Easter was wonderful. The Easter Bunny came and hid the eggs and left baskets for each of the children. Jared felt left out. The Easter Bunny filled stackable, sorting eggs with candy. We know because he left the egg carton for us to clean them up when we were finished emptying the eggs. We knew there were 48 eggs. Per usual the kids did not start the hunt until after church. It took hours and Jared and I kept recounting the eggs. We were short 3 eggs. The Easter bunny did not think he had hid any of the eggs that difficult. Jared and I couldn't even find the missing eggs. Finally I had an idea that we should look inside the larger eggs to see if the missing eggs were inside and they were. It was pretty funny. Each of the children received super cool yo-yos, the reason Jared felt left out. Practically every free moment this week has been spent trying to learn new yo-yo tricks. Jared is also doing this any time one of the boys lets him borrow a yo-yo. Jared has even been studying the manuals that came with the yo-yos and watching Online tutorials. I am surrounded by nerds! We had Easter pizza for dinner. Jared tossed the dough and I topped the pizza. We have a lot of fun making pizza together. One day we will have a Kitchen-Aid and we will make the dough ourselves. I started planning our next get together with the Baileys in my head. It is a pizza party and Jared will be the dough tosser. What do you think, Care?

On Saturday we went over to the Baileys to celebrate Jensen. I can't believe she is 9. Carey had to point out that Jen only has one more year of double digits which totally freaks me out! 2 months from yesterday Elijah will also turn 9. We only have 14 months of our eldest being in single digits. That seems so old and too soon. The boys were disappointed that they did not get to pick out Jensen's present. I informed the family of our new policy. I alone get to buy and pick out presents for girls.

One of my favorite happenings, ever, happened when we walked into the Bailey house. I received the welcome that every person should feel when they join a group of people. Brigham shrieked loudly and yelled "Sara!" and ran to me with open arms to hug me. Brigham knows how to keep me wrapped around his finger. I adore him. He has also really clicked with Uncle Jared now. I love having a nephew that delights in seeing Aunt Sara and Uncle Jared.

Lucy is the cutest, sweetest, happiest baby. She almost makes me want to try for that girl, but I know I wouldn't get a Lucy baby or a Jennie baby if I tried for one. People told Carey they wanted a baby like Jensen when she was a baby and now they tell her they want a baby like Lucy. I wish I would have been around for Jensen's babyhood. Jennie and Elijah were 2 when we both moved to Arizona.

Elijah got a 24 out of 25 on his project. The teacher wrote "Awesome job!" on the grading paper. He felt really good about that.

Maxwell and I have been to the Phoenix Art Museum and the Arizona Museum of Natural History in the last few weeks. My mom informed us of this new thing called, "Culture Pass." that our county is doing. Basically over the next year you can check out one pass for 4 to a local attraction from the library. You have a week to use the pass and then you can (if you can find them) check out a different pass.

I loved going to the art museum with him. He enjoyed it as well but definitely enjoyed some exhibits more than others. They handed him a scavenger hunt at the beginning. We spent hours there and only managed to find 4 or 5 of the 10 or so items on the hunt. The Museum is huge. His favorite exhibit was "Fireflies" and it was really cool. We did that at the end right before leaving which is a good thing because if we would have done that at the beginning I would have had a super hard time holding his attention so I could enjoy the art. I used to go to the St. Louis Art Museum fairly regularly. Art Museums are such peaceful places for me. Fireflies is a dark, mirrored room with tons of LED lights hanging down from the ceiling at different lengths. Even the floor is highly polished, black tile. Music plays, and the lights change colors and light up in various patterns. You can, and should, move around the room to move the lights. It can be disorienting. Fortunately a docent showed us the way in and the way out. Mirrored walls in a dark room can be confusing. I just asked him if he wanted to go there again and he exclaimed, "NO!" The highlight of his trip to the museum was probably going out to the car to eat a Lunchables.

My favorite exhibit was "In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein" http://elblumenschein.com/ . I need to go back before it leaves in June without a five year old so I can just enjoy this exhibit. He makes the people who paint circles on canvases look like idiots and the people who pay more than $5 for circles on canvases look like even bigger idiots. Seriously the comparison is like The Emperor's New Clothes. I am not saying I don't enjoy Abstract art, but it lacks the skill and depth of Blumenschein. Blumenschein was one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists in New Mexico in 1915. He was a sympathizer with the plight of the Native Americans. Many of his paintings portrayed this subject matter.

Because I had a pass for 4 and Maxwell was free I was able to get a family from Louisville, Kentucky in. That was fun.

On Thursday, Maxwell and I went to the natural history museum with Grace (a friend from church) and her mom and older brother. Maxwell and I have been there before. Unfortunately, I did not blog about that visit. I have also been there on a field trip with Xander so this was my 3rd time going. It isn't my favorite museum for multiple visits but it is a great museum. I texted Jared, Meteor Crater, and Kartchner Caverns. He wondered why but it was my way of keeping track of the places we need to visit in AZ. The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are also on that list. The first time Maxwell and I went to this museum I was impressed by his desire to follow directions and signs. There are several hands-on exhibits and puzzle sculptures. Maxwell always wanted to put everything back the way the signs directed even if he had not found it in the right condition. There were a few field trip groups with 10 year old or so kids at the museum at the same time. I was astonished at how these kids zipped through each thing with out cleaning up after themselves or without putting things back the way you are supposed to so the next visitor can enjoy it. The adults that were with them didn't even stop to require this of them. I am not always observant enough but Maxwell, a 5 year old, saw and read the signs and then followed them. He even cleaned up after these older kids garbage. Basically on Thursday we saw dinosaur bones, fossils, and the poop exhibit just as we had seen it before. I learned that dung beetles are an extremely important part of our earth. Because of worms and dung beetles ability to turn poop into soil through digestion the earth is not covered by a very thick, very stinky layer of poop. So, be grateful for the dung beetles and the
worms.

This next week we have a pass to go to Arizona Museum for Youth and we are taking Carey, Brig, and Lucy. This is an art museum that is geared mostly toward the toddler set and somewhat to the under 12. They have a lot of hands-on exhibits so it should be fun. Also, there is a ton of free parking in downtown Mesa in the arts district and there was free parking at the Phoenix Art Museum. I was planning on taking Maxwell to the museum and such as often as we could afford it to help us get through these last few school free months. This program has proven to be a huge blessing because now we can afford it every week.

This is turning into a super long entry. That's what I get for not writing about all the happenings because of my life block. I think there is one last thing.

During Spring Break we had a lot of fun. We rediscovered the dollar theater in Tempe. http://www.pollacktempecinemas.com/showtimes.php Now it is a 3 dollar theater Wednesday through Monday and a $2 theater on Tuesday. Still it is a great deal and we can enjoy going to the movies without breaking the bank and get popcorn and sodas. (2 sodas, 1 for the adults and 1 for the tots) We are planning on seeing the 3-D Pixar movie in June and that will cost us $50 to get in without snacks. INSANE! We saw Bolt and Tales of Despereux and really enjoyed both movies. The Tuesday, we were there for Bolt. Jared took an extended lunch hour to meet us at the theater. (He doesn't like to miss out on any possible fun.)

We ran into Dava Harbertson and kids (5 of them, aged 10-1). They were sitting behind us. She offered to take us with her to the zoo on the last Monday of Spring Break. She had a membership and was willing to use her free guest passes to get us in. I have really missed Dava since we moved to Chandler. She is a super busy lady. Aside from the mom of 5 thing she is the Stake Young Women's President and her husband (formerly our home teacher) is the Stake Sunday School President in our old stake. She is the one who called me to inform me about Gerry's passing. Our kids go to the same school so we get to say hi in passing sometimes. It was a fun afternoon at the zoo. The kids had a lot of fun together and did a great job behaving. We saw the cheetahs, the baby orangutan, the lions, the tiger, elephants, snakes, coyotes, meerkats, rhinos, monkeys, giraffes, etc. We stayed 2 hours after the Harbertsons left. Xander wanted to make sure he saw the bald eagles before we left so we walked to the location where the bald eagle exhibit has always been, where the signs were pointing us, and where the map still said it was. (The Phoenix zoo is huge and spread out. It is more about the animals than about the patrons.) When we got to the bald eagle exhibit, the bald eagle nest exhibit was still there (the nest is the size of Big Bird's) but the cage was filled with Condors. A sign on the exhibit said the bald eagles had been moved to the Children's Trail on the opposite side of the zoo. By now our feet were sore and tired but Xander really wanted to see those bald eagles so the 4 of us hiked over there just in time before the zoo closed. The bald eagles are still majestic and still have white feathers on their heads and dark brown feathers on their bodies in case you were wondering.

What follows is gross so don't read if you don't like to be super grossed out. My eyes were burning for several days after seeing this. What is a zoo trip without a disgusting animal experience?

We saw the baby orangutan suck her mother's bumhole. I told you it was disgusting. It's your fault if you read it.