Beginning of May

It seems like life this year has been a crazy fast roller coaster. We decided to take it easy the first part of May. Then it went crazy again, but I will post more about that later.

Fort Building

Mother's Day - I got flowers, a flower pencil and cupcakes with flower decorations.  I couldn't have asked for more.  Except I got more - a new pair of running shoes to train for some upcoming races (Saguaro 8 miler and a Ragnar next year in California)

Erica finished up her second year of preschool with Ms. Laura.  She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES preschool.  I hope she has this attitude about school always.  If only all her teachers and classmates could be this great.  She made some really good friends this year.  She will miss the Kindergarten deadline by 10 days this year, so she gets one more year with this fabulous woman.

Erica and Gymnastics

Erica has been working really hard on her handstands and cartwheels.  She really loves gymnastics!  I think she's getting pretty good. (:

Pima County Fair - April 2012

At the end of April, we did our annual trip to the County Fair. It's usually nice weather until about the week before and then it gets HOT! Thank goodness this year we had some clouds to keep us cool.

Erica with her friend London.  They are excited to be in preschool together this fall.

Going through the hay maze.

The girls love the fun houses.

This year they increased all the height requirements, so my girls were not big enough to go on a lot of the rides. 

The slide was their favorite.  Here is a video of Sadie and Troy going down the slide. 

There was a really cool area where you got to pretend you were on a farm.  They milked a cow.

They picked fruit from the orchard.

They dug up veggies from the garden.

The girls also loved the petting zoo.

Easter - April 2012

Since Troy was recovering from his SVT attack, we had a fairly low key Easter. It was the typical coloring of Easter eggs, Easter baskets and an Easter egg hunt. It was a nice celebration.

We used A LOT of colors this year. 

The girls got a hand-me-down Pet Shoppe collection.  It was perfect.  They loved it and still do (it's really mid-July for me right now).  I love the Easter morning hair.

Time for our Easter egg hunt before church.  Erica had a dress that matched the one Sadie was wearing, but she refused to wear it.  I wasn't in the mood for this battle.

Sadie actually knew what she was doing this year.  Even though there were a million eggs, this was probably our fastest hunt yet.

We love our annual Easter Egg Hunt with our Radinsky neighbors.  I think this is our 4th or 5th year doing it. 

Another SVT Episode

Unfortunately, the night I went to my chocolate class, Troy had another SVT episode with his heart. He call me in Phoenix about 2am, scared and not sure what to do. Our friends really jumped in and helped us. We appreciate them so much. Scott came over in the middle of the night to hang out with Troy since I couldn't be there. Janet came and watched our girls. And, Annette and Nate let our girls go color Easter eggs at their house. We are so grateful for everyone's support and Troy is doing much better now.

Chocolate Class - April 2012

Just before Easter, my friend, Andrea, and I went on an overnighter to Phoenix. We stayed at a brand new hotel and played tennis. The next day we went to a super fancy Marriott in Scottsdale and did a chocolate cooking class. It was AMAZING!!! Such a fun weekend.

The "beautiful" view from our hotel.

The super fancy hotel.

Trying different kinds of chocolates from around the world.  The chocolate takes on the taste of the soil it is grown in.

Making some chocolate-lemon madeline cookies

Passionfruit chocolate truffles.  They were sweet, but very yummy.

Our chocolate instructors.  They did a great job.  They are professional dessert chefs at the Marriott hotel.  Sounds like a dream job.

Our goodies that we got to bring home - truffles, madelines, chocolate covered carmelized almonds, chocolate samples and chocolate tea (way better than hot chocolate).

Learning how to temper chocolate.  Now I just need to get a marble slab. (:

My chocolate buddy.  We are neighbors and love sharing treats.

This is the difference in the amount of real cocoa in milk chocolate versus dark chocolate.  No wonder I like dark chocolate better.  The other ingredients are sugar, cocoa butter and I don't remember what else. 

Other March Happenings

And, to sum up the rest of March: We took videos of jumping on to couch cushions.  Check out Sadie's faceplant. 

My house is in a constant state of disaster from trying to balance, kids, church, work, etc.  It's no wonder it's taken me 6 months to start catching up on blogging.  I can barely do my dishes.  Yikes!

I heard this great quote, "Trying to pick up after a 2 year old is like trying to shovel snow in a blizzard."  So true, so true.

And more mess.  At least I was making healthy food, right?

A much needed girls' night - probably after cleaning up all that mess.  We love going to the Cheesecake factory.

Only my brothers will really care about this one, but I finally retired my Larry Bird "jersey" after about 20+ years.  It has gone through multiple family members.

We did a zoo day with London.

We visited the new lion cubs.

Troy made an impromptu trip to Utah with his friend Scott.  There was a sudden "powder emergency", meaning they hopped on a plane the next day and went snowboarding for 3 days.  Troy was able to visit his grandfather one last time while he was lucid.  I'm glad he was able to get this picture and have some time to visit.  I'm also glad he got his snowboarding fix for the season.  That is getting harder to do with little ones and living in Tucson.