Who Knew the Easter Bunny Was Such a Messy Guy?

Check out these cuties!

And these beauties!

And this mess!

What a mess! That bunny - he found some cascarones! In other words, he brought us confetti filled eggs that had LOTS of sparkly confetti inside! I have to admit, I was a bit shocked at the mess we encountered but I was pretty excited to see those eggs! When I was a young un, we used to have confetti egg fights with our neighbors. They started it! One Easter morning many years ago, we received a visit from the family next door. Not suspecting a thing we invited them in - whoa! They started throwing eggs at us! Those eggs had been emptied of yolk and filled with torn paper bits. The shock was soon replaced by screams of fun and a tradition was started.

It was fun to bring a little of my traditions from long ago to my kids. They sure enjoyed making the mess! The Easter bunny was good to the whole family. We all received hydration packs for skiing and hiking. The kids have already tried theirs out with a trek through the dessert with Nana and Papa. Dylan and Lyndsi also found some new pets in their easter baskets this year. Yep, more creatures in the house! This time in the form of sea monkeys! We're purifying their water tonight and should see some little guys floating in it in the next week or so!

My parents came over for Easter and also to watch Dylan wrestle. Their visit was fun and I think we all enjoyed the weekend. They are leaving on Thursday for their trip to Albuquerque. They'll be gone for a month so I'm glad they were able to get here.

Dylan claimed that he is not wrestling next year! He had a rough tournament yesterday - anxieties got in the way of successful matches and he just couldn't seem to pull out of his misery. It was hard to see him so upset - no picutres this week!

One more week until spring break - whew!

Were We Playing Hooky?

Isn't she so sweet???

Nah - Dylan was just getting better! I stayed home from school with Dylan yesterday. He'd had a horrible cough and was running a fever the 2 days before so I made my sub plans and settled in to be a loving, caring mother. Wrong! That kid has so much energy! His fever didn't return after about midnight so I was stuck at home with an 8 year old boy who had been down for 2 days! We had fun visiting iCarly.com and doing some reading but by noon we both needed to get out.

So....it was my lucky day! Lyndsi's preschool class was putting on 2 Easter programs for a local memory care facility. Dylan and I got to the second program just as the kids were getting ready to start. I did feel a bit guilty about having my supposedly sick son at a home for elderly people but he'd tested negative for influenza and positive for an ear infection. So hopefully he wasn't contagious! And, don't forget, no more fever!

Lyndsi is so sweet! The kids sang several spring and Easter songs as they marched in a circle and then face their audience. Lyndsi was a bit shy but she performed right to a couple of gentleman who were smiling sweetly at her. I'm so glad I got to be there!

I promised the kids I'd take them to Horton Hears a Who tomorrow night if we didn't have to clean our rooms. What do you know - they both hit the bedrooms this afternoon and got them spic and span! Well, sort of. But who knew the power of bribes was so great! Nana and Papa are also coming tomorrow night to be here for wrestling and Easter.

Which brings up another exciting event - mom is officially retired! Well, as of tomorrow anyway. She had a birthday today and works her last day tomorrow. They plan to be here for the weekend and then take off for Albuquerque and some road trip adventures on Thursday. They'll be gone for about a month. Can't wait to hear about their freedom!

Punxatawney Phil Get His Way!

Snow????

Look what we woke up to yesterday! If my mental math is correct, yesterday was the 6 week anniversary of Groundhog Day. Now, as you all should remember :) the official groundhog of Groundhog Day is Phil. Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter. On February 2nd, I agreed with Phil. It was still very cold and gray and we still had about 18 inches of snow on the ground. However, February 3rd was a whole different story! It warmed up and the snow started to melt. It melted every day...until...yesterday. Oh were the kids excited! They were in there snow pants and gloves before I was even out of bed! Yep - Phil was ANGRY and he got his revenge!

No wrestling this weekend. Whew. We had a lovely. leisurely weekend! Dylan went to a birthday party, Lyndsi and I went shopping, Steve did homework, Lyndsi had a playdate and we all went to the O'Connors for dinner on Saturday night. Originally we had planned to head up to Sun Mountain but decided it had been too hectic lately so we are going to go over Spring Break - hopefully.

This should be a good week - only Cub Scouts to head off to on Wednesday evening but otherwise, no plans. The Cub Scouts are going to be learning about bike safety and will ride around the trail at the sports complex so I think Lyndsi and I will join them. A fun way to get a little exercize!

The leprechauns are due to visit tonight! I don't know what's happening to me. A few years ago the leprechauns started visiting our home on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. They tend to make a mess and leave a treat. One year, poor Ruth was stained with bits of green and our toilet water had a greenish tint! Tonight the little guys have already tossed all the Easter decorations and left Andes Mints on the dining room table. Fortunately, I've taken the green food coloring to school so our milk should stay white and our little white gerbil should maintain his color!

Yes, the leprechauns have visited our classroom also. This year they left a couple of chairs overturned and footprints with gold sprinkles on several desks and papers. They also left us all a recipe and the makings for leprechaun milkshakes. Yummy! I just hope I get to school at the same time as my students!

It was a year ago tonight that we hit a deer on the Conconully highway. He was a big guy and smashed the front end of the car pretty well! We were without the van for a month. The kids still remember that it was the night of the leprechaun visit. They were pretty traumatized! So was I. I can still see the poor buck standing in the middle of the road and everything that happened after that. Fortunately, the deer didn't see us and died within seconds of impact. Hopefully we never go through that again!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

The Face of a Winner!

Yep, here is the face Dylan comes off the mat with when he pins his opponent. You can imagine what it looks like when he loses! Today I realized that Dylan is a pretty darn good wrestler! I don't know why it took me a year to figure this out - maybe it was my mommy blinders - but I was able to watch Dylan's matches in a relatively objective way today. He's darn good! The tears are a result of the adrenaline shooting through his skinny little body. He hasn't figured out a way to deal with it all, other than to break down and cry! However, even as Dylan was crying, he was winning! Again this week, he pinned in his first match, won by points in his second and was pinned in his third. We spent the morning in Tonasket watching kid wrestling, this time without the Cheeseman clan for support!

See Dylan on top???

Spring has sprung!

After our return from Tonasket, we stopped by The Rusty Shovel, everyone's favorite local furniture/decor/garden store, to see the newly opened garden shop. Wow! It makes me want to get to work on our yard! The temperature was somewhere in the 50's and the daffodil shoots are popping through the cold ground. It's almost spring! As happy as I am about the sun and the blue sky, I can't help thinking that spring adds a whole lot of work to our already busy schedule! But - we took advantage of the warm weather and headed over to the sports complex to take on the walking path. The kids rode bikes and Steve and I walked along with them. It just so happens that one of our neighbors also came to play on the playground equipment. We had a good visit and returned home 2 hours later!

Weekends like this make me yearn for summer. The family time and fresh air are so good for us all!

Kid Wrestling Hits Again!

Dylan is a wrestler once again! Kid Wrestling has taken over our home, our thoughts and my nightmares! As soon as Dylan found out that the high school wrestling season was coming to a close, he started asking about Kid Wrestling. This year he convinced Max to try it out - sorry Amy! - Time dulls the shock of watching your little boy get pulverized by another little boy so I felt like I was prepared this year. Until Saturday's tournament anyway!

The first tear shed brought memories of last year's experiences tumbling back! Dylan has grown and improved in his skills, I'll admit to that. And it is pretty fun to watch him do so well. But....he still has trouble dealing with that rush of adrenaline. At one point he even started hyperventilating! The first match was quick and dirty - Dylan pinned his opponent in about 15 seconds. The second was a little more challenging, though Dylan still won. The third match had both boys crying, Dylan the victor again. So that brought us to the championship match. A disheartenen Dylan hit the mat with a boy about 5 inches shorter than he. What that liitle guy lacked in height he made up for in stamina and aggression. This match brought Dylan to hyperventilation and the ref stopped the wrestling to help Dylan calm himself. Though the tears fell, Dylan kept going until the very end. He was only 2 points behind but was pinned in the last 2 seconds. Ugh! He was devastated and I was hurting for him! He did bring home a pretty cool second place medal but that didn't even seem to help.

Both Dylan and Max were different little boys at the end of the 4 hour tournament than they were at the beginning. Check out Amy's Blog for some great pictures of the whole event. I didn't have my camera - bad mom!

The boys' disappointment in the day lasted until that evening when they were both reenacting the whole experience. Now neither one can wait until next Saturday so they can do it all over again! Go figure!