Lawrence Hall

As I mentioned before, it has been raining A LOT! Our neighbor told us that this is the most rain the bay area has seen since 2005. With so much rain our plans of exploring are very limited. This particular Saturday, we decided to take Cache to the Lawrence Hall museum of Science, on the campus of UC Berkley. We have a pass, the kids like it, it's indoors, and Cache had never been there it worked out great.

The kids enjoy playing in the huge peg boards (or whatever they are called), you know those things made of millions of nails that mold your face, hand, feet, or whatever you choose to form. They think it is so funny to press their bodies into them. Eden keeps her mouth open...eww.

My favorite part are the Kapla blocks, they can be stacked so high. It's hard to tell, but the tower that Asher is standing next to is my creation and it was probably a head taller than me. Eden built one a a few feet taller than her and had to use a stool to reach the top. At the end we gave Ainsley the honor of tipping my tower over-It freaked her our and she started crying.

On Saturday's in the basement they have experiment labs and the kids learned to make an automaton. We had to figure out the "gears" and posts to make our snake on top dance. Ours ended up spinning and moving up and down. So much learning and so much fun!

Here are some funny pictures:

At least they are funny to me because when Eden was born I was so into her looking perfect all of the time. I look at Ainsley in these and think I would have never left the house with Eden wearing this outfit. Eden sometimes dresses Ainsley and most of the time she does a pretty good job, but this time her choice just didn't jive. Polka dots, argyle, twinkle toes, and flowers. We called her Punky Brewster all day. And guess what? she wore it the whole day, in public, and I let her.

Sunday #6/sick baby

The other 2 kids didn't make it in this weeks Sunday picture, I think they were in their rooms because Cache and I had had enough of them. Unfortunately I was really mature and told them I was sick of them and needed them to go away for a little bit, igh I felt like mud afterwards. How awful to hear that from your mom. Live and learn. I blame it on the excessive amounts of rain we have had lately, so much that after a few steps outside you are drenched. I was worried our house would slide off the hill. It didn't, and today the sun is shining and it's a brand new day.

Ainsley woke up from her nap with a high fever and she was very lethargic. So sad, but REALLY?? We haven't been sick all winter and then 3 days before we are supposed to go on a vacation Ainsley gets sick. Double igh. Lots of vitamins, fluid, sleep and anti-bacterial wash for us.

Great website.

I want to share this website. We are loving it. I want to start a scripture journal now. Cache and I have started to used some the scripture study ideas. Even Eden is using some of the advice she gives on studying the scriptures. The Redheaded hostess. <---click

Sunday #5

I finally got a picture of the kids before we left for church!

I snapped it quick because Cache was yelling that we were going to be late, which resulted in weird exposures and out of focus.

Oh well.

YEAH! for Sunday Pictures.

newt+St. Patty's day

We love discovering new creatures around our yard. We found this little guy crawling into our garage. Eden wanted to put him him in Miss. trunchbulls water (from Matlida).

We stuck him in a jar for a while and then let him go after reading that newts are very poisonous and can kill any predator including a human (but only if ingested).

St. Patricks Day: I woke up the morning of the 17th to Asher's footsteps running down the stairs in hopes of finding a leprechaun in his trap that he had made at preschool. At that moment, after coming out of my grogginess, my stomach sunk because I had realized the leprechaun had forgot to come. I quickly met a disappointed Asher in the kitchen and convinced him that the leprechaun was trying to fool him into thinking he hadn't come and was hiding for the right time to pull his pranks. I told him he better go back up to bed and listen closely for anything out of the ordinary. The leprechaun then proceeded to drop gold Rolo candies around the house, tip over the chairs, and fall into the trap. Luckily he was able to use his leprechaun cane and puncture a hole through the trap and escape without having to grant any wishes. Although, Cache and I heard the commotion of his escape and made a ruckus trying to catch him so he would have to grant Asher's wish of being an Avatar. Our ruckus brought Asher back down the stairs in a hurry, but he had just missed the leprechaun escaping through the front door. He was very disappointed. The ruckus also woke up Eden who started to get teary eyed because we had started the festivities without her. She cheered up after she collected a few gold pieces. And Asher talked about ALMOST catching a leprechaun the entire day. proof is here.

evidence of a failed Leprechaun trap

That evening we enjoyed our traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. Actually, Cache and Nahil (a woman I visit teach) enjoyed it because I had the WORST migraine and had to leave the table and take a hot shower and lay in a dark room. The kids didn't enjoy it because they simply just didn't like it.

A new addition to our meal was a delicious glaze:

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup spicy mustard

2 TBL. vinegar

Heat in a sauce pan until sugar dissolves. pour over corned beef and vegetables.

If you make corned beef you have to try this glaze, it is so good and added so much to the meal. I did try it the next day and loved it.

12x12 March

We all knew it would happen.....I forgot to document my 12th this month. I remembered the night of the 11th, I was excited. I woke up on the 12th and didn't think about it until 9pm that night. So this month I am excited to announce a special edition of 12x12 called the 12x14!

1. I love when Ainsley stands on her Tiptoes. It reminds me of her older sister who walked on her toesies as a baby and still does as a 9 year old.

2. my meals have become a ritual (at least bfast and lunch). I feed the kids first so I can sit down with a book and slowly enjoy my food and my reading.

3. When it is time to leave our little slice of heaven I will miss many many things. Safeway is NOT one of them. I miss my Wal-mart neighborhood market.

4. Lunch making for Eden.

5. Asher's first "egg in a basket" breakfast. He ate the bread around the egg and left the actual egg. I won't make that again.

6. I just started visiting a sweet older woman from Lebanon. I took her to Costco with me and she gave me some yummy meyer lemons. Any suggestions on what to do with them?

7. Ainsley conducting FHE.

8. Asher LOVES Ainsley (for the time being). The other day he said "things are just so much funner when Ainsley is around". ahhh sweet!

9. "shhhh" time for lesson.

10. Lesson taught by Cache about making our burdens lighter.

11. Biscoff spread=Heaven. My niece who just moved in with my parents from Germany introduced us to a spread call speculoos (sp?), mmm so delicious, but I haven't been able to find it here in the U.S.A. Until she (and my mom and sister) came to visit me a few weeks ago and we were at Fisherman's wharf and there was an entire store dedicated to the biscoff cookies. They had this spread, I wanted to know if it was the same stuff. So we bought a jar and asked for spoons and dug in. It was the exact same stuff!! So good!! If you see it buy it and eat it, you can thank me later.

12.My first birchbox came!! it's so fun to get great mail.

Funny Story

We have a story that Cache and I like to giggle about. We told it to the kids a few weeks ago for FHE. It's a story about me being cranky (no surprise). It goes like this................

3 or 4 years ago, in October, our doorbell rang at about 9:00 PM. I went to the door irritated that the doorbell might wake-up our 4 year old and infant. When I opened the door, no one was there. I grew more frustrated and knew it must have been one of Cache's 11 year old scouts out playing a fun game of "doorbell ditch". A minute or two later it happened again, now I was getting really angry. Again, the doorbell rang for the third time, I ran to the door and indeed found one of the scouts stooping by our front door. The cranky mom surfaced in myself and I began to lash out at the scout. "Jacob!! Why are you doorbell ditching us?? You are going to be in soo much trouble if you wake up my kids!! What are you doing out this late on a school night?? I am going to call your mom!!" Jacob, at that point, had this look of fear in his eyes and quickly glanced down at our door step. My eyes followed his, and on the doorstep was a bucket full of Halloween treats and goodies for our family. I instantly began apologizing and Jacob quickly ran down the drive-way just in time to be picked up by his mom driving down the street. Poor Jacob!! I was so embarrassed, I had just yelled at one of the sweetest boys in the neighborhood and all he was doing was trying to do something nice.

After the story, we told the kids they each needed to pick someone who they wanted to "ding dong ditch". I found these cute printables and we made up these boxes and we were on our way. They had a lot of fun and luckily they didn't run into any cranky moms.

**If we do this again I think I will wrap the boxes in brown paper, ding dong boxes are so UGLY!**