Spring Update

I'm a bad blogger, I know!  I just haven't been giving it any time on my list of priorities...that and because my small amounts of free time has been spent reading!  I can't believe its taken me this long to appreciate the resource that is the city library.  After I purchased all 3 books in the series The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I realized I was going to be in big trouble if I continued to buy books!  Reading really helps me to calm down and its one of the few things that can pull me from house work without feeling guilty.  I've since checked out other great books for myself (including the trilogy Hunger Games...still need to read book 3....and The Help) and the girls.  Kylie is reading the Little House series of books and Ava is reading the Magic Tree House books. 

We've been re-doing the back yard since Christmas.  I can't find the "before" pictures, but basically the yard was not kid friendly.  There was no place for the girls to run and play.  The old owner had a pond in the middle of the yard, and we liked the pond idea, just not its placement.  Jonathan dug a new one and we did a LOT of dirt and rock moving, paver re-locating, plant removal and transplanting, sprinkler system re-laying (moving it wasn't enough...we found U-turns of PVC underground...Jonathan wasn't thrilled about that!) and new landscaping. It took about 3 months to get done (we did hire day-laborers a few of those days to get it moving along in the beginning).

  And don't tell Jonathan I told you but the pond leaks...he's working on it.

 

New grass!!

 Bigger grass area to play!

 Its soooo hard to get them all looking!

 New pond. 

We've since planted a queen palm in the corner and a few other filler plants around it.

 Jonathans parents were in town for a weekend so he felt it was time to turn the tables on his dad and have him help us with our yard work!

This random photo was cracking us up.  We wanted to close one of the heater/AC vents in our formal living room.  No ladder will reach this so we had to improvise.  He got it closed after only a few attempts!

 The girls like playing games and here we are playing THE LOOOOONGEST game EVER!!  I like the ladders part, but the chutes can really test a mothers nerves!

I love little hands.

Spring soccer has started as well. 

 Cheetahs (same team as in the fall)

 Dragons

 Doing sprints with daddy before the game.

 Ava really came out of her shell this season.  She's more aggressive and light on her feet!

 Look at that form!

Kylie plays well, but it seems like, while playing, her mind is somewhere else.  Still not sure if this is her sport or not.

Coolness watches from the sidelines.  She'll most likely start in the fall. 

 

Its really really really tough keeping up with all of the girls activities.  In addition to soccer, the big girls are still doing gymnastics (which they love!) and Juliet is finishing up ballet.  She even has a little recital May 6th at a retirement community.  She wants to try gymnastics too.  I'm still going to the gym 3 days a week too.  Needless to say, we are out of the house a lot.

Oh yeah, Kylie also began piano lessons back in March.

 She's has caught on very well.  I'm learning too!

That old piano we bought back in Florida is actually being used for more than displaying stuff, and her teacher said it isn't that badly out of tune.

Now that both Kylie and Ava can start and stop their bikes on their own (I taught them mind you!  I was so excited since Jonathan taught them to ride without training wheels, I didn't want to feel totally worthless in the bike riding department) and Juliet has figured out how to ride a bike instead of a tricycle, we've been out riding bikes a lot.  We even took our first family bike ride a couple of weekends ago and it was so much fun!

Pool weather is here too.

And just yesterday, I stole and idea from my friend Amber, and the girls and I went on a nature scavenger hunt.  They had a list of stuff to find and Kylie was really into it.  Juliet enjoyed pulling the wagon and I had to remind Ava she had to find her own things and not copy Kylie all the time.

 Let the adventure begin!

 Some things were to be collected, while others required just a picture.

Touching something prickly.

Just this past weekend Jonathan and I traveled to Florida to fix up our house for our new renters.  We are grateful our old renters are out and have better hopes for our new tenant.  It was weird to be back at the house and after we spruced it back up both inside and it, it was sad to leave it yet again.  The girls stayed in California with both grandparents for the weekend and we got the pleasure of being up for 21 straight hours on our last travel day and managed to set foot in both houses we own on opposite coasts in the same day.  At night we went out with wonderful friends that we miss terribly (who were also extremely helpful in letting us borrow stuff, and do things for us when we weren't in town), saw a few other friends during the day, had Starbucks every morning for breakfast, and Jonathan and I enjoyed working together.  We never even had one argument!  We joke around that we'd never survive something like "Amazing Race" but maybe we really could.

The only pictures I got were what our renters managed to do to our house....I'll spare you the dirty air filter and broken screen door.  I failed to take a picture of the moldy shower curtain and the chewed up gum left on a window sill.

I'll be better, I promise!

Spelling Bee

The big girls recently participated in their first spelling bee through our home school group.  It was the first one ever held by the group and I was part of the planning for it, so of course I was going to have the girls participate.  We had the list of words that the kids would be asked made available to us about a month before the bee and we practiced here and there when we remembered.  The morning OF the bee we went over our words and the giant list of "extra" words in case the kids spelled all their words right and needed more.  Aunt Heather was in town and she spent a few hours with the kids.  She even learned a few words herself.  :)

The girls and their friends.  Their daddy's work together.

Ava was in level 1, which corresponded to the kindergarten aged kids.  I convinced my friend Theresa to sign up her 4 1/2 year old because there was no one signing up their little ones!  I didn't want Ava to be the only one on stage.

When it was Ava's turn, she was so serious.  She would walk up to the podium, write her word on the white board provided, then spell it into the mic, expressionless.

 

Of the 3 kids in level 1, the little boy did great and took 1st place.  Ava messed up on the word "club".  She spelled it C U L B.  It was the only 4 letter word in her list and I know it was nerves that messed her up.  She came in second place and got a ribbon.

Next up was level 2, Kylie's level.  This of course corresponded to the 1st graders.  Micalea was in this group with Kylie.  Mind you, these girls all LOVE being together and I adore these kids.  They are super sweet and well behaved and our kids constantly get along when together.  I will be bawling the day Kylie has to say goodbye to Micalea (because I know she'll be a mess), but that'll be for a later post.

The first order of business was having the kids sit by their birthday, which meant Kylie and Micaela would have to sit apart.  That wasn't going over well.

What did you just say?  I have to move?  (Notice they are squeezed into the same chair).

 

 But they give each other a high five and realize it'll be okay.

There were 7 kids in level 2 and they were amazing!  Those of us planning the evenining thought it was going to be over quick and the kids would be messing up words, but that was not the case at all.  This level ripped through words with hardly any errors.

It was hilarious to see how Kylie handled the stress differently than Ava...

 You can see that Kylie had her hands on her earrings or in her hair.  She did this every time she stood up to spell a word!

 Checking to see if Micaela spells her word right.  She'd smile and nod when she got it right.

 The girls didn't place, but they did great.  Kylie messed up on the word "any".  I knew that was a deal breaker when the word was read.  She has always struggled with it.  She spelled it "E N E Y" and had to sit out.  

After the girl's levels were completed, we left.  It was decided ahead of time by us planners (and I was in FULL agreement!)  that the younger kids would go first and would be able to leave since no one expected kids under 7 to stay late and sit through the older kids.  As we walked out to the parking lot, the girls asked their friends if they wanted to go get ice cream with us...asked their friends, NOT their mom!  Parenting comes full circle when your kids ask to do stuff with their friends right in front of them.  Luckily Theresa was planning on taking the girls to get treats, but for a moment we had to explain to the girls you ask mommies, not friends.

 Level 1 cuteness.

Level 2 cuteness.  

Micaela has a mouth full of goodness-no time to smile.  I would have taken another picture, but there were signs in the facility that said no cameras allowed-I have no idea why!  I had to be real quick and discreet.

Kylie's little poem

The girls are doing an activity now on Abraham Lincoln and I'm reading them poetry as they color.  Kylie just came up with this one.  Its short and sweet but cute.

I had a mother who read to me,

Her name was Melissa and she's my mommy!

Brianhead, UT~433rd Ski Trip

A couple weekends ago, we packed up our cold weather gear and headed to Brianhead, Utah to the Summit Chateau Lodge with a few families from the squadron.  We didn't ski this year, because, well, we haven't yet won the lottery, and there is no way Juliet would have enjoyed ski school.  We did however enjoy sledding and snow shoeing, and had a great time with friends and I was most happy with leaving the distractions of work and home behind us for a few days.

 

The chateau we stayed at was awesome!  It had 2 levels-the upstairs was a long, creepy hallway with a dozen rooms, so we all had our own place to escape to at night, or for the munchkins to nap.

It may be hard to believe, but the kids loved screaming while running up and down this hallway.

I didn't get a great picture of our room, which was good since it usually had clothes strewn all over the place, but we had a room at the end of the building with a gorgeous view of the surrounding area.  We were up at 9,200 feet so needless to say, there was a plethora of snow!

Good morning!

When you first walk in to the chateau (after taking a 30 minute snow cat ride through the mountains-GORGEOUS-but I didn't get any photos....the ride was too bumpy and we were holding on tight to kids)...


van converted to pick up passengers in town and bring them UP the mountain

...there is a giant mud room.  We definitely had a lot of stuff!

 At the end of the mudroom is a laundry room and sauna.

The downstairs of the chateau had just about every single form of entertainment you could imagine....ping pong, air hockey, foosball, pool table, piano, a Wii set up with Rock Band, a bar, a popcorn machine and even an oxygen bar for those affected by the altitude!

 Here are the kiddos playing (on) air hockey.

Rock Band-the drums were annoying to those watching.  They didn't sound like drums---just torturous tapping!

Baby E getting ready to rock out.

The boys introducing the owner of the chateau to Jeremiah Weed.

The kiddos watching a movie while some of us were in the industrial sized kitchen getting a cooking lesson from a professional!

Greg (red hat) is Rachel's (white shirt) brother and he's the executive chef at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.  He gave us a lesson on some of his recipes.

A couple "special" guys helping peel potatoes.

The chateau had all sorts of fun snow supplies and we decided to give snow shoeing a try.  It was a blast and we didn't sink knee deep (hip deep for the girls) as we played outside.

Upright....about half the time.


Luckily our friends brought 2 kid carriers and we were able to borrow one for Juliet.  Snow shoes her size were not available.


Juliet's tour bus.

Ready to go!


Ava was sick of waiting for us and headed up the hill.

The view-spectacular!

I lost count as to how many times we had to stop and get snow out of Kylie's gloves.  She kept falling and was a tad bit whiny.  Again, we saw how much she is like me and how much Ava is like Jonathan.

If you look to the 11 o'clock position on the yurt, you can see a little snow man Jonathan and the big girls built the day before.


It was now time to sled.  Jonathan put a lot of effort into making the paths by sledding uphill.


The path is ready!
 

 Kylie giving mommy a push.

We left the snow shoes on the girls so they would be able to trek back up the hill a lot easier.  Kylie did poke herself in the head a few times going down on her belly.

Weeeee!!!!

Little Miss Cuteness was fine observing from the sidelines.  She wasn't too interested in sledding.

Jonathan decided it was time to sled down the other side of the hill....towards the road to the chateau....with a big drop.  Luckily he fell off the sled before getting to the ledge and flying.  He waited at the bottom and kindly encouraged me to make Kylie go down too.  I wasn't too happy, and we even had someone on the trip break her wrist going down this same trail a few hours later.  We didn't know they'd be sledding there or we would have warned them to check it out before racing down the hill!

Ava making her own path...a great reflection of her personality!

Ava really enjoyed herself.  Not one whine!

She did prefer to sled with daddy.

This is what you could call a train wreck.  I just wanted a cute picture of everyone, but wearing snow shoes was awkward and people were getting hurt.  You can see tears on Kylie's face and Juliet looks terrified.  The sleds wanted to just go with gravity, so I had to give up a cute picture and go help.

Afterward, we jumped in the hot tub, enjoyed the view, and Kylie made $4 off Jonathan by doing snow angels in the snow that was piled up next to the jacuzzi.  He did make $1 back when he did the same.

We definitely plan on going back next year.  We had the chateau to ourselves and it comfortably slept, fed and entertained our big group.  It was the perfect set up for a large group!