End of the School Year Wrap-up

I've already become one of those mothers & I knew it was going to happen even before the school year ended: I can't wait for school to get out & I can't wait for school to begin again! But enough about me.

Callie had a kindergarten awards assembly. It was lame. The kindergarteners didn't do a special song or anything - they just sat there & waited for their name to be called. Every kid got a certificate, which they should, but it was like, here's this selection of certificates we can give out, should we give Callie citizenship or writing? Hmmmm, writing. (What does that even mean - writing? In third grade it would be like creative writing. Kindergarteners don't really do that. Does it mean handwriting?) I realize my elementary school memories may not be perfect but I'm pretty sure at our awards assembly, besides everyone getting a certificate for just being a cool kid, they also actually recognized special things. Like wow, Jonny really is so kind to all of the other children and always tries to make people happy - let's give Jonny a special citizenship award. Can you tell I substitued Jonny for Callie? It really could have gone either way. No, I'm not bitter that Callie got a writing award instead of a citizenship award - her writing is great. I just think it's a little silly how the awards assembly all went down. Whatev.

Jack had a preschool "graduation" night, although he wasn't actually graduating from preschool. 3 of his classmates were though. It was a totally cute program!

At one point all the kids donned beaks & did the 5 Little Ducks song. They also did another one that was really fun to watch them perform (Mother Goonie Bird). These videos are so totally because our family might want to see them. And sorry for the sideways one. I thought the iPhone was amazing enough that it would turn my video right-side-up when I turned my phone but I was wrong!

Jack got an award for being so nice to his classmates all year. He ALSO got an achievement award just for going to preschool!

For an end-of-the-year teacher gift we made candy bar notes for Callie's & Jack's teachers. I wish I'd thought to take pictures before we gave them away - that way I wouldn't have to come up with a new message when I repeat it in the future! The kids loved helping glue the candy on & they especially loved taking them to their teachers!

These are the monster cupcakes Miss Cami made for the graduation after-party. They were a huge hit with the kids!

Besides Jack's awards, we came home with a cute book of a bunch of stuff like this. This one's my favorite because it is SOOO Jack!

PS- We absolutely LOVE Jack's preschool & are thrilled he gets to go for another year. If you're in ktown & want the preschool info let me know - it's awesome!

PPS- Does it seem like Callie's being neglected in this post? What can I say? Jack's preschool program was just so much better than Callie's kindergarten program. Even if there hadn't been refreshments! :)

About to Pop Baby Shower

My friend Ashley threw a baby shower for our other friend Amberlee in May. I was in charge of games & favors, and I went early to help set up. I also took pictures - not my best, but it was a fun shower nonetheless so I thought I'd share.

The theme was "About to Pop" and Ashley did a really great job with all the signage & the invitations & everything, staying with the "pop" theme.

So for the games I went with one traditional & 2 totally non-traditional :) I've always thought a baby picture guessing game sounded so fun but have never gone to the effort to put it together for any of the other times I've done shower games. It was well worth the effort!

Another game was that everyone got a balloon they had to pop & the balloon with a baby inside was a winner. I put pennies in the other balloons so that it wasn't so obvious which balloon hid a baby.

The 3rd game was a bubble-blowing contest! It was really fun to see everyone working on their bubble-blowing skills because some of the women there are typically more reserved & some of them were grandmothers (I've never seen any of mine or Jeremiah's grandmas blow a bubble!). Everyone was a super good sport & tried their best to blow a winning bubble! LOL

Totally simple but fun prizes: pop & popcorn (which btw I'm totally a dork & it was by complete coincidence that I ended up with Pop-Secret popcorn - LOL)!

And the favors...

Ashley (L) & Amberlee

Time for a quarterly update!

stay tuned...

minivans

I am SO very far from being on the minivan bandwagon. Jeremiah & I have had countless debates & we've rented them a couple times while out of town & his arguments just don't win out! There is no more room in any minivan than in our current vehicle (which is his main argument, but not his only), or our last vehicle for that matter. But I still wanted to share this AWESOME minivan video! LOVE IT (the video-not the minivan). But don't worry all my minivan friends - I've still got love for you! :D

(oh yeah, I saw this video here.)

i {heart} my vacuum

I bought a Dyson at Home Depot just about 3 months ago b/c they had a returned one that was marked down $100! I had been wanting to buy one for a while & had almost talked myself into spending the money when I saw the returned one so how could I say no? It did look like it'd been dragged across the parking lot, but since I'd still get the 5 year warranty on it I figured why not? We liked it but it wasn't like, "Omigosh, this is the most amazing vacuum ever!" BUT if I leaned the handle down too low or hit the baseboard or anything more than ever so gently it would make a real loud screechy sound until I put the handle almost upright again & then resumed vacuuming. I had no idea if this was normal and it took me nearly 3 months to take it back to HD. So this morning I went in with my vacuum & asked if they'd be willing to turn on a new one so I could see if it made the same noise. I didn't want to return it if there wasn't really a problem. The lady back in flooring said she had a Dyson too, although not the same model, but plugged mine in & we took it for a spin. Of course it didn't make "the noise" but it made a more mild variation of it & even that was bad enough that the flooring lady said my vacuum had issues & they ended up doing a straight across exchange! That's right! So I got a brand new Dyson for the returned Dyson price! Woohoo! I opened it tonight and guess what? It almost has a new car smell! And it vacuums even better than the other one. Oh, the power! I love my Dyson! Thank you Home Depot for making this blessed union possible!

Best in Show

Callie had her first ever gymnastics meet on May 1. She's not in competitive gymnastics, but the gym holds a "Cartoon Classic" once a year so that even the non-team gymnasts can do a meet & get the whole experience. They'd told the girls that they could win trophies & ribbons & medals & Callie was SOLD! She BEGGED me to sign her up and then she started to get cold feet as the event drew near. She was able to do it though & she LOVED it! Here are her results (mind you this is out of 6 girls in her skill level):

Vault: 1st
Bars: 3rd
Beam: 2nd
Floor: 5th
Overall: 2nd

She also got a special judges award for having the most grace (and that was out of all levels of all the kids there)! We were just a little proud! :) Yay Callie!

Here's a video of Callie doing her vault "routine."

Alas, another month passed

So here it is, in pictures...

Ellie has got into my makeup a few times. She's very proud of herself each time she does. She's in a phase where she comes to me constantly & says, "Close your eyes. [I close my eyes] Dah, ta, dahhh! Makeup! [or I have a shirt, or I have shoes (that she's put on herself), or I have candy.]



On this day she had some help...



...from this guy!



We're on a little strawberry milkshake kick. Some people do smoothie kicks. We're all about the milkshakes. That's how we roll. Here the kids model their milkshake mustaches!



Grandma Darcy was giving the kids a bath one night & they were playing with foam. She told me to come look at the kids and I found all three "kids" with blueberry moldable foam soap mustaches! Ellie laughed so hard that when she took a deep breath the foam went up one of her nostrils!



And here's a few of my fashion-forward children. In each instance they dressed themselves!



She put on the hat, vest, & Jack's shoes.



Target.



I went to pick Jackson up from school one day in the Rhino. Ellie LOVED going for a ride. She had a better time on the way back though when Jackson was with us - they giggled the whole time!



I ran my first ever 5k this past Saturday. I hated it! I signed up for it because all my friends were doing it & I caved to peer pressure! Abby & Summer ran the 10k, while Ashley, Lacey & I ran the 5k. Up until last Monday, I'd never run 3 miles in my life! I run 2 miles about 4 days a week. Even that is huge for me! I started running in the fall, and if you would've told me even a month before I started running that I would ever run I would've definitely known you were wrong. I used to joke that I couldn't run to save my life - seriously! If someone were chasing me I'd die because I don't run! But here I am running. I run because I like to eat and I want to stay healthy, so I don't really care if I don't ever run more than a couple miles a day. I think that's plenty healthy! Even since I've started running I haven't had the slightest desire to do a race, and this 5k sealed the deal! LOL It made me feel better when a couple of seasoned marathoners told me that this race was actually one of the more difficult courses they'd run.

So this was funny: all the girls were going to meet at 7:15 for a picture. Ashley & I were there but didn't see any of the other girls & so after about 10 minutes we went to my car & tried calling Abby (whose race was starting at 7:30). We didn't get a hold of her so we walked up towards the start as the 10k group was taking off. Except we didn't see Abby or Summer in the group. But we did see a couple of other people we knew were doing the 10k. So we got up to the start & got to looking at the next group that was getting ready to leave & noticed they looked like they were the 3mile walkers. We looked around for another minute trying to find people we knew doing the 5k & finally asked one of the organizers where the 5k group was. Turns out that was the group that we'd thought was the 10k group that had left a couple of mins before (obviously the 10k-ers we saw had missed their start too!). We felt so silly as we took off completely by ourselves way behind the back of the pack & were laughing as we started our run. We kept pace till we got to the top of this steep hill (the halfway point), and then on the way down Ashley ran a little ahead of me. I didn't get my official time & haven't seen it posted yet, but it was by far my personal best! Okay, you runner friends can totally laugh, but I normally do an 11 minute mile. And that's more of a recent thing too! Ashley looked at the huge timer right next to the finish (that I failed to see) and she got in right at 30 minutes. I was about 45 seconds behind her. But then since we left late I'd have to guess I did around a 9 1/2 min. mile. I'll never know for sure! The entire time I was running I was thinking about how much I was hating it & why in the HECK did I decide to do it! It really sucked. But I'm glad I shared the experience with some of my besties! :)

Me with Ash

Me with Summer

How to Train Your Dragon

Oh wait, first you'd have to catch one. And this is what my children set out in the backyard to attract & trap a night fury after they swear they saw one fly across the yard:

(Of course this happened while I was in the shower.)

It's hard to be too upset when the naughty thing they've done is semi-amusing.

Missing children

After our company left on Saturday, Jeremiah took Callie with him to run some errands while Jackson & Ellie stayed home with me & had some lunch. I vaguely remembered hearing Jack telling Ellie to come with him & they ran down the hall, or at least I thought. I was working on sharing time for Primary and I realized after 10-15 minutes that the house was too quiet. Sometimes the kids play real quietly in their rooms, but they weren't there. The backdoor was locked so I checked my bedroom/bathroom & the garage. Still no kids. I checked the backyard anyway, in case they'd gone out & locked themselves out. Not there either. I started to kind of worry as I was going to check their rooms again. Ellie's getting pretty good at hiding so I checked on the sides of the beds you can't see from the doorway. I finally got to Jack's room & had checked the side of his bed when I noticed the lump under his bedding. I was sure it was just his sham &/or blanket under his comforter, but I patted it just to be sure. And that's where I found Jackson & Ellie, sound asleep!

(the lumps weren't defined when I first looked. I took the picture after I'd discovered them & covered them back up!)

Visit from Condie Co

It was so fun to have Condie Co at our house for a couple of nights last week! It had been probably a record length of time since Wendy & I had seen each others kids (since July I think!). After a day at the Grand Canyon, Wendy & co got to our house around dinnertime. We couldn't get everyone at the table so we brought in the kids' table & thought the older 5 could sit there. Emily found a seat before the older kids & was not about to give it up. When Ellie came on the scene there was no way in heck we were talking her out of leaving the party! I think more goofing around was done than actual eating!

On Friday Mike went to check out Jer's operation (as in the business) & then we met the boys for lunch. Thank goodness we got the party room at Pizza Hut! I would have felt terrible otherwise for all the other people wanting a normal Pizza Hut volume lunch! Jeremiah & Mike went 4-wheeling after lunch & Wendy & I took the kids to the park. That night we got a couple of babysitters & did my favorite date night: dinner & a movie! When we got home the kids were asleep in all sorts of places, and here were Ellie & Emily (they're just a couple weeks apart in age).

The little girls really got along fine for the most part, but they weren't too happy with each other over breakfast Saturday morning! Notice the matching pj's? Wendy had left out Emily's pair for the babysitters (not even knowing we had the same ones) but when we got home Emily was in a pink sleeper & Ellie was in her own set of the pjs. Wendy & I have always done pics of the girls together in matching shirts so it was totally a fluke that we were able to this time with the matching pjs! :)

It was hilarious watching the kids on the jeep. From the time they got to our house on Thursday evening until the time they left, we could look out the window at any moment & there would be multiple kids trying to get a ride on the jeep.

Hopefully it won't be such a long time between visits with the kids again. My kids are always asking about the next time they'll see the Condie kids. They loved spending time with our friends!

Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter weekend. My sisters Tara & Kayleigh both came down for the weekend. Kayleigh hadn't dyed Easter eggs in years so she was totally excited to do it with the kids. Although Callie had told me a few days before that she didn't want to dye eggs this year. Her reason was that if we dyed eggs then the EB would hide them & she didn't want him to hide real eggs, she wanted him to hide candy-filled eggs. So if we just didn't dye any at all then the only choice he'd have would be to hide candy-filled eggs. She's a smartie! I told her we could leave the dyed eggs in the fridge so the Easter bunny wouldn't even realize that we had any. Problem solved!

Callie was really really hoping they'd get bubble tape in their baskets but Jeremiah wrote the EB a note after last year asking him to please not bring any more bubble tape for the kids. Sorry Callie! Instead they got to hunt for eggs filled with jelly beans, individually wrapped disgusting, plastic-tasting rainbow twizzlers, Reese's pb eggs, and fruit snacks. The EB was kind enough to put stickers on the eggs so each kid could hunt for their own eggs & the older two wouldn't end up with everything. Except for the jelly beans, the other eggs had only one piece of candy (or pkg of fruit snacks) in them. And since half the eggs were fruit snacks, I didn't mind if they ate everything that day. And they did! Starting with their chocolate bunnies.

dirty little secret

I'm a slob. Jeremiah's a slob too, but he grew up in a very tidy home. I wonder if he'd have had second thoughts when we were dating if he'd known then that I'd only clean our master bath toilet after it looked like a gas station toilet. Don't worry visitors, I try to keep the other bathrooms presentable! Bathrooms are just not my thing. Housekeeping is just not my thing. I think if I'd sent a pic of our bathroom yesterday to Jeremiah's mom & sister 9 years ago, they would have told him to run! If my b-i-l's wives had been sent the same pic, they may have changed their mind about joining the family. I had decided my slothen ways were just due to laziness. But I don't know that that's really the case. I do plenty of other things without laze. I think it's just that I don't want to, which to me is different than simply being lazy. That & my twisted thinking. Take my time issues for example. I've been "on time" for something just a handful of times in my life. I think that if I get somewhere 5 minutes before the start time that I'm early. Normal people would consider that on time. I've actually had the thought before that if I got somewhere a couple minutes before the appt, what would I do for that couple of minutes? I'd be bored! So instead of being a calm, normal, timely person my whole life is rushing from one place, taking my time, and rushing to the next! I create chaos for myself & my family. Back to cleaning - same distorted mentality. If my kitchen is almost completely clean it's good enough for me. I have to REALLY force myself to spend 5 more minutes getting it totally spotless - taking care of those few things on the counter that I just don't want to & that's why they've been sitting there for a couple of days anyway. So there you have it - TWO dirty secrets about me (and I thought I was just going to be writing about one). Pray for my children! LOL