We took Alvin and Theodore to spend a couple of nights at a friend's house, giving us some time to just be 'us'.  Yesterday (first day the little boys were away) Little Dude had a stellar day.  First he started learning his part in a recorder duet, we practiced the first line and he got it right away!  Timing, coming in at the right time, everything.  Then we went swimming and he went down the water slide all by himself, several times.  "Mom, I am SO excited for myself!" he told me.  When it was time to go he suddenly decided he wanted to try the diving board.  To do so he has to swim the length of the lap pool by himself and then the life guards will allow him in the deep end with the diving boards.  So he hopped into the pool and swam while the life guard walked beside him.  He made it and then tried the diving board.  He got all the way to the end of the board.  Several times.  I have to admit that my sides were shaking with laughter as he tried to get onto the board without it bouncing a little.  In the end he decided to actually jump another day, but wow...what a day!

Today we are off to the temple - it's been awhile - and hopefully doing some mundane things like PICKING UP A COUCH!  Why am I so excited do you ask?  I thought my dream of a cushion-less couch for the living room was at best delayed when we found out that the hyundai wasn't worth fixing and selling.  :(  We sold it for scrap...but that didn't get us nearly as much as we were hoping to sell it for.  And then I remembered kijiji (a place I had been avoiding in order to keep myself from spending money) and found a couch that is exactly what we're looking for and for just under what we received for the hyundai.  Yippee!!

Homeschooling

Two weeks ago Big E built a wall.  And it has been LOVELY.  He created a room in the basement so that the kids could go downstairs to play, but all the chemicals, storage, and tools were locked away behind the wall.  Yippee!  First picture is what used to be our dining room...and you can see I haven't gotten around to tidying and putting things in their place.  But it is now the school room.

 Here is our new dining room...using what used to be our little playroom.  It's one half of the living room in actuality.

 This would be the other half of our living room.  My dream is a couch with cushions that are connected and don't come off.  The kids all think it's fun to pull the cushions off and play with them-created instant mess.

 First side of the downstairs playroom.  The beds you see (the orange ones) are a day bed and trundle.  We used to have a little blue pull-out couch there....but Big E took a hammer to it and literally hammered it to pieces.

 The other half of the playroom...and behind that wall is a GIANT mess at the moment.  I'll spare you.  :)

We have been doing pretty stellar on the homeschooling front lately and I'm all in gear to find the curriculum to use for next year.   SO fun being the teacher and getting to CHOOSE curriculum (with the input of my students of course)!  I don't remember if I told you that Munchkin is now a Kindergarten dropout.  He liked his teacher...he was even excited to show me the work he has done in his class.  But when it came down to it he did NOT want to go.  Really did not want to go.  So when someone asked me if I was sending him because it benefited him or because it benefited me...I had to admit to myself that the answer was neither.  And so he's joined Little Dude in home-school.  They are both happy as clams about that. Today we did some painting...all 3 of us.  I'm starting on a project and based on how limited my personal time is I think it might just take me forever to finish it...but today I got started anyway.  Little Dude painted a stick he picked up on our park hike Tuesday (and which he has decided is a dog...it sniffs, it sleeps, it goes for walks), while Munchkin painted some rocks.

We absolutely painted outside, it was BEAUTIFUL today!

 The stick, the rock and a pine cone.  He left the pine cone outside....not sure why.  But he brought the rock back in.  And of course our 'dog' came inside.  sheesh.

 The start of my project...lookin' pretty neat I think.  :)

And finally....a link.  Sprout was getting a piggy back ride from Little Dude, I only caught the end of it.  Lots of hellos and smiles.  Wish we could give them in person!
Sprout's piggy back ride and a song.

Easter

 So the Easter Bunny stayed up late prepping two seperate hunting grounds.  The Littles would be hunting for the plastic eggs and they were filled with gummy bunnies.  When it was all said and done, I had 2 gummy bunnies left over...not bad estimating!  The older boys were hunting the chocolate eggs.

 Munchkin was right into the bucket to see what was there...Little Dude surveyed the stash first.

 Sprout was excited about everything!

 This is Alvin's "Smile!" face.

 Theodore happy to see what's there.

 The hunt begins.

 The 'after-smile!' face.  :)

 Theodore needed a little bit of help...but had fun!

On Vacation

While we were on vacation we did a few things....swimming, parks, zoo, just hang out together.  Grandma B had sent some stickers and instructions to create a story using the stickers.  So, the older boys and I did that one day...they actually wrote 2 stories (well, technically I wrote it...it's hard for the creative juices to flow when it takes you five minutes to figure out how to print 'fishing').

 These next two pictures are Sprout trying to kick his boots off because he got some of that gravel in his boot.

 Off we go to the zoo....with tethers!

 Little Dude was a BIG help!

 There were lions and tigers...didn't see bears.

 They had 4 elephants there.

 And a playground for those 5 and under.  Little Dude was slightly annoyed that he was too old, but seemed to be ok with sitting with us adults for a little bit while the littles played. 

 Little Dude demonstrating his push and drag technique!

Then we went on a family vacation...here's the condo we stayed in.  It was lovely!!  That's Munchkin out front.

 To the left of the condo...

 And to the right of the condo...

 This is what we saw driving in the first day...just patiently sitting there on the side of the road.

Isn't she lovely?
 
Getting tired....more later....

Alvin got glasses!  And quickly learned to pop the lenses out and so he's maybe worn them for 1 day total...and he's had them now for 3 weeks.  Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with that rascal!

 Speaking of rascal.  Here's my kitchen bench.  I was changing a poopy bum in one room and Alvin found some eggs that had been left out (I won't mention names here...no point in playing the blame game...) and couldn't resist the sound they made as they hit the deck.  *sigh*

 #1 of the cute Sprout fix.  And he is CUTE!  Such a ham...I thought that Munchkin was a ham...but Sprout has him beat hands down!

 Lovin' his glasses!  This was day #1 and he kept them on the longest here....once he figured out the lenses were removable however, that was the end of it.

 Cute Sprout #2.  He loves to dress up as Munchkin...and heading off to school in this case!

 One day I got stuck upstairs dealing with a mess.  When I returned, this is what I found.  Alvin had managed to get a pint of special cream ($20) off a high shelf, and lotioned my couch....

 ...and the windows on my china cabinet...I was not pleased.  He couldn't figure out what the big deal is.  I popped him into the playpen to watch while I cleaned.  Otherwise, he'd want to help...and I could see that would go well!

 Boys who didn't want to sleep in their beds.  They decided to sleep in the hall in front of the linen closet.  The 'blanket' Munchkin is using is actually a towel!