The Holy Week

I'd like Easter to be more meaningful for my children than just Easter eggs, candy and our traditional egg roll competition. My friend told me her mom used to talk about each day in the Holy Week as it leads up to the resurrection on Easter Sunday and so I'm going with that idea this year. (hopefully more years too!) So I'll post a quick link to whatever I'm doing in case any of you out there want to do it too.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, so we'll read the story in the scriptures and then cut out our own palm leaves and act out the story, taking turns both welcoming Jesus by waving the palms and by being Jesus (is that weird?) by riding on Dad the Donkey.

Here are some pictures of our Ward's Easter Breakfast and Egg Hunt. Super fun!

slip n' slide pictures

I'm not sure how much the slip n' slide was actually slid down... mostly the kids liked to try and walk down or roll toys down or play with the water that shot up.

Spring is here

We've had a taste of warm weather recently. It got up to 80 on Saturday! Its been in the mid 60's ever since. We got out the courtyard slip 'n slide and sprinklers. I'll have to post pictures soon. Charlie looks adorable in his wetsuit looking outfit Chris' aunt and uncle gave Alec. Spring Break is this week, but its not much different for Chris and I. He's going to decide this week about where to intern this summer. We're lucky to have two great options to choose from.

A year or two ago we saw a posting on freecycle where someone wanted people to dig up all their plants in their yard since they were doing some remodeling/landscaping. We went with some friends and I took home some bulbs I was told was [I-can't-remember-the-name-of-the-flower] but haven't seen anything but leaves. But just last week, this flower (lily?) popped up! Anyone know what its called?

Happy Wear-Green-Day

Another exciting courtyard event, including a treasure hunt and dinner. I sure love our courtyard parties. Its always fun to celebrate something, especially when you can dress silly. I bet as soon as we graduate and move away (some infinite-seeming amount of time in the future) and I stop getting paid to throw neighborhood parties, I'll still want to do them. Happy St. Patrick's Day.


Chris competed in the "I'm wearing the most green" contest:

The winner, our friend Ellabella: (by the way, she wanted and asked to wear all that!)

Of course, if we'd had the contest for most enthusiastic eater, Charlie would've won... hands down.


Just minutes after this picture was taken we realized the string was starting to make Alec's hand/arm turn red, so we had to take him inside and pin his thrashing self down to cut it off. This might have been his last smile of the day.

Leprechaun story

The kids came up with this story in playschool today. Since we had to write a story about the leprechaun before he would let us open up the treasure box we found, you can sort of guess where some of the plot came from. :) What cute kids.

simple joys

With Chris out of town for a short few days on a ski trip with his research group (hard work, huh?) I had to take the kids running with me this morning. Its been a while since we usually work our mornings around each of us getting a chance to exercise without kids. (Yes, I know we're lucky... student life is great sometimes.) I was nervous about being able to still run while pushing the two kids in a stroller but the boys were SO excited to go exercising. Alec insisted on wearing running pants, shoes and jacket.


My buddy Amanda and I chose a route that could split right and be flat in case our 32 and 22 weeks pregnant selves actually could run the whole time, or split left with some good hills to walk the strollers up. We chose left but actually kept running for practically the whole time! What a great way to start the day. Who knows what the rest of today will hold but I always am happier when I can get some good exercise first thing in the morning.


My favorite part was when Alec asked to be let out so he could run too. He ran so fast and so far (maybe 1/4 mile) and so seriously. I had to run faster to keep up. Eventually he slowed and with his recently perfected tired voice said with a big sigh, "Ok, I'm tired now." I told him he did a good job and that he even made me go faster. He liked this thought and commented 10 min later, "I made you go faster. That makes you happy. I make you happy to go faster"

Yes Alec, you do make me happy. You and Charlie.

Charlie, helping Daddy pack for his ski trip.

Driving Range

We went to the driving range as a family Saturday morning. Alec could've stayed there all day. I really do mean that quite literally. He loved everything from watching the balls fall in the bucket to hitting balls. He had a few misses and some great shots... and probably missed the ball less than Mommy did! We stayed for almost an hour and still had to pull him crying back to the car. Charlie also enjoyed it, but mostly just wanted to put the balls through the chain link fence bordering the parking lot. He also liked to carry the baskets around with a few balls and transfer them back and forth.

Highlights of Alec:

We got all excited to dress appropriate at the golf course. We had to find golf shirts, pants, shoes and hats for the boys. It seems half the fun of golfing for the Archibald boys is looking good. We didn't have any knickers or sweet plaid outfits but I still think the boys looked like little studs.