Happy Easter

So we are a couple weeks behind.  Will's phone wouldn't put the pictures on the computer for some reason and it had all the Easter pictures.  But we got it figured out.

The ward had its big breakfast Easter celebration.  Yummy pancakes and ham and fruit.  Will busted out the bubbles for the first time and the kids all crowded around him.

There were hundreds of eggs filled with candy.  Each kid could get 15 eggs.  Hannah did a good job collecting.

Adam stayed close to his best friend Naomi while searching for eggs.

We also went to grandma's house to dye eggs.  All the kids had fun doing this.  We got some cool colorful eggs.

We woke up to Adam on my mom's staircase.  We had let him sleep downstairs in a sleeping bag and he must have woken up in the night and tried to find us.  Nobody heard anything. Poor boy.

Searching for eggs in the book shelves.

Megan loved showing us how much candy she has collected.

And finally cracking all the eggs outside.  This might be everyone's favorite activity.

Good smashing Adam!  It was a fun Easter.  We also had a super yummy dinner but no pictures.  Must have been too busy eating.

Hermiston Hurricanes

We signed the three oldest up for the Hermiston Hurricanes, which is the track team in town.  The girls don't have lots of experience with track, but they are having fun.

The girls have had a couple of practices.  They split up into age groups and get coached by the high school track team.  These pictures are from their first meet, in Umatilla. Here they are looking super perky since they haven't participated in any events yet.

Everyone is allowed to participate in four events.  They all picked to do the long jump first.

Here Megan is doing the "javelin" throw.  It's a very soft javelin but they liked attempting to throw it.

Getting ready to do the 50 meter dash.

Rachel picked that one too.

Whitney (in purple) after running the 400.  So the girls seem to like track so far.  They all said that running was their favorite part.  Whitney wants to run the mile for the next meet.  I'm just glad they are getting some exercise and learning good sportsmanship.

Harry Potter Birthday

Whitney requested a Harry Potter party for her 9th birthday.  I think the party went well and she said she had fun.  Thank goodness for Pinterest for most of my Harry Potter ideas.

We started off with our traditional activity: coloring pictures and then decorating goody bags.

We gave all the kids a list of items that first years needed from Diagon Alley and some gold galleons and sent them searching.  They all needed a wand and some sea shells and rose petals, etc.

Then when they collected everything we went to several classes.  Our first class was charms.  Using their wands the kids had to keep their balloons "flying" while saying "wingardium leviosa".  Good swish and flicking.

Then was care of magical creatures.  Everyone picked a creature and got to decide its magic powers and name and all that.  One girl was so surprised that we were letting everyone keep their magic creatures.

This was potions class.  This might be Harry Potter's least favorite class but I think all the girls loved this one the most.  We got to make some Exploding Filibusters and Fleeing Spider Eggs.  It was pretty awesome.

For History of Magic we did two teams and answered Harry Potter trivia questions.  Whitney was a whiz at this one.  I was a little surprised that most of the kids didn't know anything about Harry Potter.

Our last class was Defense Against the Dark Arts.  I made a dementor pinata and the kids went to town with it.  Unfortunately, with all the snow we had to do the pinata inside and that messed things up a little.

But none of the kids cared about that as soon as the candy came out.

Whitney is not a huge fan of cake so she chose rice krispy treats.  I made it into a shape of a snake to be Nagini.  It was a lot easier to form than I had been afraid of and it all was eaten quickly so I might start doing something like this for all future parties.  I think Whitney liked being the center of attention as we all sang Happy Birthday.

And drunk butterbeer - which was really a mixture of whatever kind of ice cream and soda pop flavor you wanted.  I tried cookies and cream ice cream with cream soda and it was delicious.

And present opening.  Whitney got a lot of Harry Potter items - like this alarm clock from my mom. 

Phew...I am glad the party is done and my next isn't until the end of August.  Unfortunately, Megan has requested a Harry Potter party.  Aaagh!

Battle of the Books

This is Whitney's Battle of the Books team.  They are all third graders.  It is a state wide competition where the students read 16 books and then battle other teams in the school.  The books can be all elementary levels.  Mostly fourth and fifth grade books.  The team practiced during recess and had a practice at one of their houses.  Then it is a double elimination. So Whitney worked really hard to read all the books.  A lot of them multiple times to be ready for the different competitions.  Then their team got second in the school championship.  First place team gets to go to districts.   So we are super proud of her hard work.  I think the team wants to do it again next year.  I like the competition because it encourages kids to read all kinds of books; they had everything from Among the Hidden to The Lightening Thief to What Was Ellis Island?  So it is pretty cool.  Good Job Whitney!

Kids Safety Expo

Once a year in Pasco is a huge kids safety expo with all kinds of exhibits meant to teach kids different safety tips.  This year we were able to go with my dad and a couple of cousins visiting from Utah so that was fun.

Cut outs are always a hit with my kids.  We could pretend to be aliens.

Or doggies.  My girls begged me to get one of the dogs up for adoption.  They were super cute but I stayed strong.  No animals while I still have kids in diapers.

There were a lot of games for kids where they could win lots of little prizes.  This big Connect 4 was fun.

This was a neat way to try to teach kids some safety skills.  They used Disney movies to show that sometimes people try to manipulate us, including on the Internet, and we need to stand up for our rights.  I might try to use something like that in the future.

Some of the exhibits were just there to sell - like the house painting company that let kids paint rocks.  While the parents get the advertisements.

Being healthy and having fun being active.

There was this big foam toy area where kids could build cool structures.  Rachel made a huge one.

Riding on a "horse".  All my kids really liked this and didn't want to get down.

We watched the Big Top the Clown show.  Rachel was one of his helpers for one of his tricks.

And right when we were getting ready to leave they announced over intercom that all kids five and under could go on stage for a music time.  So Megan and I went up.  I think Megan was the oldest kid there but it was fun.

Anyway, we enjoyed the expo.  I could tell all the people that I lived in Hermiston and that is why I didn't want to sign up for their different programs.  The perfect excuse.  My kids had lots of fun and we came home with balloons and books and pencils and candy and all that good stuff.