Luau's and daddy dates

 

Yesterday Miss thang got to go to PE. And on the one day I didn't have her wear shorts under her skirt!

It was also the 100 Book Challenge Luau. All the kids that read 100 books (and whose parents had them fill out their forms, no small feat!) got a lei, pizza, Popsicles, and then separated into groups for games. 

Everyone brought a beach towel to sit on. Luckily I saw a mom dropping off towels when I dropped D off so I was able to grab 2 for the girls. 

 

I got to take Frankie's group around. She had fun running the lei relay. 

And the beach ball hockey was everyone's favorite!  

All those kids going crazy for the ball, but my girl holds steady at the goal!

 

Then the groups juggle, which works better with less wind and not 1st graders. 

 

We love to party, so right after school we headed to Chick-fil-A for military appreciation night. Who loves free food? These guys!!!

 

We played on the bounce house and checked out all their fun setups until it was time for Frankie to go to dance. 

I wanted a crossbody purse for Mother's Day and I found one I liked from thirty-one. So when I started looking through the catalog I saw that I could sign up to be a distributervand get the bag I wanted plus some other fun bags for just a little more. It was fun opening our starter box!

Brenda is such a good A days leader that even in the midst of the biggest trial of her life, she still put on a wonderful night for the girls and their dads. Matt took it seriously and made Addie a cute candy lei (against my wishes, but whatevs) and insisted on driving separately from us so he could really treat her like a lady. I instructed him to get lots of pictures, so naturally this was the only one he took. 

He said none of the other dad's were taking pictures and he felt weird. Boys!

And some better Luau pics from chris. 

 

The kids had so much fun! In spite of some of the other kids that weren't able to attend sticking their tongues out at the attendees. 

 

One day Laney's new friend that's a boy, Clark had the pre-k princesses over. All 4 of them!

 

And Laney is a bratskee that doesn't snile for other people. She might be my first kid that behaves better for me than for other people. If I didn't think she was so awesome I'd be pretty amnoyed. 

 

Today and strawberries

We watched some more fun kiddos this morning. After they left we did some laundry including sheets. Delaney loves to do laundry, it's one of her 3 favorite chores - cooking, car washing, and laundry. She also enjoys being a mothers helper, oh be still my heart! On Sunday they had a lesson on 1 Nephi 3:7, "I will go and do the things the Lord commands," and she had to choose a chore that she would be obedient to do, and she chose mothers helper. LOVE. 

This afternoon Dari and I met for lunch at Salsa's and talked welfare. It's the one thing about my calling that still really gets me, I still have so many questions and unease about it, but that's probably because I know it's so important. I'm grateful to have the Stake Welfare Specialist in our ward. 

Addie, lanes, and I made a cheesy egg bake for dinner. Matt and I thought it was lovely, but the girls not as much. 

Then this evening Alecia and I went and did some visits. In the rain. We got to 5 of the 9 sisters we'd hoped to do. 2 sisters had moved, and 2 weren't home, but we had 1 really good visit, totally the reason alecia came with me and that we went tonight. I love seeing God's hand so directly. 

I've had Bubba on my mind a lot lately. I've been praying to know how to connect better with him, when to give him freedom and when to mom him. Tonight I came across a fun mom son journal (bought it), and also sent him a text telling him how much I love and miss him. He actually thanked me and said he'd had a really rough day. So then we had our longest phone call we've had since he became a college boy. Love, love, love. 

Last week we went to pick strawberries. D and I got there before they opened, so then we went and checked out a fun park nearby. 

 

There was no one else there and my little loner was in heaven.  

 

She loves playing by herself! She is so much like me! 

 

The weather lately has been so crazy. Hot, cold, hot, rainy, hot, cold, windy... anyhow, the strawberries were kinda slim pickings, but we managed to get several pounds and this weekend made some delicious freezer jam, and it all set!

Farm cutie picked a few, ate a few. She loves her some strawberries!

 

See?

 

It was such a hot day! 

 

And there were several school classes there so it was crowded. 

 

Before we left we checked out the animals. Charlie's Angels, these three are not. 

But they are cute!

Our crew. It will be so crazy to be out of playgroup next year! We'll have to have more girls nights and maybe some weekend play dates. 

 

Addie and Frankie are independent walkers, so if D and I dilly dally they often beat us home. I keep the house locked up tight, so this hot day they came in the garage and grabbed a drink out of the outside fridge. I thought they looked so cute chillin on the skateboard enjoying their juicies. And Addie was hot stuff in her new (to her) high tops. 

 

May stuff

The one picture I took today. It was a cray-cray day-day! We watched some busy kiddos this morning, went to the store, made muffins and dinner, went to yet another Daisy Scout event, and even more excitement. 

 

On Saturday laura made me weed our square foot garden beds. She and David brought over some plant starters, tomatos, peppers, radishes, and carrots. The girls and I weeded and yard worked together and it was nice and cool weather. And look at our cute little garden! The other square foot garden is full of strawberries. We picked like, a dozen!😂

 

Little Miss thang cane in one night to tell matt and I something and she just looked so cute. Such a precious little girl. 

 

This is what she wanted to show us: 

 

She'd written out every task on her chore board. She's such a studious little lady. 

Matt went up on Saturday to pick Dan up from the airport and take him to his summer apartment, so he was gone most of the day. 

 

On Friday there was an awesome, albeit short thunderstorm. 

I love when it's angry storm on one side of the sky, and nice clear day on the other. Frankie was my model.  She's a cute and silly one. 

 

Storm watchers. Such a nice evening. 

 

That day the elders had come over to mow the grass. I got out our ice dispenser to fill a pitcher if ice water for them because it was not a nice and cool day, more like hot and disgusting. D was enjoying some ice, when one got stuck to her lip, so she pulled it and it tore some skin off her lip. To appease her I gave her a bandaid that I thought might last for 30 minutes tops. She kept that silly bandaid on all day! She obviously struggled to eat and drink, but she did not want it taken off. It was several hours later that she finally let me slowly pull it off. Crazy. 

 

I found these gorgeous and delicious cookie pops in my church bag. Brenda gave them to her class and Addie gave them to me. They were a delicious treat to find!

 

Random catch up: take 873,431. 

The one with the tea party

This morning we churched it up. I love going to church. If I am prepared I always come away with more knowledge and light than I had before. I love my ward family. 

After church we got started on cookies right away. Thank goodness for good neighbors that answer sos calls for vanilla. Always happens on Sundays. I made my favorite sugar cookies and then let Frankie choose colors to add to the frosting. 

 

Then we had fun decorating them after they were frosted. I don't have the right tools, but we did our best. 

 

And then it was tea time!

 

I've always wanted to have a tea party with my girls and friends, but I don't have any cute tea cups. Bumsie. 

 

Frankie was so excited to get dressed up. She had gloves and her purse and hat. Love her!

 

These two fancy ladies are ready to party, dah-ling!

 

Frankie tried the tea but didn't like it. All the other girls drank at least two cups!

Silly Daisy's!  

Tonight we FaceTimed sissy. Half the time D doesn't want to talk, the other half she wants her head right up in the camera. She told sissy, among other things, that she didn't like her bangs. I don't know whether to be proud of her that she'll never be swayed by the crowd or mortified that she always speaks her mind, no matter how rude. 

 

May is full force upon us. So far we've only finished piano, but even being done with 1 activity feels pretty good. We are R-to-the-eady for summer!

Mothers days and 5K's

 

Addie has been participating in running club for a few months now. They have trained every week to be able to run the Leatherneck 5k. Saturday was the day! This little Addie lookalike requested a pic with my glasses. 

 

Unfortunately we have had a major rainy spell lately and Saturday was wet, cold, and windy! We layered and poncho'ed up and we were ready to run!

 

She kept the poncho on for about a mile before she ditched it and I got to carry it the rest of the way. I let her set the pace, so we did lots of walking. 

 

There were some tears towards the end due to a running cramp, but she was a total trooper. It was really kind of miserable and I was so proud of her that she did it! She was so happy to get her medal! She asked me when I got my first medal so I was able to impart some wisdom about believeing in yourself and working hard. 

 

It was an emotional and challenging weekend. A family in our ward lost their son suddenly and that has weighed heavily on my mind all weekend. Then we also had a date night planned, but something else came up and that got pushed back. Alls well that ends well and datenight was semi-salvaged. Alecia was so sweet to host and it got me thinking that this summer would be a great opportunity to do date night swaps. 

Mother's Day was a wonderfully lazy and pampered day. Started off with breakfast in bed and then I was presented with lots of special cards from my artistic girls. They had guarded their school made cards so that they were a big surprise to me. They are so sweet. 

 

We sent this cute shirt to my mom. She's one cool grandma!

 

I also got a nap, ate some delicious leftover lasagna, and got to choose a family movie. I talked to both the college kids and left a message for my mom. Pretty good Mother's Day!

Addie loves the "I survived" books, and Delaney was reading and pondering the one about Pearl Harbor one day, so we sent a pic to grumps. His dad, my grandpa, and the girls great-grandpa actually did survive Pearl Harbor. 

 

Grumps sent us back this:

 

And then a little bit of this. To which sassafrass said "I don't even know who that is," and walked away. 

 

She also sent papa her patented Laney texts. She writes each persons name, first, middle, last, and usually adds the age for good measure. It looks like this:

Delaney

Noelle

Ray 5

She did every family member and because she's a slow texter, we left papa in suspense for awhile. Fun with the five-year-old!