Alanna's Party

Alanna had a cooking party with her friends this year. We had about 15 cute kindergartners here. Fortunately I had Alyssa and two of her friends to help out. Savannah also had a friend over to help with the activities.

Alyssa and her friends coordinated the events and helped keep everyone entertained. Here they are playing toss the bean bag in the cupcake tin.

Savannah was amazing with the children. She kept them in order and talked so cute to them! Here she is leading them in Simon Says while I am cleaning up the lunch and getting the cupcakes ready to decorate.

Alyssa made these amazing cakepops for Alanna's party.

One of the activities was to make these cute flowers for their bakers' hat. Alyssa and her friends helped the guests with it. Aren't those hats cute!!

It was a huge success thanks to many helpers!

Alyssa turns 12!

For Alyssa's 12th birthday she wanted to have a party at Build A Bear.

Surprised? I was too, but I humored her and did it. She was worried her friends would think it was too babyish, but they all loved it. They built their bears and then we went back to our house for food and a movie. Those girls can eat!!! They ate almost nonstop during the whole movie! Ahhh to be young! Alyssa is such a great young woman! She keeps me laughing and is a joy to our family.

Happy 12th birthday!

Alanna turns 6!

Happy 6th birthday to my sweet, sweet Lanicake! Here she is with her gifts: the movie Tangled and her favorite candy Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. I think she was more excited for the candy!

Easter 2011

Getting five children to smile,

With their eyes open,

All at the same time,

After church when they are hungy and grumpy,

was impossible today. But the kids are adorable anyway!!

New Belts

Nathan earned his black belt in Taekwondo!! We are so proud of him. There were so many times he begged me to let him quit and yet he persevered and got through it. He wants to train to be an instructor now and will hopefully test for that in June.

Alanna earned her yellow belt and Savannah earned her red/black belt!! Savannah may be testing in June for her black belt! I'm so proud of their hard work.

Sea World Field Trip

Being this close to Sea World, my youngest children are always asking to go. We haven't gone to Sea World in almost five years! Arya was so excited! This is her watching the Sea Lion.

The last time we watched the Shamu show a swarm of bees invaded the stadium! Nothing that exciting happened on this visit.

Nathan LOVES sea horses, so we had to visit this little guy.

Alanna and Arya were so scared of these ice caves. Every so often a bear will roar and it scared them to death!

By the end of the day the kids were exhausted. I thought they were getting over a cold, but by the time we got home three of the kids had fevers and I got it really bad two days later. They were troopers through the day and we really want to go back on a day they are feeling better!

Above: Nathan and Alanna just trying to get through the day. They just laid in this tube for about ten minutes hoping to feel better. It didn't work. We left very soon after this.

Savannah, Alanna, and Arya bouncing.

Arya and Elmo and Zoe! Arya was so excited!!

It was so hard to get a good picture of all of the kids. I like this one below the best even though they are facing the wrong direction and Alyssa is almost hidden. It is fun to see how tall they are together and their hairdos from the back! This is a view that I normally don't capture. I love Arya's "twirly kirt," tights and boots!

Shirley Temple Wax Museum

In third grade at our school the children get to participate in a Wax Museum. They all choose a person from history and do a research report on the person. They turn their report into a 3 minute speech and memorize it. They also decorate a large backdrop that represents something from this person's life. Savannah chose to be Shirley Temple. On Wax Museum day they dress up as their 'character' and recite their speech for the people who come to see them. I think they say their speech around 30 times during the hour and a half presentation! It is wonderful to see the imaginations of these children come to life in their character. Savannah was a perfect Shirley Temple.
This little video shows Savannah doing her speech. It is at the end of the museum, so she is pretty tired, but still really cute!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaiLz3u1cm4