Seven

On the mother's day card Bub made at school it said that Bub's favorite meal (that I cook) is muffins.

This was news to me, but welcome information (his least favorite meal was "selerie"- you'll have to sound that one out).  So I bought muffin mix and Miriam made them for his birthday breakfast.  She is sweet like that.  I paid one of my former Young Women to make his birthday cupcakes because I think she has talent and I love encouraging talent in youth. Also....Holy awesome cupcakes Batman!

The birthday shirt....Byron picked out the shark and helped me paint.

He woke up to 7 balloons in his room tied to the birthday card from G'ma and G'pa Ray.

We sent him off to school, in his birthday outfit with a bag of Hi-Chews in his backpack to share.

I picked up 3 friends after school (along with Soren and Miriam) and we headed to:

The Natural History Museum

One of Bub's favorite places (I told you we were going to use the dickens out of that pass!)

Last week we went to the museum and took photos of interesting displays.  We had the photos printed and made them into a scavenger hunt. I took the 4 boys while Miriam was on Soren duty...those two snuck off to the gift shop and bought a spider necklace for Bub.  

The weather was fantastic so we gathered at an outside table to give out the scavenger hunt treasure which was:

Crystal candy, bubbles (left overs from Aunt Lisa's meditation class) sticky slingshot bugs, an arrowhead, and a few Hi-Chews. Dinosaurs were not represented but there was one hot glued to the invites so almost all of the museum was included.

We opened gifts and had cupcakes, and watched a National Geographic movie about sharks on the way home.

Bub wanted Little Ceasears Italian crazy bread for dinner.  Happy to oblige! Even went ahead and got a liter of root beer as well...I know, above and beyond I tell ya.

 After more cupcakes this time with ice cream, Darin and Bub spent the evening putting together the K'Nex roller coaster we gave him.  

This birthday is To Be Continued because the other gift we gave him is a day out, all by himself, with Mom and Dad.  Darin took the day off to come to his Kindergarten graduation this Friday so the whole morning/afternoon will be all about him!  He may not know what to do with himself since, as the middle child one sibling or the other is always around, but I felt like it was a perfect gift for our patient middle one. 

37

My bad mood lifted since the last post...life feels good again.  I am smiling from my own free will. No extra effort required.

Just keeping it real.

 We celebrated  Darin's birthday last Wednesday. His birthday's are always low key....thats because its his birthday so he gets to choose what to do and he will always choose a low key option if he can.

He rode his bike to work.

Soren and I surprised him with lunch from Mikado....sushi picnic.  I think he was expecting In-N-Out so I kicked things up a notch. 

Miriam created the sweetest gift ever.  She made a powerpoint presentation entitled "Why We Love Darin".  She interviewed the boys about why they love their dad, she recorded me saying what I love about him and then added her own thoughts and some pictures of Darin being a great dad.

It was for sure the highlight of the day.

Since we had eaten out for lunch I made Thai Chicken Soup for dinner (thanks for the recipe Lisa) it's one of our new favorites. 

Miriam and I re-made the coconut cake she had made with her friend Mary for mother's day.  They had forgotten to add flour and inadvertently made coconut custard so she was determined to get a do-over to get it right.  She was fairly devastated by the mistake, we had to have a long snuggle talk about how mistakes are necessary and vital to the learning process and not something to be afraid of.  If she can really internalize that message boy howdy life will be easier for her.  In the end we were not sure which way we liked the dessert better...in some ways the custard won out. 

So he blew out the candles, we ate cake and put the kiddos to bed.

Then went to bed ourselves since he needed to get up early the next day to ride in to work again.

36 was a busy year!  Hopefully 37 will be less work so there will be more time for fun. 

Saturday

It's a rainy Saturday.  We have a cold wet soccer game to look forward to and I have a long long long list of "to-dos" on my mind.  Not just "to-dos" but "should-dos" and "want-tos". My mind fills overwhelmed flipping back and forth between each list.  My heart doesn't want to do the "to-dos" or even the "should-dos" but fills with guilt when I think of doing the "want-tos".....and so I am here on the computer while the boys play Angry Bird's Go because I am using avoidance and distraction to numb my mind instead of making decisions.

I uploaded some pictures from my camera to ease the guilty feeling of wasting time and I saw these....

And here it is...a small glimpse of what happens when you little by little, every day work at knocking items off of those suffocating lists.

Julia, her teachers, her husband, my parents, tackled their overwhelming daily "to-should-and want-tos" and pulled off another beautiful dance recital.

Miriam, Madison, Tatum, Claire, and all the other little dancers went to class, put in the mental and physically effort needed.  They brought me to tears with their accomplishments!

I made the phone calls, arrangements, and drove Miriam and the boys to dance classes. I entertained the boys with active play, or ran errands while we waited for her classes to end. I listened to Miriam's frustrations, celebrated her accomplishments, I took on the added emotional roller coaster when I could have said "just stay home and watch tv".

And Darin got up and went to work every day, came home too exhausted to get to his "want-to" list so there was money in the bank account for it all.

So I will now post this....get off the computer....go make Byron's birthday shirt....cut the boys hair....take a shower....go to the soccer game.....make cookies for the ladies I visit teach.....get my Sunbeam lesson together.....clean up the house....and little by little keep knocking things off my list. I will even smile while I do it, although smiling isn't on my "want-to" list today...it's solidly planted on my "should-do".

But.....good news!

Since it's raining (and has been for 3 days) I can't work in the yard so at least thats off the list today.

He's 4!

Things got started the night before with a sibling sleep over on the loft bed.

(getting Bub down to go potty was quite a feat but Darin and I did it while laughing hysterically....he doesn't wake up at night so we sleep walk him to the potty...he seriously never even remembers in the next morning)

I put 4 balloons (1 blue, 1 red, 1 green, and 1 orange as requested) tied to a new Superman shirt (didn't get around to making his birthday shirt) in the room for him to wake up to.

Miriam made him raspberry pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast.

Soren goes to a cute toddler music class so we took punch balloons to give out to his music friends.

Then we had his friend party at the park across from our elementary school. It's perfect because Miriam could miss recess and lunch to join us, and then Bub runs over for afternoon kindergarten.

It was a tad cold, but doable with a jacket.

Cupcakes made by one of my cute Young Women, Riley.  She put an oreo in the bottom of the chocolate cupcakes with heavenly buttercream frosting.  I left everything up to her and she did a perfect job! I am still dreaming of those cupcakes, kinda wishing I hadn't been so generous with them.

Our party guests.  A few of Bub's kindergarten friends and one of Miriam's friends in the mix.

Soren watched The Incredibles and then took a glorious birthday nap.

(He didn't feel like it was glorious but I did)

Even Superman needs naps...

(took Byron to soccer practice, Miriam to piano)

Okay, on to the most important part of the day.  Soren has been wanting to eat at Hot Dog on a Stick since October! This has been his birthday wish for months.

Corn Dog, sizzling hot fries, and green lemonade.

Alicia met us there so we all enjoyed the mall food court together.

Then on to the Lego store.  The workers there were so cute with Soren! When they found out it was his birthday they gave him a superman figure and a t-shirt in a bag that said "Happy Birthday Superman"

He picked out some gifts from us and Alicia.

He walked around the mall like a boss with his Lego bags totally satisfied with his purchase.

At 10:00 pm I think he and Byron finally settled down from the fun and and fell asleep.

Easter Repeat

The morning of our annual Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt (held the weekend AFTER Easter to take advantage of 50% off candy) was so wet and rainy! Byron played a soggy game of soccer (Soren and I were soggy spectators) while Miriam and Darin helped Alicia move in the rain.  We were all soaked so I packed winter coats and snow boots for the egg hunt.

We ran into a bit of snow in the canyon but by the time we got to Price it was blue skies! 

The farm wasn't even that muddy.

Photo op with Grandpa's old truck...this is the car my mom learned to drive with

(minus the steer horns..I think those were added later).

Byron and Soren (all the kids really) were so excited! 

When they had found a certain number they got a golden egg from Grandpa filled with a $5 bill!!

With Miriam's birthday she now gets to hunt in the back pasture with the 10 + crowd.  

My cute mom and Grandpa.

The hunters with Damon and Gwen...this event wouldn't ever happen without them!

Easter Morning

Cousin Bunny Party

A few cousins grew out of the hunt but we added a few who were visiting. 

Morning soccer games pushed the party back to an evening affair,

but we had time to fit in all the activities...

hunt to hearts content, and play with cousins for a few hours.

Scenes from Conference Weekend

Some of this...

A bit of this...

and that...

Throw in some food, a few really great naps, one soccer game, a bike ride.

There you have it.

Conference weekend April 2014