as promised....

***warning: Photo heavy***

Fumigation is over and we're back home so I can finally give some much needed family update......

Let's do this chronologically so it's easier for me to run them down.....

First off, I was very excited with Spring Break. I think I was more excited about it than my kids were. I guess the idea of me not having to get up early and drive to and from school was considered a "great thing" in my book. Our break started the Friday before Easter and I took the kids to Heritage Park. Maddie commented one time that we've not been to a park in a long time. I agreed so that was the first thing on the agenda.


The kids' favorite part was feeding the ducks. Look at how excited Marcus was!


I'm so proud of this big boy. He can now swing himself and can even go really high. Kindergarten is the best!

Then on Saturday we had our Primary quarterly activity and the theme was "treasure hunt". Here's Marcus with the Pirate eye patch. One of our older boy in primary made for the activity. I'm in charge of this quarterly shindig but some of the older kids need certain "jobs" to fulfill so they can check off their progress book both in scouts and church so I made the boy make eye patches and he distributed them at the party. He did an excellent job making them.

My kids had a lot of fun (of course) and came home with some great treasures aka candy!

After the activity, we had our own traditional activity at home- Coloring our eggs...

I bought a egg dye kit and the containers in the kit were collapsible ones. I thought it was pretty neat but after using them, not that impressed. Because it IS collapsible, the eggs keeps on pushing them down and the water would come out. It was a good thing the containers were all in a pan.




And here's our eggs this year. My kids are not that patient to wait so the egg can absorb more dyes.

The dye kit also came with face stickers which I thought was just very funny. Here's my kids' eggs with personality. Maddie was even naming some of them with the seven dwarf's names. She doesn't remember all of them so I think he names three of the eggs Dopey! *laugh*


Then on Easter Sunday...

We usually have hot breakfast going on on Easter Sunday but since I don't have a kitchen to make Easter morning rolls we just settled in with Cereals. Oh how I miss my oven!

After church, I told the kids that they can't eat any of their candies till we take some photos. I was all set up for some fun shots. We started first with some family shots and got these. They don't look professional but pictures are better than no pictures at all.





I was doing all these with a tripod and my remote (oh how I love this little device!) We were having a hard time getting some shots done cause at first I thought that my remote needed a new battery but then I started taking solo shots of Marcus and my camera just died on me! aaaarrrggghhh! I hate it when I forget to charge my camera battery. I guess next on my wish list is a spare battery.

This made me a little irritated. I didn't even get to take photos of Maddie! and Mitch and I! and the kid's Easter baskets! Oh well, I guess a take lots of photos of the family during the course of the season that I'm sure my scrapbooks won't be incomplete without the annual Easter shots.

In the afternoon we went to G'ma and G'pa Tolman's home for some fun egg hunting.


Took some photos of the colorful eggs that were scattered in the backyard. We had all the grandkids go into the house while the parents scatter and hide the eggs. You can say this part was the "calm before the storm".



And then they were off......They divided the kids into age categories to make sure that every kids will get a fair chance with the eggs. And of course the little ones get to go first. Maddie and her cousins Lorelie and Cassidy got to go first.


Then it was Marcus' age group.....


I love how this photo just shows his intense concentration and competitiveness when it came to getting eggs. You see one hand just about to grab one in the grass while the eyes already focusing on the egg up on the tree branch. Funny dude!


Here's another funny one....I took this cause Maddie was trying hard to find eggs and all she needed to do was look up to get one.

I eventually pointed it out so she can grab it before someone else does.

And here's a little sneek peek in Marcus' basket. I'm glad my kids' got a great balance of plastic and boiled eggs.


and Mitch found "our" egg. My mother-in-law puts together a great big plastic egg with goodies for the adult children to look for. Fun tradition.


It's brimming with our fave see's bordeaux eggs and malt eggs. Yummy!


After all the Easter festivities, we switched gears and started getting things in order for the fumigation. I was on the phone getting estimates on Monday, Tuesday the Terminix inspector was at the house, Wednesday it was packing to leave the house and bagging food and Thursday we were out! I'm telling you I still don't know how I handled all that stuff PLUS working over 25 hours this week.

One of the new things my kids' got into this week was reading (of all places) in the trampoline. Here's Maddie surrounded by books.


On Tuesday morning, Marcus came up to me and showed me one of his bottom tooth loosed and about to fall off. I didn't want to pull it out, I was a chicken! So when Mitch came home, he yanked it out and Marcus had his first tooth come off! You can see from the picture below that a new is already coming out.


We placed the tooth inside a white envelope and that night he placed it underneath his bed and the tooth fairy came to visit and left hime 4 quarters. I thought tooth fairy was very generous!


I just noticed that this post was heavy with pictures of Marcus so here's one of Maddie channeling the "princess" inside of her at Grandma's house on Easter....


She insisted she wore the crown.

So that's it! Some crafty posts to follow. Till next time,
Grace