Easter 2017

For the first time EVER in the Madsen household, the Easter bunny came on Sunday. What the what!? I know, it was weird. But the youth had a temple trip on Saturday morning, and we felt that trumped the Easter Bunny. Hopefully next year the temple trips will be planned a little better...

So this year our ward had an Easter activity the day before Easter. It involved an egg hunt, activities for the kids, and an egg decorating contest. I decided I wanted to win that contest. So I made these eggs.

I painted instead of using dye, and used my Cricut to cut out decals.

I love how they turned out.

But I did not win. I KNOW. I couldn't believe it either. I lost to Brother Fisch, who made an R2D2 egg. And probably because the Young Men were judging and I had to get after them for driving me nuts and interrupting while I was trying to talk to Lance. (Seriously. I was talking to him and they kept getting in my face and trying to talk over us. Um, no.)

Oh well. I still loved making them. I kinda wish I had made them with paper mache eggs so they'd be permanent. Maybe next year.

The youth ran the activity and they did a good job. Tess was the only one of our bunch to get her face painted.

The egg hunt was okay. The little kids were let outside first so they had a chance to actually get some eggs.

But they were out there so much longer that they got way, way more than the older kids!

Josh went for the easy ones out in the parking lot. I told him he should go hunt out in the marsh with the quicksand. (No really. There's quicksand in Indiana. Some by our church. All the kids know you NEVER go play in the marsh by the church!)

We even had an Easter Bunny and Chick. (The youth are good sports!)

On Sunday everyone was up at 7am so we would have time to hunt for eggs and still get ready for church. See Josh pouting on the couch? That was the theme for the day. He was SUCH A PUNK. Complained about his Easter basket. Refused to hunt eggs. Refused to behave. Destroyed one of the colored pencils he got in his basket while at church, thus losing the right to have those colored pencils. (And making me pretty much want to toss him out the door so I could enjoy church. But I didn't.) ((I didn't toss him out and I didn't enjoy church.))

Tess REALLY got into Easter this year. She was so excited for it all!

More pouting on the couch by Josh.

The Easter bunny brings an obscene amount of eggs to our house.

Even more pouting on the couch by Josh.

I didn't get a single picture of all four kids looking nice. Someone looked goofy in each. Oh well.

Isn't Tess's dress cute? Costco, for under $20. Man, I love that store!

We invited our friends the Eastons over for dinner that evening, as well as the Elders in our ward. We had a great dinner, with lots of good food and great conversation. Seriously, 3 hours flew by and we were all surprised when all of a sudden is was after 8pm! We had a great time. But did I get a single picture of all us there? Nope.

But I did get a picture of the awesome trifle I made for dessert. Mmmm...

I used my garden seedlings and Easter eggs to decorate. We even got out the china for the adults to use.

Tess made name cards for each person so they would know where to sit. I gave her a list of names, but she still had issues writing some of them. Her brothers teased her a little, but the rest of us all thought it was adorable. (Because it was.)

Even with the change in Easter Bunny days and Josh's supreme grouchiness, it was a lovely Easter.

Josh's Statehouse Field Trip

Last Monday I chaperoned the 4th grade field trip to the state house. I love history, so this was a good trip for me! Josh begged me to ride the bus with him, so I did. Fortunately, it wasn't that full, so I was able to have a seat to myself and sit kind of sideways, since there's no such thing as legroom on a school bus.

We got to the State House and had lunch sitting on the ledge out front. This is something I had always wanted to do but just didn't know it until that morning! Here's Josh and his buddy Ethan.

The tour of the State House was only just over an hour long. Our tour guide was an older lady who you could tell had dealt with A LOT of school classes in her job. She suffered no fools nor chatty 4th graders.

We got to hear from our district's senator. He was a true politician and the kids were bored within 87 seconds.

We also got to meet with state executive over schools. She was fun and only spoke for 2 minutes. The kids were more impressed that she had a giant couch in her office.

It was a quick field trip, but fun. I like watching my kids interact with their classmates. I also knew 99% of the state trivia questions asked during the tour, so you know, I was pretty much the coolest mom there. (Hah.) (The Indiana state beverage is what tripped me - Water. Our state beverage is water. Indiana, why are you so boring some times?!?!)

SpringFest 2017

Last Saturday Spencer had a youth activity up at the Stake Center in the morning. So we dropped him off and headed over to campus for SpringFest. We've been attending off and on since Spencer was a baby, but some years the weather wasn't that great or we just didn't want to deal with strollers. But this year the weather was perfect and we are now a no stroller family!

We only stayed about 2 hours, but that was plenty. We saw lots of animals, although there weren't any chicks or ducks out this year. Sadness.

We made our own plant necklaces, thanks to the horticulture department.

And we played with some mechanical engineering toys.

Who knew it could be so fun moving corn from one box to another?

I love Cole's sucker still in his mouth.

Cole "created" a new product - a Computer Cash Register Vacuum. I'm sure it'll be a huge success once on the market...

We also got to see the sun through a telescope, which was pretty cool. And saw the ol' Mentos in Diet Coke trick, which is always fun. Tess had a tantrum and threw herself down on a muddy part of the ground. We felt no sympathy. At the Muslim Society tent we took a quiz and got free baklava that was DELICIOUS. We ended the morning with Tess falling to pieces because one of her balloons flew away. A kid crying over a lost balloon is pretty much how we end SpringFest every year, so we headed home.

Blue & Gold Banquet 2017

Last night was the Blue & Gold Banquet. It was Josh's last one - which he claimed he was fine with, and generally had a bad attitude about until we got there. Then he had a blast. Lance didn't get to come because mutual was up at the Stake Center and our ward apparently doesn't believe in correlating calendars and thinking about families with older and younger kids. What do they do during Ward Correlation? It's a mystery. Yes, I am bitter about this. (Also, yes, we tried to get Spencer a ride. There are only so many people on this side of town to ask...)

However, even without Lance it was a nice evening. Dinner was good and my kids are getting old enough that the prospect of a buffet dinner without two adults isn't quite so daunting. And I gave up long ago trying to get my kids to eat a balanced meal at functions like this. If Cole wants to eat rolls, Cheetos, and 6 cookies for dinner, so be it. This is not a battle worth fighting.

They of course played the game where you tie a balloon to your ankle and then try to stomp everyone else's balloon. It's a 3rd ward Cub Scout favorite.

After dinner they had little activities for the kids. One was a presentation on getting your Arrow of Light. They played real marbles at another. (Tess and Josh were pretty into it.)

Also, now that I think of it, Tess and Josh were in one group and Cole was in another, and Cole was just fine with that. Totally independent and playing well and having a grand time. Wow! A year ago that would have been unheard of.

Any activity that blindfolds Josh is good in my book. They had a fun time guiding each other and then earning candy at the end.

Earlier that afternoon I had jumped onto ScoutTrack (the website our pack uses) to see how much Josh needs to finish before turning 11 in September. (Since we don't usually have scouts in the summer we end up finishing all of his requirements at home. It works out well.) So I got on only to realize that the system still thinks he's in Bear. What the what?

That night I spoke to his den leader, who freely admitted he doesn't use ScoutTrack. Okay, I kinda understand that, but did he have any written records of what Josh had done.

Nope.

But hey, we were free to join them for their Webelos hike this Saturday. Um, NO. Josh has already done that hike. Twice. And if you had the records you would know that.

@#$@#^@*#%%**!!!!

Fortunately, his leader is also our home teacher. So we came to an understanding that he would come over this Sunday and we would figure things out. Because this is not okay. And Josh deserves better.

Not only that, but none of the Webelos got any of their badges or awards that night either, because their leaders didn't turn in their reports some time. And as I sat there feeling bad for poor Josh (while he was up front), I realized that the same thing had happened at the last THREE pack meetings. Only I had never really thought much of it. Oh you better believe I'm thinking about it now.

Gosh dang it. Every time I think Cub Scouts and I can put aside our differences and forget our tempestuous past, something like this happens. I just can't quit you, Cub Scouts. At least not until Cole turns 11. *sigh*