Dance, dance, dance!

Mia was cute at her concert as usual. This time, I opted to take pictures at the dress rehearsal letting myself enjoy her dance without a camera in my face during the actual performance. She loves to dance and especially love to dance on stage. I am happy to oblige but some certain members of the family aren't too thrilled about the recitals. I'll give you a hint, it does not include Mia, me or Sammy. :)

She did great of course. She rocked her jazz square and star jumps. They really learned a lot of new dance moves for this dance and they all did well!

"Wait till you see how cute we end our dance Mom! You will love it!" she told me for weeks. Yes Mia, you are cute.

Children's Mueseum

A few weeks back in the midst of all the rain we got, Jessica and I decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum for a day of fun. It was a hit of course.

Sammy loved the balls beehive. Are you surprised? He spent the majority of his time putting one ball in after another in the tube that sucked it up. His windblown hair was too cute!

It's always fun for Jess and I to watch our boys together. Just a few months apart, it's interesting to me to watch their personalities.

The ball beehive was the very first thing in the museum. It took a bit of time to get him out to try other things.

Mia and Megan were inseparable from the start.

Jake enjoyed it all in typical Jake fashion. This building area was fun.

Climbing the wall was a sense of accomplishment for Jake and just plain fun for Mia. I used to climb quite a bit a long time ago. Haven't been such my college days. Would love to take the kids sometime and get them comfortable with it.

The helicopter was especially cool. I do believe that Jake and Ali planned a rescue mission.The off to the water fountain to get soaked. Never mind that it was only in the 70's at best. Kids didn't care until they were all soaked from head to toe and started to shake from the cold.

All in all, I think it was a successful outing. We all went home wishing we had more time to play.

Three Down - One to Go

So a few weeks back, we said goodbye to Soxs, Sugah and Einstein all in one day.

Poor Paul was left all alone. It's not so bad for him considering he has a Mama full of all the milk he could ever want and lots of kids wanting to play with him, but alas, we just don't want more than one pet in our home.

This little guy is fun and playful, especially patient of children and a certain toddler that insists on carrying him, dressing him up and giving him rides in a stroller. He's litter box trained and eating solid foods. He's not afraid of the great outdoors and stays close to the house if you need an outdoor cat.

If you know someone that would love Poor Paul and give him a good home and a good new name, please contact me ASAP.
Thanks!

Free Paint!

Hold the phone! Glidden is giving away FREE PAINT! Just go to this link https://www.glidden.com/promotions/free-paint-giveaway.do and get your free quart of eggshell finish paint. What color will you choose??

Roughin' It Rainy Day Style

Just because it's non-stop raining practically since school let out doesn't mean that we can't enjoy our favorite summer treats.

Smore's - rainy day style

Same gooey marshmellow.

Same melted chocolate mess.

Same ability to burn to a crisp.

Thank Aunt Debbie for the great Christmas gift from a few years back. It's still being used!

Garden Party - Part II - The Finale

On to presents! Look at all that pink goodness. Do they know Mia or what?? She got three jump ropes, two princess golfing sets, outdoor chalk, crafty kits, My Little Pony sets and more. They thought it was hilarious that she got as many jump ropes and golfing sets as she did.

This little cutie (seen laughing in the background) punched out dots in purple and pink and decorated her package and card just for her. I say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! She takes after her Mama Jodi!

I laugh everytime I see this photo. The visable pain those two girls are feeling after they see that Mia got Hannah Montana bracelet set. Oh man, Hannnnnnah Monnnchaannna!

Then off to play in our big tree. The tree that provides countless hours of entertainment to my little girl. I think that these girls could of played in the tree the whole time. My only regret from the party was not getting the big pom-poms made. After staying up late working on the flowers (that we didn't end up using) and then having the Kindergarten program that morning, I was out of time. How great would this photo be with the pink pom-poms hanging on the tree??

Gift bags of bubbles, lipglosses, rings and candies were handed out. A big group hug for the birthday girl and the garden party quickly had come to an end.
Super successful and simple yet I could not of done it all in time without the help of my long distance party planner sister Sharmyn, my wonderful Mom and my fabulous friend Kem. Thank you so much for your help!!

(If you missed part one, you can find it here.)

Refilled

Apparently, I think that I can do it all. In the midst of giving my upstairs bathroom a little lipstick (well - make that a face lift) redo, I got a call from the New American Philharmonic needing a substitute flute player. Even though I knew that I would have to get a babysitter for most of the rehearsals and performances, I could not say no. The bathroom got put on hold and I danced off to play with the symphony.

Symphony + me = true love
Ahhh...pure bliss for me.

If just playing with the symphony wasn't enough, I also got to play a fantastic piccolo part (Thank you to Lorinda for letting me borrow her handmade Haynes picc! It was lovely!), I got to reunite with three of my best college friends Erin, Justin and Holly. It's amazing how different our lives are now. Imagine Peace Corp, living in New York, performing with Ballet West/Utah Symphony/Salt Lake Symphony etc., Master degrees and such compared to my child rearing days.
I find myself at the end of a whirlwind the last two weeks were feeling my "just me and myself only" cup refilled. A bonus for taking some time to be challenged and rising to the opportunity, I learned a few things.

1. I love being a mother to my three children. I love being a wife to my sweet husband. I am grateful for my life and my experiences these past ten years.
2. I realized that I really do have a real talent and it is one of the things that define who I am now not as something that I used to do.
3. It's just like riding a bike, you never forget. It's been ten years since I played with a symphony and ten years since I played a piccolo. While sight reading the first night, I turned the page and discovered my piccolo part. I turned to the principal flute Lorinda needing a piccolo. She tossed me hers and I dove right in right there with no warning. This was invigorating! Even though I have continued to play with the flute choir and teach flute lessons, I haven't had to challenge myself for quite a while.
4. I figured out how to practice efficiently. I was able to learn five symphonies in just a few short days with limited practice time.
   I do better when I enjoy myself. The Principle flautist for Ballet West shared with Holly her philosophy for performing. She tells herself that she won't make mistakes. (You must know that Jane is a machine. She is amazing!) Holly laughed and said "Good for you, but for the rest of us humans...". Over the years, I've learned that people aren't listening for mistakes and they usually don't hear them. When I didn't worry about myself and just enjoyed the audience enjoying the ballet, I played my best.
5. I am hungry for more!

Now I am back to the daily grind, trying to force myself to get the bathroom finished (don't worry, I will share the afters) apologizing for the delay on several custom orders (Don't worry girls! You will have your new tassels this week.), and neglecting the blog and the shop. You see, even though I think that I can do it all, I can't. Especially all at the same time! :)

Mia's Garden Party - Part 1

I recently got the pictures back from Mia's birthday party. My cute friend Kem was my personal photographer for the day. It was the perfect day for a garden party. There are soooo many pictures that I want to share so the garden party will be featured in two installments.

Part One:

The weather was warm and the yard was green. We set up a few tables on my favorite rock patio and covered them with vintage floral sheets. A few small vases with a sprig of flowers made a simple and sweet centerpiece.

Our party was right after the Kindergarten program, so lunch was a must. Pink lemonade, puff-pastry ham and swiss sandwiches (yum!), mini fruit kabobs, mac n' cheese and of course the mini Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes. I make a mean homemade mac n' cheese but I wanted to make sure the girls would eat it so boxed it was. Lunch was a hit!

After lunch, we went inside to make big flower clippies and makeovers. It was fun to watch the girls put together their flowers. . As each one was finished, they brought them to me to glue a clip on and put in their hair. They couldn't believe how beautiful they were.









This little cuties' flower was my favorite. It was so stuffed full of petals and beautiful and lush. I see flower clippy master maker potential in her.

And this little cutie felt that her make over was just not complete until she added a little something herself.

This little cutie is my beautiful baby girl adoring baby Milo.

And this little cutie, well he is just cute even with a flower clippy.

To be continued...

A Letter....

Dear Guy in The White Truck,

I just wanted to send you note to let you know that I am okay. Yes, I am the girl that you stared at while waiting for the red light to turn with your mouth gaping so wide it looked like it might of been touching the ground. While it looked like I was having a seizure of some sorts with all that flailing of the arms and no-doubtingly flash of my undies, it was just a reaction to the wasp that was flying around in my car. Flying way too close to me with no where for me to run and hide. And no, I don't speak a foreign language even though it sounded that I did it was just me speaking to the wasp to get out of the car. I don't think it understood me though. Better study up on my Waspenese so I can be prepared if another incident like that happens again.

I am sure you have thought of me often since that day wondering if I was okay. Surely the tears that were freely flowing weren't because you were laughing so hard at me that you couldn't breathe, but rather of sincere concern for my health. Thank you for your concern. You'll be happy to know that the wasp was freed and there was no harm involved to either of us.

Sincerely,
The girl in the Subaru

Don't Worry - Mia made it through too

How can it be that my little girl is no longer a Kindergartner?? She seems too little to be anything more even though her long legs beg to differ. She sure is tall and skinny! Often being a head taller than several of her little friends. It makes clothes shopping tricky. Length and width are a tricky combination. But enough about that..........on to finishing Kindergarten!

Mia has scholastically grown leaps and bounds this year. She could not be anymore opposite of Jake when it comes to learning. Jake remembers everything, Mia doesn't have time to remember silly little details. She has to play and must get her makeup on just right. We struggled through her blue book (a review for the year that the teachers give), we struggled with her red reading books, we struggled with remembering her sounds and the order of numbers. Phew! So many silly details she thought but, nevertheless, we prevailed and what was a daunting task of reading through her a homework book taking nearly an hour to read three times suddenly turned into reading several in just twenty minutes! Hooray Mia!!

Mia's goal we made was to make it to her yellow books and I am proud to say that she did it!! This was so big for her since reading did not come easily to her. When she came home from school, she excitedly brought me her books and counted down how many books left before she got her goal. Each day brought a new book or two and big smiles from her. Just warms my heart to think about it. We jumped for joy when she made it through and got into yellows and the icing on the cake was being able to pick a treasure from her teacher. She picked out the bright pink fake fingernails that she happily declared looked just like Aunt Dee-Dee's.

Ms. L's energy and excitement was contagious. She had the kids exercise everyday and often spoke faster than Mia could understand. Mia especially loved her. Whenever her teacher and I spoke, she always commented that she was such a loving child giving her several hugs each day thanking her for being the best teacher she could ever have. She said that she was quiet and calm (see - opposite of Jake!) and had her friends that she loved. When I dropped her off for school, I often saw her running to give her friends a hug and holding hands as they ran to their line. That girl knows the blessings of best girlfriends already. I hope that they will always be happy to see each other.

Already the years passed even though it seems that it just started. Before I know it, she will be at school all day. I hope she can handle being there that long. That girl sure loves to play!

I just had to add this photo even though it's not the best of the teacher. Check out that pose on that girl!

And yes, she is wearing jeans. Because she insists on wearing Fall/Winter clothes when it's hot and Summer clothes when it's cold.

School's Out for Jake

This is school year has already come to an end. I can't believe how fast it went. Each day, week, month, year come and go faster than I want it too. How can it be that we are already to another summer and my little ones are that much older and wiser too?

Jake-a-bee made it through 3rd grade with a smile on his face. He, in true Jacob fashion, was disappointed on the last day of school. He loves school! He loves to be with friends, have things to do, places to be, books to read and papers to finish. All at school of course because when he's home, finishing his homework sometimes became quite the chore. Jake started the year off a bit slow and found himself behind on his times tables. I set a goal for him to get them all done by the end of the year. We got permission to do them at home, we made charts and had treats and prizes all set out. Gladly, he did start to fly through them getting all the way to the 8's but fizzled out the last two weeks. Could not get that kid motivated even with the promise of a new Guitar Hero II. But in the end, he had decided that he couldn't get it done in time and wouldn't work on it. I can't help but be disappointed because he was so close but just so far. We figured he had 23 more tests to take to finish totally up to over 100 tests. That is a lot of tests!

His teacher was a nice ol' teacher on her last year before retirement. She was Hawaiian and Jake loved that. He often took her gifts of things that he thought she needed, like the Hula dancer playing cards that he found at the neighbors estate sale. Jake is sad that she is retiring this year and won't be able to see her next year to say Hi.

I like to let Jake pick out his teacher gifts and this year, Jake insisted on flowers and a Butterfinger. We found the cutest Hula girl card in my stash of cards (Thank you card club!!) and each wrote a note of thanks to her. She enjoyed them and sent home a sweet thank you note telling us that she felt that Jake was talented child with many gifts. When I went in to take a quick picture of the two of them, she told me that she was proud that he made it through the year with a happy heart because she often felt that she had to keep on him for being too noisy. That she was proud of all that he had accomplished and his effort to finish his times tables. And that she thought he was very smart and was able to understand things quickly and correctly, even when he was talking too much.

Boy oh boy does that explain my Jakey to the "T". Always talking, always fidgeting, always busy but shocks you by not missing a beat. Now if I could just figure out how to help him learn to sit still with his mouth shut. Haha....I just let that one sink in. Yeah, no. It's not happening anytime soon.

So thank you Mrs. T for a great 3rd grade year!

Kindergarten Program

This little cutie-patootie had the cutest Kindergarten program many moons ago. You know, like three weeks ago or so. Anywhoooooo.....I loved every minute of it and will admit that whenever there is a program or recital or play, I get all teary eyed because I am so proud of their hard work coming to fruition. Yep, I am sappy and proud of it!

Who doesn't love watching their baby girl singing and doing the fancy had motions for each song. Knowing when they are singing their favorite song because of that twinkle in their eye. Boy oh boy, Kindergartner's are sure cute! Check out that stylish little guy next to her sporting a sports jacket and tie.

Here's my awesome Mama moment missing Mia's only line in the show. Ran out of memory and the camera is sideways. Why did I run out? Oh, you know, just a hundred billion pictures of nothing!! Hadn't cleared out my card for oh, say a month or more.

And a little singing just for the fun of it. Why yes, I was standing next to the piano. How did you guess??

Can't believe that the school year is already over! My little girl is going to be in First Grade!!

Winner winner chicken dinner!!

I am sooooo super excited!! I won a giveaway over at Imparting Grace. How cute is this lamp?? I can't wait to play with it!

Richella's blog is a new one for me. She has lots of fun little projects that she has done like transforming these dollar store coasters to work for her. Cute right?

Here is a simple tutorial for a covering a pillow.

Thanks soooo much Richella!! I am super excited!