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

March

We had all kinds of crazy fun things happen in March.  Connor turned eight, and our homeschooling group went to a physics class at the California Science Center on the morning of his birthday.  They learned about air, it was pretty cool.
  

Connor continues to claim he doesn't like cake, so he had a brownie with ice cream for his birthday celebration.  He also got to officially join Cub Scouts with Ryan as his wolf den leader.  He was super excited, even though he had already been a few times illegally.
  

 
One thing happened around this time that was not fun.  Our friends from church suffered the death of their baby girl, Chloe, from unknown causes while she was in a carrier at Disneyland.  Chloe had Down Syndrome, along with several other medical problems, and was only a month older than Corinne.  It affected me a lot, and I went through a sort of depression for many weeks afterward. (It didn't help that I was extremely sleep deprived and feeling overwhelmed in other areas.)  The older kids and I attended Chloe's funeral, which was amazingly uplifting and tender.  It concluded with a balloon release and a party to celebrate her life.  Interacting with Chloe and her family has had a profound influence on how I feel about those with disabilities.  I feel like I'm a better person for having known her.  http://celebratechloe.blogspot.com/
 

Chloe

  

  
Uncle Kevin came to visit!  He had a training seminar all week for work, but he snuck out one evening to play with us down by the beach.  We ate fish tacos and watched the planes come in at LAX, it was awesome.
   

  
For Saint Patrick's Day, we did our "secret leprechaun" thing with families from church.  I keep promising myself I won't do it again, though.  I feel like our secret gifts are always so lame compared to the ones we get, and it stresses me out.  But, the kids love to doorbell ditch, and get so excited when they find surprises at our doorstep.  One of the baskets we got this year included this puppet/washcloth.  It was obviously meant for Corinne, but when we showed it to her, she stared at it for a moment, then did a huge startle, throwing her arms out and everything, and started to cry and turn away.  We tried it again a day or two later, just to see if it was a coincidence, and she did the exact same thing.  Long stare - jump of surprise - terrified crying.
  

Pop Rocks

  
One of the girls in Elise's kindergarten class held a 100th Day of School party at her house.  They made crafts that involved the number 100, and did a "100 Snack", where they took ten each of ten different treats and combined them in a bag.  My kids decided not to stop at one hundred, of course, and ended up with something more like a "500 Snack".
  

  
Most of those same girls are in a girl scout troop that meets during the homeschool park day.  I thought it might be nice for Elise to get to know them better, so we went one day to check it out.  Elise was so impressed with these girls, she couldn't stop talking about how nice they were.  "As nice as a kitty!" she told me.  So, we signed her up.  This is her right before her first Daisy meeting.
  

  
We finally (almost) finished our little yard landscaping project and set up our swing set.  It still needs to be anchored, and we need to buy wood chips, but the kids are already having fun with it.  Corinne was especially impressed with the baby swing.