boston children's museum

we had a great easter weekend. the weather was beautiful. we had a great time as a family and then later visiting extended family.

last thursday, we spent the night at a hotel near boston, mass. good friday was spent at the children's museum in boston. i don't think that even a hundredth of a second was wasted on boredom that day.

want to feel old? here's my soon to be six year old playing with the cash register the only way she knows how.

yes, that's right folks, she is scanning the food! it doesn't ever cross her mind that those buttons are there for a reason and could be pushed.

the girls wanted to spend an eternity at the hair salon place. i finally kicked them out when another girl returned for the second time to have a turn with the mannequins.

fritzy enjoyed washing hair (which he also kept pretending to do at the pool that morning).

the kids made it to the top and back twice in this three-story climb/rope thingy.

we got home late friday night, then headed to new york state for an easter egg hunt with the cousins at my parents' house. again, the weather was beautiful. (sadly, no pics).

sunday morning, in honor of general conference (a special semi-annual meeting for our church), we made waffles with strawberries and whip cream.

i was so tired out by sunday afternoon that all i made for dinner was potatoes cooked in a frying pan with onions and sandwich meat ham. i then made more waffles for the kids. my brother informed me it was a most pathetic easter meal (i agree), but we were fed and the whole weekend was fun. did i mention how beautiful the weather was?

actually, still is... sunshine warms my soul.

happy belated easter, everyone!

a little drama to go along with your play

(**warning** this post contains many videos - i recommend "fritzy as tomatoes" and "fritzy as BBW part 2" if you're short on time.)

you want great drama? well, at least as great as drama goes when it doesn't involve me or my girls.

let me set the stage: we got up early to go swimming at the hotel before checking out, ate breakfast, saw the ducks, then got to the boston children's museum around noon.

shortly after we had arrived at the museum, we went to a show. it was an interactive play where kids were chosen from the audience to participate.

lily was called up first to be a glass of water. (we hadn't yet wised up to the option of hitting video on our camera though).

then fritzy was called up to be a tomatoes.

then we spent six hours at the museum. we still decided to bring tired (remember swam in the morning), but well-behaved kids to the 6:15 showing of the three little pigs.

when we got to the theater, they seated us and then announced a 15 minute delay on the start of the play.

from the minute we sat down, fritzy raised his hand to volunteer for a part in the play. he kept his hand raised for pretty much the whole 20 minutes that we waited for the play to start.

finally, two gentlemen come out to start the play. they need four children to volunteer for the various parts of the play. this time there is a full audience and the chance of any my kids being chosen is slim. but fritzy (and the girls) hand is determinedly raised.

the first pig is chosen ....not fritzy.

the second pig is chosen ...not fritzy.

the third pig is chosen ....not fritzy.

the big, bad wolf is chosen ...not fritzy.

all the parts are filled.

but wait,

...the child chosen to be the big, bad wolf has changed their mind

...and fritzy is chosen to be the big, bad wolf!!!!

(two very happy parents in the audience give a huge sigh of relief.)

fritzy part 1

fritzy part 2

fritzy part 3

a prayer

dear lord:

please give me the strength to make it through gigi's opera singing phase.

amen.

daddy daughter dance

checklist for a daddy-daughter dance

1. have mom curl your hair

2. make sure your dress can twirl

3. get a special surprise of a new dress from grandma hinckley just days before the dance. be sure to show off how beautiful your dress is.

4. have your big sister put some make-up on your face.

5. don't forget to accessorize with purse and most importantly, dad!

grandma muz

my grandma muz passed away on march 4, 2010. here she is at christmas with all the girl great-grandchildren. (when i printed out a copy of this picture before her funeral, fritzy said: "i wanted to be in that picture." i am sad that we won't have another chance for him to have his picture with "GGMa".

anyhoo, grandma muz got ill shortly after christmas. she just kept going in and out of the hospital and the infection kept coming back. it is weird to think that she was ok at christmas and is now gone. i am very grateful that she had her wits about her until the end. she was 85.

we lived 45 minutes away from her when i was growing up. i have many memories playing at the farm where they lived and having her make us dinners. she was a very thoughtful and generous person. i am grateful for her influence in my life.

je regrets

my apologies for my lack of blogging and reading blogs. (turns out i don't like to visit my own blog when i haven't updated my own in forever). after repeatedly telling myself that i should take my blog down if i wasn't going to update it, i have decided maybe i should just. update. the. d*#$. blog. so here i am. i have indeed missed all of you. my thanks to those who responded on my most pathetic previous posts. (kayla, thanks for the kick in the pants; sorry it has taken me so long to actually respond with more.) hopefully, i will give you much better stuff to comment on in the near future.

i have decided to start using nicknames for my children. if i could go back and get my last name out of my URL, i would. since i don't feel like going through the hassle of a new blog, i thought i would at least try and be discrete with their names and bury the old posts with their names on it through a mass pile of new posts. i also continually debate making the blog private, but for now i'll just hope my famine of posts have killed off any psycho strangers that may be reading. (psychos that i personally know and love are always welcome to read!)

looking back

if i could go back for an hour, i would....

hinckley kids... circa 2005 & '06

one of my all-time favorites of grace