School Fun

Every time we have a kid in Kindergarten, Joe volunteers to do Junior Achievement.  It’s just expected that he will go every other year, and it’s his “on” year.  
Today was his first day.  Let me say, I love to watch Joe teach.  I’ve watched him teach in the mission field, in Sunday School, at a University, in Primary, at work, at home…it doesn’t matter his audience, he makes it work.  He is very talented. 
He was a hit with Camri’s class!  He talked about Winnie-the-Pooh.  He just wants to eat honey and sleep, but in order for him to be able to do that, he has to do some things first.  The bottom rung of the ladder was Elementary School, the next rung was Middle School, the next was High School, the last was College.  On the top was getting a job and saving money, then climbing down the other side was a picture of a bear resting on a tree.  Go to school, work and earn money, then rest how you want to.  Life goals simplified for Kindergarten. 
Camri was his assistant. 

He read the class a story:
He gave them magnets and coloring pages that were part of the materials.  My cute little teacher. 
Right when he finished, we went down the hall to watch Dakota’s 6th grade play…her last class play in Elementary School….weird.  It was Shakespeare Unshackled and it was fantastic!!  The songs and dialogue were clever and the kids did such a great job.  I love seeing her class, I’ve watched most of these kids grow up over the last 7 years.  They are wonderful kids (with wonderful parents!!)


What?? No Women?  These women wanted to be actors, but it was just not allowed back then!

Words, words, words…

Grandma and Grandpa were able to come watch with us. 

Ann as Ann, and Koko as Sarah.
I love each of these kids so much!  We started taking pictures and the crowd grew,
and grew,
and grew until it was the whole class with their teacher, Mr. Cook
Well done kids!!

Craft fun

When we lost the keys to the shed, we tried lots of things to open it.  I watched YouTube to figure out how to pick a lock.  No luck, I guess crime is not in my future.  I climbed in the side window, hoping the keys were inside the shed.  Nothing.  I tried to unscrew the hook that the padlock was on.  Nope.
But now it’s Spring, and it’s time for bikes and sidewalk chalk and scooters and wagons.  All of those things were in the shed, and we were getting desperate.  Joe got some clippers and *snap*, off came the lock.  It was scary-easy to get into our locked shed.  Good thing we don’t store our jewels and riches out there (ha!)
When we were pulling the bikes out, I saw some wood pieces that I had cut last year (two years ago?), and some leftover paint.  It must be time to create something.  After all, Easter is coming up. 
If you come over to our house, this will be the first thing you see now:
Welcome Spring!!

He’s so helpful!

Beau is such a good helper.  This morning, he decided to shovel the snow in his jammies and sandals. 


This is what I get to see during my day.  This is my life.  And I love my life!

Joe’s Birthday

Once, a long time ago, I had a baby (Colin) at the end of January.  Then there were complications and I had to have surgery.  The short version is that Joe’s birthday fell during my recovery time and he told me not to worry about his birthday.  So I didn’t.  Not even a card. 
He thinks it’s funny to remind me to “at least” get a card every year. I won’t even mention the time he forgot his Dad’s birthday altogether.  No, I won’t go there. 
So being the good wife that I am, I decided that this year, we were going to celebrate his birthday for a month or so.  Our trip to Las Vegas was the kick-off. Then, his actual birthday.  Then, the day-after party with family. 
Happy 35th dear!  I even got you a card…and a gift…
And made you cupcakes:
And cake:
We always like to celebrate with his twin, so we planned a night out.  I thought it would be fun to go to a cooking class and eat dinner there.  We’ve done it before and it’s great.  Well, this time was NOT great!  I booked a class at Gardner Village “Taste” Culinary School.  Wow, what a swing and a miss.  It was more like Home Ec, watching the teacher make a dish, instead of the hands-on experience I was expecting.  She made Irish food, for St. Patricks’ Day.  She started the bread first, but it wasn’t done cooking until after we ate dessert.  She made soup, it was the best part of the meal.  She made Shepherd’s Pie.  With lamb. 
I’ve eaten lamb before, and if it’s prepared properly or you’re living in France, it’s quite good.  But this was not good.  So, after she finished telling us that her husband does NOT like lamb, and her Mom does NOT like lamb, she told us she was using lamb.  Ground lamb.  Ew.  Although, the store-bought-ready-made mashed potatoes that she used were delicious. 
Dessert was good, but super small.  It was one little piece of chocolate shortbread and a miniscule crème brulee. 
After a few lamb jokes and making sure Jake wasn’t going to hurl, we left and went to dinner.  Who leaves a cooking class hungry?  We had so much fun laughing and talking over our delicious Crown Burgers and onion rings.  It was definitely a night we will never forget!
The next day, we were lucky enough to have Liliana spend the day with us.  She is so cute and grown-up! The kids had a blast.
First, we went to watch Joe’s Elder’s Quorum team play basketball.  The winner went to the playoffs, and it wasn’t us.  But is sure was fun to watch!
When he was done, we took the kids to Black Bear Diner.  I seriously love this place. The food is always good, the atmosphere is fun, and best of all, the kids love it.  They usually have a balloon guy there, and this time he did not disappoint!  We got a gun, a butterfly, a bird, a bear, a dragon-fly, and a penguin. 
The kids had fun together today, and we were sad when Lily left to go with Grandma and Grandpa.  Her mom and dad were on a much-deserved trip together, and we were glad we got to spend some time with cute Lily! 
That evening, we got together with the Heuglys .  Pizza, wings and the show “From the Hip”.  They all had a hankering to watch a movie they grew up with.  It’s a pretty good show, but the best part was watching the brothers watch the movie.  They were so happy to have this little blast from the past.  We played some games and hung out, it was a perfect end to the weekend. 
Happy 35th birthday my dear!  I love you, the kids love you, and we love celebrating your birthday! 

Annie’s first piggy

Her hair is finally long enough for a teeny-tiny pigtail on the top of her head.  In my quest to get a “great” picture, I got some pretty cute facial expressions from my little bug. 
Man, I love this girl!

Working the pigtail, eating her noodles.  My baby’s not such a baby anymore!

Pinterest Party

My Mom’s ward had a Relief Society activity last week, so I decided to go and bring along Dakota and my Mother-in-Law…it was a Pinterest Party!!
They had tables set up around the gym and the women displayed their interests and talents….many of the things you find on Pinterest.  There were tables with hair and nail polish ideas, jewelry, scrapbooking ideas, family history, quilting, sewing, knitting, cake-making, fashion, do-it-yourself projects, centerpiece ideas, and on and on and on. 
My mom brought a display showing the different ways to journal and to keep a family history.  She displayed a quilt that was given to my dad when he was released as Stake President.  It represents many hours of dedicated work as each Prophet’s portrait is cross-stitched!  She displayed blankets she had made for each of my kids.  She showed photo books from her missions. She even showed blog books, scrapbooks, and other journaling techniques.
We moved from table to table to see all the offerings.  There were some great ideas! 
We even saw Dakota’s former Primary teacher.  She moved out of our ward into this area and was there displaying some fashion ideas.  She is super darling and was happy to see Dakota again.  What a small world indeed!
It was like a talent show on display, so much creativity!  There was even a table showing how one sister was making her own marimba! 
Great idea, great execution.  It was a fun night!

YW Basketball

This is our first year of Young Women’s Basketball…well, since I was in Young Women’s.  We have a great group of girls, but there aren’t very many of them.  Since they forfeited most of their games, they did not make it to the region play-offs.  But a sweet ward in our stake invited our few girls to play with them in the post-season. 
They did great and won their first game 22-14.  The second game was tougher and they lost, but they had fun doing it. 
Our cute Beehives:
The game was held in my parent’s Stake Center, so they joined us!
Nice photo-bomb, Beau.
Great defense Talia!
That’s my Koko with the ball…
Camri generously decided to do a half-time performance, it was fantastic…

There you have it, their glorious journey into the playoffs.  Good job girls!

Oh the Irony

Since I just posted about the Safe Kids Fair, I thought a follow-up would be appropriate.  When I was driving the carpool last week, I got pulled over and got my first ticket ever.  I was cited for going 5 miles over the speed limit.  Seriously? 
At least all the kids had seatbelts on, even though two of my kids were sharing one.  Yeah, not my best move. 
But, I will be fighting this charge, I will maintain my innocence, I will stand for truth and justice! 
I just think it’s funny that it happened on the heels of the Safety Fair. 

Sledding, finally!

Wow, it snowed! And it didn’t melt right away! And it’s only March! And it’s Friday! And the kids don’t have school! It’s just too exciting!
Okay, it’s been a mild winter.  Honestly, I haven’t minded one single bit.  It’s been nice to send the kids outside to play without putting on all their snow gear every time.  It’s been nice to drive on the dry, non-slippery streets.  It’s been nice not to have to wear a coat (or shoes) to go get the newspaper in the morning.
But,
this snow storm was awesome!  If you could order your favorite kind of snow and the perfect sunny skies to go with all the fresh powder, you would get the weather yesterday.  It was cloudy, but you could see blue sky.   The sun was out, so it was cold but not freezing.  And oh, the powder!  I grew up skiing and I remember going skiing on days like this with fresh powder…this is beautiful, beautiful stuff!!  As I was using the snow-blower on our driveway that morning and this lovely snow was flying in my face, I closed my eyes for a second and pretended I was swooshing down the slopes.  Let’s face it, that’s the closest I’m going to get this year. We found a park that is a well-kept secret in our neighborhood, and it has great hills…especially for my younger crowd.  I took the kids and we had so much fun! Well, most of us.  Beau went down one time and decided he was done.  So he sat in the car while the rest of us played.  Annie loved it and kept asking to go down on the “slide”! 
Right before his one and only run:
Okay Mom, I’m done!
Cute little snow bunny!!



It’s a race!!
Colin got down first, Emma went the farthest, and Koko did the most spins (before she fell). 

They just kept going and going and going…


Look at that powder!  We were making our own trails!

After a while, we decided it was time for some hot chocolate.  What a great day!!
After renewing my (lost) driver’s license, shoveling walks and visiting with neighbors, sledding, drinking hot chocolate and eating leftovers for lunch, watching Iron Man (then watching Colin make arc reactors for all the kids), playing games, laughing, eating snacks, and finally going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with Joe and Dakota…our first time going together, I can safely say that this was one of the best days ever! 
Joe and our kids = my best friends in the whole world!