3 Weeks of Spring Break

The girls had 3 weeks off from school in March, enjoying a long and rainy Spring Break. We didn't vacation anywhere, so I wasn't going to journal about it. However, for those times that the kids think they never get to do anything "fun", I'm finding it necessary to record that they do, indeed, have FUN!

We treated them to two movies: Tale of Despereaux and Race to Witch Mountain. With the latter, we were the ONLY ones in the theater. That's never happened before, but it's not often that we're at a movie on a Tuesday night. The kids thought it was pretty cool, plus it was dollar popcorn night. Additionally, with their Netflix queue and my purchase of the Twilight DVD, they enjoyed many hours in front of our TV with new entertainment.

They spent a dry day at the park with friends, a day at Bounce U (indoor bounce houses) and visited the library. Hannah has really become a reader and loves the A to Z Mysteries right now.

Eating lunch with daddy is always a treat. They'd not been to his new work location so they got a tour of the building.

One of their favorite activities was helping Darrin with garden preparations. He built a trellis to try with this year's cucumbers and green beans. The kids helped by planting seeds for our cucumber, zuchinni & squash starters. Only the tomato plants have been placed in the ground. They're anxious to get the rest of it going.

Games, games and more games were played. Their favorite family game is Clue. We played it every day during the week I took off from teaching. Darrin bought Blokus after we'd played it at a friend's house and we taught the kids how to play. Even Preston gets it, which didn't surprise me due to his puzzle skills. The unfortunate part of Blokus is it's only 4 player and there's 5 of us! Of course, there was plenty of X-box and computer game time over their break, too. Now, doesn't all that sound fun??

The End of the $60 Tamales

I know you're curious now. As we finished off last night's meal, I knew that I needed to journal this small, but funny event.
Our family has a tradition of eating tamales on Christmas Eve- a Mexican tradition that my parents picked up on in Texas and one that Darrin and I love to continue. Last Christmas, my sis came to visit and brought some Pedro's tamales with her on the plane. This year posed a tougher quest and since my parents were visiting, it seemed even more important to include some tamales in our Christmas Eve meal.
I called On The Border and asked if they sold tamales by the dozen. I didn't think to ask how much they were as I was just desperate to have some Mexican food that I trusted in North Carolina! The gal said that they did, so I ordered two dozen "to go". I showed up to get my order and was told that the total was $60. I almost passed out! I would have expected to pay half that amount in Texas!
When I got home and opened up the containers, I was eased a little by the fact that the tamales were enormous- twice the size of Pedro's tamales, at least. We couldn't even finish one dozen off that night, so I froze the leftovers. We've had 4 meals out of those tamales since Christmas, finishing them last night.
So, what I first thought was an OUTRAGEOUS amount to pay for some tamales has actually been a really great deal. I think I'll order up another dozen and restock the freezer. It's important to have those quick fixes when we're craving some TexMex!

A Happy Easter

We started the Easter weekend off with some not-so-Easter activities! I hosted Bunco night on Friday and Darrin took the kids camping. They had a blast, despite the rain, and enjoyed spending time with two other dads and their kids. Darrin forgot to take a camera, but take my word for it- they were a mess. I scrubbed Preston and soaked him in a blueberry-scented tub, but he still smells of campfire!
Saturday blew by as we tried to clean up from the camping and work on Hannah's school project. (We just love these parent projects!) We did manage to end the day with our annual lesson on the events of the first Easter and the "empty tomb" hunt.

Haylee read us the true Easter story and we sang children's songs of Christ's death and resurrection. Then Darrin and I hid eggs filled with fish and honeycomb (goldfish crackers and Honeycomb cereal) for the kids to find. We leave one of the eggs empty to represent the empty tomb. Whoever finds this one is lucky because they get to be the first to bear their testimony of the atonement. Hannah won the honor this year. It's so great to see our kids' knowledge and understanding of key principles develop and grow!

As the kids came downstairs this morning, they found that the Easter Bunny had left a trail of jelly beans again. He's so messy! You can watch the video below, but here's a summary: They had some great stuff in their color-coordinated baskets, like chocolate bunnies, Peeps, cotton candy tubs and bath stuff! They'd never had the Peeps before. Haylee was the only one that really liked them, so Darrin and I helped finish those off! Preston was EXTREMELY excited about his Wolverine Action Figures since lots of "Wolverine" stuff is on his birthday wish list (thanks to the mega movie promotion going on)! Hannah's basket contained the newly-released "Bolt" DVD and Haylee received her first iTunes gift card.

I was off to church at 8:00 a.m. to rehearse the choir on the 3 songs we performed today. All went well. It was a nice sacrament service and the first under our new bishopbric. (We were grateful that Darrin kept his calling as High Priest Group 2nd Assistant since the leader was moved into the bishopbric. He's only had this assignment since January and has really enjoyed this area of service.)

Here we are after church on a gorgeous NC spring day. We've had more rainy days than sunny ones over the last month, so I was grateful to get some outside pictures.

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter and took the opportunity to reflect upon what our Savior's sacrifice & resurrection means in your life! It gives us great hope and peace.