Fool Me Once ;)

With all of the parties and trip planning I totally missed that April Fool's day was coming. The night before I felt bad that I hadn't prepared a Fool's Cafe or something. So Steve and I googled a few fun ideas and got to work on some simple pranks for the kids. We switched the cereal bags around in the boxes so when they poured them out it wasn't what they expected. Marcus was confused and not too happy that he did not get his froot loops (I don't even think he finished his bowl). Andrew was like what is happening and when I said, "April Fool's" he said, "Wow, I didn't even realize it was April already." Well at least that makes two of us that April snuck up on - haha.

 

Then when they got home from school I told them I made brownies for an after school snack only in the pan was brown "e's". They laughed and video called me to ask if she wanted some brown "e's". Then Andrew asked why it smelled like brownies and I told him I burned a brownie smelling candle to trick them. Then finally I pulled out brownies and we enjoyed them with some ice cream. Andrew said, "The tricks just keep coming. Are there more Mom?" To which I just smiled.

As I was walking in from picking up Lila from dance, Andrew frantically met me at the door and told me Marcus peed on the bathroom floor (and he had just had a different accident so I was certain it had happened). Marcus was up hiding in his room like he was scared and they had put a paper with a bunch of letters "ppppp" on the ground. They got me good!

For their night time gummies I gave them the last of our organ gummies from Halloween and we ended a fun day of laughing and maybe squirming a little. Good times!

1 Field Trip, 2 Parties, 1-3 Year-Old

4 Trips to the Store, and 5 Orthodontist appointments. Yep life has definitely been on overdrive here before and after spring break.

On March 24th I went with Andrew's class to SeaQuest Aquarium. With parent volunteers now needing to have done a background check I feel like volunteers have really dwindled and I don't want the teachers to have to work harder or the kids to not have these fun opportunities so I volunteered after his teacher said they were short on volunteers (I've been volunteering every Monday to do homework folders for both Marcus & Andrew's classes and the other half so 4 classes). Honestly, the field trip was fun. It was a great day with the kids and I even rode the bus with them.

The weather was lovely that weekend and I have been wanting to to do a bbq with our NUAMES carpool to get to know some of the families better and to say thank you for such a great year. I sent out an invite early Wednesday and luckily everyone was able to come. We had a great evening eating and visiting and the kids played. Steve was a rockstar on the grill and everyone brought delicious food to share. It was a great evening, even if I had to go to the store a few extra times to buy supplies and we found the most delicious spring fruit snacks at Costco (they have pineapple, mango, watermelon, yummo). Marcus tried to talk me into buying 2 boxes so he could donate one to the food drive at school but I told him we already donated a box there and then when we got home and tried them I kind of regretted not getting a 2nd box and I don't really like fruit snacks.

Lila's birthday is over spring break so we were trying to decide when to have her party this year and what to do. The school district added a few early out Mondays for all schools (except Ellie because she's not technically apart of the Davis school district at NUAMES) so we decided to do her party on March 28th during one of the early outs. All of the friends she invited could come. We had an Italian Soda bar, made and smoked pizzas, played games, and they just had fun hanging out. Her young women leader asked when she could decorate the door since we would be out of town and she did it the night before her party which was super thoughtful of her and festive.

Ellie started her drive time with an instructor. Just as we were pulling in the parking lot we saw a driver's ed car doing a 3 point turn to get out of the parking lot and a truck came zooming out of a gated area and almost hit them. High school parking lots are scary!! But she survived her first drive time and has 3 more drive times scheduled the week after spring break so she should be set to get her license right after her birthday.

Lila met with the orthodontist last week who determined it was time to start braces so we went back this week to set in a plan etc. She is going to start with an expander for a couple of months then get braces at the start of summer. At first they said let's do the impression today and put in the spacer. Then they said wait we don't want to do that before spring break so can you come back twice the week after spring break. What else are we supposed to do. So she'll have gone 4 times in a matter of 3 weeks and then I take Ellie in the week after that. It's time for me to start taking Andrew in to be watched but honestly I'm waiting until summer because one more trip to the orthodontist might just make me lose my mind. Instead I get to take him into get a cavity filled.

I also went in to helped organize and planned an activity for Marcus's spring party on Thursday, March 31st. It was fun. I did a rubber ducky matching game, where rubber duckies had spring pictures taped on the bottom and the kids tried to find a match as they floated around and then I read them some spring stories. It was a fun party even though it rained during their Easter egg hunt time and so they had to do it inside.

Life is good as we enjoy spring and all the comes with it!

Moore March Madness

I cannot believe how fast March is going by. It's the first day of spring and I'm watching it snow outside. The kids have an early out day tomorrow (well everyone but Ellie) so we're going to take them up skiing tomorrow afternoon. Here's a picture of us up skiing earlier this month, none of the pictures had all of the kids looking at the camera at the same time (isn't that how it goes 😂)

 

Ellie had inauguration for the National Honor Society. She and I attended the event together. The principal gave some great remarks about being a leader and you don't have to be in a leadership position to be a good leader; it's showing up during the difficult moments, it's being there when you are needed or expected, it's doing the right thing even when no one will know.

I thought Ellie was taking pictures at the end but the I found her just socializing with her yearbook friends.

 

All the kids had dental cleanings this month.

Lila has been doing some free clinic at Layton High with the drill team. She was nervous to do it but I encouraged her to try it out and see if she would be interested at all and I think she kind of enjoyed it and now has an idea and hopefully a goal of some goals she can work towards for dance.

 

Andrew had a violin recital on March 12th. He did well. He had practiced and it was a song he knew well but he forgot where he was in the middle of the song. I was impressed with how well he stayed composed while he figured it out and got back on. I also played a musical number in sacrament meeting the next day and we talked about how nervous I get (my leg was shaking so bad I could barely run the pedal), but I just did my best, it wasn't my best performance but the Spirit was there.

 

Taking the boys for a walk on a Sunday afternoon. Marcus has been wanting to go on a hike to take pictures with his new camera. The lama liked his new camera too.

 

The boys built a leprechaun trap out of legos and used rubber-bands to set the trap. Unfortunately they did not catch anything. We all had fun eating green muffins for breakfast and Lucky Charms for an after school snack.

 

The boys had early out both Wednesday and Thursday (this past week) so I let them invite friends over to play. They thought it was great and the weather was good so they could play outside especially basketball for Andrew and his friends.  Steve even put up the trampoline this week. Marcus went to the dinosaur park with a friend on Thursday and had a blast.

 

Friday there was no school, but Lila still had dance. They moved it earlier in the day since there was a competition this weekend. That allowed us to leave for Logan earlier. We also registered Ellie for a Women in Engineering Conference at USU that happened to be the same weekend as Lila's dance competition there. Then as we began getting information about the competition I realized it could be a late one so I decided to book a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night so the boys could swim, Ellie could attend that conference and we'd have a place to chill in between dance events. Steve has had a crazy week at work so we didn't get off quite as early as I had hoped but we got checked in and went straight to the pool. I got in a swim with the kids for a bit and Steve drove Ellie up to USU campus to check in for her event.

 

As we were getting out of the pool, I asked the kids if they wanted to get takeout or go in to the restaurant and they said go in to eat. So as were showering and getting ready I said let's hurry so we can go out to eat and Marcus was adamant that he wanted to go in to the restaurant to eat. I could see the confusion with the semantics so I ensured him that we would eat inside the restaurant. The place recommended to us was hopping but thankfully Steve had called ahead and we got right in. It was weird to not have Ellie with us, but a quick text with her and we found out she had Costa Vida for dinner and was doing well.

We then headed back to the hotel where I began to get kids ready for bed while Steve drove the Tesla a couple of blocks down to charge for the night. The boys settled in really well. I was happy to read my book which I was really into and I gave Steve my earbuds to start listening to it in Audible (things we could do without light while the kids slept). It wasn't the greatest night of sleep but we all managed to get some sleep.

The next morning, we got up and went downstairs for breakfast. To the boys delight, they had a pancake maker. We didn't know until the week of Ellie's event that she was getting her own hotel room with one other girl in the same hotel we stayed in. It worked out great and we got to see her at breakfast Saturday morning and hear a little about her evening. Then Steve went to get the car while Lila practiced her dances and we got ready for the dance competition. The boys dropped Lila and I off at call time and then went to Gossner's to buy some milk and found a park to play on before coming back to watch Lila dance.

The team did really really well. They were quick changes which was nice to be done fairly quickly.

 

The boys enjoyed watching the dances. Lila was super sweet, hugging and thanking me for helping her change. Her friend Lexi's Mom couldn't make it so I think Lila really appreciated having me there and we helped Lexi a little bit (she did really well doing her own hair). After the last dance we were free to go so we left to grab lunch but then as we were waiting to be seated I got a text from the team mom saying they were doing awards now. We were only a couple of blocks away so Steve drove her back quickly. It was weird the way they did their awards and the miscommunication about the time was disappointing. We were told they might need to stay until 9pm for battle of the bests but then were told it was only for the advanced teams so we were done after that little award ceremony. It was a little bit of a let down after such good performances, but then later that night we did receive word that they received the Overall Award for their Lyrical number I Have This Hope. So that was awesome! 

 

Lunch was great! We went to The Beehive Pub and grill and everything we ordered was delicious. They make their own rootbeer which was tasty. I ordered a nacho appetizer as we were still waiting for Lila and Steve to come back and it was delicious. Andrew wanted to try the gelato which they also make in house. If we ever find ourselves in Logan we will definitely be going back there.

 

After lunch we went to another park to let the boys play for a few minutes before picking Ellie up. Then back to the hotel to swim. Here we are just chilling chatting about our events before heading to the pool.

 

The boys really wanted to stay the night but we explained that Lila was no longer required to stay late so we wanted to head home because we wanted to be rested and ready for Church in the morning. So we ate some leftovers in our hotel room then hit the road for home. It was a good weekend and I was grateful to know we could make a hotel room work.

XOXO

We have had a lot of fun things happening around Valentine's Day.

Thursday, February 10th Marcus celebrated 100 days of kindergarten. He wanted me to buy him a special shirt. Steve remembered Lila had a dance shirt that had 100 on it (Steve gets lots of bonus points for recalling this!) so she found it for us and we modified it with some duct tape and he had a great day. Although I had a hard time getting him to go to school on Friday because he was certain he was done with kindergarten after 100 days. I had to explain he has almost 100 more days of kindergarten.

That evening, Steve and I were able to go on a date night at Hale Center to see One For the Pot and it was a really enjoyable show. We laughed a lot and hard (which is a big compliment because it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud).

Steve took the girls and a friend each to the Ogden Temple the night of Friday, February 11th. The weekend before Steve and I found ourselves in Ogden running errands and I was looking for a place for us to grab some dinner (trying to turn errands into date night -- haha). I found this place called La Crepe. It was a tiny place in an alley way and we ordered our crepes to go and as we were waiting for them to come out we noticed all of these crazy desserts coming out. So we googled them when we got home and decided Steve would take the girls back for dessert after the temple. They enjoyed their "freak shakes" after the temple and even a neighborhood friend whom I happened to tell about the place that week was at the Ogden Temple that night and came over afterwords for a treat.

 

Monday morning was Valentine's Day and the kids woke up to a little treat. They each had a box of chocolates and their Lagoon passes to represent that we bought new passes for this year.

 
All of the kids passed out Valentine's this year. The boys had parties and even Lila's Shark Time teacher had a party for them that Friday where they passed out Valentine's and Ellie took some to her friends at school. For dinner that night we had our traditional fondue and we had a sweet neighbor friend over for dinner. The kids were good, still crazy but on good behavior. It was a great day!

 

The rest of the week was busy. It was filled with orthodontist, chiropractor, Ellie counselor meetings, Lila started an online Chinese Olympic seminar that was Tues & Thur for two weeks,  and regular life stuff. I was hoping to make it to Idaho for a portion of the long President's weekend, but the kids schedules and the forecast were not cooperating so we convinced Mimi and Grandpa to come down and spend some time with us. Friday night we smoked pizza and played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and Five Crowns. Saturday Ellie had to work so we got her off then watched some Olympics, played Just Dance on the Switch, went and played pickleball, then played basketball outside, and watched a Marvel movie before sending Mimi and Grandpa left for home with more Marvel movies to watch (we hope they come down and enjoy a few more on our theater with us).

Steve took the older three skiing at Powder Mountain on Monday. Steve and I bought value passes at Snowbasin so we were blocked out for the weekend and we've been wanting to ski Powder again. I wanted to go but was not for sure Marcus could make the longer day and I had a lot of things I needed/wanted to get done around the house so Marcus and did errands and cleaned while they skied.

Twosday, 2.22.22 in 2nd grade Andrew had a party and I found him a tie dye shirt to wear and he pulled his tube socks up at least for the first part of the day, he came home with his socks normal.

We also got a package ready to send to Russ. He fell on Friday, February 18th and fractured his hip and shoulder. It took them several days to find an open bed in a rehab facility and he will be there for 2-3 weeks so we made cards and put together a few things to brighten his room.

Check Your Six

because my baby just turned 6. He had his first friend party. When I asked him who he wanted to invite he said my whole class. I explained we could only really host a few people at a time so he listed his closest friends and then said, "Dad has to be here too." He knew Steve had an upcoming ski trip and wanted him to be here for the party so we made quick plans to have a party the Thursday before his birthday and all of his wonderful friends were able to attend. It was a blessing. We had a rainbow themed party and Marcus was really excited and helped me setup the cupcake decorating station.

The girls were really flexible and stretching in this game. It was fun to watch them all and help them know what is left and right (oops -- didn't think about that part).

Upstairs playing for a bit. They all had a blast and it really was a good group of kids. Truly grateful for how it turned out and Marcus loved every gift he received.

Sunday we had a little family dinner and celebration before Steve left for Sun Valley with the guys to ski. Marcus really wanted a printing camera and well his wishes came true.

Today on his birthday we had donuts for breakfast and he wore a crown and got to pass out fruit by the foot to the class as a treat. He was the mouseketeer last week which was a little chaotic because last week Andrew didn't feel too well on Monday so he said he was going to stay home. Then Marcus was like if Andrew's not going, I'm not going. We finally convinced Marcus to go and then when I went in to volunteer I find out he's the mouseketeer. His sweet teacher explains she forgot to send the poster home on Friday so she gave it to Andrew and the calendar that had this information was in the packet I was putting in their folders that day since it was the beginning of a new month. So we really had no way of knowing. I told Marcus wasn't he glad he went to school and he said, "YES!" We still had to track down the poster because Andrew had left it at school and quickly get it filled out but we got it done and he had a great time being the mouseketeer.

Steve got home from Sun Valley around 6:30 and as he was unloading his gear. Marcus said, "What?! You went skiing without me on my birthday. No Fair!"
 

Here are some fun collages of him that came across in google photos yesterday.

Happy Birthday Monkey Doodle! We love you!