Easter Pictures

We have no pictures of the kids dressed for church this year but we do have the egg hunt pictures.  I think the kids all had fun and too much candy.  Then they found the leftover candy hidden upstairs and raided it all the next few days. And blamed it all on Ellie. Yup. Because we will believe that Ellie managed to eat 3 bags of candy and 6 marshmallow bunnies all by herself without getting so sick that she threw up.  Sounds entirely plausible to me.

The total tally of eggs hidden this year for our crew was 144. And I think they have broken or smashed to bits at least 2 dozen of those eggs already. Because the younger children just don't seem to understand that I really prefer to NOT have to buy new plastic Easter eggs every year for the egg hunt.  Perhaps one year we'll have to actually invite another family to join us. I be that could easily push us over into the 200 egg range or more.

These guys had to be relocated before the eggs could be hidden.

The tree that suddenly grew eggs.

This is only part of the front yard and the reason we never worry about running out of room to hide the eggs.

Air and Space Museum

The kids requested a repeat visit to the Air and Space museum this year while on vacation.  This year I remembered to bring our current science museum membership card so we got in free which is always awesome. Granted, the guy at the admissions desk was a total dork. Seriously, don't tell a customer that they have too many kids even if you do think you are being funny. Because you are not. Trust me. (And yes, I do realize we were near many of our friends and family but we had sick kids almost every single day we were there so there would have been no way to fit in visits without getting someone sick.)

Alan and the older kids loved the museum and seeing all of the different planes and things.  Gabe kind of freaks out around open stairs and things so he refused to go up to the third floor so I took the younger 3 and hung out in the snack bar and gift shop until the rest of the family was done.

 

This museum is very awesome but I think it's the kind of place that would be better explored by Alan and the older kids alone simply because there wasn't too much to entertain the younger ones and so much that the older ones wanted to explore.

Beyond Bricks

One of the places we visited while on vacation was Beyond Bricks. This place is basically just a giant play space with nothing but LEGOs to play with. Which is frankly just totally cool.

At first, the older kids acted like we were slightly crazy for bringing them there but before long they were building up a storm.  For some reason they got on a Star Trek kick and started building Borg cubes and ships and such things.  Yes, they are weird.

Ellie managed to build this tower all by herself. Over her head and everything. She was so very proud of herself.

It turned out that poor Gabe was sick. We didn't realize it until we got there and he just curled up in a chair and feel asleep. I do feel badly that he missed out on the fun since he would have enjoyed it and I feel bad for not realizing the kids was sick but no one else was there to catch his germs at least.

Mini Golf

While on vacation, we took a few of the children mini golfing. I'm pretty sure this was the first time going for all of the children.  Some of the kids were sick and asleep in bed unfortunately.  But those of us who were able to get out, had a great time. A few folks managed to score a hole in one, Abby managed to knock her ball over the fence and shed and lose it in the bushes, Ellie and Robert got a big bored and lost interest but overall everyone had fun.

Nerf Party

We won a Rebelle Nerf Party from the folks at HouseParty. The party pack we received came complete with lots of new Nerf guns, tattoos, bracelets, and coupons. We invited some friends over and had a blast.

 All the loot. I have to say that even though the new toys were lots of fun, I'm not so thrilled that Nerf has bought into the entire girl power, everything  must be pink and purple to inspire girl routine.  It bothers me when anyone acts as if girls are too stupid to like themselves without all of this "girls are awesome" garbage.  Yes, girls are awesome but so are boys and my favorite part of Nerf had always been that it was pretty much gender neutral.

We took the chance to celebrate Robert's birthday while we had a house full of friends. We'd put it off waiting for the entire family to get healthy. Robert loved the extra attention.

The Expo

This weekend we had our annual homeschool expo. Small crowd this year and most of our kids' projects were on the simple side since we'd been so sick the week before. But everyone had a great time.

 Robert shared some of his LEGO creations (he makes awesome Star Trek ships).

 Katie did a project on horses.

 Gabe was talking about bats.

 Abby built a snow volcano with her Dad (the snow was not portable so pictures had to suffice).

 Bryan shared a karate demonstration.

 Kieran talked about the difference in baking with yeast vs baking powder and shared some of his baking.

 Sean showed off his coin collection. He also served as master of ceremonies since this is normally Dad's job and he was home sick.

Liam learned about car engines.