Fun at ITZ

A friend from Megan's class invited her to her birthday party at a fun indoor Family Fun Center place in Albuquerque. The invitation was for the whole family. At first I wasn't sure we would go - I felt bad having 6 extra people go, but I saw her Mom (also a lady that is on the PTO with me) a couple of times before the party and she asked if we were coming and hoped that we could make it. So, we ended up going. The kids LOVED it. They had a pizza, pasta, salad bar buffet. Then each of the kids got a pre-paid card they could use on all the rides/arcade games, etc. There were bumper cars, rock walls, a bunch of arcade games, a couple carnival-type rides, etc. They had a blast. Even Austin was running around all over the place loving the freedom. And it was all enclosed, so even though the kids weren't right there next to us, we could pretty much keep an eye on them the whole time. Fun time.

Some Randomness

Megan performed in the Kindergarten performance of "The Three Nanny Goats Gruff." She played one of the girl goats. It was a cute little play - the kids did a great job singing out their songs. That same night was the school Literacy night. The kids got punches in their card for each literacy event they went to. If they got 5 punches then they got a little treat on the way out. Clifford the Big Red Dog was wandering around the school. Megan got a good hug with him. Her picture with him (that looked pretty much like this one) got printed in the community newspaper. St. Patrick's Day landed on a Sunday. Dad made green pancakes for the kids for breakfast. We all wore green to church. We had corned beef and cabbage and potatoes for dinner. I was going to make key lime pie, but two people brought us treats that day, so I saved it for Family Home Evening the next day. YUM! Here's our own little Harry Potter. Ben was playing out in the forest in the backyard and a tree branch swung and whacked him in the face. The next day when it started to scab over it looked very similar to a Harry Potter scar.

Exploring at Explora

The kids had three days off of school a couple weeks ago. We just hung out for the first couple of days, so I thought we should do something fun on the last day. Caelan brought up the idea (she's the planner in the family). We went to the library that morning for story time and to make snow trees out of tissue paper. Then we headed over to the Explora Children's Museum in Albuquerque. Caelan had gone a couple of weeks earlier on a special field trip, but none of the rest of us had ever been there. The kids loved it. There are lots and lots of different hands-on exhibits for the kids to try out. Some things they just watch, but a lot of things they get to try out themselves: water experiments, air experiments, different physics activities, sound activities, learning with shapes and colors, currents, bubbles, electronics, etc. Even Austy was loving it - running from place to place. He really wanted to stay and play with the train table so when it was time to leave there he wasn't too thrilled. He was content to hang out in the stroller for most of the rest of the time we were there. We went over to the park right next to the museum (it was pretty chilly so we didn't last there too long, but the kids got out some energy) and then we grabbed some food and headed home. We will definitely have to make that place an annual trip.

Hair Cut Time

Austin fits right in with the rest of our full-haired children (Megan is the only one with just a regular amount of hair - all the rest have bunches of hair). Ben and Nathan both have straight hair so I have always kept their hair cut pretty short, but Austin's hair is more like Sean and Caelan's with some wave to it. We thought we would let it grow out a little longer because the curl and wave was pretty darn cute. After a while though, it was just too much. His hair was wild. It was super cute when it was combed with the little curl around the base of the neck, but after a while it would just start getting in his face. Plus, this little dude loves to rub his hands through his hair - especially during meal times (YIKES). Finally I decided it had to be cut. The last time I gave him a hair cut (last Fall) he HATED it so much that I cut it much shorter than I wanted (partly because he was moving so much and partly so that I wouldn't have to do it again for a super long time). This time I didn't even pull out the clippers - that's what freaked him out so badly last time. I just did everything with scissors. He actually did quite well. Towards the end he had had it and started shaking his head back and forth every time I tried to get a section of hair, but we managed to get through the whole thing without any hysteria. YAY! Hair cuts on little baby boys age them so much so fast and even though this wasn't as short as I cut it before, he still looked about three months older as soon as I was done....but awfully cute too!

Daddy Daughter Dance

The school had their annual Daddy Daughter Dance, and this year both girls got to go. Megan was excited and looking forward to it all week. As is tradition, Sean took the girls out to dinner beforehand. They met the Edwards and enjoyed a tasty meal at the Pizza Barn. Then they were off to the dance. Sean said that Megan was done after about an hour - acting tired and ready to go. She loved twirling around with Sean and dancing on his feet. It was a great time for all. I was a co-chair for the dance, so I spent several hours during the week putting together the little goodie bags for the girls and gathering door prizes for the girls and dads and decorating on the day of the event as well as finding all the volunteer help for the dance itself and for the set-up and clean-up. I think it all went over great. I love that they have this event at the school (even if the Dad's are too keen on the dancing part) - the girls sure do look forward to it.