Soccer

Both Jack and Henry are playing fall soccer.  Admittedly, I didn’t realize what I was getting into as this is the first time I have had both of them playing a sport at the same time.  I could potentially have soccer two nights a week and on Saturday.

Amazingly, both coaches independently decided to hold practice at the same time on the same night.  If that wasn’t lucky enough, they chose side by side lots in a huge park to practice in.

The weather was beautiful for their first game.  Here are shots of Jack’s game:

 

Their first games were at 9:30 and 11 on Saturday.  Not enough time to go home in between.  So we just played at the park.

Then it was Henry’s turn.

Love these boys.

Spring Break

The kids and I headed up to Washington for Spring break.  We flew in late on Saturday and woke up Easter morning to dye eggs (or dye hands, if you are Eleanor).

My mom had a wonderful time buying treats (and shoes) for the kids and we had an egg hunt that afternoon.

There was of course much tickling and giggling and playing.  The boys were constantly begging someone to jump on the trampoline with them.  One evening Eleanor was in the bath and heard the boys jumping and screamed and cried because she wanted to go out too.

We took a rainy day outing to Olympia to the Children’s museum.  We have planned to go there every time I go home for the past 6 years, and we finally made it.  It was definitely worth the trip.

My mom helps coach the high school track team so we went out to a practice with her.  She smoothed out the long jump track and the boys had a blast seeing how far they could jump (measured by the tongs on the rake). 

After jumping we played some soccer and ran around the track.  It was cold and drizzly and we loved it.

I know by now I should probably stop saying “back home” when I talk of going to Washington, after all, I have lived in Utah for 12 years.  I guess I will stop calling it that when it stops feeling that way to me.  Which, I hope, is never.

April Fools’ Day

I can only remember one April Fools’ Day growing up.  I was probably about four and my sister and I were at my grandma and grandpa’s house.  My grandpa took a notoriously long time in the bathroom, and since there was only one bathroom in the house, he always asked everyone if they needed to go before he occupied it.

On this particular April Fools’ Day after he retired to the bathroom someone, not sure if it was my sister or my grandma, convinced me to play an April Fools’ Day joke on my grandpa.

So, the three of us huddled around the bathroom door while I knocked and pleaded with my grandpa to hurry up because I had to go so so bad.  Sure enough, he opened the door as quickly as he could to let me in only to hear the three of us shout, “April Fools!”

Last night during dinner, Jack asked us all to name our favorite cereal.  Not favorite cereal ever, just favorite out of the ones we had in the cupboard.  He listened with interest to our answers and then said as nonchalantly as possible “Oh, I was just wondering.”

Then, when Jared was busy and Jack was supposed to be in bed, Jack went downstairs to arrange a little April Fools’ joke he read about in a magazine (wow, the wide world available to the literate).  This morning Jared went down to have breakfast, pulled out the Raisin Bran Crunch and poured Frosted Mini Wheats into his bowl.  Jack had switched the bags of cereal inside the boxes.  He was so proud of himself.

Jared pulled a prank of his own at work, he got half the office involved in convincing his boss he had quit.  Dangerous, you say?  Well, that is the thing about where he works.  You really can do stuff like that and everyone thinks it is hilarious, even the guy at the butt of the joke.

I too read magazines, and I found and entire April Fools’ dinner I wanted to try.  Here it is:

The “meatloaf” is actually coco krispies and marshmallows, the “peas” are green skittles (I was surprised how few green were in each package), and the “mashed potatoes” were scoops of ice cream with caramel “gravy.”

The “cupcake” is the actual meatloaf with mashed potato “frosting.”

Here is the initial reaction:

But, once they actually identified the food, they loved it.  Since they don’t read my blog, I can tell you this, next year I am looking forward to stir fry.