Spring (Easter) Photo Shoot

Easter morning, I took the girls out for some pictures against the bricks of our neighbor's house.  We were already really pressed for time, so I was not able to get all the pictures I wanted.  After church, we went over by the Wylie Municipal complex to take some pictures by some bluebonnets, but the wind was blowing pretty hard and the sun was REALLY bright!  I made the girls pose over and over, but it was just not good picture conditions.  Finally, we went over onto some grass under a tree to take some pictures.  Overall, it was fun, and I did end up getting some cute pictures (and some funny ones too!)!

Texas Discovery Garden

Autumn had a field trip today to the Texas Discovery Garden at Fair Park in Dallas.  It is Texas' first certified organic public garden and has been operating since the 1930's.  They have a butterfly house that had a LOT of butterflies, a class that taught the kiddos about the water cycle and plants where they each got to make their own little terrarium, and grounds to walk around with plants, flowers, fountains, etc.  I got to chaperone Autumn's group (I had Autumn and another little girl Becca).  It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun!

Chloe's District Recognition

The Future Problem Solvers were recognized at the WISD School Board meeting last night for qualifying for the state competition.  Dave and I went to see Chloe get her certificate in front of the Superintendent, the school board, and a lot of people.  The meeting itself was pretty BORING, but I am so very proud of Chloe!

Easter Weekend

On Saturday morning,  we had an egg hunt in our house for our girls... the Easter bunny had come on Friday night!  Yay!  It didn't take the girls long to find all the eggs, then they spent all weekend eating candy!

Also on Saturday, Provident Metals had a potluck lunch and Easter egg hunt for the families of employees.  Dave had to be at Stake youth conference all day, so I took the girls.  They had a fun time running around, flying kites, playing frisbee, blowing bubbles, and hunting for eggs (of course)!  What a wonderful company to work for!

After that,  they put on their swim suits and washed the van (cooling off and doing work... yay!) because Dave didn't have a chance to get to it since he had church responsibilities all day.  Then we colored eggs.  I made 5 dozen hard boiled eggs this year because we always eat them so fast that 3 or 4 dozen just isn't enough!  It took the girls a little while, but they had a lot of fun!

While they dyed eggs, I made the pies for our Easter Dinner dessert.  Yummy...  Lemon Meringue and Cherry!

For Easter Dinner, we had ham, cheesy potato casserole, corn on the cob, green beans and rolls.  It was fantastic.  Then we went for a walk in the greenbelt by our house before we ate dessert.

We watched a short video about the life and sacrifice of our Savior, and then talked a bit about the reason for Easter with the girls.  It was a really great day!

Run, Run, as Fast as You Can...

Ciera had her first Cross Country meet of the season on Monday.   The 8th grade girls were supposed to run at 5:00, but they didn't end up running until about 5:45... and it was freezing (in the upper 40's lower 50's) and windy!  The poor girls had to stand around and freeze forever, and then, BAM!, run 2 miles.  Ciera ran the whole time, even though she didn't do as well as she hoped to.  I am proud of her for persevering!  Way to go Ciera!

Austin trip & the State Capital

Ciera and I took off for Austin right after her band competition on Friday.  We stopped in Waco at Smashburger for dinner and made it down to Austin around 9:00.

We got settled into our hotel and then went to see Chloe's hotel.  On Saturday morning, Chloe had to compete so Ciera and I went to find something to do.  We got pedicures!  ( I only have ever had one a long time ago, and this was Ciera's first...)  It was fun!

Later in the day, after we spent lunchtime with Chloe, we went to the capital building while Chloe's school group went to UT Austin.  It was pretty cool!

Saturday evening we went with Chloe's group to a Japanese Steak House for dinner.  The kids had a lot of fun because they had never seen the cool tricks the chefs can do!

All in all, it was a quick, but fun, trip to the capital.  Someday I hope to make it a family trip!

Future Problem Solvers State Competition

Chloe's team in Future Problem Solvers made it to the state competition in Austin.

They left on Friday morning, April 11, and competed on Saturday.  Chloe was really excited... none of us have ever been to Austin.  She was able to stay in a hotel (a fancy-schmancy one!) with her teammates and had a really great time.

We allowed her to go, but we decided that she would have to come home Saturday night instead of staying until Sunday with the rest of the schools.  Ciera and I drove down to Austin on Friday evening and were able to be there for her competition and then drove home Saturday night. (I will do another post about Ciera's and my trip.)
Her team didn't end up placing in the state competition to move on to nationals, but I am so proud of her!!  It means a lot to make it that far... Way to go Chloe!