march 2013

What a month!  I didn't realize how busy we were until I looked at all the photos from the last few weeks.  The last weekend of Spring Break, we took the boys out to shoot Pete's BB gun for the first time. They shot at some cans and clay pigeons that were left on the ground in the spot we found in the Mountains nearby.  It was a hit!  They have all requested to do it again. 

Pete and his BB gun.

Hey Jack, you really should be looking where you're shooting.

The week after Spring Break, I took my Grandmother, Billie Jean Beach out to lunch.  It was just the two of us and she requested Panda Express, so we dined on Asian inspired meat, veggies, & noodles.  As I was driving her home afterwards, I asked if she was feeling up to playing a game of Rummikub.  As she gets tired easily, I was glad she said yes and took her to my place where we played a couple rounds before I had to go pick up the boys from school.  But that didn't stop us!  Once I came back with the boys, we all joined in Grandma showed them how it's done.  I have fond memories of playing Rummikub (and other games too) with my Grandma so it was fun to get to share that with my boys.  

Billie Jean Beach, Rummikub Master.

Teaching Ben how it's done!

Peter and Jack, taking it very seriously.

The boys also dressed up for Dr. Suess week with different themes each day.  I was able to snap a photo of them dressed as their favorite character from a Dr. Suess book and I subbed in a first grade class that day, so I enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up!

Ben is annoyed that he got in trouble.

Reality

Pete's class has been studying about the Old West and took a field trip to a local Old West re-enactment town.  He dressed up the best he could and I got to go as a chaperon and join in the fun!  

We also had a visit from Wade's parents over Easter weekend. They drove our truck down from UT for us and it just happened to be loaded with fun goodies. We were able to spend a little time with them on Saturday evening and Sunday morning/afternoon before they flew back to Salt Lake Sunday night.  It was so nice to have some family to celebrate Easter and spend time with us and the kids.

Are you ready to hunt?

ARE YOU READY TO HUNT!!!!!

Add caption

With Grandma Carol and Grandpa Howard

And finally, March was a big month for yard work at our house as it has really warmed up and our yard/trees/grass needed some attention.  First off, we have 11 good sized Ficus trees in our backyard that froze this past winter when we had a couple of days that dipped below freezing.  The branches and leaves died and turned black/then brown.  This means, our beautiful, lush green trees that are not deciduous and do not normally lose leaves, have lost all their leaves (you can see in the photo above they don't just fall off, but sit there until we cut them down or a storm knocks them off).   So we have brown leaves all over the trees and all over the yard and in the pool. This is made worse especially after a storm that creates a huge mess in the pool (very big job cleaning that out over and over) and in the yard.  So, when it warms up we were supposed to trim the dead limbs and leaves from the trees so that they will grow back healthy.  Well, this turned out to be quite a job, and after a month, we're still not finished.  Once we get them all trimmed and all the branches and debris cleaned up, we hope they will come back lush and green again!  This has meant lots of days and weekends spent outside doing yard work.  Even the boys have helped as I chop the branches up small enough, they pile them into the green waste bin.  After a good days work in the yard, we often end up in the swimming pool (after cleaning out the leaves again).  Lucky for us it has been warm enough to swim already in March (although not quite warm enough for me yet). It has been a beautiful March and April so far.  This really is a great time of year here in Phoenix!