Playing Hookie

Yes I let my kids skip school yesterday. Were they sick? No! But it was my mom's last day here so we kept them home. For lunch time we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. This is a big treat for them because we only go about once a year. They had a blast. Riana caught on to the whole ticket and token thing real quick. After 2 1/2 hours it was time to go home. They each got several little prizes and a blue cotton candy to share. Riana doesn't like Cotton Candy. ..not yet. We loved our special afternoon.




After that fun day, Grandma came up to play with the 3 girls before bed. She brought some magic popcorn. They had never seen popcorn made this way. It was the old style that you pop on the stove. They were fascinated by how big the top got and wanted to see it explode. No explosions but they ate the popcorn anyway.
After that fun day, Grandma came up to play with the 3 girls before bed. She brought some magic popcorn. They had never seen popcorn made this way. It was the old style that you pop on the stove. They were fascinated by how big the top got and wanted to see it explode. No explosions but they ate the popcorn anyway.

Shayla's First Communion

May 2nd
Shayla was very excited for her 1st Communion. Any time she spoke to someone she would ask them if they were coming to her communion. There were 71 kids split between 2 time slots. I picked the 12:00 knowing it would take awhile to get everyone ready. Here she is in the basement of the church waiting to go upstairs. She wasn't nervous about reading a part of the prayer in front of a packed church.

After mass we all went to her favorite place to eat... the Chinese Buffet. This was Dawn's idea. A brilliant one at that. I thought this would be better than having it outside at home. Then I would have less to worry about, like the weather(which was rainy), how much food to get, who to invite and who to leave off the list. So we had a family party at the restaurant. I had them reserve a section for us so we had a whole area to ourselves.
Those who attended were: Shayla, Me, Jeff, Trin, Riana, Jeff's mom Linda, My mom Sue(from Minnesota), My Grandparents (from Vermont), Uncle Jimmy and Rita, Bobby, Dawn(from New Jersey), and Tara.
Here she is after the party. She even kept her dress clean!
I am sure this is a glimpse at her future as a bride.
God Bless Shayla.

Earth Day

For Earth Day, Shayla had asked if we could clean up the parking lot a block away from our house. We visit this empty parking lot often in the summer to ride bikes. Also there is a permanent puddle that has formed. In the puddle we collect tadpoles. So I agreed. Wednesday it had rained so we went on Thursday, April 24.
I used a very large trash bag and we filled it. The bottles and cans we found I left in a pile for the guy who comes around each week and collects them out of recycle bins. I was surprised to find that 3 cans still had beer in them. Even though we could have filled 2 more bags full I feel we made a little difference in making the Earth cleaner. Good idea Shay!
My mom was here so she helped out too.

painting the kitchen

I finally decided to paint the kitchen. Jeff had started a year ago but after the paint had spilled onto the floor, he lost modivation. So now it was my turn. Everyone knows if I can do it myself I will. I also thought it would be a great time to turn the outlets right side up. So the kitchen before was light pink on top and white on the bottom. I had redid the white years ago. Now I wanted something different. I picked White on top and "Airy Mint" on the bottom half. I am so happy with the way it came out. Of course the kids wanted to help.
Here is Trinity "helping."

Riana couldn't be left out:

This is my biggest helper. She was doing the lines of the panelling. Then I went over all of it with the roller. That is why it took so long, because of the panelling.

DONE

Easter Fun

The girls had so much fun dying the Easter eggs. Well not Riana. That would be a nightmare. She did watch for alittle while. We did over a dozen so we could bring them to Easter Dinner. My sister Dawn came up from New Jersey. She cooked at my Aunt Christine's house.



Let's back up a moment and say the Easter Bunny didn't come to our house until after 2 am. Shayla woke up with a sore throat around 1 and had trouble going back to sleep.
The kids got up and checked out their baskets. Then I gave them breakfast.


Checking out the loot. They didn't want to come pose for a picture so I had to take one fast.


Egg Hunting!! It was so cold. Notice the hat and mittens. When they were done we went upstairs to see what was in the eggs. The one below was found by Shayla. Inside was dried apricot slices(some had candy and chocolate). I think the Easter Bunny was tring to help with the new food thing. Something found it over night and really wanted it. Then it was time for church. The girls sat really well for me. After the first song, Riana yelled "yay!" Although while the priest lightly splashed holy water at the people Riana told me very loudly that she got some in her eye. LOL. (I don't know how to take this underline off.)
Then it was off to Jeff's Grandmother's to show off the dresses! I think Dawn and the girls picked out some nice ones. I was too full to take pictures at Aunt Christine's. We had a Happy Easter!

Janelle's Dancing Party

My friend Becky invited us to her daughter's birthday party at a dance studio. Shayla wasn't sure she wanted to do it but came along anyway. Becky's mom supplied tutus for all the girls. The dance studio supplied the ballet shoes. Even Riana had a pair! They had a great time dancing to Hannah Montana songs. I tried to drive home the long way hoping Riana would nap in the car but she was too busy going through her goody bag.

Egg Decorating Contest

I was about to tell you all about how the kids had decorated eggs for the contest and how busy my day was on this day, but I lost power. I guess it zapped my creative juices because that was several days ago. So now I am just going to tell the short version.

As most of you know I am on the Derby cultural Commission. We host an Easter egg hunt on the green. The original date got rained out so we had it the next day. We didn't buy enough chocolate eggs but we know better for next year.

There is also an Egg decorating contest. The kids bring them from home already decorated. Trinity made Black CatWomen(from Batman). Shayla made a butterfly. Last year Trinity won. This year she won again! here is her egg.