Spring Break with my sisters!

In Billings the kids' Spring Break is their Easter Break - it's basically just a long weekend that starts the Thursday before Easter and goes through Monday. Fortunately my sisters were on a similar schedule in Utah, and they made the drive up to Billings to spend the break with us! It was a lot of fun.

 

We took all the girls to an Easter Fair where they jumped on bounce houses, ate lots of cotton candy, and participated in a huge easter egg hunt.

We spent some time at our small-town mall - as girls usually do - but the highlight for the lil' ones was definitely the mall train. And the quarter-operated rides.

We spent an afternoon at the Reef - Billings' indoor waterpark.

Most afternoons while Scarlett was napping, Sarah and Chelsea took the girls to the park. It's only a block away, but they usually insisted on driving the car.

We also participated in the usual Easter traditions. We colored Easter eggs...

 ...and made Easter cookies.

 And here's all the beautiful girls Easter morning, with their lavender outfits from grandma!

It was a fabulous weekend, and we are excited to be closer to our cousin Madison and our Aunts in Utah! What a Happy Easter!

Billings loves Easter Egg Hunts

This season we went to no fewer than FOUR Easter Egg hunts. Of course we didn't plan it that way, but they just started popping up everywhere, so we kept huntin'!

 

First, I took Lydia and Scarlett to the Billings Zoo for the EggStravaganza while Josh was with Claire in St. Louis. It was sooo cooooold, we were miserable waiting for the activities to start. But once they did, we had a lot of fun.

 

 

After the hunt, we went through the zoo...which took all of 15 minutes. There's a bear and a tiger...and then birds and rodents. Not much to see, but to a kid it's still pretty fun. Lydia was so thrilled to see the wolf, she said "Mom! You have to get a picture of me in my wolf hat by the wolf!"

 

The following week there were two more hunts that came up, that we participated in too. First, Claire's preschool had an egg hunt. The parents "hid" the eggs in the field next to the church, then all the kids were let loose to find them. It sure didn't take long for each of them to find their 10 eggs, then start emptying the goodies into their buckets! Claire, as expected, was very good at sharing with her sister and letting her help.

 

Then later that week our neighborhood organized an Easter Egg hunt. We couldn't skip that! All the kids met at the park after school, where the Easter Bunny had put out hundreds of eggs. There were too many to "hide", so they were just laying out in the open field, and on the count of three all the kids were off to collect as many as they could!

 Finally, the Saturday before Easter there was a huge event at one of the middle schools, with massive easter egg hunts for each age group. The girls scored big. There were tens of thousands of eggs given out that day, and of course it wasn't a "hunt" at all, it was a grab-as-many-as-you-can race. But still so much fun.

Billings loves Easter egg hunts. That same day there were 7 or 8 other big hunts going on throughout the city, sponsored by different churches and organizations. And by Easter Sunday, the girls were experts at collecting eggs!

Claire's new preschool

One of the things I am always anxious about when we move somewhere new is finding decent schools for my girls. Before we moved to Billings I called a sister in the ward to ask about schools, doctors, etc., and she said a lot of moms really love Messiah Lutheran Preschool. So I called up the preschool in mid-January, and go figure - they had 1 spot open up in their Pre-K class. Claire was in! We had the same luck in Midland, getting into the last spot at First Presbyterian, and I really feel there is someone upstairs looking out for our little family through the big changes in our lives.

The church preschools in Billings are very different from the well-oiled machines of the mega-churches in Texas. The preschools here are small, only taking 2 to 4 classes depending on their size and schedules. Claire's preschool classroom is in the basement of the Lutheran church, and there are 18 kids in her class! Which seems like a lot, but there are at least 2 teachers there, and they are awesome with the kids. And as with any church preschool, Claire is learning Bible stories and gospel principles in her class too. Most importantly, she really loves her school and her new friends.

Because Claire has a summer birthday, in March they celebrated her "un-birthday". She got to wear her princess crown she decorated, we brought Wreck-It Ralph cupcakes to class, and her sister Scarlett got to come along and be in class for the day. Claire was spotlighted and was the special helper for the day, and she was soooo thrilled about it all.

Happy Un-Birthday Claire-bear!

Daddy and Claire head to St Louis

 

In March Josh and Claire went on a special weekend trip to St Louis to go visit Mimi. Our Mimi had her radiation treatment in St Louis earlier this year and was returning there for a check up. We all wanted to be there to see her again, and hope that someday soon we'll all be able to make the trip to visit. But this time it was just Josh and Claire, and they both had a blast. I am happy they had this special weekend together.

 

They spent the weekend at Zach & Lauren's home in St. Louis. Claire and her cousin Brody were best buds. And Claire got to mother her little cousin Ellie as well.

 

They did some shopping, they were spoiled with treats, and they even made a trip to the museum.

 

But mostly, they hung out at home, relaxing with Mimi and Papa, which was the best part of the whole weekend.