Friday, April 13, 2012

Spring is here!

Well, Easter came and it was everything the kids had hoped for. It started with an egg-scavenger-hunt at Grandma Swenson's house and a hot dog dinner. The kids had a blast gathering all their eggs, and there are so many fun places to hide them at grandma's house! Even Joey got in on the action, even though we just put his on the patio. He still was excited each time he found an egg.
Then Easter morning came and we got to sleep in until a late 6:50 a.m. (hey, compared to Christmas it was a dream!). The Easter Bunny did not pass us by, in fact he went a little crazy with the amount of eggs he hid. But the kids loved going through all their loot.

Joey had fun gathering eggs. This is his new camera face he makes when he sees the camera. CHEESE!

The kids ran around so crazy I barely got any pics and the ones I did get weren't great. As you can see.
On to other topics, we recently purchased a basketball standard. Our driveway is the perfect place to play a little b-ball, and since Tyler absolutely loved playing we decided to splurge and get one. Well, upon reading the instruction manual (translation: novel) we realized we needed to dig a hole 21" x 21" wide and 4 FEET deep, that's right, FEET. Ugh. So we went to work, did some ourselves, paid a nominal fee to one of the young men to help, finished it up...well, tried to finish it up. It got so deep you couldn't even shovel anything out anymore because of how narrow it was. You'd end up getting about 1/2 cup of dirt on the shovel by the time you got it to the top. So, after racking my brain for solutions, I realized we needed to get down in the hole. Alas, I am too big to fit down there, but guess who isn't?
Jacob was my special helper, he got down and dirty in there, filling up bucket after bucket of dirt and passing them up to me. He did awesome, in fact even enjoyed it. All the neighborhood kids wanted a turn, but I am sure their mothers wouldn't have been too happy if I sent them home covered in dirt. That picture doesn't do the hole (now referred to as "the pit of despair") justice. It is DEEP. But it is just about done and hopefully soon we can get the concrete poured and get this thing in!

It can get pretty windy here in Salem at times and today was no exception. Luckily I had the foresight to give in to my kids whining at the store yesterday to buy them a kite. I did, and boy am I glad! Today was perfect kite-flying day, didn't even have to try to get the kite up and it flew and flew and flew! All the kids took turns, including the local rapscallions, and they all thought it was pretty awesome. Not bad for $9 entertainment! (Yes, $9. I bought the expensive one because the $2 ones never work)

Yes, I actually laid down on the road for that last picture. I just wanted you to see how high we had it flying--the string was all the way out. The kids were very excited. And it was even a little thrilling for me too (mostly because of the fact that I am a terrible kite flyer--I was pretty proud of my accomplishment). Plus we got to spend a little time together outside. All in all a success. Here's hoping for another windy day!