The Chin Children

Happy Mother's Day

A sweet letter from Hayley:

"My mom is the best mom a child could ever wish for! My mother likes to sit down and get stuck in a good book by her favorite author. A mom should take a break from folding laundry. Some moms can be 6 and a half feet tall, but mine is not. On mother's day, my family sits down and give my mom presents. Last mothers day, my mom got crepes in bed for breakfast! Mothers don't like when their children get a F minus. My mother is happy when I make her bed in the morning. I wish my mom won a million dollar lottery. On mothers day, I will make my mom breakfast in bed. I wish I could give my mom the best life in the world because she really deserves it! A mother's day card is what means most to her. My mom never cooks something my family and I hate. Her food is always perfect! That is why I love my mother. Love, Hayley"

I love this girl to pieces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kindergarten Mother's Day Tea & performance

Attention Grandparents! Video at the bottom of this post! :)

Today was Ainsley's Kindergarten Mother's Day performance. I can't believe this year is almost over, it seems like she is already a first grader. :( The performance was so sweet and so funny and the kids all did such a great job - they worked really hard on all those songs and motions.

Ainsley and all her buddies

That's my girl. :)

Ainsley and her class "quilt" - she drew the dog and the violin.

Ainsley's drawing of me - it took me only one guess to figure out which one was hers! Of course - mom likes to read, plant and cook. Easy enough. Interesting that she made my eyes blue...but she did make my hair black, she always says I have black hair. ;)

Ainsley and her fabulous teacher, Mrs Shore. Love her! She has been an awesome teacher and wish we could have her for 1st grade. Isn't she the cutest?

Here are some videos - there were more but blogger wouldn't let me upload all of them!

Garden Hoedown

Mr Rooster

Special People

Spring Break & Easter

Spring Break was wonderfully quiet and not overly scheduled. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best so we didn't have a lot of outdoor time, but we still managed a few fun activities such as...
...saw How To Train Your Dragon - very fun and entertaining movie, though definitely intense and could be scary for some kids. My kids don't seem to be bothered much by that stuff so they loved it.
...I spent an afternoon helping a friend get her house ready for her soon-to-be-adopted little girl, and my kids had fun playing with all the other kids that were there. Good downtime for them and a quiet house for a work day for Dan. :)

...spent a day at Northwest Trek. Not great weather, in fact once we arrived it started pouring rain then hailing! So we had an early lunch and ate in the car and by the time we were done it had stopped. Because of the cool weather, the animals were out and actually quite active - it was a fun day. No pictures other than this tiny little screech owl. He was just too cute to not photograph! We saw elk, mountain goats, trumpeter swans, deer, bighorn sheep, bison, moose, caribou, bears, wolves, wolverines, opossums, cougars, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, beavers, otter, raccoons, eagles...and we even saw a slug. Ewww. One of the workers was holding one and teaching about them. They are quite disgusting.
...went to Kids Quest Museum at the Factoria Mall. We had one a one-year membership so we thought we'd take advantage of it. Fun place! Probably won't go back many more times as Hayley is probably getting a little too old for it, but they have some great hands-on science stuff. We had lunch at Goldberg's Famous Deli (yum!) - they bring a dish of kosher pickles to each table and Ainsley and I enjoyed that...although she combined hers with her chocolate chip pancakes - not so appetizing but she loved it.

 

...we planned to go ice-skating but I came down with a cold and the girls weren't feeling great so we didn't do that - another day.
...lots and lots of Wii and movies and crafts and sleeping in late and just plain old PLAY. It was great!

We celebrated Easter at Grandma and Papa's house and of course had lots of fantastic food!!!! Actually were able to have the egg hunt outdoors before the weather got crazy. Here are the girls in their Easter attire - notice the high heels on Hayley? This is the closest she gets to wearing a dress - Mom was pretty happy to actually get her into leggings. :) She is just looking SO OLD. Yikes. And a photo with the cousins Ella and Anna - this was the closest we got to having all 4 looking at the camera. Speaking of cameras, I need a new one! Argh. My SLR has been doing wonky things and my point & shoot...well you can see how terrible the pictures are. Any suggestions? The one I WANT is almost $2000 so that is NOT going to happen.

February!

Such a busy, busy month! Where to begin.....

Dan took the girls to the Daddy-Daughter dance again this year - it's become such a fun tradition that the girls really look forward to.

And, of course, the obligatory goofy-face picture. :)

My mom turned 60 in February so we planned a party to celebrate the day. it was a lot of fun, though the planning and food prep kind of consumed me for a while, but it was totally worth it. And dad surprised her with a trip to Hawaii!!

The cake...no, it's not a graveyard, we were going to do a gardening theme with fake veggies but I forgot them at home so we went with the "it's spring and you're preparing the soil" theme. ;)

Hayley & Ainsley bought her a giant TV remote!

Surprise! You're going to Hawaii!!!

Ainsley also had a birthday in February - can't believe that girl is already SIX!

She got her own set of golf clubs for her birthday - she was so excited! She said, "Mom, do you know why I like it so much? Not because they're pink, but I don't not like it because they're pink but because they have their own pack and golf balls and they're mine." :)

 

Practicing her swing in the backyard.

She had a party at the Super Jump Party Zone - so fun for the kids and no-stress for mom.

Ainsley on the big slide - this is about the only picture I could get of kids playing, they were all moving so fast every picture was a big blur

Ainsley's cupcake-cake

Ainsley and some of her buddies (Gloria, Sydney, Hope and Kendal)

We had fun with a family party at home too - we went with a rainbow theme inspired by a cake we saw online.

Do you think she's excited to get this movie?

The rainbow veggies....

...and rainbow fruit...

...and rainbow cake...just wait until you see what's inside...

How cool is THAT? And each layer was fruit-flavored so it tasted like Froot Loops! Such a fun cake and really very easy. I got the idea HERE and HERE.

I love Hayley's big smile in the background!

After eating only the red layer, Ainsley then ate all the frosting between the layers and said she was full.

I love Ainsley's and Ella's faces in this picture!

It was a busy, busy month with lots of parties and fun...so much fun that I forgot to take pictures on Valentine's Day. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Valentine's Craft part deux

Terrible picture, I know, but they look really cute in person! These XOXO Frames are another cute idea from  Tatertots & Jello. So easy too! I had to add the little velvet bow because I couldn't fit one more marble in the O but I like how it came out. I used hot glue for the marbles, and obviously only one row instead of multiple. Used one bag of the clear, floral marbles (not the flat-backed kind), frames from the Dollar Tree spray-painted black, and paper was on sale today for 25 cents each - bonus! And since the paper is over the glass, you can reuse these for something else - maybe I'll make something spring-y to put in them after February is over...like THIS!

Valentine's Craft

I have been spending way too much time doing the everyday mundane chores, and have been really want to do some crafting. I came across this cute Valentine's wreath idea from Tatertots & Jello. It's made out of cupcake liners! I love how it came out, although I may change the ribbon, it kind of looks like a funeral wreath with the ribbons hanging behind it. Not sure yet. :)  All the directions are at the above link - I used about 60-62 cupcake papers. The 8" wreath form I got from the Dollar Tree. I found the cupcake liners at Michael's in a dollar bin, 48 in a package. I love how this turned out! More crafting to come...