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...

Little Daisy Scout

I really need to learn to rotate photos on here. This is Ellie in her Daisy Girl Scout uniform. She and Whitney and Brianna are all girl scouts this year. We decided to try it out. They've had lots of fun. One "fun" thing we just finished up with was Girl Scout cookies. Between the 3 of them they sold about 100 boxes in the neighborhood, and then we took several turns working at cookie booths. That actually was pretty fun. They cookies sell themselves. Everyone loves girl scout cookies!