Fantastic Teachers, Fabulous Kids!

We had Open House at Monte Gardens on Wednesday night.

Here is Conner (3rd grade) with his terrific teacher Mrs. Urias! Here is Calissa (1st grade) with her amazing teacher Ms. Prichard! We are so lucky to have had such great teachers yet again!
We'll be sad when the year is over to not be in their classes any more.
They've (Parker included) grown so much this year thanks to their fantastic teachers!
(We're also lucky to have fabulous kids ... but I guess we're a little biased!)

What Are the Odds?

We played Farkel Party (a dice game) tonight as a family and everyone rolls one die to see who goes first. Travis and I each rolled a 6 and all three kids rolled a 3. Travis and I rolled again, and again, and again, and again. We rolled the same number six times in a row! What are the odds? Let us know if anyone wants to try to figure that out! Travis may work on it tomorrow at work!

Miniature Golf Fun

Friday, Travis took the day off work and we headed to Scandia after a stop at In-and-Out for lunch. We had a fun time as a family. I killed everyone in Miniature Golf (by 10+ strokes).

Who knew I was so good? :) Travis had the camera as his handicap. Usually it's in my possession, but he graciously volunteered to wear it this time. Throws off your game, huh Trav? That new small camera before the cruise is sounding better and better, huh?Calissa couldn't wait for her turn.
Conner was our most powerful. He hit the ball once and it bounced back towards us, hit something else and then went into the house. We were laughing so hard!

Parker was the most inconsistent -- he had the most hole-in-ones but some "pick up your ball after six strokes" holes too.

Our happy family golfing.

On our last hole Conner got a hole in one and received a free game of Laser Tag. So, we bought one game for Parker so the two of them could play together.

We also played some arcade games before we left.

We got back to Concord just in time for Calissa's gymnastics and then for Parker's baseball practice. It was a great family day. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the kids to go back to school tomorrow or not, so I guess that means that it was a fun Spring Break!

Note to self

Note to self ... don't go to Double Play Wednesday for the A's actually expecting to get the $2 tickets. All sold out the day before the game ... next cheapest, $26 each. $130 for five tickets instead of $10! At least they still had $1 hot dogs. The A's lost, Travis lost his hat at the BART station before we even got on the train, the weather was cold and then hot (weird) and despite that we still had a great time!

Chuck E Cheese yesterday, friends at the park tomorrow, and miniature golfing on Friday. A fun Spring Break!

Easter fun

Here are the kids before church getting their first look at their Easter Baskets. Since we had to be at church at 8:30 this morning, the kids waited until after church to hunt for their eggs. They were good about waiting! Not too much complaining. The Easter Bunny brought each of them a new book and a game for the family (Farkel Party). We played it this afternoon. It's quite a fun game that any age can play.Here they are after church (notice the hair doesn't look quite as nice :) ready for their egg hunt.Can't fool Calissa ...

Conner finding one.

Parker liked finding the high ones. Maybe he just liked standing on the couch!

Conner was the first one finished finding his 12 regular eggs and 1 large egg with $5 in it.

Lucky kids! I wish the Easter Bunny would bring me money (well really I'd like a pool in my backyard if I could have anything).

Calissa was done next.

Parker was the last since he had to find the "harder" hid eggs. We finally played a little game of warmer/colder to find the last few. The Easter Bunny did a good job of hiding the eggs.

We were able to go over to my parents' house for Easter Dinner. Parker made the cheesy potatoes and I made rolls. We had a yummy dinner and enjoyed spending time with family on this beautiful Easter Day. Happy Easter everyone!

A Great Week!

Well, no photos with this blog, but had to talk a little bit about the exciting week that we had.

1. Parker's team finally won their first baseball game! It was an exciting win as they beat the first place team. Parker had two huge hits to the outfield (3 runs scored), turned a double play and threw a few people out at first. The only problem is that they have almost two weeks off until a double header next Saturday. Hopefully things will turn around for them now that they have some confidence! Parker is having a good experience though.

2. Travis and I went to see Wicked in San Francisco on Wednesday night. As we arrived at the theater we noticed that the two standby's for Elpheba and Glinda were performing instead of the leads. I was a little disappointed since we spent a lot on the tickets, but once they started singing I realized that we were definitely getting our money's worth. They were fabulous! Everything about the show was perfect. We both loved it and I'm trying to talk Travis into going to see it again this year and maybe taking the boys. We'll see if I can talk him into it or not ... I think I can!

3. Spring Break is here. I've felt like I'm hanging on by my fingernails to life this past month. We've been so busy with baseball and subbing (and everything else going on) that I have only cooked a real meal about 3 times in the last month. I'm hoping to "regroup" this week and get my life under control for the mad dash to the end of the school year. Just in case you're worried about my children eating nutritious food, rest assured they are eating their dairy (fried mozzarella cheese sticks), protein (hotdogs and hamburgers), grains (frosted mini wheats), fruit (strawberry jam on their pbj's and fruit bars), and veggies (do french fries count?) for dinner. I'm promising my kids to do a better job of feeding them this week. It's hard when we spend every night at the ball fields. Travis is also taking off a few days so we can do some fun things this week as a family. Hooray for family time!

4. I gave a talk today on charity. Despite being asked last Sunday night at 9 PM, and having an extremely busy week, it was a blessing to be able to prepare a talk this week. As I studied as the week went on, I was able to ponder the topic of charity and try my best to be as charitable as possible. Did I fall short of perfection, you bet, but I loved being able to think about it and work on it. Hopefully I will continue to try to be better ... isn't that what this life is all about?

5. We had Easter. I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ who atoned for my sins and made it possible for me to live with him again someday. I'm thankful that I can repent and continue my lifelong path that will lead me back home to him. I grateful that he was resurrected so that I can be resurrected someday as well.