Hair Cuts

Easter!

Last week Scott’s mom came to visit us during his Spring Break and Scott’s sister Laura surprised and flew out to spend some time with us too. Since both of them had been here before, sightseeing wasn’t a priority. We weren’t sure what we were going to do day to day, but we ended up doing a lot of shopping.

Gandma and the kids

Thursday

Scott’s mom flew in on Wednesday night (4-8-09) and we made Dillard’s a high priority on Thursday. Our first trip out there the twins were troopers. They just wanted to go home so they would try to help us search the racks of swimsuits. I would describe what I was looking for (such as a pink one with flowers) and then they would go looking. Matthew actually did find the one I had seen but couldn’t find again. We named him the Finder.

We actually hit the Dillard’s Outlet twice since swim suits at $1 was just too good to pass up. Unfortunately it was only the bottom piece so I will have to find my own coordinating tops. I wasn’t even going to buy any, but then ended up with 10. I told Scott just to think of it as a buy 1 get 9 free type of deal.

Later we started the trip off right with a trip to Ci' Ci's --Grandma's Treat!

Friday

Friday the kids were off for Good Friday, but Scott had to go in to work. As part of our Disney training we decided to take a nice walk all the way to Walgreen’s at the front of the neighborhood. This is a special treat for the kids because the think of Walgreen’s the same way I thought of the Rainbow Mart gas station by my neighborhood growing up; it is just one big candy store and a place to spend money. On the way home we stopped at the park for a quick run down the slid. Alex was already late for his nap again so we were in a hurry to get home. Matthew had bought big Cadbury eggs and put them in his pocket and they had melted surprise! Luckily Scott came home for lunch and came to our rescue with the car. It was a lazy afternoon as we waited for Alex to wake up. Then we packed up a picnic dinner and headed to Bourghs park for a bike ride. We rode through the trees making sure to go the opposite direction of any sign that pointed to the parking lot, we did a lot of exploring and around dusk we stopped at one of the playgrounds. That is when we got the call from Laura. She had booked a plane ticket for the next day and was coming to visit! We were all surprised and shocked. We had told her that we had picked her up some swim suits, but maybe she didn’t believe us. Once the kids were worn out we had to ride our bikes back to the car in the dark through the trees. Samantha is going through a scared phase and she said that she never wanted to do that again. I was just glad that there weren’t any low branches.

Saturday

Saturday we made our way to a community Easter Egg Hunt. There were thousands of eggs and plenty of people. About 15 minutes before the whistle people and parents started lining up along the ropes. That is when we headed to the bouncers which had long lines previously. Amazingly my kids had the bouncer to them selves and had a great time. Despite the overanxious crowd we had plenty of time to get the kids to their designated areas before everyone was let loose. I meant to take Alex to the 2’s and under, but I discovered we were with the 4 year olds. We told all the kids to run to the middle to get out of the crowd. It took one a sight of candy in one egg to convince Alex that picking up eggs was a good thing. We found a pile of 5 eggs but the kids around us were crazy. They were grabbing eggs right from under him, I think he ended with 2 from that pile. After all was said and done I just kept taking eggs out of his basket and put them in front of him just so he could pick it back up, it was so cute. Amazingly no one got lost for long and we were able to look through our stash. No big prizes this year, just a whistle and a toy dinosaur. Matthew couldn’t believe that they knew his favorite color was green (whistle).

We decorated our eggs that evening and Scott and his mom broke out the recipes. They made faux PF Chang lettuce wraps, and fresh fried chicken with Chili’s zesty citrus sauce. We had to send the kids to bed before Laura’s flight got in, but she made it with minor confusion as to where to pick her up at the airport (She was on the upper level designated for departures). While they were out and the kids were sleeping the Easter bunny came and we were ready for morning.

Sunday

Sunday morning the kids woke up early. I had set out movies for the kids to watch and they started the day with animated movies about both Christ’s birth and his death & his resurrection. We sat and talked about what a special day Easter was and why is important to remember Jesus and the atonement. Once everyone was up we let the kids go downstairs to look for their Easter baskets. Jacob was the most excited and he started eating his candy for breakfast. We had skipped our tradition crepe breakfast last week for Conference and saved them for Easter morning. We had a great time combining different toppings and enjoying the yummy food.

Following church and dinner we set up for our Egg money hunt. This was a tradition we started years ago before our allowance system was in place. This year we just filled the eggs with mostly pennies and a few random quarters. We have our kids earning money for their Disney trip so there were 4 golden eggs with Disney Dollars in them. Samantha came in with $1.97 plus 1 Disney Dollar and a Daddy Date; Jacob got $1.92 with 5 Disney Dollars; Joshua had $1.59 with 2 Disney Dollars; Matthew $ .98 with 2 Disney Dollars and Alex had 42 cents. In the past the kids have gotten more in the $ 8-9 range, but they didn’t seem to notice the difference, maybe it will be pennies from now on.

Monday

Monday the kids all returned to school and we took Alex shopping for discounted Easter Candy and then out to lunch at Ci Ci's! Alex was late for his nap againa.

After family home evening we made up for it with cold stone style ice-cream. We broke out the candy bars and toppings and everyone made their own creation.

Tuesday

Tuesday we called it my birthday. We got a babysitter and went Restaurant Hopping. Our first stop the resurant was closed. 1 down, 3 more to go.

Our next stop was the Outback Steack House. We ordered a shrimp appetizer and a blooming onion to share and explained to our waiter that it was my birthday and we didn’t have time for a full meal. We had a great waiter and he surprised us with dessert which he handed to Scott’s mom and wished her a happy birthday! We didn’t correct him, but we did leave him a good tip.

At the Outback

PF Changs

Next we went to PF Changs to try our lettuce wraps that we had tried to create a few days before. Here a waiter wasn’t as pleased with our slim orders. We split the appetizer and shared an entrée. We ordered two small desserts (they gave me mine for free) and the chocolate cake tasted just like the All American Chocolate Cake from Costco that we had at home. By this time we were filling up but we wanted to make one more stop.

Los Cucos

Chilies was the wrong direction; and no one was up for bottomless fries at Red Robin so we stopped at Los Cucous for my favorite green salsa and chips. As we sat there we couldn’t decide what to order. After our waiter came to our table for the third time we finally admitted that we didn’t want to order anything we just wanted to pay for the chips and salsa. He gave us a funny smile and said they were complimentary, but we went the extra mile and asked for a refill on our empty salsa bowl. Don’t worry we left a nice tip, be we did see the waiters gathering in the corner pointing at us. It felt weird walking out without paying, but he never gave us a bill.

Wednesday

Yes, we went out to lunch the next day at Red Robbin!

Wednesday started out normal. We had talked a lot about going down to Brozo’s Bend to see the Alligators. Anyway we opted for plan B. We went for a walk around the pond down by the YMCA. Not really in the same category as Brozo’s Bend but it was surprisingly a good second thanks to giggles, grins and snapper. Our new turtle friends.

Thursday

Thursday was our last day. Laura went early, but Grandma and I painted the front entry way wall beforer her flight later in the day. The week went by quickly and we were sad to see both of them go.

Grandma visiting at school.

Thanks for visiting!