Catching up

March has been an unbelievably busy month for us with lots of fun things that happened in our family. Brendan turned 12 on March 4th and was ordained to be a deacon on March 8th. Anna also had a birthday - she turned 5 on the 7th of March. Mom, Dad, Roger and Mary Lou made the trek up here for the weekend and survived our crazy northern Alberta winter weather. The Saturday they were here we had a huge blizzard which made basketball games and shopping a little crazy, but fun at the same time. We had a big pizza party for everybody who had a birthday here on Saturday night - which included Matt's mom (March 1st), Brendan (4th), Anna (7th), Rachel (9th), Zach (26th), and we even included Cub (Feb 19th). Now if only Mindy could have come we would have had all our March birthday's up here! The kids had fun opening all the presents and spending time with their Grandma and Grandpa and uncles and aunts.

The next day we had church at 1pm, so it was a nice relaxing morning. Even though Brendan used all the hot water we still survived. Brendan was ordained just after sacrament meeting so Mom and Dad could get going on their long drive home. Brendan felt that he wanted his Uncle Roger to ordain him, so that is what happened. Roger gave Brendan a beautiful blessing and it was a very spiritual experience. How did I get so lucky to have two wonderful priesthood holders in my home???

The following weekend, Brendan and Anna both had birthday parties. Brendan had a couple of friends over on Friday night and they went to the Edmonton Rush (Lacrosse) Game and then slept over. It wasn't much of a sleepover since Brendan had a 9am basketball game on the north side and had to be out the door by 8:30am, but they still had fun. It was Brendan's last basketball game of the season and he went out with a bang getting fouled out - two of the fouls being technicals! Apparently they had a ref that was a little picky about playing "zones" and found that Brendan wasn't quite playing up to her standards. I don't think he even knew what she was talking about, but there are some fun memories anyway!

Saturday was Anna's day for her birthday party. She had 4 little friends over and she had a princess party. The girls had fun playing games, decorating crowns, eating cake and opening presents. We played "freeze dance" with the girls and videotaped them dancing and stopping, then we let them watch it afterward. They thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen! Anna really did enjoy herself and I think all the other little girls did too. Even though it was a "princess party", Anna insisted that she wanted a radio cake, so that is what she got!

Of course, another fun part of March is always St. Patrick's day. I hadn't ever given it much thought, but the girls really made a big deal of it this year. So I made them green pancakes for breakfast and they thought that was the best thing they had ever had! A few funny comments we got this day were:

Grace (all dressed in green): Anna, do I look like a leprechaun?

Anna: No, you look like grass!

Grace: Anna, we should paint our faces green too, then we would be green all over!

Anna: Just not behind my ears. It really hurts when mom washes behind my ears!

And my most favorite - - At school Anna got to make a wish on "leprechaun dust" and when I was putting her to bed that night she said, "Mom, can I have some hay?" So I asked her why she needed hay. She then said, "I made a wish for a unicorn, and my wish is going to come true, and it is going to get hungry!"

Just last week we had some friends that were hatching chicken eggs in their house so their kids could experience this and they invited us over to watch. The girls had a blast watching the chicks hatching out of their eggs. Luckily there were already some that had dried off a little so the girls got to hold them.

Anyway, other than birthday's, parties, ordinations, basketball games, multiple doctor's appointments, ultrasounds, dentist's pulling teeth, green pancakes, hatching eggs, a teething baby, and more puke that I care to remember....... that about sums up the March the Hatch's had this year. Hopefully, our April will be just as much fun???......