Ready to Grill

All the sunny skies and great Spring weather have brought the tulips up and made the grass green. It has also told us it is time to get the yard in shape for some backyard barbecuing! And as of today, thanks to a BIG assist from a landscaping crew, we are officially ready to go. Yeah!

Of course, I can't really enjoy it too much now. My seasonal allergies are so bad that I can't even open the windows in the house, let alone spend too much time outside. I mowed the lawn today and almost died. Eye drops and the usual allergy meds aren't helping much. There have been lots of news stories about how high the pollen count is this year and unfortunately, I can tell you it is true.


Can't wait for the trees to flower and bloom. Looking good outside, now if only it was looking that good inside...

Movie Fanatics

I think I have said this before: "WE LOVE MOVIES!" And thus, we go to movies all the time. Recently, we have seen Alice in Wonderland, How to Train Your Dragon, and this weekend we went to see, Clash of the Titans.

A few years back, Dave's mom bought us the 80s version and the girls got a real kick out of watching it, so we have been anxiously awaiting this new version. Of course, it's not really the same story, but we still enjoyed it (I don't know why movie studios think they can write a better version of a classic mythology story, really??)

To add to the fun, we decided to go to a new movie theater in town that basically includes a full service restaurant in the theater. You can order a full meal, have it served to you, and eat during the movie. The girls were thrilled with the dinner and movie concept. Ashley and I had delicious cheeseburgers, Dave said his pizza was mediocre. I guess you just have to know what to order. Each screen in the theater is in a different theme room, ours was called the Gold Room, decorated in the Egyptian style. This is what the inside of the theater looked like:

Unseasonably Warm

Despite the rain we have today, the past week has been so nice. Lots of sunshine and temps. in the 80s. Definitely, the best spring that I can remember in a while.

To take advantage of the warm weather, the girls and I decided to go for a walk and make a stop at the playground.

It was a little windy, but we had lots of fun. Our walk was only about 1.5 miles, but thank goodness we didn't go any farther. Paige definitely needs a little more time to build up her endurance. She was so "tired" on the way home, you would have thought I made her walk coast-to-coast.


Dumb Ducky - every year a poor little mother duck decides to lay her eggs on a playground. Unfortunately, this chosen location has low probabilities for success. The powers that be even tried to protect this nest with Caution tape but the mother was still scared away.

Easter Weekend

Let's just start out with another entry to add to my "eating blog." Yep, to the left you will see the spread we enjoyed on Conference Saturday. I might mention that it was just for me and the girls. Of course, it was way too much food, but putting it together was fun and now we have lots of yummy leftovers.

Fortunately, on Sunday we had lots more people, including Dad to celebrate and eat with. The morning began with Easter baskets!

Shortly after, our friends the Griffin's came over to spend the day with us. We watched Conference and ate Easter dinner together. The Griffins brought lots of tasty side dishes, included dutch oven potatoes. The best part is that Ashley got a lesson in dutch oven cooking from Aaron:

Our contribution to dinner was the baking. We baked the ham, bread and desserts. Here is my new baking experiment---Braided Easter Egg Bread. It was pretty and tasted okay, but next year I think I will use a different bread recipe.

After dinner, Dave and Juliann hid a bunch of plastic eggs in the backyard for an Easter Egg Hunt.

Here are the kids waiting for the signal to start.

The hunt was a success with lots of eggs for everyone, we even had our neighbor's little daughter come over and hunt with us too.

The day wouldn't be complete without a little dessert for a sweet ending. White coconut cake and/or red velvet cake.

He Is Risen!

Last week Paige's Kindergarten class had an open house. I went and was able to review Paige's art and writing portfolios. It was fun to see how much she has learned.

In one particular journal entry, the kids were given the prompt, "I think about ________." Then they had to write that sentence 5 times filling in the blank with something different each time. Most of Paige's responses were what you would expect, "I think about my family, I think about playing, etc." but one of her answers caught me by surprise:

I think about God.

Wow, not the usual Kindergarten answer. I am glad that she thinks about God and hope that she has a desire to understand and know Him.

I think about God too. Especially on this Easter Sunday, I think about the gift of His son, Jesus Christ. He is Risen!

An April Tradition

This conversation is part of the sad Smith Family pre-April 15th tradition:

Paige asks a random question about Dad.

Mom says, "Paige when was the last time you saw Dad?"

Paige says, "Hmmh? I can't remember."

Mom says, "Neither can I."


Thanks for working so hard Dave. We miss you.

Eastertime Activities

A visit and photo-op with the Easter Bunny

Coloring Easter Eggs

making Resurrection rolls



Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Smith!
They sent us a beautiful puzzle of the Easter Egg Roll at the White House
and a copy of The Wizard of Oz on blu-ray.