Girl Scout Creek Hike

All of the girl scouts came to our place for a hike. I think they all had a good time, it's a short hike, and only one girl fell in!!! I know, amazing. The creek level was down further than previous excursions. Most of the pictures are from behind, because I was the slow pregnant lady.

Sam even got to be a little part of it - he loves girl scouts!

Pearl's leader is a really neat lady (here in the green shirt, taking time with the slow ones...) and the mom of one of the girls in her class. She works really hard, and is great with the girls. I am so grateful she decided to be a leader (this is her first year), so many of the girls have benefited!

Pearl's time as a Daisy scout is almost over, soon she will go to a bridging ceremony and become a Brownie. This really is a great program, and has been almost as much fun for me as for her, getting to know the other moms. Go Girl Scouts!

Welcome Home

No, they did not get me a dead woodpecker. However, there were some dead flowers on the table. And about an hour's worth of homework to do with Pearl (at 9:00 at night...) and laundry in the washer and dryer...oh, and they were out partying instead of waiting anxiously at home for my arrival...welcome home, Mommy. Good thing I hurried so fast home so I could see them before bed... I must at least say, that the kitchen was clean. Pretty impressive.

Food while mom is gone

Amy left me to go to a conference for nerdy SLP's in Fresno.  So I have to care for the kids.  Instead of eating out at asian restaurants I experimented with cooking asian food.  I tried to make like rice coated steamed meatballs.  It worked.  The kids loved them.  They weren't very good in all honesty.  Beef instead of pork, brown jasmine rice instead of short sticky white rice. I didn't soak the rice overnight, etc.  But it still worked.  So next time they will be awesome.

Today we had wraps with lavash bread (cross between pita and tortilla) with tuna, cucumbers, fresh dill, cottage cheese and hummus.    Pretty good.

Last night we were waiting for mom to call us so we had a few minutes to kill.  I let the kids watch the Thailand episode of Bizarre Foods.  Sam loved it.  He thought it was so cool that they ate grasshoppers, ants, worms, sea snails, crabs, fish gut sauce, and lizards.

Selflessness in a 3yr old

Pearl suggested while we looked for treasure outside, that we might also look for gifts for mommy when she returns.

Sam added enthusiastically, "Yeah! Like a woodpecker!"  He was of course referring the 2 days dead woodpecker carcass he runs to whenever he can.  Sweet of him, isn't it?

Now I just need to figure out proper presentation of a dead woodpecker?  In a vase arranged with babies breath and pink carnations?  In a box elegantly wrapped?  Silver platter with a grape in it's beak?  Stuck on a pike?  Mounted like a deer head?  We'll figure it out.

Grandpa Hulbert

Our relationship with our Grandpa Hulbert is, shall we say, different than our relationship with Grandpa Weir. He likes to growl and tease, and get Pearl to run from him screaming (which she most obligingly does most often)

Grandpa and Sam's latest game is shooting each other with their Buzz Lightyear lazers. You can just imagine how that one goes. Sam has the face to match down pat!

Sam wins this battle, which doesn't bother Grandpa too much because he can't reach much past his knee. Pearl is running in terror, as is typical with these encounters.

What you doing, Grandpa? Shooting things. I mean, does a grandpa for a little boy get much cooler than that?

Grandpa does do sweet things, like he's always the one to get the kids bandaids, he lets Sam bring him book after book to his armchair on Sundays, and he will always take the kids for a walk before dinner when they just need to get out. However, I'm sure he'll be embarassed at any mention of niceness, so maybe we'll just leave it at the growling...

It's nice to have one nice grandpa (grandpa Weir) and one scary grandpa (grandpa Hulbert). All in all, I'm pretty sure my kids have no lack of love and attention.

Tadpole

Grandma Hulbert scooped some tadpoles out of her pond for Sam and Pearl to see. Sam was utterly fascinated. I'm not sure how much he understood, though. First, he told me they were "sea creatures." Then he asked me if we were having tad-a-poles for dinner.

Sam instructing me:
"say pole. Good say tad. tad-A-pole" Um, can we tell he has a speech therapist for a mother?

High School Musical 2!!!!

So, Pearl's Uncle Paul got us some tickets to see a local production of High School Musical 2. Pearl and I decided to invite our friends Tami and Makayla and made a girls night of it (on a school night, too, you can imagine the giggles about how they were going to be so hard to drag out of bed in the morning...) We went to Olive Garden, where Pearl was so impressed because they had cloth napkins:)

The play was a great production, the girls were dancing in their seats. We did have a bit of a breakdown in the car on the way home Pearl in tears, (well, it was 9:15), Mom, Makayla says she is going to tell Mrs. Dyer what we did tonight, but I want to!! Ok, Pearl, calm down, why don't you each think of a favorite part to tell her? But I don't know what my favorite part is!!! (Makayla inserts, Pearl, you have to tell your part because we can't both have the same part) Finally I get it out of her. "I liked it when they told Sharpay to break a leg. It was funny, they didn't really mean get a saw or something and cut off your leg, they meant good luck!" "This is how she would have to walk if they really broke her leg...that would be so silly!" Can we tell it was past her bedtime!

It is really fun to have a daughter who is starting to be old enough to do this kind of thing with:)

favorite easter day pics of the HUTCHISON family

Ok, the consensus in our family is that Jack is the most photogenic child ever...I think these pictures prove it. I so enjoy getting great pictures of my sister's families with my cool camera!

My favorite pics of the JACOBSEN family

Having both of my sisters and their families so close is a dream come true. They are my best friends, I call them several times a week (sometimes several times a day...). All of the cousins love getting together, it will be so wonderful for them to grow up so close to one another! Here are my favorite easter pictures of the Jacobsen family. (PS I made Katie's headband too...super sweet, huh?!)

Favorite Easter day pics of the Hulbert family

Annie took pictures of our family while we were all dressed up. These were some of my favorites.

Easter Morning

So, the Easter bunny was good to the kids this year, as you can see. Pearl's poses crack me up lately...Mom, will you take a picture of me in my new flip flops? Oh wait, let me grab my stuffed tiger...


She was so enchanted with her new easter dress and the way I did her hair. She was convinced that everyone at church would be amazed at how beautiful she was. I was so proud of the flower clip in her hair - I actually made it! Impressive, huh!?!

Pictures Pearl Took

Here are some pictures Pearl took and what she had to say about them..

This slime mold is cool. I think everybody would like to see it.

This is Yosemite Sam. It's cute. I got some of my mom in this picture.

This is my room. It's pretty cute. I want everyone to see it.

This one is our cows. I think it would be cool for everyone to see it.

There you have it, folks. Our budding photographer!

Happy Easter

Ok, so I took a MILLION picures on Easter...we took family pictures of each group, then morning pictures, then egg hunt pictures...you can just imagine. It also took about 50 shots to get a good one of ALL the Weir cousins together...I was proud (and relieved) that one of them was actually cute! Here are some of my favorites, I have enough to keep me blogging for days, so stay tuned...I'll try to post some every day this week:)

This was when Katie finally lost it, well, not so much lost it, but Pearl's dress is really slippery and she kept gradually slipping down...Mara had to intervene...

Can you believe it? Not ice cream (skittles this time) but they were watching QUITE a show put on by Annie and Mara...I wanted to look away from the camera and see what was going on a few times myself...

Amy 24 weeks

So, it continues to grow...though Sara may have way more (and cuter) belly pictures, I definitely have way more (though cuter is debatable) of a belly...

Eating Squid

Jared has done some bizzare things to our children. Like convincing Pearl that "mermaids eat raw fish" You should see her pull the raw fish off of the top of the sushi and suck it down. He also gets her to eat anchovies - like plain from the can. Usually, though, Sam has better sense. After a conference in Japan town, he brough the kids some dried squid, and THEY ATE IT!!! Needless to say, their mother did NOT partake. It was all I could do to refrain from making faces and noises when I saw them eating it! Well, hopefully their weird food trying habit will serve them well in life....the funniest part was that Pearl's only stipulation was that it was healthy. "Is is a 5?" (her kinder teacher's healthy food rating system) Yes, Pearl fish is very healthy for you. "Ok." Weirdos.