Funny Kid Quotes

I've been storing up a few cute quotes for you.....

- Lauren blessing the food: "Please bless this food that it will healthen and strengthen our bodies"

- Braiden's prayer: "Please bless Dad to have a good day at work, also that we can have a good day at school, and bless Mom....(pause)....with whatever she does at home"

- Ethan's New Lagoon-A-Beach lingo: "Put on my sunscream so I can take my tuba on the crazy river"

- New lyrics to the song "Secrets": Instead of "I'm gonna give all my secrets away", it is now, according to Ethan, "I'm gonna give all my sisters away!"

- Ethan in the car: "I'm going to put my drink in the drink folder"

Hilarious!!! I love my kiddos!

And To Think, I Didn't Even Have To Bribe Her To Say It!!

Lauren told me today that she and all of her friends think I'm the coolest mom around....

Let me repeat that, in case you weren't paying attention:

I'M THE COOLEST MOM AROUND!!

Wow....I mean, who'da thunk it? (That's cool talk, in case you didn't know!)

Of course, that will almost definitely change by tomorrow, but I'll take it today!!!

Say Cheeeeese!!

Well, it has been quite the season for teeth around here.  First, Lauren got her braces on. We were excited to get them on because it meant one step closer to getting them off.  Well, maybe excited isn't entirely accurate.  It certainly isn't the way Ry and I felt about paying for said braces.  But, it's a rite of passage for all of us, I suppose. 

Anyway, here's her "before" pic:

And here's her "during" pic:

(she's really not going to be happy with my inclusion of this one, but it's my right as a mother!)

And here she is with the whole shebang:

She is still VERY cute and we have already seen a lot of movement in her teeth!  Of course, she grows more beautiful by the day, so maybe we want to slow the teeth moving process down so I don't totally lose my little girl.

Of course, on the other end of the spectrum is Katie, who had her braces removed the week before school started.  Talk about cutting it close!  Dr. Peck promised her a tinless smile when eighth grade started, but then almost didn't deliver.  Katie was sitting in his dentist chair on his lunch break to help him keep his promise.  He didn't disappoint. 

Here is a "before" pic:

Another "during" pic:

And a beautiful "after" pic with Dr. Peck himself!

We are so happy for both girls' smiles and can't believe how grown up they are getting.  Time flies, people.  Please believe me when I tell you that (because I didn't when other people told me).

Another Great Recital

In our family, June means ballet recital time.  Lauren's dance was beautiful, as always.  She danced to Minuet in G and did a fantastic job!!  Next year, she will be learning point!!  I'm so excited for her!

 

I can't believe how grown up she looks on that stage! She's the one in the middle.

Thanks to the Grandmas who came to support her!

You did a great job, Lauren! We are so proud of you!

We Like To Party!

This post is about parties. Birthday parties, to be specific. A lot of birthday parties. Too many birthday parties. Let me explain.

First, we held Lauren's birthday party with her friends. Since she's growing up and is a whopping 11 years old, she wanted to have a "late night" with her girlfriends (we don't do sleepovers at our house). She didn't want party games and cake and ice cream....she wanted to have dinner and a chocolate fountain! So I made pasta and two kinds of sauce, garlic bread and a salad and bought a bunch of goodies for the fountain. It was a blast. The girls then went to the basement for some big kid games like Curses. Lauren has some darling friends and I hope they always stay close.

Well, then we came to Braiden's birthday party....for those you know my family well, you are probably thinking, "huh?" Yes, I know his birthday is in September, so why are we having a birthday party for him in February? Well, it's a funny story, really. We were back in Wisconsin for Braiden's birthday, had a blast driving half-way across the country, and when we got back, well, I just got so consumed with laundry, school and a half a dozen other things and forgot completely about have a party with his friends. He did too, until Lauren had hers. He was determined to have a party because all of the other kids got one and he didn't. I could NOT talk him out of just waiting until his next birthday and having a super-sized party....no way! So, I finally gave up and sent out invitations. I was so embarrassed to be asking his friends to a party so long after his real birthday, but everyone was great with it and we had a great time. Lauren was invaluable to me during the party. She helped with the games because I hadn't even finished decorating his cake when all of the kids arrived. Thanks, Lauren!

So, those two were over, now we just needed to get Ethan's done. We chose a sports theme for his and invited his playgroup buddies over. They are hilarious together, and even though it was exhausting, we had a good time. I can't believe my baby is FIVE!!!

This is the darling cake my mom made for Ethan. I was so busy with school the day before, that I just didn't have time, so she volunteered. The problem was that she didn't really have time to do it either. I felt so bad imposing on her, but am so grateful that she took the time to do it. Ethan and all of his friends loved the clowns and Ethan loved that it was a huge cupcake. Thanks, Mom, you are a lifesaver!

Well, there you have it...three parties in three weeks! Whew! I am glad they are over and that the kids had fun. Now, hopefully I can rest for a little bit...at least until April!

Lauren Is Growing Up!

This is my little girl, Lauren.

OK, she's not so little anymore.
OK, so she's big! Practically a teenager!
Could someone PLEASE tell me where my little girl went?
I remember this day so vividly...January 1999.

She wasn't supposed to come for another week and a half. Ryan was in the middle of writing two huge papers for law school, so I was pretty much husbandless. His papers were due right before I was scheduled to be induced, so it should have worked out great...but Lauren had other plans (little did I know then, that this was going to be her MO for the rest of her life!). I woke up that morning having contractions about 5 minutes apart. We hurried to the hospital and she was very anxious to join us. What a beautiful little thing she was (well, not that little: she was 8 pounds and 2 1/2 weeks early!) and, of course, I fell in love instantly. Ryan completed his papers that following week and we brought her home to join our family. Lauren has always been full of life. She is spunky, passionate, emotional, and a little spit fire. I knew she was going to give us a run for our money when, at eight months, she would crawl under our table and would hang from the cross bars underneath! But she is such a joy and I don't know what I would do without her in my life!

Like I did for Braiden, I would like to include a little snapshot of what Lauren is like, right now, at age eleven. I don't ever want to forget these things about her.

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  Lauren is very musical and creative. I've said this before, but she continues to amaze me with her creativity. She is always wanting to make something, cook something, or improve something. She is doing very well on her piano, and now she just sits down all of the time and plays and sings (it's wonderful to not have to harp on her to get her to practice!). She is also an amazing dancer. I hope she will continue to study ballet for many more years. It is such a joy to watch her (I'm a little jealous because I am not graceful at all). Here she is after performing in the Nutcracker again. She was a candy cane and was wonderful.

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  Lauren is a good friend. She is so social! She is always wanting her friends to come over and hang out, and they all want to come. She is always thinking out others. Her two best buds right now are Kimberly and Sammie.

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  Lauren is a domestic goddess. She loves to play little Holly Homemaker. She is constantly begging to let her make goodies in the kitchen. From cookies, to brownies, to made-from-scratch cream cheese chocolate cake. She even decided to have a little "Food Network Challenge" where her and Kimberly each made a recipe and had the other kids taste each one and decide who had the best dish! Too funny! Now, if we could just get her to clean up the kitchen "Mom's way" everything would be perfect!

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  Lauren is very budget savvy. She is very good with her money, and even does extra chores to earn extra dough. She puts most of it in savings, but usually spends the rest on other people. She loves giving gifts. A lot are homemade, but some are purchases with her own funds. She is very giving and generous that way.

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  Lauren is very fashionable. She loves clothes and scarfs and jewelry. She is also really into fixing her hair these days. She is so excited that it is as long as Katie's hair. She received a curling iron for her birthday and now spends quite a bit of time in the bathroom practicing her curls. She is so beautiful!

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  She is one brilliant girl. I can't believe how smart she is. At her last parent teacher conference, she was testing on almost an eighth grade math level! She is also a great reader. Sometimes I have to tell her to STOP reading. She also loves science and history. She gets all As in all of these subjects and her teacher loves her. But even though all of this seems to come easy for her, I'm amazed at how hard of a worker she is. She rarely stops at "good enough" but instead tries to improve even more. I'm so proud of the person she is becoming!

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  One last thing, Lauren is a little jokester. She is constantly saying witty and funny things. This is her at Disneyland..."Mom, take a picture of me by this height sign...Look, wittle Wauren is too wittle for the wide!" We all giggled for a while after that one. What a silly girl!

So, here's how the festivities went down on Lauren's big day this year. We went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night. It is one of our favorite birthday dinner spots. We had a great time, as usual.

On the Sunday after, we had a big family get together at our house. We love getting the whole family together for yummy food and great company. Grandma Janis made her this darling cupcake cake. (whew! One less thing for me to do...Thanks, Mom!)

I will post about her friends party on another post, but for now, Happy Eleventh Birthday! We love you so much and have loved every minute of these last 11 years! Thanks for being a wonderful part of our family!

My Little Cactus Flower

Lauren has been taking ballet at Clytie Adams Ballet for several years now. She loves it and is getting pretty good. Last night was her recital and it was lovely. The theme was "Utah" and it was all about our great state. There were cute dances based on seagulls and crickets, the Olympics coming to town, and even Lagoon and Cherry Hill. Lauren's dance was called "Cactus Flowers". She did a wonderful job! I can't believe how grown up she looked on that stage! She's a good little dancer.

Lauren has loved being in Clytie's ballet. This past December, she participated in Clytie's version of the Nutcracker. Not all students get to be in the Nutcracker...you have to try out. And, you have to try out according to your height, not age. My kids have been blessed with height, so I was worried about Lauren getting in. She was barely into the next height group which meant she was competing for a spot with girls one or two years older than she was. It turned out that she was one of 40 girls chosen out of 80 that tried out in that height group!! I was thrilled for her. She was a Chinese girl and her dance was darling. She danced around the stage with huge gold fans and nodded her head up and down. It was very cute.



Here is a picture of Lauren's first year at Clytie's back in 2005---she was just six years old!


She was so cute!! She's come a long way since then in her technique, but she is still just as cute!

$1.84 is all it takes!

I replenished my playdoh supply yesterday on a whim...we rarely do playdoh anymore. I bet I could count on one hand how many times we've played with the stuff in the last five years (what a lame mom I am!). But for $1.84 for a four pack, I figured, "why not?"

I had complete bliss in my house for about 4 hours yesterday....complete bliss! Here is some of what Lauren and two of her friends created:

Now I originally made the purchase for Ethan and his little friend, and they definitely got some use out of it, but Lauren took over after Ethan got bored and went crazy. She is very creative and artistic and this is just another example of that.

So...$1.84 is all it takes! Someone please remind me of this later when the kids are driving me completely crazy!