Happy 14th!

Malia turned 14 yesterday!! I wrapped her door opening so she had to go through the wrapping paper to get out of her room. It was the last day of school (and a half day), so she and her friends went out to lunch and then to the movies, then she came home and helped me get ready for her party.



The girls went on a neighborhood scavenger hunt, and then came back for dinner (homemade calzones (I made over 60), fruit, and party junk food), did a little crafty, opened presents, had cake (my best attempt at Gandolfo's chocolate mousse cake), and then played night games until they were frozen. Based on the silly, crazy, loud laughing, I think the whole thing was a lot of fun!

And Even More May (Exactly how long is this month anyway?!)

Anaya graduated from Kindergarten yesterday! This school does such a cute little graduation program! She had a really sweet teacher this year, and Anaya kept telling me over and over how much she loved school.



After graduation we went out for lunch and ice cream, grabbed our field day game and headed back to the school to play field games with the 1st graders. All was going well until this little guy scooted past my feet and down the middle of my obstacle course!! I'm not scared of snakes, unless they sneak up on me like that.... After the kids got done screaming, they thought it was the coolest thing ever!

After games they had Popsicles and headed back in right before it rained, and I left totally overjoyed that that was my last time volunteering at the school for the year!! YIPPEE!!!


Today was the last day of school for everyone. McKay woke up happier than he has in MONTHS!! I was right there with him! It's also Malia's 14th birthday today! More on that later...

More May....

Last weekend the boys headed up for a the father and son camp out. This is what they woke up to:



McKay wasn't bothered by the cold, and said that he slept really well. His favorite things were helping build the fire, putting sticks in the fire, standing by the fire, using his pocket knife to get more sticks to put in the fire, and he said he LOVED that "Mom wasn't telling him to go to bed a million times!" (He told that to Rik several times...) (Also, just so you know, a "million" is a slight exaggeration. It's more like 150 times a night that I tell him to get in bed!)

While the boys were staying up late, Taisha, Anaya and I did some of their favorite things (Malia was at Lagoon with her choir, so she missed girls night out). We went out for dinner, shopped, and then went out for dessert. While we were shopping, we found these:

Anaya is in HEAVEN with some real, non-dress-up, high heels. She slept in them, and was SO excited to go the church so she could wear them.

This whole "obsessed with shoes" thing is all very foreign to me. Through the years, having my arms full of babies and toddlers, and all the gear that goes with them, my only stipulation for a pair of shoes was that they be slip-on shoes. Then a few summers ago, I got a pair of flip flops that were like being barefoot (no support whatsoever!) They were cute, and I loved them, but after a couple months of wearing them I had completely ruined one of my heels. I ended up developing plantar fasciitis, and was in a lot of pain! After doing some research, and talking to friends and neighbors, I decided to try some different shoes in an attempt to avoid cortizone shots or surgery. I tried several kinds, I discovered that my feet LOVE Chacos. I started wearing them from the second I woke up, and after a while, all the pain went away! It was wonderful! There aren't dressy Chacos though, so I would get ready for church and put my Chaco flip flops on with my nylons, and change into church shoes right before I left. Except all the times I forgot, and showed up at church with my Chacos flip flops and nylons. So to summarize, my shoe style is slip-on Chacos and Chaco flip flops with nylons. I'm super cool! I've decided that Anaya gets her shoe/high heel fetish from Rik. Er, um, not that Rik wears high heels, but Rik has probably 3 times more shoes than I do (or more), and his sisters sure like their heels (I'm thinking there is a "high heel" gene at work here.) I've even seen his sisters wearing heels with sweats. This doesn't even compute in my head... but neither did the high heels and pajamas from the other night!

On a different note, McKay lost both his top teeth in a matter of a few days. And even more shocking, the Tooth Fairy actually remembered to come BOTH TIMES, take the teeth, and leave the money right under his pillow. I think the Tooth Fairy deserves a cheesecake for that (or maybe a new pair of shoes....)

Almost done.... almost done.....

This week has been a whirlwind of rehearsals, recitals, field trips and school projects. I tried to record Anaya's dances with the video feature on my little camera, but it turned out really blurry. So when Malia had her piano recital (Wednesday night) I decided I would try my iPod to see if the quality was any better. Right before her recital I hurried and downloaded a free icamcorder app. But, duh, the icamcorder I downloaded only let you record 15 seconds at a time (hmm... wonder why it was free?) So that didn't work out so good either! But earlier when Malia was practicing, she would record herself playing on one of our MP3 players, so she could hear what needed work. I pulled one of those practices off the MP3 player. I guess that will have to do at this point! It's not perfect, but boy, this song is tough!



She also played a classical piece, and I have it recorded in 15 second increments, but honestly she has been playing it since November, and we are all kind of sick of here! I turned her pages for her at the recital, but I was so nervous for her (does that ever go away??), that I think I made things worse. She told me after, that she could tell by my breathing that I was nervous, and that made her even more nervous... nice!

So, let's see, we're down to a choir concert tonight, I'm helping at some type of hot dog party in McKay's class tomorrow morning, the boys are going on the father and sons camp out tomorrow night after Kayden gets home from Boise (State track and field, he left this morning), Malia is going to Lagoon tomorrow with her choir, and then woohoo... WEEKEND!! Next week is far more do-able...at least that's what I'm telling myself...

Lookin' Good

Since I'm scanning stuff in...

Spring Dance Recital

Anaya's dance recital was last night. She loved being on stage, and says she wants to do dance again next year, just so she can do more recitals. I'm thinking at some point she would probably love to ballroom dance. Doesn't that sound like it would be right up her ally (high heels, make-up, pretty dresses, and dancing with a boy???) They did their tap dance to "Zipadee Do Dah," and their ballet dance to "Take to the Sky." She did great!

Anaya and Addison (best friends) in their dressing room.

Kayden's Famous Legs

The other day Kayden text me that his legs were on the front cover of the newspaper. I was thinking it was a track picture, but was wrong:

That's Kayden in the dragon head!

Yippee for Easy Sundays!!

We had Stake Conference on Sunday, and took advantage of the fewer/shorter meetings. We drove up to Cress Creek and hiked around a bit. It was beautiful!

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

So the big dance came and went, and I think Kayden had a lot of fun. It was a busy day for all of us, but over all went good. We ended up feeding them dinner at our house. Notice the good group picture I got... somehow I managed to get 1/2 of Kayden's head, and missed his date completely. Just another one of those "good mom moments."

So with all this boy/girl stuff going on, I've been noticing how different boys and girls are. It's especially apparent with my two youngest kids. McKay and Anaya are 16 months apart in age, are a year apart in school, have been parented almost identically, but are so totally different from each other. For instance, yesterday while getting everyone ready for church, I had to tell McKay that no, he couldn't take his G.I. Joe guys and guns to church. Nope, not even if he made the gun noises quietly. A few minutes later I had to convince Anaya that no, she couldn't wear her play high heels to church. Nope, not even if they matched her pink church dress. A couple weeks ago I had Anaya and McKay sitting by me drawing. Anaya was drawing a princess with puffy sleeves and a beautiful dress, rainbows and flowers. McKay, on the other hand, was drawing a robot that ate an alien (you could see the alien in the robot's stomach), and a speech bubble that said "BURP!" next to the robot. And you know how McKay wrote me stories about camping with attack skeleton dogs? Well, Anaya wrote me a story entitled, "I Want Hi Heels." Here's her story (by the way, it was homework and had to be turned in...): "I like pritty shoes. I want pink hi heels. I hope my mom gets me hi heels cuz I like hi heels so much. The End." Anaya tends to socialize too much with her neighbors at school, and McKay gets in trouble for making noises with his arm pits (apparently that's distracting...) Yep, boys and girls are so different!

Kayden came home the other day and told me that girls are dumb. He's discovering that girls are more emotional and sensitive than boys. Then he looked at me and said, "Oh, except for you mom." So I guess he's kind of learning...

Daddy Daughter Date

I just got some cute pictures from Taisha and Rik's daddy daughter date.

Whoa.... it's May! Let the countdown begin to the end of school!!!