Utah Spring

"If all the snowflakes were marshmallows and cupcakes, oh! What a snow this would be!"

A blizzard suddenly hit and Tessy wanted to run out and play in it. She's standing there by our tulips that are trying their hardest to open up!

Laurel and "American Idol"

Remember Justin Williams from the first round or two of Hollywood Week on AI this season? He was the cute Mormon boy from Sandy, UT who is a cancer survivor...? The youth in our ward had a fundraiser auction/dinner/entertainment. Our bishop somehow managed to get Justin Williams as our entertainment. All the young women were oogling him. So I forced Laurel over to get a photo with him! It was a fun night! He's a great musician.

King's Palace

Back in February we decorated Brianna's 5th Grade teacher's door for Teacher Appreciation Week. Her teacher's name is Miss King. So we made "King's Palace." Brianna helped and was so proud of the door. She said, in fact, that the first week whenever a class walked by they could hear oohs and ahhs in the hallway. They even cracked the door open so they could hear all the oohs and ahhs!

I went the week before and got a mug shot of each person in the class (including Miss King). Then I added crowns or tiara's to each noggin. They turned out so cute! (Tessy is pointing to Brianna with her tootsie pop.)

Brianna cut these letters out herself.

It was a hit! Miss King loved it and says she's leaving it up til school's out!

I Grew This Basil!

Last summer my dear friend, Michele, gave me a little terracotta pot with some basil seeds. I planted them and have watched them grow all these months. I call it "Baby Basil." This little herb plant is one of my very favorite things.
Yesterday was my first harvest! Mom was here and told me it was getting too leggy; that I needed to trim it down so it could branch out. This is me sniffing my trimmings! I made pesto with it, which went on our spinach ravioli. YUM!!

Hiking Lone Peak and Kangaroo Zoo

Since I got to go skiing without them, Maho took Laurel, Brianna and Whitney hiking last Saturday on the mountain just behind our house. I was not invited. ;)

When they got to the top of the peak, they--of all things to do on a mountain--flew a kite!

While they hiked, we weren't about to just sit around at home. So Tessy, Ellie and I went to Kangaroo Zoo. It's a place full of inflated bouncy-things where the kids just run and bounce and slide to their hearts' content. Afterward we all met up at Macey's for an ice cream cone.

Skiing at Deer Valley with Mom

Last Thursday Mom called. She had two free passes to ski at Deer Valley and they expired the next day, so she wondered if I wanted to go ski with her on Friday. Actually, she was super nice and offered to watch ninas so Maho and I could ski together. But when Maho said he wasn't too into skiing, Mom was so excited! And we had a BLAST! (Those are Laurel zebra sunglasses! Mine are lost.)

Mom took this pic of me as we were riding back up in the gondola. It was such a beautiful day! Couldn't have been better! Not too cold, sunny a lot of the time.

Lunch was fabulous. Mom told me how divine the salad bar was. And it was! Yum! We ate outside as it lightly snowed. (I'm a woos and couldn't stand the sunlight. That's why I'm looking down. Don't laugh, Dad. Or maybe I was just really hungry.)

Okay, lots of pictures of lunch! Hey, it was good!

About to plunge over the hill behind me! Mom is a dang good skiier. Much better than I. She is such a graceful skiier. We had too much fun. A couple times as we flew along I yelled out, "IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!" It really was. I was inspired to always stay in shape so that I can keep on doing stuff like this!

Inside (camp) Out

We had wanted to go camping for part of spring break. But it's still so dang cold around here, and I'm too big a wimp to camp in the cold. So we had a camp-in. Here we are with our huge tent set up in the kitchen. We pushed back the dining room table and chairs so there'd be room. Then we grilled some hamburgers on the grill in the garage. Everyone was pretty excited about it. Laurel doesn't look it, but she had fun. And Maho thought we were all nuts when he came down from his office to a huge tent in the kitchen, but he had fun too.
I get way too excited about treats. No, these aren't fried eggs. They are s'mores that I broiled in the oven! YUM.

Everyone brought down pillows, sleeping bags and blankets and snuggled in. We even turned off all the lights and used our lantern haning in the tent. We also turned on the fountain we have in the kitchen, shooting for that camping-by-the-brook effect. Maho said it sounded like the "eternal leak." Hmmm... not really what we were going for.

Here Ellie and Tessy are piling on top of Papa. Tessy is in her beloved unicorn outfit which she wore all day (including to Walmart). After a little Family Home Evening lesson (yes it's Wednesday night, but ya gotta teach when inspiration hits) we watched a movie inside the tent on Maho's computer--Beverly Hills Ninja. I don't think anyone made it through the whole movie...

The ninas want to sleep in the tent again tonight! It's noon and the tent is still a majestic presence in the kitchen, so we shall see. I think Maho and I will opt for a soft bed tonight though!

Pirate Island!

It's spring break, and since we aren't going anywhere exciting, we decided to take the ninas to do fun activities around here. Pirate Island is in Orem. This was the first time going for all but Laurel--2nd time for her. It was a blast. It is completely decked out. You feel like you are on the set of Pirates of the Carribean.
We were even served dinner by Captain Jack Sparrow!

After dinner we bought 100 tokens and let the girls play all the games in their game area. They LOVED it.

He sounded exactly like Jack Sparrow, moved like him, and everything! His dimples were the only difference between this guy and the real Captain Jack Sparrow (and probably his paycheck)!

Ellie

Brianna and Laurel

You may have noticed Laurel's arm is in a sling (my scarf, actually). She hurt it jumping on the trampoline yesterday. It was hurting so much we took her to the doc today for X rays. Just a sprain--but still very sore.

Whitney

Bub (aka Tessy)

Omelettes!!

Papa is our Omelette Maker Extaordinaire. He often makes omelettes for each of us on Saturday mornings, like today. Yum.

Ham, tomatoe, bell pepper, mushrooms, onions, cheese, jalapeno. Mmmmm good.

Dying Easter Eggs

Laurel is concentrating on her eggcellent artwork.

Tessy's proud of her egg! Oh man, how do I ever say No to that cute little face?!

Easter Bunny has 5 busy little helpers. They each got a dozen eggs to dye. They each also got hungry afterward for boiled eggs, so there won't be quite so many for Easter Bunny to hide in the morning. Fine with me....

Brianna's tie-dye Easter egg. Very cool.

April Fool!!

I made these "cupcakes" on April 1st. Yes, we had cupcakes for dinner. Not sweet, but savory. They are actually meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potatoe "frosting." Yum. Brianna hates frosting, so when she first saw them, she said, "Ahhh, so much frosting!" But she liked this frosting.

After the Dentist

Ellie had a cavity filled on Monday. The dentist numbed the right top side of her mouth. She's such a smiley little thing, and when Maho saw her smile he thought it was the funniest thing ever! The more he laughed, the more Ellie laughed, and he manage to snap a photo of her laughing. She looks like Sylvester Stallone's offspring...