Photo Shoot

Taylor's second grade planted tulip bulbs last fall in the school land lab and the classes have been studying them during the spring as they have come up. Last week they were in full bloom so we took advantage to take some great pictures on a beautiful sunny day.

Spangler Candy Co.

Sheila, Emma & Ella's previous preschool teacher, from Sheila's Shining Stars was kind enough to invite us on her school field trip to the Spanger Candy Co. which makes candy canes, dum-dum suckers, circus peanuts, safety pops, etc...This is our second visit but well worth it. You get to tour the company on a trolley while watching videos and being told about the company history and candy making process. They also have a small candy museum and store where you, of course, get free samples. Interesting....there are 6 to 8 new dum-dum sucker flavors created each year with only 1 or 2 ever making it to market which is decided by consumer interest. Lemon-lime was the new flavor on trial during our visit....I thought it was tasty. Ella is trying the buttered popcorn which was created and marketed in 2008. None of us cared for it. Oh yeah...you gotta love the hairnets!

Easter Sunday

The Easter bunny always knows just what to bring. The girls got new bikes! They have been needing them since they can all now ride WITHOUT training wheels. Ella had taken over Taylor's bike since she called hers a "baby" bike and Emma just got her training wheels taken off Friday before Easter so the timing could not have been better. They have been on them everyday and polishing them in the garage when done.

Happy Easter!

We were very blessed on Easter Sunday with family, friends, good food and great weather. After church, we headed to the shelter house for lunch and an egg hunt with over 400 eggs and prizes with 16 kids.

All lined up and ready to hunt!

Where are all the eggs?

I found one!

All our goodies!

Surprise!!!!

We had a surprise visit from Aunt Sues, my sister, over the Easter holiday. She surprised the girls by arriving on Saturday around noon. We were all super excited...especially the girls!! She was able to be with us at the egg hunt, spend Easter Sunday with us at the shelter house, watch the girls do gymnastics, visit Emma & Ella's school, a trip to the Andersons store and help with all of our other daily fun. We also got to spend a little time together as sisters when all the girls had school on Wednesday. Of course, I had to take her shopping at Target.

Egg hunting & coloring

This year we all got to experience an Easter egg hunt by helicopter. A local church sponsored an egg hunt with a helicopter dropping 20,000 plastic filled eggs. Even with that many eggs....the girls were lucky to get even one. Yes....there were that many people! It was worth it just to see the drop though. The girls had great fun coloring eggs this year, too. I think we ended up with over 4 dozen painted eggs. They used many different methods. Some were painted, others dipped, some were tye dyed and some with stickers.

I thought this was too pretty not to share. I noticed it while upstairs and it sat in the tree for over half an hour. This was great....it gave me time to show all the girls and take some pictures inside and outside.

Water Park Fun

2 weekends ago we took the girls to Splash Universe (an indoor waterpark). We had gotten a day pass gift certificate for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Sharpe but decided to do the whole overnight thing which is much easier. It is just nice to have a room to go back to to change clothes and rest instead of using the pool locker rooms. Grandpa Sharpe also came to have dinner with us which was nice. Unfortunately, Grandma was working. None of the girls were into the water slides or water climbing play area. They pretty much stuck to the little slides, the lazy river, family spa and the hotels regular pool which is too funny. It was just a rectangular pool but it had warm water, noboby in it and the girls could touch the bottom. I think it reminded Ella of her swim lesson pool which she is comfortable in and liked this one, as well. Still, everyone had great fun! Sorry about the foggy photo. The camera lens kept fogging up with the pool humidity. Oh Yeah, we can't forget out trip to Cabellas. For those of you that don't know what this is...please check out the website. www.cabellas.com. I do have to say that the aquarium and animal displays are amazing. The girls are sitting on moose antlers at the bear statue outside in front of the store.

Handprinting

Taylor, Ella and Emma with Ms. Terri (our church's youth director) and Allie (Terri's daughter and our babysitter). We were very excited when Terri asked us to complete a project in our church. They have been working on MANY changes in our church and had recently moved and painted the nursery that needed some finishing touches. The girls were asked to add their handprints around the border of the room. They had great fun and the room turned out soooo cute!!!

School Science Expo

Emma & Ella's school, Monclova Christian, held a science expo that included an Astronaut Training Day for the preschoolers. I was lucky enough to be able to help with the event that included many different stations for the kids to be part of. They got to complete an art project, take a ride in the "moon rover", walk on "moon boots" and lots of other fun games and projects. We ended the day with a snack and some free time in the gym.