Stayin' Alive...Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Stayin' ALLLLLLLLLIVE!

It is March. Here is what we have been doing...

1)First, Clyde (Matthew's school pet) came to visit. It was lovely to see him...he visits so seldom.

He is such a smart, sweet, sassy little lizard. We're just so grateful Matthew is making good friends at school.

2)  Jake's Birthday Party...3 weeks late.

I have to admit I was kind of hoping he would just forget about that birthday party he wanted...because that was so realistic...lots of 9 year olds forget that they want to have a Harry Potter birthday party. Chris made the invitations and Jacob labelled all the envelopes with the "Cupboard Under the Stairs" address. They were very clever and visually delightful!

The happy birthday boy!

The party guests.

Golden snitch cupcakes...courtesy of our master cake maker Chris!

We made wands and played a rousing game of quidditch and dementor tag, made potions to drink, ate golden snitch cupcakes, and had a fabulous (and exhausting) time! Nine year old boys have lots of energy...

3) The Scorpion King

I got home one day from the gym and received a frantic call from Emma Jo telling me that Abigail Jean was trying to find her family because sweet Cubby was in the hospital due to Lucifer, the evil scorpion. Hannah and I threw some stuff in a bag, ran to the school to say good bye to the boys, and raced as quickly as we could to Vegas. We found one very sick but brave little boy, one very worried but grateful pregnant lady, a doting father, and a darling, darling Boo. We scoured for evil scorpions, moved the kid's beds upstairs, vacuumed and Clorox wiped, and ate lots of Cafe Rio and Thin Mint ice-cream. For the entire harrowing account and a picture of the world's most wicked scorpion, click here.

 The Brave Knight and the Scorpion King

This is one of my favorite people making me banana pancakes while wearing a diaper on her head...or you could say she remembered to take her good manners out of the underwear drawer.

The natural lighting in that kitchen in the morning is unreal!

Sweet cousins. Everyone needs a little girl cousin to love and adore...

and a boy cousin to share all his cool toys with you.

4) Lots of time in the car. School, Scouts, track club, play practice, preschool, Young Women's, elder's quorum, volunteering at the school, etc. I happened to have my camera in the car one day...here is what I see in my rear view mirror every day. LOVE these faces!

5) Catching Tricky Leprachauns

My children are absolutely obsessed with holidays...any holiday. Hannah has a calendar hanging in her room. Every day she gets out of bed and marks the day off. A few days ago she woke me up to ask me if we had any "Ash Wednesday" decorations. She wanted to know what we were going to do for Ash Wednesday!? So if Ash Wednesday is a day worth celebrating, you can imagine what St. Patrick's Day is like. The children start a week ahead of time by getting shoe boxes and building leprachaun traps. There is lots of tape, string, green, and dollhouse furniture. But they very carefully set them by the front door on St. Patty's Eve...

and even though they have never actually "caught" a leprachaun, they usually get a taunting note and a treat from them. I know some people really love their kids and mess up the kitchen but I don't love my kids that much. I don't need to pretend that naughty little men have snuck in my house at night and made a mess. I get too much of that during the day!

But they did get cool green sunglasses this year...

6) Enjoying amazing spring weather.

7)  And last, but certainly not least, the debut of the fabulous play "The Hysterical History of the Trojan War" where Jacob did a fabulous job as Percalus (Achille's best friend and cousin). He fought in the Trojan War and even took an arrow for Achilles...he had a very dramatic death scene and then played a fantastic corpse. We could not be more proud.

I loved the blow up plastic swords.

Fighting the Trojans...we were rooting for the Spartans of course.

Action shot...the death scene...taking one for the team.

My absolute favorite part of the play was the presentation of the horse to the Trojans with the Kindergarteners/1st graders crouched on the cart. This is first rate entertainment folks!

8) And Hannah and I enjoyed a fabulous day at the Aquarium with a darling new friend.

Running away from the hammerhead shark that is about to attack her!

9) We are now getting ready for the big trip to the Motherland. 9 days and counting!