The First Daddy-Daughter Date

What's a girl to do when her very first Daddy Daughter Date just happens to fall right on top of a previously scheduled work trip for Dad?  Poor Savannah was faced with that predicament this year and cried more than a few tears over it.  In the end, Dad offered to contact a home teacher or his brother who lives across town.  Savannah chose Uncle James and he was more than happy to oblige!  Aunt Sandra made sure to double check what Savannah was wearing so that she and Uncle James would match (Aunt Sandra is really interested in fashion according to Savannah!) but Savannah was worried that Uncle James wouldn't want to wear pink or purple.....

Never fear, though, Uncle James came through!  He was so sweet and made sure that Savannah had a really fun time.  As a matter of fact, I hear she felt so much at ease that she smashed a pie in Uncle James' face!  We were so grateful to his family for giving up their daddy on a Friday night to make it special for Savannah.  Of course she still wishes her own daddy could have been there, but maybe he can make it up to her when he gets home!

Savannah's School Program

Sadly, we are attending fewer and fewer elementary school programs...which means my kids are growing up!

Savannah was so excited to have been chosen for a speaking part along with one of her best friends and they have been rehearsing for weeks!  As a matter of fact, there was even a playdate the day before where they practiced their parts over and over!

Needless to say, Savannah performed her part perfectly, because practice makes perfect!  Now if only she would have practiced smiling!

Oh wait, there it is!  (of course this one was taken at the end when it was all over!)

Savannah's friend and rehearsal partner is Olivia.  She is wearing the overalls.

Spring Break Fun!

After celebrating Easter on Saturday, we left early on Easter Sunday morning to travel to Atlantic Beach for a Spring Break trip!  We stopped in Wilson and went to church in our old ward....we haven't been back since we moved 10 years ago, so it was fun to visit with old friends!

 As soon as we got to the resort, the kids could not get out of the car fast enough and start climbing trees!  I came out of the office from checking in and they were all up in these cool twisty trees!

 We had hoped for a warm couple of days to share the beach with Simon, but it really wasn't all that warm at the beach.  As a matter of fact, the boys spent most of their time playing basketball!

 Aunt Tracy came out for a day with Kelly and Joel to spend some time with us and we ended up talking her into letting us take Kelly back for a day at the amusement park after our trip was over.

 As always, it was fun for the kids to spend time with cousins!

 Savannah, remembering our summer beach trips, wanted to take a sunset walk on the beach with me.

 It was absolutely, stunningly gorgeous, but OH SO COLD!!!

 We found this little guy hanging out on the deck of the condos one afternoon and had to get his picture!

 Savannah loved the open craft time in the condos recreation center.  Definitely her favorite place to be!

 Before we left for home, we had to stop at the aquarium.  I keep thinking my kids will be tired of it, but no way!  They beg to go after every beach trip!

 Samuel and Savannah, goofing around in the gift shop......

 Digging for shark's teeth in the fossil pit.  We brought several more home to add to our collection.

 One last cousin picture before heading off for home....

We finished off the week by taking Kelly with us to spend the day at the amusement park and then all the kids had a sleepover on the trampoline before I brought her back to meet up with her mom.  The boys talked me into letting them do a "lock-in" at the laser tag place.  Admittedly, I probably wouldn't have allowed it, but it was Simon's last weekend here and it sounded like a fun way for the boys to end his trip.  They LOVED it and had absolutely no problem staying up all night playing laser tag......as for me, I think I may have clinched that elusive "mom of the year" award with that decision alone!

Easter Fun

 Savannah was the only one young enough to participate in the traditional Easter Egg hunts.....where oh where have my babies gone?!!!

 I was so excited that I actually remembered to take pictures on Easter this year only to realize that these are indeed REALLY BAD PICTURES of everyone!  Oh well, we're keeping it real here!

 As usual, E.B. hid the baskets and the kids had to find them in random places throughout the main level of our house.

 This year included the bonus of EGGS actually hidden.....but for some reason the kids were really not all that excited about it, so I have had the fun of continually finding eggs full of CHOCOLATE as I clean the house!  NICE for me!

 Simon got to experience an American Easter and he was most excited about the Nerds in his basket.  He even bought more to take home and share with his family.

It was a fun, candy-filled day at our house!

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

Ahhhhh, what fun! Sunday was April Fool's Day and like any good mother, I thought about it on Saturday, then promptly forgot! Sunday morning before anyone else got up, I remembered and quickly went to pull out the prank that Shelby and I planned for last year but fell asleep before I could get it done......yes, its sad, but this IS my life!

Anyway, armed with a glue gun and a pack of googly eyes, I plastered everything I could in the fridge in the 20 or so minutes I had before everyone else woke up. It definitely made me smile and the kids loved it!

However, the fridge kept being opened over and over all morning long so they could laugh at it....perhaps the pantry next time????

When the Lights Go Out......

You are guaranteed to get some pretty silly pictures!

German Exchange

We have been busy the last few weeks getting ready for Joshua's German exchange student to come visit. The biggest matter of business was figuring out the rooms and getting them ready. Joshua's room has needed a paint job since we moved here 5 years ago, so we finally took care of that when we absolutely had to.....the weekend before our exchange student came! (we're kind of bad like that!)


We met Simon after 18 hours of travel and he was quite exhausted and ready for bed! It was past midnight his time when we met him at the bus. We were excited that we could recognize him from the pictures we had seen!

We made a "Welcome to the USA" sign for him, but it was raining, so it had to be put up in the house. The kids were all excited to meet Simon and get to know him better. The fact that he brought them each a package of gummy bears and a candy bar really helped!

So now we are off to immerse Simon in American culture and have fun making a new friend! I am sure it will be a busy 3 1/2 weeks for our family!

Mormon Prom

Caleb's first big date dance was a few weeks ago. He asked a very cute girl named Sarah to go to Mormon Prom with him. I tried my best to get him to ask in a creative way, but in the end he resorted to a phone call when he saw her post of facebook debating whether she should go to the dance alone or not! Guess he thought it was now or never!


Savannah and I went out when he picked her up.....I went to take pictures and Savannah went to see her fancy dress! Sarah did not disappoint because she had chosen a dress in Savannah's favorite color--PINK!

I love that they try to keep the cost down for the kids for Mormon Prom. They provide a dinner before the dance and then the dance itself. They had a really good time together and I think they made a pretty cute couple!

I found myself worried about all kinds of things as I sent my son out on his date that I never worried about with my daughter.....

Would he be a gentleman and remember to open the doors for her?

Would she stand back and wait and encourage him to be a gentleman if he did forget?

Would she be gracious and gentle with his heart and help him to feel like she wanted to be out with him? (Boy did I experience some guilt here over some not so stellar dates that I went on when I wanted to be sure that the guy knew that I didn't LIKE him....like you know, girlfriend like! Now I realize that I should have treated them like they were worth being with and they were important.)

Oh, I would have loved to sit in while she told her mom about the date when it was over! As the mom of a boy, all I get to hear is "It was fun."

AND????

"nothing....it was fun, mom."

Saying YES to Disney!

For YEARS my kids have been begging for a Disneyworld vacation and for years I have been saying NO!

There were lots of reasons for my repeated "NO's".....
1. It was WAY too expensive
2. It was too far away
3. It was too crowded
4. It didn't sound in the least bit relaxing.....and vacations ARE supposed to be relaxing, aren't they?!!

Finally, early this year, I decided it was time to say YES to Disney! My kids were old enough to feasibly do the drive without too much complaining and it was time for my husband and I to give up the relaxing vacation and make some fun memories with the kids! Going into this, I knew it would be expensive, but I made it my goal to try and cut costs where ever possible. I decided that if the choice was between going or not going, I would find a way to cut costs so that we could afford to go!

The first thing I did was look at where we could come up with the money for our vacation. We typically do a weeklong beach vacation each year that costs us about $1500, so we gave that up and put the money into our Disney fund. We also gave up the $500 we spend on our season passes to our local amusement park, so with $2000 in our fund, I was feeling pretty rich and called Disney to price out a trip. The cost for a 5 day trip staying on Disney property came to $5000!!!

It was clear that staying on property was not an option for us, so I started frequenting http://www.disboards.com/ to learn about ways to cut costs and other places to stay. In the end, we were able to put together a 7 day Disney vacation (2 travel days, 9 nights in hotels/condos, and 7 days at Disneyworld) for $3000. We cut costs wherever we could, but we also had lots of fun and splurged on some extras. It was well worth it!

I would have to say that the trip was an exhausting one! If I were to do it again, I think I would go to the park every other day, taking a day off in between visits to relax at the condo, but even though we were tired it was SO MUCH FUN! Savannah was the perfect age to be so excited about all the princesses, and the boys were old enough to split off and go ride some rides while mom and Savannah waited in hourlong lines for princess autographs!

Suprisingly, the favorite park for most of my kids was Animal Kingdom. There was a really fun rollercoaster there, Expedition Everest, that everyone loved! And the safari was a highlight of the trip. I guess I have raised a bunch of nature lovers!

I was surprised at how much Magic Kingdom was identical to Disneyland, where I went when I was little. I guess I had always just thought that Disneyworld would be so much better, but really it is almost exactly the same. It was fun for me to share all my favorite rides with my children and tell them stories about going as a little girl.

All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime! I was so glad that I finally convinced myself to say YES to Disney! And, believe it or not, I am actually thinking I might like to go again!

Great Wolf Fun

I have been taking a bit of a blogging hiatus, if you couldn't tell.....we changed computers in December and all my old pics are on my old computer and I just let that stop me from putting up anything new, but NO MORE! We have been trying to do some fun mini-vacations this year courtesy of groupon and living social, and when I saw the deal for Great Wolf Lodge pop up, I couldn't let it go! I have been wanting to take the kids there forever but it was just SO expensive. With the groupon we were able to get it at half the price we normally would have paid, so we made plans for a teacher workday in January knowing that it would be a nice break from winter weather!

Unfortunately, I don't have many pics from the waterpark since I didn't want to carry my camera around with me down there, but there was lots of other fun to be had. At night the boys all enjoyed the GR8 Space with big screens and video gaming systems while Savannah and I did the MagicQuest game (so much fun! oh and a great workout too, running up and down those flights of stairs!)

The best part was just the chance to hang out together. Chris has been travelling so much lately that the "downtime" that we used to have with him is almost non-existent, so it was fun for the kids to have dad around to play with. We spent 5 hours in the waterpark the first night and then all day the next day just playing and having fun. I even went down a few slides with my broken wrist (don't tell my orthopedist that!) but they were on the tame side. Our suite was incredible! There were 2 bedrooms (one for the kids and one for us) and two bathrooms, a living room and a little mini-kitchen area. Our bathroom had a jetted tub (LOVE!) so I could soak to my hearts content!

It was two full days of pure fun and I would go again in a heartbeat, but I am definitely looking out for a deal! If anyone hears of one, let me know!