Easter at the Ranch

There is not better setting for an Easter Egg hunt than James' Great Aunt Eileen's Ranch. We get together with extended family for great food and a very fun time.

Brielle's basket got so full she had to dump her eggs in a bag so she could keep looking for more.

Ethan couldn't resist stopping to eat as he went.

Ethan found the golden egg and Gavin found the silver.  These eggs had money in them and they were given a bigger prize (a chocolate bunny for Ethan) after the hunt as well.

The kids that hunted. (There were a few more kids that came a little later.)

After the hunt Erin, Megan and I had some crafts and games organized for the kids.  The craft and coloring table was a big hit.

We did balancing the egg on a spoon, pin the egg on the basket and an egg roll.

Kids got tickets for participating in games which they got to come spend at the 'store'.

We ended with a pinata

which we try to fill with things other than candy.  We had crackers, fruit and veggie juice packs, fruit snacks and granola bars.

This is the crew that was there this year.  Thanks for another great Easter!

St. Patrick's Day

For our learning time we focused on Ireland.  I have a package that came from a family in Ireland (when we did a cultural exchange) so we were able to explore with the things they sent.

We used a green pepper to make stamps of clovers.

And reviewed with preschool packs from:
2 Teaching Mommies
Over The Big Moon

We went on treasure hunts, hunted clovers at the park, made rainbows and rainbow kabobs, searched for green items and had a visit from the leprechaun.

Aunt Helen gave us some rainbow bread.  I told the kids it looked like the Leperchauns caught a rainbow and put it in the bread.  They are convinced that is what happened!

Happy Birthday James!

James got to go out to lunch with his co-workers the day after his birthay.


We celebrated with his favorite dinner.  Corned Beef with all the sides.  You can tell it is St. Patrick's Day with all the green being worn.

Exploring Downtown LA

During springbreak Grandma Finlay planned a 'downtown day'.  She goes into LA quite often for meetings, but the rest of us to have much experience exploring.

We met up with friend and cousins and took the train from Pasadena to Union Station.  We walked Olvera Street, the oldest section of LA, which has a Mexican market place with many things to attract the kids attention.

We then walked over to the Home Girl Cafe (part of the HomeBoy Inustries) for an amazing lunch.  

After that it was time to ride Angel's Flight.  

It is known as the 'shortest railway in the world' and is a funicular railway that was originally built in 1901 going up the steep hill from Hill Street to Olive Street.

After walking through Disney's Concert hall, we eneded or exploring outside the Music Hall at the fountains.

The kids tried to run and touch the statue before the fountains popped up and got them wet.  Some of the kids had no desire to try to stay dry and enjoyed the time running and playing in the water.

Fun Day in Downtown LA.

Visit from Family

We had two visits from family back to back, first my sisters: Katie and Ashlie with her kids came along with her friend and kids. And then my parents and brother Jared came out (keeping Katie with them to take back.)  I didn't get very many pictures during the week.  I guess I was too busy enjoying family time.

The first group came on Monday and came over for dinner and swimming.  Tuesday they spent the day at Disneyland so we didn't see them.

Wednesday we went to Griffith Park and met up at Travel Town with my Sister-in-law Mandy and her kids.

The kids had fun exploring a bit together while the Mom's had a chance to talk.  

Thursday the group went to Great Park to explore, ride the carousel and baloon ride, feed the chickens and play at the park.  Katie and Brooklyn did a great job keeping all the young kids entertained while we waited for our turn on the balloon.
After Great Park we went and played at the beach, and then met up with my parents and Jared (who had just driven from UT) for dinner at souplantation.
The first group left on Friday.

The second group went to Disneyland on Friday and spent some time with my Brother's family.  They stayed with us both Saturday night and Monday night before they had to leave on Tuesday morning.

Monday we met up at the beach.  It was a cold windy day.  Perfect for flying kites.

But that didn't stop some of the kids from playing in the water.  Jared was out in the waves for quite a bit while Logan, Haley and Ethan stuck closer to shore.  The rest of us stayed on the sand and enjoyed the ocean sounds and view.

Kid Dates

Brielle got to join me for our monthly Girl's Night Out in March.  We went to see the BYU International Folk Dancing team.

In April Brielle came with me to a Mom-to-Mom conference where she got to see Grandma Finlay speak.  It was at a nice country club in La Canada Flintridge.  Brielle said the view 'was a beaut'.  And loved that she was served a fancy lunch.  While Brielle was with me, James had Ethan out on a date at the park doing stomp rockets, eating pizza and watching a movie.

I took the kids to Citrus College's performance of Beauty and the Beast.  They loved it, and Ethan is still singing the songs (a month later).

Gender Reveal Party

We had our anatomy scan ultrasound February 4th.  James and I decided not to find out the gender at the doctor's office, but to find out with the family later.
It was fun to see the baby, but weird to not see for myself the proof of the gender.  The ultrasound technician seemed pretty sure and left the room to put our slip of paper in an envelope for us. (I had prepared one that said boy and one that said girl, so she threw out the wrong one and gave us back the correct paper.)

With it being close to Chinese New Year, we decided to use that as a theme party.  The kids spent the week coloring the snakes (year of the snake this year) to hang from the ceiling.  They were very excited to help.

Brielle was keeping track of predictions, but then had so much fun with it she kept adding and erasing and coloring.  We don't know what the predictions actually were.

I made fortune cookies and was successful in putting the slip from the doctor into a fortune without peeking.  After dinner we all opened our fortune cookies and one of them was this announcement telling us we are having a boy!