Random Recap

A few random pictures of life lately .. .. .. 

It was SUPER windy for several days!!

Emm thought it funny that after checking the mail I returned to the car like this:)

 Bailee decided to cut off about 6 inches

 Emmrey spent some time at the Dentist

 Our Daffodils bloomed .. .. LOVE them

 Mark's been putting in lots of time in the yard

 Emmrey made her own garden

 We've been growing starts in our basement for the garden and yard

Bailee has been reluctantly practicing driving when we make her. This girl has no interest in driving. Not that her parents are super excited about it, but it's a life skill she's got to learn.

Karsyn has been keeping the house filled with strumming of the guitar. She practices all the time and is getting pretty good already.

 

  Bailee had another choir concert

 Coconut and Simon attended this one and they sat more still than their momma;)

 Bailee heard good news that her braces will be coming off soon. After her appointment we met Mark for lunch at Panda and she got this fortune .. .."Your winsome smile will be your sure protection"

 Emmrey has been trying to earn $$ again .. ... she knows how to work it

 Kars also spent some time modeling for Bay's photo assignment

And I have spent more time than I would like at the skin clinic.

Life has been busy!!

National Honor Society

This past week Bailee was inducted into the National Honor Society.

 We all got dressed up (something Mark kinda despises on a week night) and headed for the High School. They had a nice short program honoring the graduating seniors and inducting the new members.

Bailee and her friend Caroline

We are so so proud of our girl and pleased that she strives to do her very best at school. She puts her academics in high priority, but in addition she has great character and is very service oriented which are all criteria for being selected to NHS.

 Her sisters are pretty proud of her too. However, they may have been a bit more excited about the refreshments afterwards. I must admit it was a pleasant surprise to be served something other than your typical cookies. A local shop called Paciugo served us up several flavors of Gelato as well as Waffle Cookies and these yummy little bite size cupcakes.

I think there are great things to come if Bailee continues on this path she is on:)

Butterfly Pavilion

Emmrey's class went on a field trip last week. They visited the Butterfly Pavilion near Denver and I was able to go along as a chaperone.

While it is called the Butterfly Pavilion, there is actually quite a bit more to see than that. The pavilion is home to over 5,000 invertebrates. Did you know that invertebrates make up 97% of all animal species on the planet? The kids started out in a classroom where they learned this and other interesting facts. They also got to observe and learn about the Madagascar Hissing Beetle.

 Then our little group was off to explore the 5 different areas of the Pavilion. The Tropical Odyssey was a fun area with educational games and active play.

 In the Crawl A See Em the kids got to hold Rosie, the resident tarantula. Emm wasn't too sure about this .. ...

 Although she was sure happy she did it  ..  ..

At the Water's Edge we met lots of aquatic invertebrates in the Touch Tank

Then we headed out to Wings of the Tropics where we were surrounded by over 1,600 live butterflies. This was the favorite area for sure!

 

We were told to wear bright colors so the butterflies would land on us:)

 

 Our final area was the Outdoor Garden and Nature Trail where we ate our lunch and explored the grounds.

It was a fun field trip with a pretty cute group of 2nd graders:)

Special O '15

Bailee is in the middle of her 4th year with the Special Olympics swim team. This year she is working with the Northern Colorado team. They meet every Saturday in Loveland for a couple of hours. This is the third team she has volunteered with and they each have their own dynamic. Surprisingly, the team is not all that large given that it is comprised of several northern Colorado communities. A couple of weekends ago was the Regional Meet.  I drove her early Saturday to Loveland and planned to just hang out at the meet rather than spend hours driving back and forth. I offered my help and was put right to work. It was so fun to get to work along side Bay as we got the athletes where they needed to be for their events. 

 

 I love the atmosphere at these meets. So much positive energy and pride in their achievements. They are equally as happy for others as they are for themselves which is so so refreshing!

Bailee and Hunter

Jeremy, Ally, Craig and Julie with Bailee

 I am so glad that Bailee chooses to be a part of this organization. I see many more years of this in her future:)

7th grade Culture Day

Kars recently added a little more culture in her life. The 7th graders at WMS had a Culture Day to learn more about Asia. I was a volunteer for the event so in between cooking up some Pot Stickers and Egg rolls, I was able to wander around and see what the kids were up to. They got to rotate through a few different "mini-classes" of their choice. Karsyn did Himalayan Expedition, Korean New Year, Asia Myths and Fairy Tales, and Zen Garden. She brought home her own miniature Zen garden and she was calmed for days. Kars had no problem with me volunteering and in fact, encouraged me to. However, she was not as thrilled about me snapping photos of her. It is a bit easier to get away with when you are acting as a volunteer so I was able to at least get one.

Karsy and her classmate Maddy with their Bonsai tree

Easter 2015

Easter was a little off for me this year. I think part of it was that my mind is so full of other things going on right now that I just wasn't as into it and another part was that since we didn't have church that Sunday (due to Conference) we didn't do the whole Easter dresses etc. Don't get me wrong, I actually loved that we were able to stay home and relax all day ... it was just different. We colored eggs a couple of nights before. We have started dyeing regular eggs in addition to the hard boiled because we never eat as many hard boiled eggs as the girls like to color. This makes it a little tricky and we usually have some casualties....this year only 1.

On Saturday, Harvest Farm hosts a community Egg Hunt for kids under age 11. Kars and Bay were too old to participate and to be honest, weren't all that interested in going anyway. So we just took Emmrey over.

 There is such a mass of people there that it really isn't a "hunt".  The plastic eggs are pretty much just scattered all over the grass and it's race to see who can pick up the most (without being too greedy;)

 Emm was excited to see her best buddy Izabella there too.

 We wandered over to the animals, which is what Emmrey was more interested in anyway. She got to feed the big cows.

 And the goats tried to feed on her basket.

Sunday morning the girls found their baskets had been filled.

Emmrey was so happy to add another Calico Critter family to her collection (Brightfield Goat Family)

 almost as excited as she was to get her package of Peeps:)

 Karsyn was thrilled to get some new headbands and Insurgent since she has to read the book before she can see the movie.

 We headed outside for a real egg hunt. Emmrey typically finds all hers first. Bailee is typically last and Kars gets frustrated if she has to look for more than 5 minutes  ....

 It was a beautiful morning and as we searched all over the yard for eggs we were treated to a Hot Air Balloon going by

We made a pretty traditional meal of ham, potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs. I completely forgot the Snicker Salad Kars had requested when I asked the girls for ideas .. ... my head is too chaotic right now I tell ya.  I did get festive and put together this carrot cheese ball so that counts for something right?

 So as not to overdo it we waited until the following week to have our Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt.

 And yes, Bailee did celebrate Easter with us. I was in such rare form I guess I failed to get pictures of her and didn't persist when she gave me a hard time about taking too many:)