Spring Break 2016

I went to the blog to see what my last posted picture was as I prepared to post the rest of our crazy busy April and realized the spring break blog post was still floating around as a draft! Oops...  (Here I am counting down the days left until summer break and haven't even posted spring break.) Well, here it is.

Alee had her (birthday) turn at my parents with her cousin over spring break. (Alee's birthday is long past, but her cousin's was recently, and they were planned to go have their visit together.)

I love this picture my mom took of Alee. She was so excited to go and all she talked about was going to that pool!

While she was gone, we started on this year's room project. (I'm trying to focus on one area at a time to keep my house projects not overwhelming and in budget.) Last year it was a little in several places, this year it's focused on the girls bathroom and finishing the last kids' room to be painted.

Some funny things Alee said recently:
After visiting my parents' ward (congregation/church), she declared:

"I was the only one actually listening. The boys kept making poot noises with their elbows."

(It was a class full of boys with a male teacher, so that could be likely?) haha

Her comment regarding fashion after attending a school where she is probably in the minority:

"All the other girls in my class except me and Lilly have cute hair like with beads and braids and stuff."

I have tried to put beads and tiny braids in her hair (and the braids I can do, but the beads are kind of a FAIL, but I'm blaming that on her hair type!)

Before and After pictures:

First the bedroom progression - When we first moved in:

After I made curtains (and bought sheers) and made a duvet cover (and bought a duvet) and turned the bed around another way:

After we switched around the beds and gave the queen bed to this room (and moved the other furniture around too):

(Curtains are closed and sun is bright, giving the room a red hue)

Choosing the paint color and testing variations of it:

The bedroom now:

The bathroom (this is actually before we moved in):

I think I took this picture on bathroom cleaning day to use as a reference point to prove to the girls what slobs they are....it usually looks about like this every day, worse if I don't go in it for a few days.

We have jobs, but no one seems to mind stepping over the little scatters of bobby pins and hair bows and elastics, or the overturned toothpaste box (because we have 3 kinds of toothpaste for 4 girls so we keep it in a box)...And when they go shower, no one can put clothes in the basket that is usually on the floor right in the middle of the bathroom where they can't miss it! They put it on the floor wherever they're standing when they strip and then some magical house elf is expected to come behind and put it in the basket they somehow missed right beside them!? They just step over the mess like it's not there!)

Well, this week as Carolyn went to shower one night, we heard from upstairs,
"Seriously, people?! The basket is right there!"
Perhaps, we have someone learning the joys of order?? :)

The bathroom thus far:

 The vanity light has been replaced since that first picture.

 Last few changes to be made:
Sink faucet/handle and tub handle to be replaced (tub faucet/handle by a professional).
Nail polish rack to go on wall above towel bar.

Back to spring break!

Mom brought the 2 girls back Wednesday and we hosted a wedding shower for my brother and his bride.

Alee lost that other front tooth!

There were sleepovers both here and elsewhere for the oldest 4 (some while Alee was gone and some after she got back).

Most of Wednesday was park time then shower prep.

Thursday morning, Mom and I went dress shopping for the wedding. I decided on a skirt and top (I have a really hard time finding dresses I like - I want something with sleeves that's also at least to my knees and isn't too fragile to be thrown in a washing machine and is flattering...that's not too much to ask, right?)

My ankles were dying Wednesday night, and a good nights sleep and Aleve can only do so much, so Thursday afternoon I spent doing anything I could do seated (mostly budgeting and YW stuff at the computer).

Two of the kids (Kaitlyn and Alee) went to Florence with Rob's family to visit his aunt. Carolyn stayed here to be available to be picked up by a friend (birthday activity) that afternoon, Natalie stayed to keep her company, and Seth stayed to babysit while we shopped. (And Seth and Natalie did a great job cleaning up for me while I had my feet up after Carolyn left.)

So we were kind of all over the place Thursday!

That night, Rob and I went out for a while to take care of some business and picked up milkshakes on the way home (yeah, those weren't on our diet plans...spring break!)

{The business was me being called as the primary president for our ward but at the time of originally writing this I hadn't been sustained yet, so I couldn't throw that up on the blog. I'm loving it so far, even though I miss the young women.}

Friday, we all went to the state museum. I set aside some money last year for the zoo (as I always do each year), but we had enough to set aside for a museum membership too. I didn't want to sign up for either (zoo would actually be a renew) until we were actually going to go and use them, so we finally signed up for the museum so we could do one all-together family activity during spring break.
Since David has a break between classes during the same time we were going, we made it a all-together household family activity and he came along too.

And we finished off the weekend with General Conference. Carolyn and Seth sat through all four (2 hour) general sessions. Seth also sat through the priesthood session for men/boys 12+. (I can't remember if any of the girls made it to the end of the womens/girls session last Saturday? It's ages 8+ so three of them start it with me, but it starts at 8pm Eastern time, so it's really late for them.)
The twins made it through 3 out of 4 sessions (we only required 2), and Alee sat through the same, only because she didn't want to be alone and the twins wanted to sit through both sessions on Sunday.

I had Kaitlyn take this picture after the last session:

Then I got pictures of their awesome "notes":

I was so impressed that they actually chose to watch more than we required and didn't aggravate us during it. Aww, they're growing up.

This is Alee's for Dieter F Uchtdorf:
Kaitlyn and Alee drew a lot of the speakers. I don't know if the others drew or wrote things down? They mostly just colored some Book of Mormon coloring books my mother in law gave them or drew/wrote in their conference composition notebooks. No well planned activities or attention getters or incentives. Just paper and crayons and conference on the TV.

They did whine at me not doing the "candy" activity I tried once.

(They thought it was awesome, but I found it distracting - a bowl of some treat or candy with pictures behind them - temple, Jesus, scriptures, prayer and if they heard one of those talked about they could get whatever was in front of that picture to eat or add to a treat/trail mix bag...but it ended up being noisy and distracting and they paid attention less because they were listening for just specific words and didn't get anything out of it but sugar.)

They still ask every time if I'm going to do that again. Nope.

I think they got more out of it this time - if nothing else, the heard the prophet and apostles and were reverent - I felt the Spirit, and I think they did too.

What a great way to end spring break. (Can we just skip to summer break now?) :)

Just kidding! (maybe) ;)