My little mermaids

So my little Emma has been obsessed with an Australian TV show called "H2O". The girls in the show turn into mermaids whenever they touch water and they all have special water powers. So one day last week Emma told me that she needed a mermaid tail...not just a dress up mermaid tail (I could have easily bought one from the Disney store) but a real mermaid tail that she could swim with. So we rushed off to JoAnne and found some swimwear fabric and I went home and made up a mermaid tail. When I finished, she told me I also had to make one for her cousin Jaynie. They both wore them to Cowabunga the next day and everyone loved their tails and wanted to know where they got them. I may have just stumbled onto my next business venture (like I need anything else to do these days). Without further ado, here are my little mermaids.

Emma's 7th birthday

Emma's 7th birthday party at Gym Cats. I think this is what started her love for gymnastics.

A free digital collage by Smilebox

Emma Turns 6

So I am a total slacker!!! Emma's birthday was over a month ago and I haven't posted for so long it seems almost too late to do it. But if you know me, you know I can't pass up an opportunity to post about a party and since I've had Preston's too in the past month, I figured it was time to catch up.

So we had another Hello Kitty party (not so excited to do the same theme for 2 parties in one year. Maggie's was hello Kitty theme too). This one was a little more difficult because I couldn't just take them to Cowabunga Bay and let them play I actually had to come up with some activities and games to play. So here is how it went.

The Decor



The Party
When the girls arrived we gave them each some kitty ears and then my super fantastic party assistants, Maggie and Lindsey, painted their faces kitty style.We then played Musical Chairs and Hot Yarn Ball (Hot Potato). We tried to make it all kitty style, so while playing Musical Chairs, they had to crawl around on all fours like a cat. This was fairly amusing to watch. Not to mention they all meowed like kittys too.

Presents and Friends

I don't remember what Maggie and Lindsey were doing behind the camera, but it had the girls (and Preston in stitches). Well everyone except Rosalind who seemed to be able to keep a straight face through a series of 5-6 pictures
I take these pictures with good intentions. I always say I will make a cute little thank you post card from the picture and send it to their friend. I have been doing this for over 6 years now and have yet to send one thank you post card. I'm the worst at Thank You's. :(

The Cake

So I decided to do a Hello Kitty cake (big surprise) but luckily I did a trial one at our family party a few days before her real party. The first one was a disaster. I do this quite often, I have a great idea in my head and then when I go to execute it it turns out nothing like I imagined. This is the before cake.
Second time around I was much happier with the result. So glad I made mistakes so I knew what to do different.

The Goodie Bags

I so love the dollar spot at Target!!! They always have the best stuff for party goodie bags. Ours was filled with hello kitty treats and surprises.
All in all, I think Emma had a fabulously fun birthday party.

Birthday Breakfast...Pink Pancakes
Emma wanted a stroller for her birthday. She got that plus a baby and diaper bag to go with it.

She took them both to dinner with us that night and had quite a few people stop to admire her cute baby. She informed them all that her baby's name was Lizzie and that she was 6 months old. She also changed the baby's diaper at least 6 times during our dinner. I'm glad I'm not on diaper duty.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOOTER!

Emma's Graduation

It's hard to believe that my little girl graduated (from pre-school that is). She is growing up so fast and it shows in many aspects of her life. She finished her third year of pre-school this year (Sept. baby) and spent the past year in two wonderful pre-schools where she has learned to read quite well (I'm so proud!)
At her Bright Beginnings pre-school they celebrated this happy day with a great program that the kids put on for their parents and then received their diploma.
She had an amazing teacher Mrs. Olsen whom we will miss dearly until Preston gets to go to her. She was great and spent many hours this year teaching the kids and preparing them for Kindergarten.

Emma got to go to school with her cousin Jaynie. I think the only two of the grandkids that will ever get to go to school together. Lucky girls.

All in all it was a wonderful graduation and I was a very proud mama when my little girl got up and took a bow! What a kid!!!

Dance Recital

With the school year coming to an end our schedule is full of recitals, programs, graduations, and all sorts of fun activities. Last week the girls had their Dance Recital. "Dance Like a Princess". Both girls have throughly enjoyed their dance classes this year. Emma had a combination ballet/tap class and Maggie was in a jazz class. All their hard work and practice paid off at this great performance. Each of them even had a short solo in one of their dances.

What's a Whopper?

I was driving Emma and cousin Jaynie home from school today and we were watching a movie and the girl on it was singing a song about how she wanted to catch a "whopper". So the girls started asking me what a whopper was. I explained that they were talking about a really big fish. They said, "well, what does it look like?" I said "It's just really big." They kept asking what the really big fish called a Whopper looked like. I realized that they thought it was a type of fish, so I continued to explain that "Whopper" to used to describe something that is really big. I said if you had a gigantic ice cream sundae, that would be a whopper. Then Emma said, "So if someone is really fat they are a whopper?" I just had to laugh.

I told her that Maggie's butt yesterday was a Whopper (Pic to come later). We all laughed, and you will laugh too when you see Maggie's picture.

Random Stories

So I guess I have had other things keeping me busy lately. It's been a while since I've posted anything. I don't know if it's pure laziness, just a lack of activities now that Christmas is over or my new found love of Facebook. Well whatever the case, I thought I would write a few random things. 

First of all my little Preston. Growing up waaaay to fast. If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't potty trained yet I would call him a kid and I would no longer have a baby. sniff sniff. We were at Emma's school tht other day and I was signing him up for pre-school when one of the ladies in the office said to him. "Oh Preston you are so cute." He in reply said, "No, I'm just cool."

 He has also had a little obsession lately with coloring. At any given time he can be found with a crayon, marker and sometimes even a sharpie in hand. The only problem with this is, although he knows to only color on paper, he doesn't always stick to that. One day after 10 minute of silence I realized he was in the laundry room with the door closed this is what I found.

The Hulk...

Oh, by the way, it was all over the wall as well. Dry Erase Markers don't come off of skin  or walls as quickly as they do off of white boards.

Then the other day he was coloring with his new Christmas box of crayons and I happened upon this site.

What goes through kids' minds? I never would have thought that a three year old would take the time to arrange his crayons so beautifully before beginning to color. I swear besides the fact that this kid is a boy, he is ALL me!

Emma had a big first this week. I don't know how long I have been trying to teach this little one how to blow a bubble, but it's been a long time and she just couldn't get it. So the other day, she came up to me while I was on the phone trying to get my attention. I kind of waved her out of the way. She refused to move to leave me alone and then I saw it her first bubble. She was so excited I had to "Look" probably a hundred times that day.

And now for the whopper of my week. Justin and I were asked two weeks ago to speak in church today. Our topic was agency and as I always do, I put it off until the last minute. Justin and I were up late last night researching and writing our talks. Everytime he asked me to do something I would say OK, but that takes a minute off how long I have to speak. We joked back and forth but one thing I always knew was that he would go after me and have to fill up whatever time I didn't take so really I could make my talk as long or short as I wanted. Well I typed it all out and I think I was good for about 10 minutes. I was feeling good about it except for the fact that I always get so nervous right before I have to speak but I knew there was nothing I could do about that.

    Well we got up for our 9:00 church and we were ready to go. I folded my talk and put it in my scriptures (or so I thought) and then put my scriptures in my church bag (or so I thought). We then left for church. As we were getting to the end of the sacrament, I decided it was time to get my talk out as I was going first and would be getting up soon. I searched for my scriptures and they were no where to be found. I left all my kids alone on the bench and told Justin who was passing the sacrament that I left my talk at home. I rushed to the car rushed home and grabbed my scriptures and rushed back to church. I found Justin had already started his talk. There went all my hope for him taking up extra time. He did take a good share and I wasn't too worried until...the rest hymn was almost over and I decided it was time to get my talk out of my scriptures. It wasn't there. I was literally 30 seconds away from giving my talk and I didn't have it.

    I thought I would die. Justin rushed home to get it for me and I stalled.  I explained to everyone what had happened, I gave a long introduction and when he hadn't returned yet I knew I just had to wing it. Wow as if I wasn't already a nervous wreck. About 1/4 of the way into my talk, Justin came walking it I felt a little rush of peace until he came up to the pulpit and told me he couldn't find it. Well, fortunately he did find my notes and fortunately I was able to get enough from there to finish my talk. I really think with my circumstances I should have used my "agency" to just sit back down, but I pulled it together and gave about a 10 minute talk. Certainly an experience I will never forget. 

   And just a little piece of advice to all of you who will ever have to give a talk in church, make sure and double check that you have your talk with you when you leave. It's a very bad feeling to not know where it is. Of course I found it as soon as I walked in the door. I think I should be off the hook for a long while.

Emma's Tea Party

So it's been a long time since I've posted anything. When i first started blogging, I though I would be so good but it has been a crazy couple of weeks and time has slipped away from me.

I wanted to post about Emma's fun birthday party we had. We went back and forth trying to decide on a party theme and finally came up with the idea for a tea party.

We started with the lunch aspect of the party. I had set the table with little mini tea cups and plates. I found some cute mini cups at Ikea that I just had to have. We had pink roses as our table decor and some netting to enclose the table a little bit.
Dane decided he wanted to be the butler. He came straight home from school and got all dressed up ready to serve tea (pink lemonade) to Emma and all her party guests. He was so cute.
We served mini sandwiches cut in flower shapes, fruit kabobs, frosting covered brownies and chocolate covered strawberries plus anything pink that I could find.
We told the girls they were supposed to drink with their pinkies up. They all gave it a try, but then figured it was easier to not do it.
Jaynie, Mae, Kylee and Avery
When they were done eating, we went outside and decorated straw hats. We put on ribbon and they used foam stickers to decorate their hats.
We had some great helpers. Thanks Maggie, Lindsey, Cassie, Grandma Liz and Dane.
Aren't they so adorable. Emily, Allison, Brooklyn, Jaynie

Avery, Elle, Emma, Kylee, Mae
This was my sad attempt at a teapot cake. I should have put some eyes on it cause it really looked like Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast.

Make a wish. I thought the cake might be kind of hard to serve, so we offered cupcakes too.

Allison, Elle and Emily.
Right before the party ended, we played the freeze/dance game. We played princess music and let the girls freeze in funny positions when the music stopped. They loved this.