Spring Break

Whoo, spring break!  The girls had the week off school, and we had quite a bit going on.  At the end of the week Monica had her Lamb of God performance, and both of the girls went on Saturday night.  I'd say we haven't adapted to daylight savings yet, and I think it'll be a rude awakening tomorrow morning, but that's not till tomorrow. :)  Anyway, it helped the girls stay up through the performance, and they both loved it!  Brooke and I actually went the night before as well, but Winry took my ticket Saturday night and went with Brooke and the rest of my family who came into town.

Last Sunday we went to the Runkels' for a baby shower.  It was great to get up there and see them again.

We played a few games while we were there, and our family swept the prizes!  I won putting on a diaper and drinking a bottle.  Monica won blowing up a balloon and dropping a ping pong ball in a cup, and Brooke won the game where you couldn't say baby.  If you heard someone say baby you got to take their clothes pins, and Brooke basically had everyone's by the time the game ended!

On Monday Monica asked the kids what they wanted to do for spring break, and they said work on 72 hour kits.  So they pulled out the backpacks and started going through them.  Lots of food swapping for fresher items and checking clothes sizes, etc.  Winry got to try on her poncho and really liked wearing that.

The kids spent the WHOLE day talking about emergency scenarios.  They all had the general gist of what if our house caught fire to them being stranded alone in the wilderness to how much food they may or may not eat, and how long they'd save stuff, and where they'd find water, how many times they'd blow their whistles, how many items of clothes they'd wear before going to sleep, and what they'd use for a pillow.  It was a LONG day of "doomsday" prepping.  You know, cause if our house caught fire, all civilization would end.  Anyway, I did my part, and took them in the backyard after work and showed them how to make a tent with a rope and throwing one of their emergency blankets over the top.  They loved it.

Mmmmm, pie day.  Monica made a key lime pie, and it makes me sad now, because it is gone now.  It was very tasty.  It deserved the elegance Grayson brought to the eating of his pie.

Grayson at times decides that the stairs would be an ideal place to lay down.  He just fits onto one step so nicely.

Friday brought leprechauns, which brought St. Patrick's day.  We had shamrock waffles for breakfast with whipped cream.

And Brooke had shamrock hair.  It's really too bad it wasn't a school day, because that's hair worth showing off.

Winry was playing with Barbies and one of their heads broke off.  I told her I'd try to glue it back together, and I used the good stuff, which means 2 hours to set, 24 to fully dry.  So Barbie got the clamps!

Saturday morning we went bowling as a family!  I thought I got pictures and videos all around when we got there, but looking back it seems I really just have pictures of Winry, this being my favorite.

Here are the final scores.  Grayson beat me by a pin!  I do pride myself in my aiming of the ball ramps that the kids use.  Grayson actually took off part way through to wander the arcade with Monica whose back started hurting.  Winry and Brooke filled in for Grayson, and I filled in for Monica.  I never quite got hooking the ball down, and helped her get several gutters in a row.

Friday night Brooke and I went to Lamb of God, and Niki stayed at our house and helped Winry and Grayson get to sleep.  When we were heading into the building Brooke and I found this cool statue seat.

The original plan was for Monica's parents to go to Lamb of God on Friday night, and then watch the kids on Saturday when Brooke and I would go with the rest of my family.  However, thanks to COVID they didn't end up making it out, so Brooke and I used their tickets on Friday.  We found out there were boxes there, and headed straight to one when we got in!  It was a pretty cool seat.  I would definitely take a box if possible again in the future.

Katie and her mom also came on Friday night, so they sat in our box with us!  They're both singing coaches and have degrees and stuff, and I could definitely tell they were listening to things differently than I was.

The show ran until 8:30, and Brooke was getting pretty tired by the end.  She never actually fell asleep, but was pretty tired at the end.  The show was SO good.  I was a bit bummed that I didn't get to go again on Saturday night.  Many of the songs took scriptural stories and made them more conversational, with a singer taking the part of someone in the scriptures, and I really like how it brought the story more alive.  The music was all super good, and Monica did a fantastic job.  I'm really excited for her next show.

Saturday morning Grayson saw Buc-ee and had to wear that!  He was also playing with this balloon, and I believe trying to blow it up.

Niki drove down in a rental car on Friday, but on Saturday Celeste and my dad were going to come down too.  Niki headed up to meet and pick them up, but instead went rogue and headed all the way up to help clean the church.  My dad ended up staying at Tyson's house to help work on their addition, but Niki and Celeste went out for a day on the town with Brooke and Winry.  They went and got their nails done, and I can only imagine how excited the girls got when they suggested it.

After they got their nails done they went to lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and then stopped at the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner.  The girls had a wonderful time, and I'm really glad they "went rogue" as they said.  They got to go see everyone, and have a special day.  I think they had a lot more fun than if we'd all just been hanging out at home.

As for the rest of us, we went to Target to look at Easter candy and see if there was any clearance St. Patrick's day stuff.  It was a great trip.  Grayson sampled many toys, but this stuffed peep definitely had the most staying power.  Many were a hug and then put it back, but this guy shared his seat for quite a while.  Monica and I relished in remembering how simple things were with just one kid, who you can also confine into a cart when you head out.  So the whole family was having a wonderful day.

I've really been enjoying playing the piano recently, but it's too loud once the kids go to sleep.  We have a digital keyboard, but we didn't have a sustain pedal, so I made one!  I found a design online and 3d printed it, and then wired up some electronics inside of it.  I got lucky and ended up having everything I needed on hand.  It works really well and it's really nice to have!

And I think that makes it a wrap for the week.  Oh, march madness kicked off.  I was able to get the first 3 games wrong, and I had Purdue winning it all, and they lost to a 16, so... it's looking bleak this year.  At least it's fun to watch, right?

Family Fun

It's been a pretty swell week this past week.  Grayson's eye is looking better, I went to the doctor again and should start therapy soon, Monica planted some seeds to start the garden indoors, and we had friends over last night before they took off for spring break.  For family movie night we played Mario Kart, which has been the hit choice for the last few weeks.

Monday was pretty windy, and the kids saw someone flying a kite on the way home from school and really wanted to go.  I ran out with them after work, and it was COLD!  My hands were freezing by the time we left.  The girls had a lot of fun, though one of the kites we brought just didn't want to get up in the air.

The other kite, from the dollar store, was doing just fine and I got it all the way out to the end of it's string.  The wind is much nicer above the houses, and the girls enjoyed flying the kites.  They actually really liked the kite that wouldn't stay up because they wanted to run around pulling the kite behind them.

We finished up Grayson's eye drops this past week.  He was supposed to have 2 drops 3 times a day for 5 days.  The very first time wasn't bad, but then it was hard for a day or two, and eventually he started doing great with it.  The captured moments are from the height of difficulty, but later he'd even just tilt his head back and look at the ceiling and let me drop one in quick.  Always for some chocolate chips or marshmallows, but at least he did it willingly.

Reading music (well, reading in general) has been rough lately, so I've started wearing an eye patch when I play the piano.  Jelly wanted to help show it off.  After going to the doctor I'm not sure it's a great idea any more.  I think it's better to make my eyes work hard, but that said, I also think it's bad to sit in double vision.  Anyway, I'm getting some prism glasses soon, and I think I'll probably wear them quite a bit at first to try to get myself back to seeing single as normal, and then start working my way off of them.

Grayson LOVES stories right now.  If I had to pick a favorite thing for him, it would be books.  He also loves to watch videos of books being read.  Here we are at bedtime watching The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Technically this one is animated, but he loves all stories.  When they went to the library this week he picked up like 5 or 6 bear stories.  They all have the same characters, etc.  He just wants to read them all day ever since.  In fact, we brought one to church and I read it to him on repeat for most of sacrament meeting.

Monica was cleaning up the floor this past week, and Grayson really wanted to help sweep everything up at the end!

On Wednesday someone called in a bomb threat, or bomb tip, or whatever you call it, to Brooke's school.  In the end it was fake, but they still evacuated the school, and it was about 2 hours before they got back to school.  They brought in dogs and cleared the whole building before letting anyone back in.  It was a pretty cold day, and Brooke's class was in music at the time so they didn't even have a chance to get their coats.  They brought school busses in to keep everyone warm while they waited though, and Brooke did enjoy her time on the bus with her friends Abby and Addy.  When Monica picked her up Brooke told her it was the worst day of her life, so they stopped to get ice cream on the way home.  I'm glad everyone was safe.

Monica was doing the girls hair, and Grayson picked out some rubber bands and needed his hair to be done.  Looking pretty stylish!

Winry started to try to find interesting ways to wear her pajamas.  First she was putting them on backwards and having us zip them up her back, but eventually they went on upside down!

Grayson still loves holding himself up and hanging around.  Even handing this kid a banana wont stop him!

I took the kids to a park Saturday morning, and while we were there I was walking by a tree and thought... maybe I should climb this.  It's been quite a while since I've climbed a tree, but it went quite well!  I didn't go too high up, but it was fun.

There was a big rock under the pavilion, and Grayson decided to make it a family!

And today, in spite of our bear book, we didn't make it through all of sacrament meeting.  Instead we ended up in the Relief Society room, doing... this.

Other than the scare on Wednesday things were pretty good out here.  Thursday was even Spanish cultural day at school, and Brooke had so much fun going around seeing other classes projects and going to the assembly and watching the kindergarteners sing.

First Pink Eye

Why hello!  Grayson's been a bit under the weather this past week.  It hasn't slowed him down at all, and he's been as fun and energy filled as ever.  However, he does have pink eye.  It was pretty bad on Thursday, which is when this picture was taken.  Obviously this picture was not about his eye, but we never took a close up of it.  I feel like I've been really bad about taking pictures of interesting things lately... hopefully I get better at it.  Anyway, yes he is wearing a dance recital bow, but also, if you zoom in on his left eye it's super red.  It was really red all day long, and it was all red around his eye Thursday, likely from him rubbing it.  I took him to the doctor and got prescription eye drops on Friday and it already looks like it's gone!  We've still got 3 more days of eye drops though, and I'll try to remember to get a picture of that because it's quite a chore.  He always gets a treat for putting them in, and without that I don't think I'd have ever even come close!

On Monday Monica took Winry and Grayson to the zoo.  While they were there they walked down a path we usually pass over.  I thought that we saw everything the way we went, but it turns out that along the path there is actually another exhibit, and it has VULTURES!  So this is not something we will continue to miss in the future.  Winry was loving it.  Just imagine if you can, going to the zoo and seeing DOUBLE VULTURES!  I can picture it, but it's not too hard for me to see double of anything right now...  Anyway, so many rounds of Happy Birthday!

The kids also checked their wingspans.  Winry was pretty close... and Grayson looks like he's just going for a full body high five!

In the afternoon Winry tagged along to school pickup to get Brooke.  It ended up being a little colder than Winry had planned for, and she borrowed Monica's coat while they were waiting for school to get out.

We've done some playing in the backyard this past week.  There is still ice all over, as the backyard doesn't get too much sun, and it snowed again on Wednesday.  Grayson went ball hunting, and started to gather them all in a bucket.  The bucket also had quite a bit of water in it from the snow, which wasn't a big deal until Grayson wanted to dump the balls out and got himself all wet...  I asked if I could dump the water out for him, but I guess he REALLY wanted water in there still.  Who needs dry gloves.

Here's Grayson having some breakfast!  Every time I give him something with a spoon I always remind him "small bites so you don't make a mess."  Sometimes it works, sometimes not.  He was having yogurt and apple sauce, and I couldn't mix them, but he did every bite.

I took Brooke to the dermatologist to have her warts checked out on Wednesday.  She also did her presentation on camels in school on Wednesday, and got to bring her camel mask back home.  She wore it to the doctor so she could show it off.  Everyone asked her about it, and she got to teach her camel facts many times.  There was even a guy in the lobby eating a pizza on our way out who looked up and said "I like your mask!"  So stylin'.

Monica got Grayson a second swim diaper in his size this past week, and he was really excited about it.  He wore it over his pajamas for a FULL day... well, until his inner diaper suffered a blow out.  But the next morning when he woke up he needed it right back on over his pajamas again.

Brooke is getting close to needing some new dance shoes, so Monica got some in a few sizes for her to try on to find the right ones.  Jelly found them on the ground, and apparently they were very appealing to her.  I know cats have scent glands in their cheeks, so I don't know if this means she really liked their smell, or if she really wanted to fix their smell.

I found some thin lemon cookies in our cupboard on Thursday and encouraged Monica to get white chocolate raspberry ice cream when she went to the grocery store.  We made some great mini-ice cream sandwiches with them.  YUM!  It's a truly amazing pairing.

I made pancakes on Friday morning, and in exchange for eye drops I put chocolate chips in Grayson's.  He was not the cleanest of eaters that morning.

Winry has been doing the lions share lately, and been putting Grayson down for his nap pretty often.  Grayson will almost always pick Winry to do it.  She does all the things we do, reading him stories and singing him songs, though the reading stories part usually takes MUCH longer than it does for Monica or myself, and the singing is always very brief.  But you know what?  Grayson loves it, so it's great!  I love how well all our kids get along!

That's all for now.  I've got my next eye doctor appointment on Wednesday, so I'll be starting physical therapy soon and I'll order some funky prism glasses too.  I should have more details on that next week.
 

Ice Cream Day!

So, a bit back we started a fuzzy ball jar.  When the kids are well behaved we let them put in a fuzzy ball, and the jar filled up over the last weekend, so they picked to go out for ice cream on Monday!  Everyone was very excited, possibly Grayson most of all.  He got "brown".  When we walked in he saw chocolate and knew that's what he wanted.  I read all the flavors to him, but he just knew what he wanted when he walked in!  We turned it into a full family outing and went to a park after, and everyone had a great time there as well.

Earlier in the day Monday we went for a family hike on the trail.  We went close by home, but the trail goes along the creek and it was really nice.  The weather was warm that day, but it was supposed to dip colder around noon, and while I thought it felt great when I got out of the car, I wished I had a jacket by the time we got back.  The kids liked to see the creek and throw in leaves and sticks and watch them float by.

And since I got the picture with everyone out on the creek, here's Monica and Brooke while we were getting close to the end.  All in all I believe we walked a little over a mile.

Grayson snuck into Monica's slippers!  He really loves to wear over sized shoes.

On Thursday I went in for an MRI of my brain.  I tried to pick a good image where you could see my eyes, since that's what they were primarily supposed to be looking at.  It was an interesting process.  I'd describe the sound of an MRI machine like those dial up sounds from back in the day, but played back slowed down.  I got a call from the doctor later in the day to let me know there was nothing of concern in the MRI, so that's great news.  I'll go back to the eye doctor early next month and then I'll start physical therapy, and hopefully things are looking better from there!

Saturday morning Monica had to head out for a temple trip, and I was getting the kids ready.  I happened upon Jelly, who was sitting in my bedroom window, watching a bird run around the backyard!  Unfortunately she wasn't chirping at it like she sometimes does.

I took the kids to the church at 9 to help clean, and right as we were getting there my mom called!  We had tried to get a hold of her on Friday because it was her birthday!  So the kids and I talked with her while we were cleaning the windows and the doors.  It was a fun chat and glad we got to catch up.

Here are all the kids taking a quick sit break!  They did an amazing job cleaning.  We ended up being the only family that came to clean, and after we cleaned all the windows it had been almost an hour, so we called it a day there.  Fortunately it's stake conference this week, so there weren't meetings in our building, so they can finish things up next week.

Saturday was Winry's last day of basketball.  She's been having a really great time and I'm so glad she tried it out.  It's been a lot of fun watching her learn something new.  She's improved so much and was doing really great on defense in her last game! Monica went for her last practice/game, and they even signed up to take the snack.

After Grayson's nap, we went to the park.  The same one as Monday.  It's not one we typically go to, but isn't that far away.  The kids loved it, so I'd definitely say it's worth driving over because they all had so much fun.

Grayson found this little orange thing (I'm pretty sure it's the lid to a cup, as it has a straw hole in the middle) and he loves to dig in the sand with it.  I tried to sit on the digger and he got really mad at me because he wanted to scoop the sand onto it.

This morning Monica had to go to the youth session of stake conference and go to the main session early for choir practice.  The kids were basically all ready before she had to leave though, but I helped Grayson get the rest of the way there.  Grayson wanted to play "Don't Break the Ice" when he was ready, so we played it until it was time to leave.  Eventually the game evolved to blankie smashing the ice in one fell swoop.

And that's all I've got for now.  Look forward to the next jar fill, we're going bowling!