Spring Break Bust

The kids had a whole week off this year for spring break!  Preston had to work, but the kids and I had big plans!  We had hotel reservations near Zions, and we were going to lounge by the pool and hike the red rocks.  I had visions of this:

And this:

Buuuut....instead I got this:

And this:

Yup, Arden got the flu, and our trip got cancelled.  Instead of swimming and hiking, we are stuck in the house sitting around and watching it snow and sleet out the windows.  Poor Arden has of course had the worst week of all, bravely battling a fever, a verrrry runny nose, and general achy lethargy with only 1,000,000 tissues (this is only a slight exaggeration) and a few bottles of medicine as her weapons.

I have been fighting the battle of sanitizing everything she touches so that none of the rest of us catches this nasty little bug that has robbed Arden of a week of her life and the rest of us of a vacation.  I have used up a couple of value-size containers of Clorox Wipes and most of a can of Lysol, but so far, so good (pray for us)!

The other kids have just been fighting the war of boredom.  With a sick sister, they can't really go anywhere or even have any friends over.  They have been pretty patient and understanding, but cabin fever has been setting in at some point of each day.  When Preston gets home from work, we have each taken turns taking the two little captives on a field trip.  One night they went to the McDonalds playland (woo-hoo!)

 The next day, to Mars...er, the planetarium:

and, thrill of thrills, Chuck-E-Cheese (Preston didn't take any pictures, but here is one of those weird fun-house pictures they brought home to show me):

The next day we were doing a Harry Potter marathon, so we just got some Chinese Take-out and continued our adventures at Hogwarts, though we did send Preston to Fizz for some Butterbeer to make it extra authentic.

In a side note, Dax got some new Easter clothes.  He asked specifically for a bow-tie this year.  He didn't get enough of the church clothes on Sunday, and got dressed in this same exact outfit on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning.  (I stole the clothes on Thursday to wash them).

He is a quirky little guy, and loves to be dressed sharp.  He said he was dressed like a spy.

Anyway, Arden was about 50% better today, so I have my fingers crossed that we might make it up to the cabin for the weekend, but I'm not holding my breath.  This Spring Break has been a bust for us so far.  I need a do-over!

Little Pig, Little Pig

Daxton's 2nd grade class put on a play!  It was an original production, titled "The Little Red Hen's Friendship Surprise!"  It was really cute!  There was (of course) a little red hen, some sheep, some ducks, some puppies, some flowers, and even some bushes. Actually, those guys are cherry trees, now that I think about it. Dax got to be a piglet.  

That industrious little hen decides to make some cherry pie for her friends, but keeps getting side tracked when her friends need help with this or that.  She finally is so exhausted from helping friends and trying to make pie that she falls asleep.  A friend notices her sleeping, rounds up the friends, and they all finish making the pies for the little hen.  Then, for a grand finale, everyone eats pie and is therefore happy.  

Here is the cast, mid-song (Dax is just to the right of the little red hen).  Aren't they adorable in their cute little costumes??

Dax had a few lines, and he NAILED all of them.  He told me he wasn't nervous or scared at all, because they had been practicing a LOT.  

Everyone did great, and I was really impressed with how well they all knew their lines and the songs.  

The kids seemed to have fun too:

 According to Dax, the best part of all was when they got to have cherry pie afterwards.  That part was pretty cool, I guess.  Great job, Second Graders!

Arden Hits the Double Digits!

Its that time of year at our house!  Birthday Time!  

No matter what I say, they just keep coming.  Arden hit a big one this year...10!  Double digits.  That's right, I have an official tween-ager.  Boo-woops-I-mean-YAY!  

Here is the birthday girl with her by-request ice cream cake, which was super-delicious and not made by me.

Cora got Arden a new fuzzy monkey for her birthday, and Arden wanted to hod it as she blew out her candles.  I guess even if you are a tween, you still like your stuffed animals!

 In fact, this is a whole stuffed animal-themed birthday post!  Remember Arden's little bunny?  The one I make her take a picture with every year?  (like this one from her 18-month-old birthday?)

Here it is, version #10.0:

 Aw, she's so beautiful! And maybe just a little cheesy:

 And maybe has a little bit of sassyness:

Arden loves her stuffed animals so much, she decided months ago that she wanted to have her birthday party at "Build-A-Bear Workshop."  I looked up the prices there, and quickly saw that this would be a very small party.  In fact, I told Arden that she could only invite one friend if she wanted to do the whole Build-A-Bear-Animal-Stuffing-Outfit-Shebang.  Lucky for Arden, she has a bestest best friend who is also excited to add to her stuffed animal collection.

We fueled up on some FroYo and headed out.  Step 1, pick your animal.  There were black bears, brown bears, pink bears, purple bears, Star Wars bears, superhero bears, princess bears.  There were dogs, there were cats, there were bunnies, there were ponies, and there was even a sloth (I kid you not).  It took a while, but the girls finally both settled on bunnies.  Here they are, in their pre-stuffed states:

 After this picture, the girls chose hearts, put them inside, and had the stuffing put into their new friends.

After this came the hard, er...fun part.  Choosing the outfits.

The people at Build-A-Bear let you try as many outfits on your toys as you would like.  Arden and A tried outfit after outfit after outfit.  Tops, pants, shoes?  These animals dress better than I do!  Wait, now we have to choose accessories?  I let there be a headband, but I drew the line at $6 pretend cell phones for toys.

The girls had so much fun, and after 17 years, we finally came to a final decision.  Arden dressed her bunny up as a girl with a jacket, jeans, and sparkly shoes, and A dressed hers up as a boy with converse-ish shoes, cargo pants, and a button-up shirt.

Cora was tagging along with us, so I let her choose a small toy for herself and get it a little shirt.  She is now planning her own birthday visit Build-A-Bear.  Say cheese girls!

Oh look, the bunnies like each other!

Arden had a great time.  Here is a little more about Arden the big 10-year-old:

• Favorite color:  Still red!
• Favorite TV show:  She has much less time to watch TV this year, but lately she has been re-watching Scooby-Doo, Mystery Inc. on Netflix.
• Favorite thing to do:  Gymnastics, and have play dates with friends,
• Favorite song:  She says "Beat It" by Michael Jackson.  She also has recently developed a strange affection for "Gagnam Style," by Psy, and gallops around the kitchen to it every chance she gets (which isn't that often when I am around since I grew tired of that song about 3 years ago.)
• Favorite food:  Pizza!
• Favorite treat:  Cinnamon rolls
• Favorite things at school:  Everything but math
• Least favorite thing at school:  (guess what) Math...she is doing fractions now and doesn't love them.
• Other stuff about Arden: She still loves her pink blanket she got as a baby.  She can now do the splits!  She loves having long hair and never wants to get it cut short.  She does not like to wake up the morning, unless it is a weekend.

Arden is such a sweet, amazing girl and I am so glad I get to be her mom!  Happy Birthday baby!

Random Februaryness

What, it is March already?  Not sure how that happened.  

Lots of stuff happened in February, but most of it was of the day-to-day variety that I forget to take pictures of or document in any way.  There were just a couple of pictures on my phone.  First up:

This is my weird dog, Olive.  This is where Olive sits her little furry but each morning after the kids leave for school.  I think it is hilarious the way she looks like she is sitting like a person on the side of the couch.  She looks sadly out the window for a few minutes, barks at anything that moves, but soon loses interest when the kids don't come right back and wanders off to find a place to sleep the day away.  That dog sleeps like 20 hours a day.  I soooo wish I could trade lives with her for a week or two.

Valentines Day happened!  I helped out in Arden's class party, but was too busy to take any pictures with my phone.  Cora made this for me, can you translate?

 The kids all had a great time at their Valentines Parties, and came home with lots of Valentines loot to share.  In elementary school, Valentines Day is almost as good as Halloween!

After the Valentines parties, we headed up to the cabin for President's Day weekend.  The lake was pretty much frozen over, but starting to melt a little.

 We went skiing at Beaver Mountain again, and everyone did great!  Arden and Dax are officially bored with our usual "Goat Trail" and "Cottontail" runs, and made Preston take them down "Tiny Tim" (which sounds harmless but is actually much steeper than Cottontail) and the face of Little Beaver this time.  By next winter, they may be graduated from the Little Beaver lift all together. Then I will be in trouble because I don't think I will be ready!  It was a super fun day, and we skiied from 10 a.m. until they kicked us off the mountain at 4.

Have I ever told you how much I love sunsets? I do.  There was a really pretty one a few weeks back after a small snow storm that I actually took a picture of:

That is about all the pictures I had for the rest of February.  We were mostly just plugging along, working, schooling, sleeping and going through insane amounts of Nutella.  Seriously, it is unbelievable.   The kids like Nutella sandwiches, and when they make a sandwich, they want to spread the Nutella themselves.  If I try to do it for them, they complain that I don't put "enough" Nutella on the bread.  Their idea of "enough" is a layer of Nutella at least as thick as the bread they are spreading it on.  After they spread a ridiculous amount of chocolate goo on their bread, they dig the knife back into the jar one more time, scoop up another huge glob, and then shove the knife it into their mouths.  "Whaaaat?" they say when I look at them like they are crazy.  "I am just licking the knife!"

Hmmmm...it is mostly hazelnuts, so that is protein, right?  Right.  Let's just go with that.

Goodbye February!