Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: seasons (Page 2 of 5)

Just Hang on

July 13, 2013 / / 0 Comments

JULY.

July is typically the month when things slow down and we languish in the heat of the summer.
Not this year.
Where do I start. Well, Natalie is in Alpine Community Theater’s production of Peter Pan. Tonight is Opening Night! I wish I was in that play with her, but we will go see it tomorrow.

So, for the past two weeks, she’s had a rehearsal every night, with the last three going past 10:00. It’s actually a relief when the show opens because then you just do the show, and you go home. That show runs until June 22.

This week, we pick up two Chinese exchange students. We’ve had fun with this program in the past, and the family was excited to host again, even though I am seriously so busy in July, I don’t know when we’ll do anything fun with them. They will be here from the 18th of July until Aug 5. They have to be to their program in Orem every weekday. We drop them off at 8 and pick them up around 5. Thankfully, I got a call yesterday from another lady in Alpine who wanted to carpool, and we’ve worked it out so that we can take 6 kids from 3 families. Of course, that interferes just a little bit with my three girls who are doing a buddy program with them. They are buddies, and they go 5 different days with the Chinese students. (These aren’t this year’s students, but Vivian and Coco from two years ago)
They get to go to a ropes course, 7 peaks, and also help with a talent show. There’s also a family barbeque closing social that we all can go to. Luckily, Megan could drive the three of them to Orem on buddy days if we can’t squeeze them into the carpool. The last time we did this, I just about went crazy. The girls were nice and sweet, but the DRIVING back and forth to Provo, through the construction EVERY SINGLE day, (sometimes twice a day) was killing me. I didn’t have a good carpool, and that makes SUCH a big difference.
Hopefully we can squeeze in some fun with them.

Meanwhile, I am in full swing rehearsal mode for the Scarlett Pimpernel. That show opens August 2, which is just a couple of weeks away, and I have NO idea how we will be ready in time. But guess where I’ll be every night? Yep, at rehearsal.

To add to that, I have a lesson to teach this Sunday for a class I’m subbing, and then a RS lesson NEXT Sunday. I think if people know you are in cub scouts (my new calling), that means “please call this person to sub for you because they don’t have a Sunday job”. Oh, and cub scout day camp is this week. hooray (said in a dead pan, very small voice).

Oh, and yes, I’m still playing bells. Every Wednesday, although I have to miss one for a dress rehearsal. Thankfully, at the Scera, they don’t do shows on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so that means I can stil go to bells through the month of August, even though I’m doing a play. Except, did I mention that after we do the show at the Shell, we are also performing it at BYU every night for education week? Yes, we’ll get to do the show in the deJong Theater, so if you are attending education week, COME see the show! I’ll have to miss bells for that week, too.

I heard that we’re performing some song for a Music and the Spoken Word broadcast sometime in August, but since I can’t be there on the Thursday night rehearsal, I think I’ll let someone else take my spot and step aside for one broadcast.

My mother was kind of chastising me for being so busy, and she doesn’t understand WHY in the world I would want to fill up my whole summer with a play. I guess if you don’t do theater, you don’t understand the draw. It is a ton of work, and many times I ask myself WHY I do this, but it really is fun. Talk to me when it’s over and we’ll see if I think it was worth it or not.

So, we are going to hang on for the next month and just hope I can schedule everything just right so that we fit it all in, with no screaming panic attacks and no stress eating. Wish me luck.

Bells–Clorox wants to help us purchase them

November 2, 2012 / / 5 Comments

As many of you may know, I have started a beginning chime choir at Highland Elementary school, where I volunteer with the PTA and substitute teach. While it’s been slow going and frustrating at times, I am thrilled with what they have learned in just two months.

We are using a borrowed set of chimes, thanks to a chime loan from the Area 11 Handbell Musicians of America guild, but would like to be able to purchase our own set for for next year and beyond. Perhaps because I’m not a full time teacher, my attempts at securing grants through the traditional avenues had not been successful. So when I found out about this Clorox educational grant for up to $50,000, I was all over it.

Here’s a grant that is more like a contest. And we all know how much I love a contest. Someone will win $25,000 to $50,000 for their school, why not our school? There are 2566 total entries, but only 402 entries in the “create” category. Can we get more votes than the other 401 entries? Well, we can try.

If we were to win this grant, we could buy not only a 3 octave set of chimes, but more than one set, tables, pads, and music for all of the music department, not just the chimes.

So, once again, I am asking for your help. But this isn’t just for me to win a trip or a car for a year or the usual contests that I ask for help. This is for the school. This is one of those vote daily contests that are ‘so much fun’. Besides voting on the computer, there’s a text your vote option, so that’s two votes every day. And voters only have to be 13, so this is a great way to put those texting teenagers to good use. The contest runs from November 5-December 12. I know you are busy, especially this month, but it will really only take a minute or two to click over and vote. I don’t know the text code yet, but when voting goes live on Monday, they should let us know what the text code for our school is.

Here’s a link directly to our school’s grant proposal.

https://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=2269

While this is my personal project, this would be a wonderful thing for our school, and another way to spread the joy of handbells. There are many great grant ideas that we are competing against, but I hope you can support me in this effort with your vote and even help spread the word to others who would support us in our quest for handbell world domination (ok, just kidding about that last part).

You can text 2269pbf to the number 95248 to vote as well. Use your kids’ phones, your neighbor’s phones, your work phone…just vote!

If you would like me to remind you daily to vote, I would gladly do that–just let me know. I would love it if you could help spread the word. I can only reach the people in my circles, and while I may know quite a few people, I don’t know nearly enough. Post a link on your blog, on your facebook page, or even twitter (I don’t tweet, but maybe that’s part of your world and you could help me). Please help me help our school win.

Snippets of Fall

September 27, 2012 / / 7 Comments

Could it really be fall?

With Larissa here, we want to be sure to show her some of the beauty that is Utah, so we took off for a Sunday afternoon field trip up Provo Canyon. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and did some climbing up the falls. Boy, that water is cold!

We drove up to Deer Creek Reservoir and then up to Sundance to see the beauty of the fall leaves.

(How would you like THAT house? I would like to go to a party there, in case anyone knows who lives there and could get me an invite)

It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, not to cold. We weren’t really dressed for hiking, so we just kind of strolled, but it was a nice invitation to fall.

The next week, we planned a trip up to Snowbird. Or, rather, I planned a trip, and tried to get everyone to accommodate my planning. I had won a two night’s stay in the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird from a radio thing. I figured that with 7 people, we were better off using two rooms and staying one night. So, I asked everyone to keep their schedules clear for Friday and Saturday. Sadly, one child had to work on Saturday at noon, and couldn’t find anyone to trade with her. It didn’t feel right to just leave her at home, so we planned to go as soon as we could on Friday (the day of my big WALK-A-THON event at school, by the way), and we could do some activities there on Friday night, then get home by noon on Saturday.

Can you believe I’ve never been up to Snowbird? Really. I grew up in Cottonwood Heights, a mere 20 minutes (or less) away, and I never had been up there. We always went up Big Cottonwood, and we weren’t skiers in my family, but still. It’s beautiful up there.

We planned to hurry and go do the Alpine Slide and possibly the Zip line before things closed at 6. What? Those things only run on Saturdays? I wish that information had been updated on their website. Erg. The only thing running was the tram up to the top of the mountain. Sign us up!

It was quite a sight! The tram moves quite quickly, and it’s so great to watch the beauty of the mountain as you are rising up above it. We watched some crazy mountain bikers ride up the tram with their bikes and then take off down the mountain. It was a bit colder up there, but not terrible, unless you are the 9 year old who forgot to bring a jacket even though Mom expressly told you so. No worries, Dad let him wear his sweatshirt.

We played around on the ski lifts, and marveled at how high up we were.

I don’t think John liked being up there, he says he’s afraid of heights. We could not get him to climb on a ski lift.

After we came back down, we ate some dinner at a little pizza counter, then got right to the much anticipated…swimming. It’s the highlight of any hotel stay with these kids.

I didn’t swim. Seriously exhausted by my day, and they were outdoor pools and it was getting cool. I did stay out there with the kids and soak my feet in the hot tub for a while, but after about 8 pm, it was just too cold for me. I went back to the room and asked hubby to go out with them for a while. Armed with his sweatshirt, he went out to read by the pool and watch over them.

The next morning, we decided to skip the fancy overpriced breakfast at the lodge, and went down the mountain to eat breakfast at Denny’s.

Even though it was a short getaway, it was nice. Fun to have two rooms and be able to watch project runway, nice family time.

It’s hard to believe that on MONDAY, just two days after we were there, this picture was taken.

Even though that snow probably won’t last long, I’m glad we went when we did!

Enjoy your fall!

(Linking up to Alphabee Thursday at Jenny Matlock’s)

Tomatos, Zucchini and Eggs–Oh, My!

August 28, 2012 / / 14 Comments

It’s harvest time in the garden. You may remember me telling you about Ryan’s garden system with the pots and the self watering and all of that. Even though we got kind of a late start, I would say it’s a success.

Those big bushy plants are the tomatoes. We are now getting quite a few ripe tomatoes every day. More than we can eat!

The huge zucchini came from the garden boxes, not the buckets, by the way. It’s nice to have both, because some plants spread out a lot and do better on the ground than in the buckets.

You like those sassy pink shoes, do you? We have a bunch of “chicken shoes” right outside the door so that when we go out to the chickens, we don’t wear the same shoes that we are going to be wearing in the house. Even if you are careful where you step, you ALWAYS seem to track stuff back to the house. Hence the shoes.

And speaking of the chickens, a friend of ours gave us three more chickens this week. She has just TOO many chickens and doesn’t like spending so much money on feed, so she invited us to come and take as many chickens as we wanted. We chose three, even though they urged us to take more. So now our little flock is up to nine.
We have these three buffs, who rule the roost,

These ones who we got as chicks this year. They are now full grown and laying eggs on their own!

And these three, who didn’t really want to pose for photographs.
I picked out this pretty Barred Rock hen.

One of the kids picked this big white hen with fluffy feet. I wonder if she’s too old to lay, actually. I don’t know what kind she is or how old she is, but the kids liked her. (Jenna took these pictures for me, so I can’t complain too much about their quality, right?)

John picked out a little spitfire of a chicken. She’s brown but has white ears, and a big floppy comb. There she is through the wire.

She’s a runner when we let her out, and the kids have named her noodle head or just Noodle.

This very morning, my husband,(who didn’t even WANT chickens, if you recall) said, “That coop isn’t big enough for all nine of those chickens. We will need to get a new coop before winter.” I agreed with him, and then he had to qualify that I was NOT to go and buy a coop. NOT. Does that mean we’ll be building our own coop? Hmmm. We’ll have to see.

So, if you need eggs or tomatoes or zucchini, come on over and I think we can set you up.

PROM!

May 5, 2012 / / 3 Comments

At the beginning of the school year, I informed my son that it was his duty as a man to ask two at least two girls out this year, and one of those dates had to be prom. Whether he wanted to or not.

Unreasonable of me? No. Boys need to practice their social skills and need to know that it’s ok to ask a girl out, not just ‘hang out’ with friends. And if boys aren’t asking out girls, the girls are sitting at home, dreaming of going to prom, but NOT going. I also informed him that I would be financing the operation, so it’s not like he would be spending his own money (I’m laughing to myself as I type this, by the way. ‘his own money’–what is that?)

Once the new year rolled around, I found out when Prom would be, and started to talk it up. We got more serious by the end of March. He would have to ask someone before spring break. I even took away the pressure to be creative, as I said, “Just choose who you want to ask, and I’ll come up with the rest”. I love this creative stuff, anyway. So, once he told me who he was going to ask, I was at the grocery store and saw the giant tub of cheese balls. This could work, I thought.

And if he didn’t like my idea, I knew they wouldn’t be wasted. I told Cole the idea, and he came up with this little poem.

Hidden inside the container was a capsule with Cole’s name on it, so she would have to search or dump out the cheese balls to find out who it was from. Not TOO complicated and not over the top, but still kind of cute. Then, under cover of darkness, the stealthy little brother (who had an encounter with some asphalt that day, darnit. And notice how he’s in his pajamas?)got to leave the package on the doorstep and ring the doorbell and run.

A few days later, this little mouse appeared on the doorstep.

Cute!

So the date was on.

I then spent the next month encouraging him to find a friend who was also going to prom to double date with, since these things are much more fun with a group. After he was done with his big trip to Nationals for Academic Decathlon, we had to get serious.
Time to:
rent a tux –where the guy was totally grumpy and voiced his displeasure that 3 schools in the area were all having prom the same weekend, and where there were only 3 styles of 38 long to chose from

pick a coursage–where I went to the flower shop TOO LATE and they practically laughed me out of the store and told me they would not, could not, make me a corsage for the dance the next night. So shoot me! We have been busy around here and I put it off! I ended up ordering from the Flower Patch in Orem, and called in a favor from my dear friend Robin, who picked up the corsage and brought it to us on Friday afternoon.

Photos--They didn’t want just the plain old dance photos, so I arranged for a photographer to meet them at a park in Draper, after they had picked all the girls up. I was working on Friday, but when I checked my phone at the end of the day, I saw a text from the photographer letting me know that she could NOT make it because her husband was having a kidney stone attack, and she had to take him to the hospital. Always thinking I have to solve every problem myself, I spent the next hour trying to rearrange my life so that I could meet them at the park and take pictures. I finally had it all worked out, including many texts to hubby and friends to see who could help out with baseball and snacks and the other kids, when my son said, “Oh, Ethan’s dad said he could do pictures.” Nice to know, kid.

Cole’s group had planned a fun date for the night before prom, where they went to a dance class and learned the tango. Unfortunately, Cole’s PE teacher had also planned long jumping or pole vaulting or something for PE on Thursday, wherein Cole sprained his ankle. Great. He went dancing anyway, and could barely walk when he came home. Ice and ace bandage time.

The group changed from 6 to 4 when one of the guys was very sick on Thursday, but I guess he got well enough to go by Friday, so they were back to 6. Good thing we had both a car and a suburban at the ready. ( He ended up driving the suburban, which unfortunately had my snacks for the baseball game and John’s mitt in the back. Oops.)

In the end, everything turned out fine. While I don’t have any pictures of his date or the group (yet), I do have pictures of Cole looking so spiffy in his tux.

When he got home, he was happy and excited and said the date had been GREAT. I didn’t get too many details because it was one in the morning and I was asleep. This morning, I woke him up at 7:30 to go take a practice AP test. Even though it’s Prom weekend, the boy still has to study, right?

So, I am glad I stuck to my guns and ‘made’ him go to Prom. It’s the only one he will get to go to, and I hope he always has fond memories of high school and his senior Prom.

Winter..whenever it comes

March 2, 2012 / / 2 Comments

We’ve had an odd winter this year. Not much snow in December or January, then we get pounded the end of Feb and beginning of March. I had a white knuckle drive to Salt Lake on Wednesday night. I was going about 10 miles per hour for quite a stretch on the freeway, just hoping I could stay in my lane and eventually get downtown for rehearsal. Thursday night’s drive home from SLC was not bad until I hit Utah county, and then it was pretty blizzardy.

After the wind all night, what snow we had is now in waves and drifts.

And when I look out at the chicken coop, I see this.

It looks cold out there. I don’t want to go out and feed them, and I’m pretty sure they don’t want to be let into their run, since it’s all snowy and their little feet would be very cold.

Speaking of cold little feet, I told my kids that today was definitely a BOOTS day, with hats and gloves and COATS (not just hoodies like they usually wear). Some of them found those articles, some did not. But off to school they did go. Through the snow.

I was quite enjoying our “California Winter”.

Just a reminder that you don’t want to miss Sunday’s Music and the Spoken Word Broadcast. We will be playing three songs! Two with the choir and one by ourselves, and it’s a majorly hard song, so I hope it works ok.

Now, I’m off to go make Eagle cookies.

Because when I was at the scout store (again) I couldn’t resist this cute Eagle cookie cutter. So, if any of you find yourself in need of an eagle cookie cutter, let me know, I could totally lend it to you.

Life moves pretty fast

March 1, 2012 / / 2 Comments

Life is full of momentous moments.
Tuesday, my sister gave birth for the 14th time (GASP! I KNOW!) and they now have a new beautiful baby girl named Eliza. (I haven’t seen her yet, but I hear she is bald and kind of looks like one of my babies. I guess that means that this one is for me, right? I’ll take her and that cute little 3 year old boy, ok? They would hardly miss them!) She is amazing, and I don’t know how she keeps her sanity, let alone gets all those kids dressed every day. Wow!

One of my bell choir friends had her baby last night on leap day. She did NOT want a leap day birthday baby, but when a baby is ready, it’s ready.

Our dear friend, David, opened his mission call last night, and my nephew is planning on opening his call tonight. He will be the first missionary from our family, and it’s very exciting! It’s also kind of scary for me, because Cole will be doing that mission call thing next year.

Meanwhile, I’m busy planning Cole’s Eagle court of honor on Sunday, and we’re in the throws of planning an 18th birthday party, then graduation for him, and before I can blink, I’ll be helping him move into his dorm room at BYU and trying not to cry until I get back into the car to drive home.

Not to be left out, the other kids are also experiencing many of their own ‘firsts’ and accomplishments. Megan’s got almost all 40 hours of her ‘driving with dad’ time logged, and they’ve enjoyed their father daughter outings together. Natalie is working hard on her personal progress, and every week comes to me with more things to sign off. She is hoping to get all finished this year. John earned his wolf badge last night, and was so thrilled to go to the blue and gold banquet and get his badge. (Now I just have to figure out where they put it, and sew it on before it gets lost). Jenna is doing an afterschool storytelling program, and competed in the school story telling competition. She’s very animated and tells a wonderful story!

Life is amazing! I am so proud of my kids and the people they are growing into. The other day I was lamenting the fact that they are growing up so fast and that there are no more babies to cuddle and hold, (and I still feel that way) but I am so enjoying watching my kids grow and learn. They are incredible kids! So much smarter than I was at their age, and they are doing so well. I need to remind myself to appreciate who they are and not try to make them into who I want them to be.

In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Oh, and speaking of growing, look how BIG our little chicks are! No longer the cute little fluffballs of two weeks ago, they are looking more and more like chickens every day.

On the edge

August 28, 2011 / / 4 Comments

I consider myself a fairly rational and calm person. I do. But really, I’m just one snafu away from an emotional breakdown.

It was a hard week for me. Nothing huge, but a lot of little things adding up to some big stress.
-Megan cut her finger and had to get stitches,
-It was the first week of school and all the back to school stuff with finding classes and meeting teachers and paying fees and more fees,
-I have a very big PTA responsibility this year and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with that,
-John had his very first pack meeting ever and I couldn’t go because it was the same night as bells rehearsal, and Ryan couldn’t go because he was out of town. I felt terrible that I couldn’t be there for him, but thankfully Megan was available to take him, and I hear she did a good job as stand in parent. She even accepted my Bobcat award mother’s pin for me.
-I’m totally out of shape and sluggish, and need to get back to exercising,
-There’s the primary program coming up, and these things don’t happen spontaneously, unfortunately,
-Ryan was out of town for a week. Not just out of town, but out of the country with something like a 14 hour time difference, so I couldn’t just call if I needed to talk to him,
-My computer crashed, and like I said, my main man was out of town, and my back-up computer guy couldn’t fix it for me. I did have access to the main man’s computer, so I could at least use the internet and access my incoming email, but then when son was doing homework, that computer turned itself off and then we couldn’t get it started up again because it’s all password protected and complicated. So we were forced off the grid.

-Daughter lost her phone at Trafalga in Orem. She didn’t realize she didn’t’ have it until we were back on the freeway heading home. When we got home we called it (maybe she just left it at home, right?), but got no answer. We sent texts that said, “If you find this phone, please call…” and listed our home number. It really irks me when people are not honest. If I found a phone, I would certainly look through the contacts and find “Home” or something like that, or at least call the number that was texted to me. OR, I would turn it into the lost and found. That is not what this person did. The person that picked up her phone immediately called someone in Payson. (I looked it up! Cool that you can do that, huh?) When I tried to call that number, it was forwarding to another number or something, and I couldn’t get ahold of a person. Had to suspend service on that phone. The funniest thing was, in order to call Trafalga to ask if someone had turned in a phone, I had to look up the number, right? I have no computer, Ryan’s computer won’t turn on, I don’t have a phone book. I had to text Cole, who was at a friend’s house, ask him to look up the number, and send it to us. Crippled without technology. Crippled, I tell you.
-I had to go to a 2 hour long orientation at Kelly services to find out more hoops I have to jump through in order to substitute teach. Oh, the joys.
-People, namely my junior high carpool, are flaking on me.

As I was driving and feeling lonely and sorry for myself and started to cry in the car, I wondered WHY in the world I was being such a BABY and letting all of this get to me. Wait. What week is this? Oh. Hormones. Duh. I HATE those hormones and what they do to me approximately one week of every month. I tried to tell myself to buck up and stop getting so emotional, but that wasn’t really helping.

Instead, I made a mental list of the things that were really, really great. A “count your blessings moment”.

+I don’t have to drive my high school kids to school. With early morning seminary and HUGE amounts of road construction, this is TRULY a blessing. I am SO glad that Cole can drive both himself and Megan to school and that we are able to provide him with a vehicle.
+The kids all seem to be happy with their classes and teachers so far. With 5 kids in 3 different schools, that adds up to about 30 teachers, and I am SO thankful that they are treating my children with kindness and respect (so far), and nobody has come home declaring that they hate school and they are never going back again. (It’s early, I know, but so far so good.)
+Cole is nearly done with his Eagle project. He completed his last two merit badges and I can actually feel a tiny glimmer of hope that we may get this thing pulled off before his 18th birthday in 7 months.
+Facebook. Yes, I’m thankful for facebook. Because of facebook, I was in contact with an old friend of mine who is now living in Singapore. I told him that Ryan would be there, got the two of them communicating, and they actually had Ryan over for dinner while he was there. I also have felt less lonely and more connected to friends, even when my computer wasn’t working and I really didn’t have full use of my email. Yes, I know there are a lot of negatives to facebook, but for me, it’s been a positive thing, and this week especially, I’m thankful for it.
+My mother-in-law. I casually mentioned to my MIL that my children wanted a “Grabber” to reach things. Grandma has one (Grandma is pretty short, so it makes sense) and they thought it was so cool. I didn’t ask for one, I just said that Megan, specifically, was wanting one, and on Tuesday, they showed up with some yellow squash and a grabber. How nice is that?
+My house is not being pounded by a hurricane. Or an earthquake. Or any other such natural disasters. Record breaking heat? Yes. Huge thunderstorms & power outages? Yes, but no flooding, and we can put up with that. We have air conditioning and we have water.
+My children are safe and healthy.
+My husband does return to me.
+My car works.
+I live in the most beautiful area. Have you looked around lately at the mountains, the sky, the clouds? It’s gorgeous out there! Flowers are blooming, my sunflowers (even though the horses totally ate the tops off of them) are flowering, my garden is doing well in the heat, I have tons of zucchini, there are peaches and even apples on the trees in the ‘orchard’ in my back yard, and it’s beautiful. I just need to spend a few moments out with the chickens in the backyard to be reminded of the beauty of nature.
+My phone works.
+My family. My parents spent their Saturday with us at the dinosaur museum (actually they were taking my niece and we decided to tag along) and we had such a fun time. I know that if I asked any one of my family to come and help me out they would do whatever they could to help me. I’m very lucky to have that kind of support available to me.
+Visiting teaching. I actually did my visiting teaching this week (yay for me!) and it reminded me of WHY we do visiting teaching. To do some service; to connect with other people; and to remind each other of the importance of the gospel. It’s a good thing.

And the list goes on and on and on. Even as I was in an emotionally fragile state due to some minor inconveniences and some major PMS, I was able to count my blessings and realize how truly blessed I am.

The difference between a bad day and a good day is still 24 hours.

So if life is getting you down, or if you yourself are caught up in some hormonally induced blues, take a few minutes to think about or write down some things that you are thankful for. Even just listing 10 things can really lift you out of that funk.
Or take a few minutes and do some service for someone else.
Or call me and we’ll go to lunch. That always helps.

So it ends. And let the summer begin.

June 3, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Last day of school! How did the school year come to an end so quickly? It’s not even warm yet! Oh, well, despite our many complaints about the cold and rainy spring we’ve had here in Utah, school is indeed over. How did we get here? One party at a time, my friends. One party at a time.

We started out with our back to school breakfast at the bus stop.

and before we knew it, John’s birthday was upon us.

We had a double birthday party day with John and then Natalie and a big blow up velcro wall.

Megan and I took a little road trip to the Shakespearean festival in October, and came back just in time to celebrate Natalie’s birthday and then Ryan’s birthday.

We had our hawk walk tug of war,

got witchy with some friends,

then welcomed Kazuki into our family for a week at Halloween.

There were school parties, church parties, and work parties, which was a good thing because the actual trick-or-treating was VERY cold and wet.

We made houses of gingerbread and frosting,
null & turkeys of oreos and candycorns.

Trees were decorated, concerts were played,

More concerts, in fact

and recitals.

Plays about gingerbread were produced. Before we knew it, Christmas was here!

January brought a new year and new adventures. A quick family trip to Disneyland was a highlight!

Jenna turned 10,

We went to lots and lots of basketball games.

We formed a band.

Then the roadshow took over our lives.

Valentine’s Parties,

and a big fancy anniversary party for Ryan’s parents.

Ryan and Paige had trip to New York, and that was pretty much a great big par-tay!

Cole had a birthday,
Megan had a birthday, and everyone continues to get older.

Before we knew it, Easter was upon us.

Then it was all a downhill slide toward the end of the year. We had Lagoon days, end of the year class parties, teacher gifts, advancement assemblies, more concerts and recitals, and even some finals.

Yearbooks have been signed and phone numbers exchanged. Today is it. The LAST day of school.

The kids have had some wonderful teachers, and for that I am grateful. John went from a reluctant reader to a “I love to read” kid who does not shy away from chapter books, even. His teacher was organized, firm, loving, and fun. It was great to volunteer in her classroom and also help out with parties. Natalie and Jenna both had men teachers (one of whom is retiring–sad) who, with their relaxed attitudes and love of fun, gave both girls a wonderful experience for the school year. Cole survived two AP classes and did very well in them. He also survived his second year of spanish, and while he certainly doesn’t speak it fluently, he will have at least a base knowledge of the language, should the need arise to learn and speak it later. Megan was the top of the food chain in junior high this year. It’s good to have those “oldest” moments, and I think she really enjoyed her 9th grade year. She loved being on the basketball team and I am proud of her doing so well in her classes as well.

I am very proud of them all and looking forward to spending some lazy days ahead.

Tulip Festival

May 6, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Spring has finally arrived here in Utah, and we celebrated by taking the family to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving point this week. Oh, the gorgeousness of all those flowers! It’s breathtaking!

All those tulips! Because of the late spring, not all of them are in bloom, but most of them were blooming gorgeously. My kids especially enjoyed rolling down the big hill!

There was even a little family of geese in the pond.

And it wasn’t just tulips, there were all kinds of spring flowers, beautifully and artfully arranged.

Heck, the flowers even made my kids look like they kind of like each other. No? I thought that was pushing it. I only wished that my backyard were that beautiful! It did warm my heart to see a few (gasp) dandelions there. Even thanksgiving point with all their professional gardeners can’t get rid of every single dandelion.

It was a little cold when we went on Monday night, but with the weather warming up, this weekend will be glorious! We may even go again! And if you happen to go on the weekend, there are all kinds of vendors and booths and entertainment and stuff.

And no, Thanksgiving Point did not pay me to say nice things about them. Too bad they don’t. I could have my annual pass for free.

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