Monday, April 29, 2013

Spring Break 2013

We wanted to go somewhere warm this year for Spring break and lucky us we live 2 hours away from Redding CA. And it is plenty warm there. Our kids kinda LOVE palm trees and as soon as we pulled up to the hotel you would have thought they believed we were in Hawaii.
We got all the way to Turtle Bay and found out they were on their Spring Break hours and weren't open that day. We were sad but instead we had lunch at the Sundial Bridge.
 

 













 




 
 We headed to the local theater and had the place all to ourselves.
We




Had to do Chuck E Cheese. Failed at the photo booth, again. Won hundreds of tickets and got...a sucker for it.



The rest of the time was spent shopping and lounging by the pool. We live for family vacations!!

Fooled ya



I kicked this month off with a bang for the kids on April Fools morning. I had been saving up ideas for a month because I was so excited to pull some fun pranks all day.
So first thing in the morning they were surprised to see that their teeth had been turned blue while brushing them... 

 
Then when getting their clothes out for the day each child was surprised to see that all of their underwear in their drawer had been sewn together...
 

 
And while gathering up their backpack's they found out that they had all been turned inside out and zipped up...
 
They also discovered that all of their light switches were taped down and they got a spray in the face when getting a drink. Needless to say they were on edge as to when the next prank was coming.



 
For dinner we invited our Macdonald cousins and family over and Grandma and Grandpa Mortenson to enjoy our Fools CafĂ©. This dinner was tricky because each person was given a menu with 20 coded food items. They each had to write down 5 items per course, not knowing what they had ordered.
 
Some choose wisely and got utensils with a course (even if the food you got that course called for them or not)
 
 
Some ended up with ham and finger foods, but no potatoes for their gravy, and no ice cream for their chocolate sauce...
 
 
I think this order was my favorite of the night. All the silverware at one time including a toothpick and a water. yum.
 
It was so fun for us to watch the kids try to figure out how to eat random things. Like Jello with a knife.
 
 
They did some good improvising.
 
 
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We are already plotting for next year!
 We had a happy April Fools.
 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

4th gradeTrain trip to Eugene OR.

(Ellie and Sara)

In March, Ellie's class took a guided tour on a train to Eugene OR. I was super excited because I got to go with her. In fact there were more adults that volunteered to go than there were kids.
Neither of us had been on a train before and we were in for a treat.
 
We headed down to the station just as the sun came up. All of the kids were smiling from ear to ear waiting to catch the first glimpse of the Amtrak.
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Believe it or not the train was on time and we all filed in and found our seats. When I imagined being on a train I thought we would all sit in our seats and watch out the window till our train stopped... this was not the case AT ALL.
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We found a seat and set down our things and then took off to explore the train before ending up in the Observation Car. (aka, the coolest seats on the entire train)
 

 (Ellie and Ruby)
Floor to ceiling windows allowed the kids to see everything around them on both sides. And we had a man and his wife from the Museum come and give us a guided tour over the loud speaker of everything we saw.
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Mr. Young had booklets for all the kids to keep record in and it was filled with questions and things they had to find and answer. I had more fun than the kids I swear.
One of the kids favorites, besides all the tunnels, was "Root Beer Falls" (which is really seen best by train and not from the road)
 

 
We pulled into Eugene around 1pm and walked a short distance to a great park where the kids got to run and stretch their legs.
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Before we left the park Mr. Young had the kids find all the different planets hidden in the park. Then we went on a small hike up the hill to get to our next stop which was the historic Shelton McMurphey Johnson house.
 

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I am a sucker for old historic things so I ate this up. All the kids had to put on clothes fitting to the time period, the girls in white petticoat aprons and the boys in vests. So fun.
 


The tour through the house was broken up into 3 sections and in each the kids got to actually go into the rooms and touch things that belonged to the house. Even playing with toys from that Era.
Ellie's favorite room was the nursery where there were some creepy looking dolls and baby buggies.

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In the attic her group sat down and learned about different things that were used in the house that we don't normally use anymore. When they first got the items they had to guess what they were and what they were used for before they learned the truth.
 



 
The girls thought this particular item was used as a spanker. :) Turns out it is for beating rugs. 
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They had to read parts of a story based on the people who lived in the house and the kids loved it. What a neat experience these kids had.
After we left the house we all walked into town and did a little shopping and got ourselves a VooDoo Doughnut. Then we all meet back at the train station and boarded an even nicer train than the last.
We had a nice dinner in the dining car and I got to snuggle and chat with my girl all the way home.
Such a fun day for the both of us. 
Ready to go again!

Monday, April 8, 2013

100th day of school


The kids had their 100th day of school a while back and they each got to celebrate it differently in each class. In Ellie's they had a party, and in Connors they made all these fun projects that had to do with 100. But thought Macie's class had the cutest idea and I had to share. In her class they all had to dress like they were 100 years old!
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So stinkin' funny to have a class full of 100 year old Kindergartners.
Macie was all for it and we headed out and did some shopping, and then did some sewing.
I thought she was the cutest 100 year old I have ever seen.