Mikey Turns 40

The week of Mike's 40th birthday it seemed like we had something going on almost everyday.  The Saturday before his birthday he went skiing with a few friends up at Sundance and then the wives came up to meet them for dinner at the Foundry Grill.  What a fun night we had!  I don't think we've laughed that hard for a long time.  Thanks to Ben and Natalie Peterson, Matt and Sara Staker, Tyler and Valerie Denison, and Steve and Laura Gardanier for the fantastic time.

For his birthday we went to Terra Mia again, have I told you how much we love that place?  After stuffing ourselves we came home for cake and presents. 

 Mike's dad had made him a popcorn cake so we threw some candles on top and sang Happy Birthday to him.

We gave him a new winter coat so he doesn't have to wear his ski jacket whenever he is outside in the cold.  

 Laina loved the cake so much she tried getting some for herself.  She went and got a cup from the drawer, flipped it over and used it as a stepping stool to get her closer to the cake.  She is too smart!

 Michela made a very cool card for Mike.

 

 His big present is a trip to Maui for a week.  I bet you all want to turn 40 now, don't you.  ;)

Valentine's Day

Mike took all of his sweethearts out to dinner for Valentine's day this year.  Michela was the only one not with us because she was at church with some of the other young women babysitting little kids for Moms and Dads who needed a night out.  We went to Terra Mia for dinner where they made the pizzas heart shaped.  I thought it was pretty cute.

Laina loved eating bread dipped in the yummy tomato basil soup.  

 After dinner we went home and had chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting that I had made earlier.  The kids all had fun at school getting treats from classmates and Laina and I went to Aria's school and helped out at her class party.  Pretty low key day, but spending time with the ones we love makes it special.

Princess of Destruction

Laina is in that take everything out and get into everything stage.  I basically follow her around all day cleaning up her never ending messes.  One morning I took Aria upstairs to get her ready for school.  Laina stayed downstairs eating her bowl of cereal and drinking her juice.  I probably was gone for less than 10 minutes and when I came back down I found her covered in black ink.  After cleaning her up I started to notice the mess that she had created.  First thing there was cereal all over the floor.  Next she went to the big toy box and emptied out everything she could reach. 

 Bored with that she somehow found a pen (I religiously keep all the pens out of reach, but she still seems to find them!) and proceeded to draw all over our computer desk bench, the mouse, the keyboard and herself. 

  I guess that wasn't enough because I found she had drawn all over a kitchen chair as well.

 I decided to take a couple of pictures to document this lovely stage in life.  She's industrious, I'll give her that, but I just wish I could figure out a different way for her to channel all of that destructive energy.  Now I need to go clean up the tower of cups she has made and knocked all over the kitchen floor.  :)

Spelling Bee

Last night was the School Spelling Bee for Hunter and Chase.  Both Hunter and Chase had placed in the top three of their class spelling bees so they were both invited to participate in the school spelling bee for grades 3-6.  There were about 35-40 kids in total participating. 

                             

Hunter with his friend Michael

Chase with his fellow classmates.

 Chase got out fairly early, but from his seat beside me I heard him spelling correctly many of the words that were used throughout the competition.  Hunter kept getting his words right and the spelling contest went for over 2 hours!  After about an hour Mike took Laina home and Chase and I stayed to root for Hunter.  At about 8:30 the numbers started to drop drastically. 

Down to 9 kids.

I got so nervous every time Hunter stood up to hear his word.  My heart pounded as I thought, "Would it be a word that he knew?"  There were some times when I thought he was going to be out for sure, but then he surprised me with his spelling skills.

Hunter up at the microphone

The Top Three

He ended up taking 3rd place overall!  I was so proud of him for his efforts.  The top two kids were both sixth graders and he is a 5th grader.  The last few rounds I couldn't believe the words he was asked to spell and in comparison to some of the words that the other two kids were asked to spell.  I really felt like he was getting the more difficult and unfamiliar words.  He went out on literati.  He spelled it "literadi", but in his defense the pronouncer did pronounce it more like "literadi" then "literati".  I think Hunter was actually relieved to take third because that means he doesn't have to go on to the regionals.  I think the school spelling bee was plenty of pressure for him.

Michela participated in her school spelling bee last month as well.  The first round was a written test and they ended up taking the top 23 students.  Michela was number 22.  The second round was an oral Bee.  Michela told me she didn't want to do it so she was just planning on not showing up.  The day of the Bee she was sitting in science class when the Bee was about to start.  They called her name over the intercom and her science teacher made her go.  She took third place overall.  She came home made that she had only gotten third place.  I laughed at her and said, "Third place is the best place for you.  You said you didn't want to go to the regional spelling bee and third place is the highest you can get and not have to go."  Of course she didn't agree with my logic and went grumbling off.  Such a funny girl!

(Update:  After working on this post last night I received a call this morning.  The second place girl in the Jr. High spelling Bee has a scheduling conflict with the date of the regional spelling Bee.  Guess who is next in line?  That's right, Michela will be going to the regional spelling bee on March 17th.  Hope everyone will cheer for her wherever you are!)

Community

Chase with his fellow sheriffs.

Chase's class had their opera performance last night.  At my kids' school the classes have the opportunity to participate in a youth opera program.  The classes come up with the concept, the script, the costumes, props, backdrops, and the music.  A musician comes in and listens to the words and tunes the kids come up with and then writes the music for them.  I've loved every opera I've seen so far and it always makes  me laugh when ninjas slip in to each one of them.  This year Chase's class did a particularly exceptional opera in my opinion.  The theme was all about living in a community and what it means to be a community.  The cast consisted of ninjas, billionaires, wizards, robbers, and sheriffs.  The plot centered around a gold mine where the robbers stole the billionaires gold.  Everyone pitched in to help each other and in the end they were all a part of a wonderful community of friends.  Chase got to be a sheriff and Grandpa Larry loaned him one of his dad's old cowboy hats.  Chase did such a great job, I was so proud of him.  I love this program they work with, I think it is such a great experience for the kids.

iphone hijack

Laina LOVES playing with my phone.  She can find it no matter where I put it.  I often find lots of pictures of her toes, but on the rare occasion I find classics like these.  

These make me laugh so hard.  This is her in all her bed head glory.  :)

Pretty Pretty Princess

Laina is starting to love dressing up in all of Aria's princess dresses.  One day the kids brought Laina up for me to see. 

She was so excited and you could tell she was in heaven twirling around in the pretty pink dress.  I just can't get enough of that smile!

Skiing Buddies

 Last year was Hunter and Michela's first year of skiing.  They really seemed to enjoy it, so we decided to get them Ski Passes to Sundance this year.

Michela in her ski gear.

Hunter is all ready to go.

Laina loves to steal their ski poles.

They've gone a few times and are loving it.  They've gone with friends, with Chase and Dad, and just the two of them.  We got them bus passes so they can ride the ski bus back and forth.  I felt a little hesitant about sending them on the bus by themselves.  When we were in California, riding the BART over to San Francisco, I started thinking about all the times I rode the bus and BART around when I was their age.  Sometimes I think we try to coddle our kids too much and don't let them have any life experiences of their own.  They are perfectly capable of riding a bus that drives only back and forth to Sundance and is pretty much full of other kids just like them.  It's hard to put my worries aside, but if I want them to grow and take on responsibilities of their own I need to let them try things on their own sometimes.  Love that they are still such good friends after all these years and love doing things like this together.

I Don't Want to Get a Shot!

While looking through the pictures on my phone I found this lovely one.  This is Laina at her 18 month check up.  She was perfectly happy to be running around in her diaper and Aria's sparkly shoes.

This reminded me that I never blogged about our trip to the doctor that day.  It was Laina's 18 month check up and Aria's 5 yr. check up.  When we pulled into the parking lot at the doctor's the crying began. Aria kept repeating over and over, "I don't want to get a shot!"  As we got out of the car and I had to drag her across the parking lot to the building it turned into a scream, "I Don't Want to Get a Shot!!!"  In the waiting room she burst into tears and clung to the chair as I tried to reassure her that everything would be okay and we didn't even know if she would need a shot or not.  Of course her crying freaked out Laina and I had two crying girls on my hands.  Thankfully they got us back to the exam room quickly because the other little girl in the waiting room was starting to get stressed out.  Every single little thing we had to do became the biggest headache.  Stepping on the scale, measuring her height, taking a vision test, ...  they were all over shadowed by the thought of the dreaded shot.  We were there for over an hour and a half because it took so much coaxing to get anything done.  And the lovely peeing in a cup for the Kindergarten check up, I won't tell you how much fun that was.

When the doctor came in, without any shots in sight, Aria began to calm down a little.  After her checkup I gave her my phone and she was happy to sit there and play while Laina got checked out.  We were very careful in discussing the shot issue and Aria seemed oblivious to our discussion.  When the doctor left the nurse came in with the tray full of needles.  One for Laina and two for Aria.  When Aria saw the tray she went into hysterical mode.  She jumped up from her chair and started pushing the chairs in front of her at the two nurses.  Her screams of, "I DON'T WANT A SHOT!" had reached new levels by now and I was sure the entire office building could hear her.  Oh how I wished I had recorded the craziness because it was actually quite funny and I think it would have been a You Tube sensation.  I finally had to hand Laina off to one of the nurses and I scooped up Aria, kicking and hitting me, and wrestled her down on the table.  She screamed at the top of her lungs the entire time and I felt so sorry for that poor nurse.  When it was finally over I held her hand as she whimpered out of the office.  We went and got her a cookie for her trouble and thankfully drove home.  Good thing she won't be having to get anymore shots for a while,  I'm exhausted just writing about it.

Aria's 5th Birthday

Aria loves having her birthday in California.  It's fun that we can spend at least one birthday with my side of the family.  It has become tradition to go to Fat Apples for her birthday dinner.  She loves getting a "burger sandwich".  After dinner we went home for cake and ice cream.  She requested a cake with sprinkles.

After we ate she opened up her presents from the family.  She got a giant princess coloring book, play doh, a jump rope, a princess song book, a cute purse, and a fashion Barbie doll.
I can't believe she is already 5 years old and will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall.  She is getting so grown up and continually tells me that she is no longer a Little Girl, but a Big Girl.  When we got back home from our trip she told me that she doesn't need to be in a car seat anymore because she is 5.  Sadly I had to tell her that she won't be getting out of that car seat anytime soon.  She is still our petite little girl and she isn't big enough to sit in a booster seat.  I guess in that way she will still be my Little Girl for a little while longer.