Conversation in the kitchen...

The kids were eating lunch...

Allie: Mom!  I think my cold is gone!  I can sniff now.

Me:  Yay!

Nate: Cold?

Allie:  You still have yours Nate (looking at Nate's face, where his runny nose has made his face look more like a glazed donut than anything else these days...)

Nate:  Cold?

Me:  Yep.  You still have a bit of a cold.

Nate:  The freezer has a cold too.

Dancing Girl ca. 1988

So, after reading my blog post about Allie's dance revue, my mom emailed me this lovely picture...

I was 11 and apparently, I didn't get the memo that a dancer's leotard is her underwear...  In the words of Allie's dance teacher, seeing underwear is "tacky".
Other than that fashion faux pas, I think I do rock a skunk costume...and high heel tap shoes.

Clothes

Learning to dress yourself, in the early stages, can be tough.

Allie could dress herself completely by the time she was Nate's age...I guess that's a girl thing.  If you remember, she had the same sort of fashion sense though.  She really liked to pair up stripes with stripes.  Nate just likes to pair up his favorites.  I had to hide his favorite green striped shirt ("the one with big stripes Mom!") because it was long sleeved and he always wanted to wear it.  He does get attached to things.
Anyway, maybe I'll have to let him have more practice at getting dressed.  I've just had so many years of wrangling an unwilling Nate into clothes that I just haven't given him a chance to do it himself.  Maybe he would like getting dressed more if he were the one doing the dressing...we'll have to give it a try.

Cardboard Boxes

There aren't too many free things that can provide as much entertainment for the kids as a cardboard box.  Allie wanted to live in this one for a long time.  

She was annoyed when she woke up in her bed the next morning instead of in her box.  I couldn't imagine her sleeping very well in that position, so I moved her...mean mom.

Dancing Girl

Allie's dance revue was last weekend.  It was a crazy week for us and with practices, dress rehearsals, and then two shows, we were ready for the week to be over.  This is Allie's 4th year dancing (I think) and I think she's finally getting it.  She used to just watch the teacher on the side of the stage and didn't really do it all on her own.  This year she was looking out at the audience and making exaggerated gestures with her face and hands and it really cracked me up.  She wants to dance again next year, so I guess we'll be doing this again.

Here she is on the morning of the dress rehearsal.  That girl is too cute for words.

This is the ballet number.  She is a shamrock in a flower garden.

The jazz number was her favorite.  She got to make her own costume...can you tell?

They danced to "Wiggle Wiggle"

Like I said, there were two performances so the whole family went the first night.  You can probably see where this story is headed...

I got to see the first 3 minutes and then the last 5 minutes of the whole 2 and a half hours.  Jason was that bad.  To be fair, it was way past his bed time and he isn't a huge fan of sitting in one place for more than 10 minutes.
Nate wasn't the best either, and during one of our hallway excursions (it was in Logan high school), he locked himself in the locker.  It was a bit of a nightmare really.  Just so you don't think I'm a bad mom, he was in front of me and it happened about 3.2 seconds after he rounded the corner out of my sight.  I waved to Allie (who happened to be in the hall) and heard a click.  I know it was only an answer to prayer that made the locker open when I jiggled the handle.  Note to self: close all the locker doors in the hall before letting children run around.

We left the boys home sleeping with Jake as a babysitter for the next night's performance.  It was awesome.  I got to see the dances without leaving the auditorium once.

The grandmas were able to come to watch Allie dance and even one of her cousins.  You guys are the best!  That was a long recital to sit through.

They've come a long way from this...

Piano Man

Jake had his Monster Concert last week.  He had two pieces that he played with six other students on 3 pianos.  That's why it's called the Monster Concert.  It's hard to get them all playing the same notes at the same tempo, but with lots of practice, I thought they sounded great.  I'm so glad that Jake plays and likes the piano.  I love the music in the house!

Grandma Bonnie was able to come to the concert, but Grandma Pat wasn't able to be there until the weekend.  She still wanted to hear Jake play, so we put on a little concert in the living room for her.

We didn't have the music anymore and I hadn't memorized the other part, so it wasn't a very good rendition of the concert piece, but we showed her the video we had made and it was enough.

Way to go Jake!

Dance Costumes

The night Allie got her dance costumes, the boys voluntarily got dressed up in them.  They were fighting over who got the skirt.  I guess I shouldn't be mentioning that because they'll be totally embarrassed in the future, but that's just how it was.

Crazy kids...

Oh what a cute picture of Jason! (you say)

wait a second...

What is he holding?  Is that a diaper?

Yes, yes it is.

 Oh Jason...

Father's Day

Of course, I thought of my dad on father's day this year.  It was the 11th year anniversary of his death on June 4th and this year it fell on a Wednesday, just as it did the year that he died.  I found myself planting marigolds again, just as I was the day my life changed 11 years ago.  I sure do love that guy and miss him.  I think it would be fun to see how he is with my kids and just to have him to talk to now and then.  I know he would be proud of us kids.  There's no use in wishing for things that I can't have though, so I'll just say that I thought of him and was grateful for all the years I did have.

Then, I went about trying to make the day nice for Mike.  He's the dad of our 5 cute kids and he works hard to make our lives pretty awesome.  I am so thankful for him.  We live in a beautiful place and have food on the table.  We have all the things we need and all the things we want.  We have been blessed and I am so grateful for it.  I'm grateful that Mike does what it takes to provide for us.  He's awesome.

His request for Father's Day was to not take pictures.  As hard as that is for me, I tried to comply with his wishes.  I couldn't resist getting one as we headed off for church though.  I figured that because the old car was in the picture, it would be okay...

Then, since the kids looked so cute, I made them pose for me after church.

They are good kids and I'm so glad we've got them.  Jake and Allie both made Mike some cards and Jake gave him a tool box that he made in scouts.  Nate and Jason gave him some extra good hugs and kisses and tried to be good for the day.  We gave him a grill that we can take in the motorhome and we also let him have an extra long snooze.  He's a great dad and we are so thankful for him.  Love you Mike!

Backyard Waterslide

The other day, I came into the back yard to find this...

 It totally cracked me up.
Then they started going down the slide on all sorts of things and I laughed even harder.

I loved watching their faces.

So far, we haven't had many injuries, but the summer hasn't really even gotten started yet...