Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt

For one of Ashlee's 10 hour personal projects for Young Women's she decided to do an Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt for our ward.  She did a great job.  She spent well over a month and half organizing the activity, asking for donations, collecting donations, filling Easter eggs with candy, reminding people of what to bring, etc.  Thursday a couple of days before the activity, I took her to the Stake Center Pavilion and she hosed it down and wiped down the tables to get it all cleaned up for the event.  Friday night she made muffins, and put together a few guessing games, and I took her to do some last minute errands.  Saturday morning my mom, my brother and his kids, and a friend from church,went and set up everything for the event and hid over 950 eggs!  The event turned out well.  I think just about every family in the ward with kids showed up to the event, there was plenty of food, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  We have heard comments from various people in the ward, that they would like for this to be a yearly event!  The next day at church, one little girl came up to Ashlee and asked her if she was going to do another Easter Egg Hunt.

Cleaning off the tables

The food table, before the food arrived.  It was a windy day.

The drink table.  With a "drink" banner made by Ashlee

She had left over donated candy so she put it in bags and jars and they got to guess how many candies there were.  The winner got the bag or jar of candy.

People getting their food.  We kept it simple, muffins, fruit, doughnuts, build your own parfait, and there were a few hot dishes as well.

Kids ages 1-7 going after the eggs.  The older kids had a separate egg hunt.

Most of the kids had their buckets and bags full.  There were some that had hardly any eggs, because there were some older kids that got too greedy.  Mikayla was such a peace keeper.  She gave some of her eggs to those that had a few, and then she went and distributed left over candy to those that didn't have very many eggs.  It was a fun event, Ashlee did a great job.  I think she spent well over 10 hours on this project.  Too bad it cannot count as two projects!

Carnegie Arts Center

Today I went on a mini field trip with Mikayla's class to the Carnegie Art's Center here in Turlock.  They got to learn different art techniques and look at different types of art.  Then they got to learn about shading and  they drew a circle and shaded it, using the technique they learned.

Jordan,Karah, Allison and Mikayla

Mikayla's 11th Birthday

Mikayla's 11th birthday was broken up into a bunch of mini parties, so to speak this year.  On March 29th a few days before her birthday, she had a party with some of her friends at a place called Hollywood Princess. They got to have their hair, make-up and nails done and have a "run-way" show.

Brooke, Jordan, Mikayla, Allison & Karah

Getting their hair and make-up done

Just got her make-up done.

Hair and make-up done

The gift table

Getting their nails done

Hollywood Princess did the decorations and table settings and provided strawberry lemonade.  We just brought whatever snacks we wanted and cupcakes.

Brooke, Jordan,Mikayla, Allison, & Karah

Opening gifts

On April 1st, the day of Mikayla's birthday, John went and got doughnuts for them to have for breakfast and he picked up doughnuts for me to take to her class later in the day. For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant here in town.

Fresh out of bed.  Opening her cards and eating her doughnut.  Excuse the bed head!  Mikayla does not do mornings well!  It's quite the job to get her out of bed in the mornings!

Ready to go to school.

Later in the day.  Having doughnuts with her class.  Her friend Jordan is photo bombing in the back ground.

On Sunday, April 6th we had some family over for a birthday dinner.

I made the cake.  Mikayla decorated it.

Happy 11th birthday Mikayla.  You continue to surprise us with all that you have accomplished and overcame.

Ashlee's Fractured Foot

Almost a year ago to the day (plus or minus 2 days), Mikayla fractured her foot at school playing soccer.  This year it was Ashlee's turn.  Ashlee was jumping up and down and landed on her foot wrong.  Ashlee does not handle pain well, so we were not sure if it was broke or sprained, so we decided to wait a few days and see if it would get better.  5 days later I decided we should go to the doctor, to have it checked. I did not think it was broke, but wanted the peace of mind.  Well, I was wrong.  It was fractured.  The doctor said if she would have jumped a few more seconds the bone would have been through the skin of her foot! Luckily, she got to wear a boot cast, and did not have to use crutches.

Literacy Week

This week is Literacy Week at school for the k-5th graders.  Everyday during the week, the kids are encouraged to dress up a certain way and at the end of the week, the class with the most participation gets a pizza party.  There is also a book fair where student's can buy books and a Family Literacy Night with various activities for the kids and their families.

Day 1- Dress like your favorite book character.  Mikayla made a fish to resemble The Rainbow Fish out of card stock and we colored it and put foil on it.  We did not have much to pick from since it was Sunday night at 8pm and she had 30min until bedtime to get something put together.  Unfortunately, I did not get a picture either and by the time she got home it was ripped!  The fish did look nice though.

Day 2-Seussical-Dress like a Dr. Seuss Character.

Jordan and Mikayla. 

Allison, Jordan and Mikayla

Mikayla

Day 3-Dress Like a Librarian- The Librarian at our school is a good friend of ours, Mikayla was going to dress like a "traditional" librarian with the glasses on a chain, etc., but at the last minute she decided to dress like the school librarian.  Our school librarian likes to stop at 7-ELEVEN and grab a Big Gulp so that is what we did.  Mikayla got a pink lemonade instead of soda though.  The librarian thought it was funny.  So did Mikayla's teacher.