My Photopass Pictures

Photopass pictures are the pictures that we had taken while we were in Disney. There are photographers that they have all over the place that will basically take your picture, you have a card that you carry around with you and hand it to them. It's a nice way to get pictures of the whole family without having to constantly ask other people to do it.

Anyway, I've had the CD of my photos for awhile now but didn't look at it till today. I figured I'd better make sure they're ok before too much time has passed. So here's just a few of the many, many pictures that I have. I've added borders to these.

Our first day before going into the Magic Kingdom.

Hollywood Studios, can you tell it's still cold out?

I love this picture taken in Animal Kingdom with Megan holding baby Simba.


Posing in Epcot in front of the big "ball".

The birthday girls, the picture was actually taken on my birthday.

Zach and I were next to go see Lightning McQueen and Mater. I didn't even know this picture was taken till I got home and looked online.

Posing with "Cars".

We're next in line to see Mickey Mouse.

Posing with Mickey Mouse. You have to see the mouse at least once while you're at Disney.

I love this picture. The photographer told us to scream like we were scared. That's pretty much what your face looks like while you're on Tower of Terror (in the background).

That's it. I have tons more but have to end somewhere. I may possibly have one more post about Disney if I ever get it done. It's from the kids perspective and has pictures that they took. I started it, saved it, need to have the kids finish it. Might be done by summer!

Children's Choir

This past Sunday the girls sang again in church and this time you can actually see Kristin. She usually tries to hide.

I know they sing again in May but not sure about June. Almost done for the year! Before too much longer Zach will be old enough to sing in the choir, that will be interesting.

When we got home from church Kristin and Zach went out on the deck to play in the sandbox. I found Zach a pair of sunglasses that matched his shirt.

Of course he didn't actually wear them outside.

He played in the sandbox for a little while but wasn't fond of having sand between his toes. Kristin would pour water over them to clean them up a little, he enjoyed that. Eventually he'll have his water toy that he got last year to play with too. Paul put it together but it needs some of those button batteries to make the motor work. I checked out Rite Aid but they didn't have that particular kind so the search begins. For the moment he has his sandbox and his picnic table with umbrella. That will have to do for now. We're loving spring!

Lauren's 3rd Soccer Game

Alright this is a terrible picture but out of the 4 I took it's the best one I got!
Lauren's in the middle of the picture, behind the girl in black, she had just kicked the ball. Those girls move so fast it's hard to get decent pictures when she's playing. This was taken near the end of the game and Lauren was playing defense so you see her kicking the ball away from the net. Oh by the way, they won, 4-0! Lauren started the game as a forward but just never got any good chances at scoring. Oh well, she has 3 games left to keep trying. I've said this before but I'm going to say it again, her team is playing so well this season, I'm just simply amazed (as compared to how they played in the fall)!

Spring Break

No school for the girls this week. We didn't do go away since we just went on vacation so we mostly hung around the house. On Monday we just took it easy, cleaned up some around the house but mostly lounged. Tuesday and Wednesday were rainy days but I did manage to get the kids out Tuesday morning to get their hair cut. Afterwards we hit the grocery store to get some food so the girls could do some cooking this week. They love doing that plus it's a great way to try new things. They first made rice pudding since that took a while to cook...
Then while that was cooking Lauren and I made potato wrapped halibut. Not sure if I would do that one again, the halibut was expensive and it was a pain to wrap the potatoes around the fish. Most of them fell apart, this one was the best looking one of them all.

It was an okay dinner, Lauren and I both liked the crispy potatoes but the halibut was just so so. Maybe we'll try a different fish next time, that is if there is a next time for that recipe. Along with the halibut we had fresh spinach sauteed with garlic. Lauren did that one all on her own, that was really good. Now the dessert, the rice pudding, was fantastic! As well it should be since it took whole milk, heavy whipping cream, sugar and a vanilla bean. Very, very rich! That recipe will surely be made again and it's easy enough that the girls could do it on their own, it was just time consuming.

On Wednesday they made a potato dish that had bacon and gouda cheese in it that went well with our pork chops. That was really good, the gouda cheese added a nice and different flavor. I forgot to take a picture of that one though.

Thursday was our shopping day, I took all the kids to the outlets. I don't know what I was thinking since they about drove me crazy while we were there. Kristin and Megan bickered with each other, neither one of them liking to shop (they don't take after me!) and Zach was in a screaming/screeching mood most of the time. Of course he would do it with a smile on his face just to be annoying. Then there was Lauren, she was okay most of the time...unless I didn't get something she wanted. I really think that she thinks we have an unlimited amount of money. I did manage to get myself a few things for once so now I have a few new things to wear this summer.

For lunch we ate at Burger King. Here's a cell phone picture of Zach eating his kids meal.

I'm so glad I chose to go shopping on Thursday instead of Friday because Zach got sick on Friday. Here's the poor boy at the doctor's office.

He had a nasty ear infection and nasty tonsils so now he's on an antibiotic and has to go back in 10 days for a recheck. He's probably headed for tubes again, maybe they could take his tonsils out at the same time! Last summer his doctor said he would probably have to have them out but he had to wait till he was a little older. Lauren had hers out when she was 3, he'll be 3 this summer so I'm hopeful that there's an end in sight for his tonsil problems. Not that I want to see him have surgery but it sure helped Lauren a lot.

This morning Megan was playing with her fort and made a "roller coaster". The orange bar came down as a lap restraint, here's Zach going for a ride.

What a delicious breakfast we had today. Paul made the sausage, I made the waffles and Kristin made her famous omelets again. Mmmm!

I've got to end this by letting you know that Kristin got a new pet, a snake! It creeps me out and I make her keep it in her room.

It's one of those eggs that you put in water and a "snake" hatches, she got it in her Easter basket. It really did freak me out the other day when I peaked in the cup and saw this snake head right there. I didn't realize the thing would get so big! Megan hatched a chick and Zachary is in the process of hatching a dinosaur. Can't remember if Lauren got one or not, hopefully she doesn't have a snake too. I can see them trying to trick me around the house with that thing!

Well that was about the extent of the kids spring break time. Very boring I know! I'm just glad they go back to school on Monday. :)

Easter

Our Easter Bunny likes to come to our house and have a little fun. He hides clues all over the house and has the kids go from clue to clue to find eggs. Eventually the clues lead them to their hidden Easter baskets. The kids know not to go downstairs when they wake up, they have to wait for everyone to get up first. The Easter Bunny tapes a note on the front door and that's also where the first clue is. Some of the clues this year led the kids to the freezer, to Kristin's candy machine, Zach's dresser, outside on the deck...
The last clue before finding their Easter baskets was hidden in the dining room. Along with each clue were 4 eggs with a treat inside. The eggs in the dining room just so happened to be golden in color so the Easter Bunny hid them on the chandelier. Lauren eventually found them after much prompting. Can you see them up there?

The kids found their baskets hidden in our bathroom. I think the Easter Bunny is beginning to have a hard time finding new places to hide the baskets! So here's the crew with their baskets plus their bag of eggs.

Now the fun begins. Kristin had a jelly bean pooping chicken in her basket. Plus potty putty. Yep, I know, sounds strange but that is so Kristin.

I didn't post pictures but they all got a Wii game and a DVD. Zachary got a bunch of Cars things and a stuffed Tigger. Lauren's DVD was Twilight, she'd been wanting that. Megan got Bendaroos, something she'd been wanting since before Christmas. Even Paul and I got a small basket. Way to go Easter Bunny!

We barely had enough time to get ready for church. The Easter Bunny had way too many clues this year and it took longer than I thought. But we managed to get everyone dressed and here's the girls after church at my parents house.

Megan wore the dress that Grandmom and PopPop gave her for her birthday. I very luckily found the same dress for Kristin, there was only one left and it just happened to be her size. On Good Friday I took Lauren to the mall and literally within 30 minutes found the dress for her. So I really got lucky with them coordinating this year. It's so hard to do that the older they get. I just put Zach in a suit, he didn't necessarily coordinate but he's a boy so it didn't matter. Here's all of them at Grandmom and PopPop's house.

So we had a very busy day but it was a lot of fun. On a side note, at church I found out that I had won the jelly bean guess contest from the Easter egg hunt the day before. I had guessed 897 jelly beans and there were 895 in the jar. Wow! I never win anything so I was super excited. Here's what I won:

It's a big ceramic teapot with tulips inside, a yellow bunny and though it's not pictured there were lots of different chocolate candies surrounding it. Plus I got to keep the jelly beans. Not sure what I'm going to do with that teapot, it's cute, I guess eventually I'll plant something in it. If anyone needs a giant teacup in the meantime let me know, I've got one you can borrow!

Another egg hunt

This one was at our church today at 2:00. Even though this one took place inside because it was raining it was probably the best one out of all of them. There were 2 crafts and a game the kids were kept busy with. Plus there was face painting and a visit from the Easter Bunny, not to mention the egg hunts. For the egg hunts they had placed a tarp in the nursery and then covered it with hay and on top of the hay laid a ton of colorful eggs. The kids were in egg heaven with each of them easily filling their baskets to overflowing. Now that's an egg hunt!

Here's one of the crafts. They made a little basket by using a cup and pipe cleaner then filled it with colorful grass and placed a peep on top.

Here's Zach getting his bunny face painted on.

Zach during the egg hunt. He eventually got tired of putting his eggs in the basket and started opening them right there. There were more than enough to go around.

Finally a picture of all the kids posing with the Easter Bunny.

Friday night fun

Since Easter will be here soon I figured we'd better dye our eggs tonight. So after dinner Paul set up all the different colored dye and we let the kids decorate their eggs.

I had hard boiled 31 eggs so we each had 5 to decorate. I think I ended up decorating 2 of mine because Zach just wanted to keep going and going and going. I finally had to draw the line, the girls were taking their time and he just made his eggs one color so his didn't take as long. He didn't want to see them doing something when he wasn't. I'm really surprised that nothing got spilled, even Zach was careful!

So now we have a whole bunch of colorful eggs. Here's one that Paul made, he was very proud of it!

We no sooner get done decorating them when Megan and Kristin are both asking when they could eat them. Can we just enjoy them for a day or two? I hardly ever hard boil eggs (except at Easter) so I guess they got a little excited.

More Weekend Activities

Williamsburg
Last week Lauren went to Williamsburg for 3 days/2 nights with her school. I kept meaning to ask her if she took any other pictures with her cell phone before posting this but oh well. I know she didn't take a camera with her and they weren't supposed to use their cell phones on the tours. Here's the one picture she sent me while she was there:
This was taken in the hotel room on their first night there. They dressed up and went to a nice dinner then were taken to a dance where they learned how they danced in Colonial times.

On the way to Williamsburg they had to go over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I got lots of text messages as she was going over it, she didn't like it! I heard from her a lot on the first day, a little on the second day, and hardly at all on the third day. They did have a really busy schedule with lots of tours. Hopefully she learned something.

Our Saturday Night Fun
First Paul goes out and buys some wine for us, our wine rack was looking a little skimpy. While at the store he taste tested one particular bottle that was a little higher priced then what he normally would spend but he decided to get it anyway. So with a nice bottle of wine in the house I went out and got us some filet mignon for him to grill and we had a nice dinner at home. But the night gets better...

Megan was planning to do a fashion show that evening and was selling tickets. Paul splurged and got him and I the "good" seats for 50 cents each. The good seats were the recliners in the family room. For 25 cents we could have sat in one of the kitchen chairs! Lauren wasn't home yet (she was in Dover for the Science Olympiad), Kristin was the announcer and Zach was free. See what a couple of 40-year-olds with 4 kids do on a Saturday night? We had a fabulous dinner and had the best seats in the house at the fashion show. Doesn't get much better than that right? :)

Of course Megan had a ball doing it too. Here she is strutting her stuff:

How could a fashion show end without a little surprise? These are the pictures I'm going to keep and show to his wife and kids someday!

2nd Soccer Game of the Season

Lauren had another away game yesterday, this one was all the way down by the beach, a little over 2 hours away. Her team totally dominated and ended up winning 3-0. They should have won by a lot more, they had tons of scoring chances. Here's Lauren fighting for the ball:

Two games down, four to go. I can't believe how well the her team is playing this spring. They're talking to each other, passing the ball and just working really well together as a team. Huge difference from the fall season! Hope they keep this up.

Lots of egg hunts!

We went two egg hunts today.

The first was at a local church where Kristin and Megan went to preschool, the same church that playzone is located in. That one was from 12:00 - 2:00 and they had crafts, a puppet show, lunch and then finally the egg hunt. Here's Kristin helping Zach make a craft:
And here's Zach outside during the egg hunt. He loved it. Lots and lots of kid his age there.

Megan and Kristin were both in different age groups so they started on their own and when Zach was done I met up with them while Paul emptied all of Zach's eggs. Megan's group had a fair amount of kids but Kristin's group only had about 6. Lucky for her, she could get more eggs! She really did get lucky by finding a prize egg, second place.

Her second place prize was a bag with a huge thing of Nerds in it and a $10 gift card to Border's. Wow! Perfect for her.

Our second egg hunt was the one in the neighborhood and that one was at 4:00. This time Megan and Kristin were together in a group and Zach was in the baby one (ages 2 and under). It was Megan's turn to win a prize this time. She had a golden ticket inside one of her eggs and didn't even know it until Paul pointed it out. She picked out this Spongebob basket for her prize, very appropriate for her.

It was nice that both girls won something. Zach just enjoyed putting the eggs in his basket and opening them up. He doesn't know any better yet!

Before leaving we had to get the kids pictures taken with the Easter Bunny.

Thankfully it was a nice day, a little windy, but at least it was sunny.

Rainy Day Fun

For some reason today Zach didn't want to play with any of his usual toys. It was a challenge for me keep coming up with something new to do. We first did a craft. I had found in the basement these little plastic butterfly and tulip cut outs. I first thought about gluing them to paper but figured that would just be a mess plus frustrating to Zach, I'm sure they would all get stuck to his fingers. So instead I had him put them on the sticky side of contact paper. He actually seemed to enjoy this art project. When he was done I just put another piece of contact paper on top and then made a frame out of construction paper. It's now hanging on our door.
When that was done he was still antsy so we made a fort in the living room. I brought the kitchen chairs into the family room and grabbed a sheet and voila! Instant fort. I put a pillow under it hoping he would lay there and watch a little tv to give me a break but no that was not to be. His favorite thing was standing under it and pulling the sheet down. After the third time I put it back up I told him the next time it came down that was it. Ten seconds later it was down. That was it for the fort.

Oh, he did take a picture of me (well sort of) sitting by the fort. His first picture! What was I thinking? Now he's going to want to take pictures all the time.

Here's my little monster boy. What a demanding little thing he was today. We did end up having a lot of fun though. We also colored in a coloring book, he doesn't really like to color much, and bounced and kicked a ball back and forth, that he loved.

See how long his hair is in the above picture? I don't have a really good picture of his shaggy hair, especially the back, but it was getting long. I can't even remember when his last haircut was, now that's bad! When Paul called me to tell me he was leaving work and was going to stop to get his (that is Paul's) hair cut I asked him if I could meet him somewhere so he could get Zach's cut too. So I met Paul down the street from the barbershop and Zach finally got a good hair cut. I'll have to post pictures later, the ones I took of him came out kind of dark. Well he was sitting in front of a dark background when I took them and his hair just kind of blends in with it. He looks soooo much better! When Paul brought him home and Zach came running through the door I swear he looked older. My baby's growing up!

Our morning surprise

Or maybe I should say scare! The morning started out like any other school morning. Lauren went outside to wait for her bus while I stayed inside waiting for her bus. About a minute before the bus came Lauren came rushing in the door, slammed it shut and yelled that there was a weasel trying to get her. I was like "what?" Sure enough I open the door a crack and there's an animal sitting on the step staring at me. It totally freaked me out.

"Paul, minor emergency, a weasel looking thing is trying to get your daughter!" It seemed to take forever for him to get downstairs, in the meantime Lauren missed her bus, it came during all the initial confusion. The problem now was that my car was in the garage where this thing was that was chasing Lauren around. Lauren was not interested in seeing it again so she stayed inside. Paul first grabbed a baseball bat from the basement and guess what I grabbed? My camera. :) We (Paul first of course) went out the front door and around to the garage and yep, there it was. Though I'm not that familiar with them it looked to me to be a ferret.

My car was the farthest away from it so as the ferret was checking out the kids toys along the wall I made a mad dash to get in my car. After backing it out of the garage and driving to the end of the driveway I motioned for Lauren to come out of the house. I drove her to school and when I came back Paul still hadn't gotten it out of the garage. He came up with the idea of trying to get it in the cat carrier that I have. The ferret seemed to like one of the soft bats that the kids have so Paul took that (by now he had switched a broom for the baseball bat) and lured the ferret into the carrier with it. With the help of the broom the ferret was caged!

Now what the heck to do with a caged ferret? The local vets were of no help and the SPCA didn't want it. They did give me the number to Ferret Rescue though. Wow, I never would have thought there was such a place. The woman who answered was so helpful and nice. What ended up happening was that I was put in touch with a woman that lives just a few miles from me. She was willing to come pick the ferret up at my house but since I had an errand to do that was taking me right by where she lived I offered to drop it off to her.

So Zach and I dropped off our new little friend. That woman just kept thanking me for bringing it to her. She took the ferret out of my carrier and said that she thought it was probably less than a year old and it had champagne coloring, apparently that's a good color for ferrets. With her holding it it did look cute, didn't look so cute this morning in the garage! If someone in the neighborhood posts that they lost a ferret I'll let them know where it is, the person at Ferret Rescue didn't think that would happen though. She said lots of people will get a ferret and when they realize how much work they are they conveniently "lose" them. So sad. At least it's at a good home right now.

So there you go, our exciting ferret story. Never a dull moment around this house!