March Madness

Recap of the March Madness at our house. Early morning choir practise 2 times a week for Jack, 5 times a week for Madison! Softball for Maddy, Softball for Lexi and baseball for Jack, season has begun. Practise 6 days a week all over the valley. In the mix of all the madness, the Leprechaun did find us. Good thing he was able to find our trap which barely made it out of the box in time for St Patrick's Day. Maddy and Jack were off to choir early and didn't see the trap or the mess the Leprechaun left in the toilet but this girl found it! And was excited to have treats for breakfast. 

The pancakes are green just browned so it's hard to tell. Who doesn't love whip cream and lucky charms for breakfast! 

Lilly came home from school with a pot of gold. The Leprechaun left her some chocolate gold coins at school also.




Lexi's 1st grade class almost caught a Leprechaun but he got away. She, and we know it's a she because she left glitter everywhere:), left a note that said go on a scavenger hunt to find the treasure. OREO's! They also made this cute ensemble.

Dad also has been recovering from shoulder replacement surgery. He injured his arm in high school and can't remember ever feeling better!

He's new arm brace. He was still under anesthesia when this was taken. Sorry Dad!

And check out that scar! He can add it to his half a dozen knee surgeries, his wrist surgery just to name a few. When I showed Jack this, he said okay can I play flag football then??? Jack wants to play football so bad. Dad says even with all his surgeries he'd still play.

Taxes done! Mike's least favorite task of the year but he/we worked hard on getting them done. I say we because my Mary Kay taxes are quite the pain in the butt to accomplish!

The kids rotate emptying the dishwasher. This made me smile when I went to grab a cup for dinner. Lilly is even in the rotation. Didn't she do such a great job!

We snuck up to Ruth's Diner before our Groupon expired. We have baseball every day of the week and with work and life, the only day to go was Sunday. We went up Sunday morning and so did LOTS of others. It was the day of the Provo City Center Temple Dedication and apparently its a popular spot Sunday morning. We also ran into Bill and Stephanie who had the same great idea. We put our names on the list and then headed to the zoo to see the animals before our table was ready. The wait was 1.5 hours just enough time to see the lions, tigers and bears! Oh we did see the new baby giraffe Willow, the organtan is growing and we saw the 3 baby lions cubs on a video.

We enjoyed yummy breakfast. It was nice enough on the patio with our jackets on. Sun was out and is trying to come play. It seems its nice for a day and then the storms roll back in. Warm before the storm. Lady in the back is photo bombing us!



I had eggs Benedict and couldn't help but think of Grammie. She loved Ruth's. I myself have been coming here for 35+ years. I wanted to bring her a biscuit and a cup of coffee to the cemetery!

Lilly got the funny face pancake. This was always a favorite of mine growing up.

After Ruth's we drove past Wander lane. Bitter sweet memories there. The house has finally sold. The street looked the same and the house also except the swing set and soccer goal outback.

Grams tile is so much shinier than Grandpa's. I'll have to see if I can bring some cleaner up and shine Grandpa's up also. Grandma's sister died just after Grams did. She will have 4 sisters in a row and the cemetery and then a row up my Mom's. The lawn was greening up nicely, soon enough it'll be time to decorate the graves.

Lilly was off running through the cemetery chasing pinwheels and spinning them.

See what I mean,  a day later it snows! It stayed cold for a good week before we got another day that was warm only to get rainy and cold again. My daffodils are hiding in the snow.

And just like that it was Spring Break time and Easter weekend. Lexi had an Easter Parade just before going on Spring Break. The kids made bonnets and hats, sang songs, and had a candy parade.





It was also mix matched sock day, in case you were wondering!

She also requested her hair to be like this as if they were bunny ears!

Mike went off to the mountains Friday to build snow caves and sleep in them. Sounds delightful, right. Yes, I was glad to stay at home and hold the fort down with the kids. We decorated and colored eggs, went on a candy hunt at Smith's and enjoyed a night flashlight hunt at the Jones'.





Smith's hunt is warm (there was snow on the ground Saturday morning so an outside hunt would be really cold). It isn't crowded and the kids come home with more candy then we get at Halloween, almost anyways. It was also Madison's last year to do a hunt. 11 is the oldest they allow kids! Sniff, sniff, she is growing up so fast. As is this one!

See what I mean, the kids baskets are so full. Madison even broke the handle off hers!

Mike made it home Saturday afternoon. We were at softball practise. Sunday morning the kids found their baskets and are showing them off.

We quickly changed in to our church clothes for 9am church.





Just love these 4. I am grateful to go to church on Easter and remember his death, his life and the atonement. He Lives and I will once again be with my family on the other side.

We headed back to school Tuesday and Jack had a wax museum report due. Lucky for us, he was sick earlier in the month (3 out of 4 kids got the stomach flu and fever--Lexi lucked out again to not get sick-she did the same in January). Jack however has thrown up 4 times this school year alone. He has missed 6 days of school (7 including the funeral). I blame it on his nail biting bad habit. 2 years ago, he was one of 3 kids to have 100% attendance! The kids were required to read a biography, make a poster that had 5 subject, write about the subjects and then dress up as the person. He choose Steve Jobs. He looks great!

Rewind back to Easter, Lilly's birthday was the same week. we made a bunny cake to celebrate. Later that night, I realized I should have just celebrated her birthday that day also. With ballet and practise and scouts on her real birthday, it was kindof tricky adding that in. BUT it all worked out and we were able to celebrate both Sunday Easter and her birthday.