Dream Castles

Jennie, like all of her siblings so far, is just too smart for her britches.  This doesn't mean that any of my children have any common sense whatsoever - because they don't.  But they are very good at all things scholastic.  Having already had one nightmare year with a child who entered Kindergarten already reading on a first or second-grade level, I have done my best to deliver all subsequent children to their first day of Kindergarten without knowing how to read.  I succeeded with Cannon, and was very proud of myself.  He learned how to read with all the other children.   And I have tried - really tried - to do the same with Jennie.  She went to preschool last year, and learned way too much.  So I decided to keep her out of preschool this year in an effort to stall her learning.  To sooth my conscience, I told myself I would do art projects with her during the school year so that she still had something to do and learn.
Well, I totally failed.
The child is reading like crazy, and we've done about half-a-dozen art project since school started last fall.   
Sigh.
But Jennie found a book called something like 50 Things to Do at Christmas Time.  (No matter how I try, there are always a few Christmas things that escape the packing-up process, and hang around all year long.) She has carried this book around with her everywhere, and even sleeps with it.  She eventually talked me into doing a couple of the more simple art projects found therein.  The one she was most excited about was a castle advent calendar.  We made a few adjustments.  (Left out the snowflakes and the numbered doors that open), and made some castles.  The girls loved it.  Lydia especially enjoyed the opportunity to use scissors and glue. I think she used almost a whole stick of glue on this project, but they turned out beautifully.

Cannon's Birthday

Just remembered that I never posted about Cannon's birthday.  Poor neglected child.  So here it is.  At the end of February, Cannon turned SEVEN.  Now, there's nothing so stunning about seven, until you start thinking that there's only one more year until he turns EIGHT.  Now that is stunning. 
My Georgie-Porgie is a cute little guy.  He's super-good reader - one of the best in the school - and he's a sweet boy who tries to keep up with his brother in everything.  He doesn't care that Ben's legs are longer, or that Ben has been going to school longer, or that Ben is just plain bigger - he still thinks he should be able to compete with Ben on Ben's level.  This means that the poor kid is disappointed quite a lot.  But he still keeps trying, and I'm sure that one of these days Ben will be shocked to find that Cannon has kicked his butt - in everything from foot races to times tables.
When I asked Cannon what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said, "Caramel."  How in the world do you make a caramel cake?  So I got creative, and came up with what passed for a caramel cake.  It ended up being more like pie, actually, but no one complained because it was yummy.

All Cannon wanted for his birthday was two new Wii remotes.  If you've got a Wii, you know that that is an expensive request.  Because, of course, he has to have the nun-chucks to go with them so he can play Lego Star Wars.  So by the time I finished spending that whole pile of money, I wasn't willing to spend any more.  Still, it's not very exciting to just open a couple of remotes and be done - especially when you're at Grandma's house, and can't even use them until you get home.  So I went shopping at the dollar store.  Turns out he loved the dollar presents he got. 

So, note to self:  Next year save yourself a hundred bucks, and just go to the dollar store for all his gifts.

Happy Birthday, Cannon!  Love you, Bud!

There is Hope

OK, I know you've all been waiting for this.

Waiting for months.

And I know it's eleven days late.

(Sorry about that, but I'm sure the poor little flower is doing it's best.)

But after all the waiting, it has finally come.

 So may I present,

in all it's glory....

The first crocus of Spring!

Wahoo!  Winter won't last forever!  Spring is really going to come!

There is HOPE!!!

Valentines Day

Ah, Valentines Day. Such a lovey, fun holiday. It's a little different than when I was a kid, but it's still fun.  The kids these days are supposed to decorate a box and bring it to school for people to put Valentines in.  Some of the boxes get really elaborate.  Most of them are very creative and cute.  But at our house....
Well, Emily did put some effort into her box.  She didn't have a lot to work with, and with her mother sick in bed she was pretty much on her own.  But I thought it turned out alright, and she was happy with it.  Good job, Emily!

Ben wasn't willing to put any effort whatsoever into his box.  Or into the holiday at all, for that matter.  I picked out some Valentines for him while he was at a friend's house and brought them home for him.  He seemed to like them, and he took them to school on VDay.  However, no one will know they were from him, because he didn't bother writing anything at all on them.  Nothing at all.  No To: or From: , just a paper valentine.  But at least he gave out candy with them, and that's all the kids really care about anyway, right?  As for his box, he decided a grocery bag would do.  I talked him into upgrading to an ice cream bucket, which he was very reluctant to do.  (We wouldn't want anyone to think he actually cared, now would we?)

 

Good thing he's going to be in Middle School next year, where they don't really do the whole valentine exchange thing.  I'm sure he'll miss the candy, but I don't see him losing any sleep over not getting any valentines.

Cannon, on the other hand, seemed pretty excited.  He didn't have to make a box (thank goodness), he just had to take his valentines.  He very carefully wrote his name on the From line of every one, and happily ran off to school Friday morning.  I was supposed to help with his party, but since I had a fever, I didn't show up.  I do have some idea of what they did, though.  And one of the things they were supposed to do was write a letter to their parents for Valentines Day.  Such a sweet idea.  And surely such a sweet boy as Cannon would have something nice to say to his favorite mom?  Well, here's his letter.  I hope you can read it.

Not that there were any leftovers, of course.  

Happy Valentines Day!  Here's to an even better one next year!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Ugh!  I am so sick.  I've got a fever and a cough, and all my bones ache.  And, of course, my head hurts.  Doesn't it always?  So my loving sister, Jamie, wrote me a poem to help me feel better.  Or at least I thought she did.  Turns out she just found it on the web somewhere.  But it was really so clever that it cheered me up, and I thought I'd share it. Yes, I imagine I'm committing some kind of plagiarism, but Jamie did it first!

You have the flu.
You're breathing glue.
And feeling kind of hot.
Your fever's high,
And though you try,
Your nose stays full of snot.

So drink some tea,
And think of me.
As far as I can tell,
You'll get no hug
Or see my mug
Until you're feeling well.

Murder Mystery Dinner

Well, I find myself with both the time and the inclination to blog tonight.  So now the question is, what to blog about?  And I guess that would be the murder mystery dinner that I put together last week.  So here we go.
My group of friends has talked about doing one of these for forever, but never have.  So I finally decided I was ready to take on the project and scheduled a night.  It turned out great!
We had Navajo Tacos for dinner, which didn't really go along with the theme of the night, but they sure were tasty! 
The party was supposed to be a bridal shower for one of the fictional characters.  This made it possible for us to have our party without any men.  (Not that we don't like men, of course.  It's that this was supposed to be a girls' night.)  This supposed bridal shower was taking place at Lady Godiva's Day Spa, which specializes in chocolate.  Chocolate body wraps, chocolate baths, chocolate facials....  the works.  Since chocolate body wraps and baths sounded like fun - but a lot of work - we stuck with chocolate facials. 

It really was an honest-to-goodness facial recipe.  And our skin did feel softer afterward.  And best of all - it made for some great pictures.

Three people died that night.  Pictured above is one of the bodies at the scene of the crime.  But never fear - we did figure out who the killer was, and brought her to justice.  Here she is.  Don't be taken in by her pathetic appearance.  She's really very dangerous.

 

Unfortunately, there were two murder weapons that were not found, and so still remain hidden somewhere in Kristen's house.  We had her husband hide them for us, and I'm afraid he had way too much fun with it.  

Good thing we had fun, too, or he would've been in big trouble.  Thanks for a great night, girls!

Flying

On Robyn's birthday in May, Stacy "gave" her a tandem flight in his paraglider.  It's taken us 'til October to get it done, but last Saturday, Robyn finally got to fly!

She had to wait a while up on the hill while Stacy took a test flight to make sure all the conditions were good.  And, of course, she had to get all her gear on. 

But finally everything was ready, and they took off.  The take-off was a little rough, but they got up alright, and then stayed up for almost an hour and a half!

She said it was super cool.  She loved it!  Her only complaint was that it was cold.  And I believe it.  It was cold just standing on top of the hill.  So if she ever goes again, she's going to wear a heavy jacket and gloves.  But she's certainly hoping there will be a next time.  She's officially got it in her blood now.

Running a 5K

Last year I started running about the time school started.  I was thinking I was about ready for the Turkey Trot 5K in the first week of November, but brain surgery put a stop to that plan.
My only resolution this year was to run a 5K.  I was so disappointed that I hadn't been able to run that race in November.  But life goes on, and I didn't get around to running again until school started this year.  There is another 5K at the first of October that I didn't think I was ready for last year.  But this year I decided I'd better go for it, since who knows what can happen in a month?
So the day before the race, I got up early to go run with Katie.  I was just going to do one mile, and call it good so I'd be ready for the 5K the next day.  Turns out I didn't even make it a quarter mile before I twisted my ankle and fell.  I ended up flat out on the asphalt, and I have scraped up knees and a bruised elbow to prove it.  My ankle was the worst, though. 
Katie helped me limp back to my car, and I drove home.  I was sure that when I showed my ankle to Jef there would be nothing there, and I would have to say, "No really.  It REALLY hurt when I did it.  It still REALLY  hurts."  But turns out when I took off my socks and shoes, I didn't have to do any convincing at all.  It already looked like a big egg had grown inside my ankle.  The swelling continued to increase, and spread all the way around my ankle.  Now the swelling has gone down, but the color is better.  I wish I would have taken this picture one day earlier, since I think the color was even better yesterday.
Needless to say, I didn't run that 5K.  I'm not even sure if I'll be able to run the Turkey Trot in November.  I've been trying to stay off of it (pretty much impossible), keep it wrapped, and apply ice, but it's still having a pretty hard time.
Why is it so hard for me to get to a 5K?  People do it all the time.  Running the distance doesn't seem to be a problem for me, it's just making it to the race.  Maybe it's just not meant to be.  And it does seem like running is a rather dangerous sport for me. Tackle football might be safer.

Looking Better

So, my hair's been driving me crazy the last couple of weeks because it's getting too long. Not that it's very long, but it's getting too long to do what I like it to do.
But last night at the soccer game, I ran into an older lady from the ward. She told me that she was so glad to see that my hair was finally growing back. (It's been almost a year since my surgery.) She'd noticed in the last couple of weeks that it was finally looking good again, and she was so glad.
Umm... thanks?

Lydia's Song

Lydia was being so cute in the bathtub the other day. After I got her dressed and brushed her hair she was still singing. Even though it made me miss my session at the temple (Sorry Katie). I decided I had to take a few minutes and record her song.

Cannon Wrestling

I've been wanting to post this video since March, but every time I went to do it, there was no video button! And whenever I did see the video button, it was at a moment when I didn't have time to upload a video. (It takes forever.) But finally today the planets aligned, and you can finally see this video of Cannon wrestling. It cracks me up every time I watch it. I don't know who the poor kid was who got paired up with Cannon that day, but I'm sure he wasn't expecting this!

Hooray! I did it! Thanks for the suggestion, Chelsi!

Thinking Ahead

Just now I took Emily with me to Wal-Mart, where I bought a large tub of ice cream.
On the way home, Emily said, "I want a treat.  What's something we haven't had in a long time?"

I said, "Emily!  We just bought ice cream!"

She said, "I know.  I was just thinking ahead."

---

This evening I was standing in the kitchen fixing dinner, and was starting to get annoyed by the constant honking of a car outside. My kids were all in the living room doing nothing, so I thought one of them could look out the window and see what was going on.
I yelled, "Who's doing all that honking?"
But instead of looking, they each gave me their usual answer.
"Not me!"