Happy Birthday to My Sweet 12-year-old Daughter!

Brooke made and decorated her own cake, and it was delicious!  We celebrated all weekend long since Mike was going to out of town on her actual birthday.  Instead of a birthday party this year, Brooke chose a date night with Mom and Dad (awesome!).  We decided to really celebrate and took her to The Melting Pot for a fondue dinner and dessert, and then we went to see "The Hunger Games."  She has just read the books and was excited to be able to see the movie, and we decided if she was going to watch it, we wanted to be there to see it with her!  We had a great evening just hanging out with our oldest daughter and celebrating her.  

On Sunday night we had our neighbors over for cake and ice cream.  With our large families, even a few families makes for a large crowd, and it felt like a party!  We loved having great friends to share cake and ice cream with!  Brooke loved her presents of books, jewelry, hair accessories, and all things girly!  

On Monday, which was her actual birthday, Megan surprised Brooke with breakfast in bed (complete with Australian pancakes--our family tradition of a scoop of ice cream on your pancakes for breakfast).  Monday night I took all the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and games to celebrate Evan and Natalie being good for all the nights I've left Brooke and Megan home babysitting them.  Not sure Brooke would have chosen Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday event, but she actually had a great time and all the kids loved it.

I will never forget the day my oldest was born . . . such an eventful birth after my water broke in the middle of the night 2.5 weeks early!  I feel so blessed to have her as my oldest daughter.  Brooke is sweet, sensitive, and responsible.  She is a great babysitter, friend, and helper to me around the house.  She genuinely loves playing with her young siblings, and that helps me so much!  I gave her a "pass" on all her jobs on Monday for her birthday, and realized two things:  1.  I MISS her music in the morning if I don't wake up to her playing the piano.  2.  We can't possibly make it out the door in time for school without her help!  I still had to ask her to help with lunches and getting shoes on so we could make it to the bus stop in time.

I love you, Brooke!  Happy 12th Birthday!!

Iron Chef Dessert Night

Two years ago I hosted an Iron Chef dinner party for some adult friends, and Megan has never let me forget that SHE wanted to host an Iron Chef party, and we finally got around to scheduling it.  The theme she chose was chocolate versus lemon/lime desserts.  We invited several friends to bring a dessert in either the chocolate or lemon/lime category and then we all sampled all of the desserts and voted on our favorite.  In the end, Nate's lemon bars won first place!

We had a delicious and beautiful spread, and perfect weather to go with it.  We loved filling our yard with friends and kids and enjoying a peaceful evening outside.  

We had kids in the playhouse, on the trampoline, on the playset, and playing capture the flag all over the yard.  We ended the night sitting around a campfire and enjoying ourselves.  It was a perfect evening!

Natalie checking out cute baby Clayton.

 

Polar Bear Plunge

We opened the pool the end of March, and the water looks cool and refreshing so the kids have been begging to go for a swim.  On a nice, sunny, 64-degree day, we decided to let them test out the icy 60-degree water and see what they thought!  It was short-lived for most of them.  Brooke actually swam a few laps, but most of them just jumped in and jumped back out.  Evan said it felt like needles poking him all over.  We kept noodles on hand to throw to those who were too cold to swim back in, but thankfully everyone managed to get back to the side okay!

I did figure out how to heat up the hot tub, so I turned that on for them to swim and play in for awhile.  The kids all thought it was crazy fun.  The polar bear plunge might become a new tradition!

 

Easter Weekend

The weather couldn't have been nicer for Easter weekend.  We did some yardwork in the morning and then did our traditional egg roll off with neighbors and friends on Saturday afternoon.  

Natalie was thrilled when her egg cracked.  Below Megan is showing off her Batman egg and her Humpty Dumpty egg that she decorated.  (And no, these are not her racer eggs.  We would never put tape on our egg roll off eggs!)

 

"Grandpa" won the egg roll off and the prize lamb.

Sunday morning we found our Easter baskets and had a fun family egg hunt in the yard before church.  The choir did the program at church and it was a meeting filled with beautiful music.  Brooke played "He is Risen" on the violin in a trio that was also beautiful.  We ended the day with a steak dinner with Ludlows on our deck.  So nice to have family to share Easter with!

 

Williamsburg Trip

Last spring, Mike's parents came to visit just after Michael was born, and we worked them into the ground with yard projects that needed to be done.  This spring, they got smart and knew that for us to stop doing yard projects, we probably needed to leave our house, so they invited us to join them for a timeshare week in Williamsburg.  We had plenty of things we wanted to do there, and we had a great week hanging out with them!  We all loved the quality time with grandparents, and enjoyed the nice two-bedroom condo we stayed it.  I LOVED having a kitchen and a place to hang out that was separate from the bedrooms. 

The highlight of the trip for the kids was Busch Gardens, which we visited twice.  The first day we were there from open to close, and Michael was such a trooper.  This was the only ride they let me bring him on, and he loved it.  He happily hung out in the stroller the rest of the day and was so good to just watch the excitement going on around him.

We met up with friends there and these three girls were roller coaster maniacs!  

Natalie begged constantly for us to take her on "more fun rides," and we loved watching her and Evan be buddies on this trip.  

Evan loved most of it, but his favorite ride was Europe in the Air (a movie of Europe that you watch in a similated room that acts like a jet).  He loved it and begged to ride it over and over!

We ended the long day with funnel cakes, which in my opinion, is the perfect way to exit a park!  We went back on Friday morning for about three hours before it got crowded to catch all the roller coasters a few times and to take Evan and Natalie on their favorite rides.  We had so much fun!

In our down time, the kids loved playing on the iPad.  Natalie is an iPad junkie, and I'm glad Papa captured this shot of her!

We spent Wednesday afternoon checking out Virginia Beach.  The water was COLD (see Brooke's face below), but we couldn't resist getting in and running from waves. 

 

Natalie loved the playground on the beach, and is trying to become the next Dora swimsuit model.

 

Michael loved the sand, and he especially loved eating it.  I can't figure out why babies eat more than one handful, but mine seem to love it!  Gross.

 

The boardwalk was fun, and Allan and Brenda rented this cute bicycle and took all the kids for a bike ride. Everything was going great until it started to rain.  :)  The kids in the front got a bit wet and cold, but they still went to the end of the boardwalk and back to check it out.  Allan and Brenda had tired legs by the time they were done!

This is the whole crew outside our condo.  We loved the place we stayed (Wyndham Governor's Green), and especially loved the heated indoor pool and hot tub and the mini golf.  

Brooke and Megan spent an afternoon shopping in Colonial Williamsburg and settled on these hats, which they came home and added their own ribbon to to decorate and personalize them.  I love my pioneer girls!

We spent one afternoon at Jamestown and loved looking through the incredibly well-done museum and playing outside in the living history section.  Allan was nice enough to take the three youngest outside so the rest of us could enjoy the museum, and I haven't had such a peaceful time in a good museum for years! (Thank you, Papa!).  

Michael was happy the whole trip.  He loves being outside and checking out new things, and he really was great.  He only fussed when we put him in his carseat (not his favorite place!)

The ships at Jamestown are the most amazing thing.  I can't believe people lived for five months in these tight quarters and crossed the ocean on them.  Truly amazing stories of endurance and survival after their crossing and very cold, hungry first winter in 1607.  So many died of exposure and starvation that the settlement nearly didn't make it.  

 

Wow!  A shot of the whole family looking at the camera.  Amazing.  What a fun family trip!
Thanks for inviting us, Papa and B!

April Fools!

We love April Fool's Day at our home.  I grew up playing lots of pranks in my home, and then in college Mike and I continually played pranks on each other.  We have enjoyed playing fun pranks on the kids for April Fool's Day, but this year Brooke and Megan got back at us big-time.  Somehow, April 1 crept up on me and I forgot about April Fool's Day until late the night before when the girls were hiding, giggling, and being secretive.  I'm a little dense, but after about 45 minutes of this, I figured it out.  Mike was gone to Priesthood meeting for church, and they were planning all sorts of fun pranks to play on him.  They short-sheeted our bed, added chocolate to the milk carton to make it chocolate milk, and sewed the leg of Mike's underwear together on their sewing machine so he couldn't step into it in the morning.  When we woke up Sunday morning, Megan had woken up in the night and toilet papered our bathrooms and bedrooms, and covered the toilet seats with Saran Wrap.  They also dressed Michael in a dress first thing in the morning and brought him into our bedroom all dressed up.  All sorts of great pranks going on here!  What happened at your home?  I need ammunition for next year!

Spring Happenings

We are so grateful it is spring!  (Allergies aside.)  The kids have had a delightful time rediscovering the backyard and the playhouse, so I snapped a few photos of some spring favorites that i wanted to remember.  Michael loves his swing!

One afternoon the neighborhood kids decided to put on a carnival in the backyard.  They had a cake walk, wagon rides, an obstacle course, ring around the rosy, and all sorts of other activities for the under six crowd to enjoy.  It was a perfect way to spend an hour and a half!

Our activity day girls at church had a Pinewood Derby activity and their dads helped them make cars to race.  Brooke and Megan had a great time designed, cutting, and painting their cars, and most importantly, sanding the axles.  Their hard work paid off, and Brooke took first place and Megan took third place.  

 

The first and second place cars after the final race.  Happy girls!  

Evan's class had a patriotic program where they all dressed up like someone patriotic (Evan chose a revolutionary war soldier) and they sang seven different patriotic songs.  After the program was over, Evan says, "Mom, I'm so glad our program was today.  Now we can quit singing all those songs!"  

Megan, Brooke, Cami, and Mackenzie are all dressed up and on their way to the school Sock Hop.  The girls are growing up and having fun doing some more social things on the weekends!

 

They are still kids though, and yesterday I found three girls having a delightful time in our blossoming cherry tree.  If you walked underneath them, they happily gave you a cherry blossom shower.