Easter Fun, Fun, Fun

Holidays are great like that, lots of parties and gatherings.  So with Easter, by the time the day comes, the kids have had a couple of hunts and many days of celebrating.  But some things just don't get old.  And two of them are 1. Family and friends and 2. Food and Candy.

First is our Resource Parent Event (Foster care families and kids):

 Then our neighborhood gathering (love this kid friendly 'hood and neighbors):

Then our family get together:

And last the actual day with baskets and bunnies and church to learn of Christ's Resurrection.

Snow Days and Pre-Christmas Vacation Fun

This December has been amazing.  Little snow falls have been steadily coming blanketing the ground with enough snow to sled.  Our neighborhood has a great hill and so we have sledding parties, hot cocoa, fires and tons of fun.

 

When vacation finally came...our friends and fellow ward members introduced us to the game Innebandy.  It is a Swedish floor hockey.  Guess where the dad served his mission!  We had tons of fun, lots of goals were scored and minor injuries were received.  A perfect kind of fun.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

So after an awesome trip to Texas for Thanksgiving, more on that later,

we got home to some cold temperatures and predictions of snow. 

Our family loves the snow and so were hoping, with baited breath,

that the weathermen would be right.  And they were!

Sunday we got a couple of inches. 

Then Tuesday we got a couple more, which cancelled school. 

And what better way than to have a community sledding party, with an outdoor fire pit to warm up by and hot chocolate and cookies. 

Not only is it beginning to feel like Christmas, but amidst the busyness of life

I am reminded of why I love my neighbors and our neighborhood. 

Let's hope this lasts all winter long, because Saturday they are calling for snow again. 

I'll take it!!!

We Did Celebrate

Although I have forgotten to post about Memorial Day, we did indeed celebrate.  On Sunday we had a neighborhood bash, Monday a church one.  Travis was home.  Yeah!

We have great friends.  They are good fathers.  And they are our neighbors.  We love celebrating with them.  And always ending up playing family games of kickball, wiffle ball, or some other sport. 

In other news the bird cage sold.  Now does anyone want to buy a train table with all the tracks, etc....?

Celebrity Visits Baron's Ridge...Again

And he's back.  Edward Cullen.  Yeah we could care less about Robert Pattenson or whatever his name is.  The builders and realtors hate when we cover their signs with our signs.  But we all laugh for days. 

Tonight is our neighborhood viewing night.  First time for some, repeat viewing for others.  My first.  I'll let you know tomorrow what I think.  We're silly, but that is why I love these girls.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

it was really sunny out hence the pirate eye

 tons of happy children - thanks dawn, jen, and susanne

 after hunting, eating, now it's time to play slide down the cellar door

Happy Birthday To Me

It all started with an email asking if we were all free Thursday night? After everyone coordinating schedules it was planned for 8:30. Lindsay was the ring leader and she was keeping the surprise a secret from all of us. It wasn't the first time something like this has happened. I have been summoned to late night hot tub councils, and back yard meetings, and so although I was dying to know what we were doing I waited somewhat patiently.
I was told to wait till 8:30 for my call to come to Lindsay's house. After the call I was told to grab my camera and look in my mailbox. There I received my first gift and clue to my surprise birthday scavenger hunt. The "surprise" meeting was only a surprise to me. I followed the clues all over the neighborhood criss crossing back and forth stopping at friends' homes to pick up my other clues and gifts.

Along the way I scored awesome loot like Team Jacob stuff, glitter body spray, a little flashlight, a bookmark, travel razors, and a Sesame Street t-shirt that says "It's all good in the HOOD". Each one had an underlaying joke or common thread to some neighbor experience and I was laughing all along the way.

The last clue led me to Lindsay's house where there awaited the girls, singing to me, and with cake, and my "real presents". I got cupcake frosting lip gloss, nail polish, drip dry or the equivalent, and two sets of necklaces and matching earrings.

In the end we sat and chatted and played my brand new "New Moon" card game. Where Lindsay really rocked it out and scored the win and impressed me by guessing Mentzer's and my dream cars. I love these girls.

And this morning when I woke up and saw this from last night, I was just as happy all over again. I love surprises, I am really big on birthdays, and my BFF's are the best. Even without all the stuff I know that we will laugh every time we are together till someone almost pees themselves. And last night our ending photo shoot did just that. But those pictures are for our own secret neighborhood archive. Oh the blackmail that could come from that vault of secrets.

Baron's Ridge Bookclub for Kids

In the last of the All Caught Up series, I present our newest and coolest neighborhood tradition a children's book club. We had our first one last Thursday and we have the next two or three scheduled. Kids ranged in age from 1-11 years old. We picked a book that every parent, pretty much the moms, read to their children. We then met and did a group reading, a small discussion about it, a related craft, and a yummy snack.

Our first book was The Curious Garden. It featured a city that had been left to debris and smog, but one little boy loved to be outside and play despite this. Eventually he found an access to the abandoned overhead railway and climbed up to find a small patch and grass and weed. Tenderly he nursed that little area until it grew healthy enough to spread along the railway. Eventually the town saw the impact the boy had made and by the next summer all were planting and grooming their areas. Eventually the city was beautiful and people loved to be outside once more.

The fabulous host, Lindsay, really knows how to rock an event. Nine families attended and each child of the nineteen children went home with their own planted sunflower. Have I ever mentioned how much I love where I live?