Mother Daughter Camping

So I was fortunate to go to a women's retreat last weekend with my mom.  It was awesome.  We went to Camp Zarahemla (a church owned camp that I went to girls camp at growing up).  Here are some of the things we did.

The theme for the weekend was to S.M.I.L.E.  There is a verse in 2nd Nephi 9 that says to be Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal.  It was such a good theme.  When we are spiritually minded we should be smiling, life is meant to be happy.

Thankfully, our "camping" was in a lodge with beds.  So we just needed to set up some tables and whatnot.

There were a couple of get to know you kind of activities.  The first one was blowing bubbles (literally to get us out of our bubble because we had to make other people blow our bubbles).

We also got to play with playdough.  A lot of the women were talking about how long it has been since they have done that.  But I am quite use to making random playdough objects.

There were a couple of crafts throughout the retreat also.  We made mugs that said our theme on them.  It was a sticker thing that wasn't too hard.  Hooray since I am not so crafty.

And we made cards to give away to people to help them Smile also.

There was some free time so my mom and I went exploring.  The lake and trees and hills were gorgeous.

We found a little log swing to relax on.

For some reason I really liked this.  It is a tree growing inside of a stump from an older tree.  It just made me think of life and renewal and just being positive.

Anyway, the whole experience was wonderful.  I think everyone felt the spirit and feels closer to the women who were at the retreat.  Thanks mom for inviting me.  

More Easter

We did a couple of different Easter things besides the big Easter Eggstravaganza.  It was nice because we were invited to two different barbecues - both yummy.

Our neighbors next door invited us over Saturday afternoon.  The kids got to play with some things while everyone waited for the meat to cook.

These balls were a big hit; of course, everyone wanted the same one.

They hid lots of eggs in the backyard for the kids.  (They have a little boy and they invited some cousins to come over also).

The pinata was really fun.  I never thought of using one for Easter but it was a hit.

After the barbecue we went down to Pasco.  My family was still in Utah but we figured their bigger house would be more fun for the big Easter egg hunt.  Will was watching the Priesthood session of conference so I took the kids outside.

Megan didn't like the trampoline, so we all decided to go for a walk instead.

And the hunt the next morning.  The girls exclaimed in amazement at all the Easter candy everywhere.

Showing me their full buckets.

And Megan decided that she just preferred eating the chocolate.  She doesn't like being dirty, so she kept coming to me with her chocolate-y hands after finding another treat.  It was like Christmas. 

At the second barbecue on Sunday the family was giving away things as well as candy.  All the girls got different stuffed animals.  Isn't Megan cute?

Anyway, those were our fun Easter activities.  It was a great, albeit crazy, weekend. 

Easter Eggstravaganza

There is a church in Hermiston that has a huge Easter event the day before Easter.  We didn't know about it last year, but I saw it on the calendar of events and we decided to go in between sessions of general conference.

There were lots of carnival games for the kids.  I think Whitney and Rachel really liked those.

At the end of every game you would win Easter eggs filled with candy.

Doing a ring toss.  It didn't matter that neither girl actually ringed any, they still got eggs.

This fishing booth was the place to be if you wanted lots of Easter eggs.  Whitney 'fished' nine eggs and Rachel 'fished' twelve.  I won't have to buy candy for a long time.  Of course, this was also the longest line because of that.

There also was a petting zoo for the kids to touch different farm animals.

I learned that baby goats are much softer than grown up goats.  They had some goats there that were only two weeks old and were so cute.  The girls also got to pet horses and dogs.

There were a couple of different bounce houses (based on ages of the kids).  I snuck Rachel into the one for four to six year olds so she could be with her sister.

And there was face painting.  This was Whitney's favorite thing.

Doing some crafts - coloring super hero masks.

There was food also; we were waiting in line for the cotton candy.  We also had hot dogs and popcorn.

The best part was that everything was free.  The workers were all super friendly.  There were thousands of kids.  Poor Will had to miss out and stay home with sick Megan but hopefully we will all be able to go together next year because it was super fun.

Spring Time

So we have had some beautiful days (mixed with days of rain).  We figured we better take advantage of any of the nice days.

I gave Whitney a kite for her birthday. We had a windy day that was just calling for kite flying.

Whitney didn't really like running with the kite, so it would only stay up for a minute or so.

Will did pretty well with the kite.  (I told him before we had kids that it was his job to teach our kids how to fly a kite because I sprained my elbow last time Will and I flew a kite when we were first married).

Unfortunately, the kite saw a lot of the grass.  Oh well.  Rachel and Megan were both too cold to be willing to try to fly the kite.  Megan especially doesn't like the wind.  So we went home after just a few minutes.

I saw a few ideas for April's Fools on Pinterest.  Any Harry Potter fans?  Will thought it was funny.  Rachel wondered why Megan had colored the toilet.

It is hard to tell but I tried to "sell" Will's car.  Will was gone Tuesday evening, so it was perfect timing.  I made his car worth $25 OBO.  Then it was too late for Will to try to erase it before he went to work.  Lucky for him, I didn't also put his phone number on the car.

We had a sick week last week and the kids are still slowly recovering.  But I will put up some of our Easter pictures in a couple of days.

An Oompa Loompa Party

This last Saturday was Whitney's special birthday party.  She has been looking forward to her Oompa Loompa party for months and has been telling everyone.  I am glad that the day turned out so fun.

I made a Whitney Golden Birthday Ticket to tape onto candy bars to use as invitations.  Everyone seemed to like the creative way to invite.

I taped on a copy of Willy Wonka to our front door.  So he is kind of welcoming everyone to our chocolate factory home.

While waiting for everyone to come, we let all the kids color pictures from the movie.

I knew that most of the kids hadn't seen the movie, so we watched little clips about each of the kids from the movie so everyone would understand what we were doing.

Our first game was the "Feed Augustus Gloop".  Will and I both made a poster and the kids had a relay to see which team could feed their Augustus the chocolate chips the fastest.

The kids seemed to think the relay was fun.

Then we had to rescue Augustus Gloop from the chocolate river - chocolate milk by drinking through the straw.

This was Whitney's favorite game.  We had to juice Violet by popping the balloons (which I had filled with water).

Afterwards, we had a golden egg hunt (in honor of the golden goose that Veruca wanted).  There were three little babies at the party who also appreciated this game since they also searched for candy.  Megan has a mouthful of chocolate and is with Grandpa.

Before the party, I thought for a long time on what I should do for Mike Teevee. I finally decided that we should made shrinkadinks so we could see some shrinking.  The kids thought this was really neat.

Then we also looked for little Mike Teevees among lots of rice inside my 'televisions'. This became a free for all rice throwing party at the end.

Then everyone built glass elevators out of legos for Charlie Bucket.  Conner's elevator was the most advance.  

Then it was time for brownies and singing Happy Birthday.

And everyone wanted a Fudgesicle - or chocolate popsicle like the kids call them.

Whitney got lots and lots of presents.  All the kids gathered around her as she opened them.

And playing with the guitar that Grandma gave her.  The guitar and the cart have been real hits over the last couple of days.  

Anyway, it was a really fun day.  I am glad everything worked out well.