Thursday, April 24, 2014

Easter 2014

This year was my FIRST year ever hosting Easter.. and it really turned out to be such a fun, enjoyable, and relatively stress-free (really!) day!

Since Doug and I were both serving at church on Sunday morning we went to Easter services as a family on Saturday night. The kids (okay..  Evelyn mostly..haha) were excited to wear their Easter clothes and go to "big church"!



 It is SO hard to get a good pic of both of them together these days... these were the best ones! Oh.. and Evelyn wanted her hair in a "side pony... like Queen Elsa" (from the Frozen movie). Her hair is almost long enough.. but it still turned out fine!


Sadly I didn't get ANY pictures of the food or the table, but the meal and company was truly lovely. Doug's brother and family as well as Doug's aunt Mary joined us. I even used my china... sad to say this is the FIRST time I have used it in almost 13 years..ugh! It was lovely and I even got help with the dishes!

After dinner, the "big cousins" (Ben, 15, and Mitchell, 13) put on an Easter egg hunt for the littler kids. They did such a good job and the kids had a blast...and the grownups got lots of extra time to chat and drink more wine..haha!









At some point Kristin (my sister-in-law) and I were doing dishes and I looked up out the kitchen window to find the cousins in a full on water fight! The dads were out "supervising" and apparently this just happened.. in their Easter clothes no less..haha! Oh my, did the kids have fun ganging up on the big cousins!








.... and then there was sweet Greg. He LOVES LOVES LOVES our go-kart and he was on it most of the afternoon! :)

It was a lovely day to celebrate our Risen Lord!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Science Fair

At Evelyn's school the PTO puts on a Science Fair every year. 4th and 5th graders are required to do it as a part of their science grade, but all students are encouraged to do a board. Last year Evelyn did a board with her entire Kindy class and she actually was one of the presenters. She decided that she wanted to do a board on her own this year, and did such a great job!

After talking about many different ideas, she decided to do a hand washing experiment, seeing which of 5 different methods of cleaning your hand took off them most germs. She worked SO hard to do as much as she could on her own, even typing out things by herself (one letter at a time... that was a bit painful for this momma, to be honest...haha).

At the Science Fair... love the final product!

My mom and her Doug came to support Evelyn and see the fair. It was nice to have them there. 

As I was putting her to bed after the Science Fair, she told me she may not do a board next year.... it was a lot of work, she said... so we will see! :) Proud of her for taking this on and doing such a good job. Science rocks!!

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

AWANA Grand Prix

The kids have been SO excited ALL year about doing the AWANA Gran Prix. This was Matthew's first year in club, therefore his first year doing a car. Evelyn was excited to do another one after the fun she had last year. Doug.. well, I think he was excited about doing cars with both the kids, but also was a bit curious how it would go managing both of them in the shop yet making sure they did as much of the car themselves! But, in the end it was a VERY fun time for the kids to spend with their dad making really cool cars.

Here's a photo diary of the car making experience!

Safely goggles on!


Doug did such a great job keeping thing organized and on track, as well as making sure each on the kids got equal time on their cars.

One of the rules/goals of the Gran Prix is that the kids do as much of the work as possible. Doug had the kids doing just that, using all the tools (with assistance if needed) he would use to make the cars.








Evelyn decided to do a Laura Ingalls Wilder inspired covered wagon.. and it turned out so cute!









Matthew, not surprisingly, decided to do a LarryBoy Mobile. It also turned out well, although was more complicated than we thought it was going to be!



So.. the dome for the car? Well... let's just say that it ended up costing us almost TEN dollars for that silly piece of plastic!!





Last Saturday was the day of the big race! The kids were SO excited they could hardly wait to get down to the church!!



Getting inspected... the cars have to be a certain height/weight and meet other requirements. 


The final products...so awesome (but I am a bit bias...heehee)!

Commander Stone going over the plans for the day!

The main goal... getting across this line FIRST! Actually, the main goal is to have FUN.. but winning a race is cool, too! :)


Grandma and Grandpa Doug came out to support the kids... so special to have them there!

Matthew getting so excited to watch his car race for the VERY first time! Both kids' cars did VERY well!! Evelyn won one of her races and placed second in the other two! Matthew placed second and third in all his races. They both were very proud of how well their cars did.. as was I!

A good shot of the whole track...

I love these two monkeys!

All the participating cars ready to be judged.

So... each kid who participates get a ribbon, but they award trophies in two classes.. Design and Speed. Well... guess what kids got second and third place in the Design Class? My two!! 


Matthew was so excited but also nervous and shy, so Doug went up with him. So cute!

Evelyn was not shy at all!! Went right up and smiled proudly! 

Our two award winners!! 




It was a big undertaking to do both these cars, but my amazing husband worked hard and with lots of love and patience made this such great experience for the kids!