Easter!

We had Easter with the Regiers on Saturday and with the Bartels on Sunday.  Greg had to miss Saturday and I had to miss Sunday because of our work schedules but we both tried to take pics to make up for it.  

The Regier reunion included an auction of a few of Grandpa's tools and also everyone got to choose a few tools for free from his collection.  He had a lot of neat antique tools and uncle Ken ran the auction with people bidding each other up for fun.  

Sarah loves my mom's puppy, Fritz, and gave him several hugs and lots of pats.  I never quite got a pic of the hugs but he was a good sport even when she wasn't quite as gentle as she should have been. 

After the auction was the Easter basket hunt, all the grands and great grands got baskets just like when we were kids, all the "grownups" and guests got Russel Stover eggs.

After the Easter Basket hunt we had a yummy supper and lots of dessert and there were mugs and china and pocket knives for everyone to take home.  Just before I took my three kiddos home they got out the instruments and started to play some music, but with three tired kids and work/church the next day we needed to get to bed so we went home.  The moon was beautiful and Luke wanted me to take a picture but I don't know how to change the settings that well on my camera so this is the best one I got but it hardly does it justice.  You can see a bit how it was shining on the clouds around it, but to us it looked so much bigger!

The next day I got to go to church before heading in to work and snatched a quick lunch at Bartels  as well.  Greg and the kids stayed to eat lunch with everyone else after I left and had a candy hunt and fun playing in the back yard.

Don't my boys look handsome!  The kids asked to have matching shirts this year and these are the ones they chose!

These two are actually from church.  Sarah was playing on these rocking horses most of the service and had great fun climbing on them and figuring out how to make them rock.  I posted a video of her making it rock on my facebook page.

My other monkey and his cousin Charley.  Aaron has always been a climber and completely unafraid of heights and gaps, etc.  Luke has always been a bit more careful and doesn't like to climb on things where there are gaps between the steps.  

Finding Candy!!!  

Luke has a whole shirt full, I hope he shared!

I so love this little house and the fact that it is just big enough for all of us to come and be together.  It was hard to leave the home place and even harder to have Grandma and Grandpa in the quadplex apartment where they didn't feel at home.  I'm so glad that my grandma was able to find this place and able to say that it was important for her to be in a place that felt like home and not just do what so many of her peers have done and buy into the nursing home complex.  What is right for some is not right for everyone and I am proud of her courage.  In the corner on the right had side you can see a series of 4 paintings done by a local artist from photographs of the home place taken by Larry.  They are treasures.

springtime fun

We have been working on remodeling our kitchen for YEARS now, but it has recently gotten a boost from a good friend of mine who has helped me see that I can actually do most of the things that need to be done and I don't have to wait until Greg has time.  Right now it is tax season which means, he has NO time at all, so waiting on him would mean that all the projects would never get done.  But with Kara's help I have come up with a plan and we have made a lot of progress.  We got paint colors, picked out some samples, decided on the ones we liked the best and have gotten all the doors almost completely finished.  The next three pics are from the day that we took the doors off the cupboards to sand them at Kara's house.  We had all 5 of our combined kids there that day so I mostly took care of Sarah and sorted things out for the bigger kids but I did a little sanding too.  (-;

With the nicer weather the kids have wanted to be outside almost all the time, which is awesome!  Since we spent that afternoon at Kara's house the kids have been especially wanting to ride bike and scooter so we replaced Luke's bike that got swollen last year and bought a couple of scooters for them and they have been having a blast.  Friday Luke had off school so we played outside as much as possible and even invited our neighbor Deb to come sit with us for a bit which was a nice thing for me to get in a little adult conversation (not adult topics, just not about pokemon:-)

This tulip had been growing in the middle of our yard before Sarah picked it for me.  She the buds off of the other two tulips in our yard before they had a chance to bloom.  Oh well, she had fun and was learning about flowers so it's all good.

Aaron picked dandelions for everyone!

I showed the kids how you can color your skin with dandelions so they painted all our faces!

Mimi and Papa visit, March 12-15

We had a nice little visit from Greg's parents in March!  We always wish it could be longer but it was nice that they got to be here when it was warming up finally and to be here for Sarah and Aaron's birthday party (pics in previous post).  I wish I had some of the pics Anita took but these are the good ones I got while they were here.  Except for the party it was pretty low key most of the time.  We got some yard work done and went to the park a few times.

We also didn't have the kids open any presents until Mimi and Papa arrived so that they could open them all at the same time.  This was because we got the kids a Wii with help from Mimi and Papa and we wanted them to get to see the kids open their gifts as well.  It worked out perfectly since spring break started the day after they got to Kansas so we opened presents that day and the kids got to enjoy them quite a bit!

Sarah got this little vacuum from Mimi and Papa that has been a favorite ever since!  Maybe she will help us keep this place a little cleaner!

Sarah also is really interested in books right now!  Love this pic of her and Mimi!

This pic also cracks me up!  It was so windy that day!

Playing Wii and potty training!

Right after I took these pics Sarah woke up so I got her out to come play and we went down the slide together several times.  Anita got some great pics of her huge smile as she went down!  As Luke always says, " I wish we could all live close together!"  We love our time with Mimi and Papa and wish we had so much more!