Brielle Piano Recital

Brielle got to play in her first piano recital at the beginning of this month.

Each kid played 1 solo piece and 1 duet.  She played Sleeping Beauty's Waltz for her Solo.

And for her duet she played Shepherd's Song.  I got to play the duet with her which was fun.

She enjoys playing the piano.  She has a hard time learning new songs, but once she knows them she loves to play them for everyone.

Kids Spring Pictures

We tried to get a picture of the 6 current Finlay grandkids (3 more coming any day now!!)  Getting pictures of kids is not an easy task. :)

 They tried hard to sit, listen and smile...

but, they are much happier acting a bit silly.

We got some individuals of the kids as well:

Brielle-almost 7

Ethan-age 5

Preston 9.5 months

Newport Beach

My parents, and youngest brother and sister came for a visit last month.  They were staying at a resort in Newport Beach, and we went out to visit for a day.  We had a lot of fun, but I didn't do a good job of getting pictures with them.  Here are the few pictures we took to document the trip.

Preston was a fan of the beach, and eating the sand.

hanging at the beach

swimming with Aunt Katie

getting off all the sand from the beach in the swimming pools

Ethan wanted to jump in over, and over, and over again.

Fly on the wall--Monday

So, it's been a long time since I've done a fly on the wall post.  I was supposed to do a Saturday, but it seems that every Saturday unusual, so after months have gone by, I decided to just start back with a Monday again and go from there.  So, I went on the 1/2 hour marks for a 24 hour period.

Monday, March 31st

1:30-Back to Bed 
Preston was up to nurse...went for 6 hours from about 7:20-1:20, which is good for him.

3:30-Up With Brielle
Brielle had a bad dream and came into our room to snuggle.  She fell back asleep, but is a noisy sleeper, so James took her back to her bed.

4:30-And Up Yet Again
Preston up again to nurse.

6:30-Pondering The Day
I should be up getting breakfast ready but, I'm laying in bed calculating the last possible time I can stay in bed and still get us all to school on time.

7:30-School Time
Pulling up to Warnick's House to walk Brielle over to school.  James biked to work, as usual.

8:30-Learning Time
Learning about Italy this week.  Setting up our gondolas for our 'trip' in Venice.

9:30-Snack Time
Crackers and cheese outside

10:30-Projects

11:30-Girls Pick Up
Mondays I watch my 2 nieces in the mornings.  They are getting picked up now.

12:30-Cooking with Ethan
Working on some dinner prep-Ethan loves to pull up a stool and help in the kitchen.

1:30-Switching Laundry
Mondays is laundry day.  Always a lot from the build up over the weekend.

2:30-Coming home with Kids
The kids played outside with their cousins after school for a little bit, so we are just on our way home now.

3:30-Cleaning the Car
Needed to switch out the carseat (Preston grew out of the infant seat), which led to needing to vacuum out the whole car.  Getting 'help' from the kids.

4:30-Piano
Brielle just finished her practice, now everyone wants a turn to play.

5:30-Walking with Kids
Ethan threw some trash out the window of the car yesterday, so today was supposed to go out and pick up 25 pieces of trash.  It of course is much too fun (as is everything with him) to be a true punishment.  Brielle is riding her scooter, I'm pushing Preston in the stroller.

6:30-Family Scriptures
James called to say he would be late, so we went ahead with dinner and are working on bedtime routine.

7:30-Cooking Food
All the kids are in bed.  The boys are asleep, Brielle is listening to a book.  I am getting some food prepped for a conference next week.  James just got home and is eating dinner.

8:30-Running
My exercise time has moved to night, since Preston's sleep is more predictable at night then in the morning.  James is home working so I can run outside tonight.

9:30-Cleaning Kitchen
Dishes...never ending cycle. :)

10:30-Brushing Teeth
getting ready for bed.

11:30-Sleep Time!
Stayed up to look over pictures with James that he took of the kids this weekend.  Headed to bed now.

Basketball

Brielle wanted to sign up for basketball this year.  Her cousin, Elise was going to join her, but after the first practice of the boys watching, we decided rather than having the boys sit and watch, they should play too.

Ethan insisted he didn't want to do it, but I told him to just try it out.  He LOVED it.

These 4 cousin love all the play time together they can get.

It was just a 5 week introductory course, but they learned a lot.

And got excited every time they made a basket.

There were only 5 kids on each team.  The other player #3 was very good, and helped the kids figure out what basketball is and how to do it.

And, they all love getting the medal at the end, of course.

Camping

Ethan has been begging to go camping (hence his desire for his camping birthday cake). We've had different conflicts on the calendar, but finally got a weekend to fit it in.

I took the kids up after school to get a camp site and started setting up.

This guy LOVES to be outside.  He can be fussy at home, but as soon as we go somewhere he is happy.

Ian and Annie joined us and brought James after he was done at work.

Ethan forgot his shoes(he had them, then ran back in the house and didn't bring them back to the car).  So he survived the trip pioneer style...and of course it didn't phase him.

The next morning Brad and Margaret joined us for breakfast (that they brought up).  It made the camping very easy.  It is nice to have a place to camp close to home.