March Randoms

Here's a buffet of pics :)  Mostly from my phone... 

The girls have been getting brave in the kitchen- well, I guess it's more ME that's being brave - they have enjoyed doing some baking unassisted - it takes them FOREVER and they make a big mess, but they are successful little bakers!  I have hope for the future :)

The kids have had a lot of playdates lately - I'm trying to be a fun mom about that :)

It's started to warm up, so we've been breaking out the swimsuits...

And now for a sad story... Becca got to babysit 2 baby chicks from her Kindergarten class- she had signed up to do it and it was just for one night.  Becca took really good care of them... she was shocked and confused when the next morning she found that the smallest chick was stiff as a board and not moving - Emma brought it to me (gross!!!!) and said, "I think it's dead!" - so yes, we apparently killed one of the class pets.  :(  I had the unfortunate duty of going with Becca to school and telling her teacher that we are only returning one of the 2 little chickies.  :( 

Now for cheerful news... More Food Truck Friday!! 

Hot dog in a pita... with feta, avocado and tomatoes... it was delicious!

I recently realized that playdough can be played with outside!!  Why didn't I think of this earlier?!

And last, but MOST important - my brother is engaged!!  He recently proposed to sweet Stefani at the bell tower at BYU - I got to watch it all from Arizona!  Technology is amazing!  They are getting married in the Draper, Utah Temple on June 8th!!

I didn't get any pictures, but I want to write it down so I remember later.  Ben and I had our 11th wedding anniversary on March 30th.  We had an awesome date!  We went out to eat at Gertrude's at the Desert Botanical Gardens - it's a newly opened restaurant and it was AMAZING!  This one is at the top of the list for awesome dining experiences  (along with Quiessence and The Tree Room). After dinner, we switched gears and went go kart racing!  It was awesome and I totally smoked Ben!  ;)  Love you babe!

Jake is 4!

My Jake is 4!!  How does this keep happening?!  My babies are getting so grown up!  Sigh.  Jake is definitely a unique kid - people are always telling me that he is just SO HAPPY.  He is a happy boy, for sure - he is usually smiling and being goofy.  He has a great sense of humor and LOVES "boy" stuff.... but with a healthy appreciate of girl stuff too - haha - that's what having 3 sisters will do for you!  We LOVE our Jakey!!

Jake shares his birthday month with his Grandpa Dangerfield and his cute little cousin Caroline.  We celebrated all the March birthdays at Aunt Emily's house.  She made super fun cupcakes and Jake was later spoiled by gifts from his family...

The night before his birthday we got his cupcakes ready and gifts wrapped and on display.  He was so excited on his birthday morning to see the kitchen table!

Jake's birthday breakfast request- "waffles with chocolate sauce AND strawberry sauce!"  Ben made delicious homemade chocolate and strawberry sauce - it was so so so so good.  :)  Is this breakfast or dessert?

Presents!  Grandma and Grandpa Szymanski sent some money for his birthday and we used it to get him this cool explorer set...

Jake is an astronaut!!

Later that morning we met some friends at the park and celebrated Jake's b-day with a robot theme...

We ate cupcakes and decorated juice boxes like robots...

At the end of the party, we let the balloons fly up in the air!

Jake picked out a birthday cake at Costco... he insisted on cheese cake... do you think we ate enough goodies on his birthday?

Happy 4th Birthday big Jake man!!

Easter Activities

After our Flagstaff trip, there was only a few days till Easter, so we got busy finishing up our Easter countdown activities.

Spring paintings...

We framed the girls finished paintings and hung them up in their bedroom...

We "egged" our neighbors - this took very little prep on my part and the kids LOVED it!  This will have to be new tradition :)  

The kids filled a bunch of plastic Easter eggs with candy and then they spread them around a few of our neighbor friends front yards... then they put the "You've Been Egged" print out on their door, rang the bell, and RAN... so so fun!!

On the day before Easter, we went to our neighborhood Easter party...

Jake oddly requested a "blue carrot" for his face paint.

Claire is often making this face...

Anytime is a good daddy wrestle time!

Typical creepy Easter bunny picture...

Claire very happily collected easter eggs for her basket... however, it was pretty amusing to see her disappointment when it was over and she began opening them up... ALL of the eggs for her age group were filled with colored mini marshmallows- Claire is NOT a picky eater, but there is ONE thing she doesn't like to eat - marshmallows - so she just kept opening up each egg, seeing that they had more marshmallows and then throwing the eggs on the ground in disgust.  Poor girl - she was rather let down.

Painting Easter eggs - we tried something different this year, and painted our eggs with water colors instead of the traditional dying.  Claire LOVED it - if we were dying them in cups, she wouldn't have been very involved, but this was right up her alley.  However, the older kids would have preferred the dying - good to know for next year.  :)