This Also Happened

Matt loves to post pictures of his fortunes on Instagram, this one was right on the money. 

 Twinner twinner out to dinner.  We are not going to Sadie Hawkins. This was more embarrassing for me than it should have been. 

 I managed to buy two boxes of Froot Loops with marshmallows without the marshmallows. I called and the nice people at Kelloggs sent me coupons to buy two more boxes, which I cautiously did and ended up getting some with the marshmallows as advertised. What a relief!

 Matt's soda consumption had been driving me crazy because I thought it was causing him kidney stones. He loves the stuff but I could take it or leave it. Mostly leave it because it makes my tummy hurt. Then I started thinking about how hard it would be for me to quit eating chocolate and candy because I do love me some candy. I decided that if I expected him to quit something he likes I should be willing to do the same. So we started the no soda for Matt not candy for Kliss challenge the day after Easter. It was hard. My kids thought I would fail first. I eat candy all the time just out of habit. Then I started doing more research on kidney stones and no where could I find soda as a cause, so I let Matt off the hook. He went almost a month, so that was impressive. I thought I would drop all kinds of weight by going candy-less, but it didn't do a thing. That's about right for me. 

 This might have been the most exciting day in April--Kings of Leon AND Young the Giant!?! I have plans for September 27.  I can't wait!

Easter in Vegas

 It was a little weird to be home for Easter. I tried to do some Easter-y things but my kids are mostly used to hanging out with cousins, riding 4-wheelers and jumping on the trampoline none of which happen to be in Vegas. We half heartedly dyed eggs. 

 Didn't our golden egg turn out amazing, just how you would expect a golden egg to look? Wait, you don't see a golden egg? It's there, all golden and sparkly just like the drawing on the package.. see, bottom right hand corner. 

 The kids found Easter baskets Sunday morning. 

 And we did our own kids Easter egg hunt. It wasn't as fun, but at least it was warm. 

 We already checked and we have the same Spring Break days as the Ricks' next year. Hooray!! 

Spring Break Dilema

We always go to Idaho for the annual Easter egg hunt during our Spring Break. This year was made more complicated by the Ricks' move to Colorado and having completely different schedules. To add to the trouble, I bought tickets for a Young the Giant concert months ago that turned out the be the same weekend that worked best for everyone else. What to do!? 

 Go to the concert, of course. Family...shmamily. Actually it just didn't work out so we stayed in Vegas and did our own thing, which included NOT being in a car for 10 hours. It was a little weird but we made the best of it. 

 Zack and Ben are always requesting a staycation, so we books a couple of rooms at the Palm's Place. 

 Went for ice cream and treats at the LINQ

 

 

 and enjoyed spending time together with just our little family. 

Conference Time

We all enjoy conference weekend, and I am not just saying that to sound super righteous. It's pretty much the only time the boys can get away with this (hid your head in shame, Zack): 

 In between sessions, Ben was the only one who wanted to go on a walk. We walked to the end of civilization (or up the hill). 

By this time next year, or maybe even October conference, it will be empty no more. 

 Noah, in one of his culinary moods, decided to make some pretzels from scratch. I finally had to text him this picture as proof that after three attempts the mess still wasn't cleaned up. 

School Projects

 I feel like we have been hit with a lot of school projects lately. I don't mind if they are fun. This one was a clever idea. Each student in Zack's class was assigned a body part, then given a pink slip, saying they would be fired from the body if they couldn't prove their value. Zack had to make a poster and give a presentation to the class and the vice principal. This is the poster he made in class. In the end, the esophagus and stomach were let go.  

 Zack is on the school student council and had to make a bunch of motivational posters for the CRTs. He worked on them during and after school but still needed to make some at home. We had a fun morning finishing them up because he also had a book project due that week. See that bear on the green paper? He drew that free hand with a permanent marker in like five minutes. I wish I could do that. 

 All these school projects aren't without drama. Zack had to create a game for the book on Malcom X. He worked diligently on it all afternoon but decided that it was "terrible" before he went to bed.  He set his alarm for 5:00 am so he could do a different project. Matt helped him make a spinning wheel and I was up at 6:30 helping him finish the darned thing. We were scrambling and working on it in the car on the way to school but he got it finished.  He has sworn to never to this again. 

 Zack definitely has the most school projects. This is Ben's 3-D Animal Cell model. He didn't even procrastinate it, and got 100%! 

Top Chef Celebrity Stalking

Emily and I went to Tivoli to eat at a restaurant only to discover it was out of business. We are both Top Chef viewers so we decided to try the Poppy Den owned by one of the past finalists. Remember Angelo? We do! We walked in, looked to the right and saw him standing there. What!?! We had the best service we will probably ever have at any restaurant. They were wiping our table down mid meal, keeping our glasses full and smiling like crazy. I spent most of the meal trying to take a picture of him without him noticing. I am really bad at that. I thought we might catch him when we were leaving but he was gone. Missed opportunity! Then we saw him browsing in a clothing store across the street. Of course we went in and browsed too. We realized it would be too weird to approach him in the store so we waiting outside for him to leave. And when he did, I froze. But Emily jumped into action and called his name. The friend he was with was happy to take a picture for us. Angelo was very gracious and nice. He is also tall so I don't know why Emily and I are both hunching down. 

I should also note that the food was good. It was all the types of things you expect from a Top Chef chef like pork belly, watermelon salad, oyster, something in some type of reduction, truffles, etc. I felt like Padma although I am probably more like Gail.

I Should Be Ashamed of Myself

Considering my lineage, you would think I could come up with a better cowboy outfit for Zack to wear to the Western themed Blue and Gold dinner. 

None of my boys has ever owned a pair of cowboy boots or cowboy hat. It's shocking. We are definitely city slickers.