The Silver Linings to Severe Thunder Storm Warnings

 So, originally I was going to continue on with the cute little monthly sayings and title this post "April Showers . . . "  Well, FORGET THAT!!  Ever since the snow melted it has been raining and raining, with an occasional sunny day here and there.  And normally I'm okay with rain - I love the rain.  But a little moderation would  be nice!  We had planned to go camping over Spring Break.  However, since it had  been raining so much, even if it cleared up, the ground would be too soggy and muddy to make it much fun.  "Never fear!", I thought, "we'll just find some indoor fun" - but NO!  Even the indoor stuff I looked at was affected by rain.  The underground river cave tour I looked at?  FLOODED!  I looked into two indoor water parks, but they were either booked or an arm and a leg.  Even the indoor swimming pool wouldn't let you swim if there was thunder within 20 miles of  the place.  Seriously?!?  I started getting a little discouraged and bugged by the whole thing, but then I took a step back, mulled it over for a day or so, and we managed to come up with a plan and actually had a great week . . .

 First of all, Spring Break kicked off with General Conference, so of course you can't go wrong there.  Kylie had her "Conference Tent" set up with the help of her big sisters and there was plenty of conference packet fun and yummy snacks to be had.

Conference also coincided with Easter Sunday this year, which was awesome.  Of course the Easter Bunny paid us a visit,  but it was also nice to spend the day together as a family hearing messages about our Savior and His Gospel.  

 Aly and I did a couple of puzzles during conference as well.  Good times, good times.  Conference was very powerful, especially as I listened to the apostles testify as the watchmen on the tower.  They are inspired men.  I think my favorite quote of the conference (from a member of the 70's and paraphrasing, of course) was "We cannot be happy with mediocrity once we know excellence is within our reach."  I can't wait to listen to the talks again!

 So, the girls had been talking about swimming for about a month.  Aly really wanted to swim some laps and the other kiddos just wanted to get in the pool. . . and we actually managed to pull it off!  We managed to get to the pool for a couple of hours in between two major thunderstorms passing through the area.  Perfect timing.  Also, there was a medium-sized water slide and a splash pad for the little kiddos.  And since it was raining off and on all day - hardly anybody was there.  It was perfect!

 Of course, we couldn't avoid the rain completely.  After swimming we met Chris at a restaurant for dinner and this huge storm came through!  (Like literally, we couldn't see across the parking lot).  We found out later we were under a tornado warning.  All the while we were blissfully inside eating our burgers. ;)

 Aly also felt that when it was pouring rain was the perfect time to go out ripstiking.  It was nice and warm, so why not?  Also, being inside helped me to get some projects done.  I was able to go through the girls' summer clothes and figure out what they needed.  Then of course we needed to do a little shopping!!  (And the girls are actually getting to the point where shopping with them isn't such a pain in the patootie - as long as I only have one or two of them with me at a time!)

Thursday Chris had off work and so we went bowling.  They had this deal where we could all bowl for 2 hours with a one topping pizza and a liter of soda for $25.  Nice!!

 There was a photo booth right by our lane that would randomly take pictures of the bowlers.  Of course our girls discovered that in about two seconds, and whenever it started going off they would run to pose in front of it.

 Kate felt a strong possession over her ball and the need to carry it with her in between turns.  We had to convince her that the balls are to share and she needed to leave it on the rack.

 Chris got robbed!  Every time the pins would go flying and leave just one standing.  Oh, the injustice of it all!

 Kylie got so excited every time her ball would hit a pin - even if it was just one!

 Another thing we had planned to do over Spring Break was teach Kate to ride her two wheeler without training wheels and pass along her old bike to Kylie.  We found a time in between storms when it was just overcast and windy and headed to the church parking lot.  Well, apparently I didn't need to teach Kate at all.  She took off like a natural!  The only thing we did need to work on (for both of them) was learning how to use the brakes to stop!

 And, hip, hip, hooray - Friday night it was not raining so we were able to salvage the best part of camping - a fire!!  It was the perfect temperature outside - cool enough for a sweatshirt and the warmth from the fire to feel delicious - and the s'mores weren't bad either!

 Along with these fun adventures, Chris and I were able to go to the temple and to a movie.  So, all in all, it turned out to be a great Spring Break - at least, I thought so.  And all the good things weren't even despite the rain.  Some of them were actually because of the rain.  Like, the smell of freshly cut grass everywhere I go.  And the beautiful rainbow I got to enjoy out on the back deck.   Our spring break ended with our Stake Conference where they shared this quote I love by President Hinkley:  

 

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.

It all works out. Don’t worry.

I say that to myself every morning.

It will all work out.

Put your trust in God,

and move forward with faith

and confidence in the future.

The Lord will not forsake us.

He will not forsake us.

If we will put our trust in Him,

if we will pray to Him,

if we will live worthy of His blessings,

He will hear our prayers.

Amen to that!!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb . . .

Um, yeah, remember how at the end of February I mentioned that I was ready for spring?  Well, apparently that was a little premature as mother nature had one more trick up her sleeve.

We had another record breaking snow storm (over 2 feet of snow!) and two more days off of school.  I heard someone refer to this as "Snowmageddon", which cracked me up.  Seriously, growing up in Utah, I got 4 days off of school that I can recall - total!  One in elementary, one in Junior High, one in High School, and one in college. So apparently it was a once in every 3 years thing for me, and that was when it would snow like 4 feet overnight - or faster than the snow plows could keep up with it.  My kids have had school off for hurricanes and snow and flooding - all sorts of stuff - 7 days this school year alone!.  It's crazy.

As Chris was feeling under the weather, I was able to go out and do some shoveling this go around, which I actually enjoy.  It's like mowing the lawn - very therapeutic to work and see the fruits of your labor.

Even the kids were kind of done with the snow.  Lise and Kate were the only ones to come out with me to play in it.

This snow didn't stay around as long as the last storm due to rising temperatures (thank goodness!), but we did make the most of what we had.  First of all, we took advantage of Dairy Queen's "Buy one get one free Blizzard" whenever it's snowing deal, and then decided to have a Star Wars Marathon!  We made it through 5 of the 6 movies . . . still need to see that Jedi Return though. . .

So, once the snow was gone (hopefully this time for good!), what did we do for the rest of March?  PLENTY!

Kylie had fun with friends over for playdates and going to birthday parties . . .

She celebrated Dr Seuss at preschool with "Wacky Wednesday" (love the outfit?)

Also Kylie is big these days on eating breakfast in her robe and slippers.  She gets mad at me if I don't wake her up in time and she has  to have cereal in a cup.  Oh man!

Kylie's quote of the week happened during scriptures.  We were talking about how the greatest commandment was to Love God with all your heart and to Love your neighbor.  Then Kylie pipes up and says, "I LOVE MY NEIGHBOR!  I LOVE MY NEIGHBOR BECAUSE THEY HAVE KITTIES!!!"

Another thing that is always going on for Kate and Kylie is their "game".  It consists of making huge cities out of every Little People House, My Little Pony Castle, Barbie Mansion, and Littlest Pet Shop Bungalow we own and it takes up their entire room.  Unfortunately, I can never quite get them to clean up their game because "it's on pause" and it took them hours to set it up.  We usually just have to vacuum around it.  Kylie is dead set on getting an "Elsa/Anna" barbie castle for her birthday - as if we need one more castle!!

Kate is still all about dressing for the occasion. In the above picture she is a Zebra (notice Aly's lovely photo bomb face.)  In the below picture she wanted to be an "Easter Princess" with her hair in two "egg buns hiding in the grass".  In retrospect, I should have had the "grass" sticking up, not down. . .

Kate has also recently joined in her elementary's "running club" and I have a lot of fun running with her after school.  Kate also has a quote of the week . . .
Kylie - Where's Dad?
Me - He's running.
Kate - He's running to Africa.
Me - That would be kind of hard, considering there's an ocean in between.
Kate - I know!  He got on a boat and ran on a treadmill.
(Leave it to Kate to never be wrong about anything!!)

The girls elementary also had their art show in March  so we headed over to see Kate and Analise's masterpieces.

Like Looking in a Mirror . . . 

Our ward had a Primary Easter activity.  I was in charge of the spiritual lesson, and we had an egg hunt at the end.  Another cold snap had come down,  but this time there was no snow on the ground thankfully!

Aly was able to go to her Beta Convention that was cancelled last month, and Chris and I were able to go with the Youth in our ward to do Baptisms for the dead.  

Chris and Aly, despite illnesses and snow days, were also able to participate in their 10K and did awesome!!

Aly and I were able to spend a lovely weekend at Time Out for Women with these lovely ladies from our ward (and a few of Aly's friends from Young Women's).

An added bonus was running into my Awesome Sister-in-law and her girls and hanging out with them as well!  

A couple of funny things about this trip - One was that Aly and my friend's daughter decided they would rather sleep on the floor than share a bed with their moms - so we each got a bed to ourselves - Ha!  I loved this quote by John Bytheway where he was talking about contention and said, "The battle's not between me and you, it's between us and Satan.  Don't get that confused."  I think this will be a good thing for us all to remember during the teen years at our house . . .

The other funny thing was that at the same time that the TOFW conference was going on, so was a Comic Book Conference.  So everywhere we went we would see villains and elves and princesses, etc.  It was hilarious.  (See the Joker below)

On another weekend we got to have so more fun with the Paine family when they came up for the weekend.  We decided to head up to Louisville to see the sights. . .

First of all, there was tons of crazy stuff to see right along the street, including this statue of a guy sitting on a park bench.  Of course we needed to join him . . .

We decided to experience the Kentucky Science Center - and there was a lot to experience!  There was tons of hands on stuff to do, which made it fun for the little kids as well as giving the big ones stuff to do.  From playing in the rice box . . . to watching a 3D movie about Monarch butterflies . . .

. . . to playing "if you're happy and you know it" at the whispering dish . . . to creating an arch with puffy blocks.

There were balls to levitate and mazes to create . . .

. . . and finally a lunar landing pod to sqeeze into.  (I can't tell you how much drama there was to get all four of my kids into this thing and smiling at once!)

Finally we headed down to the river for little "nature walk".  Always so much fun to hang out with the Paine's.  We must do it again soon!!

And last, but certainly not least, Kylie had her Easter party at preschool.  Remember all that snow at the beginning of March?  Well, it melted away to leave 75 degree weather for Kylie's Easter Egg hunt.  Hooray!  Spring is here just in time for Spring Break . . .