My Favorite Thing this Week

What a week it has been! ...Final dance recital for Alyssa on Monday, Dance Festival on Wed for all three girls at school, Field days, preschool graduation and last day of school for all.

Memory Mixer (the digital scrapbooking software that I use) posted the question on their blog this week ... what is your favorite thing this week? They are giving away a gift certificate. It got me thinking! My favorite thing this week is the last day of school. Its such a play day. They only go to school for an hour and a half so its kind of a silly day. But I always try to go to their classes and take a few last pictures of them and their friends. Alyssa took her own camera this year (so I didn't go to her class). Its fun to compare the first day to the last day shots! I'll probably upload them later. The last day of school represents the beginning of summer! Wahoo. No more getting up early for school, carpool to school and HOMEWORK! I enjoy the summer and have been looking forward to it. Give me a few weeks and I might be singing a different tune as I go crazy with them home and running around the house all the time. But for now, I'm ready for a break! But the last day of school is also a day for me a day to compare how much they have grown.

I think back to Jessica, just 4 years old starting preschool at Eaglecrest. She was a bit more timid than she is now (but she was always bubbly and outgoing). Now she will be in KINDERGARTEN! Yep folks, that means all 3 of my kids will be full-fledged students at Eaglecrest Elementary in the fall! CRAZY! And I think about all the basics she has REALLY learned (some she knew but not as well as she does now) ... colors, recognizing all of the upper and lower case letters, writing the alphabet and the sounds of each letter, shapes, counting to 100, counting by 10s, writing her numbers, some basic math, and songs, songs, songs and more songs. She is very curious about everything and likes to ask lots and lots of questions. She is so happy but it is hard to see my baby growing up so fast. It seems like just a few weeks ago that she was a baby in my arms.

Taylor ... WOW!! Is this the same kid that started 1st grade? She is a CRAZY girl now. My shy, timid little Taylor has blossomed into a little social butterfly! Don't get me wrong, she still plays that shy card sometimes, but she chatters and talks and sings and interacts with others in a way that makes my heart rejoice! She has truly come a long way in the last year. She still struggles a bit in some categories and will be continuing her speech therapy next year, but she is so much more confident and has caught up so much this year, we are very proud of her. A big thing for her this past month is she has added applesauce to her list of things that she eats! YEAH!!!

Alyssa ... my little girl is gone. She has definitely matured from little girl to pre-teen this year. She'll be 10 in a couple of weeks and it shows in her attitude and abilities. She is a smart girl - only one B+ and the rest A's. She has definite opinions and wants to express them. She likes to be in charge. She likes to be "in-the-know" and wants to be a grown-up so badly. She's learned a lot and likes to share that information with others. She can be a very thoughtful girl, thinking of others and always wanting to do big projects. I definitely need to find a way for her to do some service projects, because she LOVES that! She's always thinking of ideas of things she could do but sometimes lacks the focus and follow-through when she has started on some thing.

And so it is ... SUMMER TIME! Another year of school is over and its time to play a bit! We've made our "I'm Bored List" to hang on the door so that if they say "I'm bored" I can point them to their list of ideas.

I'm always looking for ideas for things to do with the kids (other than the more obvious) and ways to make summer a happier time (instead of arguing with sisters and getting in trouble for not doing jobs). What do you.have you done that works? Keep in mind, I need CHEAP or FREE this summer and I need SIMPLE. Last year we did a Disney Jar (with pennies, nickels and dimes earned for doing chores and other jobs)- they were earning money to go to DisneyWorld. It actually worked pretty well. But I also want my kids to understand that they don't do jobs at home just to earn money to do what they want, they do jobs here because they are part of our family and we all work together. Does that make sense? I hate job charts because I constantly have to check in on them and make sure they were done and mark them off .... what do you do?

Neighborhood Block Party Blog

Quick note to all my neighbors who may read my blog ...

We have a blog for the neighborhood block party. Please become a follower and check it for updates. I can't do the party without the help of others in the neighborhood. Please read the blog for more details. Please feel free to email the blog address to as many neighbors as you know. Flyers will go out soon, but we want to get the word out as early as possible so everyone can save the date!

www.utahhighlands.blogspot.com

THANKS!

You're invited

Open invite ... anyone who wants to stop by to visit and celebrate Steve's bday. :)

You can also RSVP here on my blog.

Happy Birthday Steve

Yesterday was Steve's birthday! I didn't get a chance to post before his birthday because we were flying to Florida! :) And I don't have access to all my pictures to do my normal birthday style posts, but I still wanted to let him know I love him and wish him an amazing year!

I will post more later!

But I do want to invite everyone to our house WEDNESDAY night for cake and ice cream! Stop by and wish Steve a happy birthday on Wednesday evening between 6:30 and 8:30.

3 - 2 - 1 BLASTOFF!

What an amazing experience. I don't know how to describe our day. Almost surreal, I guess. We were so excited to see the shuttle launch yesterday. STS-132 ... the last flight of Atlantis. Its headed to the space station and we got to see it blast off and we got to hear it from just 7 1/2 miles away. It was really impressive. We were at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. We arrived after about 8 miles of bumper to bumper traffic that took 40 minutes. We parked and entered the complex and set up the chairs. Then we skipped off to have breakfast with Astronaut Bruce Melnick which was really interesting. We enjoyed listening to him talk about his two experiences in space. Then we headed outside and enjoyed all the other things to see at the complex. Then close to launch time, we went back to our chairs and watched the big screen they had set up. We watched as they pulled the white room away from the shuttle. We watched as the cap came off. 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5- 4 - 3- 2- 1 ... We watched as the burners started, and sparks flew. Then it started to lift up into the sky. Just a moment later, we could see the shuttle over the tree line as it rose into the sky. It was AMAZINGLY bright, like looking at the sun. The brightness of the burners and the trail of white smoke contrasting against the clear blue sky ... and then we could hear the rumble. It reached us several seconds after we could see it. I would love to come see another one.

And it was more than just seeing the shuttle or even more than hearing it. It was the feeling of the crowd, being a part of it. The crowd was all so excited and in awe. Everyone was sharing their previous experiences of seeing the shuttle launch and their excitement for this one. It was just cool!

I was blessed to borrow a camera that is much better than mine, and the pictures turned out well. If I ever get to come back, I'd love to be on the causeway and have an even bigger zoom.





So grateful to get to go! Happy Birthday Steve! I hope it was everything you dreamed!

Kids' Creations

The kids got creative this morning and made a special "party" for Steve and I. Evidently, we're celebrating Mother's Day (a week early) and Steve's bday (almost 2 weeks early). They brought us downstairs where we found a "red carpet" (made from fabric they got out of my craft room) and two "thrones" with a crown for me.

After we sat in our thrones, they presented us with cards and gifts they made. The gifts included a mask, a "kalaidescope", a couple of finger puppets, a paper frog, and a note telling us to come back upstairs. When we got upstairs, Alyssa had come up and grated cheese over chips and made "nachos" for us.

These are my gifts ... Inside of my cards...
Steve's cards and gifts...
Inside his cards...
A finger puppet they made for Steve ... it has double sided tape on it so it sticks to your finger.

It was SOOOOOO cute. It was all I could do to not laugh. :)

And with that post ...

I have finished posting about our April ... how's that for being caught up? Not that I've scrapbooked ANY of it, but at least I've shared it with my family and friends and recorded my thoughts for another day. Thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for leaving comments. Its always fun to hear from people. Thanks for being my friend!

Love ya all! (and for my NC Friends ... love ya'll!)

Another day of dance ...

Alyssa had her 2nd dance competition last weekend. She REALLY loves to dance. It was in Layton and our call time was noon with awards starting at 7pm ... add driving and it made for a LONG day. But it was fun and Alyssa enjoyed it! She also did MUCH better on all of her routines. Here are a few pics of our day. (Don't you just love the hair piece! I think the curls are so dang cute! I actually like all their costumes this year which is nice.
CRAZY time with Kendal and Abby
Her hat looks funny in this picture ... not sure if she has it backwards or if it is just the angle of hte picture, but she looks so happy.
Opening positions on stage ... She's the one sitting.
Snap shot while she's practicing ... proof she doesn't ALWAYS smile when she practices. :) But she really does "SASS" it up on stage with this routine. She LOVES Lady Gaga and I always tell her to pretend she's Lady Gaga when she's on stage.
After the awards, when I told her we were going to go get ice cream on our way home! The simple joys in life!