Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Family Fun (Page 12 of 25)

Memorial Day Weekend

June 2, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to perform with the Bells, the Choir and the Orchestra for the Music and the Spoken Word’s special memorial day program. It was a fantastic program, and I feel so very blessed to have been a small part of it.

Here’s a picture my friend Brittany took of the two of us with the choir behind us.
choir

Sunday night the kids wanted to go and visit their favorite (and most fun) aunt Julene, and when we asked if we could come over, she invited the kids to stay the night.

Cole didn’t go, since he’s still struggling with a nasty cough, but we let him watch Monty Python’s Holy Grail, so it wasn’t all bad.

The fun didn’t stop because on Monday, we picked up the kids and went to the Provo cemetery, where my grandparents are buried. We met up with my parents, my sister and her family, and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. It was nice to be there with so many family members and to hear stories of my Grandpa and Great Grandpa.

Then we went to Spanish Fork for a family party with Ryan’s family, where we ate and ate and ate WAY too much delicious food. Because that’s how you kick off summer, right? Eating too much corn on the cob and homemade ice cream. The weather, which hasn’t been ultra cooperative around here lately, was beautiful! Not to warm but not cold.

It was a wonderful holiday weekend and wonderful start to summer!

How did you celebrate?

School’s out!

June 1, 2010 / / 2 Comments

I don’t know who’s happier that school is out for the year–the kids or the parents. Seriously. I’m so relieved that the homework nagging, the assignment finding, the driving the carpools, the band programs, field day, class parties, dance festival, yada–yada–yada are OVER, that I’m ok with the fact that my kids will be hanging around home for the next 2 1/2 months.

But before we move on to summer and the festivities, let’s review some of the fun things we did with the end of the year, shall we?


The kindergarteners did SO WELL on their dance festival dances. I love this picture! Notice how none of the kids are exactly on the same steps at the same time? That’s John in the bright orange jacket.


This was one of my favorite games at John’s field day. The kids had to put on a wig and a shirt, or a girl’s wig and a boa, and kick the soccer ball through the cones, then make a basket at the other end. This is John in the “boy’s” gettup. How cute is that?


Here’s my group on the school sign.


On the day of the dance festival, here’s John and his partner Whitney in costume.

I tried to get pictures of the other girls doing their dances, but since I was sitting with the Kindergarteners (passing out flags, helping them get into their lines, passing out water), I didn’t get any good pictures of them. But Natalie’s somewhere in this group.

here they are after the big festival.

And while we were doing these fun activities, Ryan was here:

in a sea of Japanese. He was in Japan less than a week, which seems like not enough time to even get acclimated, but it was a successful trip.

We’ve gotten a good start on summer, too.
Friday I took the kids swimming after they got out of school. Of course as soon as we got there, it turned cold and overcast and we were FREEZING by the time we got to the car. But it still counts! Friday night the kids got to laze around and watch a movie from Redbox, which is one of our favorite cheap source of entertainment.
Saturday, I decided to ditch the garage sale I was planning and just hauled a truck load of stuff to DI. That left us free to let the kids play with friends, and we went out to our favorite Mexican spot, Los Hermanos. Yum.

But they were sad and lonely

May 19, 2010 / / 5 Comments

Last week I got a call from the piano teacher. She assured me that her call had nothing to do with the attitude of my piano students (thank goodness!). She knew that we had birds, and proceeded to tell me all about her sad little cockatiel. It was her daughter’s, but she went off to college and no one has played with him, and now he’s just a sad and lonely little bird. She wondered if we perhaps wanted another bird; if we would love and play with him more than her family did.

Of course I said we would take him. Never mind that we have 4 birds at home who rule the roost (literally). Because I just can’t live with the idea that the poor little bird is sad and lonely. SAD and LONELY, people. He’s with a family who doesn’t LOVE him, doesn’t play with him. He doesn’t have any friends. Well, as a certified foster home for birds, it is my duty and privilege to take him in. Ok, I’m not really a certified foster home for birds–you caught me.

birds
(this is not a picture of my house, by the way, just one I found showing many birds)

So, yes, call me the crazy bird lady if you must, and when you come to visit, would you mind bringing some millet or bird seed?

We should hang a sign by the birds that says “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. …” But all little birds should have friends, right? If not a bird friend, then at least a human friend.

Anyway, we picked up this little bird on Saturday, cage and all. The kids were VERY excited.

But the first order of business was to give him a new name. He had been called “Katie”, but then when they discovered that he was a boy, they just kept on calling him Katie. Well, I can’t in good consciousness call a male bird Katie, so we started taking suggestions for a new name. “How about something sort of close to Katie,” I suggested, “like Petey”. Nobody liked that one. Clayton? Clyde?

When Ryan’s flight to Japan was canceled for the day and he ended up coming back home (surprise!), he first got on my case for taking in YET ANOTHER homeless bird, (he tells me that they AREN’T sad and lonely and that I’m just giving them human qualities, but I know they do get sad and lonely. So there.) and then gave his suggested name, “Guido”. We liked that one, so Guido it is.

So now we have evened things out…5 kids and 5 birds (not counting those silly little parakeets upstairs, but coincidentally, there are 5 of them, too). The problem, though, is that everyone keeps giving us normal greys, so we have 4 of these birds who look VERY similar, and it’s not until you get closer that you can tell them apart. Why can’t people give us their whitefaced, or their lutino cockatiels? I guess they are more expensive and less common. Oh, well. (I actually have one sitting on my shoulder and one on my leg as I’m typing this. Too bad you can’t see how cute they are).

Spring Break 2010

April 11, 2010 / / 4 Comments

We are back from our week long vacation in sunny Arizona. It was a fun vacation, and nice to get away from the cold (and apparently..snow) of Utah. We split up our vacation into 3 different phases–the Grand Canyon, Robin’s house, and Scott’s house.

–At the Grand Canyon, it was indeed GRAND. I enjoyed hearing every other parent saying, “(Insert name here)! Stay away from that ledge.” “That’s too far! Come back here, now.” It just added validation to my motherly paranoia. We were a bit surprised at how cold it was. Cold and windy.

The kids got their Grand Canyon Junior Ranger Badges, and we used up several band-aids.

And we stayed at the obligatory crappy hotel (see last post) in Flagstaff. We also drove through Sedona, which we enjoyed.

–At Robin’s house, the number one attraction were the chickens.

The kids spent hours playing with, chasing, petting and holding the chickens. We even started calling Jenna “the chicken whisperer.” Sarah and Jacob were also a great source of entertainment! Sarah even prompted Natalie to dye her hair. We also went to a really fun place called Amazing Jakes.

We spent the day playing games, riding rides, laser tag, mini golf, and eating. Tons and tons of eating from the buffet. When we finally left, we were all so loaded with sugar and fat that we could hardly move. Ugh. I loved sleeping with the windows open, and hearing all the birds in the morning. Birds–so many of them. I guess Arizona is where all the birds fly to, right? And they were ALL chirping right outside Robin’s window, it seemed. Then the chickens started up. I don’t think anyone can sleep late in Arizona. Oh, and we dyed Natalie’s hair from this to this.

–At my brother’s house, the main attraction were the cousins. John and Danny were inseparable, as were Jenna and Kaylee. The kids just had a GREAT time hanging out and playing.

It made it difficult for their kids to go to school, knowing that they were missing out on valuable cousin playing time, but we left to go exploring while they went to school anyway. Two things Ryan said he really wanted to see were the Mystery Castle, which we had toured once several years ago, but wanted to take the kids, and go to Fry’s electronics. We were able to do both of those. We also went to the railroad park in Scottsdale, where the kids enjoyed riding the merry-go-round, playing in the park, going through the museum, and riding the train. We were also fascinated by the little wild bunnies that lived in the bushes there! How cute are they?

–Las Vegas. On the way home, we stopped in Las Vegas (well, Henderson), and the Holiday Inn Express was GREAT. It makes up for that other crappy hotel. Good breakfast, two tv’s in our room, and clean. And it wouldn’t be a trip to Las Vegas for us without a quick stop at the Ethel M Chocolate factory.

– and the cactus gardens.

–Overall, I think we had a great trip. It was relaxing, not rushed, we took our time and saw what we wanted to see, the weather was beautiful, and it was an adventure. We didn’t stay too long at any one place, yet didn’t spread ourselves too thin. 1600 miles and under $1000, too. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Megan’s best dam birthday ever!

April 5, 2010 / / 2 Comments

It’s spring break in these parts, and we’ve embarked on a trip to sunnier parts. Namely, Arizona. Our first night we stayed in Page, near Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam. There were no more spots available for tours when we were there in the afternoon, so we decided to reserve spots on the first tour the next morning. Which happened to be Megan’s 14th Birthday!

So, bright and early at 8:15, we were there for our dam tour. I had the kids say “Dam tour” as much as possible while we were there, because it cracked me up. I know, I’m evil. We had an interesting tour of the dam, and were awed by the engineering of it all. Those turbines are enormous. Did you know that 25% of the Nation’s food is grown from water from the Colorado river? Wow. The kids enjoyed earning their junior ranger badges,– which is much easier to earn than the Jr. Ranger badge at Yellowstone, by the way– and enjoyed the tour. We went down, down, down in the elevator (the second longest elevator ride in the country), and then saw the interesting innards of the power generating facility. Wow! At the end of the tour, while we were in the echo-y tunnel, the nice tour guide said, “This is the birthday part of the tour, where we will all sing Happy Birthday to MEGAN.” So we all sang to Megan in the echo tunnel at the dam. I tell you, it’s the best DAM birthday ever!

After the dam tour, we made our way to the Grand Canyon for the day. We went to the old watch tower (where John promptly fell down and hurt his elbow, launching his first tantrum of the day), then later worked on the junior ranger badges for the Grand Canyon. We went for walks, looked for animals (big fat squirrels and even a HUGE elk!), took lots and lots of pictures, and generally enjoyed the day. Except that it was cold. It’s April, and it’s Arizona, but I guess at 7000 feet it’s not that warm in the spring. After our Ranger led presentation on geology and the history of the grand canyon, we’d had about enough for the day. The wind was strong, and our patience was getting short. We decided we had had about enough of Nature for the day, so we headed to Flagstaff to our hotel.

When I was booking hotels, I waited until the last minute, and it took me a while to figure out WHERE to stay. If you put in “Grand Canyon” you get varied locations anywhere from Page, to Tuba to Flagstaff. I decided to do Page the first night and then Flagstaff the second night, since we are making our way South. Our hotel in Flagstaff would not qualify as a winner. Since it seemed quite Bates Motel-ish, I was a little worried for our lives. I reserved this off brand hotel because I could get three double beds and didn’t have to pay for a suite to get them. Then I wouldn’t be having three kids sleeping on the floor like we sometimes do. (We’ve been spoiled by traveling with my parents recently. They always will put two kids in their room so then I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to house us all.) But the room was spacious enough, even if it was very old. But the kicker came when I turned on the “heat” trying to warm up the room. The little heat/ac unit in the corner just blew COLD air. No hot air could be found. It was FREEZING! The windows were old and didn’t close all the way, either. I called the front desk and told them it was really cold in our room and could I please get three extra blankets, and she said (in her Indian accent), “You come lobby?” Sure. I’ll venture out in the cold and get the blankets.

We did survive our cold night, and were none to happy about getting out of bed in the morning, I’ll tell you. Luckily we had places to go and didn’t need to hang out in the motel for very long. I took a quick shower, thankful that I always pack shampoo, since there was none here, and dried as quickly as possible.

“Breakfast” consisted of bread, a toaster, and some mini hostess donuts. Seriously. Next time I’ll read more of the reviews, and perhaps look harder when I’m searching for a hotel.

But for Megan, it will surely be a birthday to be remembered! I’ll get some pictures up later–stay tuned!

Picture This

March 9, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Because I can’t figure out how to make my own customizable blog header for wordpress, I don’t have a bunch of cute pictures of my family on my blog page like some of my friends do. And in looking through the old blog, I realized that I don’t post that many pictures of the family. Eek! Not that I want to overload you with pictures or anything, but I thought I would just throw up a few–just for good measure. Ok, that sounds bad. I’m not “throwing up” anything. I’m “posting” a few pictures.

Here’s some pictures from our last vacation, as that seems to be the only time we take any pictures of all seven of us together.

Notice how my teenage son is not really smiling, but just trying to have a pleasant look? That’s about his standard now. I don’t know if it’s just not cool to smile anymore, or if he doesn’t like having his picture taken.


Here’s Ryan with the kids. This was at the Venetian in Las Vegas, right before the camera died. Notice my cute Natalie who ended up carrying my purse for me? That’s how she chose to carry it, so who am I to complain?

Ryan and Paige outside the Belagio. We aren’t the spring chickens we once were, but thankfully we still love each other.

Here’s another picture from our SanDiego trip. You know, the kind where mom makes the kids like up against some boring backdrop and pretend that they are having fun?

So there you have it. Some pictures of the kids, the hubby, and even of me. Not that I’m trying to brag or anything–oh, who am I kidding? This is my blog, and I can brag if I want to–but I think they are pretty amazing.

Jenna’s Happy Harry Potter Party

January 31, 2010 / / 8 Comments

Jenna turned 9 on Saturday. Nine! And, in our house, you can’t rightly turn 9 without some kind of a celebration! She decided she wanted to have a Harry Potter Party, so we made invitations that looked like this.

When it was party time, the guests arrived at platform 9 3/4 and came inside to be sorted by the sorting hat. I had made a sorting hat out of a paper bag, and then painted it black. To make the sorting hat speak, I taped my cell phone inside the hat so that the sorter (Ryan) could put everyone in the right house. Actually, we only had two houses, Ravenclaw and Huffelpuff. Because Nobody wants to be in Slytherin, and everybody wants to be in Gryffindor, so those two were eliminated, leaving only the neutral houses. When they were put in a house, they received a badge on a string. But really, we didn’t even divide into houses, so it didn’t matter which house they were in, it was just a fun thing to do.

And each child got to pick their own wand.

Potions
Next, we had our potions class. I had some really cool old jars that I filled with all kinds of different juices and sodas, and the kids could choose their potions. They could mix colors if they wanted, and try as many different mixtures as they wanted.

For lunch, we had
Squid dogs, owl droppings, small orbs (grapes), and wizard buscuits (rolls). At the last minute, however, I found out that one of Jenna’s friends has a severe peanut allergy and can’t be around ANYTHING with peanuts, so we nixed the muddy buddies and went with plain Lays chips instead. The kids seemed to enjoy the weird food, although those squid dogs were grossing me out.

After they ate, it was time for some wizard games.

We played “Hoo’s Hedwig”, which is kind of like Marco Polo without the pool, only the person in the middle (Harry) has to find Hedwig the owl, who is saying Hoo. The other kids can say any other animal noises they want.

Then we played a game with silly arms, where one person stands behind another and does the arm movements, while the person in the front answers a question describing some action.

Next, we did some creating and the kids got to “Make their own dragon”. I got out whatever craft supplies I could find, like googly eyes, pipe cleaners, foam, popsicle sticks, glue, scissors, etc, and they all just tried to make a dragon.

None of their “dragons” were all that great, but it was a nice time filler, and not TOO messy.

Then, while Jenna opened up her presents, I was able to clean off the table and get ready for cake.

I made this cake all by myself, which is rare. Usually I rely on the talents of those, well…more talented in the art of decorating cakes than myself. But this time I decided to just be brave and do the cake myself. And if it didn’t work, I could always just go and buy a cake from the grocery store and stick the Harry Potter figures on it. I borrowed the book cake pan from a friend, and I was pleased with how it came out. I was going to put the little figures around the cake, but they kept falling over, so we went without.

It was a fun party, and most importantly, the birthday girl thoroughly enjoyed it!

Driving with a teenager

January 19, 2010 / / 6 Comments

Sunday afternoon I suggested that we go to Spanish Fork to visit some grandparents. And wouldn’t it be a good idea to have Cole drive? He needs to get 40 hours of driving in, right? So, we piled everyone in, and Cole got in the driver’s seat. I was right behind him (not as much leg room in the middle seat) and Ryan was in front with him. I was ok until right about the time we got out of our neighborhood. That was when I began to rethink the logic of this here trip. Yes, he had some jerky stops, but in reality he was doing ok. This was not his first time driving. Ryan’s taken him out in the truck (stick shift! Much harder!) multiple times, but it was MY first time riding with him, as well as the first time the whole family has been in the car while he’s been in the driver’s seat.

As he maneuvered onto the freeway, however, any last shred of calm I had seemed to vanish out the window. Driving on the freeway is NOT the same as driving around town. Why did I put the entire family in the same car with the teenaged driver? WHY? Even though I was really trying to stay calm, with every lurch or overcorrection, I’m imagining the entire family and how we will look as the firefighters pull us out of the ditch down there off the side of the freeway. I’m not exaggerating here, folks, I really was not handling it well. I tried to keep my gasps to a minimum, because that won’t help the kid in the confidence department.

To his credit, Ryan was an excellent driver’s ed “instructor”. He stayed calm and never raised his voice. He occasionally did adjust the wheel, but he didn’t freak out and grab the wheel as I’m almost positive I would do. His voice stayed pretty even as he told Cole to speed up, slow down, stay to the right or left, reminded him to check his blind spot, coast, slow down, etc. I, however, was trying so hard not to scream. I was reminded of MY driver’s ed days, 20 something years ago, with coach what’s his name. It seemed all the drivers ed teachers were overweight wrestling or basketball or football coaches. They would stop at “the SEV” and get a big gulp, and sit in the passenger’s seat without so much as a flinch. I was terrified when he told me to “take it to the freeway”, early one morning, and I remember when he made some comment about my “lead foot”. I was gripping the steering wheel so hard, I didn’t realize my speed was creeping up. Ack! At the time, I didn’t realize that their job really wasn’t the piece of cake I thought it was. Well, at least it wouldn’t be for me.

As we approached each off ramp from Pleasant Grove to Spanish Fork, I was SO tempted to cry out, “Get off at this exit and I’ll drive the rest of the way!” I held my tongue and practiced my calm breathing exercises, but I guess I wasn’t fooling anyone. Ryan looked back at me several times and told me to calm down, it would all be ok. Since no one wanted to distract Cole from his important job of driving without killing us all in a fiery crash, there wasn’t much small talk in the back seat to distract me. I looked out the windows at the mountains, but all I seemed to see were the other cars, and how gosh darn CLOSE they were to us.

That was the longest drive to grandma’s house EVER. I was never so happy to get there as I was that day. One of the kids asked if Cole was going to be driving home, and I quickly said, “No!” Drive all the way home? In the dark? I don’t think so. Not that I don’t think he could handle it, I just don’t think I could handle it.

Was I overreacting? Yes. I was. I know it now, and I knew it at the time. But I couldn’t control my anxiety. Not one little bit. My face had “I need xanex” written all over it.

I know some of you who have children who drive are just laughing at me, and I do hope I get better with time, but for now,
I will leave the driving instruction to Ryan–my calmer half. Perhaps I will need to talk to my mental health professional and get myself some anti anxiety medication before we do that again. If we ever do that again.

Don’t let your ponytail sag

January 12, 2010 / / 2 Comments

I was doing daughter’s hair this morning, (and by that I mean putting it into the standard ponytail) and I placed the ponytail 3/4 of an inch higher than she usually wears it.

Let the freaking out begin.

She HAS to wear her long blonde hair in a ponytail every. single. day. and she won’t let me vary that ponytail in the slightest. Even when I pointed out that her hair is starting to break off from the constant pressure of the ponytail. I calmly stated that we need to at least vary the height of the ponytail, either putting it slightly lower or slightly higher. Or perhaps a braid or two ponytails.

Not happening.

So, this morning, I put the ponytail slightly higher than normal, told her stop freaking out and I would give her a brownie for her lunch. Seriously. It looks the same. NO ONE is going to notice if the ponytail is the tiniest bit different!

As she was leaving (stomping out the door, actually), I called, “Don’t let your ponytail sag.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“You know, like it would sag if it weren’t happy. You want to stay happy, keep your ponytail nice and perky and happy. Don’t let your ponytail sag. It’s my new slogan.” I said.

She rolled her eyes at me. I had it coming.

So, there you go, folks. It’s my new catch phrase. “Don’t let your ponytail sag!”

the 12 days of Christmas

December 27, 2009 / / 3 Comments

One fun Christmas “service” act we like to do is to surprise a neighbor with the “12 days of Christmas”.

(can you spot me?)

This year, we chose a family that has kids the same ages as our kids, and they are friends. I knew it might be hard for the kids to keep it a secret, plus they don’t have many hiding places in their front yard, so it might be difficult to avoid getting caught. We did some of the usual things,
day one, a carton of eggs (a partridge laid these eggs)
2- “two sided crackers” and we gave them flips.
3-“three french fries” and we gave them a bag of frozen french fries. Of course, this day they may or may not have known what was going on, because Natalie lost the note on the way over. Seeing a bag of frozen french fries on the porch, they may not have made the connection to day 3. Oh well.
4-four pairs of socks
5-five gold fish. This was the day I decided to get really clever. Never a good idea when dealing with sneaky things, but I did it anyway. I gave them 5 packages of goldfish crackers, and instead of just delivering them all at once, I put two in the mailbox, then took 3 to the school. I went into the office, and after bribing the office staff with diet cokes, I asked if they could deliver these fish to each of the three kids that go to that school. They had little notes on them so the kids would know that the fish were part of the 12 days of Christmas. I made sure to say that these were NOT from me, and you had NO IDEA where these snacks came from, that we were being sneaky. They agreed and said they knew all about the sneaky. As I was coming out of the 5th grade classroom an hour later, who should I run into coming out of the office but (care to take a guess?) my friend–the one who we were doing the surprise for. She was right there, coming out of the office, holding ALL THREE of the bags of goldfish. What? That was not the plan! Did I not make myself clear that these were to go to the KIDS? She was checking in her daughter, who had had a doctor’s appointment that morning. She wanted to talk to me, so we walked out together. I tried NOT to look at the goldfish in her hands, and she didn’t mention it, so it wasn’t mentioned. Ugh. This always happens when I involve other people in our sneakyness. One year, we asked one of Megan’s friends to deliver a gift, and she took it to them and said, “This is from the Ericksons.” NO!!!! That is not the plan. Oh, well.
6-On the 6th day, we gave a big bag of potatoes. What? Potatoes? The note said, “These must be SOME special geese to lay these for you. I know, they are dumb. But sometimes I just don’t want to go to the store and I’m all out of ideas.
7- Seven swans a swimming. I had Cole, our resident origami expert, make up 7 origami swans, and then each swan was holding a coupon for a free junior frosty.
8-Eight ways a milky, and we gave them 8 little milky ways. Or we would have if we had 8 milky ways. We could only find 7 among the halloween candy, so we crossed out the 8 and put 7. Like I said before, we’re not professionals at this, it’s just whatever stuff we can dig up.
9-Nine was some foot creme, specially picked out by the nine ladies dancing, because all that dancing can make your feet tired, right?
10-Ok, I’ll admit it, I got really lazy on day 10, and I was not in the best mood, so they got a package of little Debbie’s snack cakes. Sigh.
11-We can’t remember. How sad is that?
12-For the twelfth day, we had a 12 pack of fanta, wishing them a “fantastic” Christmas. This friend actually called and told me they were going out of town, but she was going to bring something by before they left. Great, we thought. They’ll come to us. Then we can sing to them and give them their “12” gift, and we’ll be done. They never came by. Must have run out of time, since they were going out of town. So, we never did deliver day 12 to them, and hopefully they still don’t know. Well, unless they read this post, then they would know. Oops?

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