art

I read somewhere that your children need to have their artwork hung up in your home. I can't remember all the reasons but it was enough for me to find a place to do this. The fridge isn't big enough and Mr. Lucas does not like the "artwork" to be hung sporadically around the house. I have tried several places and finally found one that works for us. Jake and Emily (and even Paige) know that if they want to hang something up it needs to go here. If there is not enough room then they pick an older piece of their work to take down.

We have to hang things high enough so that Sarah can not destroy them. The cute "cat in the hat" and kangaroo were ripped to shreds one day by the sweet thing. :) But it kept her busy for a while.

Jake likes to hang things on the fridge and in his room. His bed and the wall above it is covered with his pictures from church.

I love to hang this precious art around our house and happy that we found a place that keeps it looking somewhat contained.

Emily the Emerald Fairy

In Ems class they did a "Story Book Theatre". Emily chose the book Emily the Emerald Fairy. She memorized a short synopsis of the book and then had to dress up like her character. She did a great job and even got up early that morning to make a few things to accessorize her costume (notice the butterfly in her hair).

Smile for the camera?

This is the funny smile she gives me when I pull
out the camera. It just makes me smile to see such
a smile.

She still loves shoes. She is carrying Paige's shoe in this picture. And wearing one of my favorite spring shirts. She loves her new freedom of walking. She will just walk in circles just because she can.

She has also figured out how to open the cupboards. She loves to unload whatever she can find. Or hand me things one by one.

A True Lucas

I scream

You scream

We all scream

For ice cream.

our family virus

Heard of molluscum? I like to describe it like a wart and a pimple put together. But it is a virus and for our family it won't go away. Long story made short-Sarah had some and we had the dr put the blister juice on them. She wouldn't move for about 18 hours. It is a crazy thing. But hopefully it is all gone now.

Best Birthday Present

Mr. Lucas went to work and had a normal awful day at work on his birthday. Well, except for the amazing mint brownies I sent with him to share with his friends at work. When he came home we tried to get Sarah to show him her present to him but she would not do it on demand.

On April 15th our little SAL decided it was time to walk. On that day she decided that it was better to walk than crawl and made every effort to stand and try to walk. It was a strange thing how it just happened over night. She looks very dizzy when she does walk. It is amazing how she will fall down and pop right back up, get her balance and then she is off for as long as she can. Right now that is only about 5 steps.

Mr. Lucas requested his favorite cake (Rocky Road) and chicken cordon blue and then to torture myself I threw in homemade split pea soup (by the way it was fabulous). We had a nice dinner, opened presents and watched Bedtime Stories. It was a nice relaxing night. But that is how you want it when you are old.

Happy Birthday Big Bad (insert first name here)!

Since Mr. Lucas peruses our family blog every once in a while I thought I would see if he catches this birthday wish.

Happy Birthday! May your last year in your 30's bay be the best.:)

you say it's your birthday...

Rian likes to make breakfast and that is a good present to give since we all like to eat breakfast! He wanted to make this for Paige for her birthday. It turned out really cute and she ate the WHOLE thing!

For lunch she wanted to get fried ice cream at Pepperbellys. We invited Grandma to come with us and we had lunch with fried ice cream for dessert. Even better the ice cream was free!

For dinner she picked Chicken Alfredo. Paige got a "Wicked" awesome ticket for her birthday and a few extras.

The birthdays continue.....

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.....

The big basket to carry all the little baskets.

Our neighborhood has an Easter egg hunt and brunch every year. It is so much nicer than fighting the crowds at the city parks. All the families that want to participate donate enough eggs, candy and bring something for the brunch.

This year no one told Jake (who is the perfect age for holidays) not to pick up eggs and candy in the 0-3 year old section. I was busy trying to get Sarah to get eggs into her basket when Jen asked why Jake had a basket full of candy and eggs! We dumped the "goods" out for someone else to find them.

Jake, Em and Paige found their age appropriate sections and came home happy.

Easter

Lots of chocolate and a few toys. Chocolate for breakfast. Then scrambled eggs. Dinner with the family and another easter egg hunt. Happy children.

Birthday Spring Fling for Paige

Paige's party this year had an Easter theme. Each girl made their own pizza. Then made marbled eggs, decorated eggs with sprinkles, and "fun flocked" eggs. We decorated chocolate covered marshmallow eggs and made flip flops. Watched "Penelope" and ate ice cream cake. It turned out fabulous! Both Paige and I worked hard to get everything ready and it paid off in the end. I think everyone had fun, especially the birthday girl.

Spring Break Staycation

Monday: Dentist. That was enough excitement for the day.

Tuesday: Temple Square.
At church a few weeks ago Jake was looking through a quiet book and saw the Christus statue and asked about it. I decided then that we would be going to Temple Square to see that over spring break.
It was a beautiful day. The flowers were lovely. The sun was actually shining. We had a nice time walking around. Jake was so excited to be there.
Then we went to one of our favorite meals. Cafe Rio and Leatherby's for ice cream.



Wednesday: Candy factory tours: We went to Mrs. Cavanaughs first. That was OK. The best part was the free chocolate of your choice at the end.
Then we went to Sweets Candy. That was pretty cool. They took us in the factory. We had to remove all jewelry and wear hair nets. When we got to the taffy room and the door was opened the smell of sweet warm taffy rushed out. At the end of the tour we all got a piece of taffy right off the line and it was still warm.

On the way home we stopped in Bountiful at this frozen yogurt shop. You can make you own sundae and add as many toppings as you would like. Then you pay by the weight. We decided it was not worth the money. We could think of several places we would rather by ice cream (namely leatherby's). I think Brinley did eat her weight in frozen yogurt. But she is worth more than the cost of the yogurt.:)



Thursday: Mr. Lucas and I took a raised bed gardening class together. We lowered the average age of the class considerably.

Friday: Mr. Lucas started on the garden of our dreams and Paige and I got ready for her party.

With the exception of the birthday party that was our spring break. It went by fast and was a good week. But everyone is ready to go back to normality.

one liners

Em has a lot of these and they defiantly need to be documented. Another reason to kiss the person who invented blogs....

Yesterday we can home from book fair (yes, we all survived and the chicken pox are spreading to cousins now) and I noticed some garbage on our front lawn as I pulled in the driveway. I went to pick it up and throw it away and Em said "Whoever put garbage on our lawn I will find them and will kick in the behind and the front hind!"

You go Em!

Dinners ready!

Since Paige is home with the chicken pox she was watching my morning shows (I just leave them on as I do my "things" in the morning) and saw a few April fools day ideas. We decided to make one for a treat instead of dinner. Her "spaghetti and meatballs" turned out quite cute and was very easy to do.
I had wanted to put goldfish in the toilet. I did this a few years ago and it went very well. Especially for how easy it was. This year I didn't make it to petsmart before Jake got home so I took Jake, Paige and Sarah with me to the store. Jake was so excited when he saw all the fish. I bought several bags of them to deliver to friends to use in their toilets. Jake was talking to the fish and even tickling them through he bag all the way home. I was starting to feel bad that we were going to just flush the fish down the toilet in a few hours and this joke was not going to go so well with Jake.
After delivering all the fish we went home and Paige distracted Jake as I deposited the fish. A few hours later Jake went in to use the bathroom and Paige and I waited outside the door, with the camera, to hear his expression. Nothing happened. Flush. Jake is usually a sitter when it comes to going potty. I am guessing he went in, sat down, and then flushed with no notice of the fish. I said to Paige "Don't tell him he just flushed the fish. He will be devastated!"
Rian was up next. He comes home from school and goes into the basement bathroom and I hear "I am going to call animal control on you". Flush.
One fish left. No one ever said anything about the last fish. I think he found the deep dark hole and swam away.
I will wait another 4-5 years and try again.