Puyallup Spring Fair

Marci had free tickets to the Puyallup Spring Fair because the CFO has a kid in her class. She asked if we wanted to come down and go with her. We said sure, why not! It was a beautiful day and there was a good amount of people there. Marci said the real fair in the fall is a lot bigger and even more people. We were greeting by this Spring Fair bird as we walked in. Preston walked right up to it no problem. Chelsea is checking him out. 

They had a barn with little kid activities like digging in dirt, races with pumping the water down the gutters and other things. They even had a petting area, but the line was way too long so we skipped that. We headed over to the Sheep Extravaganza (yes that is what it was called and we died laughing). 

Kate thought this was funny and Marci had her take a picture with it. Kate's growing up!

Inside the Sheep Extravaganza, this lady (she was super nice and also a school teacher so Marci and her were chatting about that) was spinning sheep wool into yarn and we were watching her. She had Lindsey and Kate choose a color and she made a necklace for them out of the sheep wool. It was time consuming, but a good learning experience for us on what they do with the sheep's wool to get it ready for spinning.

Marci also had a deal for tickets for the rides. Unfortunately, the lines were super duper long. Marci waited in a long line for the younger girls to ride and while she waited there, Kate went and rode another ride that was pretty intense. Kate said she felt like she was going to fall out because she couldn't hold on good enough because she just put lotion on. But she did like it still. Then the younger kids got to go on another ride and I forced Preston to ride on the motorcycle ride with them. But that meant we used the last ride ticket (another random lady gave Marci a card with tickets on it and I thought it was a ticket for a single ride, but they were just individual tickets and not enough for a ride) so Kate couldn't go on her 2nd ride she has chosen. Oops. I felt bad and Kate wasn't happy. We were tired and said our good byes and left. Such is family life! 

Chelsea crashed soon after getting in the car. 

It was a fun day and we got to eat some fair food like corn dogs, taco salads, teriyaki and donut holes. 

One of Chelsea's melt downs because it's hard to wait in a long line for a ride and she's 2 almost 3. Sigh.

Relief Society Airplane Ride Activity: Sister Around the World

We had our Relief Society Birthday dinner celebration in April instead of March because the gym floor was getting a finishing coat. We had the theme "Sisters Around the World" and we visited 3 different countries and heard stories about women there who were furthering the purpose of Relief Society where they lived. We did a plane ride and it was a fun night. We had about 30 people come in total, which was low for us especially for an activity with a dinner, but those that came said they had a good time. 

Everyone got their own boarding pass as their invite to our activity. I had a blank template that I found for a previous activity in our old ward so I just switched up the words and graphics. Then I printed them on card stock, used my sewing machine to make a perforated look along the bar code (this picture doesn't show the sewing holes because it was a test copy) then cut them out, rounded the corners and cut out the notches. 

As they boarded the plane our lovely flight attendants, Laura Allred and Zilange McCoy, passed out water bottles and trail mix to the sisters. I gave a little speal similar to the ones on the airplanes (showing the exits, introducing the crew and pilot, etc) and then talked about the organization and purpose of Relief Society for a couple minutes. Before landing in each country, I would give the weather and the ETA.  First stop...Hawaii. Everyone got a lei as they were welcomed into Hawaii. Sis Chung had a table of all her Hawaiian things (she's from there) and then gave a 5 minute thought. We boarded the plane again and watched an in flight movie (a Mormon Message on RS called Something Extraordinary). Then we landed in Japan. We were greeted by the sister missionaries and Patty Renda in kimonos. Patty and Diane Guthrie both had tables with Japanese things on them. 

We ate teriyaki chicken, rice, steamed veggies and spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce. It turned out yummy, but I was worried about the teriyaki because I made that and tried a few sauces before finding one that I liked. It turned out fine. Phew. After dinner, Diane Guthrie (RS president and served her mission in Japan) spoke to us for a few minutes about women from Japan. Then we boarded the plane for our last destination. Our pilot, aka Bishop Davis, spoke for a couple minutes about Relief Society and then we landed in Italy. We served gelato (strawberry, chocolate and stracciatella- all from Costco) in little cups while Mindy Dabell (she served her mission in Italy) spoke about women from Italy. We had a closing song with a video with women from around the world singing I am a Child of God and we all joined in on the last verse. I told them they had to find their way home from Italy. ;) 

L-R: Melissa Egan, Cambria Vanderveen and Laura Allred

They were dishing the gelato up. Some of my members on my committee. I'm lucky to have dependable people on my committee. 

Cambria made these airplane windows by hand. She did a great job! They are pastels I believe. I was so impressed when she showed me. 

Preston and Parks

Preston could eat all day long if I let him. He likes to snack and loves cinnamon toast crunch cereal or goldfish or pretzels or apples. Crunchy things. Today after school he had a little of everything, oreos, toast with cinnamon sugar, milk and sour gummy bears. I had to laugh. What a terrible snack. I didn't care. Oh well.

Kate with our neighbor and friend Grace. We like to explore and try out new parks. This one is a favorite of ours and close by. Since we don't have a big yard and don't have a playset it gives us even more reason to go visit parks. 

 Preston and this kid behind him in the red shirt were running around following each other. Preston is very competitive and wants to race or play tag (which is hard because he isn't the most coordinated). Well, this other kid is older and faster than Preston and Preston would get mad when this kid beat him. It was frustrating to me and him so I made him take a break. While Preston was next to me on the bench this kid came up and asked Preston if he "wanted to race one more time and he wouldn't pass him." My heart melted. What a nice kid to do that. Preston jumped up and said "okay!" I could have cried and given that boy a hug.

I took Lindsey and Kate out for a girl's date to see Cinderella in the theater. It was a cute show. Lindsey was asking if it was over soon after it started. ha!

Preston had his yearly eye appointment at Seattle Children's Hospital. We see the chief ophthalmologist there, Dr. Avery Weiss, and have been seeing almost non stop since Preston was 6 months old. We had to switch for a bit because of different insurance, but then switched back when we could. Dr. Weiss has seen the condition that Preston has so that was reassuring, but he's an old guy and kind of quirky. He keeps telling me how amazing Preston's eyes are because even though the pupil is located down lower on one eye, his brain adapts and makes it so he can see out of it still. I don't understand it all, but I guess I'm glad. I keep asking him if we should have surgery to fix it if that would help him see better and he tells me that is ridiculous. haha. He doesn't mince words. He says it's fine and who knows what would happen if you did surgery on it. True. So I guess we up his prescription and go on with life. We stopped patching a year ago and his vision has stayed pretty much the same. The eye stops developing at 8 years old and Preston turns 8 later this year so we are good. Preston was very good at this appointment. Much better than in years past when he cries and we have to hold him down for them to check his eyes and dilate them. I didn't even have to touch him once. He just sat in the big eye chair and cooperated. So nice. It's a long 3 hour appointment too with lots and lots of waiting. He earned a happy meal after this which he was so happy about.

Easter and General Conference Weekend

Since we were already in Cle Elum at Ensign Ranch, we came the rest of the way to my parents house for General Conference weekend and Easter weekend and Paige's birthday. Busy weekend! We all took showers, it felt amazing, and enjoyed my Mom's yummy banana cream pie. 

Dying Easter eggs. They tried a new way off of Brooklyn and Bailey (a you tube show that Kate watches about these 2 Mormon girls that do different things.) They used food coloring and the eggs did turn our nice and bright. Smart! Deviled eggs...yummy.

Easter egg hunting is over and they are finding out what they got. 

Preston was eating a ton of his candy and when Marci pointed it out to me I said, "oh I guess it's better for your teeth to eat it all at once than over a long period of time." ha. 

This year, my Mom sent the kids on a scavenger hunt with clues to find their golden eggs. She had them going from the fort in the sagebrush to the dirt pile to the fire pit to the shed, you name it, they were running around. It was fun to watch. They had to take turns reading it so they had to wait for everyone. It was a good idea Mom!

Happy 8th birthday Paige! She gets baptized in a couple weeks. 

The kids singing and performing for us. Cute cousins. 

L-R: Carter, Kate, Paige, Hailey and Lindsey and Grandpa Bill in the background

My Mom's brother, Jim and his wife Dana and their youngest Natalie, came out from Utah to visit my Grandpa so they joined us on Easter. It was fun to see them and visit with them. It had been a while since we saw them. John was doing games and activities with the kids like he always does. :)

We did watch Conference. :) It was great. We are glad for DVR where we can watch the one's we missed and then listen to them again on our phones. Technology is amazing. Lots of talks on protecting the family. Sign of the times and what's ahead. Makes me kind of sad to think of what's ahead. They talked about when the Proclamation to the Family came out (20 years ago) and I remember thinking when it came out "why did they have to come out with this? It was basic knowledge." Now I see why...20 years later things in our world look much different and people are changing their views. Crazy. Thank goodness for prophets and leaders to keep us on the straight and narrow path.

Spring Break at Ensign Ranch

Several families from our new ward go to Ensign Ranch and rent out the Lodge for a few days during Spring Break. Each family takes turn cooking a meal for everyone. We were hesitant to go, but decided to do it. I'm glad we did. We had a lot of fun. The kids loved it. We stayed 2 nights and I wouldn't want to stay more than that because we didn't sleep very good there. The rooms are small and you can hear everything. Every single time we would move on our air mattress it would make a big squeaky sound so you felt guilty for even moving! Such is camping!

Shannon Wright, our neighbor and friend, was doing a raffle for the kids. Basically, they all got a little gift from the dollar store. That was nice of her. Chelsea got a Big Hero 6 book and that was perfect for her since she's obsessed with Baymax.

The girls and boys, ahem, painting our nails. I was bad a painted one boys fingernails. Good thing for polish remover.

We went on a walk and stopped at the little river crossing and then found the ropes course to play on. The kids and adults were having fun with the challenges.

The kids were excited to ride horses. They only do led horse rides right now (in the summer they do the trail rides as well which is what Kate wanted to go on last year we were there, but was too short. She's hoping she can go this summer when we are there again with my family.)

Lindsey loved her horse ride. I thought she would be too nervous because she is usually the nervous one, but she did good.

Chelsea's smile cracked me up! Hahaha!

 Another family brought their cotton candy maker and made some for the kids. Another family did a dance off and had music and a disco ball to dance with. The adults would stay up after putting the kids down and played games and talked. I made kettle corn one night and that was a hit. We stayed up until after midnight both nights. It was fun, but with little sleep we were all exhausted when leaving. We did the lunch for one of the days. I served sub sandwiches on hoagie rolls (like subway) and then had various toppings with chips, fruit kabobs (another friend did this because they came up last minute) and crunchy no bakes.

Lindsey and Preston showing off their beds. Lindsey was excited to be on the top bunk bed. Chelsea reading her book before bed. She looks innocent, but really she was naughty this night. She kept getting out of bed and they were all awake (because of her) until 10:30pm! They still woke up bright and early at 6:30am though.