Decorating Eggs with my Daughters

Emmy reminded me how we only get to color eggs once a year. She was sweet to thank me for doing it with her. We had a great time. I sure enjoyed dying and decorating eggs with my girls. I loved the vibrant colors and the patience they were exercising getting the green dye to make the egg green. Celia was a bit upset when the wind rolled her egg right off the table. A big bunny, some hugs and a book helped her to feel better later. Even though my children are older now,( three teens) they still love Easter festivities including the hunt, chocolate, eggs and of course Easter baskets. I hear the Easter bunny is bringing church clothes. Maybe, I can sneak a picture of the kids together. That would be dreamy.

Egg Hunt With Merlene

Merlene has been  a respite worker for us for over 8 years. Last Easter and this Easter time she has set up an egg hunt in our backyard. There were so many eggs.  Joseph helped hide them. However, this gave him an advantage of finding the eggs quickly! He soon had his basket overflowing with eggs. He found the gold egg that has money inside. Celia found quite a few too. Emmy came in last minute and found the ones hidden high up and in tricky places. Merlene and the kids hid some eggs in the front room for Spencer since he was napping during the outside one. It was such a great hunt, I didn't feel we needed to go to our neighborhood's one with all the crowds. Celia keeps the excitement of holidays going since she is younger and so excited about everything.

Creative Invites and Dances

Prom Prom and more Prom. Senior and Junior Prom have been a topic of conversation around here lately. A month a go Andrew, Emmy's boyfriend, called me and asked if he could take her to an All Time Low concert on the 15th of April. It was was sold out. I agreed and he found a way to get tickets. Andrew took Emmy to the Jelly Belly factory after she took the ACT and had a poster that had an Ace of spaces card for the yes option. She chose yes and the Ace of spaces is where the concert will be and a copy of the tickets were there. Emmy was so happy and excited. Her friends are so happy for her. Many times Emmy had mentioned how she wanted to go and how she can't believe she isn't going when it is nearby in Sacramento and during Spring Break. I had to assure her she would be okay when the disappoint of not going was amplified as the drummer from Yellowcard(her favorite band) left. Andrew was determined to keep the surprise.  Emmy built him a cake(Napoleon Dynamite) to ask Emmy to Junior Prom and he promptly said yes. I loved how the cake was purple and she wore a purple dress, I love the matchy matchy.

We went over to Rah Rah's to visit Lance and his boys. We had dinner, borrowed some hairspray for Emmy's hair and ended up taking pre prom pictures in their backyard. They then traveled to our house and took a picture in front of a neighbors house that had a palm. They stood there for Andrews junior prom pictures last year, They duplicated a shot. It was fun photographing them They got to dinner late ( outback Steakhouse when Andrew's brothers happen to be having dinner, oops)and almost didn't get in to the Prom. Andrew talked to them and they got in. They had chocolate fondue and Wii at the dance and Emmy was happy to report no grinding in the dancing area. I'm glad they had a great prom.

Grateful

General conference was inspiring. The family time with Lance's family visiting from Utah was great. The weather has been beautiful despite allergies flaring up around here. There is much to be grateful for. We are at the beginning of a busy time with Spring. Right now I'm feeling appreciation for the respite worker we have had for a few years. She moved away and trying to fin d a replacement has been tricky. We do have Merlene coming this week and I appreciate her so much after trying to train new workers to understand Spence and successfully get his needs met. He is doing well right now, but he can be tricky to take care of.
I also feel grateful for being safe. A tornado touched down in our neighborhood, but we were okay. I went on a field trip with Joseph and the school chartered a bus. They arrived safely home, but further up the road a chartered bus was struck by a fed ex truck and there were injuries and fatalities to the students, drivers and chaperones. Life is short and I'm grateful for the time with my family and our temple sealing as comfort that we can be together forever. There was also a high speed car chase in Antelope last week where we used to live that took the life of a father and daughter. The community has reached out and come together to support their family.  Whenever tragedy strikes I just want to pull my daily close and hold them near me. I want to follow the prophets advice and stand in Holy places. That can be our home, temples, meeting houses and anywhere where we are keeping the commandments and engaging in good. I'm grateful my parents have been safe through the many minor earthquakes in L.A. Also, for the rain we have been receiving.

The field trip turned out to be such a great time. I met and talked with Lindsey and Chris who are Brian and Sean's moms. I drove to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. We experienced the museum , had a great time driving around the city and walking on the Golden gate Bridge. it was cold and foggy, but so fun and beautiful. We hit traffic on the way home, but our conversation was engaging and we love stopping off at El Pollo Loco for a Mango Chicken Tostada. I feel like I have a few more friends over at Joseph's school and would love to chaperone again.

Joseph the 13 year old~

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Joseph wanted to have a few friends over to our house to celebrate his Birthday. He usually doesn't do that. Maybe because of Spencer, a possibility of him acting out, or maybe not. I was glad we had a great time with the tutors there, Joseph's friends and our little family. We have a lot of pizza, some cake and a lot of fun playing games. Joseph got to celebrate all weekend first having dinner at Rah Rah's on Saturday then having the extended family over for food and cake on Sunday after conference. Joseph even kept celebrating by going to see a movie on Monday afternoon. He is a happy kid. He was glad to get a scout backpack to efficiently carry all his camping gear on his back for scout camp and I was happy he wanted to do that. Emmy and I made Joseph a Facebook page, but I think we were more into it than him. I love that is so smiley, caring, happy and fun. Someone could say he complains a lot, but his great happiness and sense of the importance of family far outweighs his need to point out everything. We are so blessed to have him in our family.