Rewind: 1st Grade Mother's Day Program

On May 5th, I got to go see Hudson in the annual Mother's Day program put on by the 1st graders at our elementary school.  All year, his teacher had been talking about it and proclaimed several times that it's her favorite date of the year.  Having seen it for myself now, I can certainly see why.  We were all given "crowns" that our child had created for us, complete with a picture of us with the child (taken months ago at a parent/teacher conference).  Each child had a small speaking part and the group as a whole sang several songs, complete with arm and hand actions.  It was so stinking cute!  I recorded the whole thing and snapped pictures with our small digital with my left hand throughout the whole thing (not too steady working with both hands at once...hence a few slightly grainy shots).

 

 

The final number of the program was a song about a treasure box filled with love.  Each child had a little box on a ribbon around their neck and at the end of the song, they came down and gave the necklaces to their moms.  Here's mine:

 

 

I positively LOVE it.  I wore it all that day and to church on Mother's Day.  It really is a treasure to me and I know I'll hold it dear as long as I live.

Rewind: Closet Sleeper

A few weeks ago, I decided that my side of our little walk-in closet needed some serious attention.  I adjusted the height of a few shelves, went through my clothes and put several items in a pile to donate, moved things around, etc.  Claire found this all fascinating and set up shop on the floor on Max's side to watch me.  She had blankets, animals and a doll, a purse, a pair of my sandals and my sun hat, her beloved bumblebee pillow pet, and a basket.  All very necessary items for watching one's mother organize and clean up her closet.

Towards the end of my project, the phone rang.  I stepped out into the bedroom and talked on the phone for a few minutes.  When I finished the conversation and headed back in to the closet to finish the job, I found this:

Claire has always been a great sleeper.  But the closet floor?!  I guess that being a spectator can be just as exhausting as doing the actual job!

Rewind: We Love Grandpa & Grandma!

My parents flew home the day after Easter.  Just before they left for the airport, it hit me that I hadn't taken a single picture of my parents while they were here.  We quickly grabbed the camera and snapped away...

We love you, Grandpa & Grandma!

Rewind: Easter 2011

We had a great group here for Easter this year. My parents were in town since my baby bro was graduating from law school at BYU down in scenic Provo that weekend and we were thrilled to have them join us for the holiday.  Along with them, we had my two brothers who live in the area and their families, my one sister-in-law's mom, and my dad's only sister and her daughter. Prior to the big dinner, though, we had our traditional family events...

Hunting real eggs - beautimous egg dyeing courtesy of my mom and yours truly - in the backyard. Hudson figured out the whole E.B. thing on his own this year and got to help hide the eggs and find them. He's being a good sport and egging his little sister on about the E.B. as long as she wants to believe. Pun intended.

Pictures of the family with the kiddies in their new Easter outfits. I am never 100% thrilled with how the pics turn out but it's real life, right?

In addition to egg hunting and pictures, the kids each had an Easter basket with a small toy and lots of sugary goodness waiting inside for them when we got home from church. Hudson also got to help with picking the goodies for the baskets this year but his toy and a couple of particular candies were still a surprise for him.

Now for the meal... Thanks to the ingenious design of my hubby, we were able to seat all the adults (and Hannah in her high chair) at one large table in our living room (rest of the kids were in the spill-friendly kitchen). It was made up of three folding tables side by side and we were able to cover the massive creation with my two large white tablecloths. We girlies enjoyed ourselves setting the table with my Wedgewood Basketweave china, glass goblets, and individual S&P shakers, and dotting it with pitchers of water, little duet bowls of jams, baskets of rolls, one of the cakes I made for dessert, and a small sampling of my decorative Easter egg collection. It wasn't anything super fancy but I loved how it turned out.

 Our dinner this year consisted of super delicious ham (using my mother-in-law's INCREDIBLE homemade glaze recipe), sour cream scalloped potatoes - the kind with Corn Flakes on top, perfect homemade rolls from my one sister-in-law, homemade jams thanks to my sister and I (too bad she and her family weren't here to join us!), an amazingly delicious fruit salad from my other sister-in-law, and a tasty green salad from my sister-in-law's mom. For dessert I made a lemon bundt cake (I always think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding when I use the word "bundt") and a Texas Sheet Cake - half with chopped pecans, half without. The whole meal was all so very yummy and there were enough leftovers at the end for everyone to take a bit home. I'm starting to drool just thinking about the meal again...mmmmmm!

That evening, after everyone was gone, Claire decided that she needed to spend some quality time in and with her dear old friend, the high chair. She quickly climbed up and slipped into her old happy place. Too bad she's gotten too big for it - getting her out was quite the ordeal and her legs were a bit scraped up on top from the process.  Maybe she'll finally be cured of climbing in after that whole fiasco...we'll see.

Next up: another rewind! Maybe I'll be caught up one of these days...

Rewind: 70th B-Day Bash

Major rewind again...back in the middle of March, we threw a surprise party for hubby's dad for his 70th birthday. He thought that he and my mother-in-law were coming up for a nice quiet evening at our place where he was going to help Max with some electrical matter in the living room and then have dinner with us. WRONG. Instead he arrived to find 40+ people at our house to celebrate his recent 70th birthday. And he was completely surprised...the look on his face was priceless.

While a few were stragglers at the end, we had a total of 45 people here for a picture DVD presentation of the birthday boy's life, memories/thoughts shared by each of his 6 children, dinner, and dessert. Now, let us take a moment and allow me to toot my own horn on the dinner deal... In an attempt to save money, we were looking at all kinds of options for the main course. After mulling over everything, I put my foot down in the end and said that we were going to order fried chicken from the grocery store down the hill. And that was that. Both hubby and my mother-in-law were a wee hesitant and skeptical but EVERYONE loved the chicken. Just like I knew they would. We ordered enough for about 50 people and had one single piece leftover at the end of the night. We had the chicken, a whipped Jell-O/Cool Whip salad, green salad, and fruit. Dessert was Costco cake and ice cream and a very special sugar free cake for the diabetic man of the hour (made by me that afternoon - the frosting/decoration was finished as people were arriving).

As far as we're concerned, it was a smashing success and we'd do it again in a heartbeat. That being said, I have to say: I love my father-in-law and I love my mother-in-law. I love my dad and mom, too. But as well as the party went, I'm not throwing another party of that size or of that much work for any them (or anyone else for that matter) anytime soon. I'm still recovering.

A Case Of The Sevens

Seven years ago today, Hudson came into the world. Thinking about my boy turning seven years old on the seventh day of the month got me thinking about what we started when he was born. A trend in my family. A case of the sevens, as one might call it...

Hudson was born on the 7th of May. Two months later, my sister's Becca was born on July 7th. Seven months later, my middle brother's girl Emma was born on February 7th. Then, that November, my oldest brother's boy Ethan was born on the 7th of November. Finally, fast forward a couple of years and my little brother's boy Tyler was born on March 7th. That's five babies in a row born on the 7th of the month. One "seven" born to each of the 5 siblings in my family (not in order by age of us siblings...now THAT would have been really impressive) with no other births in between any of the kids.

When Anne and I both had our babies on the 7th of the month, we just thought it was cool and fun. But then, when our three sisters-in-law ended up being due within a time frame that would easily allow for a baby to be born on the 7th of the month, we'd always guess that the baby would be born on the 7th. And so it was and so we have our sevens. While there have been opportunities, none of us has ever taken a picture of the five of them together...definitely on my list for the next time the whole family assembles.

(picture taken July 2010)

Happy Birthday to the first - and my personal favorite - "seven".

Rewind: March 2011 - Afternoon At The Zoo

At the beginning of March, my parents came into town to watch the five kids of my one of my brothers while he and his wifey went on a really lame trip to Europe for 10 days. Seriously...who would want to go there? And for that long? Weird. My dad was just in town for the 1st few days and then headed home to work while my mom did her job here.

I was hoping to spend a lot of time with my mom and the youngest of the 5 kids (she's just older than Claire) but due to my being sick with a cold, those wishes took a back seat. However, once I was better, we met up at the zoo one day along with another sister-in-law and her two kiddies. The kids were thrilled to get outside and burn off some energy and we were far beyond thrilled to have them do so. Not much to report on the zoo itself...a fair portion of it is under construction right now (can't wait to the new arctic exhibits!) but it was still nice to leave the house and get some fresh air.

I must say that I did learn one thing from the trip, though, and that is that I wouldn't ever want to have that many children. Don't get me wrong, I love kids (especially mine!) but it was a lot to handle, even if it was for less than 2 hours. At one point my sister-in-law and I were walking through the reptile building with 8 of them in tow and we had to keep stopping to count the kids. A couple of times we came up short and had to quickly look around and see where the missing child (or two) had gone. And that's with everyone having a "buddy" and "staying close together" as a group! Kudos to the moms out there who have that many kids, keep track of them all (often on their own), and stay sane while doing it. I am in awe of you!

Now I'm Blushing...

Golly gee, folks. I didn't write that last post about how brilliantly fabulous other people's blogs are because I was fishing for compliments (but it sure worked, didn't it?). All the nice things you said sure made me feel good...thanks!

Now, after yet another another long hiatus, I'm back in the saddle for the 294th time. Multiple posts to follow this week. I pinkie promise.