May

Some random pictures from May.

 Darcy got a teepee from Santa a couple years ago. It doesn't get used very often because it takes up quite a bit of space. The other day I saw it in her room and decided to set it up. The kids loved it, and especially Parks thought it was so exciting. Even after the other kids were over it he kept going in there and just laying down in the middle of the blankets and pillows.

 These next couple pictures are some of my favorites of all time. I love to watch my kids use their imaginations and be creative. I can't think of a non-cheesy way to say it, but I just love how the beautiful brain of a little child works. One day Darcy realized a plastic grocery bag could make a great parachute. The kids had so much fun playing with those plastic bags on their backs. They even put one on Parks.

 We got to go watch Ashley play softball one day.

 Ezra hasn't really watched softball/baseball before and when we first got there he was so into it.

 Bath time

 We got to go to Mattawa for Raylee's 1st birthday. She and Parks were a little jealous of the big kids who got to play outside. :)

 This year might be the only time in her life that Darcy will ride the bus. She is transferring to another school next year where they don't have buses, so I decided to go take a couple pictures. Such cute little kindergarteners!!

Another picture I absolutely love of my kids using their imaginations. Ezra was a hero and Darcy was the queen.

Easter

 I had decided to skip posting about Easter originally, but then I looked through the pictures again and decided I wanted to post them after all.

 We didn't get as much time with our Christensen family for Easter this year, but Darcy did get to help Grandma Becky make her adorable (and yummy) Easter cookies.

 It's fun to watch my kids start to understand more and more about these holidays every year. It was Ezra's turn to start getting excited about dying eggs.

 This girl could dye eggs all day long.

 Grandma is so good to tackle the dying eggs mess every year.

 Some of the favorites. (This far out I can't remember who was responsible for these, but I do know it wasn't me.)

 My parents'  yard is a bit torn up right now, getting ready for a new house so there were lots of fun new places to hide/find eggs this year.

 Parks could see those eggs down through the hole in the back ho bucket, but he just couldn't quite get to them.

 My mom found Darcy's Easter dress this year, and Darcy was excited to have her picture taken in it. She was coming up with all sorts of silly/cute poses.

Tulip Festival

For spring break I decided we should go to the tulip festival in Mt. Vernon. I wish I could say this was a fabulous trip, but that would be a lie. Somehow I ended up with a bunch of pictures I love, but the truth is all of us we pretty cranky and upset most of the time. When Ezra decided to drop his pants and pee in the middle of the beautiful yard filled with tulips where hundreds of people were crowded around that threw Drew over the edge, and the rest of us right along with him. We have had many talks since, about where we go potty and where we don't. We realize now that we were trying to make our kids have fun our way, and that didn't make them happy at all. We are determined to be a little more relaxed for future family trips, and to try to go with their flow a little more. If we don't, I'm afraid they will remember family trips with horror instead of happiness. Lesson learned! (We want to loosen up, but still won't let our kids pee wherever they want in case you're worried about that.)

 

 As we were walking in, Darcy stopped to smell the tulips.

 

 

 We all laughed as Drew used his selfie stick that came with his gopro kit to take a video of the tulip fields.

 Our kids really did not want to cooperate for a family picture. So this was the more realistic shot.

 A little better

March and April Catch Up

 My computer has been out of commission and then going back and forth to be fixed for the last couple months and I have gotten way behind on blogging. So now I'm playing catch up. I have some random pictures from March and April for this post.

 Darcy had crazy hair day at school and was pretty excited about the cupcake hairdo we put together.

 Ashley turned 14! Darcy wanted to make her princess cupcakes, so my mom kindly let us take over cake duty. (Which we halfway completed as you can see.)

 Her birthday goods.

 Typical bath for Ezra

 Ezra riding at grandma's

 My parents are in the process of getting a new house and to get the new one they had to remove the old one. That included the bunk house and the surrounding area. We got to be part of the process a little bit here and there.

 Ashley and I could really swing a sledge hammer! 

 We have our fair share of rocking horses at our house. Darcy was a particularly intense rocking horse rider for this picture.

 We went for a family walk early this spring when we had a nice day and it was so beautiful. I love that pathway by the river.

 To our great amusement, Matthew somehow got himself stuck in the tree like this but he wasn't worried about it at all.

A random picture of Parks before church.

 

We got to celebrate Alyssa's birthday with her this year. Apparently she is a serious Scooby Do fan and Haley hooked her up!

She started unwrapping her present from Nick in this big box...

 ...and opened box after box until she got to this envelope that had two Taylor Swift concert tickets in it. She was really excited, and the rest of us were jealous. :)

 We had quite a few motorcycle Saturdays this spring so I have about a billion pictures of that. 

Our kids are still excited to go watch every time even though it means they will just be hanging out in the dirt the whole time.

 I love this one. They were pretending to be off on an adventure of some sort.

 The kids always came away with boots full of dirt.

Ezra loves going to the track most of all, but then every once in a while a dog shows up and ruins all his fun. :)