Fun with Nana

Although my mom was only here for three days, we managed to pack them full of activities:

Monday

• visited Tater Knob Pottery
  
• lunch at Boone Tavern
• visited Berea Artisan Center
• played games
  

Tuesday

• shopping at Hamburg Pavillion
• lunch at Qdoba
• shopping at the "Star Mall" (Fayette Mall)
• dinner at Johnny Carinos
• shopping at Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Wednesday

• lunch at Thai Smile
• shopping at Hobby Lobby
• Rachael's ballet class
• dinner at home (believe it or not)
• shopping at TJ Maxx

Whew! What a lot of fun. I dropped my mom off at the airport this morning and we had a good time taking in all the hat boxes people were bringing with them on flights landing in Louisville. We sure packed her visit to the hilt, but we all had a great time. Now we all need serious naps.

We're looking forward to having Nana back again in July!

Nana is here!

Yesterday my mom flew in for what will be a quick visit. We're excited to have her here.

Rachael went with me to pick her up at the airport, and was positively bouncing the whole way there to go pick her up. When we finally saw her at the airport, Rachael ran 50 feet through a crowd of people to give her a hug. (And believe it or not, they were really all smiles. It's just that my camera took all day to take the picture.)

Today we went to Tater Knob Pottery in Berea and watched a couple of clay pieces get thrown. We also got Rachael her very own "pottery" of which she is enormously proud. You would think she made it herself.

We're looking forward to a big shopping day tomorrow and lots more fun before she has to leave on Thursday.

Service Project

Today we helped with our ward's service project, which was to help clean up an old cemetery. Some of the graves are from the Revolutionary War! Ryan was the project leader, so he spent the entire time there working hard. Rachael and I went to help; I had planned to leave Rachael with some youth that offered to watch the kids so the adults could work. Rachael developed a serious case of mommy-itis while we were there and would not leave my side - even for the Bishop, who is a friend of hers. After about 10 minutes of picking up sticks, she was ready to be done helping. So instead we designated ourselves the project photographers and took lots of pictures.

This is one of the headstones we uncovered. The birth date is 1761.

We spent the evening fishing at the lake... check Ryan's blog for who caught the biggest fish.

Flashback Friday

Spring is in full swing around here, as evidenced by all the flowers blooming. So for this Flashback Friday I am flashing back to a few of the flowers we had in Frederick. The irises were by the front porch; the tulips (which were 28" tall!) were in the back yard.

"Catching" Up

(This picture is actually from last week. We forgot the camera tonight.)

Ryan: 6 today! Including one in the dark.
Krissy: 3 today, 6 total
Rachael: 1 today, 2 total

Rachael caught hers on her last cast - again!

Pliers lost by Mommy: 2 pairs
Times she was forgiven by Daddy: 2 (but her luck can't possibly hold out any more!)

What we learn at Preschool

I took this video last week. Apparently they do some singing at preschool, because this isn't a song we learned in Primary. My favorite part is "... whether lellow, black and white..."

Ready... Set... Camp!

We had some lovely weather on Saturday, so we pulled out the trailer to see what it needed this year. (We do this every year - it always needs something). It's also a chance to take inventory of what is still there and what needs to be replaced, and do all the laundry.

Everything was in pretty good shape except the plumbing, which required a small washer to be replaced. After shopping in three different hardware stores, we finally found the $4 part and we are in business.

Rachael had a great time. She spent the first hour dancing around and saying "hee hee hee!" At the end of the day when we were packing down the trailer, she stood on a counter and danced the Hokey Pokey. Needless to say, she thinks the trailer is fabulous.

Can't wait to go camping this year!

Family Fishing

Tonight marks the first night of family fishing for this year. The weather was perfect - low 70's, not a cloud in the sky. Rachael even fished for quite a bit of the evening. Her last cast out into the water she caught her first fish on her pole, and even reeled it in all the way by herself.


Fish caught by Rachael: 1
Fish caught by Mommy: 3
Fish caught by Daddy: 0

Good thing Daddy taught us everything he knows about fishing. Now it's time for us to show him a thing or two...

Flashback Friday

Ryan is bringing sexy back... 1970's style!

Easter Weekend

We like to spread our Easter fun out over the weekend - baskets and egg hunt on Saturday, church and fancy dresses on Sunday.

This is Rachael's pink Easter basket - all things pink. A pink "chocolate" bunny, pink marshmallow bunnies, a pink egg with princess tattoos, pink princess pencils, and a pink duck. She was thrilled.

We did our egg hunt early on Saturday morning, because went on a ward temple trip the rest of the day. We invited Tyler, Clark, Benson, and Alex over to look for eggs. It was so fun!

We dipped our eggs on Saturday night. Rachael did a great job all by herself!

We had to decorate them on Sunday afternoon because they didn't dry before bedtime on Saturday. Rachael had a great time putting glitter, stickers, and 3D foam stickers all over her eggs.

We were invited to share Easter dinner with our friends the Tippets. It was really nice to spend the afternoon with friends! Niki even did a little Family Home Evening lesson on Easter. The kids had a great time.

Here's our pretty Easter princess! (This shot is Ryan's - I had to steal it off his camera. Great shot honey!)

The Kristin Show

I have always known that Kristin is a wonderful and amazing woman. That is why I married her. I think the other ward members discovered this during today's sacrament meeting. The meeting went something like this:

Opening Hymn - Kristin played the Organ
Sacrament Hymn - Kristin played the Organ
Primary Song - Kristin directed the children
Speaker - Kristin
Relief Society Musical Number - Kristin sang with them
2nd Speaker - Kristin watched Rachael while I spoke
Closing Hymn by the Choir - Kristin is in the choir

Thanks for all you do Babe!

Flashback Friday

Since Easter is this weekend, I remembered the little song Rachael made up last year. So cute!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Since we don't have Ryan's favorite, In N Out, here in Kentucky, we went for the next best thing: Red Robin. We got cheeseburgers and even a free sundae. (Without singing! The best way!)

Rachael helped blow out a candle on the banana pie. Poor Ryan - he didn't even get another cake like Rachael. Just the rest of the pie. Still good though.

Although it was a quiet celebration with just the three of us, and especially low key because most of our budget has been repurposed, I think he had a good time. Rachael gave him a new Star Wars toy that she picked out herself - what more could a Dad want?

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!


PS... there is a part III to this birthday, when Ryan takes an entire day to go fishing. Like a vacation day from work. We hope he catches a fish.

FHE

For Family Home Evening this week we played the Fishing Game. Easy enough - use the plastic poles to catch the fish, who randomly open and close their mouths. The best part of the evening though was watching Rachael give the fish some "encouragement" to open up!

Happy Birthday Ryan - Part I

We're into multi-part birthday celebrations around here.

Today was Part I of Ryan's birthday - the part where he cooks prime rib on the BBQ for dinner. I know it sounds awful to make him cook his own birthday dinner, but there's no way I could make prime rib the way he does. It was fabulous. In my own defense, I did make the twice baked potatoes.

And the pie! Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but this is seriously the best homemade pie crust I have ever made by myself. With from-scratch vanilla pudding, some bananas, and some Cool Whip (eeeek! some of us love real whipped cream; some love Cool Whip) it was a banana pie fit for our king.

Happy (early) Birthday Ryan.

Shadow Fun

What lovely weather we had today! 72 degrees and positively balmy. We spent some time outside enjoying the weather. Ryan showed Rachael how to make a bird with her hands... then Rachael figured out how to make her own shadow puppet. It's a crab!

Preschool Easter Party

Rachael's preschool had an Easter party today. (Next week is Spring Break, so they won't have preschool again until after Easter). They made a couple of Easter crafts and had an Easter egg hunt, then a pizza party (nothing says Easter like pizza, right?) and played some games. Rachael is eating pizza in her usual fashion: eat all the toppings and cheese off, then lick the sauce off with her finger, then sometimes eat the crust.

Here she is studiously carrying an egg in the Egg Drop Relay. She made it all the way across, but had the benefit of two hands.