Running away to play

Spring break at our house is more like “spring cleaning”.  To say my kids aren’t fans would be the understatement of this century.  We spent all day Wednesday cleaning (Monday was St. Patty’s and Hoots, Tuesday was celebrating getting Frozen by watching it twice…then Wednesday we finally got around to cleaning for half a day…not bad in my book).  But, today we were invited to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends.  Spring cleaning had to wait another day!  I kidnapped the kids…didn’t tell them where we were going…and they were so excited it was to play with the S boys.
Zack hasn’t ever really been to Chuck E Cheese and he was in absolute HEAVEN!

Andrew would not risking putting his tickets and coins down to play skeeball with his right hand.  It wasn’t like Chuck E Cheese was busy…it was just my four kids and the S’s seven.  He would have been safe.

Ball+Zack=totally engrossment.  This game kept him busy for about 20 minutes.  He cried when Ben put the last ball in the pockets.  I gave him another coin and he was a happy camper again. 

This kid wins so many tickets!

Still busy….

New game that is totally awesome.

Zack finds another game to keep him busy.

How perfect is this picture?!?!

Crazy D!

While I was chatting with D we didn’t notice that little T had picked up a rice Krispy treat and was happily chomping away!  He was pretty upset when he was found out and it was taken away!

We ended up staying there for almost 4 hours.  We ran out of tokens after the first hour..but the kids just had a blast doing whatever they did.  D and I were busy chatting and as it got busier I think other parents took pity on these poor kids with no tokens.  I don’t know how else they came up with more tokens and tickets!
Andrew is my clever little guy.  After checking each game for tokens, then rechecking for left tickets, he decided to look under all the machines to see if any tokens or tickets had fallen under them.  He hit the jackpot when he found a printout for over 350 tickets!  I made him turn it into lost and found.  Thankfully the worker made a big deal about how honest he was and gave him the tickets.  Andrew was so excited, but wouldn’t cash them in until he had checked under all the other machines.  The other boys found out what had happened and I don’t think Chuck E Cheese has ever been left cleaner!
We had a blast running away from our messy house for a few hours.  It wore us out…so we had to watch frozen again.  I think next year I’ll plan spring cleaning a little different…and instead of tackling the whole house all at once (read destroy multiple rooms) I’ll go room by room.
So tomorrow’s forecast calls for Spring cleaning…minus me

Random

How adorable is this picture?

I love watching my boys play sports.  I normally don’t go and stay for soccer practice because I spend an hour chasing Zack who is chasing a ball and trying to kick it into any goal.  Super duper fun.  People always remark how amazing it is that a little guy like Zack and dribble a ball and score goals….at two.  Ben had a lot of fun showing him off to his teammates.

Sadly I was released as primary chorister last week.  It’s funny…I cried when I got the calling…and I’ve been crying all week because I’ve been released.  I was really sad they released me…I even asked if I did something wrong.  I was expecting to be in it for more than a short year.  It’s funny because the Sunday I got the call I was being released I made a comment to Chris how I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of this calling and it doesn’t terrify me anymore.  I should have stayed quiet.

I now get to work with the wolf cub scouts.  I’m excited and kind of shocked this is my first time in scouts.  With three boys, I thought it would happen sooner. 

I went to my first activity with the wolf den to a war memorial park to do service.  Andrew was so excited because he found his name on a plaque.

If Ericson was spelled with a “k” it would be Andrew’s name…down to the middle initial!  He was pretty excited about it.  Aren’t you looking forward to all my future scouting posts?!?!?

St. Patrick’s Day Adventures

I have the coolest mother in law.  She makes these awesome treasure hunts and fun activities for every holiday.  For St. Patrick’s Day we had a little tricky leprechaun names Liam come and send my kids on a wild treasure hunt for his pot of gold.  The kids were so excited (and the treasure hunt took twice as long as I thought it would…..Liam was super, super tricky this year!)  Liam left them some green doughnuts with gold candies to get the morning started!

Zack wasn’t a big fan of the treasure hunt.  To be honest I’m not sure he even knew one was going on.  He was too busy trying to figure out which of the four doughnuts was the best one.

The clue in our pantry took almost 15 minutes.  I wasn’t going to help at all.  they should have known it was on the LUCKY CHARMS!

But the good news is Zack found the perfect doughnut.

Finally!  The pot of GOLD!

Dividing the loot.

Zack is still too into his doughnut to care.

Our tricky leprechaun even put a clue on Andrew’s bum..WITHOUT HIM NOTICING!  It took the kids a few minutes to find where the next clue was.  It was seriously hilarious!  They were totally confused how this magic happened.

Part of their pot of gold was a little trip to Hoots with our friends.  As we were driving there Kallie (who always gets a little freaked out about leprechauns and elves) kept trying to convince the boys Liam came with us and was touching her hair.  She said someone was pulling her hair and their hands were cold.  Ben investigated and discovered it was Kallie’s own hand.  That got some fun laughs…that Kallie wasn’t a fan of.

Hoot was a blast!  We went two years ago, but Zack wasn’t really old enough to enjoy it.  He sure enjoyed it this time!

I took over a hundred pictures…and most were blurry because the kids never stopped moving!   Here are a few that are not super blurry.

Even the moms had fun!

These little divas.

My favorite picture of the day is a tie between these two….Addie crawling through the jungle gym with two of her kids….or Charlie going down this slide….she’s racing her son…who hasn’t gone down yet.  It was awesome!

After a fun filled day at Hoots we headed home.  Zack and I took a great nap while watching Cars…I’m not sure what the other kids did.  After we got up I figured it was probably a good idea to make dinner.  Zack, my ever ready assistant, was there to lick the bowl for me.  Very important job.

Our friend P stayed for dinner…and our tricky leprechaun Liam even got into our food and dyed the rice, rolls, and milk green. 

All in all I think we had a great St. Patty’s day….and a terrific start to our spring break!

Math Nerds

March 14th is kind of a big deal in our house.  It really didn’t start that way.  For the last two years we’ve had chicken pot pie with a Pi symbol on it for dinner and some sort of pie and called that good.  Benjamin decided since Pi day fell on a Friday we should have a party!  Well, I always think that’s a good idea, so I put the kids to WORK!

Andrew made the chicken pot pie (he is the best stirrer we have), Kallie made two Pi symbols and cut bananas and apple, and Ben did the other Pi symbols and cut tons of strawberries.  They were such happy little workers!  One thing I can say about homeschool is my kids cook A LOT….and enjoy it!

They were both not impressed by my latticed pie crust.  In fact we had to cut that one last because according to my kids “that’s not how we make it”.  They were also not thrilled by my Pi symbol and the lack of color…so I made them fix it.  And they did a great job!

This whipping cream is not your ordinary whipping cream.  This whipping cream is a sign of true friendship.  I couldn’t find my container of whipping cream so I texted my friend who was out and about and asked her to pick some up for me.  What I didn’t know was she was practically home and decided to run to the store (with her four kids in tow) and get some for me.  Well, it started raining….then hailing….and I’m pretty sure some snow fell too.  She didn’t go to one store….not two…but three to get this for me!  It took her over an HOUR! Did I mention she has a four month old?

The sad part is I found my whipping cream and had texted her not to worry about getting it.  BBBBUUUUUTTTTT she didn’t get that text.  She sent me a text after the second store asking how important it was and I responded again that I had found some and not to worry about it.  She got that text….as she pulled into my driveway with the whipping cream in hand.  I felt terrible!  So I couldn’t get mad when they were late because they were making rolls…that would have been started an hour before if they weren’t chasing my whipping cream!

For my brother…..here’s the pies……

We had to pull out the liquid nitrogen again.  It’s just too fun to play with.  We had the P’s over and they hadn’t played with it before.  We did the popcorn again and then stepped up the game with ice cream….made with power tools.  We are just too cool.

The kids enjoyed the fun tricks Chris does.  We did the balloon trick at least three times.

Even R got into it!

Zack showing me his lovely messy hands.  I can’t remember what he had all over them…but I love how he gets so upset when anything gets on his hands.  Oh and yes….he’s in a swimsuit…and no we didn’t go swimming that day.