An excerpt from my email to Jake this evening

So, I write to Jake just about every evening and tell him all about our day. Well, today was particularly crazy, so I thought I'd share with you all. So, I give you: A Day in the Life of Emily Garris and Co. Enjoy.

So, today was another busy day. Took Joanna to school, came home. Took Nate to school, came home. Did some finances/bills. Left again at 8:45 to go back to the school because they had a volunteer appreciation brunch, to which I was invited. Went straight to the commissary from there. I was under budget by $10. Came home and brought up/put away groceries. Called the pizza parlor and reserved it for Nate's birthday party on the 9th. Nate came home. We went out again straight away because the pizza parlor wanted me to pay a deposit. Came home. Ate lunch. Nate went down for a nap. Left again to go get Joanna from school. Came home. Took a break. Got Nate up at 3:30 so that we could go to soccer practice at 4:00. We were at the gym at 3:58 and there were a bunch of adult men playing basketball in the gym. There was no coach and nobody else that I recognized from Joanna's team, so I asked the front desk guy if there was soccer practice today. He looked at the schedule and said "Yeah, at 5:00". ?? So, we turned around and came home. I had every intention of going back to the gym at 5:00. Then, Jen knocked on the door and wanted to show me something. I said, "So, what was up with soccer practice being late?". She said, "Huh?" Dale is at the gym now with Caleb and Shane at practice!". She called Dale, and he said that Shane was definitely taking part in soccer practice with the team. What the heck?? The front desk dude totally told me the wrong thing! How is it possible to be on time for practice and miss it??? *sigh* Lame. Just lame.

Crazy, eh? Hopefully tomorrow will not be as crazy. We shall see.

Look at what I wore this morning!

CUTE SHOES!!! (Not ugly, utilitarian ones.) Then the weather got gross and I had to put my boots back on. But I got to wear cute shoes for a brief period of time today!! I loved every second of it!!! P.S. Doesn't the angle of this photo make my feet look really weird and kind of alien-like?

Nice(r) weather + turning 4 = a new bike!

We've had some fairly decent weather this past week...and I say "fairly decent" only because the sun has been out and the temps have been in the 40's. That, my friends is "fairly decent" weather for Kodiak. Some, I dare say, might even call it "decent". Some hard-core Kodiak aficionados would probably even say "nice". We'll just leave it at that.

Any-who...the weather coupled with the fact that Nate's grown at least a foot in the past two weeks and is turning 4 soon, warranted a nice, shiny, new two-wheeler (with training wheels!) bike! He's thrilled! It's all he wants to do, and it's so cute and heart-breaking at the same time to watch him ride it all the way around our loop by himself. Here are some pictures of the big-kid stuff that's been going on around here over the past couple of days.

Nate on his new bike!

Heading into the home stretch!

Around the bend...

The old pro.

It's so cute to watch them ride...

The bike!

Ready to set out!

Ready...set...GO!!

Silly, precious girl!

I sure do love her. :)

My new favorite thing!

Nate and Joanna have been taking on a few more chores these days, and I love it!! I taught Nate how to sort and put away the silverware, and Joanna likes to vacuum! Great news! I love the extra help, and they are still at the age where they think it's fun. You can bet I'll be taking full advantage of that, knowing in a couple of years I'll be hearing protests instead of excitement when I bring up the subject of unloading the dishwasher or sorting laundry. :)

Unloading the dishwasher is fun!

So is vacuuming!

Manny Bunny and Little Monkey Doug go for a ride

There's nothing like an evening cruise around the living room with your best friend in a sweet ride. :)

What do you eat for breakfast when you're 1/4 Mexican?

Homemade tortillas, of course! Mmmm...Nate helped. :)

Happy Easter!

Whew, there's a lot of pictures in this post, but I had to put them all on here to show off the fun Easter we had! It was snowy (yes, snowy), but there were still lots of fun things for us to do. The base had an Easter egg scramble that was a blast, and we dyed our eggs and had our own indoor egg hunt too. Plus, the Easter Bunny showed up and left the kids some little treats. All in all, it was a very fun Easter, but I have to say that because of all this snow, it does feel like I will never see green grass, leaves on trees, flowers or children playing on the playground ever again. Anyway, Happy Easter from Kodiak to wherever you are! :)

My precious children (They're always this angelic, I swear.) Joanna and the Easter Bunny

Nate and Manny Bunny's Dad

Wow, what a haul!

Go, Joanna, go!

It's almost my turn!

Woah. That's a ton of eggs, boys!! Good job!

Graham. Is. Cute.

Wow, that was so fun!

Nate going for the eggs in the 3-4 year-old group

Go, go, go!

This is so exciting!

The eggs

Star Wars jammas? How did he know??

Bunny in my pocket! I saw these at Walmart!

Finally, a 100 piece puzzle!

Something else...I can't tell what he's waving around.

The Easter Bunny had a nice, healthy snack from us.

Aw, Sissy's getting them all!

Am I hot or cold??

You're getting warmer, Nate.

Getting warmer...

Boiling hot!!!

Dying eggs is fun!

Pretty color

It's changing!

Serious business, this egg dying stuff.

Oooh!

We're ready to start! Look at all the cups!

I'm going to try that one first.

Final product.

So pretty.