Easter Egg Hunt 2014

As per our annual tradition, we spent the Saturday before Easter at the Dolly Sanchez Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Peoria Stadium.  This was Jessa's first egg hunt, so everybody was especially excited for her!

Daddy and Jessa waiting for the mad dash!

 She took to it like an old pro!  

 Between egg hunts, there were plenty of activities to participate in.  We did a family scavenger hunt, the kids rode a train, bounce houses were played in and pony rides were taken.

Brychan is trying really hard to not smile.

And Jessa?  Well, it's taken her well over a year to decide she likes Biggs.  So...riding on a huge, strange animal was just about the last thing she wanted to do.  There were lots of tears at first, but Daddy managed to get her to calm down and try it.  She still wasn't convinced by the end, but at least she was tolerating it!

Well, and Kehlton is obviously too cool for any of it. ;)

Why are Easter bunnies so creepy?

All in all, is was a fun and successful morning!  Brychan's egg hunt was less than perfect; after a couple of false starts and much older children being allowed in the 6 year old age group, Brychan ended up with nothing. For a child that doesn't even really like candy, he was extremely sad and disappointed.  However, a quick trip to the store fixed the problem for everybody!

Spring Break 2014

This year for Spring Break, we decided we needed a little time away  to spend time as a family.  I cannot remember the last time our little family took a trip that was just for us; we were long overdue!  We opted for a bit of a staycation, and it was perfect!

We spent a few days exploring Prescott and Jerome and then headed to  

Out of Africa Wildlife Park.  

In Jerome, we stopped at a large museum/ghost town (read: large, organized junk yard).  There were a TON of old cars/trucks/buses and the kids LOVED it.  Plus, the nice lady at the counter let us in for free 'cause she thought my kids were cute.  

 Brychan is still Jessa's favorite person most of the time.  She begs him to hold her hand and walk with her.  Not that it takes much begging to get him to do anything for her...

 Another favorite was Pedro, the donkey.  David fed Pedro a carrot with his mouth, so he got a nice little smooch.

We also spent a day at Lynx Lake.  There was a stroller friendly hiking trail all the way around the lake, paddle boating, ducks to feed and David taught the boys to skip rocks.

Our last day of vacation we spent entirely at Out of Africa.  It was absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it to anybody who may be visiting from out of town.  Or who lives "in town" and has never been. It was a full day of fun and we can't wait to go back.  We got to get up close and personal with lots of animals and even got to feed a giraffe and a tiger.  Kehlton also had fun with hyenas - they ran up and down the fence line with him for quite awhile.

After such a fun trip, it was hard to come home!  

Hopefully our next family trip won't be so far distant!

Apache Field Day

When I was growing up, we had field day during the last week(s) of school every year.  I'm assuming most elementary schools still do.  Well, in Arizona, it is WAY too hot to even think about playing outside all day during the last week of school, so they have their field days in March.  Last month, Kehlton, Jessa and I went to watch a couple hours of Brychan's field day.

Brychan and Nate (his best friend, who lives a block away and is in our ward too)

 doing a 3 legged race.

 Mr. Fish and most of Brychan's class waiting to run the obstacle course.  

Brychan won both of his obstacle course races!

 Brychan, Nate & Quentin

 And the fan club.  Jessa had so much fun cheering and clapping for her brother!  She had a blast.

 Kehlton and his best friend, Preston 

(Preston just happens to be Nate's younger brother.  It works out great!).

 Brychan was very serious about the bean bag toss!

Unfortunately, we could only stay for a couple of hours (a certain little girl was getting irritated that we were late for her morning nap), but Brychan told us the rest of the day was a huge success!

Gilbert Temple Open House

On Valentine's Day, we had the opportunity to go through the Gilbert Temple Open House.  It was the last day that the temple was open to the public and we were lucky enough to have a friend who had extra tickets so we could go.  Even with the tickets, we stood in line for a VERY long time.  Thank goodness for gorgeous Arizona evenings!

The boys did great waiting in line for such a long time.  However, standing still to take a picture was another story.  This is the best we got!

Their favorite parts of the temple?  Brychan really liked the staircase and Kehlton liked the huge chandelier.

After we found out how long we would be waiting in lines, we opted to leave Jessa with Jocie.  It's a good thing we did; I don't think she would have enjoyed the 2 hour process.  After we were done at the temple, we went out to dinner with Mark, Jocie & Hallie (which was the absolute highlight of the boys' evening!).

It was the PERFECT way to spend our Valentine's Day!

Kehlton's 4th Birthday

Now that it's been well over a month since Kehlton's birthday, I figured it would be a good time to stick in on the blog.  Actually, I had it done a long time ago and just realized I never hit publish.

Kehlton got to have his first birthday party this year, and he wanted it to be all about robots.  He was a huge help with the decorating; one of his favorite things to do is build robots out of his Trio blocks.

Juice jugs were the beverage of choice, 

(which we learned after the party that they aren't really so yummy, as NONE of the kids would drink them)

I wanted to keep sugar at a minimum, 

so all the kids got cheddar snack mix and string cheese to munch on, which they all loved.

The other aspect of the table decor were these cute wind up robots that Lala got for K and all his little friends.

Each of the children got to decorate their own robot costume.

I spray painted 8 paper grocery bags silver, and then cut holes for their heads and arms.

I then gave them paper cut in different shapes, glue sticks and crayons and let them go to town.

They were all quite excited to model their costumes when they were finished!

From L-R; Brychan, Asher B., Brendan K., K, Preston C., Teairsa E., Tennyson E., Jayden H.

After the kids were done with their robot costumes, we did a quick robot scavenger hunt; looking for photos of robot pieces.  After they found all the necessary pieces, they came in, picked out one of the wind up robots that were on the food table, and they got to take turns racing them.

After presents and cake, each of the kids got to take home one of these little guys, which actually has a robot eraser inside of it (which, again, were courtesy of Lala's fun job).

(I'm really sad I didn't get a photo of the actual erasers.  They adorable!)

Oh. This was his actual birthday cake that we had on his birthday.  

It's not perfect, but he loved it, so that's all that matters!

Happy, happy birthday, K!!  Our family would not be the same without your cute smile, loving words or quick (spicy!) wit.  We are so, so proud of you!!

Halloween 2013

I feel like I was slacking on Halloween photos this year.  It just seems the older our family gets (and the more members we add to it!), the longer and more chaotic everything seems to be.  I did manage to sneak a few in, though.

This year, we all went as monsters.
The boys in the process of getting ready for Trunk or Treat.

(I am SO impressed with Brychan's willingness to wear the make up not once, but twice.  It goes against every fiber in his being to have that stuff all over his face.  I guess certain sacrifices are worth it for the sake of Halloween fun).

My super cute skeleton, ghost and werewolf

Lala

David and I.

As always, we had a blast at our ward's trunk or treat the weekend before Halloween.  Halloween night, we did more trick or treating than we've ever done before, and the kids all got more candy than is ever necessary.  A couple of times we thought Jessa was getting tired, so we put her in the stroller.  NO WAY.   She knew exactly what was going in those bags, and she wasn't about to miss out on anything.

After Halloween?  Jessa quickly realized where we kept the candy locked up.  It was in the floor of my pantry, behind a locked door.  More than once I found her laying on the kitchen floor with her little arm and hand under the pantry door trying to steal a piece or two.  I'm tellin' ya - there is nothing that girl won't do for a taste of sugar!!

First Kindergarten Field Trip

Brychan's first field trip was to the Wildlife World Zoo, on Halloween.

There were so many parent volunteers that I was just in charge of Brychan and his friend, "H".

The two boys had a blast together all day long, and since NOBODY goes to the zoo on Halloween, we got to see lots of animals, up close and personal, without being crowded by anybody else.

After the field trip was over, all the kids climbed back on the bus and went back to school for the last few hours of their day.  Since I drove, I was lucky enough to keep Brychan with me for the rest of our day.  We had fun going back to revisit some of the animals (mostly the aquarium) by ourselves.  Once the school kids had left, there was literally no one at the zoo except for us and a handful of other people.

Lesson learned?  Go to the zoo on Halloween!!