Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Laura's school does teacher appreciation week on the last week of school.  It's rough.  This year we were asked to bring sweets and a gift.  On the sweets day, we took an idea from pinterest and made it our own.

For the final gift day, we stuck with our traditional gift card, but dressed it up this year.  We also repeated this for Sara's pre-K teacher.  Once again, thank you pinterest for the original idea that we modified.  If you ever want them, I am happy to pass on the print and cut silhouette files I created for these labels!

Laura's Showcase: May 2012

Laura did her annual performance from OnBroadway this past Saturday. She performed Little Mermaid. Her singing and dancing was wonderful! She had a difficult solo and was right on. She also knew every step of a really long set of dancing. Jason and I were bursting with pride as were both grandmas and grandpa.

Laura loves to be on stage and was amazing! She was also inspiring; Eliza didn't stop dancing the entire time. Well done, Laura!!

Mom Events...a post with too many parentheses

Mother's day has come and gone.  I was really sick.  We took Jason's mom out on Friday before and gave her a gift and cards from the girls.  Saturday night my siblings (one brother even flew in from CA) all went out to dinner for my mom's birthday. (How much of a bummer would it be to have your birthday and mother's day this close?)  Then we had everyone at our house afterwards for cake and ice cream.  It was great to catch up with Danny and sit at a round table with my sibs!  More restaurants should have round tables for large parties, I say!

Once again, due to corsage fundraising, I couldn't go to our ward on Mother's day.  Considering my feelings about the mother's day songs (Will someone with talent please write a new, good one?) from the primary songbook it may not be a bad thing.  We went up the canyon instead and saw Eliza's favorite thing in the entire world: a waterfall.

That night, the girls gave me the presents I had picked up for myself and cards they made with Jason's help.  My mom was nice enough to come over to my house as I wore jammies and I gave her a gift and cards from the girls.  My silhouette got a great workout this weekend and I loved giving homemade cards to the moms. 

Impractical. Beautiful, but Impractical.

Remember that old family house that I wanted to renovate?  Yah, it's been renovated and is on the market.  I must keep reminding myself that I adore my house, and that one has no storage and I really don't want to move.  But, the history and the details of an old house!!  You feel me, right?!

Anyways, Mom B. was a sweetheart and took us and a bunch of my family back through it.  It was so much fun!!  Do I ever have the wants now!!

Impromptu Disney Trip

Jason got a new job. He was recruited out of his last job to a fantastic opportunity: a growing and stable company, excellent pay, upward mobility. Can you tell that I am bursting with pride at the amazing-ness of my hubby?!

We knew our lifestyle would change a bit with the move - the biggest change being less time off. So, when he planned the move, we added an extra week of time together as a family the week after my birthday. Naturally, we spent it at Disneyland.

It was a trip of loving the old things and discovering a few new things. We loved the new hotel, but not that an employee stole our credit card information. Laura discovered that she loved Tower of Terror this year, but Sara told us afterwards that there are 3 things that scared her "real fire, bears, and Tower of Terror." Poor kid, we exposed her with 2 of those 3 on the trip as World of Color utilizes a lot of "real fire".

I discovered some utterly delicious new food at Cafe Orleans, the salmon sandwich. Jason fell in love with it too. We also discovered a new path for our mornings at DCA that made those days more fun, relaxed and productive.

Eliza discovered that she likes characters that talk. So, the new talking Minnie Mouse at the Fly Girls Show was a huge hit and massive progress in character interaction for her. As a side note, that girl really loves Rapunzel.

Sara discovered that she really likes to be in the shows like Phineas and Ferb, or Pixar Pals. She totally hammed it up with her sisters and had a great time!!

It was great family time that got us all prepped for the crazy month we have had afterwards. Oh, and I loved missing a good part of the cotton allergies.

Ogden Trip

My wonderful friend Melanie and I planned a big day of events in Ogden over Spring Break. We selected the day of best weather and went up and had a great time: all 9 girls! We started off at the Train Museum and had a great time!! We loved playing in the trains, following the models, checking out the old cars, learning about the guns, but most of all getting a special tour of the outdoor trains.

Hospital Train

Mail Train

Everyone at the outdoor trains where we got our special tour.

Climbing around a train!

The oldest girls on a handcar.

All the grade-school girls in the engine.

Look, Mommy came too!

The pre-K girls on some seriously high seats.

All the little girls in the museum.

We grabbed lunch. It was quite the fiasco, but we quickly moved on to more fun at the Dinosaur Park. The girls had an amazing time there working through a special passport and doing some serious excavating!

We ended with ice cream at the big Farr's factory. It was a busy, fun-filled day with friends! Thanks Melanie for planning and coming with us!!

A Jazzy Birthday

I got wonderfully celebrated on my birthday this year. It was lovely that the NBA season (not postseason) went over my special day with their strange post-lockout schedule. I got my fill of live games and they won every one I attended - no way that's a coincidence, right ;).

With my ladies! They were good sports to come with me!

We took all the kids and they lasted almost the entire game. It was great fun!!

Jason and I really got our money's worth out of my first lower-bowl experience. Yep, we were hoarse by the end of the triple-overtime thriller against Dallas.

On my actual day, I felt super loved. Jason stayed home from work and went to Music Makers with me and the little girls.

That night my Mom made me a delicious salmon birthday dinner and clothed me fashionably. Jason and the girls wrapped and selected wonderful presents for me. It was a yummy day!