog post you just clicked on) recommended this great place to eat near the Market.   It’s called Beecher’s.  She was SO right.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a better cheese sandwich in my life!

Plus, we got to sit on the metal milk jugs while we ate and watched  them make cheese, which is always fun.

Then, we all bummed around the Market for awhile until we found The Daily Dozen Donut Co. and had six fresh HOT doughnuts.  (greasy, but OH SO DELICIOUS)

Chris headed back to work, and Elle and I headed to Old Navy. ( We’re trying to find Easter dresses).  It was still beautiful and sunny out even if it was a little windy.

 

We found some cute things for Elle, but nothing for me. (that just means we get to go out shopping again!)

After dinner tonight, Elle modeled some of the dresses we bought.

(notice Chris huddled in  a blanket back there while Elle’s sporting an Easter dress!)

 

 

 

 

Right in the middle of all this, we heard long, loud  thunder!  Elle rushed out and saw:

 

 

Yes, SNOW!  What the heck?!  It’s spring break!

I’m so glad we picked today to go walking around downtown!  Who knows what it’ll be like tomorrow!

Happy spring! (I hope yours is sunnier than ours!)

Conference Sunday!

 

We had our annual conference breakfast today of cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon and orange julius.  (Chris discovered a new way to make the orange julius—combine vanilla flavored yogurt and orange juice  yum!)

 

We decided that we will have family night be about some of the things we remember and like about conference this weekend. (This was actually also a sneaky way to get Elle to pay attention!  She’s taking notes and everything!)

With our huge TV and new speakers, it’s almost as good as being in the conference center ourselves!  (Ok, not really, but it’s still cool to see the prophet larger than life )

 

In other news:

Here are pictures of Elle’s secret April Fool’s day cupcakes.

“Did anyone order Chinese Food?. . .

Apparently, my parents” (direct quote from Elle)

 

She used laughy taffy for the broccoli and the meat.  The broccoli leaves are watermelon jelly bellies and green M&M’s (when she ran out of green, she used yellow and blue and just said they were rotten pieces )  She colored some frosting “noodle color” and piped it on.  The “rice” is rice Krispies.  She had a friend over after school Friday, and they worked on the cupcakes for about an hour!  There were enough to send home with her friend, plus six for us. (one kind of cupcake for each of us)

 

Other new:

I am so sick of my umbrella being blown inside out when it’s raining, so I ordered cute bubble umbrellas for Elle and I, and a fancy sturdy black umbrella for Chris.  Elle said we had to try them out right away.  It was indeed raining, but not windy, so we don’t know yet if they work.  I’ll keep you posted.

AND. . .

Elle has been writing stories from writing prompts in class, and she shared some with me.  This is my favorite:

Dark Cave by Elle

When I was walking in the forest I found a cave.  When I skipped in I heard a “rumble'” and a “thump” and a “bump” and in a clatter of grey rocks and light, it was pitch black.

An avalanche had covered the entrance of the cave.  What was I going to do?  I felt blindly around cave, just solid rock.  A surge of anger enveloped me, “everything bad happens to me, Katie, never anyone else!” I shouted while banging on the fallen rocks.

After about five or more minutes of this I collapsed in a heap, gasping for air and crying.  I huddled in the corner of the cave hoping for some warmth.  I hear lighting crack and thunder groan I hear the rain showering down as if I were in the shower.  My  tears drip down like the rain.

 

I read it to Chris, and he was impressed!  He looked at her handwriting and was mystified that such a good story could come from such penmanship

Uh-oh!  Time for the second Sunday session!

got to go!