She's got Bieber fever!

Campbell has not waivered about her crush on Justin Bieber. Even as her friends fall off the Bieber love wagon, she remains steadfast. She was SO excited yesterday when I came home with a t-shirt that so she could show her love. She fell on the floor with excitement.


Of course, there was no decision on an outfit for school today!

Happy Birthday Peter!

Today Peter celebrated #39 (what a youngin'), and we celebrated being done with the dang STAAR test.

We went to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse. The kids loved it. 

As for gifts, we gave him a pull up bar that fits in a doorway of the house, some new pants, and two blue-ray DVD's: Star Trek and Gladiator.  

My favorite gift for him was something homemade.  After school on Tuesday, the kids got busy making a hand print collage for Daddy.  I had bought a cheap frame and then got some matte cut to fit inside. Then each of the children chose a paint color and we let it rip.

cheap-o frame from, you guessed it, Goodwill.

Gold for Conleigh!

I painted the frame gray today.

 

Soon Peter will have a real office at work and he said he will be taking this sweet gift with him.

Happy Birthday dear Daddy-O!

Turkey Tuesday

 Snagged 3-D movie glasses get a new life!

Look at these two beauties

I picked up Conleigh and Campbell at school today and we high-tailed it down to see Krissy and Brian's new baby GIRL!  We are so excited for their family and for this little beauty!
Krissy is Conleigh's God mother and they have a super special bond.  I am so happy for my long time friend to have completed her family.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

 

  

The local middle school is presenting the Wizard of Oz this weekend.  Peter is out of town for work, so I decided it would be a good outing for the kids and me.  We went this evening and it was an all 6th grade production.  Turns out, our neighbor was in it and we didn't even know it.  They altered the story just enough to not need permission to do it. It was cute. They had Dorothy in a Kansas Jayhawks jersey playing basketball at the beginning of the show. There was hip music and it was the perfect length (one hour) for the kids.

 After the show, Campbell grabbed a playbill and a pen and she went autograph hunting. That girl is independent and not afraid. She sat by herself the whole show because she found one seat that was close to the stage.

The best part of the evening for Alex was wearing his Healys and this awesome sloped walkway. It was perfect for coasting in the Healys. Check out the video. It says it all.

 

Monday, Monday

After dinner at Rudy's tonight (always a safe choice because we know the kids will eat), we got all three kids haircut.  Conleigh seriously hadn't had her haircut in probably a year. I secretly told the Great Clips lady to cut at least an inch off. Alex wanted a trim and walked out with a faux hawk.  I didn't snap a picture before bed. Maybe all the goop she put in his hair will still have it sticking up in the morning. Campbell's hair has gotten so long. Once swim team starts, it will be a green stringy mess.

I had all my fun today at the foot doctor. Ingrown toe nail equals fun times and a big toe wrap, Rx, and four shots in my toe. It was weird because I could feel my heart start racing when she put the meds in through the shot. Then it didn't quite numb all the way so she added another shot. Ouch!

Tomorrow I will be brave and go back into Conleigh's third grade classroom.  I don't think I can help much with the math and grammar they are doing. Geez.  And, to think this Friday I am going to help with math in Alex's class.  Come on summer...

A new instrument

Look what Peter was high bidder on for the Goodwill auction...

A xylophone. Oh brother! I guess it is better than the trumpet he also bid on.

Community Garden Delivery

Have you ever bought a Groupon? Have you ever had a Groupon almost expire and then have to use it pronto?  Well, we were in that boat last week. I had signed up to have a community garden box delivered, and the groupon was expiring.

After dark on Wednesday night, a knock at the door came, and the friendly man handed us a box filled with all sorts of good stuff fresh from the soil.
We had ourselves some fresh carrots, beets, kale, turnips, salad greens.  I'm thankful for my cook friendly husband. He wasn't intimidated. We had fresh beets for dinner tonight and they were so good! I have never had beets. I remember my parents eating them, but I'm sure they were canned. These were warm and sweet and delicious. 
We chopped the fresh carrots up the other night when we had some extra kids at our house. Fresh carrots taste so much better than bagged baby carrots.  And, I found a kale recipe.  We made all the kids taste it, even the extra kids.  As Hayden put it, it tastes like broccoli with 10 spoons of butter on it. Alrighty!
Yay for fresh veggies!

In your Easter bonnet

Beautiful young lady.

All that sass.

Always the joker.  Check out the "i fell out of my bed' mark on his face.

Granny bought the girls their Easter outfits (and bonnets).  She is always good at picking out just the right thing. 

Thanks Granny.

 We enjoyed a great meal together after church.

The Spence crew!

Every year Easter means more to me than the year before. I am thankful for a risen Lord. And, I am thankful to have been raised in a house of believers. Hopefully, I am passing on this most awesome gift to my children.

He is risen Indeed!

Twas the day before Easter...

... and we woke up in Houston.  Peter headed to Montgomery Saturday morning to help his mom get some things done.  We got ready to go to an egg hunt at Hosanna.  Our kids were each in a different age group and there were not that many kids altogether. To say the least, they came home with quite a load of candy.

 

It was a great egg hunt and a good start to the day.  It is so nice at my parents house because the kids can run in and out and ride bikes and not need someone to stand in the street to run interference for traffic. They love it and so do I.  Campbell mastered the 2 wheel bike this weekend. She loves it! She was close over spring break, but this past weekend, she totally got it. Now, how do we get Conleigh to be willing to try?

 That night after everyone was in bed, I got to work on a craft I've completely procrastinated on getting done.  The story of my crafty life. I buy all the supplies and then don't do the project. I had taken all of these supplies to Houston back during spring break and didn't do it, so I packed it up and took it there again. 

Here are the supplies:

Styrofoam cone.  I've had this in a cabinet.  I painted it long ago for another project that 

never came to be.

Styrofoam eggs from the Dollar Tree. I had 3 dozen and used all but a couple.

I also used some moss from Dollar Tree and my rarely used glue gun.

Here is my cute Easter egg tree.

 

It is so cute. I think I was the most impressed at the lunch table on Easter, but I really like it. I found it on another blog, but I do not know where.

On Easter morning, the kids woke up at 6:30 because Alex fell out of bed and hit his face on the bedside table. Plus, he fell right onto Conleigh who was sleeping on the floor beside him. They didn't even think about looking to see if the bunny came to the grandparents house. I had made each of them a little photo album of some pictures from Disney. They were happy with that. While Alex and I were looking at his, I nonchalantly wondered out loud about the Easter bunny. He looked out the window and saw an egg.  Instantly he was telling his sisters, and they all took off outside to collect the loot.

Good stuff. More Easter pictures tomorrow.

Lottery vs. Cake Walk

Well, we didn't win the lottery but we won the cake walk at the school carnival!!

Campbell did it one time and won.  Here is her pick.  What five year old wouldn't choose this cake?  It was really pretty.  This picture is after it had taken a ride on the golf cart and fell through the box on the bottom that held the cake that I won on my one time through the cake walk!  I didn't catch a picture of my butterfinger cake but I can report that it was delicious.

Poor Conleigh. She must have done the cake walk 20 times and she didn't win. Close to tears, I told her it was all luck and she responded, "No, it's not!!"  Really?  Learn something new everyday (smile).  Conleigh did turn in one of the cutest cake contributions for the carnival. Check this out:

This is a sunflower peep cake with chocolate chips in the middle.  She spied this cake in a magazine that Granny bought a while back called "food fun".  I'm so proud of her for working on this cake. I helped her frost the cake, but otherwise she did it all.

Other carnival highlights included the Hamster ball for Conleigh. Basically you get inside this huge ball and you roll with it down the field and back. Kids love it but I don't know why.

I didn't see Alex the whole time. He was with his friends ruling the school. His friend Hayden reported to his dad that it was the best day of his life because they got to go wherever they wanted in the school without adults telling them what to do.

Peter had scored some prime steaks at work this week, so we had the Schultz's over for dinner. It was a fun evening with good steak, salad, corn on the cob, keg beer and wine. Then of course, we got to have a cake taste test because we won two cakes at the carnival.  Campbell had a yellow cake and mine was chocolate. The vote was pretty split on the winner. It was fun to see the Barbie come out of the cake. We decided the baker had mauled a Barbie to make the cake.   No legs on the lady.  

Poor Barbie ended up thrown to the curb.  It was pretty hilarious though when Campbell marched in with a naked Ken doll that only had one leg.  

We waved goodbye to our friends after dinner and went to water the flowers in the pots on the front stairs.  This is what came next: 

Yes, that is a water hose in her pants and her brother feeling the bubble of water/air there. 

Quenching their thirst.

Playing with water in the cover of night.  Are we still on water restriction?

The end.  Soaked and happy kids.

good night.