March Update

March has been a month of "a little of this and a little of that" activities. We played outside when the weather was nice, we played inside when the weather wasn't so nice, we had visitors (Dub, Grandma Dub and Corbin) and we played with friends old and new.

Drew loves to be with his big brother.

Do you think he was tired? Poor kid! I don't think any of our kids had ever done this before!

Erik is still working on getting better at riding his bike without training wheels. He's scared to go fast because he thinks that without training wheels speed will make it harder for him to steer and he'll run into parked cars and curbs. Since he won't ride fast he's pretty wobbly. We're just gonna have to find some friends to ride bikes with so he forgets to be worried about going fast. We told him as soon as he can ride his bike without stopping he gets a new, bigger bike. He even has one all picked out. He's too big for his bike, so we're hoping the new bike will act as motivation. Lily is also too big for her little 12" bike, so we surprised her with a new "big" 16" bike. She loves it! She even got a new princess helmet to wear. The bike was in the living room when she came home from school one morning and she was so excited she rode her bike around the apartment for about 15 minutes. Finally, Daniel took her outside to ride for a bit.

Riding bikes with Erik, Corbin and Grandma Dub.


Drew "playing" outside.


New bike!

My parents and my nephew, Corbin, came to Colorado for a week at the end of March to stay with my grandparents up in Longmont. We were able to spend a few afternoons/evenings visiting up there, but my mom and Corbin were able to come spend quite a bit of time down here with us too. The kids LOVED seeing grandma, grandpa and Corbin. Erik and Lily spent the night up there Monday and wanted to stay again Tuesday. Drew and I went up for dinner Tuesday evening so we could at least see Erik and Lily for a little bit since we hadn't seen them all day. (Daniel didn't get to see either of them that day.) Erik decided he wanted to come home with me and sleep in his own bed, but Lily stayed up there for the second night. Wednesday we played at a park and everyone slept in their own beds since the kids had school the next day. Corbin spent the night with us Thursday evening and the kids had fun playing together. They were so excited that it took them quite awhile to finally fall asleep! We went to the small children's museum in Lafayette Friday with my parents. We spent about 2 hours there and the kids were busy running around having fun. Mom and dad left Saturday morning and we were all sad to see them leave. Erik even said he wished Dub, Grandma Dub, Corbin, Grandma Janet, Jennifer and Stanton all lived in Colorado so we could see them more. Too cute! We'll see you guys again this summer.....we can't wait! Thanks for visiting and playing with us.

We put our old Halloween costumes in a "dress-up box" and the kids have had a good time wearing the costumes around the house. Lily has been wearing her old pirate costume a LOT. She's even worn it to the store, the planetarium and to lunch at McDonald's. She loves it! I think it's amazing she can even fit into it....I mean, it's her costume from when she was 2!!! What a crazy girl. Drew carries around Lily's Elmo costume once in awhile. I put it on him one day, but after about 5 minutes he wanted that thing OFF!!

This is a 2 or 3T, so it's now a shirt, not a dress.

Easter weekend I took Erik and Lily to see How to Train Your Dragon with some friends of ours. It's been awhile since Lily has been to a movie in the theater because the last time we went (to Kung Fu Panda) she was more interested in walking around the theater than watching the movie. She's been begging to go to a movie, so I decided to give her another shot. Well, she did a bit better, but halfway through the movie she was wandering up and down the rows again. Luckily there were only about 10 other people in the theater so she wasn't bothering anyone. She just isn't that into sitting and watching movies, even at home...unless it's SpongeBob! I guess we'll wait a few more months and try again with Toy Story 3.

Easter weekend was also a chance to listen to General Conference. We were able to listen to all sessions except Saturday morning. Erik actually listed to all of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning and half of Sunday afternoon. Lily listened to half of each Sunday session. We used the Bingo cards from the church website, which really helped them listen, especially Erik. The talks were fabulous and I can't wait to read them again next month!

Since we don't have family to spend holidays with, we weren't going to have a special Easter dinner. However, Necia Snow (the wife of the guy I met on the CU campus about 2 weeks ago - see previous post about spring break) called Friday and we were finally able to start planning some activities. Later that afternoon I called to see if they had any plans for Easter; I wasn't sure since I know they don't have any family here either. They didn't, so we made a plan to get together for dinner at our house. We got a ham, made a green salad and a fruit pizza for dessert (thanks for the recipe Jennifer!). The Snows brought funeral potatoes and homemade rolls. We had a nice time eating and visiting and the kids had a ball playing together! I can't wait to be able to get together again with these new friends. (I guess I have moved from the go-eat-dinner-at-mom's-house-on-holidays phase to the cook-my-own-holiday-meal phase.) :)

Easter basket goodies

The Saturday of Easter weekend we gave the kids their Easter baskets. We wanted to keep the material part of Easter on Saturday so we could talk about the real meaning of Easter on Sunday. We did have a mini-egg hunt in our apartment Sunday, but that was followed by a lesson about Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. I don't know how much the kids understood, but at least we were able to plant the seed. We decided not to color eggs this year since we weren't hiding those eggs anyway. Well, that and the fact that the two younger kids can't really do a whole lot on their own. We'll try again next year when all three kids can participate. We had a very nice, relaxing Easter weekend.

Searching for eggs. We were going to hide separate eggs for Drew, but once he got this one he was perfectly happy.


Where are the eggs?


Lily's loot


Erik's loot

Monday night we went to Chick-Fil-A for their family night. The activity this Monday was free face painting and sundaes. After playing, eating and playing some more Erik decided he wanted to get his face painted like his 3 friends. I was surprised because he usually doesn't like to do things like this....especially when I made him go wait in line by himself. He went over to get in line and was standing a few feet back from the table. When he went over there were 2 kids in front of him. We got cleaned up and went over to wait for him so we could leave. It had been about 10 minutes since he went over there. Now there were 5 people in front of him! What the heck? Other kids had come over to get in line and started the line going a different way than where Erik was waiting. Erik is so quiet and passive in public that he didn't say anything, so all these kids had "cut" in front of him. I made sure that didn't happen again, but we still had to wait at least 10 more minutes. During this time Lily decided she wanted her face painted too. When I read them the list of things they could have they both decided very quickly what they wanted.....

Batman

Princess Lily

...the only problem was that when we got home it was time to get ready for bed. Neither one wanted their faced wash, of course, and wanted to sleep with their faces painted so they could go to school today with the paint still on. Riiiiight. We tried our best, but of course it didn't turn out so well, especially Erik's. When I checked on him before I went to bed his face paint was smeared everywhere! He had it on his chin, his hands, his stomach, and his sheets! I had to wake him up and wash it off as best as possible so he could go back to bed. He was NOT happy about this. This morning I tried to wash around his eyes because he looked like he was wearing black eyeliner like emo kids. I did the best I could, but he told me his teacher asked him this morning at school if he was tired. Oops. Guess I didn't clean it as well as I thought. Lily's actually didn't look too bad this morning so she was able to go to school with her face done up like a princess. Sadly, her came off tonight too because it was bath night. (I thought when Erik told the lady he wanted Batman it was just going to be the little symbol on his cheek.....not covering his ENTIRE face. He loved it though!)

Only 2 more months of school and then we get to enjoy all our fun summer activities. The kids want to take swimming lessons, so I'll be signing them up for that soon. I also asked if they wanted to take another class, such as t-ball or another sport. They both told me they wanted to take another gymnastics class! I wasn't surprised Lily wanted to do this, but I was surprised Erik wanted to do this instead of t-ball or track. Surprised, but not sad. I'd rather watch gymnastics than t-ball. :)