We made an unexpected stop at a pet store and Eliza was enamored with the turtle. Thank you for this cute pic, Suz.
We are now the proud owners of a set of bunk bed cots. The kids have been wanting bunk beds for forever and were so excited about these that they took turns sleeping in them for a few weeks before we told them they had to sleep in their own beds again.
Jack earned his Bear Scout badge. Hooray!
Luke insisted in participating in the commemorative picture.
I love how focused Luke is on doing a good jb of coloring in this picture. Also, check out his method. The mask is almost completely symmetrical in which sections are colored and which are not.
You can't really tell in the picture, but Luke and Eliza had fun using Sharpies
to add mustaches and other embellishments to the poster we made for Luke's birthday.
More fun with markers! When Suz gave us fabric markers, Luke and Eliza really
enjoyed drawing on whatever I would let them. Pictured here: one of Eliza's
sleeping tank tops and one of Luke's shoes.
The other evening during Jack's baseball practice, Eliza was practicing some tumbling moves and ended up helping Luke learn to do a cartwheel. It was precious.
After taking a month off (unintentionally, but necessarily), it's time to do some catching up! I'll post the next several posts in chronological order the best I can and date them accordingly, and hopefully they'll come much faster so I can get back on track. We'll see. 6/19/18
Mother's Day was great! I loved all of the great little surprises from the kids. Luke's Primary class made tissue paper flowers, Eliza answered a questionnaire (always a favorite!) and made fingerprint hearts, Jack wrote me a cute little note, and all of the kids made these great family portraits with Suz while Ben and I were gone on our trip the week before.
I was happy to celebrate Mother's Day with Suz - one of my favorite moms, and a very dedicated one - and her family. Ben and Ben made a great seafood dinner for us. Yummy!
Suz and I also snuck away to talk to eachother and call our Mom, and the girls came to hang out with us as well. I didn't get a full family picture or mom picture, but I like these shots a whole lot!
I am so glad that I get to be a mom and so thankful for my wonderful kids and husband. And I love and appreciate my wonderful mother and all of the amazing women who have mothered me, mentored me, and looked out for me, and done those things for my kids.
A few weeks ago Ben and I took a 3-day trip to southern Utah and Suz and Uncle Ben took care of the kids at our house. In addition to the normal household routines and having to get kids to and from school and other activities, they enjoyed special Suz-made treats, visited a brand-new playground, went to a movie, took a trip to Cabela's, and more. Suz even sat through Cat's cold, rainy soccer game Saturday morning. Everyone had a good time and Suz reported that our kids were extra-well-behaved. Here are a few pictures she shared:
A couple of weeks ago, Suz, Cat, Eliza, and I had a fun little Girls' Night. We started out at the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point, just wandering around and appreciating the flowers, stopping to take pictures whenever we wanted to. (It was fun to hear Lexi Walker performing for a few minutes too.) It was a bit chilly and we were all under-dressed but we had a great time anyway. The gardens were gorgeous.
Next we drove to a favorite bakery to get some treats to enjoy while we watched a show about baking (ha!). Loved it.
Cat has been absolutely thrilled about Salt Lake getting a NWSL team this year (the Royals, counterpart to the men's team, Real Salt Lake). She already knew who many of the players were, and as more of the roster was announced she got more and more excited, hoping to actually see these players in-person some time. Two things that pemonstrate the extent of her obsession are (1) she has followed several soccer accounts on my Instagram, practically commandeering my feed and (2) these are the books she had from the library last month:
So, imagine her delight when her team was given the chance to have an on-field experience with the Royals. She and her teammates arrived early so they could be in the high-five line as the Royals ran out before the game. We were also able to buy discounted tickets, so she and Ben stayed and watched the whole game.
Waiting to line up...
So excited to touch awesomeness!
Ready to go...
ON THE FIELD
Cat was so enthralled in the game that she wasn't paying attention to Ben.
He managed to get her to smile but she still didn't want to look away from the game.
When she got home that night, I filmed her re-cap of the experience:
The kids had their piano recital at the beginning of May and they did a wonderful job! Jack and Eliza both learned new pieces after their solo festival in February and I was proud of them for getting them ready so quickly. It was a mad dash to finish preparing at the end, but they ended up getting it all together.
None of these kids love that they have to play piano, but they work on it anyway and I'm really proud of how far they've come.
Eliza started learning Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah in the fall but we decided she wouldn't be able to finish it in time for the solo festival, so she substituted a simpler piece for the festival and took a break from Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah, beginning work on it again in February. She really enjoyed it, and her Ecossaise in G by Beethoven was really fun too. Eliza had asked her teacher if she could play and let everyone in the audience sing Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah at the recital, and Sarah agreed but we never practiced it or talked about it again. Eliza was surprised and elated to be able to accompany everyone on it during the recital and she did a great job!
Jack was excited to finally learn a piece from Harry Potter. It was very long and he really tried to learn all 6 pages, but at the last minute we decided it would be better to cut it down. He was disappointed, but still enjoyed it. And he performed it memorized!
Cat ended up playing the same pieces she performed at the solo festival and rocked them once again!
