loving/hating aerobics

Last night I went to the first of 8 aerobics classes at the rec center. My friend Rachel wanted me to sign up with her and as much as I hated it I'm glad I did. Rachel & I walked in just before class was going to start & one look at our instructor, JJ, and I knew I was in trouble! He's this big black ripped man and during the class we found out he's 54! He could run circles around me! I kept my body moving nonstop for 45 minutes and that was followed by squats, crunches, weights, THE WHEEL!, push-ups, etc.! It totally sucked & if I didn't have Rachel to go with I'd have a very hard time (harder than it'll be anyway) going back on Thursday, but I was really proud of myself for being able to keep going the entire time. I love that I could do that! When I was going to the gym w/Ashley I'd walk/run on the treadmill most of the time & I'm SO not a runner & on my very best day ever I ran for 10 minutes (I know, you can laugh). But going to this aerobics class (which was supposed to be light and was anything but) kind of made me think if I went running with Ashley (not next to her on the treadmill) I think I could keep up. I really think I could do it! So I'm glad I went to the aerobics class. Now if I could just give up sugar or at least cut back! Maybe between my regular morning workout & these added aerobics classes I'll be able to burn off a few pounds this month.

Park Day

Today was preschool park day! Summer volunteered to watch Ellie if I would take Kenadee. Great trade! :) Although it was a lot of work to keep track of 3 kids with their own ideas about what they wanted to do since there were many options:

jump house
face painting
tattoos
dinosaur dig
bubble table
parachute
horse shoes
ring toss
potato sack races
sidewalk chalk
popsicles
playground
did i miss anything?!

Callie, Jackson & Kenadee had a fun time running around & playing with all the other children there from the girls' classes. I enjoyed watching them & I was so grateful there was tons of shade at the park so that it was actually pleasant! When we got back to the car my thermometer said it was 92° (at 11:00am)- yuck!

No more homework, no more books!

I'm pretty excited to have summer break. Oh my gosh! I can't believe I'm a mom that looks forward to the summer! Where has time gone?

Tonight we went to Callie's preschool graduation. Not really sure why preschoolers graduate, but whatever. We went, she did, it's done! Of COURSE we were late getting there because just as we were ready to walk out the door Jack had to go poop and you just can't rush him!

Also I kind of assumed Jeremiah would tell my parents about graduation since he sits in an office with my dad all day but he didn't & he figured I'd call them & I didn't so they didn't make it. Callie asked why they weren't there as we were leaving & I told her what had happened & that it was my fault & she said it was okay & that she still loved me. :)

Callie's Teacher

First day of school

Last day of school

Spring Dance Recital

This evening Callie had her Spring Dance Recital! Her dance class is awesome! A family in our ward does it & they have several age groups. Last year Callie took dance from their oldest daughter. That daughter has now moved away so Callie took it from a younger daughter. Sure, it's not a real technical class, but it's fun & it's cheap. Really cheap! $4/1-hour class! We love the family that does it & really appreciate all their hard work & pretzels/stamps! :) Callie's class was made up of mainly 4 year olds and they danced to a song from the Enchanted soundtrack. What a bad mom am I? I don't even know what song it was because I was concentrating too much on getting {bad} pictures! Callie had a great time & I'm SO glad she danced this time (she wouldn't dance at the Christmas recital - she didn't even want to go to it [and we didn't]!) She was most excited about getting flowers afterwards from mom & dad just like at her last year's spring recital. While I was getting her ready for the recital she said "Oh no! You forgot to get me some flowers for my recital!" Little did she know I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Or one. Called Grandma Darcy. Thanks mom for making that stop for me so that Callie didn't see her flowers before the recital!

I left the faces of known bloggers' children! :) Plus their teacher. I don't think you can really tell in the other pictures. (Although as a side thought does it matter? Does the newspaper get permission from parents before printing their children's pictures? I'm just reporting the facts!)

Callie & one of her best friends Kenadee.

"At the top of Dragon Mountain"

That's from The Backyardigans (we {heart} their cds) and the kids sing it as they're climbing up to the top of their dirt volcano!

Jeremiah brought the skid steer home from work on Saturday & worked on moving dirt so we can get started on our backyard. And just to be nice he made this volcano for the kids to play in/on. The backyard's going to be a long, slow & expensive (and that's doing it on the cheap) process. We're very fortunate though that we have lots of the equipment we'll need for our backyard & we can also do lots of the stuff at cost & hopefully find a hookup on a few of the other things we have planned.

I'm glad that the kids are loving the dirt pile, but can I just say it sucks! Somebody (won't give the guilty party away) came in for a time out the other day and when he/she went back outside I had to clean off a layer of dirt from the time out chair! Jack took off his pants to get in the bath & a cup of dirt went all over the floor. I'm NOT loving the dirtiness of the dirt. But the kids are having the BEST time! I figure I can endure it for one summer. It won't kill me, right? Right??

And just for fun & because I'm not in many pictures with my children, Ellie & I on Mother's Day.

rocking chair

I can't find pictures of Callie & Jack in this chair but they have loved (and still love) it, and now Ellie has discovered it & loves it too. The chair plays music as you rock and it was given to my mother on her 2nd birthday from her grandmother(?). I love having it in our home!

Dining al fresco

The last several evenings have been beautiful! Last night I cleaned off the kids' picnic table so they could eat outside. This was Ellie's first time eating at a table instead of in her booster/high chair & as cute as she was, I'm not sure it will be a regular occurrence for her just yet! :) After she'd nibbled a little she dumped the rest of her food & said uh-oh. Then she'd pick up pieces & say "here-uh-go" as she put them in my hand.

Callie & Jack love to be outside & Jack spends tons of time playing with their sand/water table sans sand (but usually w/dirt).



Different night - I don't need an apron to make chicken salad sandwiches for dinner! :)

Spider-Man bike

Jeremiah decided Jack's birthday was just too far away to wait for a bike so we let Jack pick one out while Callie was at school last Thursday. There were some cool choices but Jack was set on Spider-Man. He was SO excited to get home & start riding but had to wait for me to put it together. And can I just say, that manual was ridiculous! I'm sure I could have put it together without the manual, but I'm one of those manual readers so I spent the better part of the assembly time just trying to figure out the manual. As it turns out it's not even for the same bike! And it talked about stuff like torque & psi. Who do they think is putting the bike together? A mechanic? Anyway, I'd set out the tools but had to take care of Ellie for a minute & this is what I came back to. Seriously, this is not posed! How cute is this?!!





Here is one proud owner of a new Spider-Man bike!