Kindergarten Celebration!

Alex asks me every day, "how many more days until I'm a first grader?" Just 3 more days! On Friday I attended her Kindergarten Celebration where all 3 classes stood up on the stage and sang a few songs they had learned this year. Including, "Hello Song", "Counting Song", "There's a Bird in the Kitchen" (Alex's Favorite) and "I Can't Spell Hippopotamus." Click on the Bird in the Kitchen song to see a video. (Not the best quality but it's better than nothing!)

After the songs were over the teachers presented each child with their Kindergarten Completion certificate. Then during refreshments Alex fluttered around the cafeteria on cloud 9 saying hi to all of her friends. She's so ready to be a first grader and is already telling me everything she'll be able to do as a first grader that she didn't do as a Kindergartner. She is sad though that she won't have Mrs. Ledbetter as a teacher next year, but I assured her she could stop by just about any time and say hi to her. Our little girl is growing up! She already looks so much older than she did this time last year.

Check it out!

My friend Sara Wells has a food blog that is absolutely amazing. She and her friend Kate share great recipes and tips throughout the week. This week was spa week and she has some fun recipes for pampering yourself that I can't wait to try out.

Anyway, you should check out her blog:
http://www.ourbestbites.com/

What started out as a way to share with a few family and friends has grown tremendously and she was recently featured in Cafe Mom and Foodgawkers.

I just made her Spicey Honey Chicken last night (delicious!) and next I want to try out her BBQ Grilled Pizza (looks yummy!)

New Beds

Here are the kids sleeping in their new beds. Alex is having a hard time adjusting to "sleeping sideways". But you can see the trundle underneath, I'm excited to have the extra beds and Alex has a lot more room in her room for playing now. Alex's bed was sage green and I painted it black because her room is going to be black, white and pink. Next up, I need to make some cute bedding to go on them!

Johnny loves his bunk bed and Alex is a little jealous over it. But she goes in there during the day to play on it and this summer they will be sharing a room and taking turns sleeping on top. Johnny has recently realized the joys of sleeping shirtless when his room gets too hot at night and takes full advantage of it whenever he can. He has that uncanny ability to radiate immense amounts of heat like his Dad and I'm sure every other guy can. They are little personal radiators. Then Alex and I are still piling on the blankets to keep us warm at night. Go figure.

Don't forget the pants!

A friend of mine told me that the church park lot is a magical place to teach your child how to ride a bike. Whether it be the wide open spaces or the hollowed ground, I'm not sure, but Alex was riding her two wheeler and even starting herself off in about 10 minutes. Yay!

You can see a video of her riding off on her own here:

Alex riding a two wheeler

If you look under my other videos you'll see another one of her last ride of the day.

We have been trying for years to get her to ride a bike but she lacked the confidence she needed. It was a spur of the moment decision to throw the bikes in the truck and head on over. She was missing one of her knee pads so we didn't bring them. I don't know what I was thinking (I guess I really wasn't) but I didn't dress her for road rash. When she finally got that confidence she was lacking she turned a corner a little too sharp and spilled against the curb. You would've thought her leg was cut off with all the whailing. So I rushed her home to doctor her up and apologized for not putting her in pants and knee pads. I knew she wouldn't wear the boy knee pads though (because I've tried in the past) so I didn't even ask. But after a couple of band aids and an ice cream cone she was out running around the park full force.

She is so excited to tell her friends that she can ride a two wheeler all by herself now. Next time we'll make sure she is dressed for the job. So if this is a first for you as well, when you take your child out to learn how to ride a bike, turn into the closest church parking lot and

DON'T FORGET THE PANTS!

Follow Up...

I finished painting Alex's day bed today and it's ready to be moved up to her room. Johnny's bunk bed needs some stickers removed before I can put it up in his room. But those will both have to wait because we're heading to the cabin for a long weekend and I haven't even started packing yet. I don't know if I've ever waited until the day of, to start packing for a trip. Scary. Soccer is over though and summer is almost here. Johnny had his preschool presentation today and I was probably the only parent there without a camera. Can you believe it? My alarm clock is broken and I slept in this morning so I was rushed to get out the door on time. Not that the pictures would've been much since he spent the whole thing with his hand in his mouth or looking up at the ceiling or whatever else he could think of to pass the time other than singing. Alex's presentation day is coming up next week though and I will definitely have the camera and video camera handy for that one. I can't believe she is going to be in 1st grade next year and in all day school. On another note, I didn't have to turn on the AC today or yesterday because I just kept the house closed up and the fan going and now the windows are open and the breeze is filling the house quite nicely and I saved a little energy in the process. And last but not least, I got the results back from Johnny's speech therapy test and apparently he is "average". So no one thinks he needs any extra help in that department. Go figure. Ok Johnny, take it at your own pace. At least you can do lots of cool tricks like jump out of the truck while holding the seat belt and using it to gradually slow your decent. Oh and don't forget that one you do where you can make a sound like a whistle and you put your fingers in your mouth like you're whistling but you're really just screaming/screeching really high pitched. Now that's talent! Keep on scrolling down...two posts in one night. Too many things I am procrastinating right now...

A light bulb went on

Sometimes as a parent you feel like a broken record, playing in vain. You tell your kids something over and over......and over and over again and you wonder if they will ever really get it. Examples? Potty training, pumping their legs on the swing, riding a bike (still crossing my fingers on this one). Then something clicks and they just get it and there's no looking back.

So why am I pondering about this tonight? Is it because Johnny finally participated in his final soccer game of the season? Well, yes he did! Thank heavens, but although he spent the majority of the time running back and forth across the field and occasionally controlled the ball, he spent a good amount of it with his shirt up over his head. I don't think anything clicked. But he watched his Sister get a trophy after her final game and he really wanted one too. So he went out there and gave it his "best". Then after every time he touched the ball he would turn to me and ask "do I get my trophy nooow?"

We were very glad that he tried at least in his final game of the season. But the actual light bulb that turned that I'm talking about was in Alex last night. I made one of her favorite dinners, chicken and rice. Johnny however hates chicken and neither of them were fond of the pile of green peas on the side of their plates. Alex starts to mimic her mother as she often does though and encourages Johnny by suggesting that he eats what he hates the most on his plate and get it over with so he can enjoy his favorite foods for dinner and have that be the last thing he tastes. I just shake my head any time I hear her go into Mommy mode because she is a "do as I say, not as I do" type teacher. Then the next thing I know, I look over at Alex and she is gobbling up her rice and every last pea was gone off of her plate. I almost wanted to look under the table to see if they were stashed there. I told her I was shocked that she hasn't even touched her chicken because usually that's the first thing gone off of her plate. She tells me that she's "saving it for last because it's her favorite". Really? No more pressuring you into eating your vegetables? No more counting and forcing? You're just going to eat them, and eat them first so you can move on? Every single time I would suggest she eat her least favorite thing on the plate first I never actually expected her to do it. But now it just makes sense to her and she did it for every meal today as well. She even finished her oatmeal before Johnny which is unheard of. Oatmeal is one of Johnny's favorite breakfasts and she has to be coached through the entire painstaking process. But she didn't even touch her chocolate milk until all of her oatmeal was gone. Hallelujah! There is hope yet! Never give up because you never know when that light blub might actually turn on.

Good Morning!

During breakfast this morning it sounded like an airplane was trying to land on our house, over and over again. So I opened the curtains to find a crop duster practically in my backyard. Every time it circled around for another sweep over the field behind us it would fly right over our backyard, amazingly close to the ground. Johnny was fascinated and I have to admit, I was a little too. It was a fun way to start the day!

Happy Mother's Day! ...to me :o)

Brad and I started our weekend a little early and headed to Utah on Thursday to catch the NCAA Men's Volleyball Semifinals. BYU was hosting this year, it's a shame they didn't qualify for the tournament, but we were still looking forward to watching some great volleyball. We left the kids with their Auntie Tiff for the weekend (Thanks Tiff!) and arrived in Salt Lake around 2pm. Thinking the games started at 4, we headed straight to Provo rather than stopping in Park City first (Bret & Jo's House, aka: our hotel) to unload. Bret and Jolene were going to join us for the Final Tournament on Saturday night but couldn't make Thursdays games. Once we arrived in Provo and checked the tickets we realized we were a bit early, the first game didn't start until 7pm. I'm glad we made the mistake though because it gave us the opportunity to do so many things that we haven't been able to do since we moved away. Things I have missed dearly and it brought back so many great memories.

Like splitting a steak and chicken fajita at Los Hermanos Mexican Restaurant and sharing a cherry empanada for dessert. I really wanted a Diablo Verde specialty drink as well but I figured I probably wouldn't be able to handle the drink, dinner AND and empanada so I passed. Brad used to work for Los Hermanos and while we were dating he worked back at the bar mixing drinks and my favorite that he would make for me often was the Diablo Verde. Maybe next visit. We have been searching every restaurant in Idaho though for a decent empanada and so far nothing has come close to the ones at Los, so it was a must on the menu for us.

After we stuffed our tummies with memories we headed back to campus to walk some of it off. Whenever we've returned to BYU it has been to watch Cougar Football and so we haven't spent any time back on campus.
We started off by checking out the "pre-game Luau" BYU was hosting for all of the volleyball fans where we picked up lays and little miniature volleyballs for the kids. They had lots of stuff there that the kids would have enjoyed and they also had a basket full of volleyballs on the court for people to goof around with. So Brad and I did a little peppering with the BYU volleyball team. Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that we peppered adjacent to them, but still very cool.

Before long we were wandering campus (checking out all of the remodeling that has been done in the past 9 years) and found ourselves at the bookstore where I was able to find a few activity and learning books for the kids. I was also able to stock up on a favorite of mine when I was attending school there. I think almost every time I bought something at the book store I also bought a little bag of Sour Cherry Balls to go along with it.
I HEART SOUR CHERRY BALLS!

Finally, 7 o'clock came around and it was time for some volleyball. We found our seats next to Ryan Millar who played for BYU when we were attending there. Brad was score keeper so we attended every home game that season. Ok, so Millar was actually a few rows up and a few seats over from us, but I'm pretty sure there was a connection because we all cheered at the same time. Millar played in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is now playing on our national team.


The first game went long so the second game didn't even start until 9:50pm. The beginning of a "go to bed late and sleep in late" routine that lasted all weekend long. From shopping the Park City Outlet Mall to Teppanyaki for dinner, watching Miss Saigon at the Pioneer Theater, Visiting Grandma Robin and Uncle Louie at their chalet in Midway and catching the 5 game final match between USC and UC Irvine we had a wonderful weekend. Then to top it all off, Brad drove all night to get me home to my kids for Mother's Day. His parents volunteered to come home early from the cabin, take them off of Tiffany's hands and put them to bed at our home so we could be together today. Tiffany's kids ended up having their Father and Son campout this weekend and she was still willing to not only watch our kids, but take Alex to her soccer game and help them make me a beautiful Mother's Day card and provide them with roses to give to me. I feel so blessed to have family around who are so willing to go the extra mile. Thank you everyone for a making this Mother's Day weekend truly special!

So how did your day go???

Uhhhhh.......
I'm sure my day started at midnight with tossing and turning.
Woke up to the way too early alarm clock telling me to get ready for my yard sale and realized my headache hadn't gone away that I went to sleep with.
Heard the rain and stayed in bed a lot longer.
Forgot about my yardsale until I got a call at 8:30 saying "open your garage, people are still coming by".
Called my Mom to complain about it raining on my yardsale day (because who else am I going to complain to?) and forgetting to wish her a Happy Birthday instead!!! So sorry Mom!!! Happy Birthday!!! You're the best!!!
Manning the garage for 7 hours with little food and crying over things that ended up in the yardsale that the kids weren't ready to part with (even though they haven't played with them in over a year). They were suppose to be at their soccer games all morning but those were canceled do to the rain and thunder storms.
Packed up a truckload of unwanted and unsold items.
Counted my money, not too bad for a day of down-pour.
Spent an hour putting together a train set that took up my entire living room floor because I promised I would if the kids were good and finished their chores, yada yada yada.
Helped my Mom fix up her RS newsletter (anything else I can do for you on your birthday?)
Made dinner out of what little we had in the house.
Returned a movie that I didn't have time to watch.
Rushed into the bank to find that I'm just a little too late.
Unloaded the truck at Goodwill.
Found out that my Grandma is in the hospital again with heart problems. Wondering if she'll make it to June when we are planning to go down to So Cal for a visit.
Wandered through Wal-mart like a zombie trying to find everything on my list.
Waited 20 minutes in line because someone didn't read the fine print on her coupons.
Dropped off a primary manual to a sub for Sunday.
Rushed in to help put the kids in bed.
Unloaded the groceries from the truck and put everything away.
Johnny is still crying half an hour later about wanting a new "Cowie" doll because his is missing an eye. Interesting that he picks tonight for the tantrum since Cowie's eye has been missing for at least 6 months.
I'm still trying to figure out if this was really just one day or two because I feel like I haven't slept for a couple of days.
Next on the list? A long hot bath, some pain killers and a box of good n plenties.
That should do the trick.