We Love A Parade!

On April 4th we went to the Daffodil parade in Tacoma with our HFG. Our mission was to be kind to random strangers and help our kids learn to serve and give. So we handed out free coffee. Eben was great at telling people about it. Kivi smiled at people. Jasper kept getting lost. (And random strangers were kind to us and returned him.) And Opal sat for an amazingly long time and just watched the parade. We were in awe of her attention span.

Mr. Nevil, Dada and Opal handing out coffee.

A family shot before the parade started.

 

The Parade!!!

Their favorite parts were the cow and chick, the princesses, and the balloon swords. The mini YMCA carnival across the street was a lot of fun too. My favorite part was dancing, I mean watching them dance whenever a band passed by.

Worms & 3 Little Indians

Poppie came at the end of March and along with helping Eben complete his dream of eating worms (see below) he also inspired 3 days of traditional Indian living.  This sounds confusing, I know, but let me explain: First, Poppie went to the pet store and bought some small meal worms, cooked them in butter and garlic with Eben and we ate them! Eben has been asking to do this for a long time, we just never seemed to be able to find any. But thanks to Poppie, Eben can check this off his to do list.

Then, after hearing Poppie's olden day story of how he went to school on Halloween dressed as an authentic Indian (a towel, that was all) our kids were inspired to do the same. Unlike Poppie however, Eben, Kivi and Jasper wore underwear. They put my headbands on their tummies to keep the towels on and wore them for 3 days straight! Even at night under their jammies! They made wigwams all over the house, pretended to fish, hunt with bows and arrows, skinned their kill, made blankets, and did some Indian dancing. Dada even enhanced the outfits on the second day by making them Indian headdresses.  

The Lady and Gentleman

The rest of March included many dress up activities. Eben has already used his Easter jacket more times than I intended. We are definitely getting our 4 dollars worth out of it!

#1 - March 19th - Grace's birthday, a princess tea party. I took pictures at home of the prince and princess, cause they were so cute! And I know that when they get older, I can kiss seeing these kind of pictures (kissing and hand holding) goodbye. Which, is probably a good thing. They are brother and sister after all.

#2 - March 21st - Mary Cassio (now Moralez) Wedding - Eben was so excited to go. His first wedding. As he watched her walk down the isle he whispered to me, "Why does she still look like Mary?"  I guess he thought that once you get married, you look completely different. I don't know, but I thought it was funny. He was such a little gentleman.  Before we left for the wedding Jasper kept telling Eben, "You handsome, Eben. You handome!"
#3 March 29th - The Princess House - Well, that's not what it's called, but I can't remember the name.  Adeliz told us about this cute place where you can go for free!  We met a Alice, heard her sing and tell a story, had a little tea party, made bracelets and danced.

Opie Moos

No not Moves. Moos. (Although she does show off her cool dancing moves too.) On March 17, Peter took this video of Opal trying to show off her cute animal sounds. She actually knows a lot of them. But this day she only mooed.

Up Till The Ides of March....

The beginning of March included a lot of stay at home activities. Both Eben and Kivi have quiet reading time now while Jasper and Opal take a nap. We make a huge mess every day and then try to get it cleaned up by the time Dada comes home. Dada is very patient with us on the days we don't. We've been going to Mops every Tues. at Rainier View Christian Church and Lake City.  Wednesday we have HFG, our small group, which meets at our home. (So this is a no option cleaning day.) 

March 3 - We went to an indoor water park in Federal Way. The kids loved it. They floated around in their life jackets, and on inner-tubes, went down the water slide and played in the spray jets.

March 9 - Kivi got her "Baby Jesus Set", which she has been asking for since November. She even asked Santa and he said, "You want a what?" To which I replied, "A baby Jesus, you know the reason we have this holiday?" He just gave me a blank look. She earned her set by keeping her panties dry at night time for 2 weeks - a major accomplishment!

March 10 - I finished the girl's matching skirts and they wore them to Mops. The boys both had green on too, so I took a picture of all of them. 

March 13 - Eben gets computer time. Peter set him up with his own log-in and he loves it. He gets to play on the computer after he does his reading, until the end of nap time. His favorite sites are pbskids.com and allrecipes.com And he's forever getting new ideas of what we should cook.

Ok so it's not the Ides, but it's close to the middle.

Let's Go Skiing Again!

These are the words that Eben and Kivi kept saying over and over since we went last. So... why not!  We packed up the kids and went back over to Snoqualmie with Grandma and Grandpa this time.  We took Jasper and Emma with us too!  Kivi and Eben did great skiing and Emma rocked the snowboard. Then the last hour we were there Peter tried Eben out on the little snowboard and he just did it! He made it all the way to the bottom of the little slope without falling! For anyone whose ever tried snowboarding before, you know this is amazing, as you usually spend the whole first two days falling on your bum. I think he might have fallen once, the whole time on the snowboard - it was crazy!

Kivi on her skiis!

This was the extent of Bubba's snowboarding, he didn't really care for it.

Emma and Eben - the snowboarders!

And here's a look at Emma and Eben snowboarding together. 

First Time In Long Beach!

Feb. 15th 2009 - Long Beach + Mashel's new camera = more than 500 pictures!

These are my favorites:

Kivi's kitty boots.

Just outside of Marsh's museum there's this big bell. The kids all stuck their head up inside of it and then peeked out at the same time. They were so cute!

Bubba's looking down, but it's still my favorite picture of my boys.

All the kiddos watching Peter, Al and I go cart race. 

Guess who won? That's right - girls rule!

Cutie Opes tries eating sand.

Also the ones of Peter and I, and Kivi on the sidebar are from this trip too.

Thank you Halls for sharing your Long Beach with us!