The past few weeks have been filled with...

Egg hunts...

Where both kiddos decided to go for the "big prizes". The horn sounded and they were off... Walker stepped in a hole and took a spill, then with tears tried to get eggs but just wasn't in the mood. (yeah this will be the egg hunt remembered for years after) Ainsley had a good start but as she bent down to grab the Easter basket someone snatched it right from under her... she did get a bucket full of eggs and lovingly shared with her brother.

Mr E. B. came and delivered eggs filled with Lego pieces and candy. Walker was glad since a couple days earlier he says, "I hope we don't get the "Mester Bunny"... uh... what's that? "You know the kind of bunny that's mean and doesn't leave a thing!"

Little Bug was very excited to find a Lego dinosaur in his basket too...

Since Ainsley's birthday fell on Easter this year we had mass in our Easter best...

Instead of a traditional ham dinner we had popcorn at the movie theater while watching "Mirror, Mirror" and birthday cake for dessert...

And a big sleepover that evening...

Flowers in the yard have bloomed...

Bling was added to our now 10 YEAR OLD Miss Ainsley's hair in the colors of blue, green and silver...

The Skating Birthday party was a success with Rainbow layered cupcakes...

A ton of very loud girls...

And skating...

Fun Party goodie bags...

And of course a rainbow layered cake...

During this time we also had Walker's first Soccer game... where he insisted on wearing his gloves??..but he was more into the game than finding his shadow this year!

Finally there was Ainsley's violin festival... which she did amazingly well at. A total surprise for there was a lack of practice leading up to it. They move at a slow pace and I don't think it's as challenging for her as piano. She loves piano and practices that constantly with out much reminding and is moving through her second book quickly!

Whew... a whirlwind couple of weeks!!

Yikes... I've been absent for too long. Been busy with spring break and then back to the crazies.

Walker started soccer this week and we had to head to the soccer store for new cleats, ball and shin guards. He originally wanted gold striped cleats... and gold ball to match. But thankfully we talked him into some black shoes with a smallish silver/white stripe... something less flashy.

He has practice twice a week... of course one of the days is on Tuesday which is also the time for scouts... but we'll just have to adjust... leave a little early from soccer and arrive a bit late to scouts. His coach wants to practice for 1 1/2 hours!! We will see how that goes.

Invites are done and being delivered tomorrow... they turned out cute, bright and cheery. Party will be next Saturday along with a soccer game and Ainsley's violin festival... Yikes a very busy next Saturday.

Last week Ainsley was at an eye appointment..

She'd said her glasses were bothering her and it seemed things weren't as clear as before. They did the pre-doctor check... having her read with her glasses on lines and then with out her glasses on... poor thing couldn't read any lines with out her glasses. So after that we did the traditional... "is 1 better, worse or about the same" and so on until... yep she needed new glasses... a change of another -.75.

We went to a different eye company this time and she got to pick out 2 new pairs of glasses...

Number 1 are a dark purple with different shades of purple on the sides and the same square frames as her old ones...

Number 2 are more of an oval frame that is a amber/brown color and a few "jewels" on the side...

She looks super cute in both and is very excited to get them at the end of this week!

This week Ainsley had a piano recital...

Then on Saturday she competed in her first piano festival. Good thing Daddy was familiar with all of this and told us to bring her music pieces... didn't know that the judge would need them. Here she is waiting... gobs of people... couldn't believe how many were at ISU. She was a bit nervous because it was new... I was really nervous.

I was glad I ran into another Mom and talked to her the entire time Ainsley was in with the judge... kept my mind off of it. She came out with her score sheet... and got a perfect score!

She's moving right along with piano... absolutely LOVES it. She often is hurrying to get dressed in the morning before school so that she can play. She just finished up her current piano book and is onto the next level. So Proud!

A favorite photo from last week...

They have both been reading dog type books lately... so the topic of conversation has gone like this. "Can we get a dog?" Ainsley's even decided to start researching what type of dog gets along with Siamese cats. And last week she came home with a persuasion speech about how getting a dog would make them responsible... and that they'd take care of it... and so on.

Walker was in the conversation with a "PLEASSSSE!" Until I told them that with a dog we wouldn't be able to go on any more National Park adventures since you can't leave a dog home like we can with Mulan. He says, "Okay I'm good without one!"

Ainsley however has not given up... she currently checked out the Encyclopedia of Dogs at the library and is making her list of favorites. Hoping they finish up these Dog series books soon!!

I love having our birthday's so close together so instead of just 1 day of celebration it ends being usually a whole weekend of celebrating.

This year it was all about good food and movies. We had Jimmy Johns subs (a favorite) on Saturday and watched Hugo with the kiddos... a good movie... but not a rewatcher for us. Later when the kiddos were in bed we watched In Time... interesting thinking about time being a currency.

Sunday we headed to Texas Roadhouse... for our most favorite rib and steak meal... love those rolls and the cinnamon butter... love those cute kiddos too!

Then we went and saw this movie...

Although we could not eat another bite Walker says, "Um... are we going to get popcorn??? A movie just isn't the same without popcorn!" I think I would have literally blew off a button if I would have consumed any popcorn. So first time in history of going to a movie that we did not eat popcorn... big shocker I know for those who know that Walker and I are popcorn freaks!

The movie was absolutely wonderful... a wonderful message to all us nature lovers. Can't wait to go see it again at the dollar theater later... with popcorn!

He's officially a Cub Scout...

And is pretty excited about it... something just for him. We are currently making our way through the handbook working on earning first the Bobcat badge and then the Wolf badge. I asked him what he likes best about Cub Scouts and he said, "Everything!" He especially loves the uniform or as he calls it... his costume!

Tonight was Ash Wednesday and once we were back in the car Walker says, "Um... what are the ashes made out of?" We told him the Palms from the year's previous Palm Sunday. He says, "Oh... I thought it was crushed up Oreos !?"

Ha... too funny.. we all got a good laugh over that one!

Here he is Mr. Handsome Boy ready for his First Reconciliation...

He was pretty nervous when we got to the church... had a short mass and then it was time to head back to the confessional room. He has been a stinker this week the usual kid stuff of not listening and doing what he's been asked. I told him he'd have lots to chat about with Father John. Ha! He was in and out quick and then up to light his baptismal candle with Daddy...

He did his penance and then headed out. We got outside and he says, "That was kind of fun!"

Since we were all dressed up we had a quick family picture... love these!

Here's our Valentine Cuties...

My story for the week... at school the kiddos have been having penny wars for the past week. Each class needed to bring in as many pennies as they could to fill their bucket. You can also bring in silver coins or paper dollars and "bomb" or give the other class' bucket a negative amount towards their pennies.

Every year the school picks a worthy charity or community project to donate the money to. This year they decided to donate to a 4th grade girl at another school who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Today the amounts from Penny Wars were announced. Ainsley's class won with the most pennies over 50 some dollars in PENNIES! Over all the school raised almost $1400 to give to this girl's family. Ainsley came home so excited that her class won and said, "We donated over $1000 dollars that will be enough to beat the girls cancer... right???" If only it was that simple.