Rewind: Tree House Museum Field Trip

Tonight is the lunar eclipse and "blood moon".  I've been sitting here doing a few things:

 

1) trying to decide if I want to stay up until 1:45 to see the eclipse at its peak or go to bed and set my alarm to get up when its time to go outside and take a gander

2) thinking about the Outshine fruit bars that I bought today...I really want one right now but am I more in the mood for coconut or pineapple?

3) surfing the internet, reading the news, and trying to figure out how else I can fill my time while attempting to make decisions on numbers 1 and 2

 

Whilst mulling these things over in my mind and wasting perfectly good laundry-folding time as I sit here in my office, it occurred to me that I haven't posted here since that amazing week in March when I knocked out something like four posts.  It was crazy.  When I pulled up my blog a minute ago, I thought it was strange that I had only gotten as far as Christmas in my catch-up posts.  Didn't I post about Claire's field trip that I went on in January?  Nope.  I made a picture collage for it over a month ago but didn't exactly follow through on getting it up here.  I guess it's about time I got going on that...

 

In January, I threw my name in the proverbial hat as a possible parent chaperone for Claire's field trip to the Tree House Museum up in Ogden.  Luckily my name was drawn (my girl would have had an impressive meltdown and crying fit of unimaginable proportions had this not happened) and off we went on the given day.  Words cannot express how I felt when I heard that there was plenty of room on the buses for parents to ride along and they wouldn't need me to drive or carpool with another parent.  I hate riding on the school bus.  They're made for little people...not tall people with long legs and I cringe just thinking about trying to force my knees into the given space.  It's been months since that day and my legs still feel cramped.  Anywhoooo...enough about me.

 

At the museum, we were escorted into a small theater with a stage where our guides gave us the rundown of our time there and entertained all of us with their child-friendly stand-up comedy and silly antics.  Our class then went on to another area of the museum with the funniest guide of them all to hear him tell us a couple of fairy tales from different parts of the world. Much to their delight, he involved a few of the kids in the story telling and kept everyone laughing as he told us foreign versions of Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella (one of them was a Chinese variation).

 

After our stint with the story teller, we went upstairs where the kids had a little class on how to make magic wands.  It was really cute and each of the kids got to make their own wand to take home.

 

Our final stop was back in the theater room where another guide walked our kids through a performance of Blanca Flores (Mexican version of Snow White).  Wanting to be sure that every child who wanted to be in the play could be, there were parts galore.  I was asked to help with "casting" and being ever-so-slightly biased and favoring my own child, I selected Claire to be Blanca Flores.  Other characters were an evil queen and mirror, a handsome prince and his cousin, guards, bandits (we know them as the dwarves), and a handful of other characters, too.  The speaking parts were fed to the kids as they went along and while the acting may have left something to be desired (like when my "sleeping" daughter wouldn't close her eyes and kept playing with and looking at her magic necklace), it was totally entertaining and once again, everyone had plenty of good laughs as funny things happened, mistakes were made, and general chaos ensued during some parts.  It was absolutely darling!

After our play was over, the kids had a little bit of free time to explore and play around the rest of the museum.  We were then lured back to our glorious chariot with the offer of fruit snacks.  Who could possibly resist?!

 

In spite of the less than comfortable transportation, it really was a fun day with my girl and her classmates.  I love helping in my kids' classes and going on field trips whenever possible and this time was no different.  Besides, I'm sure one day I'll wish that my kids were back in elementary school so that I could ride on the school bus with them just one more time.

Her Mother's Daughter

We had SEP (parent/teacher/student) conferences at the kids' school this week.  Both kids are getting along just fine in terms of grades and making progress in their education.  At the same time, both kids had a couple of things to work on when it comes to behavior.

 

Now, neither of my kids misbehaves at school.  We seriously scored in that department with our kids...no child is perfect but ours are pretty dang good.  That being said, Hudson needs to work on focusing on and retaining what the teacher says, remembering to buckle down and complete tasks, etc. These are things that don't come as a surprise to us.  Having a very active mind, he and his thoughts are often off someplace else while the world (and therefore his class and teacher) continues to go on around him.  We'll keep him, though...

 

Then there's Claire.  The kids in her class each did a self-evaluation about how they're doing in different areas of behavior.  Her paper was marked with "always" as the answer on just about everything.  This included things like:

 

I keep my desk clean so I can find things.

I start my work right away and I use my time to get my work done.

I try hard to get along with others in class and at recess.

 

There were a few others but you get the gist of it.  Claire's little self-evaluation looked marvelous with all of the word "always" circled.  We were discussing this when Mrs. W asked her to think about this one:

 

I try not to visit too much during work time.

 

Pause...flashback 30 years.

 

I may or may not have had a slight problem with being a chatterbox as a child (and as a teenager...and now).  In kindergarten, my buddies Scott, Brian, and I would talk too much.  Mrs. Murphy would punish us by sending us to different corners of the room.  I can very clearly remember sitting up in my corner and smiling at, waving to, and whispering (read: audibly saying) a "hello" to Scott and Brian in their respective corners. Corners were not an effective tool.  What my teacher should have done is adorned me with earplugs in my ears, a blindfold over my eyes, and duct tape over my mouth.  Once properly stripped of my ability to see, hear, and talk, she could have spun me around several times in order to disorient me and then seated me in an empty room or closet far from our classroom. That might have solved the problem.

 

After kindergarten, I totally shaped up.  I no longer got sent to the corner for talking.  Instead, moving desks pretty much became a hobby of mine and it lasted all throughout my schooling years.  I didn't necessarily have a lot of friends in any given class but everyone that I sat next to in school had EARS and I wanted to be sure that they were put to good use.  My teachers were very smart individuals and would always move me next to someone who they knew either a) wasn't a friend of mine or b) wasn't a talker.  I'm sure you can guess how much good those moves did.  If someone wasn't my friend, I did my darndest to make them one, even if it was just for that period of time each day when we were seated next to each other.  When I was parked next to a non-talker, I made up for their lack of communication and did enough talking for the both of us.

 

As an adult, I'm not too much better but lucky for me, there aren't teachers following me around and chastising me for my verbal prowess.

 

Okay, now....back to Claire.

 

Claire was very quick to admit that this isn't her strong point.  She picked up a pen, changed her answer to "most of the time", and promised to work on keeping quiet during work time.  I couldn't help but smile.

 

Poor girl is in for a lifetime of this.

Finishing Up Summer: Claire's Birthday & 1st Day of School

After our long break from reality, we took it easy the last few weeks of summer.  I did put the kids back in swimming lessons for one last session and let them have plenty of free time and time playing with friends while they could.

To top off the months of freedom, Claire helped us celebrate getting back to school and real life by having her 6th birthday....Happy Birthday, Claire! She opted for a party with a nice group of girls who were all going into 1st grade together (different classes but all the same year in school).  She chose a palette of teal, lavender, and pink for her decorations and I loved how the back patio turned out until the wind kicked up...it took a few balloons for a ride up into the sky and kept tossing some of the decorations that I had hung up onto the roof (and over to the other side of the yard).  The girls enjoyed eating a pizza lunch, making necklaces, having their faces painted, going on a "scavenger/treasure hunt" wherein they were required to do different physical (aka tiring) activities before moving on to the next step (end reward: party favor/goody bags), and of course, cake, ice cream, and the opening of presents.  Claire had a very happy day indeed!

Just a few short days after Claire's birthday was the 1st day of school for 2013-2014. Both kids were so happy to get back into the swing of things.  No, I'm not kidding...back at the end of June, Hudson expressed that he missed school and wished that they were already going back. It's so nice having kiddies who love learning! As mentioned above, Claire is in 1st grade this year and Hudson is in 4th.  I absolutely love their teachers this year.  Claire has the same teacher that Hudson did in 1st grade (she's our favorite!) and Hudson's teacher is fantastic...no complaints coming from our house!

I wish I had better pictures from that morning but we were rushed getting out the door (somebody has a chronically hard time getting going in the a.m...ahem) and I didn't have the time to coax and force the kids to endure a longer photo session.  Maybe I'll be up and going and do better on the last day of school next May...

Back In The Saddle...AGAIN

I hope you were sitting down when you opened my blog and saw that I had written for the first time in over 4 months.  I can only imagine the state of shock that I've put some of you into.

 

Not that I have a ton of readers, but amazingly enough, people have been checking my blog on a fairly regular basis during my hiatus.  I think that roughly 85% of those visits have been my own sister and parents (who know better than to think that this professional procrastinator would have gotten her act together) but still, I'm always surprised to see my ticker/counter keep going up. I've even checked my blog during these past months.  Never to write anything, mind you. It's always been to click over to blogs that I frequent, but that being said, sometimes even I've been surprised that nothing new has popped up on my feed.  So strange how that works.

 

I've decided that rather than writing four million "rewind" posts, I'm just going to do a few (ha ha ha...you thought you were safe, didn't you?!). They're primarily going to be filled with a whole lot of picture collages and not a whole lot of writing...at least that's my intention.  I've never been very good at keeping things a) short and sweet or b) my words to a minimum.  We'll see how this goes...

 

First up, we have the end of the 2012-2013 school year.  I was able to manage going on both kids' end-of-year field trips during the last month of school.

 

Hudson's class went to the Ogden Nature Center.  I volunteered to drive up with a couple of other parents and the lunches for all three classes in my car order to avoid riding on the school bus (don't get me started on how buses made for children don't have ample leg room for tall adults). It was rainy.  We got wet.  One kid slipped and fell in the mud.  All the kids "got to" skim the water in one of the ponds in search of nasty little bugs and organisms.  It was kind of cool and kind of gross.

 

Claire's class went to Wheeler Farm in SLC.  We all had to ride on the bus.  I dealt with it and it helped build my amazing character.  It was not rainy or wet that day.  The weather was beautiful.  I teamed up with another mom and we managed our little groups of girls together. We all walked and/or ran around seeing and petting the various animals. The barnyard stunk.  I didn't mind the stink, though, as the animals are fun/cute/awesome and I wish I could take a fair number of them home with me.  My backyard would be very crowded and messy if I did.

 

Finally, we had the last day of school.  I always take 1st day of school pictures and last day pictures.  We were running behind this particular morning (this had never happened before...) so I only managed to get a last day of school picture.  At least I remembered.

 

That's it for tonight, my people.  More to come in the next few days...

Rewind: My Boy Turned 9

Back towards the beginning of May, Hudson up and turned 9 on me.  How can he be this old?  And going into 4th grade next year?  Those of you who have older kids are probably thinking, "Just wait..." and I realize he's going to keep getting older, but still.  It's hard to believe that I have a nine year old and that he's growing up so fast.

 

On his birthday, Hudson saved us money and requested his favorite home-cooked meal: grilled burgers, fresh watermelon, oven fries, and a green salad.  With root beer.  He's really not hard to please.  Dessert was ice cream from Cold Stone where he chose blue cotton candy ice cream with rainbow sprinkles mixed in.  After that came the traditional opening of presents.  Here he is opening one of two favorites that night (the other was a circuit board kit):

He kind of has a thing for Minecraft and Legos.  Putting out a product that entails both of these things is one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of toys.  Ever.

 

A few days later we had a little birthday gathering with extended family (hubby's parents, one of hubby's brothers and his boys, and my two brothers who live locally and their families).  Since smiling nicely for a picture is totally overrated when you're 9 years old, this is what Hudson treated my camera to when he had the chance:

Love my boy so much...  I now have about 11 months to come to terms with the fact that he's going to be 10 next year.

Rewind: Our Little Dancer

Claire wanted to give dancing a shot so back in the fall we put her in a contemporary dance class at a local studio.  Three of her friends were in the class with her and she positively LOVED it.  She had class once a week and finally, after months of preparation, she had her big recital at the end of April.  Her class did a darling little number to the tune of "Touch The Sky" from Disney's Brave.

Love this pic so I just had to work it in...

Claire and a few friends watching some of the older girls at their dress rehearsal.

 

 All dolled up for the big day.

 

Being a finicky almost-6-year-old, Claire thinks she wants to forgo dance this fall and give gymnastics a shot.  We'll see...

Rewind: Rain Gutter Regatta

I'm ever so slowly getting closer to being current on here...we're talking February now, people! 

 

Hudson goes to Boy Scouts twice a month (plus a monthly "pack meeting") and in February, he participated in the Rain Gutter Regatta.  We made his boat at home over the couple of days before the event...sanding, painting, etc.  Hudson knew EXACTLY how he wanted his boat to look and did a great job on the little details.

 

On the big night, Hudson's little boat (and his lungs) fared pretty well.  He won a few heats and made it to the semi-finals before losing to a boy who ended up going to the finals.  He didn't really care about whether or not he won and was happy just to participate and race.  Not that winning a bit didn't help - I'm quite sure it did.

On a random side note, the guy with the shaved head on the left lives in our area and used to play basketball with Max on Saturday mornings.  He's an anesthesiologist and as luck would have it (and I'm glad it did), the morning of my brain surgery back in 2008, he walked into my pre-op room as he'd been assigned to my surgery that day.  I remember being so glad to see him...it's the little things that make the hard things a bit easier.

Think Deeply

So much for my grand intentions of knocking a few posts out this week.  I'm down to the wire now (assuming that we're counting on a Sunday to Saturday calendar here, I've still got over 30 minutes until the week is over) so here I am sneaking in the post I promised earlier this week.

 

We've had a rather large amount of snow this year and my kids regularly tromped through it at school, at home, and in Hudson's case, on the way home from the bus stop.  One day at the end of January he walked in the door after his trek down the hill in the snow pretty much drenched from head to toe.  I asked him what happened and he proceeded to tell me a story about how he fell in a big snow bank right after getting off the bus.  Then, rather than walk on the plowed street or on shoveled sidewalks, he did the logical thing and made his way home primarily by way of other snow banks, snow-covered front yards, and piles of snow.

 

Before stripping off the wet & freezing layers of clothing, Hudson handed me his backpack (which was open) and his math workbook.  The book was every bit as wet as he was.  I asked him if the book fell out of his backpack and he replied that it hadn't - he had simply held onto it on the bus ride and all through his escapade on the way home.  When he realized what had happened he said, "I guess I should have thought first."  Yeah.

 

Being an awesome mom (it happens on occasion), I took his math workbook and cover to cover and page by page, I wiped out the water and snow that were throughout it.  Yes, there was actual snow in between some of the pages.  After getting rid of any excess moisture by blotting each page with paper towels, I then pulled out the ironing board, turned my iron on steam-free, and set to work. Never, in all my imagining of what my life as a mom would be like did I ever think I'd have to iron a math workbook.  It was glorious fun. All 100 or so pages of it.  I called my sister and we had a good laugh as I relayed the story to her and then laughed even harder when I saw what was printed at the top of almost every page:

THINK DEEPLY

Indeed.

Rewind: Mommy-Daughter Pre-K Date

When Hudson was about to start Kindergarten, I got a sitter for Claire one day and he and I went out for a day of fun.  The other day I was going through some of the picture folders on my computer when I discovered a bunch of pictures of Claire from the day I had with her at the end of August and realized I never posted about it.

Our day wasn't anything over the top or super exciting but it was as good as it could have been.  Just like any child, she needs quality one-on-one time and days like this one reminded me that I need to give that to both of my kids more often.

We dropped Hudson off at a friend's place late morning and Claire and I headed to Gardner Village in Salt Lake.  She was excited for our date but was apparently tired, too, and fell asleep for about 20 minutes on the way there.  We went to lunch at the main restaurant where I had a turkey sandwich and Claire had grilled cheese.  I ordered an appetizer of fried green tomatoes and Claire was brave enough to give them a try.  She wasn't a huge fan but ate a few bites.  As picky as my girl can be, I'm always impressed with how willing she is to be adventurous and try new things.

After lunch we headed to the salon/spa where Claire got to have her nails painted.  She chose a very bold pink with a clear glitter finish...so girly!  She was tickled to have her feet in the foam flip flops...it was obvious that she felt very important.  She looked so proud, happy, and grown up sitting there.

When her pretty toes were all ready to go, we walked around the other shops and got a treat at the bakery before leaving.  It was such a pleasant and easy time with my girl...something that we both needed.

It makes me a bit sad to think that I won't get to have a special pre-Kindergarten day with any more children of mine.  I guess I'll just have to find other reasons (or no reason at all!) to take my kids out for special days now and then.

BTS 2012: Kindergarten & 3rd Grade

My kiddies started a new school year on Tuesday.  I'm always thrilled to get back on a schedule and I honestly love sending my kids off to learn and have fun each day.  Yes, it's nice for me to have some time I'm excited for them, too.  School is part of growing up and I want them to enjoy it!

 

This year was a little bittersweet for me.  I didn't really get emotional about it but it's strange to think that all my kids (all two of them...I know, it's mind-blowing!) are officially in school and I don't get to have little ones at home any more.  My girl is no longer a baby or a toddler or a preschooler.  She's a "real girl" and she's moving up and on.

 

Both kids were so thrilled to get up and get going this morning.  Hudson (normally a bit of a dilly-dallyer) was ready with a solid 30 minutes to spare and while Claire got up later, she was just as eager to get out the door.  Both kids were excited to ride the bus (mostly empty the 1st day...only 7 kids on there) and after making sure they were on the yellow beast, I headed down the hill to meet them at the school.

 

Hudson was quick to head to his class, taking a neighbor friend/girl to her class first as she was a bit freaked out and didn't know where to go.  Claire and her little friend Sadie walked with me to the Kindergarten classroom and we arrived just as the teacher opened the doors.  Both girls settled right in and seemed happy as clams in their new surroundings.  I stayed at the school for Back To School Morning (attended 30 minute meetings in both classes while they sent the kids out to play), chatted with a few friends, went to the PTA display in the cafeteria, etc.  By the time I was finished, it was nearly time for Claire to get out (early out schedule the 1st day of school).  When I picked her up at her classroom, I asked her if it was a good day...that's when I got the thumbs-up in the picture below.  A happy girl makes for a happy mom!  Hudson loved his class, too.

 

Here's hoping that the rest of the year goes as smoothly and creates as much happiness as the first day!  Now, homework?  That's another story...

5 Years Old and 5+30 Years Old

I obviously never posted an official "5 Years Old" picture of my girl.  So here you go:

A few days before her birthday, we had a family (both sides) party here for her.  We had Max's parents, his local brother and his family and my two local brothers and their families here to celebrate with us.  I made the chocolate and cherry chip cupcakes with almond frosting that we had for dessert.  I didn't realize until my sister-in-law pointed out later in the evening that by chance, Claire chose to put on a purple and pink outfit for the shindig that almost perfectly matched the purple and pink frostings that I had made.  Between her clothes, the cupcakes and the balloons, we had a serious color coordination thing going on!

Her actual birthday was pretty laid back.  We ran a few errands and had a fairly normal day until the evening.  The kids and I went out to dinner at The Olive Garden (her choice - hubby had to work late and couldn't join us) followed by a little shopping trip at Carter's where Claire picked out a couple of things and a stop at Maggie Moo's to get a couple of custom packed quarts of tasty goodness to take home to accompany Claire's birthday cake.  Max was home when we got there so we all enjoyed Claire's birthday cake and ice cream and watched her open a few gifts.

 

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is really five years old.

 

In other news, I turned 35 a few days after Claire's birthday.  I got to spend more money than I wanted to on having my the screen on my iPhone 4 replaced. (I may or may not have dropped it and caused serious damage way back in June.  Thank goodness for a really strong screen protector that held it in place all this time.)  When Max got home from work that evening, he brought this with him:

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting with chocolate draped over the top.  I did not complain.  Not even once.  Happy Birthday to me!

Claire: Fantastic Five

Five years ago this morning, I became the mother of a little girl.  My due date was September 11th but due to having had a C-section with Hudson (after a long day of labor), I was scheduled to have one with Claire as well and that was set for September 4th.  Obviously we didn't make it to that day.  This girl has always had plans of her own and the day she came into the world was no different.

If you want the details of her arrival, read on.  If not, scroll to the bottom of this post.

Here's how it went:

• I woke up the morning of my 37 week mark with a huge contraction a little bit before 5:00 a.m.
• Called the hospital after a few more contractions and the unintelligent younger nurse who answered the phone said that since I was a C-section patient and my contractions weren't time-able, I should rest and things should calm down (told later by a more experienced nurse that the girl should have had me get there immediately...she went to find out who I had talked to).
• As per instructions from the same nurse on a second phone call, we didn't leave for the hospital until contractions were 5 minutes apart.
• Had to drop off Hudson at the home of Max's brother on the way.
• Headed for the freeway to find it dead stopped (due to a Coke or Pepsi semi-trailer crash...do you locals remember that?  I do.).
• Took city roads until we could get on the freeway where it was moving along.  Hubby drove a wee bit over the speed limit as I was crying out and screaming a bit.  Okay...a lot over the speed limit and crying and screaming a lot.
• Arrived at the hospital with contractions 30-60 seconds apart.
• Got all set up and the nurse checked me...dilated to a 9, 100% effaced and somehow my water still hadn't broken.  It did so about 1 minute later.
• Begged for an epidural (every contraction felt like someone was hitting me in the lower back with a sledge hammer - now we know that it was that pesky tumor).
• An anesthesiologist came in the room within a few minutes and gave me the world's fastest epidural - put the needle in, gave me 2 shots and left.  No need to leave a line in since things were moving along.
• My doctor came in and said that we wouldn't be doing a C-section since 1) I was only at 37 weeks, 2) the baby was a girl and much smaller than her brother, and 3) I was so far progressed at my 36 week appointment (at a 3 and 60% the week before - apparently that doesn't happen for women who have only delivered by C-section).  I think he said, "We can do this."
• I didn't totally believe him.  I was kind of freaked out.
• Less than an hour after arriving at the hospital (45 minutes?) and 3 pushes later, my baby girl was born.
• Claire weighed only 7 lb 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long (I know that's probably big for being three weeks early and about average size...but she seemed tiny compared to her 8 lb 14 oz and 21 1/2 inch brother and was the only one out of the 10 babies that my mom, my sister, and I had that was under 8 lb).

Claire really gave us a run for our money that day and has done so on a regular basis since then.  She only does something when she decided she's going to and even then, everyone has to wait until she's good and ready.  Thankfully she doesn't usually make us wait long.  She looks a lot like me but with more of Max's coloring.  She was a very easy baby in a lot of ways but unlike her ultra-social older brother, she was extremely shy and quickly let us know who she would and would not go to.  She was and still is all girl with a love for all things pink, girly, soft, and/or sparkly.  At the same time, she's definitely our more adventurous child.  Sometimes we have to just close our eyes or turn our heads and hope she survives whatever she's doing...and she always does.  From the minute she was born, she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger approximately 500,000 times and that hasn't changed.  Not only does she look like me but she's a lot like me in terms of personality.  That's probably why she's SO good at pushing my buttons at times.  In spite of how crazy she makes me at times, I love her more than I know how to express.  I am so grateful to have Claire for my daughter.  It's hard to believe it's already been this long...

Happy 5th Birthday, Boo!

I'll try to post an official "5 Years Old" picture a little later today...

June & July Catch-Up

Did you miss me?

I'm behind on posting as usual and falling behind on my monthly quota.  In sitting down to write just now, I was really tempted to do several posts about what we've done since I last wrote.  I would have caught up on my numbers really fast.  However, I'm no cheat.  So I'm going to do one post with a paragraph or description about all our noteworthy happenings since June 26th to get it all out there.  I much prefer to cheat that way instead.

June 25th: So I'm starting one day before...  Kids and I went down to my brother Matt's house in Highland for his 40th birthday party.  We had fun seeing their new place, visiting with family and some of their friends that I hadn't seen in ages, eating tasty food, and exploring the pond and golf course that's just beyond their backyard.  Took his middle child home with us for a sleepover.

June 26th: Took the kids and their cousin to see Brave...totally loved it.  Took the kids to the zoo at the end of the day.  Hardly anyone was there and we got our own little show of the polar bear swimming and diving right by the underwater viewing area.

June 29th: Kids both finished a session of swimming lessons.

July 4th: Spent the evening with hubby's brother and his family.  Tasty grilled steak and all sorts of sides for dinner and cupcakes and ice cream for dessert.  I made red, white and blue cupcakes - they were very cute.  I took a picture of the batter in the cups before baking then failed to get any shots of the finished products (blue frosting with white pearls on top) before they were gobbled up.  After dinner we played games and hung out until fireworks time.  We all drove over to my in-law's place to light them off there as fireworks are currently illegal up where we live and down at my bro-in-law's place due to the high fire danger this year.  It was a great evening that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

July 6th: One of my BFF's that I grew up with in California (Kim) moved here from Virginia.  I got to see her briefly the next day, we had them over for dinner that Sunday and then we got together a few times that following week.  Our friendship is the best kind there is - no matter how long we've been out of touch or whether we haven't talked in days or years, we can always pick up like no time has passed.  So thrilled to have her living a quick 7 minute/3 mile drive away!  The cherry on top is that our kids have all hit it off and absolutely love playing together.

July 13th: Busy day...  First the kiddies had swimming lessons followed by lunch at Kim's place with playtime for the kids and a little move-in work for us.  Later that afternoon we went to the zoo with my middle brother, Dave, his wife and most of their kids (5 our of 6) and my little brother's wife and their two kids.  It was a nice way to spend a little more time together before Dave and his family move to CT at the end of the month.  Afterwards I forced myself to take my kids to Tepanyaki for dinner.  It was fun, delicious and totally awesome and I managed okay in the end.  My daughter, on the other hand, did not manage okay and had a meltdown at the end of the meal as she whined over and over (and over), "I never get to do ANYTHING!"  It was my favorite part of the day.

July 14th: Kids finished another session of swimming lessons. The only thing Hudson had needed to master to pass his level was his freestyle with rotary breathing and he finally did it! Claire had a number of things to get done to move up and she really seemed to pick up a lot this time around. She can now jump off the diving board and swim to the side unassisted. Like her older brother, she's especially good at backstroke and easily switches from her tummy to her back then cruises along. Both kids advanced to their respective next levels.

July 17th: My sister and her three kids came in town for a good, long visit.

And that's where this re-cap post stops.  I want to do at least one separate post about the fun we had!

Hudson's 1st Cub Scout Camp (aka Dirt Camp)

Two weekends ago Hudson spent a chunk of Friday and Saturday at Cub Scout camp.  He had so much fun...I'm surprised they were able to get him in the car to come home at the end of each day.  The boys practiced archery, participated in and watched skits, learned how to shoot BB guns (probably the highlight of his weekend life), panned for gold, and among many other things, did an obstacle course.  All of this was done up a canyon beneath a canopy of trees and in what is apparently the driest, most incredibly magnetic dirt known to man.

Hudson came home fairly dirty the first day and insanely, unbelievably, pig-enviably, completely and horridly FILTHY the second day.  By the time I got to see him, he was already undressed and ready for the shower so I snapped pictures of his face, hands, and feet.  His feet, mind you, were in socks and sturdy tennis shoes all day...he never took either off.  Yummy!

I didn't feel like the way the pictures of His Royal Dirtiness quite did the grime justice so I played around with the shadows and highlights a little bit and....voila!  This honestly gives a more accurate view of what my boy really looked like:

I know that these types of things are a rite of passage and my boy cleans up well so I'm not going to let the grime keep him from going on these camps in the future.  Besides, he really did absolutely LOVE his two days up there...I won't be the one to pull him away from such bliss!

Claire's Preschool Program & Graduation

I can't believe it...my baby is all grown up (at less than 5 years old) and has graduated from preschool!  We attended her end of year program and graduation ceremony this morning.  Claire's teacher, Miss Char, did a wonderful job with putting the whole thing together and the kids were SO darling!  They recited poems, sang songs, showed some of the sign language they learned, did a couple of dance and music number, and they all had speaking parts (Claire's part was with her cousin, Tyler, and they talked about reading books and the difference between fiction and non-fiction).  At the end of the program was the presentation of diplomas - complete with the kids wearing the cutest little black caps.

After the ceremony was over, there were refreshments galore brought by all the moms.  I basically let Claire gorge herself on whatever she wanted.  I figured that a kid only graduates from preschool once...at least that had better be the case!

I am so proud of my cute girl.  I know they practiced like crazy for today and in spite of her sometimes shy personality and being unsure of having everyone watch her participate, she did a wonderful job. 

Way to go, Claire!!

Your Mess? Your Job.

Two nights ago after my boy brushed his teeth, I pulled out a Clorox wipe, handed it to him and pointed to the toilet.  He looked surprised and asked why he had to clean the large yellow spot back behind the seat.  I informed him that if he makes the mess, he's going to have to clean it up (I've only made him do it a few times in the past...my bad!).  His response was, "But it wasn't me!"  Uhhhhhh.  I played Captain Obvious and reminded him that his sister can't miss and hit the toilet back there and that he's the only boy who uses that bathroom.  Not surprisingly, his answer changed: "But it's not from today."  Uhhhhhh.  It was still you, buddy.

It was actually fairly amusing to watch him cleaning up that spot.  He very gingerly held the folded-over wipe with two or three fingers and put almost zero elbow grease into it, doing only - and I mean only - the bare minimum needed to get the job done.  He tried to hand the wipe to me and I quickly pointed at the garbage can.

After his little chore was done I pulled out another wipe and did a quick wipe down of the bowl's rim and seat as I told him that he's going to start doing toilets.  He was about as THRILLED as a diabetic on Halloween.  Too bad, kid.  It's happening.

Easter Weekend 2012

If you ask me, our Easter weekend was just about perfect this year.  For me it started Friday night when I hard boiled about 18 eggs in preparation for dyeing them Saturday and making them into deviled eggs on Sunday.  For the first time ever I had one egg partially split open during the process.  I've had eggs crack before but this was different...it  ended up with about 1/4 of its contents pouring out of a crack but said contents were still cooked and attached to the crack/shell.  It was weird.  Another failed egg was floating in the pot when I went to run cold water over them.  You can guess where that one went!

Saturday afternoon we went ahead with the candy & Easter egg hunt that was supposed to happen Friday morning.  There was still plenty of snow on the ground up here but we all put our kids in their snow boots and let them "hunt" anyway.  We had candy all over the sidewalks and candy-filled eggs on plants and bushes and all over the yards both in and out of the snow.  The whole thing only lasted a little over 30 minutes but the kids had a blast.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate better next year so we can do it the right way!

After the egg/candy hunt, the kiddies and I dyed the hard boiled eggs.  I know that there are some people who dread the process but I look forward to it every year.  I think it's so much fun!  I failed to take pictures of of the finished products this year but I was very happy with how they all turned out.  The kids had fun experimenting with dipping their eggs in different colors (I always do just that with a few of my eggs as well) but I think my favorite one this year was a pretty deep but kind of bright purple one that I turned out.  I left it sitting in the water/vinegar/dye for a good 30 minutes and it was so pretty!  The only egg that didn't turn out like I hoped was my "death egg" (dipped in and dyed every color until its good and ugly).  It's tradition in our family to do one (or more) every year and for whatever reason, mine didn't live up to expectations this year.

On Easter Sunday we opted not to let the kids have their Easter baskets until after church.  We toyed with letting them find them beforehand but decided that like Christmas, we wanted the day's initial focus where it should be...on Jesus Christ.  They kids looked great in their Easter duds and were good as gold at church.  We then tortured them even longer once we got home and took several pictures out back before allowing them to go inside and find their baskets (very complexly hidden out in the wide open on the chairs by the fireplace).  While the kids were trying out a few candies, the Easter Bunny came again and hid our dyed eggs all over the backyard so that the kids could hunt for those.

Once the real egg hunt was done, the rest of the afternoon was spent gorging on candy a bit (kids), making deviled eggs (me) and relaxing together as a family.  Can I just say that I LOVE the deviled eggs my mom taught me to make?  Yum.  We then went to hubby's parents' place for dinner and had a really nice time visiting and playing with in-laws, aunts & uncles and cousins.  Dinner was great as always.  My mother-in-law's ham really is the BEST and I feel bad for you if you've never had it.  To cap it off there were two desserts...a homemade from scratch no-bake strawberry cheesecake and a multi-layered chocolate cake/torte with fresh raspberry sauce.  I helped myself to both and counted the calories null, void and non-existent since it was a holiday.  I'm salivating right now just thinking about the cheesecake...

P.S.  Just have to toot my own horn...I just ran spell check and I made zero errors on this post.  This very seldom happens for me as I tend to type fast and check later.  I'm very proud of myself.  Toot, toot!

Rewind: NOVEMBER IN A NUTSHELL

Time to play catch up on the month of November...

During the months of October and November, I put Hudson in a 6 week instructional basketball league.  Around here it's called "Jr. Jazz".  I feel like a total weirdo saying this but...this was his first time in any kind of organized sport or instruction outside of P.E. at school.  Thankfully my boy didn't care one bit.  He was just thrilled to learn and play basketball every Tuesday.  He's definitely taller than most kids his age, he's a touch on the lanky/gawky side and there were kids there who had obviously played ball quite a bit in the past but he had a grand time every week.  I guess his excitement and enthusiasm made up for any lack of experience.

As I do every year, I put up a "Thankful Tree" on our dining room mirror for the month of November.  In the past I had made the tree out of paper but this year I decided to give acrylic paint a try.  It was fabulously easy - took me only 15 minutes or so to brush on - and the paint cost me $1.39...heck of a lot easier and cheaper than the $10+ I spent on paper in past years!    As for the leaves, we used to cut our leaves out by hand or crank them through my small manual die cut machine one-by-one.  It took hours every year.  This time a dear friend of mine saved the day when she took my colored card stock and had her Cricut machine do all the work of cutting out the leaves.   She just pushed some buttons, stuck the paper into her little magic box and let it do the work.  Brilliant!!  We all wrote things that we're thankful for on the leaves over the course of the days leading up to (and including) Thanksgiving.  My only complaint about this year's tree is how time consuming the removal of the acrylic paint was.  However, it's not enough to stop me from doing paint every year from here on out...it was our best looking tree yet!

Thanksgiving was spent here at our home this year.  My parents flew in for the holiday and with the two of them, the four in our family, two of my brothers and their families and my dad's sister, we hosted a total of 18 people here to join in the holiday feast.  We had a huge bird with homemade stuffing (with sausage in it...the best!) , sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes, green salad, homemade rolls, two kinds of cranberry sauce/relish and my aunt's amazing turkey gravy.  Top it all off with homemade pecan pie and pumpkin pie squares (both with fresh whipped cream, of course) or dessert and what do you have?  Way too much food!  I stopped before I felt full and I still ended up feeling sick to my stomach for a spell that evening.  I guess it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without overeating now, would it?

Lastly we have our little family excursion up on the roof for the sunset a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  I fairly comfortable once I'm up there but the steps onto the roof from the ladder and onto the ladder from the roof seriously freak me out.  I'm getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.  Anyway, it started with Max taking the kids up to see the sunset and before I knew it, I was coaxed into joining them.  Claire was positively petrified at first but gradually got her courage up and while sticking close to us in general, she wandered around a bit.  Hudson, on the other hand, is too comfortable (like his dad) and his strutting around and wandering too close to the edge just about gave me a heart attack.   All I could think while standing up there with my kids was that one of them was going to slip or trip, roll down the side and fall down to the concrete below.  They'd crack their head open or break their neck and we'd end up calling 911.  Then my precious little person would spend weeks (if not months) in the hospital while I spent the rest of my life feeling guilty because I shouldn't have allowed them up on the roof.  Over anxious and paranoid?  Perhaps...but it could totally happen!  Anyway, while up on top of the house I snapped a few pics of the kids, of the sunset (trying to hide in the trees) and of the views to the North (picture with the temple) and the East (Great Salt Lake...the pine tree to the left in that shot is now gone thanks to our wind storm).  It really was beautiful up there and I'm glad I took the risk and spent the time with my family.

Well, I think that's about it for November...now to kick it into gear and stay on top of December!

Leaves + Kids = Work & Play!

A few days before Halloween we had our first real leaf gathering/raking/bagging session of the fall.  In spite of the cooler temperatures in September, it seems like autumn has taken its sweet time kicking it into gear and the leaves have just recently started to flutter down.

The work started in the morning with the kids and the hubby starting to gather leaves and then covering poor Miles in them (though he didn't seem to mind too much...looked like he was ready to go to sleep).  From there it turned into the kids and dog chasing each other all over the place as the dog got a little spunky after escaping his blanket of leaves.  In the late afternoon, I called my little minions to get out front and bag leaves while I finished putting dinner together.  They are good little workers and seemed to enjoy (for the most part) stuffing the garbage can full, pushing the leaves down when it got too full, and occasionally throwing a few up in the air for good measure.

Oh - and please don't think that I didn't do anything.  I did my fair share by tying off and changing the bags in the can when they were full, snapping pictures of the kids doing the real work, and bossing them around.

Little Pumpkins

A couple of weeks ago, a dear friend of ours called me on a Friday afternoon and asked if my kiddies would like to come over and each pick a little pumpkin from the patch/vine they grew in their backyard.  She had already picked the big and medium ones off the vine and thought the kids would get a kick out of coming over and literally picking their own.  Boy, was she ever right!  We happened to have my nephew over to play with Claire and a friend over to play with Hudson so they got to come and join in the fun as well.  Our friend was so cute and had gloves for each of the kids to wear for protection from the thorns.

 

There were a few little ones to choose from and each child was very intent on looking them over before making their decision.  Amazingly enough, none of them had their sights on one that another was looking at.  They each bent, twisted and pulled on their pumpkins until they came loose.  Such proud and happy faces when the job was done!

One funny thing that happened is after we got the pumpkins back to our place and cleaned up, I noticed the amazing curly vine/tendrils hanging off the stem of the pumpkin picked by Hudson's friend (in one of the pics above).  I showed the friend my cool find and you know what he did?  He immediately ripped it off and threw it in the trash.  The best part of his pumpkin tossed aside.  I don't know...maybe it looked too girly or something.