Girl Scouts camping trip, Facebook Easter party...Next up, Disneyland!!

So this is quite a record for me - posting again after only a week! I admit it's only because we are leaving for Disneyland Sunday morning and I wanted to do a post JUST on that when I got back:-). 

Last Saturday, Lynsey had her Girl Scouts camping trip! The weather was decent and she had a really good time! She did complain a bit about how strict they were with cleaning up everything in the morning, but I doubt it did her any real harm;-). She also started her Level 3 gymnastics that morning and she was a bit nervous but had fun. I think she feels a bit intimidated because she was the only new girl in the class so of course these girls all had some time in Level 3 under their belts already. I assured her she will be right with them in no time! 

Yesterday evening was the Facebook Easter Egg Hunt and we ventured downtown to take part in the festivities! You can see by the look on Adam's face on pretty well all the pictures that he was just barely tolerating it - he was only there for the food:-/. The egg hunts were really lame - we were just a few minutes late for them and the eggs were all gone. They didn't have limits on how many the kids could take so the first few kids had heaping baskets full. I feel pretty confident that I would have imposed my own limits on my kids if we were one of the lucky first ones, but who knows - perhaps I would have let greed rule the day as well! Thankfully my kids are old enough that while Nathan and Lynsey were a bit disappointed, it really didn't phase them all that much. We got some treats in the cafeteria.

On Sunday, we leave for Disneyland! I am so nervous, I can't believe we are doing this. I have thought about what it would be like when we finally pulled the trigger and made Disney our destination, but I just kept thinking of it in abstract terms - "when Adam is ready". I guess we think he is ready now, but we will see! I am excited to pack summer clothes in any event, mid-twenties here we come!

Nathan's party, another work trip for Brian

I blinked and March went by! I guess there's still a whole week left, but it feels like it went by so fast. Nathan had his party on the 4th and it was a lot of fun! Always a bit overwhelming to have so many kids in the house but it was a lot of fun for everyone:-). He was very busy building Lego for the next few days! There was a Dad's Day at Nathan's preschool that next week which Nathan had been looking forward to for a long time. Nothing like getting to spend some extra time with Dad! What else happened . . . Lynsey and her friend Ari ran a Girl Scouts cookie booth one Sunday afternoon, that was kind of fun! They both got a bit tired of it by the end, but I think it was a good experience! People were so nice to them, very encouraging. I took Nathan and Adam to a Special Needs jump night at Elevated Sportz and it was a lot of fun! I love that there are so many places that have these special needs nights, it is such a blessing to families like ours. Not crowded, everyone understands atypical behavior, just a good experience.

Brian left for India last week Wednesday and the kids and I were on our own for just over a week! Lynsey had a St. Patricks Day Dance and a sleepover that same night, lots of excitement! She apparently barely slept and even had a nap the next day - she definitely must have been tired to do that! We trucked along with all the usual activities and the kids did great - missed Daddy but managed okay thankfully.

I haven't given an update on my piano lessons since I announced that I was taking them, so here is an update - I am LOVING them! I look forward to practicing and practice even longer than the recommended amount (such a keener haha!). It has been such a life-giving experience and I'm so grateful for the chance to do this for myself! I'm not exactly at the point of playing in front of other people or anything, but my teacher says that I am quite advanced for someone who just started (he remarked after I finished a scale test in about half the time he was expecting that I must be a very driven person - he has no idea lol!). I feel a bit frustrated because Adam often stresses out when I play which sucks the enjoyment out of it for me, but he is slowly getting a bit better about it. Some days are better than others.

Nobody under 5 in this house anymore!

I feel like we reached a real milestone this week! Nathan turned 5 on Tuesday, and we're having a party for him tomorrow. He is turning into quite the little guy! It feels so strange to think that our youngest is 5 years old - we are really officially out of the baby/toddler stage, almost out of preschool age! Crazy. We went to the mall last weekend and every single one of our kids was too tall for the play area! They went in anyway because it's a free-for-all, but I think it will be our last time. The end of an era for sure. I'm not very sentimental about it, as the baby/toddler years were so exhausting, but I just found it kind of interesting.

February felt like a weird month. We had a few snow days and late starts, which of course throws everything off, especially when it's the week that Brian is gone. Mid-winter break was okay, we didn't really do anything exciting. Lynsey had her Science Fair yesterday which was fun for her, she did a project with her friend Maggie about wild animals coming to eat food she set out for them - the snow we had this last weekend helped with tracking footprints (glad it was good for something other than just being annoying, grr). This really has been the strangest winter we've had since moving out here - apparently there might be even more snow this weekend! If we have another snow day or late start I will not be impressed - Spring can come anytime now!

Speaking of Spring, we made a big decision this past weekend - we are taking the kiddos to Disneyland on their Spring Break! Not for the whole week, it's not a cheap destination by any stretch of the imagination, but we found decent flights and will leave early Sunday morning so we have most of the day Sunday to take in the park, and then leave Wednesday late so we have the whole day Wednesday as well - and only pay for 3 nights of hotel. We will see how this works out, hopefully the kids do well and sleep on the plane! They have in the past so I'm hoping for the best. We have even managed to get Adam a bit excited for it, so curious to see if he will try any of the rides. We are hyping them up and going to try and get him on a really tame ride to start to see if he likes it. I feel like he will like rides, he loves waterslides and being wrestled and thrown around, we just have to convince him to try them! In any case, we will try and have a relaxed approach and if he's just not into it, be okay with taking him back to the hotel and doing some swimming, which we know he loves. I can't let myself think about how expensive the park passes are, we know he might not be too into it so we might just have to trade off taking him back to the hotel if he's done there. Lynsey is really excited, I think at the very least her and Nathan will really love it there!