Sing, Sing a Song...

It was Hailey's big recital day the other day. She had a dance dress rehearsal in the morning and her choir concert in the the afternoon, followed by her dance recital that night. (Don't forget the three hours of soccer too! It was an exceptionally busy day!) She was the smallest person in every group she was in, but she did a great job. She sang about six songs, some had actions or instruments to go with them. She wasn't nearly as animated as the other kids around her. I am not sure if it was just stage fright or something else. (It is hard to imagine my children with stage fright, but...) She danced to "It's not easy being Green." It was a cute little number and I would have had a great night if five people didn't chose her number to walk up and down the aisle to ruin my video recording of it. LISTEN PEOPLE: YOU only walk in the aisle BETWEEN numbers!!! She earned three medals that day and a big bouquet of flowers from mom and dad, so I think she had a great day too!

Super Saturday Soccer

For a few months of every Spring and Fall our Saturday's are consumed with Soccer. Usually three hours a day - unless there are games scheduled at the same time. Hailey proved to be quite a player this year. she scored quite a few goals for her team. Hayden did pretty well too, but I think he prefers to be a defender. Ethan played well, but his team was in extreme need of good coaching. So next year I have signed Ethan up to play with all of his school classmates. It will mean switching to a new league and jumping up a level, so hopefully he can get some real experience. I have signed Brady up to be Hayden's coach next year. I think Brady will do a great job, but I think he is a little nervous about it. Everybody who plays soccer seems to like it and they are signed up for next year too. See ya' on the filed in the fall!

BEES!!!!

We had some excite a few weekends ago. Hailey came into the house and said there were some bees on our apple tree. I said that was okay. It just meant that the flowers were being pollinated. Hailey said,"No, MOM! There are BEES on our tree!" So I went and looked as was astonished to see the large swarm that bent the limb of the tree down it was so heavy with them. I tried to call all kinds of people to come do something about it, but it was 4 p.m. on Friday and no one answered their phones. I did learn, however, that it against the law to kill honey bees. Eventually someone called me back and came to the house to get them free of charge, but we weren't home when they came over. We had to have our neighbors let the guy in. More or less, he just brought a big box, cut off the limb and placed it in the box and once the queen was in there the rest followed. It was amazing how close you could get to that many bees, but we were still pretty glad to get them out of our yard as quickly as possible!

Party with Girl Scouts

Hailey finished her first year as a Daisy Girl Scout in style. One thing I can say is that Girl Scouts know how to throw a party. The girls sold an amazing amount of cookies and earned a trip to Build-a-Bear to create their own animals. Hailey picked a dog she named Carly. After that they all went to Chuck-E-Cheese. They had tons of tokens and hours of fun. I was very happy for my time as a leader to end!

Silver Wolf

Last weekend I went to a Scout Leader training (Silver Wolf) at Camp Kiesel. It was great fun. All kinds of adults running around acting crazy. I have definitely forgotten how to be that carefree. However, I had a great time watching them and remembering all the old campfire songs and such that I used to know.

Since it had snowed and rained all week I was a little worried about the weather, but it was perfect...and not even muddy.

I slept in the very last room in the building on the upper bunk (scary!) There was a loud, gushing waterfall right outside my room, but when the door closed you couldn't hear it. But someone in the room set their alarm for 4:30 and didn't bother waking up to turn it off. When you opened the door from our room in the morning there were fresh (large) cat foot prints in the snow. We apparently had visitors in the night.

It was weird being away from the kids and not even able to phone them. When I finally got home and passed out all the goodies I had collected and shared the story of my experience, Brady commented that it was nice to see me all excited about something.

I must admit, I had a great time and came home fired up to do great and exciting things with my Scouts.

Happy Brieaster!

Easter was my Birthday. I claimed all day that I loved sharing my birthday with the holiday because it makes it extra fun. That statement is true. It is also good because then the focus isn't on me whole day. However, it was incredibly frustrating when my own father completely forgot it was my birthday at all. So, enough about birthdays...
I don't know why, but this year I never bothered getting out any of my Easter decorations. We didn't even dye any eggs this year. I though about it last weekend, but I figured there was no point since there was only a week left. My kids wanted me to get it out the night before, but I refused. I did have to get the Easter bunny stuff out though and I was surprised how much stuff cute stuff i had that I had forgotten about. Oh, well...next year I will be pleasantly surprised again.
Our Easter weekend was lots of fun. We woke up Saturday and headed off to the South Ogden days Easter Egg hunt. The kids always have a great time. They cordon off the field and throw hundreds of eggs out for the kids to collect. Different age groups are on different fields. I went with Hailey and Hayden. I didn't have to say anything to them. The siren went off and they were gone. Brady apparently had a little more difficulty with Andrew. Andrew had to ask before each egg if it was okay if he picked it up. He only got a few eggs.
I know that every year they pass out salt water taffy, so I should have known to look it up before we left. Taffy was the pretty much the only candy they did this year and we weren't sure if that was okay for Hailey so we told her she couldn't have any until we looked it up. It made her pretty sad.
We left that park and headed up to the college. We got there a little early and waited in line for twenty minutes. They cordon off a whole floor in the Student Union building and threw candy and toys all over. The hunt started at 10:00 and we were back in our car by 10 after 10. I took Andrew this time and he did a little better. He still wouldn't pick anything up though unless you told him to do it. He picked up a handful of toy dinosaurs. This time I was a little smarter. Out spot in line was right next to the empty boxes of their candy wrappers, so we went through all the wrappers to figure out what was good and bad for Hailey.
After the college we headed off to the kids school. They do a fun little activity every year. They let the kids dye two eggs each. They did a hunt where the kids got stickers and little toys. They worked on a craft - a bunny made from a baby food jar. They painted a pot and then put in a flower. It is always lots of fun.
After that we went to Costco for lunch. Nothing like cheap hot dogs and pizza.
After that we finished off the day at the park by my dad's house for another hunt. They had free face painting and balloons and they did a little performance. They got all the kids lined up and told them to wait for the word go, but the announcer was trying to tell people to hurry up and get in line and he inadvertantly said the word go. All the kids in the twins group took off. We couldn't pull them back so then he really said go. It was funny because none of the other age groups took off, just the first graders. But hey, it was fun. I ran into a few old friends from the 'hood.
Easter morning everyone was up by 7 and hunting for eggs and ripping through their baskets. Everyone got something they really liked and they were all different. Hailey clothes, Hayden a game, Andrew - color wonder! (Ethan has been in Cali with his dad.) After that we got dressed and headed off to Grandparents Liddell for more hunting. We hung out there for a few hours and then headed of Grandparent Kunz for more fun.
Frankly, it was an exhausting weekend!

Angry Budding Artist

One minute I am filled with overwhelming pride at how great my kids are and the next I am raging with fury at how cruel they can be. Let me explain: my daughter was sitting at the table minding her own business when Ethan came over and put his hands on her shoulders. I don't think he was trying to hurt her or be mean, but she started screaming as if she had been mortally wounded. She said Ethan slapped her. My husband tried to get him to apologize. He did not want to because he said she was lying. He could not get it through his head that by accident he could have actually hurt her. Ethan constantly says other people are lying. He just doesn't get it. So I sent him to his room to think about it.
Now, skipping to positive for a moment. A month ago Hailey won second place in an art contest for the newspaper. Moments before the above altercation we got a phone call saying she won third place in a KUED writing and illustrating contest. Way cool. They will send her some prizes next week and will post her story on the Internet in a few weeks. She might even have the chance to be a spokesperson for Reading Rainbow next January.
I had just opened this program to write all those glowing things about my daughter, only to have her, at the exact same moment go to her grounded brothers room to taunt him. Telling him she was glad he was leaving for California tomorrow -- exceptionally cruel.
Why can't the sweet goodness last more than 10 seconds? UGH!