Amy visits NM

Amy and Mike brought their kids to New Mexico for a cheap adventurous spring break. They also brought our other sister Amanda's daughter Madison along so she could enjoy some girl cousin time. Madison and Sarah were super sweet to Marianne. Madison brought her this super cute shrug, and Sarah picked out her clothes. 

Amy is expecting her fifth baby this June. She's torturing us all by not finding out the sex. We decided to tackle an easy sewing project and made these booties for the baby. It was simple enough, but then Luke and Mikey and Jacob all wanted booties in their size. And not just slippers, but booties just like these but bigger. It took a little pattern enlarging and tweaking, but eventually Luke had a wearable pair of super soft slippers. I didn't finish Mikey's while he was here, a fact that he reminded me of daily.

I think I've mentioned how Marianne idolizes Joshua and Luke. She adores them, loves them, wraps them around her little finger. Here is Joshua showing Marianne his Clash of Clans game.

They were all lucky enough to be here for St. Patrick's day. We ate lots of green food and had a wonderful feast of corned beef and cabbage and soda bread and mint brownies.

All the girls stayed with me that night while the boys went to Los Lunas. We rented "Annie," which was fantastic, stayed up late, ate popcorn, had a dance party, and sang all of our favorite Annie songs several times over. Thankfully they were just as kind in the morning and they all slept in, even Marianne.

In the morning we met up with everyone at the zoo. Before we left, I told the girls I'd paint their faces like animals. Bekah picked a tiger, and Madison and Sarah were butterflies/fairies. Marianne was a lion. I almost felt bad later when Bekah related to me that a little girl and her mother had seen their painted faces and the mom had promised that she'd let her daughter get her face painted too. Maybe I should set up shop at the zoo!

It was a slightly cloudy day that eventually gave way to a drizzle, but it was not cold, and the animals were entertaining enough.

Amy and Mike, both carrying some weight...

By this point - the train ride back to our vehicles - each and every one of the kids was fed up with picture taking. So I tricked them into this one. I said just stand in a line, youngest to oldest. No pictures. And then I took their picture anyway. That's why Sarah and Bekah are looking so betrayed.

After this picture was taken, Joshua said he'd like to run on the trail back to the zoo instead of taking the train. I said I'd accompany him, because I was in running shoes, and despite being in jeans. We had a lovely run, not much more than a mile, beat the train, and wound up running around to the front of the zoo because we couldn't get in the same way as the train. Joshua was very nice to me and didn't run too fast.