Time with Mum

Mum's stay with us wasn't quite as eventful as she has become used to. We spent a lot of time cleaning the house together and running errands. She was able to gain a whole new appreciation for how much laundry I always seem to have too! I did make sure that she went out and did some walking when the weather was good too, since dad had bought himself a new bike and was becoming a work out fiend and I didn't want her to get left behind. We were actually surprised to hear about how hard a time dad seemed to be having without her. The man has never washed any of his own clothes or ironed a shirt in his life and it didn't look like that was going to change. When Hayley found him down to his last underwear she washed him some things and did his ironing for him. We're still not sure if he was just being lazy or if he was a little love sick!

Grandma helped out her grandchildren by supporting them at the lemonade stand. Olivia decided that since she doesn't like lemonade she would sell apple juice instead.

The boys actually did pretty well and made a bit of money by the end of the week.

We were also able to go to Thomas' baseball game

Waiting for some action

Thomas and Ryan

Dawson, Jordan, Thomas, and Ryan

Since we had been spending a lot of time around the house and mum usually likes to get out and see things we thought that we would drive up to the tulip festival on Friday afternoon. Thomas got to come home a little early and we headed out. It was a beautiful afternoon even if the wind was a little breezy. The fields at Tulip Town were first on our to do list. 

Tulip Town

The fields were beautiful, but there were still a lot of unopened

tulips for so late in the season because it's been so cold.

The kids loved climbing among the flowers

Olivia wanted her picture taken with every color

Brothers

Mum was in tulip heaven. She loves to garden.

After our walk in the fields we drove over to Roozengard since they have the best displays of planted tulips. 

Olivia pulled off a nice kung fu stance

next to the "Kung Fu" tulips

Mum said that she wants her garden to look

like this next year (take a look dad and get planting!)

Mum managed to photograph the crew

Two of the kids wanted to pretend that

they weren't there

After enjoying a few yummy elephant ears and ice creams on the lawn we finally headed out, stopping on the way back for dinner. We were all pretty tired when we got home after a long drive, but it was nice to get out.

We enjoyed the annual easter egg hunt over at the high school again this year and breaking all tradition the weather was actually warm and sunny. Mum thought that it was fun to see the kids out there racing for some goodies.

Waiting for the hunt to begin

The bucket heads were all ready to go

Spense and Zach putting together a plan of attack

He needed a little coaxing to actually pick up the

eggs, but he finally got the hang of it

Then it was Olivia's turn

Parents weren't supposed to go out on the field with the older kids,
but Spense kind of ignored that since Olivia would never have
run out there by herself.

She was pretty happy with her stash

And finally after waiting patiently it was

Thomas' age groups turn

The pickings are a little slimmer since

the competition is a little faster

It was a beautiful afternoon. We didn't have too much planned and ended up just spending it out on the garden. While Spenser cut the grass, mum dug the back garden for me and made it look nice and pretty again. She commented on how she had been the better choice to bring back since Hayley would never have helped me out like that! We then spent a little time at the mall and Target getting a few last minute Easter things. This year is definitely a little lighter than previous Easter's since I had planned on having a little more time after getting back from our England trip than I actually got.

The kids were all pretty nasty when it came to getting up for church on Easter Sunday. I'm not sure if they were overtired or what it was. Spenser was gone at an early meeting which made it a little more challenging. Those couple of tears I shed finally helped to get everyone going I think and we finally made it although we were a little bit late. Sadly, there were no photos of everyone together in their Easter outfits since I was just concentrating on getting everyone into the car.

After church we put together easter baskets and hid the eggs. Rain was falling as usual so we got to have it inside. It had been my plan to do this the day before so that we could be a little more 'spiritual' today, but since I didn't get candy until late last night that didn't work out as I would have liked.

Olivia checking out her basket

Zach managed to spill his nerds right off the bat,

but he was pretty good about picking them all up.

And she is off!

Thomas was pretty well loaded

I know I'll be finding eggs in hard to reach

places like this for a little while

The Easter bunny even put in an appearance!

The kids were pretty happy with their findings

I found Zach off in his room alone with his candy!

After watching a short Easter message from President Monson and talking a little about the atonement and resurrection we skyped with Grandpa, Josh and Hayley. It was good to see them and hear about all of their going ons. It was also good to see that dad was neatly dressed (thanks to Hayley and not his efforts with an iron). It was also good for mum to see how annoying it is when they keep going offline because their internet is pretty rubbish. Now she knows that I'm not just making it up.

We then spent some time on dinner and mum got to enjoy her very first American Easter dinner complete with ham. It was the chocolate pie though that would definitely keep her coming back for more!

It was a lot of the same again this week. Mum helped me with my household chores and we also threw a couple of lunch dates in there for a bit of variety. She also got to go to Olivia's first soccer practice, which I stayed home with the boys for because it was raining. She came home with a glowing report of Olivia's efforts. It sounded like there had been a little too much complaining about a lack of goal scoring so we had to have a talk about being a little more aggressive. 

Mum left us yesterday afternoon. We spent the morning together watching the Royal Wedding. We loved the hats and the outfits, the great British traditions, and we even ended up shedding a few patriotic tears, especially during the singing of Jerusalem. It was a lovely event and something that I think we all needed to have a brief break from all the sadness in the world. I thought that it would be best to DVR the event since I didn't think that we were going to really be crazy enough to get up at 3 a.m even though we had said that we might.

How wonderfully Royal she looked in that dress

"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life." 

                                                                    - Cecil Rhodes (founder of De Beers)

Thomas and Olivia drove up with her and Spense to the airport since they headed out to the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Center straight from the airport. I sure was sad to see her go. She has been such a great help and I got kind of used to having her around. We haven't spent this much time together (if you include the time in England too) since the summer I went home before I got married, and I am pleased to report that the only fighting was between Zach and Grandma! Thank you so much for coming mum and thank you dad for letting her come and managing to almost survive by yourself. You didn't do as well alone as we might have hoped. Luckily, Hayley stepped it up with the ironing and laundry and Grandma Ivy was there to help out with your nutritional needs (she gave him one of her freezer meals because she was worried that he wasn't eating enough!)