A girls night of girl power

Last night was the fathers and sons campout. It is one of Matt's most favorite nights ever, and I look forward to being with my girls. Thursday night I asked Kate what she wanted to do. It did not take long to decide on a tea party and some nail painting. Kate was very excited for it and was jumping around in her room. Matt came in wanting to know what all the excitement was about and I told him it was a secret. Kate said, "Yeah. If we tell you, we'll have to paint your toenails." She thought that was pretty funny. There may or may not have been prompting to say that. I can't really remember. So, sure enough, as soon as the garage closed I was on the phone with a mom who brought her kids over for dinner so we could all have someone to play with. But then, after the pizza and the friends were gone, the real fun began! A little bit of this:

and a while of this: (I haven't painted my fingernails since my wedding! Oh the sacrifices.)

and some of this:And in the morning after a nutritious breakfast of chocolate chip muffins and red vines, and the movie Princess and the Frog, there was some of this:

And after the boys were home, there was even some of this:

Guess who stayed up too late and missed their daddy! This morning Sara said to me, "Girl power is great!" I think so too.

The boys of course had a great time. Matt climbed trees and threw sticks into the water with his friends. He also put a marshmallow on a stick and cooked it in the fire until it was ashes. Pretty cool. As the weather was a bit cold, I was glad to be warm at home!

Our graduate

Kate had her preschool graduation yesterday. It was so fun and she was so excited. I just love witnessing my kids having fun and feeling proud of themselves. They had a short little program. I'll sum it up by saying that Kate definitely lives in her own world. It couldn't make me more proud! She spent part of the time with her back to the audience, although I could still see her doing the song actions. And then she spent part of the time leaning over the bench with her hair on the grass. But I know she was singing all the words in her head, because I've heard her say that she does that. It's been a great year for her. She has grown up a lot. Her speech continues to improve and while I'm hoping she'll continue to qualify for therapy, I can definitely tell a difference. She is independent and just kind of does her own thing. But I know she's happy. And she makes the rest of us happy too! We love you Kate! Great job this year in preschool!!

I feel like I've seen this before, Molly!

The proud little girl who cannot control her eyes to look at the camera for longer than one second!

Katelyn, Shaylee, Jacqueline, Kate, Makenna, Emily and who cares about the boys.

Dear Mother Nature

I tolerated the snow at the beginning of May. I enjoyed the rains when it was still 60 or 70 degrees, but this, on May 23rd, crosses the line.

At bat

Matt has had a great time playing baseball this year. He is so excited for every game. He's also consistently hitting the ball well and improving in his catching and throwing. It's been so great to watch him get the game and have fun with it. He wants to play all the time. I love to see my kids happy!

Springtime

Oh, what do you do in the spring time?
When the weather turns cold and gray?
Do you go to the mall,
and ride the carousel,
and eat funnel cakes all day?
Is that what you do?
So do we.

Rain, rain

We seem to be catching up on a dry winter with a slew of spring rains. I actually don't mind the rainy weather when it's not so cold outside. Like today was my perfect spring rain. It was off and on all day. The sun never really shone through, but the clouds were big and puffy and I had fun watching them move over the mountains. The air was humid. I love the humidity, probably because I've always lived in a desert and I know it won't really stick around so I don't mind it. And when I got out of the car to get Matt, it was sprinkling, but I wasn't cold even though I was just wearing a light jacket. And it's always fun to splash through puddles when I'm driving. The only bummer is that it seems to rain good and hard on the days Matt has baseball. He had a game scheduled today. It's the third time it's been scheduled. Oh well. I know Thursday is supposed to be a beautiful day so we'll enjoy the game that day!

What kind of weather do you like?

It's Friday... Partay!

I love Fridays because it is early out day at school. It's great having Matt around the house a couple of extra hours. We try to do something fun, but I didn't have anything planned yesterday. So when Matt got home, he went straight to his room to play legos. Pretty soon he came out with this scale that he had built. He said he'd started building something else that didn't work, but then he thought of building this.

He and Kate had so much fun all afternoon weighing different things. Legos, of course, were the main thing they weighed, but they also tried out fruit snacks, pretzels and money.

I must confess, it's not first on my activity list, but just perfect for my math and science boy!

What she said

Today Sara said to me, "No way Hayso". I thought it was pretty funny.

Mother's Day

I'm a sucker for handmade gifts from my kids for Mother's day. I love when words come from their own mouths. It's so funny to hear how they view the world.

From Kate.

Kate's flower on the left and Matt's card on the right.

Nielsen Nursery

I think my new mother's day tradition is going to be buying plants together and planting them. We had a great time today doing just that. I love being with my kids. They were so excited about it all. I let them pick out their own tomato plants which made them so excited. I also let them pick out the colors of flowers to plant. I already knew I wanted to stick with just petunias this year, so I just let them go color crazy.

First we mixed the dirt for the box.

Then, we made it official by marking squares.

Then, the kids each got the plant they had picked out. Kate shared her love by kissing the plant.

And planted them by themselves.

And this is the end result of this box. Matt and Kate were so excited to leave the plant signs in the garden. They thought that this made it look like an official nursery. It was funny how big of a deal this was to them. It was so neat to see them so excited about it, though.

And these are our flower buckets. I let them each have their own bucket so they picked their favorite colors to go in the middle. Can you guess which bucket belongs to which child? We also let our butterflies go. We sent them off with a big wish to fly south as quickly as they can. Supposedly they can fly 1000 miles in their lifetime, so hopefully they will use those 1000 miles to go to St. George!

Christmas List

Dear Santa,

Phew! I think you're off the hook. I don't think Kate will be asking for The Force this year for Christmas. Instead she blew the dandelion seeds off one of those wish flowers and wished for it. And then, by great luck, one of our toys is in need of new batteries so it just randomly goes off and plays music. I told her it was because she has The Force. But this is just a heads up in case she still asks for it.

Love,
Kelly

P.S. Please keep August 5th open as she is planning on inviting you to her birthday party.

Fear

I've decided that snow in May is not my favorite thing. I won't quite say I hate it, because it's not like January snow. It's usually not a significant amount and there is surely a nice spring day around the corner. So, as I was walking to school to get Matt today, I was enjoying that nice spring day that comes after a snowy start to May. It was really great weather; a little windy, but not too hot, not too cold. I was looking at the mountains and the blue sky and feeling pretty good.

And then I saw it. Right on the sidewalk in front of me. It was dead fortunately, but my heart was already pounding, my breathing short, my toes curled under my heels, and my hands had a death grip on the jogger. I froze. I knew I had to get off that sidewalk immediately. Unfortunatly, bike joggers do not allow for quick movements in any direction. If you get the front wheel turned the wrong direction, it isn't easy to correct. So I basically picked the jogger up and moved into the middle of the road away from it and ran.

After I'd gotten Matt and we were heading back to the place, I had a decision to make. Do I make Matt and Kate, who were on their scooters, come to the middle of the road with me? Or, do I say nothing and see what happens? I decided on the latter. Kate had heard me say, "dead snake" and had already told Matt there was one, but she didn't know really where. So, as I took the jogger into the middle of the road, I watched Matt and Kate pass it. Neither of them even noticed it. Matt's scooter touched it which totally creeped me out. His scooter should probably be decontaminated. Kate almost stepped on it, but didn't notice. And I was 15ft away from it having a heart attack.

I always dread this day. The first sighting of the season. My senses now go into hyperactive mode, and my panic level rises. Now I'll be constantly looking, listening. My runs lose a certain amount of relaxation and I will avoid certain areas. Although this one is right close to my house. Just sitting here, knowing it's there, gives me the creeps. I hate them. Hate, hate, hate them.