My kids are really cute. Just look at them. After Easter we celebrated Mother’s day with shrimp, sweet potato swirls (B.H.&G. new cookbook), and Jason teaching my primary class so I could have the day off. CTR 6 already felt like a day off from my last calling, so it was like a double day off. My class didn’t miss me at all because he’s amazing and funny and made paper mustaches for all of them and brought dress up clothes so they could role play stories. Three kids asked me the following week where he was and when he was coming back. I’ve been wondering the same thing ever since this phd program started. Well, not so much since the qualifiers. Nabby and Oliver played with the props from Jason’s lesson after church.

My friend Liz Hansen offered to take these photos for us last fall in exchange for a tiny bit of graphic design work. How lucky am I? She’s fantastic and so much fun! We were at Buhr park.

I guess we really like Halloween because here’s yet another post. After lunch Halloween day we picked up Jas from the B-school and parked downtown to trick-or-treat at the stores on Main Street and Liberty. Then we trick-or-treated and painted pumpkins at Whole Foods and made crafts and ate doughnuts at the library. Jas and I brought stuff in the car to dress up as farm crops on the way home just so we could stop and get $2 burritos (normally $7) at Chipotle. We took a photo of us after we got home. Finally the kids had dinner too and we trick-or-treated up and down our street. There are smarties wrappers everywhere and we’re very happy.

For Preschool Oliver attends the St Paul Lutheran Early Childhood Center twice a week. It operates in a wing of the beautiful Lutheran chapel on Liberty.  I love all the activities they plan there and this Halloween party (Monday morning) did not disappoint. The kids trick or treated for stickers and cookies in the chapel offices and paraded to a parachute to hear a haunted house story (acting out parts) and then played and colored. Nabby had her face painted and made a necklace. Oliver made play dough shapes with Halloween cookie cutters and colored a picture of a bat. We had a great time. Nabby wanted to be the lion (Oliver’s old costume) for Halloween day. I didn’t argue because it provides a lot more warmth than the pink tutu dress. It was the start of a very fun, busy October 31st!

Saturday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins and taste tested chili and cornbread for the ward chili cook off and costume parade. We had an awesome time drinking cider and talking with friends. The kids had fun with their friends Steph and Chris in the parade and running around on the stage. Oliver wore the Knight costume I made for him this year, Nabby was a butterfly princess (in her own words), I had rubber mice in my hair (stuck with bobby pins in them) and Jas had an old shirt with plastic spiders glued on the back of it. Brother Magleby (Dean at BYU) is in our ward this year on sabbatical and his wife told Jason 3 times how much she liked his spider shirt. It was a creepy shirt.

I didn’t. Oh yes I did!

No…no…I didn’t. I wish it were mine. I only held on for dear life while Kyle gave me a ride. This summer he replaced his old bike with this red Triumph. It’s SO pretty. It’s SO fast.

It was an awesome labor day weekend visiting my parents in Utah and catching up with family! I loved playing killer bunnies with Emmy, Kevin, Karen and Jas!  Someday Em you’ll have that baby and stop throwing up.  You looked and acted WAY better than I know you felt!  You’re my hero.

(Just in case my yw are reading – he always wears a helmet. Body leather too if he’s on the freeway.  We’re just posing for photos here.)

Easter was wonderful!  The Sunday before our ward hosted a musical fireside.  It was amazing!  There were classical numbers and pieces from Messiah along with hymns.  It felt so good to be there.  Saturday before Easter we hunted eggs in the back yard.  Jason and I were surprised to find a plastic egg half chewed apart by a squirrel.  It makes sense that he wanted to break it open to get the peanut butter candy egg inside, but there wasn’t any sign we could find of the chewed off pieces of plastic egg.  Maybe he swallowed them?  Probably not.  The kids had an awesome time!  I’m grateful for this time of year when everything comes back to life just like our Savior did.

So spring comes four times a year here.   Lots of back and forth between sunny 65 degrees and freezing rain between March and May.   I keep thinking I could live happily ever after in California.  Avocados, warm sun, Pixar.   Heaven.   No, but really, Michigan is great and probably I appreciate the sunshine more when it comes because the winter is so long.

This was in March (hmmm… smell those flowers)

This was the Monday before Easter

The flowers come right back after it melts.  Every time.  They’re tough little things.  So, what do we do with all our spare time indoors?

Visit the Henry Ford Museum (better than the Smithsonians in my opinion).

This is how big they make snowplows for trains in Canada.

Build more robots.

Jump, slide and fly like superheros at extreme bounce.  This photo is hilarious to me because they’re running from somthing . . . . (see next photo)

Yikes.   Strangers in costumes.   They are Burt and Ernie-ish, but the kids were still terrified.   Obviously we’re not ready for disneyworld.   I know both girls in the costumes, by they way, and they’re really nice.  I think it’s so funny.   I’m actually sort of happy they found it creepy and reacted so cautiously- shows good intuition.

Oh, and we’re making blanket nests too.

Hope to post some photos of us outside soon! Thank goodness the library has tons of good dvds.

Photos of Jason’s waterfall climbing trip up North after Christmas.