Easter Activities

Yeah!! The Easter Bunny is coming tonight! Brooke and Wes can hardly wait since we ran into the real live Easter Bunny at Costco on Friday after Suzanne's Easter Egg Hunt at the park. Brooke ran right up to the Easter Bunny and gave him the biggest hug. Everyone around was laughing because all the other kids in line were crying, afraid of him. She totally cut in front of them-eyes locked on the bunny. Do not stop her, she must hug the bunny.

All day Wes has been waiting to color Easter Eggs, so at 7:30 tonight I finally gave in to possible semi-permanent rainbow on my kids clothes, hardwood floors, tables, counter tops, white sink, dog, carpet, etc. I am not sure what we are going to do with these beautifully colored eggs yet. He will want to keep them for many months to come. Somehow Dave and I will have to devise a plan to slowly pluck them off one by one.

Brooke loved it. She told me what colors she wanted. Like how I made her exchange her dress for an apron?!

Wes is letting his eggs take a long bath in there colored water. They need to be nice and bright! We had cool crayons that you can color on the egg first so that the dye won't stick to the egg. It was pretty fun to see what Wes wrote on his eggs.

He wrote "Good" and his name on most of them! He is a good boy. He just had his parent teacher conference on Friday for the 3rd term. In kindergarten they get 1-4's instead of A-F's. He got all 4's! His teacher wrote "Wes is brilliant"! His reading is off the scale for kindergarten. He really is amazing.

I love this picture. And Brooke loves her eggs! I asked her what she wanted me to write and then she would dunk them into her water bathes. She said "Seaka" (our nickname for her, Wes named her that when I was pregnant), one says "Seaka Shoes" (she has a real shoe fetish), "CANDY", and then she drew on the others.

The kids didn't make a mess at all!!! Yeah for me!!

This is the Easter Egg Hunt that Suzanne (my cousin, Richie's wife) put on in her pack yard park. The kids loved it.

It was Brooke's first hunt. At first she didn't know what to look for and Wes was off and I had no idea where he was to take his picture until the end.

We stayed to play at the park and all the kids gathered at the merry go round. Wes was the official pusher.

Soon he had a helper, Andrew did a great job and kept up quite well! I think he only fell due to lack of leg length once!

And can you tell that Brooke absolutely loved the ride! Wes and Andrew must have been doing a great job. That smile says it all!

Happy Easter!! So I want to know whose idea it was for the Easter Bunny to come and have Easter baskets in the first place! Since Dave is working the night shift tonight, we can't have our egg hunt that the Easter Bunny leaves in our house down stairs in the morning. So he (she) had to be extra sneaky and put it in their rooms! She was total stealth tonight. Didn't make one single noise in their rooms. I wonder how long it will take for them to notice that they have their own individual Easter Egg Hunts in their rooms! I hope they have fun when they wake up!

Crazy 8 Brand Kids Clothes

Have you ever heard of Crazy 8 brand? I just did from my friend Kim's blog. It is another line of Gymboree, like Gap and Old Navy are. They have stores in California, Texas and New Jersey I think. Anyway, their website is www.crazy8.com

Today I just ordered a couple of things for the kids for this summer and used the promo code "SAVE20" that I found on the Internet. You will save 20% and have free shipping. Shipping is only $5 anyway, but $5 is $5!

They have t-shirts for boys that are only $5 that are fun under Crazy Deals, the girls Crazy deals weren't that cute (I don't think). They have some things that were 50% off too.

Spin or Not to Spin

For the past 2 months my friend Jamey and I have been going to a spin class twice a week and I LOVE it! Except for all the sweat and burning of the muscles that I didn't know my body even had! The last time I went to a spin class was when Wes was maybe 1 or 2 years old and I hated it. The teacher was so mean. She would twist the nob if she didn't think it was at a hard enough tension for you! I know, you want to smack her, but then you would fall off your bike, yes the stationary bike!

So about 4 years later Jamey talked me into taking this class with her and I completely love it, the only problem is, it is over in two weeks. I only have 4 classes left.

So that means I am going to have to sign up for a gym membership...again. I hate going to the gym. I feel so dumb there and out of place. You have to be so perfect to go here in Happy Valley with all the college students.

One of the Gold's here has a Cardio Cinema that Dave is trying to talk me into using since I have been liking the spin class. And I would be able to get back into yoga. hooowwwwmm......Not sure how to spell that, but it's me meditating!

And yuck, the thought of gym babysitting. Help, advice?! Well, now it is time for my class...Yeah! Have you ever been so excited to excersice?

New Easter Tradition - Tomb Buns/Balloon Buns

So from the Scribbit blog my sister pointed out this recipe and then I took the picture from Lizanne's blog. I think I will be trying this with Wes this year and hopefully we can start to do it every year. Depending on how hard it is! I think if you use the Rhoades Rolls like Lizanne did, it should be pretty easy. Just thaw first.

For the Dough:

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon fast acting yeast

Mix the dough as you would any other bread dough (either in a bread machine or by traditional hand methods). Once you have the dough ready, separate it into 18 equal pieces and roll slightly into a round of dough.

For the rest of the recipe you'll need:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

18 large marshmallows

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Dip one marshmallow in the melted butter, covering it completely, then roll it in the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Take one of the rounds of dough and wrap it around the marshmallow, sealing it carefully. This is tricky with the greasy butter but if it doesn't seal the marshmallow will leak out during the baking.

Once they're sealed, dip the tops in melted butter then again in the cinnamon and sugar! Place them in greased muffin tins (not lined with papers). Let raise until doubled.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly browned. The marshmallow melts, leaving a cave inside.

Best while eaten warm with a cool glass of milk (so they say!)

**I am going to try them with Rhoades Rolls first***

30? No Way!!

Happy Birthday Pam! I think your parents have it all wrong, you are only 29 this year! I mean look at you, there is no way, really!

I wonder what Andrew will do this year. How can he top an Escalade? You are one lucky girl! I hope you are pampered all day by the Andrew and the girls.

Have fun (it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I live in here, not there)! You can come back to this if you want! Yeah, it's a pretty glamorous life in Happy Valley if you ask me.

I hope you have a great day, 29 for life!

Our Romantic Anniversary Date

So who is dying to know where we went for our anniversary? I know everyone is!! Let me just set this up for you.

For, oh, I would say 5 years or so, I have been wanting to try this cafe/restaurant that I heard about from a friend of mine. All I know about the place is the name of it and that he really likes it. I don't think his wife likes it all that much, but he sure does and he told me several times that I had to try it. The problem was, it wasn't convenient to where we lived at the time and then I totally forgot about it until Dave's crew went there for breakfast last week and he kinda liked it!

So we decided to go there for lunch on our anniversary. We were going to go while Wes was at school and take Brooke to the neighbor's to play. That way I could eat long before my spinning class, because spinning and eating don't mix! And most of all, Dave and I could have a quiet lunch together, ahh, quiet! Nope, didn't end up working out that way! So here is our secret lunch date, go ahead and LAUGH til you fall off your chair!!!

Yep, the Family Tree Restaurant in Santaquin, Utah! With kids and all. No doubt about it. Dressed in our very best jeans and t-shirts. Parked right on Main Street so we could keep an eye on the car while we eat. Don't want anyone peakin' in our car windows now do we? And what if we want to make that important phone call during our meal? We just walk right out that front door to the pay phone, pull out our hanky to hold the phone cause we don't want any foreign germs, drop in some coins and dial away (maybe we forgot our cell phone in the car which happens to be parked directly in front of the payphone). Oh, and if you want the $7.49 breakfast special, you'd better get there before lunch starts. Do you drink Pepsi with your breakfast? Yuck.

I told Dave we needed to celebrate this anniversary "right" and take a self portrait of our family in the Family Tree restaurant. He must not be a Newman. Obviously he felt a bit foolish! I was taking the picture and couldn't get it centered. Brooke and I were trying to get in there! Oh well. We were only one of two customers in the restaurant the whole time. As the others left and we were about the be the only ones, another group came in. Phheeewwww....

Later that night, just before bed, Brooke decided to read Roxy her bedtime story from her potty chair! Dave called me over with my camera to quickly take a picture of how Brooke was sitting with her legs crossed! I like her expression, "What do you want, I am in the middle of this Mom". (Brooke's hair was in ponytails so it has extra volume on the sides!)

So, Pam, I want to know how you and Andrew are going to top this anniversary with your 11th coming up?

Happy Anniversary Dave!

Yeah! 11 Years!! Happy Anniversary Babe! Pretty sad, but these are the only 2 pictures I have of us together on my computer. Everything else has other people in it. I need to find some of our wedding and scan them in and post them.
I thought this one was appropriate! It was taken in 2004, up in Alaska. My mom kept our wedding cake top and finally on that trip got it out of the freezer and told us to eat it or get rid of it! So we had Dave's parents take a couple of pictures of us being goofy with the cake and then threw it in the dumpster. You can't even tell what the cake looks like anymore (I am holding the cake in foil)! It really was a pretty cake.

Earlier that same year, my family all went to Hawaii for my parents 30th anniversary. My mom bought this lava-lava at the International market for the guys to wear for pictures. Dave wasn't that trilled! It was a fun trip. I want to go back to that house on that beach and stay another 2 weeks. All the girls had the flowers for our ears for Mother's Day (that would explain the bouquet on my ear). We had them made at the International market too.

Wow, 11 years! 2 great kids, a beautiful house, I get to stay home with them and not depend on daycare to raise them.

Thanks Dave, I love you!

Pathetic Pooch

Oh Roxy, what have you done? Don't ask, because I can't tell you what happened! I wasn't going to post this picture because I really can't tell you how it happened. A couple of weeks ago she came into the kitchen where Dave and I were on three legs yelping and holding the one up. Finally, she started to limp on it. Then the next day the bones were shifted and they were broken! So we had to take her to an animal ER because it was the weekend (not so cheap!) and have x-rays and all that and a splint put on it. So a couple of days later she had chewed off the end of that splint because it was way too tight and her paw was swelling from it and the vets office that we had planned on taking her to told us that we had to take her back to where the splint was put on have them re-wrap it. WRONG! We had to pay for another ER visit. They put this cone on her head to prevent chewing! She looks pathetic and holds completely still while it's on!


So this weekend, she got really really sick. We thought she wasn't going to make it! But she did. The doctor wasn't sure if it was some kind of stomach/intestinal infection or pneumonia (not parvo). He also paid alot of attention to known health problems with boxers and she tested great with those! But we didn't want to pay more x-ray and blood testing costs, so we had him go with his gut feeling on which antibiotic to put her on and she is doing much better tonight!


It will be a miracle if this dog makes it a year! Dave and I have the worst luck with dogs. Roxy will be our last (At least she lasted longer than Magnus, 24 hours. Coyotes got to him in the middle of the night when we lived in Prescott, AZ). Sorry Kiddo.

Finally, not stuck in the middle any longer...

I have never liked that blogs are right down the center of the page, so finally mine isn't. Now I just have to figure out how to make my background paper softer, so it isn't so crazy on the eyes. I like the stripes, I just need Holly to help me put a velum look over it! Can you help me out Holly? I tried our program, but you know it better than I! Ahhh....