Thursday, November 29, 2018

Easter

With Easter falling on Conference Sunday this year, we had our ward Easter egg hunt the Saturday the week before conference. It was cold and rainy outside, so they moved it indoors. We had a breakfast and then they did the egg hunting in groups. First the little kids got to start and then the big kids worked with a partner and they took turns going out to find eggs in a certain order. It definitely made it take longer that way! 




They also had some games the kids could play after the egg hunt.


We wore our matching Easter outfits the Sunday before conference. Peyton wore the dress she got for her daddy-daughter dance and I got the boys polo shirts to match and Rog a tie to match. I already had a layering shirt that matched, so I wore that under a white shirt with a gray skirt. We were going to try to balance a phone on a chair and use the timer to take a picture, but Brenton Yates drove by at the perfect time and pulled over to come snap a quick picture.


We dyed eggs for FHE the next day.



I made this wreath during conference on Saturday.


We did Easter baskets Sunday morning before conference. Rog got Zelda for the Nintendo Switch and a chocolate bunny.


I got all three books in the To All the Boys I've Loved Before series and a Dumbo Tsum Tsum.


Corbyn got a Star Wars Bop-It and some Pokemon cards.


The Bop-It has been a huge hit!


Peyton got Leap! and a Belle Lip Smacker.


And Logan got the Cat Mobile and a PJ Masks matching game.


We had Orange Rolls and Orange Dreamsicle Smoothies for breakfast.


The kids and I had a coloring party while we watched conference.


And Corbyn and Peyton made Easter Perler Beads.


I wish I could say this is a picture of the kids intently watching conference, but alas it is a picture of them watching Leap! after conference was over.


For dinner we had a Costco ham.


With Honey Lime Fruit Salad and I tried a new recipe for Funeral Potatoes. (They got a little overdone because I left them in too long with the ham, but they had a good flavor.) 


For dessert, I made our favorite Carrot Cake in 2 circle pans instead of a 9x13 pan and frosted it with the cream cheese frosting from these cupcakes. I tried to do a light frosting job to make it a Naked Cake. I'm not sure I succeeded at the naked part, but it was good cake nonetheless.


My mom sent a package with supplies for an Easter egg hunt for the kids. It arrived the day after Easter, so I had it ready for the kids when they got home from school. I took videos of the kids hunting for the eggs and telling about all the fun things they found inside the eggs that I sent to Grandma Lori. (I'm not posting them here because the videos are pretty long and I don't think anyone other than grandma would be all that interested in them.) But here is Peyton with her treasures. (Didn't get a picture of Corbyn or Logan - just videos.)


It was a fun Easter!

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Rest of March

March was a busy month! I already blogged about the first few days of the month here, my birthday here, the RS Garden Party here, Logans' birthday party here, and his birthday here. Here's what happened the rest of March.

Corbyn's teacher last year was the very worst at communication. One day she sent home a note saying the kids needed to make a poster of 15-20 things to sell in a class store since they had just finished a unit on money. We only had a few days to get it done and there was no more explanation than that. At first I thought Corbyn needed to make 15-20 things, but he clarified that he could just find things around the house. We gathered them all on a white poster board, I took their picture, and then I edited the picture to add text - much easier than him drawing all the pictures. 

I was thinking they were actually going to sell these things (and Corbyn did too), so I sent them to school in a bag in his backpack. They had the store, but he kept bringing that bag home. Turns out the 5th graders came by and pretended to buy stuff, but no actual goods were exchanged. This story makes me laugh now, but it was so painfully typical of Ms. Rowland and how last year went. You might say, why didn't you email her about it if the directions were unclear? I could have, but I had learned by this point in the year that she wouldn't have responded even if I did. I'm just hoping Peyton doesn't get her next year!


One of the sisters I visit taught was moving some stuff from one storage unit to a smaller one down the hall (and getting rid of some stuff in the process). We sent out an email asking for people to come help her, but at first Logan and I were the only ones to show up. After we had been working for a bit, the RS president sent her husband to help. It was a good thing he came because otherwise we would have been there all day! 


Peyton had her 100th day of school. I had a little more notice than I did for Corbyn's 100th day of school, so I was able to pick her up some reading glasses from the dollar store and take out the lenses. 


She made a pretty cute old lady! 👵


After living in Portland for almost two years, we heard about a waffle place (called Waffle Window) similar to our beloved Waffle Love in Utah. We went for date night and while it wasn't quite the same, we were happy to have found it!


We shared the fried chicken & waffle with gravy.


And a strawberry cheesecake waffle for dessert.


Corbyn's basketball season came to an end. They had a little party at EZ Freezy after their last game.



My middle finger on my right had randomly started hurting and before long it was unbearable. I went to our PA and she thought it was a ganglion cyst. She had me wear this brace to try to get the fluid to drain, but after a few weeks it was still so painful, so I went back. It had started getting stuck, so that told her it was a trigger finger. She gave me a shot and it was better within a couple days.


I decided at the last minute to make a Lemon Cream Pie for pi day. I had to substitute whipped topping for whipping cream since that was what I had on hand. It wasn't quite as good, but still fun. I can't help but celebrate all the holidays - big or small!


Oregon Trail had Morning with Mom and Logan got to tag along since Rog had to be at work early that day. We had donuts and milk.


It was also sports day, so Corbyn wore his basketball jersey and Peyton wore my Utah Jazz jersey (even though she has no idea who the Jazz are).


Logan "helped" me fill our flour container and then "helped" me sweep up the mess he made!


We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with Lucky Charms for breakfast and green shirts.


Logan wore Corbyn's shirt from St. Patrick's Day in 2013. I'd always thought I should have gotten a picture of me with Corbyn in this shirt since it says Mom's Lucky Charm. So I made sure to get some with Logan.


He may not always smile for pictures, but he's always willing to give mom a kiss.


I bought shamrock ravioli from Costco for dinner.


And I made Chocolate Mint Graham Cracker Sandwiches for dessert.


We had the most beautiful weather on the first day of spring and I had been seeing gorgeous pictures of the cherry blossoms at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Instagram, so I packed a lunch for me and Logan and we went on a little date.




I did not take this picture (none of mine were quite this good), but it showed up on @bestoforegon the day we went.


I was trying to get our RS cooking group up and running again (it had been neglected for a few months), so I hosted a cooking night and had Susie Baker come teach us how to make potstickers. (She lived in Japan for a few years and learned to make them there.)


I already talked about our potty training adventures in Logan's 3 year blog. After a rough start, it clicked for him during the day, but for a few months, I had to take precautions if he took a nap because he would sometimes wake up wet. (He wore Pull-Ups to bed for a few months too for this same reason.)


Saturday morning stretching with dad.


Rog decided Corbyn needed to learn how to make Mac & Cheese. He was so proud of himself!


The last week of March was our spring break. I tried to do something fun with the kids each day. On Monday we dyed Easter eggs. (I'll include that in my Easter post.)

On Tuesday Peyton got to go play with her friend, Wren Tutt.


They made fluffy slime.


After lunch we picked her up and went swimming at the North Clackamas Aquatic Park.


On Wednesday we made Blueberry Muffin Cookies in the morning.


Then we met Rog at the Nike Company Store in Beaverton.


We ate dinner at Arby's and when we finished we discovered that Rog had locked his keys in his car. On a whim, he called our insurance company and they sent someone to come let him in. (Luckily that was included in our coverage.)


I took the kids to the visitors' center at the temple while he did initiatories.


Then he took the kids home and I did initiatories.


On Thursday Rog worked a half day and then we drove to the coast. 


It was whale watch week and you were supposed to be able to see whales as they migrated north past the Oregon coast. We got there right after the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center was closed for the day, but we spent some time looking for whales anyway. We didn't end up seeing any, but it was just a beautiful day to be on the coast, so we didn't mind.



We picked up some salt water taffy in town.


We had our picnic dinner in the car because it was a little bit chilly!


We played a game of tag.


Then we found a beach to explore before heading home.




On Friday we went to Altamont Park. It was cloudy which was a bit of a bummer after the beautiful weather we enjoyed the day before.


We stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way home and got some of the most adorable chick donuts.



Saturday we watched General Conference.


In between sessions we cleaned the car.


And then went to Biscuits Cafe. I ordered their waffles and was a little disappointed. They were a bit soggy from the (previously frozen) strawberries they put on top of them. After some exploration, I've learned my lesson about what to order there - you can't go wrong with any of their scrambles with potatoes. And their pancakes with homemade strawberry jam are amazing too.


Easter was the next day (April 1st). Since it was technically in April, I decided I'd do a separate post for Easter (including some of the Easter stuff we did in March).