Mehdi Arrives!

Sunday night, Connie's other sister and brother-in-law cooked duck, garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans for dinner. It was delicious and rich. The kids went crazy playing outside in the big backyard. Here's sweet baby Layla in the arms of her favorite person, mama. But don't let that sweet face fool you. She screamed her head off any time anyone else tried to hold her. Connie stopped trying to get pictures of her smiling while she was in someone else's arms and just started taking shots of her screaming with smiling relatives and friends!



Cousin Abigail seems to have the most luck holding Layla for any length of time.



And later that night, Mehdi arrived...at about 3 AM his time after going through immigration in Minneapolis. Luckily Layla seemed alright with papa holding her too. Phew! And she had cousin Maddie's hair to play with.


We flew back to SA the next day. Lucas was so good on the plane - really all weekend! I was very impressed with my little traveling companion. Home sweet home! Then I saw the van. Mark had been rear-ended with Jacob in the car on Saturday between birthday parties. Everyone is OK - even the van - but there is a big dent in the rear door. He was stopped at a red light and the lady who hit him had the gall to ask Mark why he backed into her!! Police were called, report filed ... more to come but hopefully, not too much drama.

Sarah had stayed home from school that day complaining of a tummy ache. She really was sick last week so Mark wasn't sure. He thought she had miraculously recovered by about 8:15 am. Then this morning, Ethan woke up with diarrhea! On the bright side, it was nice to be "forced" to spend the day at home after being gone all weekend. He too, got better through the day and hopefully everyone will be off and running tomorrow!

Off to Huskerland

Lucas and I are heading to Omaha/Lincoln for a long weekend to see Connie, Alex, Layla and eventually, Mehdi! Couldn't be more excited! Leaving Mark with the older three kids but a jam-packed Saturday. A Kids In The Kitchen event (hopefully Sarah will benefit greatly from this) and two overlapping birthday parties. I think there's a Spurs game tonight too. But I know he can handle it. Besides, he's already mowed the lawn.

PTA Election

Phew, it's over. I ran unopposed for 1st Vice President and won, thanks to Charisse and her very loud cheers! Lol! We have big plans for next year and I'm excited to get started on planning. So I guess it's really not over...it's just getting started! Shout out to Monica who is designing a special PTA logo for us to use to eliminate some of the confusion when it comes to who is sponsoring an event - the school or the PTA. We're going to start a Healthy Lifestyles committee and already have someone interested in chairing it! Hooray! We're going to implement some travel guidelines and renew our focus on parental education. But first, we'll have to finish this year. Decorate the showcase a couple more times, update procedure manuals, get thru the choir concert and last meeting. I'm thankful we bought this house so many years ago, not realizing we would get to become a part of such a great school.

Easter Egg-stravaganza Part II

Here's the helicopter dropping thousands of eggs. It made three passes over the field and then went somewhere to re-load. Then it came back and did three more passes before the kids could collect the eggs.






It was a long wait for a collection that took about 4.5 seconds but overall there were 20,000 eggs so there were plenty to go around.

Easter Egg-stravanganza!

On Saturday a local church sponsored an easter egg hunt and carnival for kids 2-11. There were long lines and lots of eggs and the coolest part was the helicopter egg drop! We spent all morning there and got our first sunburns of the year.

Never send a man...

Lucas can climb out of his crib so it's time to get him a bigger bed. Ethan still sleeps in a toddler bed and it's time to get him a bigger bed too. Jacob has a queen-size bed that was Mark's from ages ago with a broken footboard and since Jacob and Ethan share a room, we want their beds to be similar. So basically all the boys need new beds. And since Mark used to sell furniture, he knows what he likes.

So Mark and Sarah go out to look for beds and come home with this.



Which I have to say, was also much needed. Sarah's little bike had the seat raised so high she looked like she was riding a unicycle. Now she looks like a big girl on a big bike. : (

Just like my little boys will probably look much bigger when they get big boy beds. Some other day.

More of Ethan's birthday

These were from Thursday night at home ... after a rousing dinner at Applebee's for ... you guessed it ... macaroni. Of all the places, my kids think Applebee's is the bomb. Ethan wanted white cupcakes with chocolate frosting so that's what we got for his "cake."



And that's what Lucas used to make his chocolate mustache. CHOCO-WHAT?

Ethan is 5 today!

No foolin'. He really is. Seems impossible, considering he wasn't even born when we moved here and that means we've been here more than five years! Actually 6+!

Ethan is a sweet boy. His latest thing is to come up to us and tell us he forgot to give us something and then give us huge hugs. He always gives compliments and wants to help. He idolizes big brother and dotes on little brother. He plays well and fights most with Sarah - but maybe because they are the closest in age.

Here's some pics of our birthday boy through the years. (So many more ... curse you, temperamental scanner!)