Egg Hunt

We had a little egg hunt for all the kids while we were at Julie's house on Easter. Even the big boys decided they wanted to participate -- who can pass up all that candy?

Easter

After church on Easter Sunday, we went over to the "blue house" (as we all call it) to have dinner with Brian's sister Julie and her family.

Setting up the kid's table in the kitchen:

They had cooked a turkey (with some new fancy infrared thing -- it was yummy!) and Hannah begged to be given a whole drumstick. This is her favorite part of a chicken, turkey, etc. We all teased her about getting so much for her skinny little self!

She managed to clean it off pretty good all things considered!

The kids had fun playing outside and we had an egg hunt (coming up next post). This picture of Courtney "dancing" with Ashley's dog Toby cracked me up!

And perhaps most amazing of all was that we managed to convince McKay to let Julie cut his hair. I have been trying for years (literally) to convince McKay to let someone else (like Julie, who is trained and definitely more experienced) cut his hair instead of me. I never feel like I do a very good job, but for some reason he has always adamantly, absolutely refused anyone else -- ever since he was a little boy. So despite his protests, I had to take a picture as proof!

Easter Eggs

(I think I'm going to divide up my Easter posts so I don't have to put so many pictures in one post.)


The kids were excited as usual to dye Easter eggs the Saturday before Easter. This year, we noticed the instructions said you could either mix the color table with vinegar for "brilliant" color, lemon juice for "traditional" color or water for "pastel" colors. In the past, we have always just used vinegar but this time I let the kids decide. So we ended up with some of each and honestly, I couldn't tell much of a difference!


Not much else to say, so here are the pictures!

Singing Praises

I sing in our little ward choir at church. I like to sing. I am certainly not an outstanding singer and I don't really sing solos, but I like to sing in a group and I can follow the notes okay (most of the time) and I like how singing makes me feel.

In the past, I have always sung the soprano part and would occasionally try to pick out alto notes while singing congregational hymns. But since I started singing in the choir in our ward here in Amarillo, I have been singing alto, mostly because at the time they really needed some altos and I decided to give it a try. I do struggle with hitting the right alto notes all the time, but it's been a good experience overall.

Our ward choir is pretty small and we have several choir members who have other responsibilities on Sunday and can't often make it to practice. But we usually end up with a decent group when we sing in Sacrament Meeting. I am always amazed when we sing in Sacrament Meeting at the extra power I feel -- somebody once said the angels always sing with the ward choir and I believe it!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday so the choir performed a special number in Sacrament Meeting. It was a very pretty -- and powerful -- arrangement of "Redeemer of Israel." The accompaniment was written for the organ and while it wasn't extremely difficult, none of us are accomplished enough organists to pull it off very well. So in the end, we decided that one of us would play the manual (keys) and one of us (me) would play the pedals. (It was actually kind of fun to be able to only focus on the pedals!)

I thought the song was just beautiful -- and wished I had been in the congregation to listen and just soak it in instead of concentrating so much on my organ pedals. :-)

It turned out that Brian had to speak so he was sitting on the stand, which left the kids sitting by themselves while I went up with the choir. When I came back down to sit with them, I saw that Courtney had tears running down her cheeks. My first thought was that they had been fighting over something (which unfortunately happens way more often than I would like to admit). So I asked her what was wrong and who she was fighting with.

Her response was a smile as she said, "Mom, I'm happy. It's the Holy Ghost."

I love the power of music.

School Programs

Spring means it's time for end-of-the-year programs and concerts at school. Last week was both the 1st Grade and the 2nd Grade programs. The school decided to have them on the same night, one starting at 6:00 and one starting at 7:00pm. The programs at our elementary school are short and simple -- no fancy costumes or long speaking parts or anything. They usually don't last longer than 30 minutes -- just the kids singing several songs they've learned.

The 1st Grade started off the evening with their program.

They did give some of the kids very short speaking parts to introduce each song. Hayley was assigned to give one and memorized it well!

They always have cute actions to go with each song.

Then we had a half hour or so to wait until Courtney's 2nd grade program started. It was kind of nice having it all on the same night so we didn't have to make another evening trip out to the school.

More fun song actions.

One our way out to go home, the girls wanted to stop for a minute and climb up into a tree next to the school. Dresses are not a dettering factor!

New Smile!

Hayley lost one of her front teeth over the weekend. She was so excited and I love her new smile!

The Rest of our Dallas Weekend

The rest of our weekend trip to Dallas consisted mainly of these two things.

1. Hanging out at the hotel.

There's always at least one person with their nose in a book!

2. Swimming at the hotel pool.

Brian and McKay did manage a trip to Fry's Electronics on Friday afternoon while I took the girls swimming. Everybody went swimming again Saturday after Six Flags.

We drove back home on Sunday, sadly missing General Conference. But I've downloaded the audio files so I can still listen to everything.

Six Flags Over Texas

While we had the family in Dallas for McKay's Geography Bee, we decided to make a fun weekend of it and take the kids to Six Flags Over Texas. My sister-in-law Julie and niece Ashley decided to join us with their kids, so we ended up getting a pretty good group ticket price.

This was the first time we had been to Six Flags. I was hoping it wouldn't be too crowded since it was early April, but seeing that it was a Saturday it ended up being fairly crowded (although my niece told me it's worse in the summer). And I was hoping it wouldn't be too hot since it was early April, but it ended up being pretty hot (although I'm sure that is also worse in the summer).

Here we are near the entrance.

Our first stop was the area with the little-kid rides. Hayley enjoyed most of these, as well as Courtney (although they were plenty tame for Courtney's taste).

McKay is probably just wondering what we're doing here.

And I can't remember what Hayley was sad about here...

And then there's Hannah. Poor Hannah. She has decided that she absolutely, positively, hates any ride that has any kind of drop in it whatsoever -- even a tiny one. Spinining, she can handle, But drops -- no way. (Which kind of surprises me because she loves it when I take the van through the dip in the road at a little bit faster pace.) She went on the first ride we came to (a truck ride) and it was funny to see her squish herself into one of the trucks.

Then we saw the little-kid tea cups and she was so excited -- "I love tea cups!" she tells me. But when she went to get on with Hayley & Courtney, she found out she was just barely too tall (probably less than an inch over). She was SO sad to have to watch her sisters enjoy without her.

And then we saw the little-kid swings. Hannah was jumping for joy -- this is her very favorite ride EVER. But, alas, she was told again that she was just barely too tall. She dissolved into tears on the spot. I asked the worker if they had a big-kid version of the swings and she told me no, but we later found out that there was and Hannah rode it at least 3 times.

The girls and I went on the little Ferris Wheel before we moved on.

After the little-kid rides, we decided to split up. McKay and Courtney wanted to go on some bigger roller coasters, so Brian took them and I headed off with Hannah and Hayley. We became the tame-ride trio. Both Hannah & Hayley took us for a little scenic drive in this gas-powered cars (on a track).

We passed by this raft ride that spun you around a bit. Hannah really wanted to ride it (no drops involved!), but Hayley and I didn't. (Since our trip to Wonderland in Amarillo last summer, I've decided that the spinning rides just don't agree with me anymore.) So we watcher her get spun around (she rode it twice even).

And I realize it doesn't look like the park was crowded, but this was still early in the day. I did notice that the lines for the smaller rides really weren't bad -- it was the big coasters that had a long wait. Brian and McKay probably waited an hour each time to ride two different coasters.

Pausing for a picture on a really big chair!

My tame girls on the Carousel:

We met up with everybody for lunch (it kills me how much they can charge for food inside an amusement park) and then decided to ride the train that loops around the break for a little break from walking in the heat.

Then we split up again. This time Courtney decided to stay with me, so Brian and McKay headed off for another long wait for a roller coaster. We found a few more small rides with not-too-long lines.

Courtney wanted to ride this rodeo ride (very similar to a Tilt-a-Whirl), so the rest of us watched her enjoy it!

We did find the big tea cups, so Hannah was able to go on those with Courtney (Hayley opted to sit out and watch with me). Then it was time for a popsicle break!

We happened to be up toward the main entrance of the park when they did a "Dance Party" with several of the characters, so the girls joined in.

And we got to see Porky Pig & Scooby Doo up close!

By late afternoon, the kids were hot and tired and begging to go back to the hotel and swim in the hotel pool. Brian was hot and tired of standing in long lines. (He tells me it's going to be a long time before he goes to another amusement park -- just don't tell him I already bought the Wonderland tickets for this summer through the school fundraiser!)