Fiesta and Easter Activities

So, for all that are not native to San Antonio or have not lived a significant amount of time here you might not understand that craziness that is FIESTA! Every year San Antonion's party for 11 days in April. It was originally a parade started by the wealthy only for the wealthy as a way to commemorate heroes from the Battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. Over the years it has evolved into a party for everyone. It's 11 days of parades, food, music, carnivals, and of course beer. It doesn't get crazy the way that Mardi Gras does but the entire city loves it. THe kids get out of school for part of it and people get our of work. They even had parties at Lillie and Samuel's schools. They made floats and then pulled them in a parade. The kids worked super hard on these things and were thrilled to pull them. Here they are:

Samuel with his Pirate Float

Lillie with her Zhu-Zhu Pet Float

Lillie with her 1st Grade teacher Mrs. Chasteen at her parade

Samuel with his pre-school class on the day of his parade

I'm not sure if you guys know what cascarones are... if you don't, they're hollowed out eggs shells filled with confetti, covered in tissue paper and decorated. The idea is to surprise someone by sneaking up behind them and cracking them over their head then they get confetti all over the place. Here are the kids with a bunch of them, but instead of surprising each other they were saying "crack your egg on MY head!" It was cute and they had a lot of fun.

Here is Samuel with all of his school friends after their annual egg hunt

The kids with the Zufelt's after our other annual egg hunt

L and S coloring eggs on Saturday with our friend Aydia

For Easter the kids each got a new hoodie towel and an electric toothbrush.

The kids this morning with all their loot. Those toothbrushes were well used today I might add!

The kids with their Aunt Allison and the bunny cake they all decorated with my mom. They were super proud to have done this all on their own!

And finally, the last egg hunt of the season. The kids understood that none of the candy would be new as we simply recycle our candy from each hunt. However the excitement never seems to wear off so here they are as crazy as ever!

Those were the Easter activities which were fun but rather overbearing I've decided. I think next year we're going to work on toning down all the secular stuff, ask the Easter Bunny to visit Saturday morning instead and try to create a truly special feeling for our family on Easter Sunday where we focus on on the true meaning of what our Savior has done for us. I am so grateful for His Atoning Sacrifice and Resurrection. I know that without this marvelous gift we would not be able to live eternally with our Father in Heaven and our families. I hope all of you had a blessed day!

Our Latest Projects

So, I haven't blogged in awhile, and here's why:

TABLE PROJECT

I have owned this table for almost 5 years now and have hated every minute of using it. It was broken down, busted up, and butt ugly. Finally cheap Audrey told cheap Tim that she would watch 2 children this school year and save some $ from it to buy a new table. Cheap Audrey saved all her pennies, went to the store to buy the table she wanted and thought "I don't want to give them all my $ yet. I'll take 100 of my dollars and try to refinish my old table. That will be a fun project!" Everyone said "haha, we'll see". Well you know what... it was fun! It took a super long time, but it was also great fun and I have discovered a new love. I plan to repaint my kitchen and paint the cabinets in the near future. Anyway, here's the project:

22 year old table in all it's glory

Once I got this thing sanded down to the bare wood I discovered something nice and new!

A month and a half later (more or less!) and here it is!

My friend Ashley helped me build this bench. It was my first time using any

kind of power saw. I was intimidated at first and then had a great time with it!

So, since now I had all sorts of cash-ola left over we decided to do other things around our house like:

PLANT A NEW GARDEN

and,

BUILD A PLAYROOM IN OUR GARAGE

This thing is totally awesome. It has opened up some much needed space in our quickly shrinking house and all of the toys and books have been cleared out of our regular living spaces!

and

RE-SOD OUR SIDE YARD

For some reason the grass in our side yard did not come back this year. I would like to blame it on our previously owned dog Maggie, but something tells me it's more likely to have died after 4 years of neglect. St. Augustine grass is amazingly resilient in the TX heat and has grown in lush and green each year with little to mostly no care on our part (In the side yard. We care for every other part of our lawn but this area is annoying to water it being so narrow). Anyway, we wanted to re-sod so Tim rented a roto-tiller and enjoyed a very bumpy morning digging up the lawn with our friend Kris.

Then my dad and Lillie helped Tim lay down new dirt

Here's Samuel with our beautiful pallet of new sod delivered early Monday morning. The boys thought this was awesome because an 18 wheeler delivered it right in front of our house then a fork lift actually drove onto our own personal lawn and dropped it off right at the gate! The boys were ecstatic to see such mighty truck action on our very own property!

Here's the lawn right before the sod was laid

And here's our gorgeous new lawn! This was taken just tonight, about a week after

the sod was actually laid. The roots must be taking because this is already

much greener than it was when we laid it.

So, yay for refinishing the table! Tomorrow we are rebuilding our front fence, installing 2 new ceiling fans and replacing our 2 hall light fixtures. Then my $ is all gone. Don't worry, we know where it went... Lowes