Going for a hike

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a hike in the mountains. Luckily it didn't rain on us while we were there, but it did hail as we were driving home... Brita and Benton both had a good time, although the pace was a little (read: painfully) slow for Andrea and I. Along the trail was a river and standing and looking at the water was a big hit. Between that and sitting on rocks, the trip was a success.





A nice couple also volunteered to take a family photo for us:

Guess who

Tonight we went over to Monica's for dinner. Afterward she and Brita were playing Guess Who. Monica told Brita to ask a question first since she was the youngest. Brita's question was: Is your person Spanish?

One of my other favorite Brita asked Guess Who questions is: Does your person have blue hair?

Benton's pretty

Benton just came in the computer room. As he was walking down the hall Brita called to me and said, "Benton's pretty!" Then he came in with his head covered in crumbs. Brita said that she put in all of those barrettes special. Benton was patting his head so I'd be sure to notice his prettiness. Brita just came in. Apparently Benton was not the only one to be beautified during lunch.

Here they are after most of the prettiness is gone. They're still awfully cute, though.

Dear Baby,

I think you should come out. I come highly recommended. Brita said today, "Mama, you're a great person." See--your sister likes me.

Oh, and for all those people that haven't called to ask if we had the baby yet, this update is for you: No baby yet. We'll let you know.

The Plague

So Wednesday Benton had a little bit of a runny nose. I figured since he was teething it was probably just a teething thing. So we went to a birthday party to infect the rest of the world. The birthday party was at a cat house so my nose started running and I started sneezing all over the place, too. The next morning I woke up and could hardly breathe, so I had Peter wash all potentially catty items and went on with my life. Benton had a really low fever, but I chalked that up to teething, too. Thursday I woke up and wanted to die because my throat hurt so bad. It went away by evening, though so I wasn't sure if it was an allergies thing or an I'm-getting-sick thing. Friday I woke up and I was fine. I felt great, in fact. Today I woke up and my voice was practically gone. And my throat was hurting so, so bad. It's a little better now, but this every-other-day-plague thing is not cool. I hope it goes away soon--I really don't want to have a baby feeling this crappy. Do you like how I stopped giving updates on Benton? That's me being a great and selfless mother. He's still sick, too and Brita's nose is starting to run today. Good times.

I hate Walmart

So I was going to be all sorts of productive today and find out what was wrong with our trees. I took some pictures and sent them in to Walmart to have them printed and then went to pick them up and they couldn't find the order. So I had Peter resend the order and it still didn't come through. So, now you get to see my pretty tree pictures because I can't show them to the nursery people.



They're sideways because if I had been able to print them off it wouldn't matter if they were straight on the computer. So there.

12 years in the making

Peter has been setting up an electronics workshop in the basement since Monica moved out. Monica likes to point out that Peter was moving stuff in before she even got all of her stuff out, but it was mostly out and I think it was just his mom's efficiency coming out in him.

The other day after his power source arrived I went down to see what he was doing and he had just powered on a laptop that he'd had and hadn't been able to turn on for the last 12 years. He was mighty happy. It was a little sad that Windows 98 still looks totally normal to me.

It just makes me smile that he said when he turned on the laptop, "I'm so happy! I've waited twelve years to do this." Here's to making life long dreams become realities.

Wheelbarrow

Peter helped Brita do the wheelbarrow the other day. Then Benton wanted to do it, too. He didn't quite get the whole walk along on your hands thing, but he eventually started scooting along just fine with Peter holding his feet in the air. Then Peter stopped holding his feet and Benton continued to scoot. One of the funniest things I've seen in a while. You can't really get the true feel of it in the pictures, but I'll remember it by the pictures and after all this blog is for me, not you, right? ;)

Scavenger hunt

We had an Easter egg scavenger hunt this year. It was pretty fun. The kids would find an egg which had a clue in it and then run to find the egg in the next spot. Brita was able to read quite a few of the clues and that was fun for her, too. Monica likes to point out that they were the world's stingiest Easter eggs--they each had the next clue and two smarties: one piece for Brita and one piece for Benton.

"Couch" was the second clue. Here they are having found the egg and retrieving the next clue.

They ended up in the cubby looking for an egg.

Eventually they noticed the big old pile of candy in the middle of the floor.

They ate candy for a few days and were very happy.

The kids went back to the places they had found the eggs for a few days after. I think they liked it.

We also had three Easter egg hunts with the eggs we had dyed. First Peter hid them and then I did and then Brita. It was a little scary letting Brita hide the eggs when we had no idea if we'd be able to find them again, but she did a fabulous job. She even hid one in a sock. She's brilliant.

Dying Eggs

The day before Easter we dyed eggs. We covered the kids clothes so that there was a better chance of the clothes surviving and let them go at it. They liked it. A lot. All the eggs were dyed and redyed and redyed again and then stickered.

It was a little slow at first, but they caught on quick. Amazingly only two eggs were cracked in the dying process.
Peter and Monica helped them and I mostly watched. Way too stressful for me.

Here's the kids with the finished product.
And supposedly pointing to their favorite egg. I think Benton was a little overprotective.

And in case any of you like random religious symbol sightings, here's a holy grail that showed up on one of our eggs.