Sophia's new doll

When I was four years old I had an orange tabby that was a saint! He would let me dress him in my doll clothes and push him around in my stroller. Looks like things have come full circle!

THE HOLIDAY TREE!

Ben thought I was the best wife on the planet when I suggested the Holiday tree, because he was excited that he didn't have to take it down. Actually, I think it was the idea of not having to figure out how to put it back together next Christmas that sold him. You think it would be a simple task. But each plug has to be plugged into a SPECIFIC plug, so the lights will work. Sounds easy enough if they were labeled as such, but they are NOT! So its hours of plugging and unplugging to find out the right combination. Anyway, back to the Holiday tree. So after Easter I was sick of it, and running out of enthusiasm. The idea of hanging summer type things sounded good in theory, but it's not like I'm seeing flip flop and sun decorations. So here it is for now...my Memorial/Independence and quite possibly, Labor Day tree! Honey, hope you are enjoying it this year, because I don't know if I'm doing this year after year!

Goodbye to Kindergarten

The last week of school, the Kindergarten had an end of the year program. While it was probably supposed to send you off in tears, Aubrie and I were leaving with different kind of tears; tears of laughter. Ethan was hamming it up the entire time. The people around me were laughing, too! I could hear people saying, "who it that one kid......" I have been tempted to send the video to AFV! I guess I should thank Ethan for saving me from the embarrassment of the real tears for once. One thing you can always count on from Ethan is a good laugh! After his program, I checked him out of school and took him out for ice cream. I could tell it meant a lot to him to have one on one time with me. He was such a gentleman; opening doors, taking my trash, and even picking up some trash he saw outside of the yogurt store. That's another thing I LOVE about him. Under that goofiness is a responsible, respectful, loving kid!

Ethan and his friend Logan after the program

A few shots from the school talent show.

(Front center with the yellow belt)

A Full "Rewarding" Weekend!

A busy week of swim, dive, gymnastics, piano, music, karate and dance flowed over into a busy weekend. This weekend was Aubrie's dance recital weekend. Her studio puts on 3 separate recital times, and if you are in the performing group, (which Aubrie is) you have dances in all three of them. The first one was Friday night. I helped backstage that evening, so Ben stayed home while Aubrie and I went to the recital. Aubrie did well in her dances, and I was able to watch most of it on a TV monitor, in between babysitting nine 7 year olds. My niece was in the group I was responsible for, so I was also able to visit with Nicole for a bit in between Shea's dances. After the recital, I took Aubrie to Sonic for a treat, and then we got home and got her stuff ready for the recitals for the next day. We then got the kids to be bed early (9:30) so they could get up for their early 7:30 dive meet the next day.

6:30 came way to fast. It was so hard for me to get up and going. The kids were excited, especially Ethan. When we got there for the warm ups, we were really blown away by some of the kids dives. I thought, "Well, I hope they just have fun and are happy with what ever ribbon they get". One of Aubrie's dives was a front flip. She had practiced her tuck dive all Thursday, and hadn't even practiced the flip. During warm up, she started getting freaked out because she couldn't run to do it, but had to do the 3 step approach. She starting crying and telling her coach she was scared. I wasn't sure she was going to make it through the competition.

Her other two dives were awesome. Especially her tuck dive. She got really high scores, so the flip was the only thing that would foul her up. I was praying when her turn was up, that she could have the courage to do it. She ended up doing it, but not with the most graceful landing. I was happy that she pushed through.

Uncertaintiy written all over this face!

The boys did well. They had no fear. Boston's pencil dive was perfect, and I was proud that he conquered the back dive, after having a melt down at one of his practices, refusing to do one and insisting he was going to quit.

Ethan has absolutely no fear, and I swear his cute charisma got a him a few extra points;)

When it was time for the ribbon ceremony we were surprised and excited when Ethan placed first in his division. Boston did so well (having the highest points in the whole competition) I wasn't surprised when he placed first, but I was starting to feel bad (I hate seeing the disappointment on the other kids faces), and uncomfortable from the attention. When they started calling for Aubrie's division I was just praying that she wasn't last, but with each call of placement they weren't calling her name. She ended up placing second. She was so happy with that, and I think it gave her the confidence she needed to do better next time. There were lots of smiles on the car ride home.

There wasn't much time to celebrate, since we quickly had to get Aubrie ready, and the kids fed before her recital. The whole family went to the first Saturday performance. Aubrie, again, did well, and I was even more impressed at how responsible she was; getting herself ready for each dance, when she only had a few dances to make a costume change. The boys did pretty well sitting through two hours of dances. Sophia was fidgety, and kept asking us for all the pretty dresses. She also had a fun time cheering and clapping before and after performances. The people in front and behind us were getting a kick out of her. After the recital the boys quickly rushed to where the dancers come out of their dressing rooms to greet Aubrie. Friday night, Aubrie seemed a little bummed when girls were getting flowers and I didn't have anything for her. When she came out of the dressing rooms, the family was there waiting for her with flowers. She had a huge smile on her face, and she was showing her friends her pretty flowers.

We drove home for a quick snack and Aubrie and I returned for her final recital. It was so fun to see her interact with her friends, and see her set up for her costume changes. She and her friends had picked out a spot behind the choir bleachers to change and hang out between dances. Aubrie had all her costumes lined up in order so she could make her quick changes. I stayed backstage most of the time chatting with her and her friends, and some of the dance Moms. I popped in the theatre a few times to catch a few of my favorite dances. When the recital was over it was a sigh of relief for us all. We were both running on fumes, as we drove home. Ben was at home waiting for our date night. I wasn't sure if I had the energy to make it out the door.

We ate a new Spanish restaurant close by. Ben got his favorite Spanish dish, which included seafood that I was daring enough to try. Nothing like popping a squid into your mouth...YUCK. It tastes much better when it doesn't really look like an actual squid and is all fried up. At the end of dinner the Flamenco dancer started, so we stuck around for a few minutes to watch her. I was too tired for a movie, so we made our usual Walmart stop and then Ben took me home, and I went to bed to a nice relaxing message. Thanks Ben....your the best!

Orange Anybody?

Ethan just advanced to Orange belt last night. I was surprised when they asked me for a testing date. He just received his yellow in March. Our whole family was their to support him, with half of us wearing something orange! He did an amazing job!!! He only had one minor mistake. They are allowed 3 major and 4 minor when they get their orange. He did even better than his testing for yellow. I was once again amazed at all he had to know. He still couldn't lose his goofiness through it all. Afterward, I told the Sensei's that I wasn't sure they would ever be able to get that out of him. They said they LOVED that about him, and that it kept things light and entertaining . They couldn't say enough good things about him. They said he is a GREAT listener and tries really hard, and learns really fast. I'm so happy that this is a good thing for him. It's so hard trying to figure out the best things to put your kids in. This seems to be the right fit!

Family Fun!

Well, Ben kind of updated our weekend. Just on the tails of saying I wasn't stressing about her rehearsal this year, we realized her tap shoes were missing. So what turned into, "having plenty of time", turned into a frenzy of phone calls to track some down. If I would have known we would be at the rehearsal for over 5 hours, I probably wouldn't have stressed about it as much. I only managed to get a few snapshots, because Aubrie was tired and not having it by the end.

By the end of the rehearsal, I was ready for a nice relaxing evening. Cafe Rumba hit the spot, and the kids actually enjoyed it. Sophia ate most of Aubrie's salad (my only 3 year old who would rather have a salad before anything else). Luckily we can take her about anywhere because of that! Honestly, I can't remember what I did with the rest of my evening, I was so tired!

Sunday was great! Ben wrote a bit about it, but the best part was after church. After dinner, I decided to do "everyone gets to play a game of their choice". Sophia picked Hungry Hungry Hippo (her favorite), then we played a version of charades with church words. The first round you could describe it, the second round you acted it out, and the 3rd round you could only say one word to get someone to guess it. The kids complained at first (probably because they were church words) but the ended up liking it. I probably don't have to tell you whose pick that was. Then Ethan pulled out all his craft papers and markers and we all had to draw something related to church. He drew and cut out an amazing picture of Jesus. Boston's pick was kickball. We were getting pretty hot outside, so my Mom brought us out some water. The boys asked me to pour theirs, so when they held out their cup, I poured it on their arms instead. It turned into a full fledged water fight, which ended up with us all being thrown in the pool. Sophia thought it was cool to jump in with her clothes on (the only one not thrown in). When my Mom came out and realized what happened she bolted in the house. She came back out a few minutes later and pretended to let the kids "get" her. When she was inside she had changed in her bathing suit and put her clothes back over it. That was so cool of her to let the kids think they "got' her. She is the best Grandma around!

Later, Aubrie got her game; Disney Scene it? The boys won as usual! Ben is unstoppable when it comes to Trivia! The next day the kids couldn't stop talking about what a fun time they had. Honestly, I felt like a kid again. It was great!

The Petsmart Trap

On Thursday we were driving around after another night of kids activities were over by the Petsmart by our house. The kids all started to ask me if we could stop by Petsmart to "LOOK" at the kittens. I finally relented and figured that we could drop in and see the kittens and then head home. I figured doing this would satisfy their kitten desires, but I was way off. We got in and the kids bolted for the kitttens. They were all so cute according to the kids. There have never been kittens so cute before in all the world. Sophia was dancing around she was so excited. I asked the guy to come over and let the kids hold the kittens. Big mistake. The minute he opened up the door to the area to where you get to hold the kittens the excitement ramped up to a frenzy! The kids had a blast holding the kittens and seeing how each one of them was different. After about ten minutes of holding the kittens it was time to go. We decided that we were going to get one, but Petsmart was out of the cardboard cat carriers that you needed to take a kitten home. Rachel and I told the kids that we would go home and think about getting a new kitten. The kids were bummed and figured that we would not get one. When we got home I was looking for the cat carrier and the kids were all over us about getting back over to Petsmart before it closed to get the kitten. Rachel looked over to me and said that I had a church meeting that I had forgotten about. I told her that she was right and took off. On my way out I grabbed the cat carrier and headed for Petsmart. The kids had no idea that I was on my way to get the greatest kitten of all time. I got the kitten and filled out all the paperwork and was on my way home. The kitten meowed the whole way home and I am sure had no idea what was about to happen. I got home and walked into the house with the kitten in the piano book bag. I handed the bag to Aubrie and told her she needed to put the bag away. She was way to smart for that and looked into the bag immediately. She started jumping up and down and going crazy. The kids all ran over to her as she held the kitten aloft. The kids all started jumping up and down and Sophia grabbed me and said that she loved me. She has not stopped smiling in three days and Sophia is positive that the kitten is her personal kitten. We have to listen for stiffled grunts and meows as Sophia lovingly cares for her kitten. She takes the kitten everywhere. I just caught her in the garage putting the kitten in the car seat to go to church. I told her that we cannot let the kitten outside since it is going to be 109 degrees today! YUCK! I don't remember the heat hitting this hard this fast! Ethan is currently holding the kitten on the couch as she sleeps peacefully away from the loving grasp of Sophia.
Sundays are nice. We got up this morning and swam together. As we were about to get out Boston yells out that he sees a lizard. Then he says that it is a squirel! The cat takes off into the bushes and then a prarie dog jumps into the pool barely escaping the cat. We all jumped up and started running around. I went and grabbed the pool net and fished the prarie dog out of the pool. I had no idea that we had these around. The prarie dog just chilled in the netting. I took it upstairs to see Rachel. She thought it was cool also. I took him out back and let him go in the backyard. Hopefully we get to see him again and not in the pool.
Yesterday Rachel spent almost 6 hours at dance recital with Aubrie. I had the kids and we went to Tilly's and then to Target and Home Depot and then finally ended up at McDonalds. The kids had a great day and we had fun swimming and hanging out. Last night we ended the day playing Rock Band as a family. Ethan had a blast. He had a hard time at first getting used to playing and learning how to do it correctly. Once he figured it out he had it down. He is really growing up fast and I love to watch him learn and try new things. Today should be nice and relaxing. We will leave for church here in another hour. Right now we are listening to music and the spoken word and eating lunch. After church we will come home and swim some more and then watch funny home videos. Probabaly watch a movie tonight and then begin anther fun week. Life is good.

Summer...a different busy!

As we were driving back from Cali, I kept remembering that school was out, and I wasn't going to have to rush back into my normal routine. The truth is, I have just traded one routine for another. I signed the kids up for diving and Boston and Aubrie for gymnastics. I realized that Ethan can take up to 4 Karate classes a week for the same price, so I have been trying to take advantage of that. So with all of that and me trying to fit in the gym (which was only 50 percent successful this week), and getting in some swimming in our pool every day, our days are full. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I have actually enjoyed it. It keeps the kids busy, and away from the TV and video games, and I have been able to stay and watch the kids during their activities for once. Typically I'm dropping them off, trying to get dinner ready at home so they can get in bed at a descent hour. Now I can just watch them and not worry about early bedtimes and us having a late dinner.

The kids are enjoying their new activities. Their first diving class was a hit for them, but the second was not so great for Boston and Aubrie. They started them with back dives, and the height of the board freaked them out. Ethan had no problem with it (obviously he has no inhibitions). Boston and Aubrie started crying at practice, they were so afraid. Boston said he wanted to quit. When we got home I got them into the pool and on the diving board. Boston got over his fears and is actually doing pretty well at his back dive. Aubrie is still wimping out. I told her if she can do a back walkover she can do a back dive, but the height thing and hitting her head is still freaking her out. I'm hoping more gymnastics will get her over that!

Speaking of gymnastics, they are both LOVING it. The coach came to us this week and told us that Boston needs to move up. So that works out GREAT for us, because now they both have class at the same time! Ethan watched them a bit and asked if he could do gymnastics, too. I told him that Karate was good enough for him right now. Ethan is doing very well in Karate. He is testing for his Orange belt next week. I love watching him do all of his Kata's. Karate is perfect for him.

Ben and I ended a full fun week with a date that included dinner, shopping, and playing Settlers with some friends past Midnight. Today Aubrie has her dance recital rehearsal. I wrapped her her hair with the fabric strips. It wasn't as easy as last year for some reason. Still trying to figure out what I did wrong. It still looks descent. Guess I better get showered and get her ready! In the years past I would have laid out all her costumes last night, and been working on her make up already. But here I am in my PJ's doing this. I guess I have let go a bit!