Catching up

I have been in a funk this last week. I am guessing that it had a lot to do with waking up to snow nearly every morning and the Jazz's inability to win a basketball game. If it wasn't for the take home reading library, I probably would have just stayed in bed. But now things are looking up and I am feeling motivated.

Two weekends ago, Ashtyn was baptized. Doesn't she look adorable in her white dress and pink coat? She likes hanging out with the adults and we got to chat quite a bit. I enjoyed our little girl talks. She never once mentioned cars, super heroes or sports.
Later that afternoon we held the Easter egg hunt. Fun times. Poor Logan's bad luck continued this year, except that he got the Sham-WOW. No report on whether it works. Scott managed to get almost every good boy prize. Matt did just fine: a handy John Deere tire pressure gauge, a drill he traded for a Wii sports pack and the MagniGrip--LED lighted 4x power magnifier with a built-in fine point tweezer. (The manufacturer covered all the bases on that one). I ended up with most of the kitchen related prizes. I can now Euro-seal stuff and Skookie. Which, in fact, we did for FHE.
Bunny ears are cool.
I feel like I should have some kind of conclusion. I can't come up with anything, except maybe to mention that the drive home was from Hades. We left late because of a stinking snow storm and then it took us 6 hours--we arrived home at 1:00 am. I hate when the winter overlaps into spring and especially when it interferes with my driving plans.

The most eagerly anticipated birthday party ever

We've been planning this for a year. No joke. I am not sure what we will do now that we don't have a birthday party to plan. I have been fearful. Zack's expectations were so high I wasn't sure I would be able to meet them. But in the end all we needed was a lot of crepe paper, plenty of balloons and 5 layers of cake to satisfy him.

It's a good thing I married Matt because his crepe paper skills are second to none. It will always be a party in our basement because we'll probably just keep this up until we finish the basement or I spend enough time down there for it to bug me.
Two of Zack's favorite things: pizza and picnics.
Did you notice all the girls. Zack loves the ladies & they love him. More than one of these girls has kissed him. I'm not naming names.

A pinata of course.
A pinata melt down of course:
Presents!
The cake was the most worrisome part of the day. Monday night he came to me with this cake design. I knew I was in trouble.
While he and Matt decorated the basement I worked on the cake. I have baked 4 cakes this week--two from scratch, thank you very much. One we used on his actual birthday, and 3 for the party. He wanted it to be all pink and fancy. I couldn't bring myself to do that and took a chance on something a little more whimsical. (Which is also a good excuse for the fact that it leans. It was totally on purpose-part of the whimsy!) Thankfully there was just enough pink on it to make him happy.
Just so you can see how big (and crooked) this baby was
I am most proud of how well it sliced. I don't think the 4 and 5 year-olds appreciated their five layers of sliced cake perfection. And only two were able to eat it all.
I'm glad we do these every other year. It might take me that long just to clean it all up.

First Day of Spring

Usually the first day of spring is a let down. Actually I don't really even remember past first days of spring but I am pretty sure they are not very spring-ish. Yesterday was fantastic. I did some jacket free yard work and even have some tulips in bloom. Too bad it's going to snow in a few days. It's about time we were able to do some of this:

and this...
Why not a little of this?

Just no more of this:

FIVE!

I am feeling a little nostalgic, my baby is five today. Where has the time gone?

Ben's Time to Shine

I put Ben in soccer when he was four because I figured that he would love it as much as Noah did. He didn't. He would walk off the field when he didn't feel like playing anymore. He would leave his game so that he could watch Noah's team play. I couldn't even get him to stick around for the treats. So we quit. Lesson learned. For me anyway. Now I ask him if he wants to play a sport.

I finally got a yes with basketball. We originally thought that the basketball season would overlap with Noah's indoor soccer season, which meant that Noah wouldn't play basketball. Instead, Noah's indoor season was shorter but we still decided that we'd focus on Ben this time. He's my middle child & tends to get overlooked. We didn't want to have to split up to see the games and have him compared to Noah. It was a good choice. Ben's a good little player. It's very different watching him because he is quieter and doesn't really care to have the ball all the time. He makes a few baskets every game and always leaves with a smile. What more could I ask? Oh, yes, their team "dominates." (That's Ben's word not mine.)

Double Digits

Noah is a ten year old. He was excited and insists he's a pre-teen now. Oh, how fast they want to grow up.

Early morning light blindness:
These are noisy.

Ice cream cupcakes--great product Philly Swirl.
For FHE was played 20 questions for Noah. Here are his answers:
color- blue
movie- Iron Man (until Zack reminded him that he loved Paul Blart: Mall Cop)
teacher- Sra. Vera
sport to watch- basketball
sport to play- basketball
athlete- Deron Williams
video game- Mario Kart
board game- Mancala
band- Linkin Park (edited version of course)
dinner food- cheeseburger
dessert- chocolate chip cookies
candy bar- Hershey's
vacation spot- Vegas (w/ Samandethan)
book- Diamond Brother Series by Anthony Horowitz
car- Ferrari
college team- BYU
scripture story- Nephi & the broken bow
wants to be: basketball player
dream job: basketball star
best friend: doesn't have one

These are my favorite recent Noah stories:
On his birthday he came home from school and told me that he felt really bad. The reason being that he got a bunch of presents from girls in his class. He showed me a few handwritten cards from some of the girls including one that a girl passed around and had everyone sign. He has never had to sign a card for anyone else and felt bad for all the other kids who were neglected on their birthdays. He actually said, "it's hard being so popular." Here's hoping he didn't share his sorrow with his fellow classmates or he might find out how hard it is to be unpopular.

Our school has been participating in the Jazz reading contest. One of the prizes was a basketball clinic with one of the Jazz coaches. Noah really wanted to win. But he did have some concerns that they wouldn't have an advanced group for kids like him who are REALLY good at basketball.
Oh dear, confidence is a good thing, right?

Hungry and Tired

This was the sight on my kitchen floor: Zack sound asleep. Poor kid. I drag him everywhere. He spent way too much time at the school today & he'd pretty much had it. All he wanted was pizza, so I put one in the oven, turned on the light so he could watch it and..well I guess he was more tired than hungry.
Matt just pointed out that now people can see how messy the kitchen floor is. Really? My apologies that I haven't cleaned under the stove lately. I'm not saying that corner couldn't use a visit from the broom & I probably should wipe down the front of the oven, but considering that no one else (i.e. Matt) seems to care enough about the cleanliness of the house to actually do any work themselves, I'd say it looks pretty good.