Late Monday afternoon the kids asked to have a dance party in the kitchen while I did the dishes. I turned on the Frozen movie soundtrack and they danced away. Tommy even got in on the action, but gave up after accidentally getting smacked in the face by his enthusiastically twirling sisters.
And no party is complete without snacks! The girls were excited to sit on the kitchen counter and asked me to take a picture.
Monday night was gorgeous - 60 degrees and clear blue skies. Lily asked if we could visit the temple for Family Night. Annie was dressed as a mermaid princess and loved running across the expansive grounds letting her cape fly in the breeze. Lily carried her baby with her all over the grounds and I overheard her telling her baby about how we are supposed to get married in the temple when we grow up.
We stopped in the visitor's center and found a copy of the Book of Mormon in Cambodian. Jeremy wanted me to take this picture for our nephew Wyatt who will leave the MTC for his mission in Cambodia next week.
The kids had fun playing with the interactive computers. Tommy was impressed by the statue of Christ. He kept pointing to it and saying "Jesus" which sounds more like "cheez-uh" in his baby language. And Daddy took some time to read out of a Spanish Book of Mormon. The kids thought that was cool. Our temple closes this week for a year and a half. We're pretty sure the Rexburg temple will be overrun with people soon. We'll have to start making trips to Twin Falls or Boise to be able to get into the temple.
Tuesday the kids asked for a picnic dinner. Mommy was too tired to pack everything up and go to a park, so we had our picnic in the backyard. We are loving all this sunshine and warmer weather - even if it is totally out of season. Tommy is becoming quite the jumper on the trampoline. He's much braver than he was last year. I love seeing all of them play happily together.
Wednesday afternoon Lily has her jump rope club. It ends this month so I took the opportunity to go and watch her jump. At home I only get to see her jump a single rope. She is amazing at double dutch jumping. She can jump into the spinning ropes, twirl, hop on one foot, speed jump.....I was amazed. She was so proud to show off what she's been learning. She really loves jump rope.
Thursday morning Annie's best friend Livia came over for a play date. They decided to dress up as the princesses from Frozen and act out the movie. It was darling. I'm wishing I had thought to take some video. They lasted the first 25 minutes or so of the movie and then went on to play other things - fine with me - play dates should be about playing, not watching tv.
Thursday night was all about Leprechaun traps. Lily's homework for the week was to design and build a Leprechaun trap. After talking about a few different designs, Lily chose this one. We propped up a large can with sticks tied to a trip cord. When the Leprechaun tries to run away with the gold, he will pull on the cord, and the can will fall on him and trap him. At least that's the plan. We made the can look like a rainbow and glued cotton balls to the bottom edge to look like the end of the rainbow. Under the can we put a big pile of golden treasure to bait the Leprechaun. Annie was feeling a little left out while we assembled the trap so Daddy helped Annie paint and build her own trap. Thank goodness for Daddy! Lily is so proud of her trap.
*America Onstage Dance Competition*
In the top picture Lily is first on line on the right side - just behind the little boy. In the bottom picture, Lily is on the far right.
Friday was a super fun family day. Daddy took the day off from work. Lily went to school in the morning. Then we picked her up early to drive to Pocatello for a clogging competition. Her class did two routines. The first one was a little shaky, but they were ready for the second one. We packed a lunch and spent a few hours in Pocatello watching the dancers and having fun as a family. Tommy and Annie were so well behaved. Lily earned a medal for competing. She kept telling everyone we saw that she won the dance contest. Not quite....but we're glad she had a good experience. Recently, she has been frustrated with clogging. She's younger than most of her class, and she struggles with the footwork. While I was dressing her and getting her stage make up on I overheard girls crying in the dressing rooms and moms chewing out their kids for making mistakes in their routines or refusing to wear eyeliner. Lily was upset by some of the crazy stage moms and how mean they were to their little girls. I told Lily that dancing is supposed to bring us joy and make our bodies healthy and strong. I told her that we want her to dance or do other activities because being active helps us be happy and make friends. That helped her relax and hopefully trust that I won't turn into a crazy dance mom.
After the competition was over, we tried to scrape the stage make up off Lily, and we drove to Idaho Falls for the annual Home and Garden show. Jeremy won tickets on a radio station. The kids had a great time. They especially loved this swing set and getting free candy from all the different vendors. One vendor was selling jump ropes like the ones Lily uses in her club at school. Mommy couldn't resist. I bought two 16 foot double dutch ropes. Lily was on cloud nine!
After the garden show, we had a family dinner at Red Robin. Lily's friend Izzy from her kindergarten class was there too. The girls were so excited to see each other outside of school. Izzy came to sit with us for a little while. The girls whispered and giggled the entire time. After dinner, we went to play at the park. The kids were so tired by the end of the day. But they were all so happy and super fun to be with. It was a much needed family day after daddy's two long weeks of overtime. I think we all missed each other.
Saturday morning, we pulled out the new jump ropes. Lily wanted to show Daddy all the cool tricks she knows on the ropes, but Mommy and Daddy have terrible rope twirling skills. Lily was so patient with us. She got in a few good jumps but we ended up giving up and letting the girls just play. Annie was so full of joy playing with the ropes. We played a game I remember from elementary school called "jumping snakes". The girls would slide the ropes back and forth on the ground and Daddy and Mommy had to jump over them without touching the ropes. Annie loved making Daddy jump.
Saturday afternoon, Daddy took the girls to their first symphony performance. The girls were so excited to wear their pretty clothes and do something special with Dad. Before the show, some symphony players brought out instruments for the children to try. Lily was really hoping for a chance to play a flute and a violin, but there were too many children. They did get to try a cello and a trombone. The girls were super excited to learn that both Papa and Brady once played trombone. The symphony played Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and the story was narrated by a local news anchor. The girls remembered most of the story and were very good during the performance, but they got a little tired near the end. Good thing the show was only 40 minutes long. After the show, they went out to our favorite frozen yogurt shop. Both girls said it was the most wonderful date ever. Good job Daddy!
Saturday was also "Pi Day". The first few numerals of pi are 3.141592653. This year "Pi Day" happened on 03-14-15 and if we ate the pie at 9:26:53 we could cover the first ten digits of pie. Jeremy's office always celebrates "Pi Day" with a pie pot luck. This year was especially exciting since it's the only time for another century that the date and time can be found within pi. Jeremy missed the pot luck since he took Friday off. He asked me to make a pie for the family. His requested flavor was key lime. I made a fabulous pie. We let the kids have their slices early so they could get to bed. Both of the girls spit out their first bite. Lily said it was too sweet, Annie said it was too sour. I can't believe my lime loving kids didn't inhale this pie. Jeremy loved it. And Brady took home the rest the next day. Brady said it was amazing. I guess the kid's taste buds must be changing. More for the grown ups!
Sunday morning I made sugar cookie bars for the ward choir. Annie and Tommy were happy to help me clean the beaters from the frosting. Tommy cried when he finished all his frosting. Good thing his birthday is coming up so I can make him a cake with lots of frosting.
Whew! I am worn out just writing about the week we had. It seems like we had something to do and somewhere to be every day this week. Time flies when we're having fun.
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