Paisley in Peoria

My sister Paisley is getting ready to leave on a mission. We all adore her and were ecstatic that she flew down for a quick visit this week. She was here for just two days, but we managed to do a lot! We went shopping together and ended up buying the same shirt.

She really wanted to help me paint my kitchen and I wasn't about to refuse great help, so now the dull white wall is a very warm yellow. All it needs is some colorful red curtains so we went on a fabric hunt, but found nothing... at least no promising curtain fabric.
We visited The Science Center. The little plaza outside the center is quaint and historical.

Paisley held Bubba and played with Curly and Lou and we discussed who much they will grow while she is serving her mission. She will grow too, just no in the same way.
Remember what I said about finding no curtain fabric, well we did find a cute floral print and decided we should make skirts. They were quick and fun and very full! So we had a good laugh in our matching "German Milkmaid Skirts."

Firsts

Over the past few months, our family has experienced many firsts. As mentioned in the previous post, Fisher now has his first official workbench. Look how nicely those tools are organized - it's kind of like a piece of art.

I am now an official minivan mom. Meet our Sienna. I still have mixed feelings about this - we were squashed into our car before and it is very nice to have lots of space and plenty of room to pick up friends for preschool or the park... but the first time I filled the gas tank, I almost cried.
Bubba has been experiencing all sorts of first from discovering her tiny toes to rolling over. She also tried her first solids this week and she is a fan!

I tried my first attempt at pressure canning. That pot looks a bit beastly and intimidating, but with some guidance from my friends and a rainy Saturday at home, we put out 21 quarts of various legumes.

We have successfully grown our first Artichoke. Isn't it beautiful. It was delicious too!

This spring we have had our first success at gardening with lots of sugar snap peas, lettuce, broccoli, and now the tomatoes and zucchini are coming on.

Oma and Grandpa

A few weeks ago Fisher's parents came for a weekend visit! It was our first official visit from both of them together and we were all very excited to spend time with them.

Fisher and his dad spent a lot of time in the garage setting up a workbench

area for Fisher. They created a nice lighted space to organize all of Fisher's tools - so now he has no excuse to be behind on the "Honey Do" list :)

We spend an afternoon at "The Science Center" and enjoyed dinner at a German Restaurant while the kids were at our babysitting coop. The German food was okay, but the company was great!

It was General Conference Weekend so we spent a lot of time cozy in the study in front of the computer. Oma was busily knitting and I was stitching a wall hanging for Bubba. Curly thought that looked fun and so I made her a little stitchery sampler and she did pretty well with it.

Oma found some cute princess theme Easter Eggs at the store and had an Egg hunt for the girls.

The princess eggs were pre-filled with Candy. The girls ended up with some atomic fire balls. Curly was brave and tried one...

When her tongue started to burn, she was desperate and tried to wipe it on the grass.

We had our own little heat wave that weekend and almost hit 100 degreees. We took advantage of the evening coolness and took a walk together on Sunday. Bubba was her cute little self the whole time. She is the sweetest, mellow baby. Thank goodness! I am having a hard time keeping up with her fireball sisters.

Curly and Lou had fun playing games and rough housing with Grandpa. They spend a lot of time preparing a show for us complete with programs that Curly wrote. They read "Thank you for coming. We hope you enjoyed the show." It was a ballet show.

Thank you for coming Oma and Grandpa! Please come again soon!

Roughin It

We know how to rough it! And this proves it. Fisher and the girls are enjoying the last night of spring break camped out in our tent... in our back yard. Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Could it get any better?

We have been blessed to have a plethora of visitors this winter - I guess that is the advantage of living somewhere with 70 degree winters and constant sunshine. Right after my parents were here, Fisher's sister Ba and hubby Ry came to visit with their little girl LE. We were excited to host them on their first visit to Arizona. Unfortunately we couldn't fit 8 people in our 5 seater car, so we didn't show them much of Phoenix AND it rained for the first time in months, but we did have a lot of fun enjoying the other few days of beautiful weather - park playing, bike rides, basking in the sun, and hiking. They took lots of great pictures that I can not find on my computer for some reason - so I will post them when I get new copies. I remembered to take a few pictures.

Cousin LE "playing" with Bubba

Uncle Ry tying Lou up - not sure why but maybe we should try that more often...

We celebrated two Birthdays while they were here. Ry's birthday and mine! We made a fancy dinner for Ry's birthday and he and Ba went out for an afternoon bike ride. On my birthday - we tried to go hiking, but we were rained out. In the evening, Ba and Ry watched the girls while Fisher and I were at a fun and fancy gourmet dinner group with friends. We also had the traditional birthday treasure hunt (pictured below). We are grateful that Ba, Ry, and LE took the time and made the effort to come visit us!
Thanks you three!

That was several weeks ago and life has not slowed down to give me a minute to blog. I have had so many funny parenting moments that I wanted to post... but didn't and now have forgotten. Here are a few events that were camera worthy...

Curly and her friend apparently borrowed the camera and took portraits of their doll in various poses. I think its a little creepy.

Curly had a rodeo day at school. She and Lou re-enacted it and pretended to be cowgirls for the rest of the day.

I found a cool, but very beat up antique dresser at a yard sale - It was a fun family project to clean it up and repaint it. It now graces our front entry.

Lou continues to be a night owl. This particular evening she kept herself busy putting on layer after layer of clothing - including a swimsuit as an outer layer.

We celebrated Fisher's birthday with a special request dinner (Gypsy Chicken Schnitzel and Spaetzle), a birthday treasure hunt, and yummy lemon cake. I tried to surprise him with a new baseball cap to replace his ragged Boston Redsox cap. I was so sneaky to measure his old cap and match to a size for the new one - and it still didn't fit :(

Curly's kindergarten hosted "Donuts with Dad." Curly was so excited to have Fisher come to school. They enjoyed tin can stilts, tie decorating, football passing, and of course donuts.