The Happiest Week on Earth (Days 1 & 2)

 

We spent a glorious week in California at Disneyland and Sea World.  It was magical.  I mean, magical.  Seriously, magical.  I have been planning this for a long time, ever since Girlie had her seizure, almost 2 years ago when we didn't know if she was going to be okay.  This was the most silly, insignificant thing-- but at the time we didn't know if she was going to live or have brain damage, and I had the heartbreaking thought that she had never even been to Disneyland.  That she didn't have that magic, sweet childhood memory stored in her mind.  And it seems so trivial, but it made me so incredibly sad to think that she might not have that classic, wonderful memory as part of her life.  At the time, I wanted to  forget that last week of school and head down, but we thought it best to stay close to her doctors.  And my Disney trip planning began.

 

 

This is how I felt inside.

 

 

 

My boys with Sheriff Woody.

 

 

Girlie was not a fan of Space Mountain.  As an extra surprise for the kiddos, we vacationed with some good friends that had moved away.  They are sitting right in front of my family, and Girlie's friend is loving it. 

 

 

The boys voted Star Tours as their favorite ride.  It brought back some fun Star Wars memories.

 

 

My princesses.  Cue the magic...

 

 

It was Valentine's week, so we got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty with each of their princes.  They also got special signed valentines from each of the princesses.

 

Sweetie was utterly enchanted.  I was too.  I cried, I was so enchanted.

 

Meeting Merida from Brave.

 

 

The most magical moment of all was meeting Cinderella.  Sweetie had her princess hair all done and her Cinderella dress on.  She walked up to Cinderella and hugged her.  When Cinderella bent down to hug her, Sweetie laid her head on her shoulder and just snuggled.  She loves Cinderella, and--as far as she was concerned--she. was. hugging. Cinderella. 

Cinderella was so sweet and just let Sweetie cuddle with her for, seriously, 5 minutes.  Sweetie was in heaven! Let's be honest, I was too.  It was utterly enchanting.  I was giddy with excitement.

 

 

Just as magical, albeit less 'enchanting', was Jedi training.  My boys dreams came to life as they were selected for Jedi training.  Actually, Sweetie was too, even though she came tearing back to us--brown robes trailing--as soon as Darth Vader appeared.

 

 

They were trained in the use of light sabers.  Below, Buddy and Sweetie stand with the Jedi Master.

 

 

Then Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and two storm troopers appeared.  Each of the little Jedi's got a turn to fight the bad guys.  It was priceless.  Since last summer, Buddy has asked us to call him "Sports Boy."  After this, he requested that we address him as "Jedi Master."  I. love. it.

 

 

 

The Force is strong with this one.

 

I cannot even tell you how much I was beaming watching my boys be so brave.

 

 

 

Girlie drove us around the track.  I will say this...we are going to need good insurance in about 6 years.

 

 

 

Who doesn't need a Fairy Godmother?

 

 

Peter Pan

 

 

 

We stayed for the parade the first night.  It was so wonderful it made me cry.  I'm such a boob.

 

It really was the most magical place!!!

Expelled

Sammy cleared out his school folder and handed me a half sheet.

"Oh, nooo..," I groaned as I saw the words 'A Note from the Nurse' at the top.  What deadly disease has infiltrated the classroom now?

Strep throat.  Awesome.  I've been trying to keep everyone healthy for our Disney trip. Argh!!

"Great," I said sarcastically. "Someone in your class has strep throat.  You've been exposed."

He looked shocked, "I've been EXPOSED because someone has strep throat???"

"Yes that's how it works.  If someone gets sick, the whole class is exposed."

"What??  The whole class????  That's not even fair!" he said indignantly.

"Well hopefully you don't get strep throat."

"That doesn't even matter.  I can't even believe that I get kicked out of school because someone in my class got sick!!"  

Ah....

And then he turned 7...last September...

 

So among the myriad of things of which I've neglected to post, one of them was  Sammy's 7th birthday.  We celebrated his seven wild years of life with a carnival.

Most appropriate.

First, I hired some clowns.

 

 

Creating the 'big top' with strips of plastic tablecloth and garden lights.

 

 

Made the carnival sign from cardstock.  The white sheets were 1/2 sheets of cardstock, the letters were cut out on my Cricut.  I put clear vinyl on the front to make it sturdy, hole punched the corners and tied it together with bakers twine.

 

 

The prize booth was really fun to create.  I ordered a bunch of stuff from Oriental Trading and the Dollar Spot at Target.  The kids earned tickets doing the games, and could redeem them for prizes at the end.

 

Let the games begin! 

 

The duck race.  All you need is ducks, motorized water guns, and enough water to make everyone uncomfortably wet.

 

 

Hot Shot.  Nerf gun heaven.

 

A tattoo parlor.  Go ahead and get inked if you feel so inclined.

 

 

Ball Toss.  Empty cans, covered with scrapbook paper.

 

 

They were foamy baseballs.  Didn't need any noggins getting konked.

 

 

Photo booth.  It's become a birthday party staple.

 

 

Carnival cupcakes

 

Popcorn, anyone?

 

 

Make a wish!

 

Happy birthday to my amazing little boy!

Bring it on, 2013

 

Hello.  It's been a while. 

 

I never have enough time. I'd hoped that 2013 would be the year that I suddenly had time for everything I wanted to do.  Enough time to spend with each of my kids, individually, time for everything that needed cleaning/organizing/sorting/giving away/throwing away in my house, time for all the creative projects, the books, the music, the taking-a-new-class-because-learning-is-so-much-fun, the dating my hot boyfriend, the exploring Seattle, the blogging for heaven's sakes, the blogging.  You get the idea.

 

2013 is not that year.

 

Part of it is due to the new calling I got at church.  Our huge ward split (At this point, if you are not LDS, this may get very confusing. You might already be confused by the terms 'ward' and 'LDS'.) and I was called to be the Relief Society President of a brand-new-starting-from-scratch ward. 

Copious amounts of mango sherbet and Downton Abbey helped me process.

Needless to say, a lot--A. LOT.--of time is spent in this endeavor.

And, sista, I could tell you stories.

 

I did however, spend a Saturday taking a glass blowing class with my friend, Kelli.

 

 

Do you see how excited I get about learning?

 

We made sea floats.  I am very in love with that blue orb.  PS: It is not tiny, those chess pieces are just big, because I happen to love things that are the wrong size.

 

I also made a goal (okay, not a 'real' goal, because I didn't write it down) to take a picture every day.  I've been documenting the day to day life of our little circus, and it's really fun.  It helps that J forced a fancy phone on me and it takes great pictures.

 

The picture at the top was taken tonight while we spent some good time playing 'Headbandz', basically a commercialized/kid-ized version of the ice breaker party game where you walk around with a name on your back and try to guess who you by talking to other people.

It wasn't entirely successful.

 

Sammy: "Am I a pet?"

Buddy: "No, but you cut things!!!"

 

Then Sweetie would walk up to me, point to the card on my head and say "Money, Mommy!!"

Me: "Am I money?"

Kids: "NO, NO, you're NOT MONEY.

Sweetie, more pointing: "Yes money! Money, Mommy!"

I was money.

 

Every time Buddy would get a card in his headband, he'd say, "Just a minute, I have to got potty real quick," then he'd come back and say, "Um, am I a basketball?"

Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.

 

Then the boys took off their headbands to make weapons out of them and the game was done.

(Cue the circus theme music).

 

If I've learned anything this past while, it is that time is a more rare and valuable currency than money. I literally 'spend' it, and I am doing so more and more carefully. 

 

Especially with the little ones at home still, I'm trying to make the time count, and not just "get stuff done".

 

 

He's a Transformer.  And I bought him at Costco.

 

 

It finally snowed, so they bundled up for a snowball fight.  It was a great 1.5 minutes.

 

 

Those are dangerous hands.

 

 

Her first manicure. 

This was right after she tried to do it herself and painted half my bathroom, a towel, my bath mat, and some carpet in the process.  Look at her, though, how could I possibly be mad?  She just wanted to be girly.

 

 

This was a smoothie I made for dessert tonight.  In the back is Buddy saying, "I'm not going to come and get the rest of this tonight, Mommy. I'm going to go right to sleep."

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

 

 

 

 

I introduced my voracious-reader Girlie to Harry Potter this month, and she's already half way though Year 5.

 

 

 Buddy got a Smithsonian science kit for Christmas, and we are growing triops.  It is the weirdest thing I've ever seen.  And I've seen some weird stuff.

 

Well, there.  It's good to be back.

 

 Bring it on, 2013.