What we’ve been up to…

It’s been brought to my attention that I haven’t blogged much lately…which I like because then at least I know that somebody is reading my blog.

After most of the snow & ice was gone, we had a few days of nice weather. The girls thought it was summer.

T-shirts & popsicles with the neighbors, on what’s left of the snow, and it was barely 50 degrees!

My very first crocus to bloom! I now have many purple, white, and yellow flowers under that willow tree that was so bent over in the ice. I love these early signs of spring!

After a couple days of nice weather, it started raining again, and it hasn’t stopped. The news is filled the last few days with the sad stories of the landslide in Oso, which is about 90 minutes away from us. Please join us in continuing to pray for the families and rescue workers involved in this tragic event.

Back on March 14, we had the opportunity to attend the Broadway show of The Lion King in Seattle, because of a family Christmas gift from my siblings and their families to us! My parents came along and it was an awesome show!! We were in the very last row of the auditorium…literally…ROW Z of the third mezzanine! However, the seats were great and the girls (& my mom!) could even stand up for a better view without bothering anyone behind them! We had binoculars so we could take a peek at the faces close up occasionally, but the show, sets, music, costumes…WOW!

Becca also recently got her hair cut!

Before

AND….

After

It is SO much easier to brush and style now! 3 weeks of swimming at school had really done a  number on her already damaged & split ends.

Elise & I had a little shopping date one afternoon. We found fun masks at JoAnn’s.

It’s fun to just be silly in a store sometimes.

Which leads me nicely into my girls-day-out to Ikea, The Cheesecake Factory, and Hobby Lobby!! I’ve been wanting a day out with my friends and a trip to Ikea. We tend to do this about once a year or sometimes every two years together. I had some things on my Ikea list and so did a few friends…okay, so all Dee had on her list was “straws”, but she was game for a girls-day-out anyway. And yes, we found her LOTS of straws.

We had a ton of fun at Ikea, and Lea bought enough to be on an Ikea commercial…

Yes, that was all planned. It’s a kitchen cabinet. Plus some perfectly awesome kitchen barstools.

Then we had a leisurely and delicious lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and that’s the dessert I chose to take home. Know why? Because Ed wouldn’t want any of it. Hee hee! This day was about me and my friends, so the dessert was all mine. It took me FOUR days to eat it all – that’s how incredibly rich & delicious it was!

Well, then we went to Hobby Lobby. Lea had never been to a Hobby Lobby. She was our Hobby Lobby Virgin. Now documented for all the world for all eternity on the internet.

We spent some time wandering at Hobby Lobby…some time together and some time alone. Towards the end we were all together, and being kind of obnoxious and goofy. This gal, maybe about 10 years younger than us (how old are we that I can say that and still be talking about an adult? Ugh!!) was shopping near us and laughed and said, “You guys are so fun! I just want to follow you around and be your friend, too!” We had to laugh. We do have a good friendship going on. And we do have a lot of fun together. They’re my sisters.

While I was having my girls-day-out, Bethany was on a two day class trip to Seattle! She had a great time!

She won a prize from her teacher – a drink at the Starbucks on the waterfront – and took this selfie there. She has a million more pictures (okay, 298) from her trip and it looks like so much fun! They had a tour at the Boeing Museum of Flight, Underground Seattle, Safeco Field, watched an Imax movie at the Pacific Science Center, and spent time down at the waterfront…mostly feeding french fries to seagulls, apparently. Great memories. I am especially thankful for her great teachers & other chaperones who accompanied this trip and made it a great one!

That pretty much catches up the blog on the big happenings here. There are of course the little things…like trying to pick out a paint color for our master bedroom (still unsuccessful with that) and spending lots of time at school both working and checking on the kids. Becca went to the Young Author’s Festival yesterday with a few kids from each grade. Sarah has been busy running and singing and playing the flute and studying. She ran her PR in the 3200m last week Friday! No more meets until after spring break, but that’s OK because she’s headed to CA with the choir on tour! We’re pretty excited about this opportunity for her to travel, visit Disneyland with friends, and ESPECIALLY see her aunt, uncle, and cousins!! We are VERY jealous.

Spring break begins in just a few hours…I wonder what will happen over break that will become “blog-worthy”?