It Was a Green Day

St. Patrick's Day is always fun for our family.

I sent the kids to school wearing green to make sure they wouldn't get pinched!

Payton's teacher asked her class to be creative and make leprechaun traps to see if they could catch a leprechaun at school.  This is what we came up with…

We took an oatmeal canister, covered it with green scrapbook paper, cut an X into the top lid so when the leprechaun crawls up the paper straw ladder to try and get that basket of rainbow Skittles, he would fall into the canister and be trapped.  We added gold glitter, shamrock stickers, and a rainbow made of pipe cleaners to embellish it.  Somehow, I missed that it was due back in class by last Thursday, so at the last minute, we gathered up my craft supplies and got it done.  Luckily, I had everything on hand to make this.

Payton also decided that she wanted to add a note for the leprechaun...

She didn't catch a leprechaun, but one did leave her some gold coins.

I also put together this breakfast the night before.  Usually I make green pancakes and eggs, tinted green from food coloring, but I knew I wouldn't want to wake up early to do that because it was 2 a.m. and I was still up.  

The kids thought this breakfast was fun!

While the kids were at school, I bought some Hershey's Nuggets because I couldn't find any gold coins.    I spread them on the counter with a little note from the "leprechaun."  He told us in the note that he had to empty his pockets at our house because he had too much gold and needed to share. 

What's sad is I have eaten more of this chocolate than any of the kids.  I waited until they all got home from school so they could see it, but now I have it hidden in the cupboard and I am the only one eating it!

Before I hid it though, I caught Asher stuffing his pockets with these Nuggets, and when I pulled them all out, I counted 13 of them between both of his front pockets!  And he had 3 in his hand!  It was cracking me up how sneaky he was trying to be!

We always have a traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner of Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, and Irish Soda Bread.  This year, Mom and Dad came over to share the feast with us.  Mom did the Corned Beef and Cabbage, and I made the Potatoes and Irish Soda Bread.  I always make Martha Stewart's recipe for Irish Soda Bread, and it never disappoints!

Photo & Recipe via Martha Stewart

St. Patrick's Day is always a fun day to celebrate for us.  March 17th is also my late Grandma Hendry's birthday, so it makes it extra special. We always think of her on this day and cherish the memories we had with her.  

BOOYAH!

I love it when other bloggers make a post dedicated to the things that they've loved and found interesting over the week.  I've discovered so many new things to try.

Booyah! It is an exclamatory phrase.  People say it when they are excited. So, whenever I dedicate a post to things I get excited about over the course of a week, it will be titled, BOOYAH!

Last night, I made a giant pot of this Spicy Potato Tarragon Soup.  It was so good!  I have made several variations of Potato Soup, but this is definitely one of my favorites!  I think the fennel and lemon juice made it extra yummy.  A little bit of spice doesn't bother my kids.  My boys actually like to eat spicy things.  Recently I made this salmon for Danny and I, and made the kids' with just lemon and honey.  They ended up preferring our spicy salmon to theirs!  You can pin the soup recipe here.

I received my doTERRA Frankincense essential oil in the mail yesterday. I'm so excited to use it because of the many incredible things it does for the body!  Right now, I'm using it mixed with coconut oil to help heal our dry winter skin.

My favorite channel on Pandora right now is En Vogue's.  It features so many throwback tunes that I grew up with.  I usually have Pandora going on in the kitchen while I cook dinner.  This song came on the other night, and it just never gets old to me.

This weekend we are taking the kids to see Mr. Peabody & Sherman.  It looks pretty cute, and I always enjoy taking the kids to the movies. Asher always does surprisingly well, especially with popcorn in his lap.

I got Easter outfits ordered for the kids from H&M.  I only have so many years to dress them in matching clothes for the holidays.  Now I've got to make some hair pretties to go along with the girls' dresses.

Life Lately!

What in the world happened?  It's been almost a month since I've posted last!

Just a re-cap of what has been keeping us so busy lately...

Pre-game intimidation!

Payton, Sawyer, and Sage played Rec Basketball!  The season only consisted of 8 games, which lasted about 2 months.  The twins were on the same team, thankfully.  Watching 5 year olds play basketball is hilarious!  They travel all over the court, bounce the ball off the walls and yet continue to play, and sometimes they just stand in one place with their arms up in the air waiting for the ball to come to them.  

Whenever Sawyer would get the ball, he would travel around until he got an open shot, and then shoot.  

Sage's favorite thing to do was stand directly under the hoop with her arms straight up.  Sometimes, she would get really aggressive and go after the ball.  That was fun to watch because the more comfortable she got with playing the game, the better she'd get at defense.  

But seriously, watching 5 year olds play basketball is hilarious.  

My little ballers!

Payton at half-time!

Payton had so much fun during this season!  Every time any of my kids made a basket, they'd look at me in the crowd, and I'd give them the thumbs up sign to let them know I was proud of them.  Payton was also really great at scoring.  It was so much fun to watch her.  Each of them said they prefer playing basketball over going to their dance classes!

Basketball is in their genes.  Their grandpa Walch played for BYU Idaho, and their mom and dad played throughout high school.  They already can't wait until next year when the season starts up again.

Last week was Spirit Week at school because of a big basketball tournament for the 7th and 8th graders.  Last Tuesday was Crazy Hair/Pajama Day.  Sawyer wanted nothing to do with it this time around, but the girls were very excited to dress up for it.  To keep it simple for myself, I suggested that we just add a bunch of hair bows, which they were excited about, so that's what we did.  Their American Girl Dolls have these matching pajamas that they are wearing.

Payton competed in the Spelling Bee for our school district last Wednesday night.  For each class, in grades 2-8, they choose the top 2 spellers to compete against each other.  Payton was chosen as one of the two in her class!  It was so exciting!  My sisters and I competed in these Spelling Bees when we were little.    When my sister Meridith saw this picture of Payton, she said that those privacy dividers were probably the same ones that were used during our days.  I think she is right.  Everything was pretty much the same as when we competed in them 20 years ago.

After 4 incorrectly spelled words, competitors are dismissed.  This picture is right after Payton was dismissed.  She was bummed she didn't make it further, but we are so proud of her even for making it to the Spelling Bee!  When she was feeling down about it, I reminded her how talented she was, and it was just an honor to have even made it to the Spelling Bee, and to be one of the top spellers in her class!

Just a few other exciting things lately…

My Grandma and Aunt Sherece are visiting!  Sherece lives in Arizona, so she has been loving this rain we have been having!  It's such a nice break for her from all the desert sun.

Grandma and I are both really into essential oils, and so it's so much fun to share stories with her and how they've helped us!

Dad had a birthday yesterday, and so I made him a chocolate cake AND apple pie because that's what he requested!

We had an earthquake a few hours ago with a magnitude of 6.9 and the epicenter isn't too far from here.  Luckily, there hasn't been a threat of a tsunami as a result.  The kids were all asleep in bed, but it was pretty powerful and definitely rocked our house.

I am officially in the 3rd trimester of this pregnancy.  It's going by pretty fast, and I still have so much to do in preparation for this baby!  May 23rd is going to come so soon!

Dad bought Sawyer and Sage their own set of nunchucks because they love to watch Bruce Lee together.  Bruce Lee was amazing.  Now all my kids practice their karate chops and kicks.  This movie clip has been been watched a countless amount of times, and it never gets old to my kids (and don't worry…there are no nunchucks swinging near any body parts in this house!)...