Wade had mulch delivered Friday. Then it rained yesterday morning. Finally today was gorgeous and there were no major plans. Wade recruited all the kids and the mulch pile was gone in no time.
Ben
Sunday lineup.
I woke up this morning to pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Alex made it last night and had it waiting for me when I woke up this morning. Things worked out even better when the weather meant Ben’s soccer was cancelled and we could have a leisurely morning.
Ben had a friend over for a playdate and they were so cute together. They played wonderfully and required minimal oversight.
After Ben’s friend had gone home and Kaitlyn’s soccer game was over, we went to Dairy Queen. For months, Ben had been telling me he was going to take me to DQ for my birthday. He had won a gift card during bingo at Gram’s house and had saved it to treat me to ice cream. He asked me several times if there would be enough on it for the entire family. I assured him we would make sure everyone got ice cream. I was impressed when most people tried something new. Alex tried a cherry dipped cone. Ben saw a picture of a banana split and fell in love. Wade agreed to split it with him.
My pick for dinner was Cheesecake Factory. We had a wonderful dinner and then fabulous desserts. Then we went back home for presents. Kaitlyn made me the sweetest bag with an IOU for a lunch date, a handmade bracelet, and an adorable stuffed puppy. Teague gave me two boxes of my favorite chocolates. I was so impressed that all of my kids made such an effort this year.
Happy Birthday to me!
S’mores.
Today we tried on summer clothes and tackled more cabinets and drawers.
Wade’s been out of town and Ben convinced me to let him sleep with me last night.
I had warned my kids that we were doing some serious Spring Cleaning this week. We spent most of the day sorting and cleaning – mostly Ben’s and Kaitlyn’s rooms. Everyone was worn out by dinner so we decided a change of scenery was in order.
Teague had mountain biking and I was pretty sure there were some hiking trails at the same location so we went with high hopes. Everything worked out perfectly. The hike we chose took exactly 1.5 hours, which was exactly the amount of time that Teague was with his group.
Kaitlyn was a little grumpy initially, but quickly found a pretty white rock. She picked up every single one she found until her jacket pockets couldn’t hold any more. Then Ben decided to be a sweet brother and started picking up the white rocks for her and putting them in his pockets. He picked up so many that his pants were falling down.
Evening hike.
Hiking Purgatory Chasm.
The weather is supposed to be fantastic this week so we decided to start the week with hiking. The top vote was for Purgatory so we headed there first. I couldn’t believe how many people were out today. It was almost impossible to find parking, but we had a great hike!
Today was busy! Alex and Wade were ringing bells at church so we all got there on the early side. Then Alex shocked us all and joined the littles for the Children’s message. (The picture of random objects shows what Ben brings to church to entertain himself. I’m always amused by what he packs in his bag, but he is always content and mostly quiet.)
I was reading downstairs when I got a text from Wade telling him to come with my camera. Evidently he had promised to play with Ben and the game of choice was pirates.
Then Wade flew out to Seattle for a few days and the rest of us began spring cleaning. We started with the toys downstairs. The kids decided they were ready to put most of the duplos in the attic so we bagged up the sets, which meant building them first. Even Alex got in on the fun.
Sunday lineup.
Ben and Kaitlyn both returned to soccer today. Ben has the same coaches as last fall, but this time one of his school friends is on his team so I’m sure he’ll have even more fun. When practice time was over and it was time for the game, everyone realized one of the teams didn’t show up. The green team was the largest and split, but that left them a few players short to play. Ben and one other player agreed to be a green player just for the day. (I think Ben agreed just because he had his green pullover.)
Kaitlyn would normally have had at least one practice before her first game, but practice was rained out this week. She showed up for her first game today. She knew most of the girls on her team from her many years in soccer – some from last year and some from other years. Quite a few girls on last year’s team (including Kaitlyn) were moved up from D3 to D2. The girls played a good game, but they lost today. It was still fun to watch them play and I imagine they will only improve with a little practice.
Ben really wanted to play outside but was too cold in his soccer clothes from the morning. I loved how he dressed to warm himself up – especially the single sock.
Alex got the chicken egg this year at the Easter Egg Hunt. Inside was an IOU for a night of ice cream. He has asked if we can go several evenings, but it hasn’t worked out for several reasons. Tonight everything aligned we had nice weather and no activities.
Kaitlyn really wanted a sundae, but their’s are quite large and she has trouble finishing two scoops of ice cream. Teague finally agreed to split one with her. Ben was his normal adventurous self and got blueberry ice cream with gummy bears. (I don’t think he ever gets the same flavor twice.)
First Swirls and Scoops of the season.
Tonight we tried a new recipe. Ben and Kaitlyn made the empanada dough and then the filling. Ben disappeared before the filling of the empanadas but Kaitlyn stuck around till the end. I didn’t actually eat them (that ground beef thing), but everyone else gobbled them up and there weren’t any left at the end of dinner.
There was a contest at school and Ben was one of the winners. He was so excited to get to school today and find his prize. His new frog now goes everywhere with him.
Ben’s teacher emailed me a picture this morning telling me that Ben had been picked by the librarian for the reader spotlight.
I couldn’t zoom in enough to read all the details so I was so curious to get to school pickup and read all the little questions and answers.
Ben’s class got a visit today from firemen and their firetruck.
Ben’s class got the special treat of eating lunch on the stage. (A reward for good behavior over several days at lunch.)
The big news everywhere is the solar eclipse. Grafton was getting a deep partial (with a magnitude of 93.4%) but Wade and I decided to take the kids out of school and drive far enough north to see the total eclipse – at least that was the plan. Kaitlyn had a play this morning that she wanted to attend and Wade had a phone call he had to take. Alex and Ben stayed home from school. I picked up Teague and Kaitlyn after just a few hours. The plan was to leave by 10, which we managed. We did not count on the traffic. It was terrible!
Our goal destination was Burlington, VT (normally a 3.5 hour drive). We ended up in Haverhill, NH at an adorable park (after driving almost 4 hours). The kids loved playing and running as the eclipse progressed. What we saw was incredible, but not quite a total eclipse. We saw a deep partial (with a magnitude of 99%). Before we left the town, we visited the cutest covered bridge and stopped for ice cream. All in all it was a fun day and definitely an adventure.
Solar Eclipse.
Wade determined late Friday night that we needed a new dishwasher. Wade had replaced a part, we had a repairman, Wade ordered two more parts, and now we have to pick out a dishwasher. I did some online research and then we went to an appliance store. We found a dishwasher we thought we’d be happy with and thankfully it was in stock. We asked about installation and Wade decided to install it himself. When talking to the man we had realized he lived only a mile or so from our house. We asked about delivery and removal (more so we didn’t have to worry about disposal of the old dishwasher). The man offered to just drop the new one off on his way home from work and pick up our old one. Perfect! By the end of the evening I had a new dishwasher.
Sunday lineup. (Ben decided on a western theme for his outfit today and we didn’t bat an eye. Alex hated it and we agreed we never would have let him attend church at age 6 dressed like that. Oh how things have changed in 10 yers.)
Ben ran around all day with these sunglasses. He would randomly put them on and should “BFF.” I thought he had the words wrong and was meaning FBI. At some point I asked him and he he said nope, he liked BFF better and he would figure out what it meant later.
Wade loves backrubs. Ben is happy to give them, but always adds his own twist. Tonight he wanted to give his back scratch with a pastry cutter.
Today was Share Day for Ben at school. He could take an item into school to show the class. He picked his special box of Legos. The problem arose when Kaitlyn realized a bunch of his “special” Legos were actually from her room. They fought about it all day and now they are sorting them out.
Ben was pretty proud of his all green pajama ensemble.
I keep both a grocery list and a BJ’s (our local warehouse store) list ongoing in the kitchen at all times. Anyone can add to it and then when I’m going to one of the stores I just grab the list. Today I was going to BJ’s, but as I was running out the door Ben asked for sushi. (Our store just started carrying sushi a few weeks ago.)
The Burch family acquired a skateboard today.
Kaitlyn and Ben love to play outside (when they have used their iPad time). Their iPad time was up, they had eaten dinner, and had about 20 minutes until we needed to leave for swim lessons. They ended up creating a game with bikes and flags and even Alex joined in.
These two had some extra time before we left for swim lessons and decided to play outside for a while.
Happy Easter.
Easter Sundays are always really busy (at least for the first half of the day). We agreed as a family to get up at 6:30 and see what the Easter bunny had brought. Then some people could start getting ready and the ones who needed a quick nap could take one. This year we all remembered to put Pepper in the kennel the night before so that she wouldn’t get into the chocolate. The kids were excited for their baskets and it was fun to watch them dig into them.
Then we got dressed up, attended church, and took the Sunday picture. I needed to get a few of our lunch things underway and then we went outside for the kids to hunt eggs. The kids all found their special eggs pretty quickly, but the chicken egg was a little tricky this year. Alex finally found it with quite a bit of “hot-cold” help from Wade.
What a glorious day!
We had a wonderful slow Saturday today. (I know they are coming to an end. I am beginning to get all kinds of emails about spring sports.) The littles watched a few cartoons as soon as they woke up and waited for Teague to get up. He had promised to make Belgium sugar waffles for breakfast. Then the kids did their chores. I had to return the skis we rented for the season and Wade took Ben to a birthday party. The rest of the day the kids played and enjoyed being outside. I did a little prep work for Easter lunch and the littles were quite happy to lick the bowl.
Bonding over Minecraft.
The chaos of an evening at the Burch house – made even more so because our dishwasher is currently broken. Alex is washing dishes. Teague is telling Wade about his day. Kaitlyn is running around. Ben is trying to finish dinner.
Even with the crazy weather, these two wanted to be outside. They braved the spitting rain and played until the downpour started.
Everybody wanted to play games this afternoon. Rattlesnake Jake was Ben’s pick.
I was signing Ben up for some fall sports (doesn’t it seem crazy early to be doing that?) and they wouldn’t let me finish the registration without uploading a picture. I normally use the digital copy of school fall pictures for this kind of thing. When I went to the folder where I save school pictures, there were no pictures. I have a history of not receiving the emails with the digital pictures but I normally realize it, call the company, and then it gets straightened out. This time, I never thought about it once, and here it is March and I don’t have the pictures from October. I called the company and they were nice enough to email me the pictures.
Teague doesn’t have a picture because he was signed up for a retake and then decided not to turn in his form. Therefore – no picture this fall.
I was recently introduced to Solmate Socks. I immediately fell in love and ordered quite a few for myself and Ben (my son loving boy).
Waffles for breakfast!
Ben woke up not feeling well this morning. After an hour he seemed to bounce back and be fine until late afternoon when I looked over to see that he was taking a nap beside me.
Every year our church holds an Easter Breakfast and egg hunt. We weren’t able to attend last year due to our sports commitments, but this year Easter comes before Spring sports have even started. Our youth pastor normally does all of the planning and setting up for this event, but she recently had a death in the family. A few of us arrived early to setup and, other than the weather, things went great. There were crafts for the children while they waited for the adults to finish eating and the eggs to be hidden. Then the children were called by groups and could find 10 eggs each. There were enough eggs that the children could hunt eggs twice. We went home with lots of crafts and lots of candy. Everyone was happy!
Easter Breakfast and egg hunt at church.
These two couldn’t wait to play Minecraft together after school. (It was pajama day for Ben today.)
Ben had his third class party at school today and the theme was kindness. The other room mother and I put together a grouping of activities to keep the kids entertained. We met up at the school just as the kids were finishing an all school assembly by a local speaker. Then the children returned to their class for their special snack. (We aren’t allowed to provide snacks for the classroom so each child has a “Party in a Bag” on special days.)
After snack, we started the party with a book about kindness. Then we split the children into two groups – one worked on kindness crowns and the other group played kindness bingo.