Spring?

So far, it hasn’t seemed much like Spring. We’ve had snow and cold weather mixed with random warm days. So one day the kids are outside taking off their sweatshirts because they are too warm when running around and the next they are bundled up in their snow gear. 

We were able to take advantage of a recent warm afternoon which fell on a weekend. We finished clearing out the leaves from the gardens which took hours. I love being surrounded by trees... until it’s time to clean up the huge piles of leaves that they dropped everywhere. We worked as a teen and had an assembly line going. I raked and filled buckets, Pequeño & Pudge helped fill buckets, then Pudge and Little Bear brought them down to the woods to empty and then back up for us to use again. We had about six or seven buckets so that we could keep moving from one section to the next without waiting for them to come back up. Papa was taking care of other landscaping things and cleaned out the pool area and koi pond section since we didn’t want the kids playing by those. 

We have a few outdoor projects planned for this year and next year so we are trying to prepare for those. We’re also hoping to be able to open the pool in the next few weeks but we need to wait until the weather gets more consistent.

Reading

Pudge was really excited that he had picked a Curious George book at library. Curious George is a favorite around here so the younger two climbed up to listen to Pudge read the book to me. When he was finished, Pudge asked if we could take a picture with the book. He’s such a sweetheart. 

We had watched a Curious George episode in the past that was the same as the story so Pudge and Pequeño would giggle before things would happen in the book because they knew what to expect. 

In the book, it also had little blurbs with information about things that were mentioned in the story (facts about moose, an experiment, etc.) so we went back and read them after the story. One of the experiments was how to make a “rubber pencil” trick so I explained it to them and they spent a little while showing off their new trick. 

While we were doing the experiment (making a rainbow with a flashlight and awater bottle), Cuatro found one of his Curious George books and was looking at it by himself. 

Easter 2018

In the morning of “Easter Eve”, the older kids dyed eggs while Cuatro was napping. We used water, vinegar, and food coloring. 

In the afternoon, Pequeño helped make cupcakes for our dessert that we would be bringing to Abuelo’s on Easter. We were bringing French Vanilla cupcakes, strawberries, and whipped cream. 

That night, we had our annual glow in the dark egg hunt. It was so much fun with the gig yard this year and there were over 100 eggs glowing. Pudge looked outside and said “It’s like there are two skies full of stars! the real sky and the eggs!”

The older ones ran around like maniacs to collect them all while Cuatro was content with picking up three and putting them in and out of his basket. 

Then we came inside and they opened them while watching a movie. Inside we’re glow bracelets and LED tea lights. So they were able to keep the glow sticks and turned them into things like glasses, necklaces, bracelets. (The tea lights will be saved to be used again.) 



They went to bed around 9:30 and were all exhausted. 

On Easter morning, they all were awake around 7/7:15 and excited to find their baskets. I went downstairs and started baking cinnamon rolls while they got ready (brushed their teeth) to come downstairs. While upstairs, they were given clear instructions that if they found someone else’s basket not to give away their surprise and set loose. 

Cuatro found his first and was mostly interested in the bouncy ball that was on top. 

Pudge and Pequeño found theirs a few minutes later and each had already spotted the other’s basket before finding their own. 

Little Bear was the last to find his which was in the guest room closet. 

They had a chance to look through their baskets, eat breakfast, and play a little before getting dressed and loading into the car to spend the day with family.

We went to Abuelo and Abuela’s house first and were able to spend time with them and Tio C. (We also stopped at Pop Pop and Mema’s house on the way to give them each a cupcake and toppings and a picture that the kids made for them.) 

Abuela gave Cuatro some of a cupcake and then he wasn’t willing to share...

After lunch the kids played for a little bit and painted with water colors while the adults sat and chatted until it was time to leave.

Next we headed to Grandma’s house where we visited with her, Aunt N and her family,  Great Grandma, and a Great Aunt & Great Uncle. The kids had a fun time running around outside with their cousin and visiting with everyone.

Since the kids would have school in the morning (and work for Papa) we weren’t able to stay too late. The kids all fell asleep in the car and went right to bed once we got back although we did have to make one bathroom stop on the way home.