Eastertime

These two handsome gentlemen on their way to pick up Grandpa for the priesthood session of conference.

Meanwhile, we dyed eggs. It's spring break, so I'm trying with mixed results to be a chill, fun mom.

The Easter bunny was good to us.

It's fun when Golda comes home!

Saturday night after the egg dying mayhem, I set the table for Easter.

Sunday morning preparation

Then breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa's. So good and fun!

These two are pretty remarkable.

The kids sneaked out into the back yard to scope out where the candy was and see what was in the eggs. All the grown-ups were completely fine with that. All the teens, IE the children born when we grownups still thought it was a big deal not to peek into the Easter eggs before the hunt, were greatly alarmed. Ha ha! Lots ot teens tattling on little kids, lots of "Meh" from the parents. I think it's funny that none of us have anything to prove anymore, and we all have a handle on what's important and what's not. Or maybe the younger kids are all just spoiled.

Grandma's cream puffs and adorable cake. She loves to use her creativity and skills in her baking, and she's really good at it!

We celebrated Xanthe and Britton.

These are some of the best boys anywhere. I'll fight you on this. :)

And then, after a couple sessions of General Conference, the King Easter dinner. Coco and Bill are in Paris with Josh and Esmae, so our numbers were fewer. We had a very nice time. Traj and Mic brought a good salad and fruit, and Emily brought home made bread and made the best carrot cake ever (Pioneer Woman recipe) and made ice cream cones for the kids. My part was easy and happened in the roasting pan while we were at Grandma's.

This Easter egg hunt had the fun extra challenge of avoiding giant piles of deer poop, brambly bushes and prickly weeds in the grass. And for Escher, the ultimate nemesis, concrete. He lost to the concrete three times and never did win. He went home with the biggest egg of all, on the back of his head, from toppling off a giant bean bag onto that mean concrete.

Don Carlos can no longer keep his tongue in his mouth. I think it's a Chihuahua thing. Nevertheless, he's a cutie. 

Happenings and Cousins

Irony?

Xanthe registered for seventh grade! It was pretty anticlimactic. YW was held at ta different time, during which I had scheduled Xanthe's seventh grade registration, so she had to miss a fun outing with her church friends. And the registration was a total non-event. I could have just driven to the junior high and turned in a paper. I did get into a skirmish with the resource teacher, though. They're always wanting to push Xanthe in math, and I'm always saying that she loves math, as long as you don't push her to "catch up" with the other kids. This has been an ongoing battle all of sixth grade. I finally convinced her teacher that she can't suddenly jump from a 4th grade math level to a 6th grade math level, and now she's happy, doing online math for hours at night sometimes. I really don't want her spending copious amounts of time "catching up" in her worst subject when she could be doing just ok at it and enjoying it, and other aspects of her life. But I digress.

Esmae also missed YW for the non-event of junior high registration, and we ran into each other afterwards. These girls are turning out to be wonderful young women.

Speaking of homework, I had to document this picture, which is what it should look like every night when everyone is doing homework, but it rarely does. I could be more organized about it if I 1. Had one kid 2. Cared more 3. wasn't so tired from working all day and 4. was 15 years younger.

The Bazails came from Miami!  Lincoln and Sarah came first, while Alex was at a field trip in Washington, DC. Tricia and Jim took Lincoln and Ptolemy to Boondocks and to dinner and a movie, and basically spoiled them for two days. Then Lincoln spent two days in the mayhem of the Dopp house playing video games and eating pizza.

Celi, her friend Gabe and Freestone made cookies upon my command one night.

Freestone stepped in to help PT and Lincoln win Fortnight by eliminating all the other players, so they could all go to bed. Such a helpful child! He really is.

Sunday, Roland and Alex had arrived and the whole fam came for Sunday dinner. We love our Bazail side of the family. Especially since Sarah brought a bag of Rocky Mountain fudge. Now they're off for some glamping in Zion, while we slog away on our math and homework. Next week, spring break for the Dopps and we're readyyyyyyyyy!

Celebrating Coco's Birthday IB-Style

 The sunrise was brilliant for Coco's birthday Tuesday, and I was up early to pick up Golda at the airport.  We were all looking forward to spending some time with our college girl, and I couldn't wait to see her.  I left early and grabbed a pastry in Coronado.  Walking the streets, I thought about my mom and her birthday.  I'm a lousy gift giver, mainly because I don't care about "stuff" and getting stuff, so it's hard to think about what "stuff" other people would want.  And also because I'm a terrible person.  So instead of giving my mom the heartfelt gift that she so richly deserves, whatever that may be, I thought about how my mom is passionate about France.  The story came to mind about the pineapple fields in Oahu, and how she gazed out over their splendor and mused, "I can't believe I've never been to Provence."  France is never far from Mom's thoughts.

So here you go, Mom.  I little French corner on a Coronado side street.  Maison des Cloches.  House of the bells.

The Scott Dopps were delighted when the Jeff Dopps decided to come visit us in IB and see what all the fuss was about.  Ptolemy couldn't even sleep, planing out all the things he was going to show Landon.  We had the best day!  This week at the beach was the warmest ever.  All the jackets and socks and leggings we brought just sat unused in the drawers while we spent the entire week in just swimsuits.  It was so record-breakingly warm that Emily teased these guys (via Instagram) about wearing wetsuits.  The wetsuits are just for rash protection.  The Pacific was bathtub warm.  Unbelievable!

Richelle and I kept an eye on the 12 kids who were all in varying degrees of ocean water.  One of us swam out to save Freestone and Tanner when they got caught in a riptide, but the lifeguard beat her to it.  The other one of us watched the whole thing with the detached nonchalance of a mildly interested pigeon.  Sometimes I have doubts about my maternal instincts.  I do like it when my children don't get pulled out to sea.  I will say that.

Golda was hardly in any pictures all week!  She came in on Tuesday, but wasn't there for the cousin shark pic, or most of the other pics either.  She was there, I promise!  And it was so fun to talk to her and catch up.

I love these kids.

This is a rite of passage, being able to carry the GIANT Seacoast Pizza.  This could be Tanner's Gentile Bar Mitzvah of the Beach.  Now he's a real man.  Mazel toppings, Tanner!  Jeff doubted the Giant, but it did indeed feed all of us.  Never doubt the Giant, Jeff.

All of Utah was in California for fall break.  This is Heather Ence Housley, my friend from high school.  She has 2 Chinese daughters, so we have something in common, but we haven't seen each other since high school.  It took IB to bring us together.  :)

Catching crabs, but in a good way.

Soon he'll be able to carry a giant all by himself.  Sniff, sniff.

Who is that stud?  He looks like he belongs on a long board!