The Double Digits

Child #3 has hit the double digits. On June 11th, Lex turned 10.

He was so excited for his birthday and couldn't wait to open his gifts. He kept asking when we could do gifts and because I hadn't wrapped them yet, I kept putting him off. Finally, after jobs were done and Eric could take a break from work (Lex was lucky that his birthday fell on a Wednesday) we opened gifts.

The rest of the day got busy for us. Nate had a ballgame and Shaylyn had a cheer camp performance AT THE SAME TIME. So Eric and I divided and conquered. Eric drew the short stick and had the pleasure of taking all kids with him and I took Shaylyn to her thing.

After Shaylyn's performance, we stopped at the store. I wanted to get Lex a dessert of some sort since the evening was overtaken with things the other kids had going. Lex was super surprised and happy when we came home with donuts and a little Spongebob balloon for him.

So, of course we had to light up the donuts and sing Happy Birthday!

His party had to wait, however. The weekend of his birthday his little cousin had a birthday party. The next week I wasn't feeling well and into the week we decided to have his party, I still wasn't doing great. I hoped I'd feel better. We got the invites out a little late because of my health, but thankfully - by the Saturday of the party I was feeling more like myself.

Lex opted for a Pokemon themed party. For the invites I recreated a Pokemon card. I got the idea off of Google somewhere. 

Because I had been sick I didn't have a whole lot of time to make cupcakes or cookies. So I sort of cheated. I bough premade cupcakes with both Superman and Transformer rings on them. Looking at what I had to work with - I knew almost immediately how to make them work. The Transformer cupcakes were frosted red and yellow. I knew I could make the red ones work as Pokeballs, the yellow ones would be Pikachu's face. The Superman cupcakes were red with a yellow inner ring. So I knew that I could do some fancy work and make those works for Pokeballs as well.

I tried to scrape off half of the red icing so I could put white there, but it was proving more difficult than I anticipated, so I settled for frosting on top of it. Then I put some chocolate flavored Twizzlers for the line and mini Oreo's for the ball's center. Pikachu's face I drew with icing and used flattened Starbursts for his cheeks. While they aren't masterpieces, the kids thought they were great.

Lex also wanted a pool party, which was super simple. I didn't have to plan any games really - just had to buy a few pool things and make sure I sat outside to supervise. I love summer birthdays.

About an hour before the party was to end we had presents and treats.

Then we had an awkward situation develop. Lex had invited our good friends' kid, Isaac. But Isaac didn't show. I just figured they were busy and left it at that. But then we saw the mom over at our neighbors. I asked Eric if his friend had said anything to him about the party and he said, "no." So Eric called our friends to see what the situation was.

Well they had never even seen an invitation. This poor kid had thought the party was the night before and they were busy. Lex had told his friends it would be on Friday and so Isaac was sure it was. When we asked Lex where he put the invitation - he told us under their door mat. D'oh! No wonder no one saw anything.

Anyway, we told our friends that Isaac was welcome to come over for awhile if he wanted to. Isaac showed up and we let him hang out a little longer than the other friends because of the situation.

All in all, it was a great party. Lex only had 2 people not show up and I was surprised that was it given they only had a few days notice. Lex was super happy and they even ended up creating their own games to play. We even let Jace experience grass for the first time.

What Happens Next...

That's The Way He Rolls

The youth in our Stake were able to go on Trek this year. Originally I didn't think I'd have to worry about it as the cut off date was in May. Only those 14 and up were able to go. Tanis doesn't have a birthday until July, so I didn't give it much thought.

Then my friend - who also happens to be the Bishop's wife and the one kind of in-charge of Trek - tracked me down and asked if Tanis was going to go. When I asked her about the cut-off she said they had moved it to August. That meant Tanis was able to go and they did it because in 4 years these 14 year old boys will be prepping for missions. HOLY COW - 4 years.

I knew Tanis wouldn't exactly be thrilled to go and I had no way of knowing exactly the experience he'd actually be having, but I knew that anyone that had ever done it before had said it was totally worth it. I appealed to his good nature and told him that his grandma had gone and so had his aunt when she was about his age. I made him laugh by saying, "If Kaeloni did it, you can do it."

As the day approached I was getting more nervous and Tanis was getting more excited. We had fun going shopping, just him and I, for the items he'd need the Saturday before he left. I couldn't believe how big my baby boy was getting.

Bright and early on the morning of 23rd, I took my pioneer over to the church to get all set out to go.

I was super anxious the 3 days he was gone. My kid's not really an outdoorsy kid and while he is a hard worker when he needs to be - he's not used to a lot of hard work. I worried that he'd be with no one that he knew and he'd come home and tell me he was miserable the entire time.

I missed my biggest helper and there was more than a few times I wanted to call and ask for his help, only to realize he was gone. His absence was definitely noticed - so I was super excited to go pick him up. I'll admit there were tears when I saw my little boy.

He had gotten some sun and his white shirt was brown. He was super excited to see his little brother and was all smiles when we got there.

We could tell he was tired, but he was in great spirits. He said that it was a good experience and he'd do it again. He was put in a 'family' with another kid from our ward and he knew a couple people from school. I was so glad to hear that. He talked about how excited he was when he got his notes from us and that he told everyone I had used a Harry Potter font just for him. He later told me that he was the only kid he knew of that got 2 letters. I suppose most parents either wrote a letter together or put it in the same envelope.

I am glad Tanis got to have this experience and that it was a positive one in his life. I'm thankful for his willing attitude and that he rarely complains about difficult things. Most of all, I'm happy that he is so positive more often than not.

What Happens Next...

Snuggle Time

Jace was getting ready to take his afternoon nap. Shaylyn decided she'd try to get him to sleep by snuggling up with him. After a few minutes, I checked on them and came across this scene:

Jace is smarter than the rest of us and put his sister to sleep instead. You can tell he was tired. He just wanted a bottle and his mommy to get him to sleep.

What Happens Next...

There's A First Time For Everything

For the 7 1/2 years we've lived here, we've never participated in any part of our city celebration days. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I don't really love crowds. This means that we've never taken our kids to the parade. (I know, I know - bad Mommy) This year that had to change.

Back in April Shaylyn tried out for a cheerleading team. It is the cheer team for the Little League Football teams out this way. We figured there was no harm in her trying out. Shaylyn did her best and practiced really hard to learn the routine and get it down and her hard work paid off. She made the team. Pretty good for a girl who hasn't danced for 6 years or so or who's never had a gymnastics lesson in her life.

Well, the cheer team was going to be in the parade. Eric and I talked about one of us just dropping her off and picking her up, but then we decided we should support our child in the physical sense. So on the morning of the 7th, we got everyone up and out the door by about a quarter after 7. Shaylyn had to meet up with her team by about 7:30.

We got Shaylyn dropped off and then we found a place for us to sit. We didn't know when the parade would start and after seeing that we had a 2 hour wait - we decided we'd quickly walk over to the grocery store to get some sort of breakfast.

By the time we got back to our blankets, spaces were filling up fast. While we were waiting for the parade to start, I took a few snapshots of each of the kiddos.

...Yes, Eric let this kid get a cap gun...

...He had just started standing on his own, so he was still wibbly-wobbly...

The start of the parade was Policemen from around the area. I've always had a fascination with cops on motorcycles (Probably because of CHIPs - not that I understood the show when it was on, I was only a little kid) so I really enjoyed this part of the parade.

Then the parade really started, though there were many moments of nothingness.

...Ailey didn't like the sirens - or any loud noises for that matter...

One of the favorite acts from the parade (for the boys, anyway) was the people who reenact the Wild West. They had a shoot-out right in front of us.

Ironman took a break from saving the world to walk in our parade.

I was a fan of the gorilla who chose to pass out bananas instead of candy! I was even more a fan when we actually got one of the bananas! 

My kids were way more excited by this 'bottle' of shampoo than any normal child should've been.

This poor mascot for a local snow-cone place kept getting mauled by kids. It was funny and sad all at the same time.

Little Ceasar was another favorite for our kids.

Finally we got to see our little Shaylynnie. She looked way more grown up than either Eric or I would like.

...Shaylyn's bestie, Mikayla is marching next to her...

There were a few more mascots after Shaylyn. One of them being the cow from Chick-Fil-A. 

Capt. America and Spiderman couldn't let Ironman out-do them and they decided they'd pay us a visit as well.

As if our morning hadn't been long enough, we had decided we'd go to the zoo afterwards. We had made the decision long before we actually got to the parade and sat through the parade. So even though we were both exhausted already, we kept true to our word and went to the zoo.

Being a Saturday the zoo was packed. It was hard to see the animals because of the crowds, but because we got a membership again this year we weren't too frustrated. It was kind of nice to just be out as a family enjoying the weather.

We had timed an education class just right and got there before it got too crowded. The class discussed some interesting animals - one being a ferret and one was some sort of snake. The kids had the opportunity to 'pet' each after the class was over.

Nate was in an extra good mood and wanted a picture with the big elephant statue, which then meant that everyone had to have one.

Jace tried to keep cool and act older than he is.

The carousel is always a must.

Then it was time to play at the new splash pad!

We decided it was time to call it a day, but not before riding the train. The line was fairly long, so we had a bit of a wait. While we were waiting Jace found a new game to play with Daddy. He's actually quite obsessed with Daddy's hats.

And because it was so crowded they were trying to cram as many people on the train as they could. How many kids can you comfortably fit on one of the seats? Hint, it's not four.

And because it was the zoo, I decided I should get a picture of a couple animals at least...

It really was a great day. Super, super exhausting - but so much fun to just be together without feeling like we had to hurry to be anywhere.

What Happens Next...