Spring Storms

We have had some stormy weather recently. It seems like it just can't warm up (at least not to my liking!) and the wind won't calm down. We've had a fair amount of moisture, which keeps the roads interesting and we've had a few tornado warnings, which makes the kids flee in fright to the basement. (Courtney especially has a strong fear of tornadoes -- I think in part thanks to the Magic Treehouse book "Twister on Tuesday" which she read in school.)

The other day we had a strong thunderstorm pass through. The winds really picked up and before we knew it, we had hail hitting the ground. I think this was the first hailstorm we've really had since living here. It didn't last long and the hail melted shortly afterward, but it added a bit of excitement to our afternoon.

You can tell which direction the wind was blowing!

Pre-K Outings

In the last couple of months, I've been able to go with Hayley's Pre-K class on a couple of field trips. Since she is my baby, she is the lucky one to have mom available to go on these kinds of outings!

At the beginning of March, the kids were learning about community helpers so they took a "walking tour" of the little community where the school is (and yes, you know it's a small community if you can do a walking tour).

First stop was the volunteer fire station.

Hayley got to try on the fireman's coat and hat.

Then they made a quick stop at the small post office.

Since the group was too big to all fit in the post office at once, half of the kids got to play on the adjoining playground while they waited for the other group.

Hayley's "buddy" for the trip was her friend Turner (who also happens to be the son of Hannah's 3rd grade teacher).

Then, the kids stopped at the gas station store -- they had each brought $1.00 to buy a treat with and got to hand it to the cashier. Hayley picked cookies.

At the beginning of April, her class went on a trip to the Botanical Gardens. I had never been here before and it was a little early still for many of the flowers to be in bloom, so we'll have to go back sometime later in the summer!

The Japanese garden:

Hayley and Turner ended up as walking buddies again.

Inside the tropical conservatory.

The whole group behind the waterfall.

Looking at the Palo Duro mosaic and landscape.

After seeing the plants, the kids went inside to learn about butterflies and make some butterfly books.

There were just a couple of minutes left over to play at the nearby park!

It's so fun to be able to tag along on these field trips!

Husky #2 -- Meet Lupin

We are now the owners of two (yep, you read that right) husky puppies. Who would have thought?

I mentioned in my post about Bear that Courtney's teacher had two husky puppies. We took Bear and she thought she had found a home for the other one, but that fell through. So she mentioned it to me and asked if we had any interest in taking him as well. She wasn't pressuring us at all, but of course Courtney begged and pleaded. At first Brian and I were definitely leaning towards "no" -- one dog seemed like plenty and there were lots of reasons we could think of to keep it that way. But then we could think of some possible benefits as well -- Bear seems to have some insecurity "issues" and we thought a second husky might help in that regard, as well as give him a doggie friend to keep him company. And we couldn't argue that we didn't have the room. So in the end we said "why not?" and decided to give it a try.

Courtney's teacher brought the second dog up to our house on Saturday, along with an unfinished doghouse they offered to us. She had named the dog Jacob, but I told the kids we know too many people named Jacob so we would have to think of a new name. We had a harder time agreeing on a name for this dog. Eventually we decided on Lupin, since it is a wolf-related name and we are Harry Potter fans.

Lupin seems to be a good dog so far -- he definitely doesn't have the insecurity issues that Bear has (as far as going near buildings, etc. -- he's already escaped into the house twice!). We need to get them some training soon because they're both so excited around the kids that they jump on them and practically knock the girls over.

Lupin has one blue eye and one hazel eye -- I guess this it is not uncommon for huskies to have different-colored eyes.

The girls take them both out for walks as often as they can. Hopefully after a few weeks, we can let them roam a little without needed the leashes constantly.

We had been planning to repaint our old doghouse, so when we got this second unfinished one, we just did them both at the same time. The kids had decided to paint them brown and we had some paint mixed, but they had some problems mixing it (long story) and didn't get the color quite right. It wasn't worth re-doing, so we ended up with a brown that isn't really what we had in mind, but I suppose the dogs don't care.

Courtney's teacher even brought us some shingles they were going to put on the roof, so McKay was excited to tackle that job (with a little help and supervision from Brian).

So we'll see how we do as a two-dog family! (And soon to be a two-dog and one-cat family.) The kids are just thrilled and I hope that with a little training, they will be great dogs.

Easter Fun

We had an enjoyable, low-key Easter weekend this year. On Saturday, the kids dyed eggs and then had a little egg hunt in the front yard.

Our egg decorating techniques are pretty simple compared to what I've seen some people do. Pretty much basic colors! The kids do like the white crayon that comes with the dye kit.

Then I hid some plastic eggs out in the front yard and let them each find a dozen. Not surprinsingly, it was extremely windy so we didn't stay outside long.

It ended up that I either I had counted wrong or we just couldn't find one because we ended up being short one (or maybe the wind blew it away...)

The kids were excited to find that this year a few of the eggs had money (a few coins) in them!

Easter morning the kids woke up to find their baskets on the table. The Easter Bunny decided that Courtney and Hayley would enjoy a stuffed "bunny" (dogs with rabbit ears) while the older two would probably prefer the chocolate kind instead.

We had a great weekend watching General Conference and were glad to have Grandpa Humpherys here with us (he's been here for about a week now working on another windmill project).

Mermaid Makeovers

On Saturday, the girls were playing some games on the Barbie Website when they came across an idea for a "mermaid makeover" (to go along with the new Barbie Mermaid movie). It's certainly not a new idea -- get your hair wet, put in lots of small braids and sleep on it!

They were all excited to try it, so after baths I did my best to put in a bunch of braids (unfortunately I don't know how to French braid -- someday!).



They woke up extra early on Sunday (to check out their Easter baskets), so they took out the braids on their own before I got up. And when I did get up, they were excited to show me their wavy mermaid hair!

It even stayed wavy enough to show off at school this morning (although Courtney wants me to do hers again so it's really wavy for school).