The End Result...

Thanks to Heather and Cody, I ended up with a picture to take to Mother/Daughter night! A couple of the girls had planned a bunch of "Minute To Win It" games, then they divided us up into teams of about 6 people and had us do all the crazy stunts. It was really fun!

The last game of the night was to take us to the chalkboard where they had taped up and numbered all the pictures: the moms were on one half, and the daughters on the other, then we had to try to pair them up right.

What do you think...Would you have matched us up? :D

(Plus, laugh if you want at my mom's awesome patchwork-y jeans...We only see a small snapshot here, but what I'd give for a picture of the entire pair...)

Think it'll work...?

Sydney invited me to her Young Women activity tonight. (Well, she had to...It's the Mother/Daughter activity!) The invitation says to bring a baby picture of the mother AND the daughter.

So Sydney is easy...I know where those are. But mine? Hmmm.

Do you think I could just take another one of Sydney, crinkle it up a bit so it looks 35 years old, and pass it off as mine? We look alike, right?

Surprise...

I took Michael to the pediatrician yesterday for a check-up. While we were there, I asked if I had come in to do his Kindergarten appointment...Bad mom, couldn't remember! Anyway, she said that no, I hadn't, but do I want to just do it now? I told her I didn't want to throw off her schedule, and that I would just make an appointment. But my fabulous pediatrician wouldn't hear of it! She said, "You're already here, let's just do it now!"

The down side: Spencer had been teasing Michael ALL DAY about how he was going to have to get shots at the doctor, and I had spent the whole day reassuring him that, no...today was just a check up, don't worry about it.

When I turned and asked Michael if we could get his shots today instead of coming back, he looked at me and sighed, then said, "Okay." But as soon as I reminded him that getting shots earns a toy AND a sticker, he brightened up.

(We waited for the nurse to get his shots...it took about 5 minutes. While we waited, Michael kept pinching himself on the arms to "check if it was going to hurt".) He was a trooper! He took them like a champ...Then came home and gloated to the big kids that mom stopped and let him get a drink at the gas station! :D

Crib Notes, Part 2...

Hey, all. Remember this?

I guess our crib is supposed to stay empty a little while longer! We found out last night that our little angel is going to wait for us in heaven. We are sad, but we are lucky enough to know we will see and raise this baby in another time.

And who can blame this baby for not wanting to leave behind such fabulous spirits?! This little one is having a great time with Grandpa Crabb, and Great-Grandparents McPhie, Morrison, and McAlister...We know it will be in great hands!

Don't judge me...

Dress Rehearsal:

Hop in the car and head to the local Baskin Robbins. I've been dying to try their new flavor of the month, "Firehouse 31", which is red-hot cinnamon mixed with vanilla ice cream, so when I got the email saying to come on out to the $.31 scoop night, I told Lee to meet me there after work and we'd hook ourselves up. He suggested we eat dinner first, and then go back out...!?...Whatever. So that's what we did.

But before we left, I looked at my email one more time...Oh...Wednesday April 27th, NOT April 13th! (Hee-hee!) But it was too late...Our mouths were watering, the tasty waffle cone was calling my name, and it was too late to turn back...So we went anyway! Flavor of the month had to many chunks of cinnamon, not enough ice cream...But so glad I tried it!

So the REAL show is on the 27th...I'll be showing up for that one, too! This time, taking home the Cookie Dough...or maybe Oreo...or...Snickers? Can't go wrong, really...

Crib Notes...

For the longest time, over a year now, this is what you see when you walk into my room:

This is the crib/bedding we bought when we had Tyler for that short 6-week stay. Now here it sits. It does serve several useful purposes, though. Sometimes, it holds the dry cleaning. And it's a great place to put the new clothes Dad got for his birthday, that he hasn't tried on yet, so I can't iron them and put them away.

You can see the blanket and teddy bear that my niece, Brinkley, uses when she comes over on Mondays. Curtain rods for the day when I might actually finish Spencer's room and HANG his curtains...

So it's time to do SOMETHING about this catch all crib in my room! Should we dismantle it and take it to the DI? List it on ksl.com and see if we can make a few dollars?

Both seem like a lot of work to me. I know!...I'll just have another baby, so I can use it again! :D Yep...That's right. FIVE kids just isn't enough for us. We're having another! Only 9 weeks along, we've got a long way to go, but we are all so excited! The kids can't wait, and frankly, neither can I!

Wish us luck, though...SIX kids?!

Field Trip Fun...

Can I just say, field trips is one of my favorite things about having kids in school? I love when I get to go! In all the years of field trips, I've only ever missed one. (I didn't get my note in early enough, and they picked other parents...Rude!) It's a fun way to get to know the kids in my kids classes, and to see the teachers and visit with them a little outside of the classroom setting!

Yesterday I loaded up on the buses with Sydney's 6th Grade class. We headed downtown to visit the Clark Planetarium. Mrs. Herrscher (her teacher!) and I were talking about how she was kind of nervous. She'd never run field trip before; someone else was always in charge. We got to listen to/watch a 45 minute lesson about stars, constellations, and phases of the moon. After that was over, we had time to wander around (the kids enjoyed walking around on the "moon" and "mars"!) and look at everything. Lots to touch and look at...Great way to captivate even ME! Then we watched the Hubble 3D Imax movie that is playing down there. That was pretty cool, too!

Just to tell you how grown up THESE kids are, one of their lunch choices (besides bring one from home or have the school pack you one) was to bring money and buy your lunch at the food court down there. It was fun to watch...Lots of kids would buy part of their lunch at one place, something else at a second, and a dessert at a third! :D Couldn't make up their minds, what with all that money burning little holes in their pockets!

We hopped back on the bus at about 1:50, and as we sat down the teacher said, "Now we can call it a success!" But we didn't get back to the school until 3:20. Why, you ask? We had a little bus trouble...It just plain wouldn't go anywhere. So here we are, sitting in the emergency lane on the freeway (!!) for a good hour waiting to be rescued. Luckily, Sydney still thinks I'm cool enough to sit by her and her friends, so I wasn't too bored! We played "I Spy" and I picked topics and made them talk non-stop for a full minute without stopping or saying "Um...". (Syd's friend Caitlyn has three cute little feather extensions in her hair, blue, yellow, and red. Syd "spied" something blue...and Caitlyn guessed forever and finally gave up...and Syd tells her, "Your feather." Then the next time it was Syd's turn she "spied" something yellow. Again, Caitlyn guessed and guessed, then gave up...again, Syd said, "Your feather." Not sure why, but that made me laugh REALLY hard! :D

So we did eventually make it back to the school, after walking from one bus to the other right there in the emergency lane! And frankly, I would STILL call it a success! I'm glad I was there...What a great memory!

Dilema...

Last year, my sister-in-law Anna and I were talking about charter school, and she recommended one over near her...Providence Hall. She has been trying for a while to get in, and has had her kids on the wait list for a long time now, but no luck.

I was talking about how I am freaking out (just a little bit!) about Sydney starting Middle School next year. (Psychologically, I'm probably projecting. I can't think of a single happy memory from MY days in Middle School, and I am dreading the next three years for her...Although, she is WAY cooler than I ever was...of course, that's scary in it's own way, too, don't you think? (See? This is me, freaking out just little bit...Am I rambling?))

Sorry...I digress...Anna said that Providence Hall was starting a Middle School this year. So good in two ways...I'd feel like there would be a little bit more control over a smaller school population, and if I could get all 5 (5!...) kids enrolled I would have them all on the same school schedule, rather than the traditional/year-round split I'm looking at now. The down side: None of my kids think Charter School sounds fun. Sydney especially is not thrilled at the idea of uniforms and leaving her friends.

But I did it. I signed our kids up, and then waited for the lottery. We got word that Sydney had been accepted, but the other kids were "wait listed". After going back and forth for a while, we decided that maybe it would be better to keep her enthusiasm about school going in a positive direction, and since the schedules would be different if the rest of the kids were on year-round anyway, we'd let her go the her regular school.

Then a couple of weeks ago the school emailed me to see if I was still interested in having Sydney enrolled there. I explained the situation, and said that we weren't. She replied back, asking if the other kids made it in, would I have them all attend? I replied that I probably would, but given the "lottery style" drawing to fill slots, I didn't expect that was likely.

Then today, I got emails telling me the rest of the kids got in. WHAT?! So now I have to THINK some more about this. It seems like every time I make up my mind, something comes along and tries to change it again...!

What to do, What to do...

Something New!

We sell balloons at the Walmart I work at. Often, we'll have someone come in and put in a request for balloons to be filled that they'll come in and pick up later. We've gotten some pretty weird requests: Put this glitter/note in each balloon (asking someone to a dance), we even had someone try to put little tiny candy bars in the balloons (don't try it...the candy bar just might cancel out the helium!). But last night was a first for me. The note sitting with this order to be picked up today read: "Pick up at 2:00...No helium...they are for paper eggs" Um...Isn't that a pretty easy "do-it-yourself" project? (I kinda want to stop by my store and see the other CSM sitting at the service desk just blowing up 25 balloons for that order. Hee-hee...Love it.)

Got Them Good!

Here's how it starts:

Take 1 Dozen Raspberry filled doughnuts...

Use a straw to extract as much of the raspberry filling as you can...

Then dip in to your bottle of ketchup...

Perhaps a baby medicine syringe will work well...

Inject three good healthy squirts into the center of the doughnut...

You can't see pictures of them actually eating them, because I thought that would be a dead give away to my kids that something was fishy. But it was priceless. All five of them sitting around the table with their doughnuts, each of them starting to devour...And because the straw is really only so effective, there was enough real filling left in the doughnut to lure them in to taking that ONE giant bite of the center...! Ha-ha! Tory was the first to notice...He throws it down on the plate, and yells, "Ketchup!" Then a few minutes later Megan and Sydney look at each other and say the same thing. After Lee and I recovered from our laughter, we gave them all a REAL doughnut. (Michael and Spencer were actually sad when I took the "yucky" one away to give them their new one. They wanted to finish the first one!)

You can tell from Lee's face here that he was in on the joke, and the only doughnut he ate was actually filled with raspberry filling. Everyone else, not so much...!

By far our funniest trick ever...but now the game is on...I'm up for suggestions for NEXT year. It's gonna have to be GOOD!

April Fool's Day...

So my 9-year-old thought he'd be SO clever and try to prank his folks. Luckily, the 5- and 7-year-old are GREAT tattle tails! Plus, I could smell the mayo the minute I walked into the bathroom. (I'd post a picture, but even before the mayo, that toilet needed a good scrub...!) Oh...And Tory also tried to "doctor" up the soda that Lee grabs in the morning. But a soda that's been opened and then "reclosed" with tin foil...Yeah...Dad's too smart for that. Yum...Diet Coke with Lime...and Tabasco...and Worcestershire sauce... Oh just wait...Mom found a GREAT idea to try tonight. I may post pictures of THAT tomorrow! :D