Nice weather, flowers, gardening. That sort of thing. But seriously- I’m glad for the nicer weather (not allergies though).

My kids have a wonderful mother. I’ve got a wonderful mother too. Happy Mother’s Day!

As school draws to a close the kids are forced to dance. See those glasses on Mike? Those are mine and now they’re missing. At least he looks like a stud.

We went hiking on the Timpooneke trail. I am not in hiking shape right now! It didn’t help that a couple miles up the trail turned into mud.

We had a fun little picnic…

… in this little valley. Obligatory panorama shot. All in all we had a good time.

Mike got his Webelos badge. He also started playing World of Warcraft. He had to set up a sidewalk business to help pay for his game. He works hard when he’s motivated.

Claire and Chloe shopping (they love to shop for clothes). Gabe dressed up as a pirate with his wench. Chloe with her new haircut by Chloe.

The house is coming along but it’s causing me massive stress. So far I haven’t had a lot of fun. I’m pretty picky though. For example I wanted straight stairs. Alas, all my stairs are crooked. Why am I so unreasonable?

Fran finally busted out the trailer! This was the first time I saw it hooked up to the Yukon- looking good! Destination-: Goblin Valley for a rendezvous with the Wilson family (no plans to push over any rock formations though). I’m not a four hour drive to visit sand kinda guy so I opted out of this trip.

Fran needs to come along and fill in some of the captions in this post. Usually I write something and she’ll read through the post and say “That’s not what was going on there!” I wasn’t there but I’ll give it a shot. Here’s Chloe walking through bacon. The kids loved climbing on the Goblin Valley rock formations. Mike & Gabe resting under two rock mushrooms.

But seriously- the rock formations are really cool. Some of the kids adopted frogs. The landscape almost makes me wish I’d gone…

A good time was had by all. The kids had a blast playing together and everyone came back dusty, bruised and tired (all the hallmarks of a fantastic trip).

While the family was gone I decided to tackle the repair of our basement couch. The kids had jumped on it so much that part of the frame had broken- although I didn’t realize this until I got inside. Since the couch had originally been pinned together I had to use right-angle braces (16 of them) to reattach things together. Then springs needed to be stretched and hooked back into place. I wasn’t strong enough to do it (they are are tough!) so I had to wrap rope around the springs and tie weights to them. Makes my top 10 list of most difficult projects. Elapsed time: 8+ hours.

And since I was on a project role I redid some of the caulk in our upstairs bathrooms. Caulk seems to wear out pretty quickly so it’s important to keep an eye to make sure things remain properly sealed. Bathtub tip: Fill the bathtub up with water before you caulk. This will help mimic the weight the caulk will experience later and help prevent it from pulling apart.

Activity Highlight: Marshmallow towers. We go all out on our FHE activities. Who built the tallest tower? Please.

Activity Highlight: In addition to the basement couch the kids also ruined the couch upstairs. Since the repair was such a nightmare I decided to have my kids help me with this repair. Haha… that made it so much worse. They really tried, but in the end I just gave up.
For another FHE activity we did some limbo! I can’t really compete with the kids so I got to hold the stick (I actually resisted the urge to conk anyone).  Fran and the kids all put fourth a valiant effort but in the end it was Claire who became the limbo champion.

In honor of the resurrection of Christ we colored eggs. Nice eggs, kids.

And then, in an effort to continue our Easter worship, we hid the eggs and tried to find them. It’s very similar to the Biblical account of Christ rising and then Mary being unable to find him. Except in that story Christ appeared to her and the eggs rarely reveal themselves to the lookers.  Although religious leaders would probably agree that Christ is not hiding from us it is a good reminder that we must seek him out. Maybe. I don’t know how the rabbit fits in.

Here are a few pictures from Easter. We went to my parent’s house for Easter dinner where we ate and made merry with some of our extended family (Uncle R2 D2 was present but is not pictured).

What do I like more than spending an evening doing something enjoyable? Why making a rain gutter regatta, of course! As responsible parents it would be all to easy to let our son become a victim of his failure to plan and prepare. But naturally Fran and I helped get the regatta preparation moving along. Michael kicked in some spray paining at the end. A fine water craft indeed. It’s not about whether you win or lose- it’s about whether you have a boat at all.

Check out this hole. Legend had it that a small neighbor child fell in the hole and skinned his knee. It took his several minutes to find his way back out. Luckily they filed the hole up with this foundation (more on that later… maybe). We’re on our way! Scheduled completion of our new residence is mid August. Frankly if they get it finished that quickly I will have to assume it sucks. I waved to an old guy and he waved back- great neighborhood to boot! 

We had a couple of “kid dates” this month. I took the boys to try sushi. Mike seemed to like it alright, but Gabe wasn’t a big fan. I’m not going to give up on him though. I didn’t like sushi the first time to I had it either.
Fran took Claire to walk around the temple grounds. Afterward they went to Pier 49 Pizza… where they apparently ate salad. Silly girls.

Claire recently acquired a Rainbow Loom (apparently she was the “last person on earth” to get one) and she has been hard at work making bracelets and necklaces. The Rainbow Loom is a pretty nifty invention that allows you to string rubber bands together in complex patterns & shapes.
Gabe is great at games that involve memory and now we’re trying to expand his ability to develop strategies (for more advanced gaming) by playing things like Connnect Four and Yahtzee. It won’t be long and he’ll be settling Catan with us.

February was an exciting month for Mike. He and I made a Super Bowl bet. I lost and he got more time on his iPod. There was never a happier Super Bowl bet winner.  Fran gave Mike a job scanning photographs (digital preservation is important everyone!). I think this is a great part time job for kids.  Fun fact: Mike is left handed, but he’s learning to play the guitar like a righty. He gave us a concert of songs he’s learned so far; three strings down, two more to go.

There aren’t too many movies the whole family sees in theaters (we usually just wait and rent them) but we made the trip for The Lego Movie. Our kids love Legos and they were extremely excited to see this movie. It’s a cute family friendly film with plenty for kids and adults (it made me feel very nostalgic since I used to glue my Legos together).

On Valentine’s day the kids were served a holiday-themed breakfast and they dressed in their holiday-appropriate clothes (Mike wore a taped on sign that said “Hello, My Name is Sweetie Pie” on a dare).  Claire baked cookies for her friends & siblings. And that night we ate Raclette and had Zupa’s chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Yum!

Amid all the chaos the Blue and Gold ball added a little extra. Fran made Chili and prepared a slide show for the festivities. Chloe is at that wonderful age where it’s best just to keep her home so she and I spent a few hours working the Play-Doh.
And sadly we said “goodbye” to an old friend. Fran’s mixer has been with her since college and has helped make many meals and desserts. Gabe and I took it apart to see what was wrong, but the mixer was terminal (cracked parts).