Spring Break and Easter

We went to Visalia for Spring Break.  We left right after school got out on Friday because Casey and Kami were there that weekend.  Everyone came to my parents' to see them.  We went to the park and had a picnic, we had a party for all the March and April birthdays, we played frisbees in the backyard quite a bit. Then everyone left at the end of the weekend and the kids and I stayed until Thursday with my mom.  We played miniature golf and went to the arcade, went shopping, the boys helped at Grandma Donna's, we watched movies.  It was a nice, lazy spring break.  We came home Thursday so Danny could play in a Basketball tournament. Then we had a nice Easter at home with Bob.

These kids left for the park without telling me so they had a timeout when we got there.  Don't they look sad!

Littles' Snow Day

I let Aaron, Seth and Ruby stay home from school and we went to the snow.  Danny and Rachel couldn't miss 2 days of school and Bob had to work.  Ruby didn't get to go to the snow in Visalia because she was sick and she's been asking when she could go.  We had a great time.  We were the first ones there and it didn't get too crowded. There was even an Asian family who wanted to take pictures with Aaron. The only sad part was the snow was too cold to make a snowman.

Brace Face

Danny and Rachel got braces in February.  It was nice for them to be able to do it together.  They both took that day off school.  We went to the mall after to spend their money because I accidentally told them they could have $100 for getting braces.  At first Danny didn't want braces at all.  And then he really wanted invisilign.  So I told him if he really wanted it he would have to pay $300 toward it.  He's been saving his dog walking money.  But it didn't seem fair to get invisilign for Danny and make Rachel get regular, so we told her if she picks regular we'd give her $100.  So in the end Danny decided against invisilign and they both collected on their $100. Danny bought shoes and Rachel bought a bunch of stuff at bath and body works. Then Bob met us at the mall and we had lunch at the food court. It was fun to have the day with my big kids.

Seth is 7

Seth had a Star Wars birthday party.  Rachel did an excellent job decorating his BB8 cake. They played light sabers and did a pinata.

Adventure Dome

We a 4 day weekend because of MLK day and a teacher in-service.  The teacher day was only for Somersets, so we used that day to go to Adventure Dome.  It was empty. We had so much fun.  There were no lines.  The sad part of the day was when Rachel went on a roller coaster and lost her glasses.  

Visalia and New Year's Eve

The day after Christmas we went to Visalia.  We had a good time playing with cousins.  Everyone was there except Casey.  Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene and Grandma Donna were all there.  Ruby had a runny nose when we got there that turned into strep a few days later. But we got her on antibiotics right away and she felt better fast.  Luckily no one else got strep, but lots of people got colds. The sad part was that she was sick on the day everyone went to the snow. She was really sad about that.  She and mom stayed home that day.  We also went to see some Christmas lights in Tulare one night. Ruby was sick that night, so she and Bob had a date there the next night. Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene and Grandma Zonda and Grandpa Cliff and Danny, Rachel, Bob and Jean went to the Fresno temple to do baptisms one day.  It was really great to be there with all of them.  We ate a Sal's on the way home.  We made several shopping trips.  Did a few puzzles. 

We had a nice New Years Eve.  We played mall madness and watched the ball drop and had sparkling Cider.  Ruby made it to 11:00 and fell asleep, but everyone else made it until midnight.

On New Years Day we drove home so we could have one day left of the break to do our celebration of Kwanzaa.  (I love that tradition.)  The kids worked hard and we got so much done.  We went to see the new Star Wars Movie as a reward.

Christmas

 Watching over his flock.

 before kids

 After kids

We had a great Christmas break.  The first week we did lots of baking and kids had friends over and we slept under the tree and went to see the cactus garden. 

Bob has a few friends who have a tradition of having Chinese food on Christmas eve.  So we tried it.  We got Panda express because all the kids love it.  Then we did the navity and opened sibling presents. Christmas morning we got up at 7:00.  Danny got shoes and socks, a speaker and a charger and a sweatshirt and lights for his bikes. Rachel got a new bike (it was so cute! It's a cruiser that has gears, it's pink and it has a cup holder-that's her favorite part), bean bag chair, pajamas, a brush and a beanie hat. Aaron got a new mountain bike, a couple remote control helicopters, some fun encyclopedia books, a sweatshirt (all the boys got matching ones). Seth got a batman imaginext toy that he and Ruby were wanting.  They play great with all their imaginext guys and setups. He also got some legos, hi ho cherrio, Ruby and Seth got a lego subscription that is kind of like netflix for lego sets.  Ruby got magformers, spirograph, a batman ship, playdoh set, clothes.  The kids all got a ping pong table.  The sad part was that I forgot I needed to buy the paddles and every store is closed on Christmas so they couldn't play it!  Bob got a new computer, an egg sandwich maker, a sweatshirt and a selfie stick.  I got a new camera lens that will be good for family pictures. And Bob got me a robot vacuum and a robot floor mop.  I love them, especially the mop. It cleans so well.  The vacuum is a little slow and random.  We named the vacuum Zoram and the mop Zonda.   We also decided to start a new tradition on Christmas Day to have a family testimony meeting.  Christmas eve is more about the Savior, but on Christmas day we just eat and play, so we thought we'd add some religion to that day too.