Easter Celebrations

Ahhh... the beauty of commercialization. We took the kids to the City-sponsored Easter Egg "Hunt"... (actually a wild free-for-all where kids stand around wondering what's going on while the parents madly dash about the field picking up eggs, toys, etc and stuffing them into their kids baskets saying, "Here you go Billy, good job!")

We arrived with 5 minutes to spare, or so we thought. (Macy's dad TJ was in town for the weekend, too.) The hunt was supposed to begin at 10:00 a.m., announced by the Fire Engine Siren going off. However, the Fire Engine had not yet arrived, and city officials, including my Mom, were getting a little nervous and wanted to reassure parents that the hunt would start on time. So, meaning well, Mom picked up the microphone as someone turned it on and there was a HUGE blast of feedback from the speakers. Um, can you say, "RUN! THE HUNT HAS BEGUN!"?? Well, apparently that's what everyone thought. Immediately the fields (which were cordoned off according to age groups) were full of bodies (mostly MUCH too big to be "hunting" eggs), and within about 20 seconds, the grass was clean.



I think Macy and Isaak managed to snag 3 or 4 eggs each from the 18 month- 2 year old field. We were nowhere near the 3-5 year old field. Kaleb and Elise both missed out, since they weren't near their field either. The kids were pretty disappointed, as were the families that were still walking in from the parking lot, assuming they still had 3 minutes.

So, Mom and Dad were generous and sweet enough to sponsor a repeat hunt at their house after church on Sunday. It was MUCH better. The kids were actually able to use their powers of reasoning and deduction, as well as eyesight, to hunt the eggs for themselves. They all ended up with a pretty equal amount of loot... candy, and pocket change. Mom also had a little bucket full of other treats for them. She bought the girls some cute sun dresses, and the boys pajamas. It was a fun day. We enjoyed spending time with them and having dinner as well. We watched "How to Eat Fried Worms"... a must-see for any 7-13 year old boys. It was cute, but also quite disgusting.


Happy Easter, everyone!

Roller Derby, Anyone?

So, we've been trying to figure out how to get the kids to help out a little more around the house. A couple of weeks ago on Saturday, I made a chart with various chores on it, and told the kids they could choose to help or not. Any chore they did got a sticker in the box. Whoever had the most stickers at the end of the weekend would get a special surprise.

ALL of the kids did chores! It was GREAT! We didn't have to bug them at all. The girls were especially gung ho about it, and were running around cleaning like mad-women. When Kaleb saw how many stickers the girls were getting, he said, "Hey Isaak, come on, let's go clean our room!" :) It worked like a charm.

We had a simpler chart for Sunday morning- mostly just tidying up and getting ready for church. That night we told the kids that they had ALL earned our special surprise and that the next weekend we would take them roller skating.



I found a coupon on the internet for Classic Skating... 5 people could skate for free. I didn't want to skate anyway, since I'm the world's biggest klutz, so that was perfect! On St. Patrick's Day, we bought pizza and ate it in the car on the way. We got in free and then they gave us coupons for free skate rentals. So the only thing we paid for there was a $3 pitcher of soda since we didn't have drinks with our pizza.

The kids all had a great time. Robert had fun taking turns with Macy and Isaak around the rink. His back was pretty sore the next day from bending over and holding them to keep them from falling. I had fun watching and taking pictures. We'll have to do it again sometime!