Easter

We had a great Easter week. I got to perform with the Temple Hill Symphony Orchestra and Choir in the Easter oratorio "Lamb of God" by Rob Gardner. It was awesome! The music was beautiful, and we got to meet the composer. This was the premiere performance of this work in California, so he came and did a fireside as well as some personal meetings with the orchestra and choir. We performed at the Interstake Center on Temple Hill as well as at the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland. The concerts kicked off a joint service effort by the Catholic and LDS churches in this area. Go to this website to learn more about the music: http://www.spiremusic.org/lamb/. Especially take time to listen to watch the video under "About the Work" - it's a video of Rob Gardner conducting the London Symphony Orchestra on my favorite song "Hosanna".

We also got to spend lots of time with family. Grandma Auman visited for a day and we were able to dye Easter eggs with her. We went to a community Easter egg hunt and saw my cousin Melanie and her little girls there. We dyed more eggs with just the three of us, and then spent some time at Matt's house with his family, where we had a yummy Easter dinner. We've been working hard to teach Owen what we celebrate on Easter - if you ask him, he can tell you that Jesus died for us and we're happy on Easter because he came back (ie - he was resurrected). He can say "resurrection" if prompted, but right now, we're just happy that he knows that Easter has something to do with Jesus. Anyway, enjoy these pictures... I'm working on posts of Hilary's wedding, so hopefully those will be up soon.

 Community Easter egg hunt - it was over in about 10 seconds. There were SO many people, but it was fun.

 Mad that I won't let him go first, before all the kids.

 We found cousin Emma!

 SO excited to dye Easter eggs.

 Inspecting the one he dropped on the floor.

 Easter Sunday outfits.

 This kid has mad eyebrow skills.

 In retrospect, 18 eggs is probably too many for one kid to find. None of them survived the throw into his basket.

  Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, California. Isn't it beautiful? I'm not one for modern architecture, but I loved this cathedral. It was even more beautiful in person.

 Can you see my head? (I'm in the violin section)

Life....

Yeah, I know that's a totally boring title, but our lives are pretty boring right now. We're just hanging out here waiting to find an apartment or condo or something of our own. We're preparing for Hilary's wedding and all the craziness that summer will bring. Life with 12 people in this house is nuts. With 16 (come summer), it will be ridiculous. Anyway, here are a few pictures of things we've been doing recently. 

 Hiking in the dark and through the mud to help Matt set up a treasure hunt.

Eating Ghirardelli ice cream. It's an obsession.

Going to the beach.

....and kicking sand everywhere.

At least he's enjoying himself.

Building sand castles.

Eating tons of seafood.

Visiting the butterfly house in Monterey.

Visiting the butterfly sanctuary in Pacific Grove.

Dennis the Menace park.

Brushing with a new light-up toothbrush. Owen makes us brush our teeth in the dark now.

Helping dig in the yard....  

....making the yard look pretty for Hilary's wedding.

Yeah, we're working really hard.

Can't you tell?

Practicing a little ping pong.

Making funny faces. 

Practicing photography.... using full manual mode on my camera.

Slime!

Matt and I were talking about all the old Nickelodeon shows that we used to love. We found Global Guts (and the Aggro Crag!) on YouTube, as well as Legends of the Hidden Temple and Double Dare, and watched several episodes of each. Weren't those great shows? In honor of the Nickelodeon game shows, we decided to make some green slime (actually, it's more like the Gak that you could buy). We had tons of fun. Here's where we found the recipe:

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000039

It was actually really easy, and turned out really well. Owen LOVED it.

Emptying glue into the bowl.

Green food coloring!

Daddy helping out.

 

Stirring up the slime - almost there!

I didn't get any pictures of when the slime really started to come together - it works best if you stir with your hands, and my hands were busy. :) 

 

 

We're done! Look at our awesome slime!

More Owen-isms

Owen is a nut. I have no idea where he comes up with some of this stuff. Many of the funny things he says are when we're riding in the car. All of a sudden, he'll just speak up with something hilarious.

From the backseat on a recent car ride:
Owen: Um, can we go home and have some bacon?
(I'm not sure he's ever had bacon - I have no idea how he knows what it is)

While protesting his drops for an earache:
Owen: No! No more sauce in my ear!

While driving with Matt in the car:
Me (to Matt): Oh, you forgot to put gel in your hair today.
Owen (from the backseat): There's jelly in MY hair!

While in the car again:
Owen: Mom, you're so glad.
Me: Why am I so glad?
Owen: Because it's time to be free.

Just as I started giving him a haircut, Owen started crying and said:
No! I'm not going to have any hair left!

At a restaurant just after the waitress had asked us how we were doing:
Owen: She has pretty earrings.
(Can you tell I've been training him?? :)

In the car, looking at a scratch on his finger:
Owen: Look at my little boobies! Kiss them!
(we're trying to get him to say "boo-boo" instead but have had no success)