A Walk in the Park

 So many reasons to love Boise.  A spring walk in Ann Morrison Park is it's own kind of adventure.  We found lots of reasons to appreciate a walk in the park on this particular night.

Miss Laura'a Advantage Preschool Graduation

Ridge spent a year at Miss Laura's preschool and made amazing strides academically.  She took him from partial alphabet knowledge to reading in a year.  She was amazing and Ridge loved his year with Miss Laura and Amy (Larson, Holly's sister).  His graduation was at an assisted living facility so not only did the parents get to watch the cute graduation but the residents as well.  Congrats to our little graduate.

Spring Chicks

Chicks are so cute when they are little.

Mother's Day in Pictures

Katelyn's Soccer Banquet

These are pics from Katelyn's Spring YMCA soccer banquet.  The pic of Katelyn is how she looks when someone is talking about her.  I love that look.

Katelyn finding a few places to relax and read.

Silly Hair Day

This is what happens when two girls need something to do.

Father and Sons

 Russ and Ridge had a father and son campout in May.  Here are the details in Rusty's words from his journal....

I came home and packed up to go camping with Ridge on the father’s and son’s outing.  We didn’t go to the stake one.  We went by ourselves.  It was awesome.  That is how I want to do it forever.  We kissed Mandie and the girl’s bye.  Then we drove up to Idaho City and found an awesome camp spot just north of there in 10 mile creek camp ground.  It was off the road and all by itself. We set up camp and started a fire.  Then we cooked dinner and ate it.  It was very fun.  We threw a few rocks in the creek right beside our camp and went “exploring up a little trail”.  We went to bed.  It was so fun.  Ridge talked to me the whole time.  He was so excited. 

On Saturday we woke up at about 7 and ate some breakfast. Then we built a fire and snuggle for a little while.  When Ridge was ready we went exploring again.  We started up the mountain finding rocks and flowers. When we got about half way up we went straight sideways.  It was very fun.  When we couldn’t see camp anymore he started to get concerned about getting lost.  We came back to camp.  Then we hiked up the trail and explored some more.  We found some logs to use as balance beams and walk across the river.  Ridge would not let me hold his hand.  It was very cute.  He would say I know you need my help, but you just need to learn to balance better.  I would walk behind him with my hands right close to him so I could catch him if he would fall in.  We also saw some mice coming out of a pipe.  It was an awesome day.  We left when Ridge fell into the creek and got wet.  We had a change of clothes so he was happy.  Then we came home.  He fell sound asleep on the drive.  It was so cute.  

Daddy Daughter Dance

Our stake had a daddy daughter fifties night.  As soon as we got the invitation we went straight to finding a second date for the night.  I called my Dad and he committed right away.  I think he was pretty excited.  He always was a sucker for Daddy Daughter nights.  Next order of business...poodle skirts.  I found the easiest no sew pattern ever.  Those skirts are a straight up felt, scissors, and glue gun job.  They turned out so stinking cute.  Good job to me and my glue gun  The boys in their white shirts and rolled up pants are pretty darn cute too..  They had dinner, dance instruction, and a dance.  While they were off having fun Ridge and I went on a date of our own to sonic.  Good times all around.

Kittens

Mike found some abandoned kittens between a few concrete blankets that were warming concrete on a job.  He didn't know what to do with them so he brought them home.  Holly was feeding them every couple of hours with a dropper and the girls were helping.  Their house sounded like a squeak factory for awhile.  Just when they seemed to be strong and healthy they got sick and died one at a time.  Fun while it lasted but not a very fun ending.

Easter

 Dying, Rolling, and Juggling Easter Eggs.  Happy Easter!

April Fools Day

 I am running out of tricky menu ideas.  We had to get a little creative this year.  Taco Salads, cupcakes, and juice were on the menu.  The taco salads were made out of waffle cone taco bowls. The meat was chocolate ice cream.  The lettuce and cheese were dyed coconut and the olives were pieces of black licorice.  The cupcakes were a repeat menu item made of meat and dyed potatoes for frosting.  The juice was also a repeat but we mixed it up a bit by having the jello "juice" hardened in the pitcher rather than individual cups.  To me April Fools dinner is a lot of work.  Looking up ideas, adding more to my list of groceries, and then watching my kids eat dessert first and not want to eat any of the dinner food.  That being said, it is SOOO worth it.  There is nothing more hilarious than watching a little kid pull a trick on their Dad.  They totally love it. Rusty does a great job of hamming it up and the pictures are worth any extra time it took to fix the meal.

St. Patrick's Day

 The leprechauns visited once again and left the kids some yummy jelly bean rainbows with golden wrapped snickers at the end of the rainbow.  We also made a rainbow fruit pizza this year.  The pictures below show how a sweet moment can quickly change to a case of the teaser and the teased.  Can you guess which is which from the picture?