Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter 2013



Easter 2013 ... it was early, in March this year. The Westra party was on Saturday, March 30. Jensen's couldn't make it up this year (see the Jensen blog for their Hunt and Easter), but a couple of the girls and Alicia's girls had an even earlier Easter at a Grandparent sleepover a couple weeks before.  2013 was the year Landon set up a drink bar and this classic photo of Margie/Grandma reading to all the grandkids is a classic one!

As with many group gatherings ... it started with an email:
From Mom: We all need to know what to plan on............. Chris prefers 1 p.m., no one else has expressed an opinion----------1 or 2 p.m.? Scott and Amy have a nice buffet dinner to go to and a Jazz game, so they would probably prefer early. Chris and Kim said they would bring rolls and a dessert--cake with layer of cream cheese, strawberries and glaze (kind of right?) Though just one or the other would be fine, as long as we know.  I've got turkey, ham, cheese, for the rolls, and will get tomatoes and lettuce, pickles, I have olives and some tortilla chips and sour cream and onion chips. We'll just keep it simple. Ice water for a drink. Jen, if we can count on you for most of the Easter eggs, you wouldn't have to bring anything else. Just watched the weather from last night's news (Sat. night). It said 62 deg. for Sat.'s party and just a slight chance of rain. So that sounds pretty good.
Another Westra Backyard Group Gathering ...
  
... time for the egg hunt!

... and opening the eggs to see what's inside.
The kids always seem to enjoy the stickers and toys as well as the candy.

... I don't think it was related to anything at the Easter party, but all five Blackham Boys got the barfies, the extended Blackham family too, and then Grandpa/Lamar did too.  Not to be left out, Mom slipped on some water leaking from the fridge and hurt herself, and the ipad. Looking at other emails from right around this time, it seems like other sickness was going around too (strep and/or flu). At least everyone was healthy for the family party, although Wendy had blogged about Jenna being sick for some of their Easter festivities.


Monday, March 25, 2013

Sleepover and Great-Grandma Zada Visit

There have been a few grandGIRL sleepovers featured (11/2011, 2/18/2012, 2/18 and 3/11 in 2013... with dress-up time and glitter. The boys have always been invited, although some of the same activities wouldn't always apply. In March 2013, Chris's kids had a sleepover at the Grandparents house. No dressing up, but there was yard work and genealogy ;)  Just like with the girls sleepovers, it concluded with a visit to Great-Grandma Zada at the care center (so ... there WAS a little bit of beauty school stuff after all!). 


On March, 26, Mom wrote out recap...
We enjoyed a delicious salmon dinner at Chris and Kim's on Sunday (14 of us). Krystal was the only one missing. Then Chris gave a nice FHE. We took Corin, Camden, and Cayson home with us for a sleepover. They enjoyed our ipad and iphone and Corin enjoyed netflix on my computer. They all three worked for Grandpa for an hour outside. Corin took down Christmas lights from bushes and trees (saving Grandpa getting up on a high ladder) and cleaned out some rain gutters. Grandpa and Corin spent some good one-on-one time doing genealogy, creating a fan chart, and fixing some of Corin's line----Corin had asked to do this because he needed it for Youth Conference this summer. Corin and I had some good chats here and there.
We took the 3 boys to visit Grandma and took pictures. Then Chris came at 6:30 to pick them up and have a chicken dinner. Shane and Alicia and girls were visiting the Acquarium and had asked about going out to dinner with us that evening. We told them we had plans, but that they could join us for dinner here, so they did. Alicia made some rolls and chocolate chip cookies.
Chris's boys snapped a picture when they had visited Grandma Zada in May of 2012 too.


Monday, March 11, 2013

Early Easter ~ Four GrandGirls Sleepover

Wendy's kids were off for Spring Break, and Jaiden and Janelle came up to Salt Lake with Rick - he had some plans, and they got to play with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. It was a couple weeks before Easter, but as the Jensen crew wouldn't be able to come up to the family party in a few weeks, Grandpa did an early Easter, and a photoshoot! Here are some exerpts from the March 11 email Mom sent out, telling about their time together...

Rick came Sat. and dropped his girls off at Alicia's to sleepover and go to Primary. Then Shane and Alicia brought the 4 girls here Sun. at 5:30. We fixed a salmon dinner. Rella decided to stay over after all.  Alicia let both her girls miss school today in order to play with their cousins they don't get to see often. They've had a great time. Rick slept here both nights and had some enjoyable visits with old friends Sat. night and Sunday afternoon and evening. He attended Sacrament meeting with us. Taylee's family had too busy of a schedule this weekend for her to join the cousins this time around.
LaMar got the good idea to have an early Easter egg hunt for them, while J and J were here. So they loaded their own eggs and LaMar hid them in the front yard--the back yard is still wet and some snow. They hung a few eggs from the trees for decoration. Adria and Rella didn't have coats and Rella had on a dress, so it is good it was sunny and fairly warm. They were delighted to watch the squirrel and each wanted to name him (a different name, of course). So he now has 3 names. Janelle didn't come out to see him.
Funny Janelle! She was telling me yesterday about the maturation program she attended at school on Friday. Today she was sitting on the couch and said, "I feel moody. They told us at the maturation program that we might feel moody!" I told Wendy and Wendy said, "She didn't even know that word until Friday." Funny kids!
Today Janelle said her arms hurt until she could hardly lift them. Rella took her upstairs and tucked her in bed. Rella told me that she told Janelle to call her when Janelle wanted to get up and she would come uncover her because Janelle couldn't lift the covers! Little mother! It finally dawned on me what the problem was and I told Janelle I thought it was because she played so much boxing yesterday on the Wii that her arm and back muscles were sore! She loves the Wii!
Well, I got the girls all fed lunch, now I'll go fix for LaMar. They are out feeding the fish. Rick just left awhile ago with Janelle and Jaiden. Today we will take Adria and Rella with us to visit Grandma and Alicia will pick them up there, then she won't have to drive clear to our place. 


The Great-Grandma Zada visits happened a few times after grand-girl sleepovers!
And a little later in the month, Mom&Dad hosted Chris's Boys and also did a GG visit!