Bragging Rights

Its about 4 weeks into the school year and I feel like I'm allowed to brag.

Ashby had his kindergarten assessment the week before school started. He came home with a note that said, "A typical score for an entering kindergarten child would be between 100-120 points. Your child's score at the beginning of the year is 217." Yay Ashby!

Paige came home with her 2nd grade beginning-of-year assessment last week. It said, "Paige has met or surpassed grade level expectations." Yay Paige!

...So, what is she supposed to do the rest of the year?

Paige's birthday favorites

My favorite parts of my birthday are:
1. Getting to go to the school carnival yesterday.

2. Have a birthday party on Saturday (the day after my birthday).
3. Getting to go on a date with my dad and eat lots of food and gets stuffed, and have a mint, and see the chalk art show.
4. Getting to go to Trafalga.
5. Watching the movie "Hop".
6. Getting to have some presents that I really wanted and that I really like. Like a glow stick flashlight, and Ice Beads, and Shrinky dink jewelry,  Legos, Ring Pops, cookies, and something that was a surprise to me on me and daddy's date -- dancing and shaking a tamborine at Tucanos.
7. I finally got my very own scriptures from Mommy and Daddy. Thank you.
8. I really liked painting in the birthday party and getting drink slurpey ice cream. I really loved blowing bubbles on "celebr8". Get it, with the number eight? Ha, ha, ha.
9. My tooth got looser. 
10. I had yummy, yummy, yummy clam chowder. Its my favorite soup. We even had garlic bread and strawberries to eat on a side dish! It was gooood.

I always hoped that I could finally turn 8. I really hoped that I can finally get baptized and receive the holy ghost and keep the commandments and finally able to have my birthday eight year old birthday party.

The Paint Party

I've found I'm really great at replicating other people's creativity. 

The invitation

The decor

I loved using paint chips for decoration - its free! I did feel a little sneaky grabbing handfuls of paint chips at Lowe's and WalMart though. Hope no one was looking!

For a gathering activity the kids blew colorful bubbles onto the "Celebr8" sign. I just added food coloring to bubble solution. Some of the colors worked better than others. The kids had fun doing it, but by the end of the party you could hardly see any color on the poster.

The painting

I wanted the kids to be able to make something special on canvas to take home and hang in their rooms.

I wasn't sure how long the painting activity would take. Some of the kids were done fairly quickly and others really took their time. That made it hard to clean up and switch to the next thing. But the first ones done just played and ran around, so it wasn't too big a deal. 

I don't think our swing set had seen so much action. Brian had to anchor it in place.

The cake

The cake was fun to make. I did colorful splotches of batter on the cupcake and made sugar cookie palettes for the topper. The mini m&m's really added the perfect touch. Then I found a cupcake wrapper template and a paint splatter image to use for it. Everything was tasty! (except for the colorful sherbet cups that had melted - but the kids drank them anyway).

The favors

I was thinking of getting empty silver paint cans for the kids, but they were too expensive. I think this was still pretty fun, especially the candy buttons - do you remember those? I had to order them online, but it was fun to introduce the kids to something I had when I was a little.

My favorite was the chocolate dipped rice krispy treats. Such a clever thing!

I love all the great party ideas there are online!

The Birthday Girl

Paper bag Popcorn

I can't even tell you how thrilled I am about this little tip I found on pinterest.
http://www.squawkfox.com/2010/07/27/popcorn-recipe-gourmet-popcorn/

You can actually pop regular ol' popcorn kernels in a regular ol' paper bag! My neighbors make really yummy popcorn in their popcorn air popper and I just put on my thrift store list to find a popcorn popper. I was jealous of their easy, healthy snack. Well, now I can do it too, yay!!

Have a good one

"Have a good one!" 

This is what I heard every week on my way out the door from piano lessons.

Have a good what? I often thought. It took me a long time to realize what Sis. Thacker meant.  Oh, have a good day. But I think it was more than that. It was a way of saying that we should make everything we do good. I feel it was also a way for Sis. Thacker to acknowledge some of the things we may have talked about while having piano lessons. Have a good test, have a good practice, have a good goal, have a good relationship, have a good life. So, while I may have left shaking my head the first time I heard the saying, I eventually left Sis. Thacker’s home every time with a smile on my face, thinking of all the “good” I could do.

Now I hear myself saying "Have a good one!" to everyone I talk with – you really can’t go wrong with that phrase. And every time I say it, I think of Sis. Thacker.

(Sister Thacker is fighting cancer and undergoing other treatments and surgeries right now. This is a note a wrote to include in a compilation to lift her spirits. She really is the epitome of everything good.)  

Every two years

For 3 weeks out of the year we have the perfectly planned family. :)

Kids ages 7, 5, 3 and 1. 

There are still good people around

Last week I saw my 5 year old son screaming and kicking while he was being held against his will, draped over a man's shoulder walking down the street outside WalMart. As I watched from afar, feeling helpless and frustrated, I saw a beat up old car follow slowly behind the perpetrator monitoring the situation. It made me uneasy at first, thinking someone might jump out and pull my son into the car. But then I realized they were the ones actually ready to jump into action and stop the assailant. What the driver soon discovered was that the man was the boy's father and the boy was throwing an irrational tantrum. Because of the fit, my boy had been invited to get out of the family car and walk home (with his Dad). I drove off and did a U-turn a few blocks later to pick them up, hoping that the tantrum had ceased. That's when I saw the suspicious car following them. It made me nervous until I realized how they probably perceived the situation.  Then I was grateful. Isn't it nice to know there are still good people around?

Rumor is, I'm not just a mom

I attended my first Relief Society overnighter this weekend!

In the past I've gone up for the evening activities, but I'm usually pregnant or nursing and not able to stay over night. Not this time!

It was such a blast. We made mocktails, ate a delicious meal, I got to play my harmonica, we stayed up til after 3am talking and laughing, I didn't get any sleep, I went on a zipline and played on other challenge courses, caught bugs, made cards, and had a wonderfully fabulous time. It was such a great retreat - a retreat to not have to worry about any responsibilities and feel like a person again - not just a mom. 

All about Cody

Cody is one year old.
He has blue eyes and blonde hair.
He loves to hold your hands and walk, or push something to walk, but he can't really walk yet.
He loves to walk along the furniture, or just hold on to it and bounce and bounce and bounce.
He has a red birth mark on the top of his left hair line. He also has an interestingly shaped right ear, and the right half of his top lip is shaped different. People always think he has a fat lip, because that is really what it looks like, but its been there since he was born. He still has a beautiful smile and a great laugh, though.
Cody moves around on the floor by doing the worm dance/belly flop. It gets him where he wants to go, but with a heavy "hummmph" from him with every flop.
Cody loves to feed himself Cheerios and pretzels. He's getting less interested in letting his parents spoon feed him.
Cody is a good sleeper - around 10-12 hrs at night and two naps in the day. When he wants to sleep he lets you know and you had better leave him alone.
He is getting more opinionated which leads to more and more pterodactyl screams.
Cody loves to play with his brothers and sister. Paige loves to carry him around everywhere or help him walk places. When she's not home, Ashby is quick to fill in.
He loves to just stand in front of the toy drawer, reach in, and pull everything out one by one.
Cody loves to be outside. If I'm holding him while walking through the house he gets super mad when I pass by the backyard door without going out it. He doesn't like sitting in the grass or scooting in it, but he will happily sit on a blanket, stroller or most especially, the swing.
We are interested to see how Cody's little personality will grow this next year. He is a cutie and we're lucky to have him.
Happy Birthday Cody!

Cody turned ONE

Simple and cute and tasty monkey cupcakes.

Cody is always happier when he is outside, but put him in a swing and he gets ecstatic!

Cody had never had cake before. He was pretty apprehensive about what to do for a while.

Eventually he figured out the fist method. But I'm not sure how much cake actually made it into his mouth.

No that's not snot.

I love his eyes in this picture.

He figured out unwrapping a present surprisingly quick. He thought it was so funny.

Yay! A new push toy. He loooooves trying to push things around. Wish he were a little more stable at it.

A picture of Cody with his Blue Moon in the background.