Happy Braces! I mean... Music Performance! I mean...Easter!

We started this week off right with a trip to Idaho Falls for some shopping and BRACES!

Yep, it is time for round two of braces for Caleb.  He is a good sport about it, not complaining too much.  I even showed him the bill - yikes! - to emphasize why he can't eat the things on the "no list," and he was surprised and understood the point. :)  Not to mention the fact that the orthodontist's office is and HOUR AND A HALF away, so we can't just zip over there for a broken bracket. But at least he got a t-shirt out of the deal!  And one of his good friends at school, Ashley, also got braces, so they can commiserate.

It was also his first soccer scrimmage of the year!

Soccer is not huge in Star Valley (yet), so he hasn't been able to play since last spring in Parker.  Just about a month ago, we went to a meeting at the middle school because they are starting a soccer "club" - not really competitive with other schools because there is no funding, but a chance to get boys playing together and learning skills, in order to be able to try out for the high school team.  Yay!  They have been waiting for the snow to melt from the field before they can really start working; they even had one practice where they wore snow boots and tramped around smashing and moving snow.  Ha!  But this Friday they worked out a deal to jog over to the high school field and "scrimmage" together with the JV team.  Families were encouraged to come watch and cheer, so we did!  It was really fun to see him on the field again and I have definitely appreciated him coming home more tired after running around at soccer. ;)  I hope he can get some good practice in before tryouts.

In other news this week, Rachel had her 3rd grade music and choir performance - her teacher said he doesn't like to call it a concert because that gives the impression that it is perfected, which their performance is not. Ha!  Rachel was very excited because she got to sing a special part with a few of her friends.  She did a great job!  I am impressed with everything that Mr. Kratz is able to teach 5 classes of third graders in such a limited amount of time.

 

 

Last but not least, it was Easter weekend.  Because it was also General Conference, we did not manage to get any nice pictures of everyone dressed in their Easter Sunday best...we spent the day mostly in pajamas.  But the girls had a great time Saturday participating in the Alpine Egg Hunt (Holy candy, Batman!)  Ella was too old to pick up eggs (age limit: 9) but she was cheering the girls along in their searching.  (Meanwhile, Caleb and Kip were playing around in a skidster at our property, pushing snow out of the way for a soils test this coming week).  

Look at those baskets!  The bunny doesn't even need to visit our house!!  But don't worry, he did anyway.  I guess I am a sucker for hyper/emotional kids that eat nothing but sugar for days. :/  **Side note - Kinley's toothless smile in this photo is hilarious and darling and I love it!** 

We also got our egg dyeing in and had a nice relaxing, conference watching Easter Sunday.

What an exciting conference it was, too!  The kids weren't too amazed but Kip and I were both surprised and impressed by the number of program changes; combining the priesthood quorums,  retiring home/visiting teaching, 7 new temples...all exciting things as the church develops and grows.  It was a very uplifting and encouraging weekend of messages!  And...a great start to our Spring Break.  YAY Spring Break!