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.
Kaitlyn
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.
One of the few practices still meeting this week is Kaitlyn’s soccer. She got ready early and Teague joined her outside for a little pre-practice.
Today we tried on summer clothes and tackled more cabinets and drawers.
One of Kaitlyn’s requests this week was a sleepover. Thankfully we found a night that worked for everyone and last night her friend came over after soccer practice and we got back from our hike. They made brownies (a raddish recipe), played a favorite game, and watched a movie. Then this morning, I woke up to the girls already watching a movie. Kaitlyn made waffles for everyone and then they built a fort to watch another movie.
The morning after a sleepover.
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.
Kaitlyn’s game this afternoon was fun to watch. I’ve missed soccer.
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.
(Typical picture of my crew. Some being sweet and some…not.)
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.
Kaitlyn made empanadas for dinner tonight.
Piano practicing.
The 3rd grade performed a play this morning (They performed a rehearsal for the entire school yesterday). Part of the play included a performance with their recorders.
(You might note that Kaitlyn’s recorder is blue and everyone else’s is white. Kaitlyn’s is a hand-me-down from Alex. The white ones are the current model. I only counted four other solid colored recorders in the entire grade.)
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.
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.)
My kids are all still enamored with the skateboard. Wade and I were dishwasher shopping today and happened to see free one on the side of the road. We stopped and picked it up so the at least we would have two skateboards. The kids (all of them) are still spending quite a bit of time on it trying to learn to ride. I love watching them try to figure it out.
This is the second Saturday in a row that Kaitlyn has asked for French braids. This from the girl who hates to hav a single French braid because she hates to sit still.
Kaitlyn was so excited to spend an evening with Ivy. They went to a play at the high school, “Bye, Bye, Birdie.” (She may not look excited in the picture, but anything that involves Ivy is high on her list.)
We woke up to snow today! Enough to cause a two hour delay to the school day. The craziest part is it continued to snow all day. There was never much accumulation on the ground but it was pretty coming down.
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.
Kaitlyn still loves to stand on the heating vent every morning to warm herself up while I cook breakfast.
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.
Kaitlyn has to do 20 minutes of reading and 20 minutes of math practice after school everyday. Today she is working on multiplication.
Kaitlyn always takes her lunch to school but lately she has been bringing home a mostly full lunchbox at the end of the day. Then she eats her lunch as she does her reading and math. I think she is spending most of her lunchtime talking with her friends.
Sunday lineup (minus Ben who stayed home sick).
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.)