A bit of our March

We were home with nothing much to do a couple of Saturday's ago so we spent the day out. We headed out that morning in hopes of having Kendal practice her bike riding at the church parking lot but it was too windy. Lucky for us Casey has keys to the school gyms so we just went there for an hour. Kendal is doing so well and can ride all on her own. We still have to help her get started, but she can ride on her own and either stops on her own by catapulting the bike in one direction and herself in another, or she sticks her leg out to stop ( mom and dad's preferred method). Saturday afternoon We took the kids to the heritage center at CSI. We looked at their (small) museum and did their scavenger hunt around the museum. Peter liked the life size "elephant" (mammoth replica) and Kendal enjoyed the glow room and finding things around the museum. There were magnifying glasses in one part of the museum and the kids had fun "eyeing" everything around them. After the museum we hit up the local toy store to let the kids play for a bit. It's a very big store with many toys out to test / play with. Both kids were loving their time their and only left because the store was closing. We went to Chili's for dinner with the kids (Thanks Mom and Dad for the gift card : ).

We had a regional stake conference on Sunday watching a broadcast. We got to hear Elder Perry speak. He was funny and great to listen to. In the past two months we've had three "stake" conferences (one stake, one "special" stake, and one regional stake) we've also had a ward conference. I got a call and went in that night and was called back into primary teaching my same class of seven yr. olds.
Every Wednesday we head to the library for their preschool story time. It's become part of our routine and the kids look forward to it and enjoy it. Last Wednesday they celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. The kids got to listen to classic Dr. Seuss books. They played a couple of games, and made a craft. They were even given a new book and pencil to take home. Kendal loves to find books for me to read and lately we've gotten books for her to read also. Both kids love helping the librarians with checking our books out.
This past Saturday we had the opportunity to go and clean the church. We got assigned the Chapel. The kids went nuts spraying and wiping things down while Casey and I vacuumed. After that we went to Home Depot to pick up some wood for a project and ended up staying an hour because they had a kids make and take activity going on. Kendal and Peter got to paint, glue, and nail together book ends. Kendal was all about painting and loved it. Peter wanted to hammer everything and only helped me paint a bit before he was done.

On Sunday we were able to go to Filer and to see our nephew Grady's blessing. We had a bench full of little's again, but I think the chaos was better contained (that or I just chose to ignore it, and listen ; ). We ate lunch at Sarah's parent's home and enjoyed talking while the kids played. Between the Haney's and the Darrington's there were 21 children 7 and under.

Later Sunday evening we got the joyous news that our latest nephew Elliot was born. This is David and Anica's first baby making four grandkids on the Loosle side. I've loved every photo of Elliot that's been sent and can't wait to snuggle him tomorrow when the kids and I go down for a visit.
This week I've been in charge of Preschool. On Monday we focused on the letter V. The kids got to play Veterinarian and bandaged / took care of 75% of the stuffed animals in our house. They loved playing doctor to them and used up a heap of band aids and wraps doing so. We did some vegetable painting, and had the kids print with broccoli, celery, a pepper, potato shapes, and carrots. Kendal loved it , and Peter wanted to stamp everything but his paper. We read some stories, made a book about things starting with V. We watched a video about volcanoes than the kids and I erupted our own volcano.
Today's theme was Frogs / Snakes. I had the kids make patterned snakes for a craft. We learned about different animal groups (mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, etc.) and then went into specifics on frogs and snakes. We read a couple of stories and sang some songs (I'm being swallowed by a boa-constrictor, five little frogs). The kids enjoyed getting party blowers and practicing their frog tong catching and smelling like a snake. We also attempted leap frog and another snake game but those quickly fell through so we ended with puzzles for free time.
The kids got to play for a couple of hours at the park yesterday with their cousins. It's nice to see how well they can get along and as they're getting older they can play together better. I got to snuggle with my two little nephews and chat with Sarah and Vanessa.


 Below is a picture of my Nana an Papa back in the 50's when they were married. Monday would have been my Grandpa's 85th birthday. We celebrated with ice cream and memories of Papa.