Happy 6th Birthday, Miss Grace!

My sweet baby girl turned 6 today!

Grace requested a Barbie-themed birthday.  I found a tablecloth, and we did lots of pink streamers and pink balloons:

She brought blue frosted with sprinkles cookies to school and came home and played with play-dough with Josh (a most-definite treat around here):

She wanted homemade pizza and salad for dinner:

And we topped off our yummy dinner with Barbie cake and ice cream:

I had a hard time thinking of what to get her for her birthday.  Grace never asks for much; she only wanted "something girly" when I asked her what she wanted.  My friend, Carla, makes THE most darling pettiskirts, and ran a special just before Grace's birthday on them; she was only charging for the cost of the materials.  Crazy awesome!  So, I asked her to make a blue pettiskirt for Grace and Hannah. 

We hid her gift and played hot-and-cold to find it.  She LOVED it!

On Sunday I got a few pics of my beauty and her friend:

We had such a fun day celebrating Grace!

***

When I was in the hospital about to have Grace, Mike gave me a blessing.  The blessing mentioned the sweet spirit that was being sent to our family.  2 years into being her mom, and I wasn't sure we had the right spirit.  She was fiery, fiesty, a terror... anything but sweet.  Somewhere around 3, though, she changed and I realized that sweet was the only word I could use to describe her.

A few weeks ago, Mike was on his 3rd day of working doubles, Adam was having a really hard day and acting out, and Josh was being a 2-year-old terror.  It was all too much, and I went to my bedroom to cry and feel sorry for myself.  She came in, took my hand, and told me that Adam and Josh were still learning, and that it would be okay.

It's kinda sad when the child has to comfort the adult.

But, she did.

She does sweet things like that all of the time; love notes, hugs, caring when someone is hurt, befriending the person who is alone.  She is absolutely the sweet spirit that Heavenly Father promised.  She teaches me more about love and compassion than I could ever teach her.  I don't know what I ever did to get to deserve to be her mom, but I am so glad that I am.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

This Afternoon...

... Josh and I spent the afternoon outside.

He squished bugs with Mike's shoe, while screaming "EPIC!" with each hit.

We may need to start going to the park.

;)

First Day of School 2012

This morning I woke up and just wondered where the summer went.

Wasn't it just the last day of school?

Yeah, there were days of tattling and whining and fighting, that made it seem like summer would last         for-e-ver.

BUT, for the most part, this summer was awesome. The kids had so much fun together. We adored running and playing in our new house.

It was soooo wonderful.

And, I'm glad it happened.

So, I got out of bed, made breakfast, and got these cute kiddos of mine ready for 1st and 4th grade!

Mike had to work at Red Roof Inn until 8 this morning, and then had to take the bus to D.I.

It was the first time I've ever done the first day of school alone, and it was hard.

I dropped them off.

Kissed Grace good-bye.

Waved at Adam.

Walked back to the car with Josh in hand.

Buckled him in.

And cried.

Well, I cried.

Josh was pretty darn thrilled the entire day to have me (and all of the toys) all to himself.

It was the longest day ever for me.

Grace declared it, "The best day of my life... even better than my birthday."

Adam loved it, too.

I'm soooo thankful for the great school they go to, their wonderful teachers, and the time I get to spend spoiling Josh now.

It was a good day.

Well, We (Almost) Did It All

And, the rest of the summer...

There are 80 Days of summer vacation,

'Til school comes along just to end it.

So the annual problem for our generation,

Is finding a good way to spend it.

Like maybe:

 

Viewing the volcano erupt at the Mirage

Going on a family bike ride

(to 7-11 for FREE Slurpees)

Swimming at the public pool

Having a movie night at home

(Star Wars.  I.  Will.  Never.  Get.  Those.  2.  Hours.  Back.)

Visiting the summer garden at the Bellagio

Looking at the fish at the Silverton

Making Grace's kindergarten art book

Hunting for cicada shells

Going to the magic show at the library

(Grace was chosen as assistant!)

Eating s'mores

Having a Wii game night

Going to the Pioneer Day Carnival

Swimming in Lake Mead

Eating Purple Penguin snowcones

Watching the Wizard of Oz play at the library

Observing pioneer day

(and eating our homemade taffy-turned-caramel-because-I-overcooked-it)

Celebrating Christmas in July

(with movies, music, books and our candy bar exchange)

Buying school uniforms and school supplies

(the kids were taken out individually and each given a budget and a list of what they had to buy; they chose everything and got to spend the rest on a treat)

Having the missionaries to dinner

(along with my parents and Leigh... it was a FUN night!)

Flying kites

Making homemade popsicles

Submitting entries to the Friend magazine

Having a watermelon seed spitting contest

(Mike won)

Playing dodgeball

Having family board game night

Going on a scavenger hunt

Earning prizes at the library for doing a LOT of summer reading

Eating lunch with Dad at work

Visiting a factory

(I wanted to do the Anderson dairy; but couldn't get in... so we settled for the chocolate factory)

Writing 20 postcards to the principal each and earning a pizza party at school

Going to the end-of-summer party at the library

Tie-dying t-shirts

(we reversed tie-dyed some D.I. shirts with bleach.  It worked great and cost $3.  Score!)

Visiting the temple

Taking pictures of the kids

Having a sponge fight

Going bowling

Holding our annual W* Family Summer Olympics

(Adam won!)

Having a special back-to-school dinner + father's blessings + reading The Kissing Hand

(and eating kissing hand cookies for dessert)

And because my camera kept wigging out on me and I didn't get pictures of everything:

We also had a HUGE water balloon fight with over 150 water balloons, had a science day with friends, bought school shoes, had a water gun fight, went on a hike at Mt. Charleston, bought play clothes at D.I., doorbell-ditched treats to friends, wrote a letter to some friends, made a music video, mailed letters to Elder Rice, looked at the stars, did interviews with the kiddos, and went see Toy Story on the "green" (which got rained out, but we still had fun).

***

We ALMOST did it all:

We didn't get to go camping.  With both of Mike's jobs, he only had 4 days off this summer.  And during those 4 days off, he had to go up to Girl's camp for his calling. 

We were pretty bummed, because it was going to be our "vacation" this summer and it was so fun last year.  BUT, we DID do 79 other super fun things, so we still had a pretty epic summer.

And, well, we almost did it all.