Spring Break

This past Sunday we had in person church so we took our traditional Easter pictures since it will be General Conference on Easter Sunday. This time the kids decided to doll up the guinea pigs so they could be in the pictures too. This was a good decision because then the kids were way more excited and cooperative taking pictures.

Monday was Ben's birthdy so we celebrated by having 4 of his friends over- AJ, Andrea, Beck and Jacob. Last minute I come up with a few activties- they played Nintendo Bingo, learned how to draw Link from Zelda by watching a Youtube video (half of the kids really enjoyed this, half of them not so much) and they went on a "Yoshi" egg hunt which was shockingly just like an Easter Egg Hunt. The egg hunt wasn't super successful- apparently some eggs were just too tricky to find which is weird becuase I didn't hide them any more trickier than at the hunt we had had a couple weeks ago. After the activities the kids played on the Nintendo Switch while I made lunch. Then they ate lunch, then more nintendo switch, some playing outside with foam swords and last- cake and ice cream and presents. Ben had a great time and was spoiled rotten. But I didn't have the best time. One of the party attendees was unenthused with the activities, disgruntled with taking turns on the switch, and did not like my food. He was a pretty difficult guest. Who knew 11 year olds could be such prima donnas?

For his birthday he got Pokemon cards and a Subway gift card from my parents, a gameboy player from Tyler's parents, Mario Kart 8 and a Link Amiibo from us, 11 candies and $20 from AJ, Laser guns from Beck, Charmander Lego set from Jacob and notebook and cool dino pen from Andrea. 

Tuesday was our one warm day this week so we went back out to Detroit with the Bloomfield's and May's and walked the Dequindre Cut Trail again. I think it was a lot more fun with friends. They all seemed to enjoy chatting with one another and goofing off and boy did we add some crazy to that trail with our big gang.

We didn't have any big plans for Wednesday. We did a run to the library in the morning and me and the girls bought some things for a care package for a friend that has covid. Then Steven hung out at Max's house in the afternoon.

Thursday we were going to watch "Raya and the Last Dragon" at a friend's house but her husband got Covid so that plan got scratched.  Instead we ended up going to see it in the theater. It was nice to go see a movie in the theater again and we all really enjoyed it. It had a good message about unity and trust. After the movie we had our Mystery/Prank dinner. The kids picked 3 things for each course but they didn't know what they were picking because the menu was just numbers. Ben got a fork and pudding first. I ended up with spaghetti and no bowl or fork. Penny got spaghetti in a bowl but no fork. It's a fun tradition that we started last year.

Friday Tyler had off work so we took the kids bowling. Steven is getting pretty good. Tyler has always been pretty good. But the rest of us have much room for improvement. There were two times that Penny got the ball in the gutter...even though we had bumpers. There were also two times that her ball was so slow that it literally didn't make it to the pins. She had a good attitude about it all and so it was still a good time. I even got a score of a hundred for one round which is really impressive for me ;)

Saturday we had General Conference, dyed Easter Eggs and ate our traditional Last Supper. The Easter Egg dying was done in a rush because Jacob came over wanting to play outside and they really wanted to go out and play.

Easter Egg Hunt, Chungus Day

 Our Easter Egg Hunt last Saturday was a success. I had spread out the eggs in the backyard and front yard and then hid some around both yards too. Then we hid some eggs in the house for the teens. When the kids came we had the younger ones go out our back door and the middles go out our front door and then the teens got to search the house. Everyone got a good amount of eggs and seemed to have a good time. The teens all found a golden egg with money- even the golden egg that was in the toilet tank. Then afterwards all the kids spread out their candy, traded it and then consumed far too much of it while the grown ups got to chat. I think I will have to make this a yearly tradition.

Monday the weather was amazing so I sent Caroline a last minute text to see if her family wanted to meet us at a park. They did, so we got to go enjoy the beautiful weather with friends at the park. We also saw my friend Julie (the mom of triplets) at the park. When Caroline's family left, all my kids gathered around me and Julie happened to snap a picture of my crowd ;)

Monday evening we celebrated Isaac by making butterflies and decorating a giant butterfly cookie. It was a nice thing that Tyler headed up since I told him I wanted to do something to celebrate Isaac.

Tuesday was another beautiful weather day so I took the kids (well all but Steven) along with me to drop off some things with some of my YW in Milford and then we stopped at Milford Central Park. We decided to do some exploration of the woods around and the kids had fun walking on the stones in the river. It took Penny a bit to get brave but eventually they were all hopping from stone to stone and I was praying no one fell in. It was shallow but it was such mucky water.

Wednesday all 4 kids went to the dentist for their regular check up. No cavities, yay! And then that evening my yw had a Zoom meeting where one of the leaders sisters taught us how to do Zentangles. She was nice enough to not only teach us but also donate the supplies which we had dropped off. During the activity my yw mostly left their cameras off and didn't say anything which was frustrating, they didn't seem super grateful by doing that but teens... Other than that, I really enjoyed it because I love artsy things.

Thursday our neighbor Sharon came over and helped us repot some of the plants she had helped the kids start to grow. We determined Lucy has the green thumb and Ben not so much since none of his plants were growing and all of hers were flourishing. After she helped with the plants, I took the oldest 3 on a bike ride to the library to get some books. 

Friday while I was cleaning the house my friend Rebekka called and we had a nice 2 hour chat catching up on all the things. Then that evening Tyler and I went on a date, which was really just us running some errands. This time while we were out Lucy had the home cell and she sent me soooo many texts. She was sure enjoying sending me all sorts of taco stickers.

That night we forced Penny to let us pull her other front tooth. It was so loose that we worried it might fall out and choke her during the night. She was not happy about it that night but the next day she had come to terms with losing it.

Saturday was Chungus day- that weird holiday I created when I was trying to cheer myself up last year. We say it's the day that Chungus (the Easter bunny's lesser known brother) comes to drop off a garbage bag full of books and things. The kids were excited about there new books, although Steven didn't feel the need to pose for a picture.

After lunchtime I decided to try out the bike rack I got for Christmas and we took our bikes over to a trail in Wixom and took the trail to Clara Miller Park. Penny has anxiety with crossing busy roads but other than that it was a good time.

Our last activty for Chungus Day was to decorate a bunny cake and eat it for dessert. It turned out rather terrifying. My kids make creepy things.

Things

This past Sunday I had a proud moment for my young women. Bishop wants to do a mulch fundraiser for youth camps but the young women were not interested. One of my counselors suggested selling flowers instead and the girls loved this idea. So my young women got together and came up with a persuasive speech in favor of the flowers and presented it to the Bishop at Ward Youth Council. I didn't love his reaction. Instead of praising them for their efforts he gave them the fifth degree about the fundraiser- really nit picked it- but in the end one of his counselors pointed out that we could make more money with the flowers so Bishop conceded that the girls could do flowers and the boys could do mulch. 

After such an eventful week last week, we were much less exciting this week. Mostly just errand running- getting some things for a family that's going through a hard time, getting things for the kids' Easter baskets and getting candy for the Easter Egg Hunt we're hosting. Apparently I was putting that stimulus check we got from the govt to good use. But when I run errands I tend to invite one or two kids along with me so the positive side to errand running this week is that I got some quality time with my kids.

On Monday Penny got sick. She had a low grade fever for all of Monday and for most of the week was fairly congested. This did not make for a very happy Penny. She becomes exteremely sensitive and whiney. That in turn made homeschool with her this week less than fun. But as of today, Saturday, she is feeling much better thankfully.

Youth activity restrictions finally changed for the better so Wednesday we met in person with our yw outside the YMCA. We brought all the girls Shamrock Shakes since it was St. Patrick's Day and chatted, danced, and played GaGa Ball (which is like Dodgeball except you swat the ball with your hands instead of throwing it). It was pretty fun, I just have a bleeding heart and the girls weren't doing a great job of including a girl that's fairly new to our Ward. Thankfully she's athletic and when they started playing Gaga Ball I think she started to feel more included.

Friday night Caroline and Melissa came over and we filled Easter Eggs. Two of my YW were doing the lighting for their HS play so I bought a streaming pass for it and we sort of watched it while filling eggs. I say sort of because it was really quite terrible so we felt less inclined to focus on it. Why was it terrible? First of all it was made from interviews of people who had connections to the Sandy Hook shooting so the material was not happy. Second of all, I don't think most high schoolers can truly understand the subject matter so they really overdramatized it. BUT the lighting was on point so my yw are still amazing. Ha.

This morning, Saturday the girls had cheer again, they are adorable and I love watching them cheer- even if they're not great at it. And then this afternoon Caroline and Melissa and my neigbor will be coming over for an Easter Egg Hunt. I had invited the triplets that live in our neighborhood too but they cancelled this morning. Which means we have an excessive amount of eggs now for the rest of us. I'm sure the kids won't complain though. But I might complain because that candy is going to be sooooo tempting.

This week I got asked by a Bunco friend to do some handlettering for her business. She did not offer any compensation and honestly if she had, I probably wouldn't have taken it but the gesture would have been nice. It also started off simple- a few signs with one word on them and then spiraled to 8 signs, some with more complex phrases. And then when I sent her digital files she said she was wanting handwritten. I finally talked her back into digital but not without some feelings of frustration in between from me. Her company does work with abuse survivors and is a good business but I just had a lot of moments where I didn't feel like my time was being respected. Anyways, I probably will never try to sell my stuff because just doing this for free project ruined the relaxation that my hobby usually provides. But I am up to a whopping 74 followers on my @hatchcreates IG page so go me ;)

This week marked a year since my losing Isaac. Oddly enough the only person who acknowledged it is one who has been giving me the silent treatment. I don't know how to feel about her still but I do I appreciate the acknowledgement. I've had a lot of hard feelings as of late and it's nice to have someone recognize that this is a hard time. 

And to end on a much happier note, Lucy was inspired to paint and made me this gem. It sounds a bit like a threat ;)