April Shindigs

Can I say I was so happy to have my Mom visit us? It was so nice to have her here. The kiddos were just as stoked. She came during her spring break right before Easter.

We went on a Mother/Daughter date to the Mesa Temple Eater Pageant. It was such a fun outing. We got there early and got really great seats.

There were hundreds of people in the cast. The set was amazing and overall it was such a cool program.

We walked around the beautiful grounds of the temple.

Crazy story: While we were at the pageant, we placed our purses on the grass next to the chairs. When we went to leave, my mom noticed there was gum on the bottom of her purse. She decided to clean it off when we got home. We finally got home and she turned her purse over to scrape it off and out of her purse crawls a SCORPION! It crawled across the counter then onto the floor. Meanwhile I am calling for Ryan to come in to kill it. He didn't have any shoes on, so I had to kill my very first scorpion. EEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!! I can't believe that happened. I am just so glad it didn't crawl out onto my mom. Or in the car. Or when the kids were awake.

Ryan is the 11 year old scout leader for our ward. He and the boys planned an over-nighter. Here are some pics.

Ryan really wanted to catch a rattle snake, but I told him I'd rather have a living husband than life insurance money. I doubt that deterred him; I bet he just couldn't find any. Anyway, he found this chuckwalla instead.

So far he is loving his calling. The boys are learning a lot as Ryan loves to push them into authoritative roles. He says it's preparing them for leadership in the future. What a cutie.

Now that we have a garage, we have space to do projects. And now that we have a backyard, we have space for a picnic table! Ryan and Sadie made this one Saturday morning.

Ryan made sure to involve Sadie with every process in the production. She helped measure while he cut.

She used the level and the clamps.

Of course she used the power drill.

Even though it is made for children, we can actually squeeze our whole family into it. It is super sturdy. Great job guys!

Springtime

The cacti are abloom...

March was the perfect month to sleep out in our backyard. We wanted to do a few test runs in preparation for real camping. It was quite the debacle for Boston last time, so we thought we could send him inside to his bed if he had a hard time. Surprisingly, he did great! He didn't wake up once. We did have Brooklyn in her crib with our monitor outside so we could hear if she woke up. I guess our next step is to add in the baby.

I found these kids sleeping bags for $5 each the morning of the campout. We were just going to use blankets, so it was super fun to have actual bags for them.

It was so simple, but the kids had a blast!

We tried to make it an event, so we did foil dinners. Then we did banana boats to top it off. Silly Ryan didn't want me to take a pic.

I have been enjoying the weather immensely until late April. I'm a naturally hot person, so I am literally a sweaty mess when it gets above 90. I was asked to choreograph a the 'finale' of the ward's road show. For our practices we are indoors, doing the most basic moves and I am sweating like a banshee. I'm pretty sure the entire youth program thinks I'm disgusting. Actually the youth in our ward are freaking awesome, so it's probably just me FEELING disgusting. Anyway... they did a great job on their road show and were so willing to do choreography and all. Love those kids.

On this day it was about 90 degrees when we had to have this ice cream break.

Sadie lost another tooth. I should post the video of this particular event. It has been wiggly for weeks and I asked her almost everyday if I can pull it out. She usually said no and insisted it would come out on it's own. Well one day Ryan convinced her to do the old string attached to the door trick. There were some tears but she didn't regret it.

boo hoo

I wish to give myself a pity party, so if you do not wish to join me, read no further. I am a dancer. I love it. I live it. My idea of a fantastic day would be to dance for hours on end. So it seems natural that I would love it if my children were interested in dance. Wouldn't it be amazing if they were able to get scholarships and opportunities dance their whole life through if they wish?

Really it isn't too far fetched. I can help with technique and flexibility at home, they could advance as quickly as can be in their classes. So why not? Then second guess myself about the psychology of children and teens. What if I push TOO hard. Will they end up hating it rather than loving it? Where is the line? Should I feign a lack of interest so they can choose this for themselves? Should I tell them stories about how much I love it and how much happiness it brings me? I don't know!

Obviously Sadie is still young and she is my first child. So naturally she is getting all my experimental parenting out of the way. When she was 3 I taught her and some other neighborhood girls. She liked it for social reasons, not necessarily for dancing itself. I worried she would stop listening to me as her teacher, so the next year I signed her up at a renowned ballet school nearby. Their technique is seriously amazing. After 4 months, Sadie was done. She hated it. I had to coerce her into going to class every week. It didn't feel that it was too strict or too structured for a 4 year old. So I am wondering, is this a 4 year old thing? Does she really not like dance or is it her teacher? Or ballet? I don't know.

She would tell me that she doesn't like stretching. So I tell her to do everything else the teacher says except stretching. Maybe she'll like it then. Nope. She doesn't like it. So do I tell her she needs to keep this commitment that I made for her until the end of the dance year? Should I let her quit? Again, where is the line? Does there even need to be a line for a 4 year old?

So I then suggest gymnastics. (Barf)...(no offense to gymnasts, but we all know gymnastics isn't dance...BUT it's as close as I am gonna get) She did gymnastics for a few months and excelled. So much so that her teachers bumped her up to a higher level. Boom. Sadie doesn't want to go anymore. What? Why? What is going on? Is she self conscious? Does she really not like it? Is it the teachers, friends, etc? I don't know.

So we take a break. Meanwhile I notice that this girl has some moves. She might not like ballet because she is naturally a hip hop kind of girl. We try some hip hop on our own. She doesn't like it. Then BOOM. I find the most amazing deal in the universe here for a summer dance camp (jazz, ballet, and tap included). She can go to as little as 1 hour a week up to 10 hours a week for 8 weeks for $200. THIS. IS. AMAZING. So I take her to a trial jazz class today. (I was hoping anything but ballet would do the trick.) She leaves the class after the first 10 minutes. Apparently a girl told her she had to leave the classroom. What? No. Go back in, listen to your teacher. Tears. But MOM! I don't know what to do! More tears. I never want to go to a jazz class ever again!

Sadie does not have to be a dancer. She is one amazing little kid regardless of my imposed wishes. She can be whomever she wishes to be. I get that.

But can I just let it be known that right now I am seriously bummed.

Luke Air Force Base

When we moved here, we regularly saw and heard a ton of airplanes and jets pass. It turns out that the Air Force base is only about 10 miles away. They have a big show once a year and so we decided to try it out. Circumstances forced us to go towards the end of the day and it turned out perfectly. The event is free, so there are thousands of people to wrestle when getting in the venue. We arrived when many people were leaving for the day, so we got a great parking spot. (About a mile walk away.) We still got to see the Thunderbirds do the last show of the day.

It was actually really thrilling to see all the crazy things they do in the T-Birds. Nosedives and close drive byes left me holding my breath.

They also had dozens of airplanes on the base for visitors to walk through.

People were able to talk to pilots and view vintage to modern airplanes. I thought Boston would love this event more than anyone else, but Ryan and I were even more excited than the kids. It was so cool!

After about an hour of walking around, the air show ended and the kids were ready to go. It was a little crazy leaving the venue, but it was worth every minute. We will definitely go again next year!

Our Fabulous Library

As I mentioned before, there are lots of activities for kids at our library. One weekend in March, we went to a library fair. There was no admission fee. Each child took home a goodie bag with an age appropriate book to keep as well as bookmarks, and other craft stuff. They had bouncy houses...

They also had a reptile show.

and a balloon artist.

They even had face painting. Of course, Boston would not participate in the face painting or the bouncy houses. But he did get to paint a wooden snake to take home. And of course, his balloon sword popped on a cactus within minutes of having it.

Another activity at the library during spring break. (Yes, Spring Break was March 10-14) We went to the library for a "Lady Bug Release". There was supposed to be a whole presentation about lady bugs, but it was too hot for the kids to be out in the sun so they shortened it to a Lady Bug story. Then each child got a small bug house and dozens of live lady bugs. You could release them at the library or at home. Then they got to do a lady bug craft. Boston had a great time. (Brooklyn was too hot to enjoy herself, so we had to cut it short.)

While we were doing the lady bug thing, Sadie was inside the library with a girl scout activity. She got to got for a few days and do all sorts of projects with girls her age during the break. That did have a small fee, but it was still uber cheap. We really scored on our library!

Zoo

February 12, 2014

My friend, Raeanna, invited us to go to the zoo. I have to be honest that I was really worried about driving there. Googlemaps is notorious for bad directions and even when it worked properly, I managed to get lost with it. I mean WAY lost. Like a 45 minute drive took me 90 minutes one time with no traffic. But I made it to the zoo all the way in Phoenix without having to turn around once!

Boston did not cry once during this outing. It was amazing. However, he did poop in his underpants. I was prepared with a change of clothes, so all-in-all I consider this outing a complete success. (Boston was fully potty trained about two weeks after this venture.)

Some ducks came padding by. It was a hit with all the kids.

Here the kids were looking at the tiger. He was roaring and roaring for about 20 minutes while we were walking around the zoo. You could hear him a long distance away. The kids loved it.

Hannah and Sadie are great buddies.

We had a great time in the great weather!