Easter Celebration

We enjoyed celebrating Easter and filled it with lots of fun activities. There was a Ward Easter Picnic and Egg Hunt a few weeks before Easter and the kids really enjoyed it. We loved having Easter and Conference on the same weekend. It was a very relaxing and fun weekend. We dyed eggs and had an egg hunt in our backyard on Saturday morning. Tucker helped color 2 eggs and then he was done. Luckily Talia had fun coloring eggs and helped me to the end. We decorated some of the eggs with glue and colored foil paper and they turned out great. Since we are avoiding desserts and candy we put money in the eggs for the egg hunt and Talia and Tucker loved that. They were spoiled by both sets of grandparents as usual. They loved getting their cards and packages from their grandmas and grandpas. The Easter bunny brought a little bit of candy and more money in their eggs. We had a yummy Easter dinner with homemade oatmeal rolls, ham, mashed potatoes and vegetables. We had a chocolate pudding cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. This was our day to splurge and we did just that. Talia planned an Easter Olympics with bunny hops, bunny skips and egg tosses and Tucker and I were on a team and Talia and Trent were on a team. Luckily we tied. That could have created some problems. It was such a nice day and so nice to spend it together. We ended the day by having an Easter Egg hunt with eggs that told the story of Easter. We do this every year and it is one of my favorite Easter traditions. It was a great way to end the day.

T is for Talia and Tucker

We spent some time at the park and I just love taking pictures at the park. We played bocce ball, Talia and Tucker played on the toys and we walked Tate around. I had the kids make a T for Talia and Tucker on the grass and I wanted to share. Everytime I take pictures of the kids they ALWAYS want Tate in the picture. So of course there are some pics with Tate, our dog.

Spring Break and Talia's Academic Award!

Talia and Tucker are still on different tracks at school. There are pros and cons to this schedule. It gives me lots of one on one time with them and that has been good. It limits what I can do with them while they are off track because we always need to be back by 2:00 to pick the other one up. Tucker was off track and had the month of March off. I offered to take him to Disneyland or Legoland and all he wanted to do was stay home. He is a quite the homebody. Some of the highlights of his break was sleeping in everyday and saving up some money and selling some of his old Wii and DS games to buy 2 new games. He got to play with his friend, Vanya and was able to go to the Santa Ana Zoo with his friend Ian from church and had a great time. I took Talia and Tucker to Chuck E Cheese with their friends one day after Talia got home from school. It was a great time to go and wasn't crowded at all. The kids had gotten good report cards and were able to get tokens for their good grades. What a great program. On the last day of his break Talia got out of school early and we went to Disneyland and met Trent there. We were able to go on a quite a few rides even though it was crowded and we watched the electrical parade at California Adventure. It was nostalgic because I remember watching that parade when I was little.

Talia's track had an awards ceremony at the end of March and she received an academic award from her teacher. We are very proud and happy for her. Here is a link to a video that my neighbor (thank you Meg!) took when she received her award. I brought my camera but not my video camera to the assembly. https://cid-78a872d4fdedf88d.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/New%20album/MVI^_6811.avi
Talia has April off and I must say that she is easier to run errands with. She likes to shop a little bit more than Tucker, not much though. She still has one more week of break but she have some big plans this week. She was able to sleep in every day and got to play with some friends last week. We will be getting pedicures sometime this week. I have a gift certificate from Valentine's Day that I need to use and it will fun to take her along. Her biggest highlight will be when she flies to Portland next weekend and stays until Tuesday. Trent has a work meeting and so Talia can fly with him. She will be visiting her Aunt Stephanie and cousin Liam, Aunt Brooke, and her friends Maysen and Abbi. She is SOOOO EXCITED and I am excited for her. I wish I could go with her and see my friends too.

Next year the whole school district to switching to a traditional school year. They will get out of school at the end of June and have to go back August 11th. They won't have much of a summer break but they've had breaks all year. They will get a full week off at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks for Spring Break. It will be nice to have them off at the same time but I have enjoyed my one on one time with them this past school year. I have the greatest kids and love spending time with them.