Our Easter Weekend...

For two years now we have been so busy with just fun, family activities that we have actually not had a visit from the Easter Bunny. Last year we went up the mountain and played the whole Saturday before and then just cleaned up and got Easter clothes. (There might have been a few pieces of candy in baskets.) This year I completely forgot to decorate and get provisions for the Easter Bunny's visit. I am okay with it as it is only a secular tradition which has nothing to do with the real reason for Easter.

This year we went to a family reunion involving our second cousins the Curtis'. We have not seen all of them in many, many years and they have this reunion almost every year and invited us this time. It was so great to see old faces and talk like we always knew each other.It started with visiting this pretty horse who is ready to deliver a baby horse (I forget the correct term) ANY DAY! She was so calm and just let the kids pet her. I am sure it hurt to move, but she was very patient.The kids loved seeing her and touching her belly. Then we went on a hike looking for hidden Easter eggs. They were all in the bushes and trees down the trail and hidden in various crevices. The kids ran around looking and helping each other out. After that we noticed a small makeshift pen and wandered over to investigate. It was the biggest hit of the day...PUPPIES!Little did we know that Cathy had planned to give these cute hound puppies away to anyone who wanted one this weekend. Megan, my sister (who was staying at my house by the way) jumped on that and immediately said I'll take one. I want the brown one! Wha?What? Both her husband and I just stood there dumbfounded. Was she serious? I guess so. And she said...This will be their Easter (since she hadn't done much for it either).He has yet to be named but has taken to the family very well. And how could you resist those cute eyes? Well, I did. My kids bugged me the rest of the day. Why can't we get a puppy, Mom? Well, Madelyn is allergic and Daddy is not here and we have to talk about it first. There was also great food and lots of it. Allen made an awesome breakfast including scrambled eggs and waffles and pancakes and sausage and bacon and Wayne made some great pit BBQ with beef and pork. Yummy! The desserts were good too! We had fun talking and laughing and getting to know each other again.

Thanks to Uncle Wayne and Aunt Cathy for going all out and making it a memorable and fun Easter for us.

Here is our Old Grandma (the Curtis' Aunt Anita) with Wayne and Cathy!

Easter Trivia, and Problem Children (the novel)

First off, some Easter trivia...I have been reading several blogs and comments about how early Easter was this year. I agree, but yesterday I had visiting teachers come and tell me how Easter is determined (when it will be) each year... Get ready. Okay to start maybe everyone should just cross their eyes and stand on their heads. Trust me. It will help.
Every year Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of Spring.
Hope that clears things up...clear as butter.

Oscar the grouch has nothing on Madelyn.

Now, I feel a little guilty about this gripe but I have to get it out. I have a problem child. I should have known she would be the one to give me all the stress because she was a perfect baby. So easy. Well, I am now mourning the loss of my darling little angel. Okay that sounds like she died; which she did not. But her perfection has died. In my post yesterday I mentioned that Madelyn has "branched out." What I mean is that she is becoming less concerned about what is right and wrong. She just does what she wants. If we punish her, she shrugs it off. Even if we reward her for good stuff, she is aloof. (Love that word.)

The other day we had a scare. My sister was here and we were planning on going to the store but needed to get things in order before we left all the kids with her husband. After several minutes (or longer) Megan said to me,"Where's Madelyn?" I didn't know. We thought all the girls were playing together but when we checked, the other two didn't know where she was. Kaitlyn said she was outside. Okay. I didn't hear the door open up for out back, but I went to check and she was not there. I thought about the front yard and checked there. No Madelyn. I had the thought to look in the car even though I could see in it from the door. I went over and looked through the windows in the back and the front. I couldn't see her. I thought to open the front door. There she was standing in the driver's seat, beat red, sweating and crying. I hadn't seen her through the window. I brought her inside and gave her some water to drink and poured water on her head to cool her down. In AZ every year many children die from being locked inside the car in the heat. I have no idea how long she had been in that car but we got lucky. We had a talk about not getting in the car without Mommy or Daddy. And I now keep the car locked at all times and the child locks are off in the back. It all turned out fine. I had such fear of losing this child that is mine.

That lasted about one day. Yesterday after I had sent the kids to bed, Kaitlyn came out to me and said she found chocolate under her bed. I thought it was chocolate candy or maybe cake which would have been bad. When I went in to check, I found a puddle of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup on the floor just under their bed. What? I looked around and found the bottle which I thought was completely gone in an unusual (even for us) haste. I also found a bag of chips, Jeff's Easter candy and keys to the house (?) Mostly I was concerned about the syrup which I had no idea how long it had been there or whatever. And it was time for bed so I might have to postpone cleaning it.

Madelyn is our sneak and our thief and our guiltless child. I knew who had done this. She could not answer why. I told her I didn't want her in my life anymore. I know. Harsh. Especially after the other day, right. Well, I was/am thisclose to finding a good boarding school for her and shipping her out. I am at a loss as to what to do with her. Will her starting school in the fall help or will they say they don't want her? Will she be in the principal's office everyday? I don't even know where any boarding schools are except for the Deaf ones and Heaven only knows what kind of trouble she could get into at one of those. I told her today that she had to stay in the same room as me all day...(bathroom, shower etc) and no toys...She cannot be trusted. I do love her. I am just at a loss. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

What A Difference A Day Makes...

Last week was Spring Break for my nieces and nephews in Mesa. My sister, Megan, and her family decided to come over here and go camping before our Easter festivities. They got all packed and headed up the mountain for a couple days. I decided it would be fun for us to go up and see them. Its only about 30 minutes from our house so on Friday we put together a lunch and some treats and water and headed up.

Monkey in a tree.

Clearly the kids had fun. Madelyn has decided she is a monkey and is now climbing anything she can. At home we have a six foot block wall around our back yard and she has scaled that thing twice and then had other kids come running in yelling, "Come quick, Madelyn is stuck!" Don't ask me how she does this being a grand total of 33 inches tall. She climbed up this tree and I told her to get down, then I told her to go back up so I could take this picture then she could get down.

Dirty Kaitlyn posing...

It was fun and everyone got incredibly dirty. I just don't get it. You say the word camping and next thing you know there is mounds of dirt in your house. Not my cup o' tea. Thats for sure.

Bronson loves to take a picture and then look at himself. He puts on his "good boy" face.

Then for a quick change of pace we expect our kids to be dolled up and fancy for Easter Sunday church a day later. Not to mention that after Megan's family was done camping, they all came to our house to stay. We had seven dirty kids, a ton of dirty laundry and smells that don't belong in civilized boundaries. But they all got squeaky clean and we turned out pretty darn presentable for church...Thank goodness.

Don't mind the cheeseball on the right.

Here are my three in their Easter clothes. This is Bronson's first suit. He got a three piece for Christmas but it did not include the jacket. This included shirt, tie, vest, jacket and pants...Really cute. They clean up nice.