Beautiful Rylee

I've been wanting to replace our out-dated pictures, on the wall. I decided I would take them myself..sometime.

When a friend mentioned the location of her recent kid's photos on Facebook, I knew exactly where it was.... passing by that old fire station dozens of times without seeing the potential.

While the rest of the kids were at school, Rylee and I had some free time. On the spur-of-the-moment, we decided to do a little photo shoot (before her big date) AND run some errands.

Here are some of our favorites.

  As we continued our errands, we passed by this red wall. I thought it would POP, so we stopped.

 Here's our secret: the red wall was at the old Eddy's Bakery outlet. 

 We took these back at home, in our front yard..after a little wardrobe change. :)

 The moral of the story... you don't have to have a lot of time, a fancy camera or expensive props to have a successful photo shoot. 

But it doesn't hurt to have a cooperative and beautiful subject like Rylee.

Wish me luck with the other kids.

Taylee's Piano Recital

Taylee has taken piano lessons for about 2 years now. 

Her first piano teacher was Margaret Tew (a sister in our ward). Margaret and her family moved to Colorado this winter, so Taylee then started taking from Gloria Small (another sister in our ward).

On the evening of the last day of school, we attended Taylee's piano recital in the Small's home.

Gloria did a great job and made it a special night. 

She had sent out invitations, decorated, made programs and treats.

Gloria Small-Grace Baldwin-Taylee-Alicia Small

Madison Jensen-?-Ainsley Ashby

The day of the recital, Taylee told me she didn't want our family to attend. As we talked more, she told me she was embarrassed and felt awkward being the OLDEST piano student. She said it was frustrating seeing the younger students playing better than her. I told her I understood her concern, but still wanted the family to support her by going. She wasn't happy about it...but we went anyway.

At the recital, I noticed Sister Small's daughter-in-law (married with 2 kids) was also taking lessons. I commented to Taylee about her not being the OLDEST student....but it didn't really make her feel any better. 

The Small's also set up a video recorder, so that the audience could see the pianist playing. 

I took some video on my phone...enjoy!

I'm proud of Taylee for participating and think she is doing a fine beginner's job.

Go Taylee!

OUCH!

I was in my room, as Rylee came home from school on Tuesday, "Oweee, owee... my leg just got run over by a car!" Through the whimpering, I heard Jason try to calm her and find out more details. 

Even after asking questions myself, I was still not clear on WHO and HOW.

She said as she was getting into the car to come home, a guy ran over her leg. He rolled from her heel over her leg/ankle/foot. She and her friends yelled to the driver, "Get off her leg! Get off her leg!" He had to actually back up to free her.

She is not forthcoming about the driver's name..she says I wouldn't know him. 

Hmmm. 

My motherly-instincts say otherwise.

I asked her if she went to the school nurse. No. Will you go see her tomorrow? Yes.

The next day...still DIDN'T see the nurse.

With school year coming to a close, I felt it was important that someone at the school know about this. I called and talked to one of the assistant principals. He said he would talk to the resource officer and Rylee and make sure she went to the nurse. 

I knew Rylee wouldn't like me interfering, but didn't feel like I could let it rest without reporting.
I didn't hear back from the assistant principal, before school got out, so I'm glad Rylee is healing and having less pain each day.

Through the grapevine (my source will remain anonymous) my motherly instincts proved correct! I DID know the driver. Mother's, trust your instincts.
Rylee was shocked when I approached her about it.
"How did you find out?"
"Mom's just KNOW things. Always tell your mom the truth!"

Red Eye Tree Frog

Abree's school class had been studying the rain forest. Each student was assigned to do a habitat report on a rain forest animal. Abree chose THE RED EYE TREE FROG. 

First, they were asked to do research at home, by filling out a questionnaire about their animal. 

I appreciated how diligent Abree was about her research. Each day she would come home from school and work on a section of her questionnaire...WITHOUT reminding or prodding. Amazing!

Next, they took their research to school and wrote/typed up their report.

The final part of the project was creating a poster or diorama. Abree chose to make a diorama.

We started with a plastic dollar store frog.

 He was the wrong color, so she painted him; green, orange, red and blue (belly).

 Next, she painted the inside of the diorama. Blue for the sky and patches of brown and green for the ground. She also made a rain forest scene with colored pencils, for the backdrop.

 The greenery from my dying Mother's Day flowers came in handy. It served as the moss and ferns on the ground, as well as the leafy canopy for the frog to hop on. 

I don't think it was what she originally had in mind, but in the end I think she was satisfied with the result. 

The next week, parents were invited to come listen to the habitat reports.

At the end of their report, Mrs. Palmerton had trained them to ask, "Are their any questions?" Classmates/parents would raise their hands and ask questions. The most commonly asked question was "How long does ____ live?" Every time, without fail, the presenter would say, "I don't know. I didn't research that."  I think it kind of became a game.

Why did NO ONE research how long their animal lived??? :) Ha!

Good job Abree!

Smullin Cousin Party Prep

My first direction, when thinking about the Cousin Party, was a Circus/Carnival theme. But after having that rattle around in my brain for almost a year, I wasn't feeling very excited about it. It was feeling like too many details and too much work..and not enough FUN for me. 

As Tawnya and I were talking one day, somehow the idea of Birthday Party came up. 

That seemed like more FUN.

I created an invite, very similar to Karen's Little Man baby shower invite...cuz it was cute and easy.

I had been wanting to make a birthday balloon wreath for sometime and this was the perfect excuse to do it. 

Supplies:  a straw wreath, LOTS and LOTS of balloons and floral pins.

I love all the bright colors together.

I think we'll use it for our Family Birthday Appreciation Week, after the Cousin Party.

Another idea I had, was for each family to make a Birthday Plate. I have seen this technique posted several times on Pinterest and thought I'd try it out.

Basically, draw on a plain white Dollar Store plate with a Sharpie marker and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

This is how my sample plate looked before baking. 

Kinda cute.

The tutorial says to hand wash the plate, but I knew that wasn't realistic, so I washed it in the dishwasher to see what happened.

Result: After baking the plate, some of the Sharpie colors were dirtier/darker looking, but the black Sharpie looked good. After it was cleaned in the dishwasher, some of the colored Sharpie came off..but the black Sharpie stayed on fine.

I tried doing a cupcake too, but didn't like the result. I wondered if I was out of luck, but with a little warm water, soap and scrubbing it came off (before baking).

I tried to do as much cooking, baking and shopping in the weeks and days before, so I had less to do during the weekend of. 

For our Saturday dinner, I made a pasta bake. Kind of like lasagna, but with curly noodles, cream cheese, sour cream and cream of chicken soup. It was my own creation but was inspired by  these recipes; Million Dollar Spaghetti and Church Potluck Casserole. 

Into the freezer they went along with 5 loaves of french bread, 80 hotdogs , 6 dozen homemade bran and banana muffins, 2 gallons of orange juice, 3 pounds of browned sausage and lots of buns.

For a treat, I made these sugar cookie bars, that I had been wanting to try and put them in the freezer too.

I prepared supplies for each person to make a Birthday Badge.

I also prepared supplies to make a Birthday Countdown. I combined this idea with these printables.

The kids helped me decorate with plastic tablecloths and balloons to make a canopy of sorts or Party Poof.

I thought it would be fun for each cousin to open a gift. Afterall, what's a birthday without a present to open?

I purchased, wrapped and tagged a gift for each cousin.

We thought about making our own pinata, but as time was ticking down, I decided to go with a purchased one from Zurchers instead.

Taylee helped me to write out our time schedule. I hoped it would help everyone be on the same page and to know "what's next?".

At the last minute, I gathered some props for our photo booth and called it good.

Ready or not...here they come!

Mother's Day

Jason is always so sweet to me on Mother's Day.

He brought me these flowers the day before, "I have to give these to you today, before I kill them. They've tipped over in my car several times, so they have no water and the poor daisy has seen better days. Sorry. Happy Mother's Day!" He makes me laugh.

I thought they were lovely. :)

Stay-tuned these flowers /greenery make a second appearance and get a new life.

In the morning, Jason (and our grumpy kids) made breakfast for me; scrambled egg whites, turkey bacon, whole wheat toast and Greek yogurt. We ate together at the table, at my request.
--Does anyone else not LOVE breakfast in bed? It's a sweet thought, but kind of crumby and awkward. 

After church (and chocolate from the ward), I got to open gifts. Jason was very good to me; a new pillow, a drink dispenser (that I can use for parties, yay!), a book and a laminator! 

Oooo, I'm armed now..a label maker and a laminator. Awesome!

That evening, we shared dinner with my mom. Jason prepared a YUMMY salad: Apple-Pear Salad with Poppy-Seed Dressing (feta cheese instead of swiss) that I had requested from Pinterest. It was SO good, we had seconds..and thirds!

I am grateful to be a Mom. It's what I wanted to be when I grew up. It's both harder and more rewarding than I imagined. 

I'm also grateful to have my Mom in my life. She is my friend, my counselor, my cheerleader and one of my greatest examples.
I love you Mom!