Last day of school

Last Wednesday was Addi's last day of school for the year. It has been a great year for her. She has loved everything about her school and has made so many new friends. We are glad that she will have another year there next year. Her class had a little program and lunch for the parents. Addi got an award for being "Most Friendly." She makes friends so easily and as her teacher said will talk to anyone.
Addi and Miss Lauri
At the beginning of the year Addi wasn't able to make it across one monkey bar. All year she has worked on it and gradually got farther and farther. A few weeks before school was out, she proudly showed me that she could make it all the way across. It almost brought me to tears seeing her accomplish something she had worked so hard for.

Making it to the end. Next up, Bubba. I love that Bubba wants to be just like his sister. Wanting to try everything she tries. He just wants to be big so bad! He follows her around like he is her equal. Luckily, the love is mutual.

Legoland!!!

Exciting things have been happening in the Clawson house this year. One of which is Ian started a new job last week that we are really excited about. So before he became tied down for who knows how long, we took a trip to San Diego and had some family time. We hit up Legoland on Thursday with Dan and Luke and then stayed the hotel adjacent to it. This is Addi panning for gold.
Von and Addi at the hotel pool.

After a full day at Legoland and swimming. So tired.
They finished off the night with a little Dora. Von is obsessed with Dora lately. Every morning when we go in his room to get him, the first thing he says is, "Dora?"
Ian left San Diego on Friday and went up to the cabin or a guys weekend and I stayed in San Diego with Jaime and the kids. We went to Legoland again on Saturday, this time hitting up the new water park there. It was awesome. The kids loved it. There was an area perfect for them with slides and a lazy river and the water was only a couple of feet deep, so even Von could walk around in it on his own.
They have life jackets there for the kids. They don't look comfortable, but it kept his head out of the water when he would fall.
And then we hit up a few rides. I drove home on Saturday, the kids were asleep before we even made it to the car.

Hawaiian Day

At Addi's school they had barefoot Hawaiian Day. Of course we have an arsenal of Hawaiian dress of clothes, so Addi was decked out. I thought all of the girls would be coming to school in grass skirts. I was so wrong. She almost looked a little out of place. So cute, however, and she loved it.
Addi doing her best hula.

She did it again

The girl from bakerella.com, that is. I keep telling Ian that I want to be her friend. I don't know who she is, but her recipes are AMAZING. I made these yesterday. She calls them "Congo Bars." I call them awesome.

Here is the recipe:

Congo Bars

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you!)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

By mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

By hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

I mixed them by hand, she says that they have a better texture that way. It wasn't hard, it's a really easy recipe actually.

I may have gone a little overboard...

We moved back in March, which gave me an excuse redo the kids room. Their last room was mismatched, with no order to it, now not so much. I made these canvases...
And then new bedding for Addi...
And then I made more new wall art...
And then new crib bedding...
I tried making an argyle print. Like I said, I may have went a little overboard...

School Things

Addi's school had an open house for all of the parents to come as see what they've been working on.
She was so proud of all of her art projects. We are still working on how to spell her name.
Having fun on the playground with friends.
Then, last week before Mother's Day, I went to "Mom and Me" day and spent an hour just with her. It is so interesting to see her in her environment. She is so active, rushes through anything that involves sitting, and loves to interact with the other kids. This painting she did was a mess of brown and green thrown onto the page. When I asked her what it was, she replied quickly, "a dinosaur foot." Duh.
"Mom and Me"

Easter

We went up to the mountains for Easter...it was a good time as usual.
I forgot my camera, so I just got the pictures today off of Chelcie and Bronson's.
It was so cold that day. The kids were freezing. The things I make them go through to get a picture. Bad mom.
At least they turned out cute! Chelcie cut Von's hair the night before. He is not a fan of the clippers, and I miss his long hair, but at least now he won't look like he has bed head everyday.
Bubba.
Addi girl!