easter bunny

A perk to working in a costume shop is having thousands of costumes at my finger tips. Sis D had suggested that I dress up as the Easter bunny to go to Penny's class. I talked to her teachers and it was a go! I picked out my suit and off to school I went. I only made 2 children cry in Penny's class, one of whom was Penny. She hates, HATES people in costume. Hates the Chic-fil-a cow and Chuck E. Cheese. Penny began crying and shut herself in the pre-k's bathroom. I had to go into the bathroom, with her teacher and take off my bunny head to get her to come out. She still didn't like it! We went on a spring parade with her class throughout the school. I got loads of hugs, high-5's and tail pulls. I even had some rotten kids tell me how I was fake. I just bopped them on the head...(teehee).

 I came back to Penny's class for her party, but as Mom and not the bunny. She came up to me and told me how she was still mad at me. She quickly forgot when it was time to find her share of the easter eggs that were hidden for her class.

Meanwhile, at the shop, Sis. D has been teasing her about the Easter Bunny coming to her house. Sis. D said that a pink bunny was coming. Penny agreed and then Penny walked into the sewing room and said, "Pink Easter Bunny come to our house, I no answer the door and you no answer the door!" I hope that she forgives me soon!!

day 1, DC

Clyde planned a trip for the entire 8th grade at his school to go to Washington DC. This has been a year in the making. He single-handly organized the trip, along with 3 fundraisers to make this trip possible. He did an amazing job! He even ordered the brightest yellow hoodie ever, so that we could spot our students easily. Clyde really did think of everything! He sweet talked me into being a chaperone. I didn't mind at all. I loved being in our Nation's Capitol with my sweetheart! We began our trip @ 4:30 am to get to the middle school. Thank you to Ed and Becki for watching our 4 other Wardlings for us! We left Clyde's school @ 6am to make our way to DC.  We were outside for the rest of the day. It was freaking freezing on day one!  I was so glad that we had hoodies and that I remembered to pack gloves for Erin and I. We hit Arlington Cemetary and watched the changing of the guard. We had 3 students get to lay a wreath down. Nice. We saw the Kennedy's gravesite, the Challenger's memorial, and many more graves.

 We saw the Vietnam Wall...

 WWII Monument...

 Lincoln Memorial...

 Marine Memorial...

And later the Washington Monument.

We ate dinner @ Union Station and even had a student tackled, by accident, by a policeman. fun times!

day 2 in dc

After waking up incredibly stiff, we begun our day @ the Capitol Bldg with a tour. We watched a movie about Washington and the Captiol, took a guided tour, with headphones no less. I enjoyed seeing the inside of the building. It was cool to look at the statues that are in the building. Every state was invited to create 2 statues of people they felt that the worls should know about. There were a few requirements...1: the person had to be dead and 2, the statue had to be made of marble or bronze. Utah chose Brigham Young as one of their people. Brigham's statue was pretty cool. There are lions carved into the handles of the arm in his chair and beehives in the chair. I thought it was a cool carving. I had no idea who the people were for NC...sad I know.

After the Capitol bldg. we attempted to get into the archive to see the Declaration of Independance, but the line was wraped around the block. So we were able to go into "daniel's story" in the holocaust museum. I wish we would have been able to tour the museum because it is pretty remarkable. I remember going one year for youth conference and can totally remember the sick feeling that I left with.

Then we were off to see the Archives. We were to wait in line as long as it took to get into see the documents. We had several families wanting to skip line. I was kind for the first 2-3, but after that I told them to hit the pavement. A few of the people wanted to sneak in, and I couldn't have it, so I told them where the line ended. They were less than pleased with me, but I just felt had I let everyone in front of us, who didn't want to wait behind our group, then we'd never get in. I had to draw the line somewhere. Secretly, I found it quite pleasing to tell people where to go. :) While in line it rained and hailed on us. We waited for about an hour and 20 minutes to get in. I loved seeing the Declaration of Independance. It was quite majestic.

The next stop was lunch at the Air and Space Museum. This museum was my least favorite, mainly because my boys weren't there to see things with us. I spent the majority of my time in line to pee. I saw all I cared to see. Clyde did buy me a Rosie the Riveter t-shirt. I am in awe of all the "Rosie's" in the world.

Then we were off to see the Natural History Museum. I loved all the yellow sweatshirts in the museums. It made it so easy to spot all of our students.

Our final museum for the day, was the American History Museum. Exhibits had been moved around from where they were when we saw them this past summer. I loved seeing all the bits of our history like, C3PO and Kermit the Frog, to Fonzie's jacket etc. I really loved seeing the inaugural ball dresses of the first ladies. My favorite this trip was Eisenhower's ball gown. It was pink and sparkily. I found it interesting to see how tiny these women are, at least until Michelle Obama. She's at least as tall if not taller than me.

We finished the day with pizza and karoke.

mt. vernon and home

Day 3 was split between a visit @ Mt. Vernon and a bus ride home. At first i thought that spending 3 hours @ Mt. Vernon was way too long, when really 3 hours wasn't long enough to tour the grounds. I thought it was cool to see where Washington lived. We couldn't take pictures of the inside of the house because everything is copywritten.  I didn't want to risk being sued over a snap shot, so the camera stayed in my pocket. I will say thought that Washington loved Tiffany box blue too! :)

We Made it home safe and sound. Thanks Ed and Becki for staying with our wee wardlings and keeping then loved and safe while we were away!!

pinewood derby

Josh worked very hard on his car this year. As posted below, we spent one scout night with Bro. L, cutting the cars out. Then sanding, spainting, and weighing. We took his car to the post office derby day for weighing. It weighed 3.8 oz. The cars are supposed to be 5oz. All I had were coins on me to add weight. The postal worker was way cool as I kept adding change to the scale. It wook 81 cents to weigh exactly 5 oz.

 Race time was so thrilling!

 All the boys worked very hard. Josh was thrilled to have earned 2nd place. I am just glad that derbies are only once a year!

one adult, 4 knuckleheads

I took our boys and 2 friends to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Roderick Rules last week. It was a cute movie for the fellas to see.  Our hot topic of debate happened on the way to the theater and it stirred up some heated feelings for the best coach ever. My vote was for Mr. Miaggi but our friends said Jackie Chan in the New Karate Kid. Hot, touchy topic!

march snow

On the 28th of March, this is what it looked like outside:

 that's right folks, snow. I had already planted some lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli to which, thankfully, has all survived the cold weather. We were all so happy because the Wardlings didn't miss any school because of the dusting of snow.

 Clyde saw an adorable cupcake hat on a girl, at our last soccer game. He really liked it and rarely asks specifically for something for me to knit. Upon his request and  the weather being so cold, I got right on it. I had seen these hats on Ravelry ( a knitting/ crocheting pattern website) for a long time now, but never made one. I looked at the hats on ravelry and made up my own pattern as I went along.

 I made my own pom pom and sewed all the little glass beads on the top to look like sprinkles.

And in true NC fashion...the weather was 75 degrees the very next day. She'll be ready for the next cold day or season...which ever decides to arrive first.