Life and Times of The Johnston family: Easter and Such!

This past week wasn't terribly eventful. Monday was just school in the morning, as Elizabeth didn't have theater class due to spring break. That evening the kids and I walked down to Tisha's house and her older kids watched the kids while she and I went to Olive Garden for dinner and a good talk/vent. cry. She is such a great friend! Tuesday after we got most of school done(oh and Devin didn't have preschool this week...spring break), we met several friends at a nearby park, where the kids played for hours, and us gals chatted. We ended the outing with a fun water balloon toss game. Wednesday was just school in the morning, lots of playing and Bravo in the evening. Thursday we didn't have co-op again spring break, so we just did school as usual. In the afternoon I dropped Devin off with Mary and took Elizabeth to OT, where she was very calm through the entire session! Naturally as soon as we were done and I was waiting to make more appointments she found a tap bell and rang it over and over, even after I repeatedly asked her not to and told her to stop....Anna(her therapist) came out and busted her, and made the comment that the calm before the storm was over and the storm was a ragin' now! So true!! Friday morning we got through school nice and easy, then met Tisha, Ashley and Ruth, and their kids on the church lawn and had a super fun egg hunt! Elizabeth searched for eggs with Cinderella on them and Devin's eggs had minions! It was so much fun for the kids!! After they played for over an hour while us gals chatted on and on, until our kids dragged us apart. After that we went to Barnes and Noble and the kids each picked out an Easter book. Elizabeth also got the movie Home chapter book(she read all but the last chapter that day!) Then we went over to Standard Optical in the mall to pick up my new glasses, that I absolutely LOVE! To keep my kids behaving I bribed them with a ride on the escalator, which they earned. So we road it down, I looked at The Children's Place for bottoms that Elizabeth would wear in summer(her SPD makes finding clothes that don't bother her pretty tricky) and The Children's place has always been a good place to find bottoms for her. Sure enough they came through again, I just priced them out for the time being. Then we road the escalator back up and headed home for lunch! I visited with my mom for a bit before they set off RVing with Tony's parents for the weekend. Tony and I had a bedtime date night and Tony used a coupon and gift card to get dinner from Outback, which we ate while watching Royal Pains at Netflix. Saturday was a full busy day! In the morning we gave the kids the last smiley face on their "getting along/working together" chart so for our family fun activity we took the kids to see the movie Home, which was so cute! Then we went over to the mall and went on a bit of a shopping spree. Granted Elizabeth was in dire need of summer clothes. She only had a few shirts that fit, and just one pair of shorts. So we went to Crazy 8 and got her a few things....her favorite are the one piece shortall outfits, and I found a really cute one there. Then we went back to The Children's Place and picked up all the shorts she'll need, and a few approved shirts(she has a surprisingly long list of requirements for acceptable shirts). We picked lunch at the food court, stopped by Gymboree where I found some really cute stuff, including another one piece outfit! Then we went to JC Penny as Devin really wanted(and surely earned) a Mickey Mouse fire truck he'd seen at the one in Riverdale after his birthday pictures. Well the JC Penny at the mall unfortunately didn't have a Disney section. Devin was fine in the store because he assumed we were going to the car to go to the other JC Penny. And broke down in tears when Tony told him we might not be going to the other store, He was so unbelievably devastated we ended up hopping on the freeway and going to Riverdale. There was only one firetruck left and it took us a while to find it as it was just left on a random shelf. Elizabeth spent her allowance money on a Cinderella gazebo playset. After that we went over to RC Willey, as we've been wanted a dining table for a while. And we found a fantastic deal on a really great one! Then we came home, the kids played outside while Tony went and picked up my dad's truck then the table. We ordered pizza for dinner, and Tony was so excited about the table he stayed up til one putting it together! Oh ya we also went to Smith's and did our grocery shopping in there too! Sunday the Easter Bunny was a little late(and somehow neither of our kids seem to believe the Easter Bunny thing....even Devin told me I was the Easter Bunny, he seemed to think it was funny!) Anyhow the kids were up for a while before Tony took them outside to play for a bit while I got the baskets put out on our new table! They enjoyed the fun little things in their baskets, but the hippity hops were a huge success! They played with their new fun things for a bit, then it was time for lunch. We let the kids watch an Easter show while eating their lunch. Then we decided to finish up doing some of the things we didn't quite get to the day before, like getting our poor dirty van washed and vacuumed. Then we went to Walmart to pick up a few things we couldn't get at Smiths. Then we came home, and just missed Tony's parents who left our April gift and Tony's birthday gift with my parents. We visited with my parents for a bit, let the kids change out of their Easter outfits and play outside, and they were thrilled when the neighbor kids came over and played with them. We had a wonderful family dinner at our new table and it was wonderful! Sometimes it's the littlest things that are taken for granted. The kids each picked a movie while at Walmart(it just so happened that Annie and Penguins of Madagascar had both come out), so for family movie night we watched Penguins. Elizabeth didn't get to finish it though as she was being rude and difficult and so was sent to bed early. I've started the mad curriculum research for next fall, which is more work than you'd think! Devin's is proving the most difficult, as Elizabeth is pretty established in certain things that work really well for her. I'm still figuring out what works for Devin. And that was our week, phew!

The Easter Baskets!