Hairstyles

The boys have taken to doing their own hair on Sundays.  

I like their creativity!

Elyse is not doing her own hair but insisted that she needed a picture too.

Matchy Matchy

The boys decided they wanted to match today and insisted that I take their picture.

And Elyse didn't want to be left on the picture taking action:

I love the cheesey smiles.

Ultimate!

So, Matthew played ultimate frisbee this spring.  I don't know why I didn't post about it sooner.  Maybe because I didn't have any pictures.  But, it was a lot of fun for him.  There was a pretty steep learning curve but by the end of the season, things began to come together better for the team and the players.  Matthew was lucky to play with two of his best friends from McDonald: Charlie and Ian.
Here's a picture of what Jon calls "McDonald Line:"

And here are the team shots:

Richard Scarry vs Usborne

Seth:  Elyse, let's read this one (Scarry)

because I don't know how to read in Russian (Usborne).  

I hate to break it to you kid but you really can't read either. 

Matthew Reports on Spring Break

For Spring break, I went camping along the Oregon Coast.  It was really fun.  We camped in yurts.  We roasted s'mores every day that we were there.

Us roasting marshmallows

 A s'more with homemade strawberry marshmallows

When we walked along the Oregon Coast we saw an old shipwreck.  The boat was called the Peter Iredale for the name of the captain.

We also saw the site of an old fort that had batteries that we could climb.  The batteries still had old guns too.

Me, my friend Asher, and Seth on the gun

On our way home we stopped at Cape Disappointment to see the lighthouses.  And we found a giant slug.

Me by the lighthouse and ocean

The slug compared to my shoe

 The trip was really fun.  I really enjoyed it.

Seth, on lengthening days:

"On these days the sun gets to stay up really late because it has been super good."

Never miss a photo opp

At REI Seth insisted on having his picture taken.  So Elyse needed hers taken too

Hiking

In the fall we started a Running Club to prepare for the kids marathon.  After the marathon the running club evolved to a biking around Greenlake club.  More recently, because the boys moved up bike sizes and I can no longer keep up with them running while they ride, it's become a hiking club.  We've already had a couple successful dry weather hikes, but yesterday we had our first real soaker.  When you and your kids are dripping wet and exceptional dirty what else are you going to do but take pictures.  Despite (maybe because?!) of the weather the kids loved (almost!) every minute.

 

In Between Conference

We were super busy with t-ball and ultimate frisbee games on Saturday and the boys had full unlimited access to screens so day one of Conference went off without a hitch.  Today was not so smooth. After a tumultuous morning session we decided that we needed to get out for some fresh air and decided to ride bikes.  And I realized I never documented the fact that 1) Seth can now ride without training wheels, 2) both boys moved up to bigger bikes and 3) Elyse can now peddle her trike.  Luckily today Jon captured this video with proof of all three.

Double Header!

Seth had his first t-ball games on Saturday and loved every minute!

Sundays

I caught this one sided conversation between Seth and Elyse while they were playing house today:

Seth:  I am the bishop so I have to go to meetings.  Elyse, you are the mom so you have to stay home.

Yup.  He's got it down.

Though the situation isn't ideal, I'm actually pretty happy to stay home instead of going to meetings.  Every once in a while my kids play with each other contentedly and I can watch them have fun together.  This morning they built this fort/slide/tumbling track:

And I'll also feel completely justified in making Jon help them clean it all up!

Pajama Day

Friday was a self proclaimed pajama day for Elyse.  In other words, I wasn't up for the battle. Sadly, I also must admit I'm pretty sympathetic; I'd wear pajamas all day if I could too.  And after this happened in about 10 seconds when I wasn't looking I figured pajamas beat nakedness anyday.

While we were out on our errands for the day, Elyse insisted that I take a picture of her while riding the horsey and saying "giddy-up!"

What a character!

Sock Lint

Before taking a bath Seth will meticulously clean out all the sock lint from in between his toes because he doesn't want his bath water to be "dirty."I find this ironic since he has no problems wearing a peed in nighttime pull-up half the morning. I guess that's a cleaner type of dirty to him!

Seth's Playdate

I'm pretty awful about arranging play dates for my kids. Seth has especially been neglected ever since Matthew has given up on me and started arranging his own.  So Seth was over moon excited to have his very first kindergarten friend play date.  What's more he got to ride the bus from school to his friend's house.  He was so thrilled that he "composed" his own note to his teacher letting her know he'd be riding the bus a full four days in advance. Thankfully he didn't object to me adding in a caption, oh, and my signature!

Better Luck Next Time

The pun is totally intended.  It didn't quite turn out as well as last year but you can't expect to be perfect when you only make it once a year.  It was kind of a last minute effort.  We didn't have pretzel sticks to make the ladder and the boys made their own "coins" from tin foil to lure in the leprechaun because I hadn't gotten any chocolate coins.  Maybe I'll be more on top of it next year . . . or the next . . . or the next . . . .

The leprechaun was not fooled by the tin foil coins and decided to make mischief and leave confetti all over the cake and cupcake to show his fury. 

You can sort of see the rainbow, right?!