I ♥ my mom

When I got up this morning I checked my phone and saw a text from my mom that read;
"Please have Eli look outside the door when she wakes up"
We open the door to find a giant gift bag with the movie Tangled, a Rapunzel doll, party supplies and treats for the kids, so we got the table all set and had our breakfast on our Tangled plates and Pop-Tarts that were in the bag and then watched the movie.
It was the perfect pick up for the kids, life has been rather boring around here lately and I have just been exhausted since the Women's Retreat last weekend. Here's some pics of the morning, thus far.


Pop-Tarts, eggs and sausage for breakfast on Tangled plates



Her new favorite doll

And yes I know my phone camera is still messed up. Someday I'll have a new camera and there will be some decent pictures on here. ;-D
I think I'm going to make some pretzels or something for an afternoon snack & then it's time to get working on our Awanas verses. Thanks again mom! Love you!

Walk for Life 2011

Hey Everyone!
We are participating in the Walk for Life again this year and would greatly appreciate any help you can offer. We have a family goal of reaching $500 for the Whatcom County Pregnancy Clinic. If you are unable to donate, but live in the area please consider participating. You can start up your own "walker page", donate to our funds or simply learn more about WCPC by clicking the link below.
Thanks!
 Walk for Life 2011

First Day Of Spring

How did you spend your first day of Spring this year? I had lots of ideas going through my head on what types of special treats I would make for our Spring Party this year, I blogged about them here. But, when the time came around to start prepping for the party, I just didn't have the time. It's been a CRAZY week around here!
After church we let the kids do a little egg hunt and just as we were headed outside... my camera died, so I resorted to using my cell phone...

Like the lovely photos it took? This is the best one, most of them just say resolution error on my online album. =(
So, as you can see... Josh BBQ'd while the kids looked for their eggs, we ate lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine and then started some seeds for our garden this year. (Hopefully we can get something to grow this year and not be eaten up by the local wandering deer.) To save time I just made the kids' favorite box cake mix. I don't know why, but my kids love Pillsbury Funfetti cake mixes... Really I do know why... It's yummy and full of sugar, who wouldn't love it, LOL! Then it was time to head back to church for a special meeting. All in all it was a fun time, I got a little frustrated when my boys informed me they didn't want to touch the dirt while gardening. What little boy doesn't like playing in the dirt? Apparently all 3 of mine! LOL! But, I got over it, this having a yard thing is still kinda new to them anyways.

If you did something fun yesterday, blogged about it and would like to share link up over on Offering Hospitality's Spring Party post!

Silly Chickens

Like most chickens ours have had a decreased egg production through the winter months. About a month ago our really good layer had finally stopped laying or so I thought...

I discovered these today when I moved an old door Josh had against the wall in their coop! Over 32 eggs!
The space between the wall a the door was just wide enough for her to squeeze between!
Since they're all white that means our really good layer has been laying continuously through the winter, never missing a day. She just got smart to hiding her little eggs from the evil egg snatchers that come to her house around breakfast time, LOL!
Worst part is I had to throw them all out since I had no idea which ones were still good.
The coop got a complete scrub down today and all the little hiding places have been removed or blocked off, hopefully she doesn't find another hiding place. ;-)

Some Good News

For those of you that may not have heard... Josh has gotten a JOB!!!

He will be starting his new job as a machinist/mechanic at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, April 11th. Almost a full two years after his graduation from WWU and nearly 4 years since he was laid off from his last job! Wow! This has been a long road! A interesting little side note; unemployment for him would have ended at the end of April and there are no more extensions he could apply for. Is God's timing perfect or what!

The most common question we have been asked is: "will you commute or relocate" and the answer is we don't know. LOL! Of course he'll commute for the first little bit, but we're thinking we want to get his school loan and our car paid off before moving. Our rent right now is supper low, so the longer we are able to stay here, the better. It is only a 45 minute drive so commuting isn't that bad. We're thinking if we do relocate it will be when we're ready to buy a place.

Thank you all for your fervent prayers! We so excited for this new adventure!

Pacific Science Center

Space Needle on a beautiful Seattle day

On Monday March 7th we took a little field trip down to Seattle for Pacific Science Center's  Free Freddy's Monday event. The first 1000 people get in totally free thanks to a donation from the Fred Meyer Fund. We packed a sack lunch, so the only thing we had to pay for all day was parking and some souvenirs for the kids. Because of that we opted to park in the onsite garage, $10 for 3 hours. There is cheaper parking in downtown Seattle, but we went for convenience since it was the only expense of the day.

Butterfly on Josh

My favorite exhibit was the butterfly house. It was so neat to see all the different kinds of butterflies and I even had one hanging out on my shoulder for a while. Then the one in the pic above decided he liked Josh's orange shirt and rode around with him for a bit. If you'd like to see more pics, check out my mom's album on Facebook.

Naked Mole Rats

The boys' favorite part of the whole day was spraying the water cannons outside, but their favorite indoors exhibits were the dinosaurs and insects. There were lots of live insects in terrariums. We were hoping to see the bee colony they have, but I guess that wasn't on display since bees are dormant this time of year. The dinosaurs were all animatronic replicas as well as some skeletal bone displays and other fossil replicas.

Oh no! A dinosaur!

Elizabeth really liked the Butterflies and the toddler play area. There were a lot of moms with infants there on this particular day, so she didn't get to play in the toddler area as much as she wanted to since the babies were crawling all over and she just wanted to run.

There is one more free day the first Monday of April and you should check it out. Our kids have never been to the Science Center before and it's been about 10 years since Josh and I went and it's definitely a family favorite now. We're thinking about going back when this exhibit comes to Seattle!

NW Trek

All the kiddos with their stuffed animal souvenirs

We took our first field trip of the season, back on February 19th. The week before I found out that NW Trek was having their annual Kids & Kritters event on Presidents' Day weekend, where kids are free with a paid adult! So I quickly arranged to go with my mom, sister and her girls. 

Mr Billy Goat Gruff

The kids had a great time seeing all the animals in their exhibits and going on the tram ride through the area where the animals roam amongst each other. The favorites were the river otters, cougars and the fisher.  

Buffalo

 Tomorrow is our next field trip to Pacific Science Center! Post forthcoming!!