What happened to March? ....and what happened in March!

Cory's Birthday
We started off March by celebrating Cory's birthday on March 1 and 2. Everyone came down for it and we had a wonderful time playing games, both table ones and hall ones. Grandma and Wendy even came over to play with us on Fri night. TJ and Shauna came on Saturday and everyone was here for Sunday for Cory's actual birthday.

Playing the bean bag game in the hall. Always a lot of fun!


Some of the older kids decided to have fun with Cory and got him some Hannah Montana stuff for his birthday. When we were at Abby's birthday in Feb Cory was getting teased about liking her. She is a preteen celebrity starring on a Disney channel show if anyone doesn't know of her, and Cory really does not like her at all, but a lot of 5-9 graders do, especially girls. For his birthday they gave him a t-shirt, poster and best of all a life size cutout of her. We made him close his eyes and they brought her out. He actually screamed when he opened his eyes, it was so funny and he was a great sport. Since then, Hannah has shown up many places (around corners, etc), scaring us and my piano students (who really like her).


Birthday dinner in the hall

Croy blowing out his candles on his strawberry shortcake desert.

Kait loves cats and was enjoying watching them through the screen door after dinner

We just wore Grandma and Grandpa Burnham right out from all the partying and they had to have a nap after dinner.

Cory and Natalie Johnson leaving on their preference date March 8

The West Millard Music Teachers festival was on March 15 and was I happy to have it done. It is a lot of work, but worth the effort. Abby and Amalie came down to judge the advanced students. My students did really well this year (I have awesome students) with everyone getting a superior! Cory, Brooke and Dani all played on the honors recital along with several other very well prepared students from various teachers. This is them posing for a picture with Marcus' new camera he will get for his birthday (just had to try it out!)

St. Patrick's Day
We had a great celebration for St. Patrick's day. It all started out with a yummy breakfast of green pancakes and eggs, and lucky gold juice. In the evening we had our traditional dinner of pork chops, green potatoes, lime-pear jello, and brussell sprouts (of course with Bisto gravy). Then we did make our annual trip to Emerald Isle, with a special surprise waiting for us there. Great times were had by all with jigs and leprechaun surprises. We ended with our famous "follow the colors of the rainbow" treasure hunt where a pot of gold was waiting!


The most amazing surprise we had was Hannah Montana waiting to welcome us when our plane landed in Ireland! (Cory was especially thrilled! ha ha). I think she must really like him, if you recall she even came to his birthday party.


Look at all that GOLD!

Region Solo and Ensemble was March 19. Cory played a piano solo and sang in a mixed quartet. He received a superior on both numbers and is going to state on both. He played Humoresque by Rachmaninoff and did awesome. Congrats Cory!


Marcus' Birthday and Mission Call!
Everyone congregated at Abby and Gichin to celebrate Marcus' birthday on the 21st and then open his birthday presents and mission call! We had a wonderful meal of Lasagna, bread sticks and salad, and cake and ice cream for desert. After dinner it was time to open the presents and call. Everyone made their guesses and then Marcus opened it and it said he was called to the Catania Italy mission. Everyone let out huge exclamations of surprise, but we quickly all guessed it was a lie and Marcus admitted he and Derek had cooked the whole thing up. Then he read the call to the Taichung Taiwan mission! Cindy had actually guessed Taiwan (actually she asked what a mission in China would be and it was suggested to her Taiwan), but we still could hardly believe it. He is so excited and will be speaking Mandarin Chinese and leaves on June 25th.








Happy Birthday Dani!
In between all of the Easter celebration we had Dani's birthday dinner on Friday and her cake after we colored eggs. Abby came down for the party Friday and Gichin joined us on Saturday evening after the sandhill party.



EASTER CELEBRATIONS
We had a lot of fun for Easter. We did all this while celebrating Dani's birthday too! Some amazing eggs were colored, cookies decorated (they were too pretty to eat almost) and the Easter Bunny did find us and leave goodies in the baskets and hid them with the eggs.




Finlinson Family Easter Picnic at Sandhills
We had a great time at the sandhill picnic this year with the cousins and grandparents. The food was great as usual, with roasted hog dogs. The kids had a great time on the sand making some amazing orange trails, huts in the willows, and having jumping contests. Cory is still the winner on jumping. Marcus, Abby, and Cory built a great trail, Brooke and Dani helped the girl cousins make a nice house in the willows on the hill.


Abby and Mom just chilling in the sun

Jamie and Marcus riding four wheelers.




Look what we find while digging the trails! Yikes!

On the way home from the Easter picnic we stopped at the track so Marcus and Cory could race. They are both very fast, but Marcus was the winner by just a bit.

Abby and Gichin stayed till Monday since it was a school holiday. We had a picnic outside (one of the few nice spring days we had in March) and then played a couple games of Croquet before they had to leave. Gichin and Cory cheat at Croquet!


After Abby and Gichin left the wind was blowing just right for kite flying so we got out the kites and spent a couple hours flying them. It was great fun!



After nearly 3 months of waiting, Shantel Lovell finally answered Cory on his prom asking. She tied a race car pinata on the basketball hoop with a sign that said, "sorry I left you hanging, but thought I'd get you something speedy since I wasn't." Here is Cory busting it open. It was filled with lots of candy and confetti that went flying everywhere and still bits can be found in the hall.

Cory is trying to do enough hurdles to qualify for state this spring. Here he is in a Delta meet where he took 1st or 2nd, can't remember, but did really well. He is on the far side of the picture in the red.