UP in 3D

As our first official family activity of the summer, we took the kids to see UP. It is exceedingly rare for us to go the theater and was a bit painful to shell out $8.50 a ticket (for the matinee!), but we had a good time. I absolutely LOVED the first 30 minutes or so of the movie, thought the middle was okay, and loved the last five minutes. I laughed out loud at parts and was completely surprised that a Pixar flick could move me to tears (no less than 3 times). The little Boy Scout reminded me so much of Ben. When he started talking about cumulonimbus clouds, I almost wet my pants . . . it was just such a Ben thing to say. The 3D animation was awesome! The kids were less impressed than I thought they would be, but I thought it was amazing. Nate gave it an 8. For me it would have been a 10 if wasn’t for those talking dogs.

Retro Post - Ben's Kindergarten Graduation

May 2007 – It’s funny how clearly I remember Ben’s kindergarten graduation program. I can still picture it. He knew all of the songs, but he didn’t really sing them during the actual program. We joked at the time that he had a future in talk radio since he had already mastered the seven second delay. All the kids would stand up and Ben would stand up seven seconds later; every action for the songs was fairly well synchronized except for Ben . . . seven seconds later. I love that boy! I love seeing his cute baby-tooth-smile in these pictures. He seems so little.

Ben made huge progress during Kindergarten. His teacher, Mrs. Funk, was absolutely fabulous. We loved her!

Here are a few more pictures from Ben’s last week of school:

School's Out!

It was another fun and busy week. Memorial Day was great. Nate took the day off so we could play. We started the day off with a little shopping trip and then we took the kids for a bike ride. At this house that means loading up all the bikes on the van and heading down to the flatlands. We went to a fabulous park in Farr West. We rode through the neighborhood and then played at the park for while. Elise wanted a chance to ride her bike too, so we did a few laps around the bike path at the park. Those folks out in Farr West still believe in using the real stuff to fertilize their fields, so it was a little stinky but lots of fun. We finished off the day with some pizza and a family movie. I love lazy family days!

The kids had lots of fun activities at school this week. When I was a kid, we had a field day at the end of the year, but I remember that it was mostly about races and we got one popsicle at the end of the day. These days the whole last week of school is one big party. Both Ben and Emily got to go swimming for their reading incentive activity (Elise thought this was entirely unfair!). On top of that, Ben had a combo field day/fieldtrip at the Ogden River Parkway and Dinosaur Park, Emily had a class picnic (complete with cotton candy), and then the kindergarten field day was today. Nate and I went down to do the candy cannon for the kindergarteners. It was great fun. Elise was an awesome helper! She filled the cup with candy each time and retrieved every rocket after we launched it. I think it took every ounce of willpower she had to pick up the empty bottle and not grab any of the candy. We rewarded her with a big Slurpee on the way home.

I love this picture just because it shows what different personalities our kids have. I was looking at Ben’s field day pictures today and he made it to exactly six of the 15 games. Emily went to every one. She explained to us on the way home that "the mom at #2 didn’t have a pen and there was no #9."

The kids were only home for about three minutes before they were off to friends’ houses to play. I have a feeling that there will be lots of neighbor time this summer. After Nate got home, we gave each of the kids an end of school gift and took them out to Sizzler to celebrate the end of another school year.

I am so excited to have my kids home for the summer. I know that I will probably be singing a different tune after a few days, but for now it sounds blissful to have lazy mornings and no homework and lots of play time. I printed off a summer calendar yesterday and loaded it up with fun activities to keep us busy. I figure that if we are out doing stuff every day, the kids will be happy and the house will stay reasonably clean. It’s a win-win.

Family Pictures

In January I won an awesome giveaway on Mormon Mommy Blogs for a free photo shoot with Annie Jarman of Little Fire Photography. We decided to schedule it for the springtime so we could get some good outdoor shots, and yesterday was the big day. Annie was super nice and great to work with. It was fun to work with a real photographer (as opposed to the 19 year olds at Kiddie Kandids or the self-timer on Nate’s camera). It made Nate want to learn lots more about the special features on our camera and me want to figure how to do some cool PhotoShop tricks. We won’t really get our pictures for a couple of weeks, but she put a few on her blog. Our last family picture was taken two years ago, and I’m excited to replace it.

Four More Links in the Countdown Chain

The last two weeks of school feel a bit like a marathon. I decided to do a quick post for this week, because if I wait a few more days, it will all become a big blur of programs and fieldtrips and parties. Here is our week in review:

Ben participated in the second grade talent show on Monday. When he first heard about the talent show, he told me he wanted to do his “jump-spin.” That is exactly what it sounds like and doesn’t really take much talent. I talked him out of that and he decided he would just dance, because he is “a really good dancer!” (Picture Napoleon Dynamite.) Finally, we settled on him playing the piano. Phew. He played “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and did a great job. I love that he is still young enough that his face lights up when he sees his mom and dad in the crowd.

Thursday was Emily’s kindergarten graduation program. She was so excited about it and has been singing the songs for the last two weeks. After bedtime, she and Elise would lie in their beds and sing every song from the program three or four times. It was fun to hear Elise (and occasionally Abby) singing along quietly during the program. Nate snuck out during the kindergarten slideshow to go watch Ben’s class put on their puppet shows. We are getting better at the divide and conquer game as our kids get older. Then we hurried home for Elise to get ready for her last day of preschool. She has had loved going to our little neighborhood preschool this year. It was a great thing for both of us. She is looking forward to being in Miss Jamee’s class next year.

Yesterday was Emily’s fieldtrip to the zoo. I was pretty excited about going with her. Nate went to almost all of Ben’s kindergarten fieldtrips because Abby was a newborn. It was fun for me to take a turn. There were loads of parent volunteers, so I just had to keep track of Emily and one other little girl named Kate. It was so easy. They were cute and fun and we had a great time. I love those one on one times as a mom.

Last night was the annual Fathers and Sons Campout for our ward, so Nate and Ben loaded up the van after school and headed out. The girls and I picked up yummy Chinese food from Maple Express and came home and watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I’m not such of fan of talking dog movies, but the girls loved it. Then we painted our nails while we watched Snow White. Someday, I will take them all shopping and out to eat for our girls’ nights, but for now the stay at home plan works great. Abby kind of freaked out when it was time for family prayer and Nate and Ben weren’t here. She kept running around saying “Daddy and Ben, Daddy and Ben” and then she just started sobbing. I tried to explain, but it didn’t help. I’m sure glad that Nate doesn’t have to travel for work if she is this traumatized by a one-night camping trip.

Nate and Ben had a great time. Ben was not happy that chili was on the menu (he has always hated chili), but he tried it and liked it. I’ve heard that it takes eleven times of tasting a food before you like it . . . this must have been lucky number 11. I asked him what he liked best about the campout and he said “I loved hanging out with Dad, and playing with Korbin a lot, and sitting by the campfire, and sleeping in the van, and roasting marshmallows in the morning.”

We filled the rest of the week up with scouts, more scouts, a soccer party, a birthday party, visiting teaching, lots of neighbor friends, and another bout of illness for me. I’m ready for a couple of lazy summer days with nowhere to go and nothing to do!

New Camera

I got a new camera for Mother’s Day. I have yet to take a picture with it, but Nate tells me it is pretty nice. In all fairness, it really is a combo Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/Anniversary gift for us. He’s just been breaking it in. We’ve wanted a new camera for a while now. We bought an SLR in October and then decided that we aren’t really SLR people. We wanted something that required less skill and less expense. After lots of research, we settled on the Canon SX10IS. So far, we love it. Our favorite feature is the 20X optical zoom. Nate was playing around with it at Ben’s soccer game on Saturday. The girls were blowing bubbles and dandelion seeds with their friend Natalie.

Nate took this picture . . .

. . . from this far away.

Awesome.

Belated Mother's Day Post

WARNING: This is very much a “mommy blogger” post/novel and I fully recognize I am the only one that won’t be bored by reading it. I won’t feel offended if you "mark as read” and check back another day.

It’s been a week since Mother’s Day and I still haven’t blogged it. Sometimes life is just too busy for blogging. I guess late is better than never.

I have mixed feelings about the whole Mother’s Day thing. It seems like there’s too high of an expectation for everything and everyone to be perfect and I feel like it shines a spotlight on all the ways that I don’t measure up as a mom. That being said, I do love the good food and I love that the kids try so hard to be good. I’m learning to go in with low expectations. The highlights this year were breakfast in bed, chocolate covered strawberries, yummy turkey sandwiches on homemade (Rhodes) rolls, and having my kids sing to me at church (and Ben singing me a solo when he got home since he decided to be a turkey when it was time to sing at church). I got fun presents . . . two of which I didn’t buy or help make for myself. We spent the evening taking pictures of Karl’s family and playing at the park. It was a good day.

I love being a mom. I love that I have four quality kids and that I know them better than anyone else in the whole world does. I’ve thought a lot this week about how much they have grown up. It makes me happy and a little sad . . . but mostly happy. Our goal is to raise happy, responsible, independent kids. It is fun to see them taking steps (sometimes baby steps) toward that end. I want to remember the little victories that we celebrate in this house, so here a few recent ones:

Ben gave a talk in Primary a couple of weeks ago. It was just a normal, 8-year-old Primary talk about baptism, but it made me a bit teary. As he stood up there reading his talk perfectly, my mind jumped back to his first talk four years ago. He was my little late-talking Sunbeam who HATED going to church. His talk was on Noah’s ark. I think Nate and I were the only ones that actually understood the words he was saying and that is because we had written them. Sometimes it is hard to see the progress the kids are making from day to day, but when I saw him up there so confident and speaking so clearly, it hit me like a ton of bricks how far he has come in the last few years. It was a good moment!

Emily is a sensitive girl. That used to mean that she was kind of emotionally fragile and she would get her heart broken really easily. Luckily, she has toughened up a bit over the last couple of years (there’s nothing like preschool and kindergarten to give you a tough skin). I don’t worry so much about her holding her own on the playground anymore. The best part is that her heightened sensitivity has made it so she can read people really well. She seems to have a sixth sense about when someone is feeling sad and goes out of her way to make them feel better with a hug or a picture or a love note. She is a sweet girl that way. She also has a great sense of humor. She isn’t so funny herself, but she gets jokes.

Elise is our random, funny, spontaneous and (I hate to say it) LAZY little girl. She will do anything to get out of working and it has been more than a little difficult to create any kind of a work ethic in that turkey. Imagine my surprise last week when she cleaned up the whole playroom . . . by herself . . . without being asked! I know it was an anomaly, but it gave me hope that she has it in her to work. We’ve already told our kids that they are not living in our basement when they are 35, so hopefully we can help Elise develop into a little worker bee between now and then.

Abby is changing faster than the other kids and her progress makes me a little more sad since she seems to be growing up so fast. I promised myself that I wouldn’t keep my baby a baby forever, so I’m letting her move on to being a big girl even though I’m not entirely ready for it. My favorite new thing about Abby is listening to her sing. She has three songs in her repertoire and she sings them over and over . . . I Am a Child of God, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I guess she also knows a few lines from the Diamond Castle songs, but we don’t hear those as frequently. She also has a great vocabulary. It is funny to hear the words that come out of a two-year-old’s mouth when she has older siblings. Words like "Bakugans" and "Indiana Jones" and "awesome". My favorite new verbalization of the week is “Gramma Reesa.” My mom stayed here this weekend and Abby kept calling down the stairs to her at the top of her lungs, “Come here Gramma Reesa.” Very cute.

Nate's the Winner!

I kind of knew that he would be, but it was worth a shot. The funny thing is that I don’t always even love nutty brownies. I just got sick of Nate saying that “no one likes nuts in their brownies.” Now he will have to concede that 1 in 3 blog poll takers prefer nuts. That’s a small victory for me. In case anyone is worried about our marital harmony, we have worked out a good compromise. We keep the freezer stocked with butter pecan ice-cream. A scoop of that with a nice, dark chocolate, chewy brownie works for me and Nate isn’t subjected to disgusting nuts in his brownies. Everyone is happy.

Nate is a brownie purist. The cake-like brownie phenomenon is disturbing to him. He says (direct quote from his email today), "If you want a brownie, it should be a brownie. Dense, fudgy, chocolaty gooeyness. Cake-like brownies aren't really even brownies, they're chocolate cake. Can't we all just be honest in our naming conventions? Standards are slipping everywhere, but I'm manning the brownie parapet! While I may not agree with what you cake-lovers call a brownie, I'll defend to the death your right to eat it! Just don't go around tempting me with your advertisement of delicious 'brownies', and then feed me cake! A more airtight case of false advertising I can't imagine." I’m glad he gets fired up about the big issues in life.

POLL - The Great Brownie Debate

Nate and I are having a little difference of opinion about the popularity of nuts in brownies. Our online research didn’t yield any definitive results, so we decided to conduct a little survey of our own. Cast your vote in the poll on my sidebar. We have a milkshake riding on it, and I really want to win!

Blogging Slump

It is rare for me to go more than a week without blogging these days. We’ve been busy, but nothing has been blog-worthy (and I have a pretty low standard of blog-worthiness). Our time has been filled up with exciting things like soccer practice, homework, writing sacrament meeting talks, doctor visits (and getting expensive antibiotics), piano lessons, scouts, shopping, sickness . . . all the stuff that makes for quick dinners, late bedtimes, and piles of laundry. I’m trying to remember that it’s all just part of this season of life and we should try to enjoy it.

In the absence of something truly blog-worthy, here is a little random collection of items from the last couple of weeks:

Ben participated in the ward’s annual lip sync activity. The Primary boys lip synced to an a cappella/hip hop version of “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission.” They even learned a few dance moves. Ben had fun and looked so stylin’ in his suit and sunglasses.

The girls have been obsessed with Barbie and the Diamond Castle lately. Ben has always been passionate about any new interest, but the girls are much more of the “all things in moderation” crowd. This is the first real exception. They saved up their money for the DVD and have watched it over and over again. They have literally memorized every word of the movie and sing the songs constantly (much to Ben’s chagrin). They even call each other by the characters’ names . . . Emily is Alexa, Elise is Liana, and Abby is Melody. (It reminds me of my Charlie’s Angels days with my sisters . . . Jody was Sabrina, Holly was Kris, and I was Kelly). Abby is perhaps the biggest fan. She follows me around all day saying “watch diamon casso . . . watch diamon casso . . . watch diamon casso pleeeeeeeeeeeeease Mom.” It was cute the first 472 times she said it.

I just got called to be the Bear den leader in our ward. I am mostly excited and a little afraid. Or, mostly afraid and a little excited. Cub scouts has never been on my list of most preferred callings, but I’m determined to love it. I decided that it was selfish of me to want fabulous, dedicated scout leaders for Ben, but not be willing to put in some of my own time to the whole scouting scene. I went to my first den meeting on Wednesday. It calmed a lot of my anxiety. They are just boys. Loud, funny, spirited boys. We took them on a fieldtrip to the dinosaur park. It was fun to see the difference between boys and girls at that age. When I was an activity days leader, car rides were always so quiet. A couple of girls would talk in kind of hushed tones, but I actually felt uncomfortable with the silence. Not so with boys. They were loud. They made random comments and told lame jokes and even sang songs part of the time. I always think that Ben is a little spastic and out of control, but apparently that is pretty normal for 8-year-old boys. It should be a fun adventure.