Sam and Addie Forever

Since I'm 1) really bad at remember to take pictures at family events and 2) so slow at posting, I'm going to refer you to the blogs of my wonderful SILs to see pics of the last Thorley family wedding (at least of this generation - hopefully it will be a few years before the grandkids start carrying on the party). Just follow the links here, here, and here.

We did have a great time with all of A's brothers and sisters - they came in from all over the country and we played and played!

...at the park

...at the bouncy place - even Eli got in on the fun there!

and of course at the wedding and reception. We stopped at Hires for an early dinner in between since all they were serving at the reception was yummy ice cream sundaes!

Thanks Sam and Addie! It was a great party! And I believe Addie is officially the favorite aunt now. At our FHE the Monday after the wedding, we talked about temples and asked all the kids who got married in the temple on Saturday - they all yelled "Addie!" (no mention of Sam at all, poor guy).

Kinder Concert

Leah's class has been practicing some songs all week to sing at the PTA concert this month. Here is a short look at the highlights...

Every Family Has One

In my family growing up, it was my brother Brent... the one who always managed to injure himself in such a way that surgery or stitches were needed. You would think with five children, the mishaps would have been a bit more evenly distributed, but for some reason Brent had about 5 times as many as the rest of us...

I don't know if this is true in every family, but it is quickly becoming obvious who the more accident prone one is in this household. As I type this, Andrew and Lincoln are in the ER at the Children's Hospital getting stitches because Lincoln fell off the fence earlier this evening. I must say, I really could do without seeing him walk into the house with blood streaming down his face - twice is plenty for a lifetime! At the same time, I'm bracing myself for the "Brent experience" so hopefully things will seem mild by comparison :)

Do You Sudoku?

These sticker sudoku books have become my favorite quiet activity for the kids. All of the puzzles are 4x4 picture grids and there are stickers that the kids have to use to complete each one. Leah was first given one of these when she was 3 or 4 years old and I kind of doubted her ability to work out the puzzle on her own - boy did she prove me wrong! She solved some of them faster than I could! So I was excited to find some at the dollar store to stick in their Easter baskets. Both Lincoln and Leah have a great time with them and hardly need any help at all to work out the puzzles.

If you want to be amazed by the genius of your kids, I highly recommend buying them one of these! Besides... I know of nothing better to keep them quiet at church :)

Easter Cookies

This was our best attempt to keep the kids occupied during general conference so we could try to listen to a few talks. It worked great, but didn't last quite long enough.