Easter

On Easter Eve, Hayley felt it necessary to put name labels in front of each basket so the bunny would know which was which. LOVE the little note she left in front which reads: "Thank you Easter Bunny! We love you!" She turned 9 on Easter morning. Woo hoo! At age 9, Hayley is still leaving notes for the bunny. I'm sad at the thought that it might be the last year she does this :( Too many side conversations I heard from her and Blake lead me to believe it might be.

Just like Christmas morning, we make the kids wait upstairs before running down to find their treat filled basket!

The Easter Bunny always hides their baskets and the eggs they colored. He got pretty creative with the hiding spots this year.

After the baskets were found, Hayley opened her bday gifts from us. One of them was a clue for a little scavenger hunt . . .

. . . where she eventually found this: a new bike! She definitely needed a new one but this one looks so big! Luckily she took off riding it with no problem.

After they had found their goodies, I made the breakfast that Hayley requested for her special day: cinnamon roll casserole, scrambled eggs and lots of sausage links! Yum. Our bellies were full and we were then able to watch conference comfortably in our jammies. We eventually got dressed and headed over to Grandma Lamoreaux's to continue the celebrations!

We made these cute little treats to go at each place setting for the kiddos.

My kids sure love these two - Grant & Carson!

Hayley opened even more gifts at Grandma's house. She had been asking for a card holder and Grandma came through with that and some card games - - Hayley's favorite! In the bday card, Grandma told Hayley that the game Flinch has now been passed down 5 generations as she was giving her the game. I remember playing Flinch with my mom's parents when we would visit them in Cedar. And now my mom is playing it with my kids.

Grandma & Grandpa with the kids -

All of their grand kids!

And then it was time for the easter egg hunt on the golf course with the Partridges -an annual tradition. We grew up with the Partridges and did easter egg hunts with them most years. Now they live next door to my parents and the tradition continues!

Chloe found one of the big kahuna eggs!

Such a fun day that we had! And here's one more gift Hayley received from grandma Foster - a pull up bar, or as she calls it, a gymnastics bar. She now can practice her flips and pull-ups in her bedroom. Who wants to make bets how long it will be before we are going to the emergency room? (And I am just waiting until I forget it's there and walk right into it!)

Hayley Turns 9!

Seems like we were just rocking out to Hannah Montanna's at last year's party, and here she goes and has another birthday!! Can't believe she's 9! Hayley is growing up so fast! At this point in her life, she LOVES gymnastics, piano and reading. Some of her favorite books are the Geronimo series, Poppy and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She got the first two Diary books and read the first one all the way through that night!

She has such an old soul. I know I'm going to learn more from her about life than I'll ever be able to teach her! I get depressed though thinking that the first 9 years of her life went by so fast, and I only have 9 more with her before she's off to college! I wish life could just slow down a bit!

For her birthday party this year, we decided to do a Cookie Decorating Party. A gal named Michelle has a cookies and cake business. She does the entire party (makes the sugar cookies, bring all the needed supplies, teaches the girls how to decorate cookies and then wraps their finished product up so cute to take home) and I just got to enjoy myself :) Hayley got to choose the theme and she wanted flowers. So Michelle made 5 big sugar cookies in flower shapes for each girl. She taught them how to use the decorating bag to make dots, stripes and curves. She brought a little square that each girl could practice on.

Then she would show how to do a certain type of decorating on a flower, and the girls could follow along or do their own thing. She ended up giving me her sample bouquet to keep :)

Here was Hayley's finished product:

These are Hayley's very best friends - - cousins Courtney & Sandee, Sierra, Abby, Casey & Olivia. I know I've said this before but she has the most wonderful friends . . . cute, naive, sweet little girls who get along so well. They don't fight or get dramatic. I'm hoping it lasts forever (but knowing that it probably won't, I'm savoring this time in her life!).

They were so proud of their bouquets!

So Michelle said it usually takes 1 1/2 hours to make the cookies, but our girls did them in record time - - 45 minutes. So we had an hour to spare. Luckily I had some games up my sleeves. First one - - try to pop the balloon on your friend's ankle without getting yours popped. They loved this one and we did it over and over.

Then we played Chinese Numbers - - they have to figure out which Chinese number you're making with utensils. This was a lot of fun as it took quite awhile for them all to clue in to the trick! We then followed up with the game Black Magic. They loved them and it took up the rest of the time!

So lucky that both Grandmas could come and enjoy the party with us!

And glad that these two little princesses could attend as well!

Give a Day, Get a Day!

Love Disney. Love everything about it. Never got to visit Disneyland as a child and now I think I'm trying to make up for lost time or something. We just went in October, but when we heard about the Give a Day, Get a Day program this year, we were all over it! Thanks to Stacey who forwarded on the link to help make blankets, we made 4 fleece blankets and in return . . . got 4 free 1-day passes to the park! We got the passes on Monday, and by Tuesday, decided we needed to make a quick trip to California that weekend! Love spontaneous trips (we also wanted to beat the spring break crowds!). The passes were good for either a day at Disneyland, or a day at California Adventure. Surprisingly, the kids chose C.A.! I think it's because last time we went there, we didn't get to spend too much time at that park, and there were more rides they wanted to try out. We thought they might be bored at C.A. after 1/2 a day and then our plan was to upgrade to a park hopper pass and head over to Disneyland. But we ended up being at the park from opening to closing just to fit everything in!

Love this pic of Blake - - doesn't it just say CHILDHOOD?

Chloe loved that she actually was tall enough to go on Soarin Over California. But then she tried to go on so many other rides, but was just a few inches too short. We discovered she was tall enough for Tower of Terror and she wanted to try it out!! But as we entered the ride, she said, "I wish I was small!" How come? "So that I wouldn't have to go on this." By that time it was too late. Everyone in line with us was anxious to see what her reaction would be. She was by far the smallest in line. She definitely got a little scared and told me after that her bum kept coming out of her seat. And when I asked if she wanted to go on it again, she said NO WAY! But at least she tried it. My little brave 4-year old!

The new Toy Story ride was one of our favorites!

For some reason, Blake & Hayley kept making gangster signs for pictures. Seriously - where did they come up with that?

Ok, but Screamin had to be our top favorite ride. I think we rode it 4 times that day!

The swinging ferris wheel was Chloe's favorite. Just wish the line didn't take so long to get through!

The kids were able to get so many autographs!

Ever since we went last fall and I opted to NOT go on the Grizzly River water ride, Hayley kept telling me I had no option this time. So I gave in and went with her. Why is it that I ALWAYS pick the seat that gets the wettest. She thought that was hilarious. Here I am soaked.

We always love the parade. Love how Kate waved the entire time and there's nothing more magical than when the characters would look straight at her and wave back!

This is Crush the turtle and we'd never done the Talk With Crush activity.You go into an auditorium and you see the animated Crush on the screen but it's all interactive. He points out different people in the audience to talk to and you can ask him questions. The first person he spotted was the "cute little girl in pigtails" and he was wanting to talk to Chloe! So the helper brought the mic over to her and they had a conversation about where she was from and if she liked to swim. So cute. And Brent and I are still wondering . . . how does that whole show work? Magical, I tell you!

Here's the last picture of the night. They each got to pick out a treat in the gift shop before we left. Blake bought the penguin webkinz, Hayley brought a Mickey bracelet, Chloe of course chose candy - big lollipops, and Kate of course chose the little princess figurines. The perfect end to a perfect day.