Most of March

Obviously the best thing about March is spriiiiiing. Chuck and I were so excited to see our little day lillies and tulips begin to awaken in our front garden. I'm not saying we're more proud of these plans than we are of our children, but.... I mean, I see how people might make that mistake.

Simon Holland is one of my favorite funny meme guys and I feel this very deeply... on Chuck's behalf. 

Clyde had his spring choir concert as they prepared for festival and it was super cute. 

The middle school had a door decorating contest for Kindness Week and Clyde's advisory won - here's their awesome 'kindness tree'.

Two highlights this month having to do with one of Eden's and my favorite books, Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson. A) Julianne Donaldson re-tweeted my reply (that was about Eden!) to a question she asked:

and b) Quinn read Edenbrooke! Jk, but he did hold it in front of his face long enough for Eden to send me a picture haha.

Oh man, the Nampa library started including an attachment at the bottom of the 'checked-out' email that calculates how much you would have spent had you purchased those items at a store instead of checking them out from the library and it's basically the coolest thing ever:

Ummm facebook memories kill me, especially when little Clyde and little Will are involved.

Of course, sometimes the memories are more alarming than sweet, but I'll take what I can get...

"Grandma said, 'I wonder who will hang up first' so I hanged up." hahahahahahahahaha

Well this was slightly too true to be funny ;). jk it was still funny:

Cough, Carma, cough. 

Yesssss. That's got to be an important life skill that will aid them in the future, right?

Random picture of my wedding rings? It makes me so happy that I love my rings as much now as I did 14+ years ago when Chuck and I picked them out.

One day I got to pinch hit for my cousin Amanda and run her cute girlie to an appt and I loved getting some time with Cecily!

Will had a music program at school before Spring Break and Carma was prettttty excited to be in attendance there. She also has developed a fun habit of putting stickers randomly on her face. That's normal, riiiiight?

So sometimes I shy away from 'successful/unsuccessful' comparisons because it's highly possibly my definition of successful is different from everyone else's haha BUT I liked a lot of these - compliment vs. criticize, talk about ideas v. talk about people, accept responsibility vs. blame others.

Pretty sure people avoid hanging out with me a second time when I make them take pictures with me the first time... but it's a risk I take. So one day Janell and Chris were talking about how they needed to see Black Panther again because they missed one of the extra scenes after the credits and I might have mentioned how my family saw it without me aaaannd a girls night was born! We laughed since it was my first time seeing it, Chris' second time seeing it, and Janell's third time ;). Love these two and any excuse to hang out with them and force them into a selfie!

March = Dr. Seuss' birthday = Literacy Night at the Ridge = all sorts of fun. We were super psyched to wander into the kindergarten room at the same time as the Curtis family so that Clark and Jack could finally hang out with Mrs. Koeppen together!

And for the first time in our lives, we won a school raffle basket! At Literacy Night Will put all his tickets in the 4th grade basket and was THRILLED to hear his name announced the next morning. He was so excited about the books, games, and light up glasses. Pretty sweet!!

So we had a couple family nights playing this game... that probably has a name but I don't know it... but it's where you start with a random phrase or sentence and then pass it to the next person, who draws a picture of what you wrote, then they fold over the paper so only their picture can be seen and pass it to the next person, who writes a sentence or phrase based on what they see. Then they fold it over so only their words are visible, then pass it to the next person who draws a picture based on what the previous person wrote... and so on. It's the best game ever. Will had played it at school and was very insistent we try it at home and we all laughed and laughed:

Also, I'm at peace with what a terrible artist I am. It's cool. I have other redeeming talents in life... I hope.

The Curtises had a baby! I take my role of 'closest neighbor on call for middle of the night delivery scenarios' VERY seriously and was thrilled that Joy picked to make her debut in the wee dark morning hours so that I could come over and hang out with Clark and Andy. Such a cool family and we are so excited that Joy is here safe and sound!

Um this is random buuuut so is Will haha. He and Clyde stayed home while I ran errands and this was the email I got from Will to check in. "code word for almost completely charged is luck" - that right there is PURE Will and I love it haha.

Grandma Pam adopted a puppy and got to bring him home in March and our lives have never been the same. All four kids immediately fell in love with Albie (his real name is something long and British) and I think he's cute but prefer not to touch him or get anywhere close.

But seriously, my children are obsessed with this dog. If you've never heard Carma's little voice call out, "Sit Albie! Sit!" then you're legit missing out.

You know what I love about school projects? When Chuck does them with Clyde so I don't have to haha. This is some kind of Greek? structure? Maybe Roman? Who knows? Not me, because I didn't have to work on it haha!

Willy boy in the spring music program. That excited wave in the top left when he saw us is priiiiceless.

Chuck's parents came up for spring break and all sorts of adventures ensued, including an outing to see Black Panther with cousins!

Dave always comes willing to help out with projects around our house, and this visit the name of the game was replacing our random half fence with a random half gate! I love being able to glance over that section and see in the back yard so I asked for a gate to stay this height and Chuck and Dave created this beauty and it's so perfect! Only took us 10 years in this house to put a gate in haha.

More pictures - fun at home...

 and at the Discovery Center!

More Spring Break fun with the Walker kids - Clyde's always delighted when he finds someone who will actually play frisbee with him:

Ivy made me this - soooo sweet!!

Still not sure how we got away with having girls' night the same month as our retreat (more about that next post... get excited) but we did! Other girls' group related things: we continue to be obsessed with Marco Polo and it cracks me up when a bunch of us are on there at the same time, hence the screenshot in the upper left. Also Emily is gorgeous and no one ever believes me that she looks like Julia Roberts' prettier twin sister sooo I took that other screenshot as evidence.

Chuck found this bike for my mom and took it out for a quick spin. Chuck on bikes that are a) too small for him and b) purple is a sight that will always bring me joy.

Sooo obviously I over document our lives and take a million (probably) unnecessary pictures but I'm more than okay with that. I love looking back and remembering little moments that I wouldn't otherwise. These random shots of little Izatt children playing and wrestling and reading and jumping on the trampoline together throughout the month warms my heart.

We are always a pretty happy family but we are a suuuuper happy family once March and spring hit and we are freed from our cabin fever. Yayyyyyy March!!