Connor's Baptism, and the Murrays Visit!

This event really deserves more than one post, but I'm getting too far behind to be thorough!

Connor's baptism was in mid-April.  We talked about it a lot as he got older, and he felt like it was a choice he wanted to make, to follow Christ and "be a good man," as he cutely put it.  Kyle and Kelli very graciously offered to come down for the event, and I'm SO glad, since I think I would have gone nuts planning it on my own.  Here are the baptism pictures Kelli took with their fancy camera.  We had to take more than fifty to get one frameable one.  I mean, I guess I could have gone with the accurate pictures, but I didn't want to ;-)
  

   

  

  
We invited several of Connor's friends from school, and I was really surprised that four of them came.  They were all very sweet and seemed to have a good experience.  Ryan and I both gave talks. They were good talks, I think, but Evan was in a super bad mood and wanted me to hold him the whole time.  At the end of my talk on baptism, I put him down for a moment to bear my testimony.  As I closed, I saw the Bishop suddenly move behind me, and and turned to find that Evan had climbed the glass panel in front of the baptismal font, and was about to fall in.  Everybody thought that was pretty awesome, but Evan just got mad and embarrassed.  Luckily, a friend had candy, so I was able to bring him back just in time to see the baptism!  (A different friend had already taken an equally loud and fussy Corinne away.)  Connor looked so genuinely happy as he came up out of the water.  It was a tender moment.
   

Conducting Music

We took family pictures outside after the baptism, even though Evan was still pretty grumpy.  At least he's cute when he's mad.
  

Connor got scriptures as a baptism gift.

   
After we changed clothes, we all indulged Felix's train obsession with a trip to Travel Town.  Kelli got so many cute pictures, it was hard to pick which ones to keep.  (In case I didn't mention this before, credit for most of the good pictures in this post goes to Kelli,)
  

Kyle entertained the kids for forever on this lawn.  It was nice.

Two days before, when the Murrays arrived, we got to spend the evening with them and Kelli's sister-in-law and niece at Disneyland.  My little ones were especially impressed with the Pixar Parade this time around - even Corinne thought it was mesmerizing.  We spent Friday just hanging out and swimming.  Despite the cold water, Lincoln seemed to be delighted with the pool, it was super cute.
  

Tram = Best Ride at Disneyland

Pixar Parade

Us with Kelli's niece, Kim

My Favorite Picture Ever

Felix and Wiley are Buddies

Watching Butterflies

Elise tried to make a flower necklace, but it wouldn't hold together.

We were all sad to see Kyle, Kelli, Felix and Lincoln go.  They were a huge help, and made Connor's special day even special-er.  Elise made this elaborately wrapped gift the day they left.  I forget what was inside, but the wrapping took her over an hour.

  

Chuck E Cheese and General Conference

Connor got his wish again, and had his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.  We ended up with quite a lot of kids there, Including our friends the Palmers and the whole Kenny and Vance families!  I did a couple of things better this year.  I brought our own cake (a cupcake cake from Vons,) and sent Ryan ahead with the older kids to make sure stuff was ready.  Connor's highlight, of course, was going in the "ticket blaster" again.  He's really into the acquisition of wealth, I think.
  

 
For April conference, I decided to try a "Conference Refreshment Stand."  I had the kids help me cut out paper coins, then rewarded them with the coins for sitting still, doing conference packet activities, and generally being good.  Then, during the afternoon session, they could use their coins to buy refreshments between talks.  It worked really well.  Even better than the buckets activity last time, because I could expand beyond candy.  We also made collages out of old Friend magazines, and did a Conference Wall with pictures of the apostles.  I tried to identify the topics they talked about, and we filled them in as we listened.  That would have worked better if we hadn't missed so many talks ;-)

   

     

Connor and Elise made these faces out of clay at school.  I thought they were pretty cool looking.  They used to have ears, but those didn't survive long.
    

Left: Connor's.  Right: Elise's (with moustache.)

   
One of Connor's gifts was a Doctor Dreadful Alien Autopsy kit.  He made all kinds of gross candy blobs, and scattered colored sugar dust and goo everywhere.  Elise was really jealous.
   

  

 And here are a couple other goofy pictures:
    

Connor and his Friends.  I like how smart this picture makes them look.

Sleepy Baby

Princess Baby

Easter

We tried to do all of our usual Easter traditions this year.  We made resurrection rolls (remind me to make more next time,) decorated eggs and ate them, did a family egg hunt with the Easter-story eggs mixed in, and attended the Primary egg hunt, along with various videos.  The one thing we didn't get to was the cemetery visit, which is my favorite.  The weather was just too cold and wet whenever we had time.  Maybe we'll still manage to do it before I completely forget!
  

"Empty" Resurrection Roll

Coloring Eggs

Why are hard-boiled eggs so messy?

For some reason, Ryan decided to hide all Connor's eggs in the trunk of the van.

During the Primary activity, Elise came across this poorly-placed geocache at Deukmejian Park.  Although she found it by accident, it was the first she ever did by herself, so she wanted a picture.  She got a goofy penguin lip-balm as a prize.
  

    

Just before they quit attending Aveson Charter School, Connor and Elise got to go on a field trip, which Ryan helped chaperone.  They were learning about "their community," and visited a Brazilian jiu jitsu studio, the library, and rode public transportation.  Buses are very exciting if you've never been on one, I guess!

I was excited to get my first real sewing machine, almost exclusively for the purpose of sewing on cub and girl scout patches.  The first try was not successful.  I think it took me over an hour to thread the machine and get it running, and then this happened.  I was a grouchy person that day.  I eventually figured it out, though (thanks to Kelli and her online sewing pal!) I feel like a genuine grown-up now.
  

    

Instead of the toddler music class, we've started attending a sports/outside class with the same teacher.  It's worked out pretty well, since the other two homeschooling families in the area make it a point to come with all their kids, so I don't feel like the only freaky one.  Everybody has a picnic lunch and plays in the water afterwards.
  

   
Towards the end of March we went to a physics class at the Kidspace museum with friends.  The younger ones just explored while Connor learned about potential energy, etc.  This little girl has known Connor for three years now, and keeps telling him she wants to get married.  I can't tell if he likes the idea or not . . .
  

Ant Climber

   
We also finally visited the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball over in West L.A.  It was a lot nicer than I expected.  All the animals were very stylized and made of found objects, and almost everything was interactive.  We were totally the youngest parents there, it made for awesome people-watching.  At the end, you got a chance to make the world a better place, which on this day meant making cat toys for a shelter.  The kids were very into it, especially Evan.  
  

   
By April, the kids decided that the pool was officially warm enough to swim in. It wasn't really, but they didn't care.  I'm determined to get Elise and Evan pool safe by summer.
  

  

Cuddly Corinne