3-22-2009, 3-29-2009, & 4-5-2009 -- 3 Weeks in Review

As with any 3 week review, prepare yourself for a lot of pictures.....

Before I forget....here's some great pics from Mark's Redneck/white trash birthday party last (March 14) Saturday....

The trailer cake                                         Ryan winning the Hostess cake eating contest

My bro & sis in-laws, Heather & Eric

Chester & Georgette

 

And my most favoritist......Earlene (Erin) drinkin' moonshine (water).

 

Tuesday (3-17) was such a fun day!  We got up early, picked up some friends, dropped Corben at school and headed to our local playgroup's St. Patrick's Day party!  I worked hard all week and found enough 4-leaf clovers to give to all the kids...almost 50!!  (That's in addition to the 30+ I handed out Sunday to the senior Primary for their good singing!.....now I just have to come up with another 50 for the junior primary!!)  Anyway, the party was amazing!!  There were games, singing, a treasure hunt, crafts, & all types of green food!!  The girls had a lot of fun.  Ella could have sat and colored all day.

Wednesday, I started my photography course....beware photophobs.....there are many to come!!

And, of course, we can't forget that this week was my nephew, DOMINIC's, 4th Birthday!!!  Happy Birthday, Dom!!  We love you!

 

Saturday morning I attended a baby shower for one of my friends.  They played some really fun party games!  One in particular was surprisingly easy for me and it took some deep thought to figure out why....12 new baby diapers were filled with little bits of 12 different chocolate candy bars that were then melted just a bit to resemble...well you know.  ANYWAY, they were then passed around and you had to guess what candy they were.  It was quite interesting to see so many women smelling & poking through the mess in little baby diapers.  When all was said and done, I had 12 out of 12 answers correct!!  The winner!!  Many said I must eat too much candy but in fact, I very rarely eat a candy bar and actually have never eaten a few of them and didn't like several others.  The reason I won??  I NEVER put anything in my mouth without knowing exactly what it is.  I have analyzed my food since the beginning of time.  I am very aware of smells and textures and so, having been faced with each of these candy bars at least once in my life (some were refused), I was then able to recollect the smell of each or what I knew was inside.  There you have it, how a non candy bar lover won the candy bar challenge.....

Sunday was a fabulous day!  After church we gathered with the family at a near by park for an entire afternoon of family time and to celebrate the family birthdays.  There was sports, time at the playground, a photography contest, and so much more!!  So here are some of the pics from the day.  These are my kids and my niece and nephews!

  

The brothers held a photography contest.  They headed out on the trail to take pictures of Spring.  You could only take 24 pictures...here are a few of Ryan's.  What do you think?  I think he's pretty good!

 

This week my sweet niece, Abilene, had her 3rd birthday!! Happy Birthday, Abilene!!

Wednesday was my next photo class.  We were supposed to be taking pictures of the night traffic, but if any of you know me, you know I tend to get easily distracted and sidetracked.  Here's a couple of what I was supposed to be doing....

...and here's what I did in the mean time.

Thursday (3-26) I went out with Corben to dinner and games at his school.  It was nice to spend some one on one time together!

Saturday I did some work for a friend and took pictures for her daughter's birthday party!!  It was so fun to not have to chase my own kids!

   

Yes, there were children at this party but I'm not going to post them here....:)

Sunday, after church, Sylvie was too tired to finish her lunch....

Monday (3-30) we had family home evening with some friends and the kids had a blast!  Thanks, Jennifer!

Wednesday, was my photo class again.  This time we met at the Capitol Building downtown.  (Now for those of you who don't know, the Capitol is spelled with an "o" because it is a building used for legislation, it is not to be confused with the word Capital, spelled with an "a" which is the city in which the Capitol building is located....)  Anyway, here's the pics from the day.  I had a TON of fun.  I've made some friends in this class which always makes field trips funner.  (Funner not being a real word according to spell check...)

    

Friday the girls went to an Easter Egg Hunt with our playgroup.  I took my camera with full intent of getting pictures of them gathering eggs.  In fact, it was the ONLY thing I didn't get pics of because when they saw they eggs (they could only get 12, but what 2 year old can count when there's chocolate to be had!) they went CRAZY!!  Ella had like 40 eggs before I pried the basket from her and Sylvie was simply shoving foil covered candies into her mouth and throwing the empty eggs back onto the lawn.  She'd take for the road when I tried to stop her.  I finally had to pin them both down on the lawn (literally), dump out the baskets & count out the eggs they could keep.  I then took an entire load of eggs to the other side of the building where kids were wandering around wondering why they couldn't find their 12....ANYWAY...so here's pics of the fun had INSIDE!!

Saturday (4-4) was a great day.  Twice a year our church hold's a conference that is broadcast world wide.  There are two two-hour broadcasts on Saturday and the same on Sunday.  Luckily we can sit at home and watch it by satellite.  We used to go and sit at the church for that long to watch!

In between broadcasts I ran Corben to the local Easter Egg hunt that he's been dying to go to for years.  We tried a couple of years ago but were a few minutes late and there were no eggs to be found.  Well this time we made sure we were good and early.  We staked out our spot on the far end of the field to ensure maximum amount of time to collect eggs before the mobs of other children overtook everything.  Egg hunters were divided up by age group so Corben only had to contend with several hundred other 6-8 year olds.  When the horn sounded there was a mad dash, Corben disappeared into the crowd.  I spotted him for one brief moment tussling for an egg.  And then....it was over.  I'd estimate it took about 10 seconds...literally...for the field to be clear of the thousands of eggs that had sat only inches apart.  Many children stood dumbfounded with only 1 egg in their baskets.  Families walking up late were shocked to learn it was over.  Corben, being the wonderful child that I love, kindly gave a candy filled egg to one small boy who showed up too late to find any for himself.  How many did Corben get??  Of the literal hundreds of eggs that were his for the taking, especially seeing as we were so far down from everyone else, he got....10.  10!!  More than most kids there.  One mom had actually brought a garbage bag for her son to empty his eggs into as he filled his basket!!  It was insane!!  Anyway, each kid then got a free little stuffed duck to take home.  We got home less than 45 minutes after we left.  The perfect event!

We spent the rest of the day listening to uplifting messages from Church leaders and getting some big chores done around the house.  Ryan tilled the garden and got it ready for planting and I spent the afternoon pulling EVERYTHING our of our pantry to find the MOUSE!!....yes, we have a mouse.  How do I know??  Because he's been eating the paper towels and getting into the sugar I had stored for later.  I spent HOURS pulling everything out (it's a big closet that wraps around under our stairs and is only tall enough to stoop.).  I cleaned out all evidence of the mouse, closed up any holes I found, and reorganized everything so there was less for him to get into.  Ryan and I bought some wood and I used it to make several 6 foot long shelves that now hold my food up off the floor.  Yes, I know mice can get up off the floor but now, at least it's not all piled up on the floor for him to live in.

Today was another gorgeous day and a wonderful day of spiritual messages.  Between conference sessions Ryan headed out to plant a few seeds.  He disappeared for a while and when I went out to get him I found him almost asleep.....Ryan, it's a SEED BED....not your bed.

So now, I'm typing all of this instead of cooking dinner (Corben is asking me if I think marshmallow fluff would taste good on crackers....I should probably go feed them, but not before posting a picture of what they were doing just a moment ago and I worked on this very long blog....(I forgot to change my white balance so excuse the orange...)

So that's it!!  3 weeks down, maybe I'll do better this week!