Teacher Appreciation Week

Last week was Spring Break. It was a long week. Too long. By Tuesday I was ready for my regular days back. But the boys enjoyed playing endlessly until mean old Mommy made them come in and bathe. We did a lot of activities, and even had Grandma Greer do some science experiments with them (Cruise was really into it...Jett, not so much). Friday rolled around and I was thinking about how grateful I am for Cruise's teacher. Of course that reminded me that it was Teacher Appreciation week this week. So I hit up Pinterest (I seriously do at least one thing a week from there) and found the cutest idea. It was relatively inexpensive as well, which was a huge bonus.

I bought two giant packs of crayons from the dollar store ($2), bought the unfinished frame from Hobby Lobby ($6), a little wooden flower from Hobby Lobby that Cruise picked out ("Miss Tina likes yellow!") ($1), wood block letters ($3) and printed out the letter T from my computer. I cut the crayons and Cruise helped me line them up. Hot gluing had to be more of my job since I didn't want Cruise to burn himself. Then I had him pick out a color to paint the frame. He picked pink: "Miss Tina likes pink!" I don't know if that was true or not, but he seemed pretty sure of himself. I had him paint it and I helped spread the paint around so it wasn't clumped. Then he helped me dry it with my hair dryer. He glued on the flower and the letters and voila! Ms. Tina's present.

For the aides, we bought them each a candy bar and I printed out wrapping on cardstock that said, "Best Aide, Bar None!" and tied them with cute yellow picnic pattern ribbon that Cruise picked out. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of them.

Easter Weekend

We had an awesome Easter weekend. I didn't get to do everything I had planned on with the kids. But things were a little crazy (well, certain little boys were a little crazy).

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. The Friday before it had snowed, so we were happy it was nice out for Easter! When Dave got home from work, we had the boys do a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard. Jett had just woken up and was grumpy, so he refused to look for Easter eggs. Luckily the boys' little friend was there to help him out. Cruise was really into it and had been waiting all day to hunt for candy-filled eggs!

After the hunt, we dyed eggs with Kool-Aid (thank you Pinterest). They didn't come out super beautiful, but it definitely smelled better than vinegar. Because of Jett's olfactory sensitivities, I think it was much better to do the Kool-Aid. The boys loved it. While we waited for the eggs to color, we had a few games of Hide and Go Seek (which is hilarious with two boys who 1. hide in the same place over and over, and 2. don't realize sound travels).

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That evening, we just hung out, the boys worked on the lawn mower with Daddy, drove the RC car, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

I brought them inside for baths while Dave ran to the store to get a few things to work on the lawn mower. Cruise was the first to get out of the bath. I dried him of and he ran off to do who knows what. As I got Jett out about 5 minutes later, I realized I hadn't heard Cruise in a bit. I knew he hadn't left the house (thanks to our awesome kid locks) so I went looking for him. I opened the door to the master bathroom to find him with scissors in hand, hair all over the floor, and Cruise telling me, "Look Mommy! Cruise cut hair!" It seemed like ten minutes before I said anything. All I could do was stare wide-eyed and jaw dropped. Finally I said, "Okay Cruise, let's go." I grabbed the clippers and headed to the kitchen where I had to do what I never wanted to do: buzz the boy's hair. It was sad. But honestly, as sad as I was, Cruise was even more broken up about it once he saw his reflection. He was so upset, he wore a bini to bed that night.

I was able to get his mind off of it when I told him about the Easter Bunny coming. So without a fuss, he went to bed. The next morning he woke up, wandered around the house, and woke me saying, "Mommy, where'd the chocolate bunny go?" I got up, grabbed my camera and helped him look for his Easter basket, sitting in the living room.

We bought the boys each a Dove chocolate bunny, a book, a frame with pictures of Christ and the Salt Lake Temple (or "castle" as Cruise calls them). And they each got an apple Chapstick since they always have dry lips, the poor kids. We were able to get the boys to eat real food before they attacked the chocolate bunnies, and then we all got ready for church.

Because of Cruise's self-barber experience, I was so relieved to remember that I bought the boys special Easter hats. I just couldn't pass them up and I am glad that I didn't. Otherwise, Cruise would've worn his "bird hat" to church (the "bird hat" is the Baltimore Orioles baseball cap he wears all day, every day). The boys were so adorable, even Dave wore Easter colors (even though he thought I was nuts to buy the boys Easter outfits). Cruise was not excited about going to church. He wanted to stay home and he also wanted to go to the "castle" aka temple. So we used that to get him through all three hours of church. It was torturous, but he did it and he and Dave went to the Timanogos temple after church while Jett and I went home and got our Easter dinner assignment done: loaded sweet potatoes. Always my specialty. 

We met up and headed to my parents' house and had a wonderful Easter feast of honey ham, loaded sweet potatoes, asparagus, and an amazing spinach and strawberry salad. My sister made an excellent apple crisp for dessert that we ate with ice cream. And of course, my parents got us each a chocolate Easter egg from Sees. It was an awesome dinner. 

Jett wasn't interested in eating dinner. He wanted his chocolate bunny (yes, another chocolate bunny from the Grandparents). So we told him if he ate his dinner, he could have his bunny. He spent the next four hours saying "NO!" and we stuck to our guns and refused to let him have the chocolate. Meanwhile, Cruise wandered around with a big smile on his face, as he devoured his chocolate bunny (because he ate his dinner). Jett was not happy. Finally, my mom was able to get Jett to eat a hot dog and voila! He got his chocolate bunny. Unfortunately, he is sure to continue the barrage of "NO"s in order to get his way...probably for the next year or so. Maybe one day he'll figure it out, but I don't think that day was today.   

Conference Weekend & Autism Awareness

I love the months of March and April. So many great things going on! It all comes with beautiful weather. I think it may be my favorite time of year.

General Conference was AWESOME. The older the boys get, the more we are able to listen to all of the talks. We really enjoyed all the talks. I think every time Conference comes around, it gives me the boost I need to get up and do things I've been putting off. I especially took heart to hearing "teach your children how to work". I've been wanting to make a chore chart for a long time and thanks to Pinterest, I found some great ideas. I'm still in the process of laminating everything, so once that's finished I'll post it. But in preparation for that, I did this:

Cruise's dresser

Jett's dresser

The boys have a tendency to pull all their clothes out of their dressers on a regular basis. And so from being tired of reorganizing their dressers on a regular basis, I thought I'd make them do it. That will definitely be on their chore chart. 

On Saturday during Conference, I did the dishes while the "men" went outside to do more manly things:

After they finished the oil change, we headed for UVU's ballpark in Orem for the UPlifting Celebration for Autism. Unfortunately this is when my camera died. But we all got a blue t-shirt, free lunch, the boys got to play games, and then everyone let off a ton of balloons all at once. It was really a sight to see. I was wishing my camera worked. We didn't go last year for fear that the crowd would overwhelm Cruise, but it was surprisingly laid back and there was a lot of room to run around and play. The boys did great and we had an awesome time! We'll have to go again next year and remember to recharge the camera's batteries. 

Speaking of Autism, the month of April is Autism Awareness Month, and April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. Each year on this day, you wear blue and are encouraged to "Light it Up Blue". I was excited to buy my blue light bulbs. The picture doesn't really show just how bright the blue lights were, but they were AWESOME! So awesome, in fact, that I think I'll leave them up all month.

My AWEtistic Super Hero: Cruiser-Man!