Drive-Ins

We went to the drive-ins this past weekend. We usually try to go during Spring or Fall Break at school. On Tuesday nights it's family night - and is very cheap. Well, they were were showing a double feature of Monsters Vs. Aliens and Hotel for Dogs. We haven't seen either movie - they both look good - so we decided to go. After Scott got home from work, we ordered a Papa John's Pizza (since it was pizza night for Ryan's school). We picked up our pizza, got drinks from Sonic and headed to the Drive-ins. It was fun. Both movies were great. And even though we got pretty cold before the movies ended - we all had a great time.

Ryan staying warm in the car - enjoying some popcorn:

Scott and I engrossed in the first movie while trying to stay warm:

Doug staying warm during Monsters vs. Aliens:
I think Ryan had the right idea all along. Stay in the car, under plenty of blankets and watch the movie laying down. Eventually, we all ended up in the car. We had the heater on full blast on the way home to thaw out our noses and toeses:

Chicken Update

Finally I was able to get some good pics of the chickens. We have one chicken - Luna, that is . . . well chicken of us. Anytime we are around she goes in the opposite direction, so it's been a little hard to photograph her. Well, the last time Doug went out to clean their home, Luna was laying on eggs. Great time to get some shots.

Luna doing her thing - laying on eggs:

There were 9 eggs under her, it's been a couple days since they were collected:

The twins out in the yard:
Finally, Luna decided to join them:

Easter Day

We had a very nice Easter. It was pretty quiet & relaxing. We got our Easter Baskets first thing in the morning. Doug cooked a turkey and we took it over to my brother's house where most of my family was together to celebrate the day. We had a wonderful dinner and then the kids hunted Easter Eggs. It was nice to see everyone and watch the kids have a great time hunting for eggs and playing together.

The Harper's Easter Baskets:

Ryan hunting for Easter Eggs - because it's always so warm here around Easter, we hunt the plastic eggs:

Doug & Scott watching the kids hunt.

Ryan checking out what he got in his eggs:

The Making of the Eggs

This year, we made two types of eggs for Easter. First, we made Rice Krispie Treat Eggs. Doug used plastic Easter Eggs for the forms and filled them with mixture. They were perfect egg-shaped treats. We then dipped them in chocolate and covered with sprinkles. Yum! I love Rice Krispie treats. After finishing those eggs, we moved on to dying Easter eggs. We used only Luna eggs because hers are lighter and would take the dye better. They came out very vibrant. A fun evening of egg making.

Rice Krispie eggs in the making:

We have a couple REALLY big plastic eggs and used them to make a couple REALLY big eggs:
A plate of eggs ready to dip in chocolate:

Ryan with his first chocolate dipped egg:

Doug adding the sprinkles:
Ryan & I dipping our eggs in chocolate:
Doug & Ryan dipping eggs:

Ryan & I getting ready to dye eggs:
Ryan dying eggs. Look at how vibrant Luna's eggs dyed:
Ranger couldn't resist checking out what we were doing at the table, and I couldn't resist getting a little cuddle in:

Our finished eggs:

Ryan with one of his finished eggs:

The BIG egg - just in time for Easter

Doug went out to collect eggs one day and came back with one VERY BIG egg. It was twice the size of our standard eggs. The twin chickens (the ones we raised from chicks) lay much bigger eggs than Luna does, but this egg was even bigger. When we cracked it, it had a double yolk! It made great scrambled eggs that morning!!!

Compare the two egg sizes - it is CRAZY BIG:

It's kinda' hard to see in this picture, but there are the two yolks from one egg. The second yolk broke when the egg was cracked:

Mentos for the Dogs

At the music festival last weekend, there were sponsors there handing out samples of different foods. One of the samples was Mentos - they gave two rolls to each of us. For those of you a little math challenged that means we came home with 6 rolls. Somewhere, one evening, we got the idea to feed some to our dogs to give them better breath. Well . . . the problem with that is that Sam doesn't really chew his food. He gives it a couple of crunches and then swallows. How on earth is that going to give him better breath.

Ranger on the other hand chews everything into tiny little pieces. And during the chewing, he usually spits it out a couple times so that he can smell it and lick it - I've never seen a dog take so much time to chew treats but he does. It was funny watching him eat his mentos. And did his breath smell very minty afterward.

To solve the Sam problem, we tried softening one up in the microwave. Well, it didn't soften instead it just melted. Sam enjoyed licking the melted mentos, but it still didn't do much for his breath. We got a great laugh out if it all, so it was worth it in the long run.

Music Festival

After our afternoon water balloon fight, we went to a music festival in the evening. It was an all-day event, but we only went in the evening. My two favorite new CD's right now are by The All-American Rejects and 3 Doors Down. They both played at the music festival. Both bands were terrific. They sounded amazing. I couldn't have asked for better performances. They are both pretty different and made for a really fun evening. I just wish it hadn't gotten so cold. We took blankets with us and it was still cold. I felt sorry for the people that had been there all day and were wearing their shorts and flip-flops. BRRRR!

The stage - waiting for The All-American Rejects to come on:

Ryan and I relaxing between performances:
The singer for 3 Doors Down on the big screen - what a powerful voice he has. The second song they performed was Ryan's favorite - Citizen/Soldier. It was a brilliant performance - dead on. He kept cracking us up, after every song he would say "Thank you my friends".
Ryan trying to stay warm between the bands:
So, like with every other festival you go to, there was tons of food (I enjoyed my funnel cake) and things to buy for the kiddies. Ryan had his eye on these light saber things that lit up. They had them in solid colors and multi-color. We bought him one between bands performances. We had fun playing around with moving it and capturing pictures. This is one of the best ones we got that night:
Here he is holding the light-saber thing still:

Neighborhood Water Balloon Fight

We got a flyer on our door last week advertising a Neighborhood Water Balloon Fight. A family we know that lives at the other end of our street wanted to organize a water balloon fight as a way for families to meet. At 1pm, last Saturday, we went down to their house with our big bucket full of water balloons. I have no idea how many water balloons we made, but it was a heavy bucket. There were four other buckets. They had marked off an area with cones and the buckets were place in each corner. Anyone could participate as long as nobody got wild. It was a lot of fun. We threw water balloons at everyone until they were all gone, and then the buckets were dumped on people. Some of the kids brought water guns and had fun shooting those once the balloons were gone. Afterward, most of the kids & the parents picked up the balloon remains. It lasted about an hour from the first balloon thrown to the last balloon fragment picked up. It was fun.

Our bucket of balloons:

Ryan hoping for the "fight" to begin soon:

Some of the neighborhood kids waiting for the signal to start. Ryan was throwing his in the air and catching it:

Ryan with two balloons, getting ready to throw:

Ryan throwing a balloon at Doug:

Ryan & a neighbor girl getting ready to throw their balloons:

Bucket Vs. Water Gun:
Ryan and a neighbor friend, Marcos, enjoying shooting water at me:

First Piano Recital

Last weekend, Ryan had his first piano recital. He was very nervous. He performed very well. He's only been taking lessons for about 5 months. He played two songs - and although he had the book, he didn't use it. It was fun to watch him perform his two songs and to see the other students as well.

Ryan performing his songs:

Ryan with his piano teacher:
After the recital, Ryan and his friend Adrian pretended to play:
Ryan with his grandparents who also enjoyed the recital:

The Harper's: