Piano and Easter

We had a studio recital and Ian was just a little excited to be done and eat a cookie. He played Twinkle A again and Rachel played Claire de Lune and Mr. Cat.
Rachel likes all clothing items exactly the way she envisions them. A few current requirements are: short sleeve shirts without elastic in the arms, no flowers or extra lace on anything, no bows in the front, and her biggest dream of shoes with velcro. Since she had many shoes purchased by her loving parents that did not fit these specifications, she decided to save her allowance and purchase these beauties by herself. She is delighted with the result.
She's looking big, isn't she?
One day Ian came down with these items all ready to sell to earn some money. Surprisingly, he had no takers with prices like $12 on a plastic screw. Funny kid!
He made Bridget take this picture of his camouflaged self for Justin. See? You can barely see the boy in all that green.
We decided to try out our kite flying skills one day and while it started fun it turned into the "worst idea ever" according to Rachel. Ian was the only one who could keep his kite up and it got tangled in the tree and the girls gave up. Oh well!
Rachel made up from her disappointing afternoon by a nice mud soak.
Rachel did another great job at Music Festival this year.
To celebrate we checked out the new City Creek Center and enjoyed some lunch together.
We also saw the famous Steve Sharp Nelson.
One night Bridget was cleaning up from an activity and Ian took this picture of Josie and her silliness.
At preschool Ian's class has been learning about outer space and they made this great picture of the galaxy. He loves it on his wall.
To begin the Easter celebrations our neighbors hosted a fantastic egg hunt with this fun train ride beforehand.
All the kids scored and it was fun to not have quite so much competition for eggs as with the city hunts.
Our neighbor friends.
The run of the play is in full swing now and to celebrate opening weekend Justin and John held another eating contest. This time it was tacos.
Wow, a lot of food was eaten in a short time. Sadly Justin lost this round - which means that another round is in the near future.
For opening weekend Justin surprised Bridget with these beautiful roses.
Rachel and Bridget went on a date and loved the play. Justin is so funny as Algernon and despite what neighbors thought, Rachel still does trust him after seeing him in play this mischievous part.
We had a relaxing and fun spring break with a great visit from the Kjars. We headed to Temple Square and got a kid-friendly tour of the Conference Center and then went to the children's exhibit at the Church History Museum. Josie loved filling in this picture.
The kids had fun fishing.
And the dancing was definitely the biggest hit. How could you miss with these great skirts, mirrors, and music?
Not to mind cute Kate and Jenny as dancing companions.
Josie was tuckered out after our afternoon out.
The last day of Spring Break didn't seem very springy with this crazy snow storm.
So we did some indoor activities like making these pictures from fun stickers Nana sent.
We had a fun cousin egg hunt with Payton and Austin and tried hiding the eggs in hard places for the big kids.
Josie still was able to find quite a few.
Here's the crew enjoying their finds.
Easter morning Rachel was the only one that wasn't sick and was the first one to find her basket.
Ian took a quick break from being sick to get his basket.
Josie put on a fevered smile for the camera.
And it didn't take long for the butterfly nets to become some nice hats.
Rachel was the only kid who could go to church.
But she did look mighty cute.
The girls made sure our sick boy was extra comfortable for his nap (they each added their pillows and blankets into his bed).
We dyed some eggs on Easter afternoon.
Here were our lovely results.
In other news kids are being funny and the weather continues to be unpredictable.
One of Justin's co-workers took this picture of the Lieutenant Governor and his staff.