Creativity runs in the family

At the Zavoral house, there is always a new idea! These pictures are just normal shots from the first couple of weeks in April, and I realized that most of them show off the creative genes we each have!

Jeremy had work stuff or something one evening, so I took the boys out for Chinese buffet. They were SO well-behaved, so I had to take some pictures of them. They like making creative poses and smiley faces.

For April Fools Day, I got a friend of mine who works with Jeremy to help make this joke for him. He was given an interoffice package a note on the top of tons of paperwork. The note said "This information came in from legal regarding the new lunch meat packaging. Please approve by EOD." I made sure the wording was vague, but referenced some things I knew he was dealing with at work. He was pretty confused and stressed when he first read it, thinking "what does legal want from me now?!" But once he flipped through the papers, he realized it was just a bunch of nonsense data sheets, then he found the red note at the bottom of the pile that read "APRIL FOOLS!" It was a great trick, the only problem was that it got to him on evening of March 31, haha. He sent me a text, "You're a day early!" That's okay though, because Jeremy did the same trick on April 1 to three of his co-workers, and they all fell for it and got a good laugh out of it.

On Saturday morning, we walked into a creative pile of hair all over our library floor, desk and chairs. Tanner decided that he would give himself and Dallin a haircut.

We remained calm, Jeremy handled most of it. It was disappointing because the boys have always been really good with using scissors just for paper or crafts or opening packages. I was really sad to buzz Tanner's hair because I love his curls and his hair grows really slowly. He gave himself quite the lightning streak.

We enjoyed Church Conference on TV at home. Tanner played conference bingo, which helps kids listen for key words during the talks. He really liked it! The boys also got really creative with dancing to the choir music, haha. (This is a worldwide church conference, where the prophet and other leaders speak about gospel truths and coming closer to Christ, free and available to everyone to watch at this link.)

I got a few pictures of my adorable boys before a meal one day.

Tanner brought me this drawing of our family, and told me that everything on the picture is what he wants: Our family, Mommy pregnant with a baby girl, and a dog! 

Dallin was a climbing polar bear before getting in the bath one night. He is so skinny and little to me!

Most nights when getting out of the tub, Tanner and Dallin become baby cheetahs that hide under the towels and reveal themselves as cold and motherless. I adopt them into the family and give them warm clothes to wear. This is a storyline that they created and is almost exactly the same every night, I'm sure I've written about it before because they have been doing this for months and months. It's hilarious. Tanner figured out how to give himself a cheetah tail with one of his blankets. He walks on all fours, not hands and knees. He tries to imitate the animals as correctly as possible!

Story time, still with a cheetah tale!

Dallin loves this magnet drawing toy because if he makes a mistake, he can erase it right away.

I was actually able to see one of the things he drew! He is gaining a lot of control with drawing! (If you tilt your head you will see a face with squiggly hair and a straight mouth)

At work, Jeremy was given these puzzles. It was fun for him to reflect on all the hard work and creativity he has put into these brands. I'm so proud of him! Currently, he is working on Natural Choice Deli Meat. He's been in charge of the brand since January and has been loving it!

I bought Tanner some Cuisenaire Rods to help him gain some number sense. Right now we are just exploring their colors and sizes. It's fun to explore with him and see him comparing and contrasting the rods and seeing how many it takes of one rod to fit into a ten rod. He is very proud of the creations we made together. #problemsolving #patternbuilding #discoverylearning.

Tanner wanted to make an arrow, so I helped him. His goal was to make it look like the art in one of the Native American books that we have.

Below we have a geometric representation of the solar system. The asteroid belt is on top. Pluto is the small white cubes. The sun is the orange and yellow rods. Earth is obviously the green and blue rods. Can you tell which one is Saturn? Tanner made this all by himself while I was putting Dallin down for a nap.

One day, we built this awesome city of skyscrapers together. Tanner worked on the building in the upper left corner in the same amount of time that I put all the other buildings together. He was very meticulous, haha.

On Saturday, Tanner planned a family picnic lunch for us. It was a cold April day, so Tanner decided we could eat in the back of the traverse. It worked out pretty well!! Me, DJ and Tanner all fit back there, Jeremy stayed in the front.

It was 40 degrees outside, but Tanner insisted on wearing shorts and a T-shirt. #springfever!

We got to take a friend with us to see a play for kids at the local theatre. Then we went out for doughnuts!!

Bike ride with Daddy

They decided bikes weren't thrilling enough, so they got on Tanner's mini skateboard for multiple rides down the driveway.

And then they climbed in our "climbing tree." Dallin made a family record on height in this tree!

The boys enjoyed a special Olympics sport class at the Y with some of their friends. One night, they nailed it with their wardrobe from Grandma Z.

 Their class was in the toddler gym every Tuesday evening for 8 weeks. They loved it and they loved their teachers!

Dallin and I exercised some creativity at church playgroup, where we made kites. 

All ready to go try our creations.

Ours didn't work too well, but we still had fun!

The boys enjoyed ice cream with Jeremy after music class one night. I teach the class through MacPhail Center for Music. This spring, my work started offering an evening class, which allows Jeremy and the boys to come! 

Tanner wanted to make some treats, but I didn't feel like baking. So we made these no bake cookies. He liked them, but they were way too sugary for me. So I tossed them after he ate a couple. I do that with most the stuff we bake, because for me the baking isn't about the end product, it's about doing something meaningful with my kids.

Tanner collected a bunch of broken toy pieces and then created a way to make them all into a plane. He drew a diagram with instructions first, and then worked with Jeremy and used the diagram to put it all together with Elmer's glue. 

Always making silly faces.

Jumping in "muddy puddles", as Pippa Pig always says.

We enjoyed another company party at Hormel. Jeremy and I have a good set of creative photos from the last 3 parties!

The following picture is a great way to end this post. Jeremy planned and led an awesome team meeting with people that work on his brand. He found this great room at the old General Mills flour factory to host the event. It has amazing views of the waterfalls in downtown Minneapolis. His creativity and preparation for the meeting really paid off!

Easter Festivities

Easter is my favorite holiday! This year it was lot of fun, and a great time to remember our Savior. 

We were able to carry on quite a few of our traditions.

On Holy Thursday, we had a Passover dinner/Last Supper meal in our family room. I cook lamb in the crockpot with a bunch of middle-eastern seasonings, chick peas and tomatoes. It is SO delicious.

I made some haroset with the limited ingredients that I had. It wasn't amazing, but it was still yummy.

We used pre-made pie crust for our un-leaved bread. I bake it in the oven with honey and Italian seasonings. YUM!

We eat around the coffee table while sitting on the ground, to be as authentic as possible to how Christ ate with his disciples during the Last Supper. The boys thought it was really fun.

Over the next few days, the boys enjoyed the snow from the storm that came the same night we got home from our Carribbean trip.

On Good Friday, we got hot cross buns from the local baker, and we took Tanner to get a haircut. 

Even with a cut, it was still pretty long. He liked it spiky, haha. 

Eating hot cross buns at home. Tanner loved them!

Dallin loved the frosting, but not much else.

That night, we decorated Easter cookies!

 

On Saturday morning, we had a small Easter get-together. I really wanted to have a big Easter bash with everyone, but we kept it super simple since it was just a couple days after we got back from our trip. Snow was still outside, so we did an egg hunt inside.

This was our 4th year making rice krispy sculptures. The kids had fun, but they kind of strayed away from the challenge to make Easter related sculptures, haha.

Tanner made an Easter monster (no surprise to us!).

We had an Easter pirate skull.

I made an Easter cross and a nest with a baby chick.

That afternoon, Jeremy caught us reading Easter books.

The boys enjoyed this fun chocolate bunny game we found at Aldi grocery store.

That night, I enjoyed a relief society event (women's ministry at our church). It was really uplifting.

EASTER SUNDAY!!!

The boys were really excited about their Easter hats.

Tanner sang some beautiful songs with the primary children during the church service. He was smiling the whole time, which was really great to see because he has been very nervous in the past to sing in front of everyone. I was also able to sing a solo, and it felt so good to bare my testimony of God's love through song!

It was really funny trying to get a family picture at church because Tanner had a ton of hilarious poses. Above, he is tipping his hat with a bow. Below is one of my favorites. Great poses from both kids.

Here's the one that made it on Facebook.

Tanner gave a talk in primary in front of all the other children ages 3-12. We decided to together ahead of time what he would say and then I whispered in his ear what to say into the microphone during his talk. I'm a proud mommy! Here is what he said:

Page one says- My talk is about Jesus and the last supper. The day before Jesus died, he had a special dinner with his friends. His friends were called the disciples. They sat on a low table and used pillows for chairs. That's how people ate back then in Jerusalem. My family tried eating like this too, a few days ago. I helped get all the food on our coffee table in the family room. I got 4 pillows, one for Mommy, Daddy, Dallin, and me. We ate bread that is flat because Jesus ate flatbread. We ate lamb meat because that's what...

Page 2- Jesus ate at the dinner. I didn't like the lamb meat. We ate something kind of like homemade applesauce called haroset. I didn't like the haroset. The only thing I liked from Jesus' last supper was the bread and the water. Jesus broke the bread and ate it. Then he gave pieces to his friends and told them to eat it, just like we do for sacrament. Then he drank the wine and gave it to his friends to drink. He told them the bread and wine will remind us of Jesus. After the dinner, Jesus sang songs with his friends and he washed their feet. Then they went to the garden where Jesus prayed...

Page 3- In the garden Jesus prayed for you and me. He felt pain for us and took away our sins. Then the bad guys came and took Jesus away. The next day they put Jesus on the cross and he died. And today is Easter to remember when Jesus came back to life. It's called being resurrected. I believe all this really happened. I love Jesus and Heavenly Father and Easter time.

Our family decided to do a little Easter service. We put together some cards and fun gifts for our cousin, Elder Bryan and his companion who are serving full-time missions just 20 minutes from where we live. We dropped off the baskets at their apartment! 

Then we went home to enjoy a delicious Easter dinner of salmon with honey. This is another tradition that we started about 4 years ago to remember how Christ ate fish and honeycomb with Peter, James and John after He was resurrected.

I love Easter! I am so grateful for the love that Jesus Christ has for me. He is my Older Brother, my Savior and Friend. I know He lives! And because of Him, I will live again, too!