Run for Mindfulness

On Saturday I saw an ad about a free family fun run that morning in Umatilla.  It was a run for mental health and was only a 4K.  We decided to participate as a family.

Looking all fresh after registering.  We had a little wait before the run started; Hannah used the time to pet (torment) some dogs.

The view was beautiful as we stopped for a water break.

The run took us past this gazebo.  This gazebo is close to where we lived when we were in Umatilla, so we used to pass it when we would take Sunday family walks.  It brought back nice memories.

There were booths set up for after completing the run.  Will and the girls got there before I did with the stroller.  The older ones didn't want to wait behind the stroller. 

Checking out the booths.

Doing some fun activities that are suppose to help kids talk about their feelings after a loss.

And eating a healthy broccoli salad.  There also was a fruit bar with delicious strawberries and watermelon and pineapple, but my phone died so I didn't get any more pictures. 

I am glad our family went. I want us to spend time doing more healthy things together.

School Carnival

We are getting close to the end of the school year.  Summer fun is approaching.  The girls had a school carnival that the whole family was invited to.  It was fun.

The kids loved playing all the carnival games and getting little prizes.  I thought this "diggin for gold" by picking a nose was pretty funny. A person was inside handing out prizes.  Kind of like a twist on the classic fishing game.

Hannah was thrilled with her bubbles prize.

Enjoying the bounce house.

And the face painting.  There were other activities too - like bingo and a cupcake walk but with junk food instead of cupcakes. 

I spent half the carnival volunteering at the roulette wheel.  I would ask any kid who wanted to play "red or black" and they had to guess which it would land on to get a prize. 

It was a super fun carnival.  I guess the school does it every other year.  Now just one more month until school's out.

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!