Easter photo op

It is a rare occasion for everyone to be dressed up and together.  The kids don't love it, but they usually tolerate a few pictures...

Happy Easter

We had to squeeze in an Easter egg hunt after breakfast, but before the rain started!  We didn't even count how many eggs the bunny left this year, but I would guess it was well over 200.  My kids each ended up with over $5.00 in change and about a dozen coupons for dining out, postponed bedtime, and chore passes.  Not a bad haul.  

Teddy played along for about 2 eggs, but then decided that a pool cleaner bucket and the kitchen were really much more enticing.

Egg Hunt

We didn't even count how many eggs the Easter Bunny left this year.  We'll just leave it at a lot!  There wasn't too much candy (thank you, Bunny), but other fun stuff:  nail polish, puzzle erasers, princess rings, stickers, coupons, and coins.  Each of the boys scored over $5 in coins, plus an assortment of coupons for dining out, homework and chore passes, and delayed bedtimes. 

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Ike started off with a cute Easter bucket, but traded it in for this fancy pool chemicals bucket somewhere along the way.  He also got distracted from egg hunting by the kitchen and decided to spend most of his time playing there.  

Art Festival

We are always amazed by the amazing efforts the art teachers and the county put into the county arts festival every year.   They hang tons of student work, create special projects related to the theme, and have a half dozen projects for kids to do at the festival itself. (I guess we didn't take any pictures in 2012, but we did in 2011.)

The kids' school students worked on Fletcher, a paper-mache school mascot.   Brady and his classmate Gabriel worked on the shoulder; Rudy worked on one of the thighs.

The theme this year was Chihuly.   There was a plastic replica of the Chihuly boat filled with glass and an amazing plastic bottle representations of a chandelier.  

Face painting.  Brady requested a dragon face and the high school art student spent a LONG time creating her masterpiece.  She even painted his eyelids.  It looked good, but was not very comfortable and he had to wash it off soon after.  

Rudy requested a dragon playing baseball, and that's exactly what he got.  Perfect for his game that afternoon!

Art work on display:  Brady's tesselation project and Rudy's self-portrait.

They also had their special project canopic jars on display.  (These were the ones they created in an after-school session they won at the Fall Festival.)

Brady's:

Rudy's

 

Rudy & Mary Emma

Still best buds, and they have similar fashion sense!  Note Mary Emma's heart socks, soccer shorts, striped skirt, and tied-dye kitten shirt...  :-)

Nuts, the musical

Brady's grade performed the musical "Nuts" at school this week.  He held the very important part, as the oak tree.  (James also had a very important part, as the creator of the trees!)

GetAlong

Wearing the get along shirt to watch a movie.  The shirt is so silly that they forget whatever the fight was about in the first place.  It's also a new and rearely used tool; I'm sure the novelty will wear off.

Bowling star

It really makes me sad that this video is so dark because this video really shows Rudy's spirit and joy!

UPDATE :  Awesome edits and song dubbing by Popsie makes this video a thousand times better:   http://youtu.be/GuMsHHp2Wlc

New dance - "The dishwasher"

Who knew unloading the dishwasher was so much fun??

Rudy's 3/4 birthday

Today was Rudy's 3/4 birthday.  It's not a big production, but it's a special day for him.  (Similar to Brady's actual birthday being a special day, but not a big production since he prefers to celebrate his birthday in the summer.)

Rudy requested blue birthday pancakes for breakfast. He wanted Drumstick ice cream cones for a special snack at school, since one of his best buddies is allergic to eggs and can't have traditional cupcakes.  His dinner request was homemade mac-n-cheese and bananas; he grudgingly agreed to a tossed salad as well.

It was a beautiful day, so we got to play outside before dinner and baseball practice:

Cat Snuggles

If Rudy is cuddling with a cat and there is a camera nearby, he wants his picture taken...

Snow day #5

This day will go down in history as the first snow day my kids wanted to reject.  Up until now, it was all fun and games but we knew this one would mean adding days to the end of the school year.  Boo.  Warm cookies and milk eased the pain though.

 

Video chat

One of the little girls from Rudy's preschool class (2 years ago!) recently moved out of the area.  Rudy and Mallory didn't see much of each other after preschool, but he still talks about her occasionally.  I got a note a few weeks ago that Mallory was feeling a little homesick and really wanted to talk to Rudy, so we set them up on a video chat.  They had a great 45 minutes talking about their pets and various other topic important to 6-year-olds!