April Part 3: Spring Break

We decided to stay home for Spring Break, but I was worried about how the week would go without having some kind of schedule, since Gabe thrives on schedules and struggles without them, and I wanted to make it somehow special without exerting too much effort. Brian and I were talking about what to do and came up with the idea of theming it like a staycation. I asked the kids what their favorite things about cruises were, and they mentioned unlimited ice cream. 

We started our Staycation Monday night, after Brian took the kids up to ski-board. Rachel dragged her feet about going, but then wished she hadn't made such a fuss because they had a great time. Notice how they're not wearing their coats zipped up? Such strange weather. 

We introduced the staycation with some music, trying to pretend like we were on a sail away party on a Carnival cruise. It fell a bit flat, but I noticed smiles from all of the kids. We introduced the schedule, which Michael groaned a bit about until we told him he really only needed to show up for dinners, then he was on board. 

We told them there was ice cream in the freezer and toppings and cones in the pantry and they could have as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted as long as they put it away when they were done. I made this schedule mostly for Gabe so that he knew screens weren't going to be a thing until a certain time of the day. I bought several crafty things for him and Rachel to do throughout the week. 

The kids immediately got to work on the ice cream deal. 

The next morning, Rachel and Gabe were excited to start on crafts. Rachel even invited friends over to participate. I gave her a marker pad and alcohol markers, as well as a modern calligraphy book and pens. 

She'd been craving Monte Cristo sandwiches ever since I introduced her to them at Disneyland. She got her friends to come over and make them for everyone. 

They even made these cute signs for each of us. 

Michael opted to stick with his ice cream. 

I got Gabe a Stitch Blanket kit. 

Michael also mentioned that his favorite part of cruising was how they make his bed every night, so I tried to do that for the kids every night. I think I only made it one or two nights. I think I had to delegate it to Brian one night. 

I also made them towel animals. I loved hearing them laugh when they first saw them. Here's Gabe's the first night: a bear for our bear. 

After Gabe went to bed, Michael invited us to watch him fly one of his planes. It had been a while since he flew one, and it was fun to watch this one flying around. (It's the yellow spot in the sky). 

After flying, I finished making Rachel's and Michael's beds, along with their towel animals. 

Brian made Gabe's bed and towel animal Wednesday night. I was either busy or not feeling well. 

I made Rachel an elephant Wednesday night. 

While the kids were crafting, I tried to paint something for Ben, but I don't like how it turned out, so it probably won't go up on a wall and simply live on this blog forever. 

One of the nights, we let the kids order whatever they wanted from wherever they wanted. We were going to have Doordash deliver it all, but Brian ended up being our Door Dasher. Michael wanted a pizza from Little Caesar's, Brian and I got the Smoked Taco, Rachel wanted Waffle Love, and Gabe got Costa Vida. It was fantastic! 

We had a fun, low key week. 

Gabe got assigned to do a report on Juab County for school, and he really wanted to visit it during Spring Break, so since it's the next county south of us, we decided to make an "excursion" out of it. We found this random bootie on a fence on our way. 

Little Sahara is in Juab County, so we brought our sleds and bought some tubes at WalMart to see if we could sand surf. Rachel brought her friend Emery as well. It was so incredibly windy, but we had a good time. 

The tubes were a bit of a bust. 

We tried flying my kite, but at some point, the kids lost a piece to it, so it wouldn't really fly. 

Our long sleds worked pretty good, but only on the super steep hills. 

After getting tired of having sand blow into our eyes, we packed up and headed home. 

 That was kind of the last thing we did for our non-epic staycation spring break. Hopefully core memories were made, and everyone remembers this week with fondness. 

April Part 2: Easter

I really love Easter, and I'm trying to find more ways to make the entire holy week more meaningful. Two years ago, I planned an Easter dinner on the Thursday before Easter where we served Mediterranean food and tried to have a lazy person's version of a passover meal. I loved that night, and decided to incorporate it at our house the next year, and then we did it again this year. I should have consulted my notes better because I forgot to get goat cheese and grape juice, but I'll remember next year. We picked up food from Spitz and had our candlelight dinner. We sang "Gethsemane" and listened to other music about the Savior. I loved doing this again, and I hope my kids love it too. 

Friday was a little hectic, but I still managed to make Hot Cross Buns. The kids still didn't love them, mostly because they refuse to try them,  but I'll try again next year. I took some to my neighbors and they liked them. 

On Saturday, the Easter Bunny brought our baskets. He did a really good job hiding them this year, and it took a while for the kids to find theirs. I think we had more flag football games and we tried to tune in as much as possible to Conference. Later that night, we made resurrection cookies. The learned more things about egg whites and their ability to peak (don't let any yolk fall in with them!). Resurrection cookies tell the story of Jesus's trial and death on the cross. One of the ingredients is vinegar, and we had everyone try it. Michael is very proud of the fact that he has a high tolerance for drinking vinegar. He threw back several shots of vinegar. Why he did it without a shirt is anyone's guess at this point. 

On Sunday, we finally dyed our Easter eggs. 

And in the middle of egg decorating, naturally a model plane needed to be involved. 

We went outside for our epic egg rolling, and then Brian and I made egg stuff. 

We enjoyed listening to both sessions of General Conferences and all the messages about our Savior and Easter. It was a wonderful Easter, even though it was just the five of us. 

I'm so grateful for my Savior who gave His life so we can have eternal life someday. Everything good in my life is because of Him. 

April Part 1: April Fool's Day

Years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the idea of eating dinner with crazy dinnerware on April Fools' Day. Since I don't like pranks, that seemed a perfectly awesome way to mark the 1st of April. Yet, April would come, and I'd forget every year. Except this year, another friend told me about their silly dinner that they do for April Fools, and I remembered. 

Meanwhile, my niece Sarah got a prom dress that was way to long for her, and Chelsea asked if I would help Sarah shorten it. So, Chelsea, Amber, and Sarah came to our house on April 1. Fixing Sarah's dress took longer than expected because I operated under then assumption that I was helping Sarah, not that I was doing it for Sarah. I was trying to teach her things, and it all took longer. Then, dinner time approached, so I asked Chelsea to make spaghetti and told her about my crazy utensil idea, and headed downstairs to hurry and finish the dress. (I had a sewing class that night). Brian finished work and helped her pick out the dinnerware (Chelsea balked doing my crazy idea). I came upstairs after finishing to find the most awesomely set table. Everyone got a kick out of it. 

We took videos of everyone trying to eat, but I'm only posting pictuers. 

Michael said, "Finally we do something for April Fools!" It made my night. 

Chelsea's place setting cracked me up so much. 

Now I just need to remember that this is officially a tradition next year!