Adam is 15!!

First I am going to say that I am not sure how I got to this point. My oldest child is 15. I was 15 like 3 years ago, wasn't I? All he wanted for his birthday was a new I-Pod, done. 

We also let him have a party considering this is the last birthday that he will be having in Utah. Oh have I not mentioned that yet? I will save that for another post. He had his buddies come over for air soft wars and lunch. They are an interesting crew but they had a great time. Here are a few of the pictures.

 here they are getting ready to kill Plank Face. He survived the day, but "disposed of" a few weeks later.

Haley's Project

Haley had to read a book and do a movie poster project in class. She choose Kingdom Keepers (thanks to Katie for the book suggestion!). She liked the book so much that she went on and read a couple more in the series immediately after she was done with this one.

She did a good job considering we waited until the night before it was due to make the poster. It was a wonderful mom moment when I was yelling at her to hurry up but to "make it neat". She got an "A" of course. She is a great student. If only her mother wasn't such a procrastinator.

My Baby Turned 4!

My littlest baby turned 4 on April 1! He celebrated with a spoonful of peanut butter and enjoyed himself by having a nap.

We are so lucky to have this little guy as part of our family!

Easter!

Our last hallway picture of the kids waiting to get their goods! I promised the kids no more pictures in this hallway after this Easter. Adam and Jason are too big (or they say). I love these kids, even though they are party poopers.

The bunny brought very few items but what he brought was good. Money, a little candy, The Hobbit, and a Settlers of Catan expansion pack. Everyone was very happy.

Family Easter Egg Hunt

This year we decided as a Balmanno family to do our family Easter celebration on Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday due to differing church times. At noon everyone came over for an egg hunt and lunch. The kids got right to it and had a good time. We all brought eggs so there was a variety of fillings; candy, toys, money, and prizes.

Adam found 2 out of 3 prize eggs so he threw one into the grass and Haley snatched it up. Adam took the candy basket and didn't let me take his picture. Haley chose the garden basket with gloves, tools, and seeds to plant a flower and vegetable garden (we put this basket together thinking of Michael my nephew who was unable to attend due to trouble during a wild night of fun the night before):

Abi found the other prize egg and she chose the "girly" basket with nail polish, hair bands, bobby pins, and other Easter stuff:

We had sandwiches, chips, fruit and vegetables for lunch and then the men played corn hole for a couple of hours while the kids ran around and the woman sat in the sun.

Spring Break Trip

During the week of Spring break we decided to throw the kids in the car and drive somewhere they have never been. We didn't tell them where we were going, just that we were headed north. We ended up in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. We were just going for the night so Lewis called and got a couple of rooms in one of the nicer hotels. When we got there we went straight to the springs.

The water was H.O.T. Wow. Two of the pools were untouchable. Everyone had a good time. There was no stinky smell or dirty feel. After a while we got out and walked to dinner. The whole town is 3 blocks so walking was easy. We ate pizza and then went to the grocery store for nighttime snacks.

We decided to go back and sit in the springs again for a while once it was dark and cold. The Springs are much more comfortable at night. After our swim we walked back to the hotel and settled in for the night. The boys played Catan and the girls watched a movie on Disney.

The next morning as we were leaving I realized the wallpaper in our ghetto fabulous 1980 hotel room was the exact same paper as my parents have in their front room. I needed proof so here is Abi with the wallpaper:

Here is a close up of the hotel paper:

Nothing personal but I have been saying for 12 years that my parents need to redo that front room wallpaper. Now I know it needs to be done...STAT!!!!!

Eggs

Luckily I still have little girls so we get to dye eggs. The boys are too old and too cool to do the fun holiday activities now so the girls and I get to do all of the fun stuff alone. This year we got stickers and made silly faced eggs. The girls had a good time and again, it kept us busy for an afternoon so no being bored or fighting!!

Mojito was very confused at the fuss and the egg smell. He kept hiding his nose under his paws and his blanket.

Cookie Decorating

Since Easter was early this year our Spring break was early too. The kids all got the week before Easter off for break. I tried to have some activities to keep us busy so that the fighting would keep to a minimum. I bought these cute cookies at Costco and the boys put frosting all over them and just ate them but the girls decided to take some time and make them cute.

It kept them busy and they got a treat. Success.

First Day of Spring

The Groundhog lied.

Happy first day of Spring! We didn't get a snow day (we never do in Utah) but it was very pretty. It all melted within 24 hours and we never even shoveled the driveway but we got 8 inches when it was all said and done. It was unwanted, but at least it was here and gone in a day.

Finally Fixed!

Do you remember my post about the mold last month? Well it is finally gone! New tiles were put in and a door to the shower to fix the problem permanently  The boys can shower downstairs again. this is making life so much easier for all of us! We need more than two showers in our house.