Lately

Keri earned herself a new pair of running shoes and is having fun breaking them in.

 We celebrated French Bread Day by having French Bread Pizza for dinner.

We attended our church's Easter Breakfast and Easter Egg Hunt.  Rhys actually enjoyed hunting this year.

 We had lots of hands on experiences at the Garden Show.  Neal and Sophie created creatures out of natural materials.  Rhys played with plastic bugs and tried to categorize them as predators, pollinators, or poopers.  We got a photo op with Smokey.  We got to transplant and keep a butterfly plant. Neal finished buying the last of his tomato plants. We coveted chicken coops, sampled local honey creme,  and held earthworms.

 Neal LOVED installing our new dishwasher (since the leprechaun stole our old one).  Thanks honey!  Saved us some bucks doing it ourselves.  And it runs so quietly.

 Rhys decided to have a slumber party in Sophie's room.  Rhys seldom leaves his room without permission so we think his big sister must have quietly coaxed him there.

 Sophie has been sharing awesome butterfly facts from her preschool class all week.  Here she is reenacting a butterfly breaking out of it's cocoon (an old T-shirt of Keri's).

And today upon returning home from grocery shopping, we discovered our amazing home teacher mowing our lawn (AGAIN!).  He did this for us often when Keri was going through chemo but he heard Keri say she was going to mow on Monday and he beat her to it!  Thank you!  Very kind.  We feel loved, even pampered.

Leprechaun on the Loose

So glad that this St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday so Neal could enjoy the fun!  Except the part were Sophie woke us just as the sun barely started to make its appearance.  The first words out of her mouth, "Mom, let's go check the leprechaun trap!"

There was definitely evidence that a leprechaun had tried to sneak the gold.  Apparently, once trapped he made his escape by eating and clawing his way through the cake!  He left quite a mess!

Rhys snagged a few scraps of fallen cake.  Then we discovered, one by one, all the mischievous pranks the leprechaun had played on us. 

He must have worked up a sweat while unraveling the toilet paper, hanging the kids clothes in a rainbow pattern in the playroom, writing friendly greetings on the bathroom mirror, turning their days clothes in-side-out, and making their breakfast milk turn green!

For breakfast they had green kale eggs and cheese toast with a bell pepper shamrock.

We also discovered an overturned ottoman in the living room and while getting ready to run errands we stumbled upon their shoes in the refrigerator.

When when went to get in the car we found what Sophie called "a great surprise!" 

Static electricity is fun!

For lunch we had green fruit salad, mozzarella cheese shamrocks, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds).   

There were plenty of things that the leprechaun got blamed for throughout the day including misplaced toys, empty drinking glasses that had been left out, not to mention the missing dishwasher.  Neal had removed it after putting the kids to bed last night.  Can we blame all our clutter and unfinished business on this little green man?  I'm game.

Interspersed with all the St. Patrick's Day fun, we also were able to get one front yard flower bed prepped and planted with 4 types of squash and two variety of watermelon.  Most of the plants in that bed did not survive the removal and return trip during the foundation work we had done.  We had quite a few old seeds so we thought we would see what happens, if anything.  Neal also was able to help set up chairs for our church's Stake Conference this weekend while Keri and the kids grocery shopped and weeded.  Terrific day! 

Leprechaun Trap 2012!

We have continued to have a great week poking through clover patches and enjoying the outdoors in general.  We've had the curtains drawn open, blinds opened, and windows ajar, enjoying the awesome weather. 

Friday, we constructed our leprechaun trap. I found the idea at Not Martha and had fun doing it with the kids and thier friends.  It was a leprechaun trap cake!  Loved the idea!

Emma adding the eggs to our RAINBOW chip cake batter.

Rhys adding rungs to our pretzel ladder.

Green frosting to disguise our trap cake as a hill.

Rickety pretzels placed over trap hole in cake.

Cash was too little to help but offered moral support by being cute and eating pretzels.

Trap complete!

Previous Quote(s) of the Blog

Quotes from Micheal Pollan's Food Rules:

If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.

It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car.

Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food.

Living Prophets Teach Me To Choose The Right

That is the theme Sophie is learning in the Primary or children's Sunday school this month.  The timing is perfect as we are preparing for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' General Conference on March 31st and April 1st.  We are so pleased to have an organization that supports us as parents as we teach our children gospel truths. 

As one of our weekly Family Home Evenings, Neal prepared a "game" for the family so we could become more familiar with the faces and names of our living prophet and apostles.  We have kept the "bouquet" of pictures/facts as the centerpiece at our dinning room table.  Because we are fortunate enough to have the family together for meals three times a day, we have had plenty of opportunity to study the prophet and apostles.

Sophie can recognize and name about 7 and Rhys is able to identify our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, out of a field of 3.  Neal and I are doing our best not to confuse two of the more recently called apostles.  I am so grateful for a husband that loves his family enough to teach them the gospel.

I believe that God has blessed us with a living prophet today just as he did in ancient times.  He loves us and wants us to be clear on what can bring us happiness in this life and after.   President Thomas S. Monson is a true and living prophet today.  Through revelation from Heavenly Father, he provides critical guidance, counsel, and love to His children.  If we needed prophets anciently, then we certainly need a prophet today.  I have always been blessed when I have heeded Heavenly Father's counsel provided through his modern day prophet.

Feeling Lucky

I am so glad to have my kiddos home this week for Spring break, even if they only have preschool twice a week.  We are having a good time together. 

We continued with our St. Patrick's Day fun by making Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread this morning.  We had the Goode kids over and everyone helped out in some way, whether it was turning on the oven, grinding some wheat, pouring ingredients, or kneading and rounding the bread.  Ben helped the most by far and he and I joked about the story of The Little Red Hen, saying we would eat the bread ourselves.  It made two loaves so we were able to share a loaf with their family when they left.

We also made beautiful rainbow hand print pictures to add a little St. Patrick's Day cheer to the house.  The kids loved having the paint brushed on their ticklish palms and fingers. 

The weather has been so wonderful we have headed to the park two afternoons in a row.  I crochet and they run themselves ragged.  We come home, have a snack, read a couple books and they are asleep soon thereafter.  Blissful mommy moments! 

And speaking of snacks, I got all giddy today when I made the kids a green smoothie (kale, blueberries, banana, and OJ), called it Lucky Leprechaun Juice, and watched them gulp it down.  Rhys didn't touch his blueberries this morning and just feel like "Ha!  I won!"  There is something very satisfying about providing truly nutritious foods to your child, whether they know it or not.

Backyard Fun

It's been so nice weather-wise.  We've been planting and playing.  The kids and daddy had a fun time playing with the hose.

Leaping Leprechauns!

Today was a special day for Sophie and Keri as they ran/walked the Leaping Leprechauns 1K as a team.  We were all decked out in our green accessories and had a fun time.  The shorter partner in our team had a little spill about 3/4 of the way through but after regaining composure we were off to cross the finish line.  Thanks to Daddy and Rhys for rooting us on!

Sophie getting her medal at the finish line

This run/walk honored a sweet little guy, Case Beckham, who is in our congregation and fighting cancer.  We, along with many other friends, were happy to have the opportunity to share our support for him and his wonderful family.

Previous Quote of the Blog

The grand and the simple. They are equally wonderful. ― Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Luck o' the Irish

We had fun with the kids making these little pots of gold to share with some special people in their lives.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Quite nicely, thank you.  We spent the greater part of Saturday working on our backyard vegetable garden.  Our Texas soil is poor so we container garden.  We laid down more paver stones to go under additional pots, filled pots, planted seed, set up irrigation, constructed a better compost bin, hooked up our second rain barrel, and just got dirty.  We planted kale, lettuce, dill, turnips, Swiss chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, and fennel.