First Girl Scout sing along:

  Audrey attended her first Girl Scout sing-a-long and swap this evening. She had a great time and the park it was held at had ponds, a train, batting cages, carousel, ampitheatre, you name it. Audrey loves ducks so she really liked seeing all the new baby ducks while we were there. Her troop sang "Princess Pat" and did a great job. She couldn't wait to show off her swaps (on her hat) when we got home.

Planet Orange

This past Sunday, Brian and I had a great date night at game #1 of the SUNS/Blazers playoff series. Too bad the SUNS lost by 5, but we still had a great time!  Tonight is game #2 of the series and Audrey is headed to the SUNS playoff game with Dad. She was so excited and I love it that they are able to do fun father/daughter things together. She hasn't been to a ballgame in a few months and this time she has a SUNS cheerleader outfit to wear. GO SUNS!

Birthday Girl!!!

Happy birthday, Birthday Girl! We love you a million!

The boys

Enjoying Audrey's birthday....

A BIG week and a TINY birthday!

 Today is Audrey's 6th birthday! Happy Birthday to the sweetest and kindest soul we have ever met! She doesn't want to have her party until we are settled in the new house and the baby is here so it won't be until the end of May, so she is calling this weekend her "tiny birthday".   We like to do birthdays over a weekend or a couple days here so hers started last night with Girl Scouts then going out to eat to celebrate with Mom and Dad. She has ballet rehearsal this afternoon then off to Greenway saddlery with Dad to get new paddock riding boots and jophurs (Grandpa Jack would be so proud). Tonight we are having cake and a few presents to celebrate this amazing little girl turning 6!

We had the big reveal to Brian last night at the new house. Last time he saw it, all walls were white. So it was exciting to go and let him see what I had chosen for all the rooms up and downstairs in terms of paint color. I am happy to report he loved it. We also love that everything is right on schedule. Kitchen ceiling will be done 100% by end of monday and all painting, including faux bellagio wall in dining room will be done by Tuesday. We are so excited to move in. Our new neighborhood is beautiful,( horses everywhere!) and we are only one week away from our English country home in the city being a reality!

Bailey and Audrey

It was Bailey's bath day today, which thrilled Audrey as this is one of her favorite stable chores. She did him all by herself, including sponging him down for a "bubble bath".

Theme pockets books

Have you tried theme pockets books to help you with theme unit studies? These are a great resource! Check it out: They are categorized by Month and grade level. The one to the right is April/Grades 1-3. Themes are: Easter, Animals that Lay Eggs, and Celebrate Earth Day. I find the activities are easily adaptable to multiple grade levels and with typical/special needs,  and kids love coloring and making simple crafts to go with what they are learning about. They also provide great information on the subject matter. I get all mine from amazon.com and with any order over $25, i get them shipped free.

Easy Easter craft...

One of the easier Easter crafts we did was a cut and paste activity we did over two days.  First, I purchased the $5 easter egg craft kit from walmart of the plain foam eggs and self adhesive decorating pieces. It contained 24 eggs, enough for all 4 kids to do 6 eggs.  On the second day, we colored an Easter egg basket worksheet and cut this out and pasted onto construction paper. Lastly, the kids took their eggs from the day before and pasted them onto their Easter "baskets". This was a simple and cheap activity but was great for fine motor and creativity and made the wait to color the "real eggs" not seem so long those last two days....

Palm Sunday

 To start our Easter unit this month, we started with a Palm Sunday lesson and craft. This included reading a condensed children's bible story about Jesus' entry to the city, a worksheet which was a maze that you had to help Jesus find his path around the palm leaves and then the kids made "palms" out of green construction paper. This was a great fine motor activity for the boys and one that was able to be done independently by the 5 year old and was easily adapted to the 3 year old's skills as well.

Kitchen ceiling currently...

Remodel in progress. Supports in and ceiling will be tall as other vaulted ceilings in upstairs when done. Should be done in a week....if I can get the new light fixtures picked out!

Good Friday...

Good Friday....Upon reading the Easter story together, my 5 yr old says "Oh, Mommy...I love Jesus so much". While we are having this conversation, her 3 yr old sister who also just heard the Easter story, is mooning us...