Puppet Show

Annika had a puppet show at school a couple of weeks ago. Her puppet was suppposed to be the magic mirror in Snow White. She initially was assigned the wicked queen, which she was really excited about, but a little boy in her class was really sad that he couldn't be that, so she decided to exchange assignments with him. What a sweetheart. Here is some super-short video I took, since my memory card was full. Darn!

She was able to fill the spot of the baby bear in the next production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears as well. Which was good, since her mom was late to the show and missed the beginning of her Snow White production.

Signs of Spring

Putting up the trampoline is the earliest sign of spring at our house, along with the tulips, daffodils, cherry blossoms, and dandelions.

Dancing, Part 2

Figured it out (see post #1 from Sunday, below). Like I said, I am a little bit of a basket case and it really bothers me when I can't get something to work.
Here is the video to Annika's dance. Unfortunately for all of you interested parties (Grandma), the video is chopped to one-third of the length of the dance. You don't get to see the full cuteness, but you get the general idea.
The little dancers aren't wearing shoes because this dance is supposed to be a tap dance, and the venue wouldn't allow them to wear tap shoes on the floor. There was a little slip-sliding going on...

Annika is the third from the right. She's the one either a beat early, or a couple of beats late. But she's also having a great time.

A Basket Case

Okay, despite the fact that I am indeed a basket case, the title of this post actually refers to a really pretty hairdo I did on Annika for church this morning.
Again, I can take credit only for getting her to hold still and actually doing the hairstyle itself.
Well, maybe the holding still part is owed to VeggieTales (and a little "Phineas and Ferb" we sneaked in when daddy wasn't looking).
The idea came from The Story of a Princess and Her Hair. There is a link to her blog in my sidebar. She is great for inspiration, and has really good instructions. As a matter of fact, I did a variation of this hairdo on Annika Friday and went to the mall with the girls after school. We got so many compliments, one woman even asked if it was Annika's real hair! Annika thought that was hilarious.

Anyway, here it is. Unfortunately, after jumping on the trampoline after church, and changing her clothes about 25 times this afternoon, this 'do will not be salvaged for school on Monday.

Dancing

About a week ago, Annika had a dance competition. Not really a big deal, except she got to dress in her costume and wear makeup!

I was still in the "death warmed over" part of my illness, but I dragged myself out of bed to do her hair and put her makeup on. And cheer her on, of course. She got a participation trophy (one of my pet peeves), but she was thrilled with it.

She did a great job, and her studio won the choreography trophy for their dance.

I have some video, but I am having difficulty trying to remember how to edit it. It is too long to upload right now. I will continue to work on it.

Double Digits!

Nathan had his 10th birthday. I have had an amazing, humbling, growing, and educational experience as his mother over the last 10 years.

Although I am grateful that he is growing up and moving away from me (metaphorically speaking), I miss the little things he used to do as a baby:

He called his blanket his "bee"

He called his drink his "doo"

He talked very early, and was frequently taken out of Sunday meetings because he wouldn't stop babbling.

He used to love Toy Story and all things Buzz Lightyear.

Now it is Star Wars, Legos, and Robotics. He likes Drake and Josh (if you don't know what that is, you don't have a tween). He is beginning to show an interest in girls, actually asking advice from a friend recently. (What does mom know, anyway?) He has even come home with little notes, proudly showing me, yet making me pledge not to show them to anyone else.

It is exciting and sad at the same time to see him grow up and experience new challenges and triumphs. I am so grateful he chose me to be his mother. I have learned more from this experience of motherhood than I could have anywhere else.

Just 9 more years until a mission.

So much to do!


For his birthday, I checked him out of school and took him to lunch. He got to pick the place. Arby's it was. It was a fun surprise for all the kids.
That evening,after some fine birthday dining consisting of corn dogs and tater tots (picky eater!) we went to see Monsters vs Aliens. It was cute, but a little scary for Adrienne's taste.
After the movie, we came home, had birthday brownies (did I mention he hates cake? see picky eater) and opened presents.

Mom's effort to encourage reading something worthwhile.

The centerpiece of the night...the Millenium Falcon. This picture doesn't do it justice. It really is pretty fun.

Happy birthday Nathan!

Still With The Living

I've been sick. Really really really sick. Right-down-in-bed, kids-can-watch-TV-all-day-long kind of sick. I-had-to-ask-for-help kind of sick. I HATE asking for help.

I am finally feeling better, but I am running very low on energy. I have lots to post, but I will stick with a quick one today.

Adrienne came out Sunday afternoon with a self-applied makeover. I am guessing she was going for the highly fashionable "Joker" look...


Is that not the scariest little girl you've ever seen?



She gave daddy a little kiss.

Accomplishments

Everyone needs a pat on the back once in a while. Since you are my captive audience, my friends who live in my computer, you get to "listen" to me pat myself on my back. Ooh, stretching.

This past week, Kade finally got enough money to buy his Nintendo DS. It became a bit ceremonial as we traveled to Wal-Mart to pick it up. He chose silver, and I let him pick out one game because that was part of the deal. He chose My Sims Kingdom. I thought it looked a little boring, but he is really excited.
I am really proud of him. It was quite a bit of work, and in the end he found that after tithing, he was short one dollar. Nathan offered to lend him one, but Kade said he didn't want to owe anyone money (!) so he asked what he could do to make one more dollar. He cleaned the bathroom for that extra dollar (I would pay them a million if they would do a good job).

Another thing we did was go on a bike ride around the big city for Spring Break on Monday. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a longer ride than I initially planned. It ended up being about 8 miles. The boys hung in there, and so did I. I was pulling the bike trailer full of about 75 pounds of little girls. I got a pretty good workout and finally figured out how to do hilly areas with a bike trailer.
We finished the ride with a stop at the local ice cream hangout and enjoyed our yummy cones.
There were some really pretty areas to take pictures, so I took advantage of it, despite everyone having helmet hair.

I wanted some pictures of the kids to perhaps frame, but they were itching to get somewhere and play on the playground equipment in the park. It took a few tries.

They could see the ice cream shop from there...

The wood chips were sooooo interesting.

A little "Shoe Adjustment"

I finally gave up and decided that we had tried enough. Hence the photo in my title box. It isn't perfect, but it was the best one.

All Things Easter

We had a great Easter. It actually lasted for two weeks, and began with a birthday/Easter party at Grandma and Grandpa T's house. Of course, we had the annual Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, and the little kids too. The big kid (aka adult) hunt actually went a little better for me this year. First, let me say the adult hunt closely resembles Black Friday. There are elbows, pushing and lots of grabbing. And the worst offenders are the dads! It didn't descend to actual tackling as it sometimes does when my brother-in-law shows up. Somehow he really gets the machismo flowing in all the other guys and they have to race to outdo each other. When it gets that crazy, the ladies usually settle for pilfering goods from the children's bags when they are not looking.
The next weekend, we hit the easter hunt in our own city and then spent the day wasting time and finishing up our prep for our new Sunday callings...
Easter morning was beautiful. The kids found their baskets, all the eggs, and the goodies the Easter Bunny brought. I hurried and got the girls ready, did their hair and headed out to my first correlation meeting in our ward.
Burke finished getting the kids ready for church (by himself, hee hee--payback) and got there on time, despite having to spot clean Adrienne's dress on his way out the door. They all looked so cute.
It was strange to have an extra body on the bench with us. It really messed up the seating chart I have had for the last three years: Nathan, Adrienne, Mom, Annika, Kade. There are no exchanges or substitutions.
The funniest thing that day was when the sacrament was being passed, Burke actually bowed his head, acting like he was planning on actually thinking about the sacrament and all that stuff. What is up with that? I had to straighten him out by reminding him that down here in the trenches, we work on keeping the kids quiet and stop them from getting into the "quiet activity bag" before the sacrament is over. We all know that is what the Sacrament time is really for, right?
He has forgotten what Sacrament Meeting is all about. Or maybe that's me.
Maybe Annika's comment about needing some butter and jam for her tiny piece of sacrament bread brought him back to earth.
After church, and Primary (see post below). We headed to Grandma and Grandpa W's and then Grandma and Grandpa T's. It was so nice to be able to visit with them on such a beautiful day.
Here are the pictures of all the festivities and my cute girls in their cute Easter dresses.

Fun with the easter finds.

Coloring Eggs, Hands, Pajamas.

These are the eggs we colored. Burke is especially proud of the eyeball egg he helped Nathan with. Kade did the patriotic red, white, and blue egg.

We got to have another Easter egg hunt with Grandma while Grandpa rested inside.
Hope you had a great Easter weekend!

Rusty

I gave my first Sharing Time in several years today. To a primary I have subbed in three times. Needless to say, I was very rusty.
Thankfully, it went better than my first sharing time in Michigan, but only barely.
I am sticking with the idea that they got better as I got to know the Primary children in Michigan, so hopefully they will improve as I get to know the kids here.

It just topped off a day of feeling a little useless and stressed.
Teachers not showing up...music missing...teachers late (at least they came)...my 1st counselor out of town... when does sharing time end?...maybe I was called to this job because my kids are the most rambunctious and they thought I could get them under control...why does Adrienne want to sit on my lap now, when I couldn't get her to do it 10 minutes ago in Sacrament Meeting?...Oh, didn't know I was supposed to do that...Forgot to tell the Bishop about this... Where did my brain go?

Argh!!

But... then there was the "Who is that?" moment. Yep, a girl who hasn't come to Primary regularly for over a year because of various issues.
It made my day!

When I left Michigan, I had a PPI with the Bishop there. He asked me what I learned while I was serving in Primary and what I would have done differently if I had the chance.
I told him that my only regret was that I wished I would have made a greater effort to get to know the children on an individual level (even though that is WAAAAAY outside my comfort zone).
Little did I know that I would get the opportunity to try again in four short years.
That is supposed to be the focus, I keep telling myself. My job is to show them they are loved and welcomed in Primary...
even if I am completely stressed out, nervous and rusty.

I guess you just try again next week right?

At least sharing time is over, for now.

Taking a Break

I have been more than a little stressed this past week, and finally took an opportunity to step back and relax for a little while tonight.
As I was pondering, I thought about all the things I have to be grateful for:

My mom, who is always good for a pep-talk

My husband, who works so hard and is supportive and non-complaining when I called him at work twice today just to hear his voice and ask a question about Primary

My husband's job-- you know, the one he still has

The opportunity I had to be able to be the one to give Annika a hug as she walked in the door from school crying because a boy on the bus called her a big fat tiger (go figure)

The fact that my kids asked me what day care is

Storytime at the library

An awesome school teacher who keeps me informed on the things that matter

A daughter who would sneak off to go read a book to her baby sister when she should be doing her homework

Slurpees

Butterfly kisses from a three-year-old

A Father in Heaven who loves me and has a sense of humor.

All of this...just today.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Are You Ready To ROCK?

I just celebrated my birthday.

Another year under my belt.

A little older, a little wiser?

I would like to think so.

That day actually ended up being a little stressful. I had lots of errands to run in the morning, and Adrienne decided to have a little "accident" in dance class that afternoon, so I had to make a mad dash home while she was crying because I didn't have a back up dance outfit for her in the car.
Who does that anyway? I guess an uberprepared mom would, but unfortunately for her, her mother isn't uberprepared.

After dance, I decided to balance the checkbook, pay the bills, and do some laundry. By the time Burke got home from work (he also had a very stressful day--major layoffs that day), I was pretty grumpy.

Being the good guy he is, he swept me up in his arms and took me to dinner. It was really nice because the wait staff put us at a table that was pretty isolated (I wonder why), so we didn't have to worry about the kids bothering anyone around us.


When we got home we had some birthday brownies (all it really needs to be is chocolate), and opened presents.

I got ROCK BAND 2!

As you may have remembered from my trip to visit my sister in Ohio in January, I was introduced to the joy of Rock Band. I have been talking about it ever since.
I was really excited to play the game with everyone, so we hurried and got it all set up. We tried to pick some songs that the kids would know, but as you can see from the movie, they mostly did their own thing.
If you listen really closely, Adrienne is singing "Book of Mormon Stories".
Check out my handsome hubby as the sexy drummer.
I love him so much.