Egg Derby

 We had our second annual Easter Egg Derby this year (see last year's HERE).

Anna was watching all our hard boiled Easter Eggs for us.  She was very sad that she might lose.  I felt bad for her, but also thought she needs to learn that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

 

 Here she is with one of her eggs

 

The winner of the derby gets to place their egg in the coveted egg cup...and gets the chocolate bunny.  That's what Anna was most sad about I think.

Here is our bracket (after being stepped on a few times).  I used a March Madness bracket and started at the sweet 16.  We only had 16 eggs this year.  Everyone got three eggs except for John who only got one.  We roll two eggs toward each other at a time and whichever one cracks when they hit (supposedly only one of them will crack when they collide) is out.  The other advances to the next level.

The kids and I made up the names together.  Mostly they came up with them and I helped a little.

 The kids laying in our egg derby lane

All three of Anna's eggs cracked in the first round.  She was very sad, but she rolled a lot of eggs for Scott and I.  Here she is getting ready to roll my egg, Rainbow Butterfly (she named that one).

 And Matthew ready to roll his egg, Space (he named that one).

 

 The eggs about to collide!

 

 In the end one of my eggs, Tim Gunn, won the derby.  The final egg roll was between two of my eggs, not because they were superior, that's just the way it worked out this year.  Anna and Matthew rolled my eggs most of the time.  I named the egg Tim Gunn after Matthew told me it was "designer fabulous" (it had sparkles on it).

 Tim Gunn got to sit in the coveted egg cup for a while.  Anna was very sad that she didn't win.

Matthew didn't mind.  We all split the chocolate bunny.  Scott and I were both recovering from a bout of stomach flu that day (the kids had all had it earlier in the week, except John who never got it).  So we weren't up to eating a lot of chocolate anyway.

Here I am with my winning egg, Tim Gunn, and all the other eggs that got cracked in the tournament (losers!).  Just kidding.  It was lots of fun and hopefully we learned some lessons about winning and losing.

Fakesgiving

Scott missed having Thanksgiving with us this past year and he wanted to have a do-over once he got home.  So a week or so ago we had "Fakesgiving."  Matthew made impromptu place cards and we did our best to decorate on the fly like Thanksgiving.

 Our beautiful turkey (just the turkey breast).  It turned out juicy and delicious!

 Scott cutting it

 Matthew and Anna ready for dinner

On the menu: turkey, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls, cranberry compote, roasted Brussels sprouts.  Mmmmm...thanksgiving.

 Grant giving me a look.  He's never wants to sit down at dinner.

Grant wasn't too interested in eating most of our food, but he did raid the centerpiece for an apple and a cutie.  I liked how he took a bunch of apple bites.  Happy Fakesgiving, everyone!

Family Portraits

We took some family portraits this past week.

The morning I scheduled for us to do it there was a blustery snow storm, so we had to venture out early in the snow to get the pictures.  Also I had a misunderstanding with the portrait studio people that made me mad, but in the end I decided we still got a good deal and some nice pictures, so it was ok.  Here are some of our pictures.

 

Cute Johnny

He was very cooperative and we even got a few smiles out of him

Grant was extremely difficult at the picture taking session.

He would not cooperate much at all.  It was a miracle we got any pictures of him at all.

Matthew and Anna were not that difficult at picture taking at his age.  Oh well.  We got a few good ones.

Anna was cooperative and looked cute

 And Matthew was very good too

Johnny in a fluffy basket. 

Oh those portrait studios and their weird props!

 

And Grant.  He wouldn't hold still most of the time.

This time the photographer just got a quick shot of him running around :)

Anna

 

And Matthew

 And all of us

Grant was very particular about where in the picture he would sit

Eventually we got him to sit somewhere near us
Grandparents - a few of these photos are headed your way

Family photos.

Always an adventure!

And Justice Was Served

We had a family night lesson last week about actions and consequences and obeying the laws of the land and our family rules.  Anna was our judge for part of the lesson.  Yes, our judge wig was a diaper and the gavel was a spatula and the bench or law book was a large copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I threw it together last minute, ok!) but we had a lot of fun.

We had to match up different actions with their appropriate consequence and Judge Anna would bang her gavel/spatula to tell us if it was right or not. 

Now Judge Matthew is getting ready to have a turn.  I was surprised how much the kids liked pretending to be a judge.  Oh, the power!

So if you feel we did not pay appropriate deference to our country's legal system, you would be right.  But we had fun at family night.  :)

Warm Days

Last week we had some warm days.  70s.  That was last week.  It has since snowed and gotten colder again...and now its back into the 50s.  But last week we had some nice warm flip flop weather.  Here are some pictures I took while watching the kids practice bike riding on our warm last day of school before spring break.

Both kids are getting better on their bikes.  Matthew had his training wheels off for a while and was trying without the training wheels but he decided he would like them back on for a bit.  Anna's doing really well too.

 And Grant always wants to be in on the action.

I tried to take some pictures of Grant and I while we hung out.  Grant rode (or scooted) his big wheel bike around a bit and sat by me a lot.  Here I am in short sleeves...

 ...and flip flops.  Yes, and green jeans.  "Pale green pants with no one inside 'em"

 Grant was very happy to eat saltines

He didn't like when my hair would fly in his face

 

 There, that's better

 And now we've switched to the scooter

 And back to the bike

We've got to get our bike riding in when we can

Happy Birthday Scott

We celebrated Scott's birthday a day late since we were driving back from South Dakota on his real birthday.  Here are some of us getting ready for the festivities.

Anna wanted to make Scott some bookmarks.  She decorated and cut out these bookmarks on her own and I helped her laminate them and put a ribbon through the top.

 Scott got some clues to find his presents.

 The kids helped him

 And they helped him unwrap too

Scott requested a cherry crisp instead of a cake (maybe he saw Matthew's cake and decided not to risk it).  It turned out really good (recipe HERE).

Getting ready to blow out candles.

Happy Birthday Scott!