Fairy Tale Ball

Well, it happened! This year Hattie got to go to the Fairy Tale Ball all by herself with her daddy. I told Bug that she could still go this year, but she quickly and firmly said NO! She knew that last year while she and Hattie were are the Fairy Tale Ball, Leah got to go out for Mexican and Ice Cream with mom. So that's what we did again.

Once Hattie was all dolled up and ready to go, we snapped a few pictures and they hit the road. Mitch said he really didn't have to do much at all. She kept herself occupied talking to the princesses and playing with her friends. She adored Belle and spent so much of the night talking to her and dancing the night away.

Leah, Kiersten and I had an equally fun night! We started at El Corral where we ate our weight in chips and salsa. They get it from their mama! And after we went to Dairy Queen. Leah wanted a blizzard and Kiersten wanted a Artic Rush. We even got a little something for the little princess. The night made me realize that we need to do daughter date nights more often.

April in Mondovi

April 11th is Mitch's Grandmothers birthday, and with April 16th being Easter it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get the family together to celebrate. We loaded up on Good Friday and headed North for Eau Claire. We got to town around 6pm, grabbed a quick dinner and let the girls swim for a while.

On Saturday morning we headed to the farm. Dennis and Diane live there now...they've built a beautiful home and so it was the ideal location to celebrate Grandma Fran. Everyone was there, even some distant cousins I hadn't met before. She was so surprised to see everyone. Hattie wouldn't leave her side for the first few hours.

Later that day Grandma Tootie had an Easter Egg hunt for the littles. We can't have Easter with out that! We stayed at the farm for most of the day. The girls enjoyed being outside and we couldn't have asked for a better day. That night we headed back to the hotel, ordered pizza and there was more swimming.

Sunday morning we all went to Easter service with Grandma Fran and then we started the drive back home. The girls always enjoy there time with her. I hope that get the chance to make many more memories.

Preschool Party

How can it be??? Her very last little preschool party is in the books! I'm so glad I was able to be there. Mrs. Brown had each parent bring 12 filled plastic eggs so the kids could have an egg hunt. They sure loved that!  Then we went inside for the rest of the festivities. They enjoyed a little snack and then we worked on a craft. The bunny masks turned out so cute!

There was an intense game of freeze tag...there little faces were so red by the end! And then they did some other games. They did spoon races and then a hopping game. Her little friends are all just so nice. They are so sweet to one another. She had a great time. Wishing all her little friends a Hoppy Easter!

Run, Leah!

It's been a few months since Leah started running with Mitch on Saturday mornings. Well, somehow, Mrs. Swartz her 3rd grade teacher heard about this and sent home a challenge. The National Honor Socitey at MTZ High School was doing a 5K fundraiser, and Mrs. Swartz challenged her students to come run with her. We were on the fence with whether or not she should do it. But in the end, Mitch took Leah and it went great!

One other boy from Leah's class, Jasper, attended too. Leah said a bunch of people started out fast, but she knew to pace herself. Overall she came in 24th, and Jasper came in 25th. She ran the race in 31 minutes. I'm so proud of her...Mrs. Swartz was proud too. Now on to our next race!

Little Turtles

McGaughey Elementary does a fun project with their 1st graders every year for Earth Day! I remember Leah doing this project two years ago. She made a helicopter out of a milk jug. It had popsicle sticks and straws for propellers. Kiersten came home and was all gung ho to make a robot. But not much later, she said EVERYONE was bringing in robots. So we started looking for new ideas. Enter the Turtles! I think I actually saw it on Instagram. She loved it, so that's what we did. We crafted a cute little Momma Turtle with  baby Turtle on its back. She did great cutting out parts and piecing it together, but she had me handle the hot glue gun. She was not a fan! She didn't win, but that's okay. It was fun all the same.

Easter Eggs

Because at Easter you dye eggs, right?!?! Okay, I have to admit. This is not something I've done very often with my kids. Leah is almost 9, and we've maybe done it 4 times?!?! I used to not like doing it, because I never wanted to eat all those hard boiled eggs. Silly, right? But now I have three kids who like to help me eat them, so I figured we may as well.

They were genuinely surprised by the fact and the egg wouldn't color over crayon markings. I'm totally failing at this mom thing. I kid, I kid! But it was fun. And it occupied maybe an hour of our time.  At the end we got adventurous and started mixing the dye to make new colors. Purple was a win, for sure!!!

All About Hattie!

 My sweet little Hattie was student of the week last week at Preschool. She was so excited to work on her poster, and really thought hard about what she wanted to include. Which meant that I spent a lot of time looking through old pictures so she could pick out just the right ones to share with her friends. But I didn't mind. I was nice to look back at some of our favorite memories.

Her posted included a baby picture and a new picture. She picked one from her 6 month photo shoot, wearing pink lace and pearls. And then we used her recent cowgirl dance picture too. For her family pictures we used one from when she was a brand new itty bitty baby in the hospital and one of our more recent family pictures. She loved the newborn one because it had her Hopper in it too!

For her favorite places she picked a picture from the Salt Lake, Antelope Island and of course Arizona! It took us a long time to find just the right picture from Disney World. She went with one Bug and herself on the  Tea Cups! She included a picture of fishing in Minnesota, and one of herself doing sidewalk chalk...which she loves and I will have evidence of on my porch for months to come!

Her favorite book is Press Here. Her favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast...probably because it just came out and she went to see it twice! Her favorite meal is Spaghetti and Meatballs. She's growing up so fast. I sure am going to miss my little buddy when she goes off to Kindergarten in the Fall!

Sabino Canyon

Mitch and I went to Tucson last week for a quick getaway! We needed it! This was supposed to be our anniversary trip, but when I threw my hip out in December we had to postpone. The timing was perfect, Baylee was home for Spring Break to watch the girls. We got to Tucson on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday we had big plans to go for our first hike in Sabino Canyon. I had never done 7 Falls, I always wanted too, but thought 8 miles was too much for me. This was Mitch's first time out there. And I knew it was going to be a great day. I was even happier when my sister decided that she wanted to join us!!!

We got to the canyon around 9 and started our trek. We moved quickly and that first 4 miles to the Falls wasn't that hard. We got off the path for a short while but quickly found our way back. The weather was perfect, a little overcast with temps in the high 60's. At times I needed a jacket. When we got to the falls, I couldn't believe it...there were teenagers in the water...in bikinis!!! No thanks!

We sat and enjoyed the view for awhile, grabbed and snack and rehydrated before making our way back. We were about a mile in to the 4 miles back when it happened. At one of the river crossings, I lost my footing on a slippery rock. I leaned down to brace myself on another rock and my phone fell right out of my pocket into the river. I quickly went in after it. So there it was. I could tell that Mitch was NOT HAPPY! We powered it off and went on our way. I had to do the last 3 miles with sopping wet shoes. But we made it. It took us 4 hours to do 8 miles, a little over 21,000 steps and we were done. With only one casualty...my phone!

On the way back to Gigi and Papa's house we stopped at whole foods for some lunch and a bag of rice. I'm happy to say that after 3 days submerged in rice, my phone made a complete recovery. It sure makes for a great memory, and now I can't wait for the girls to be old enough to make the hike with us!

Thursday night after the hike!