A Good Year

2011 has been a good year for us.

Henry was declared cancer-free.  The best news a parent can hear.  Yes, I know it was only thyroid cancer (the "best" kind to have) but even thyroid cancer can cause serious complications so the fact that his treatment was successful is worth celebrating.  Other than that, we have been pretty healthy, random stomach flu attacks not withstanding. 

Jay has a good, stable job that he likes and allows him to use his talents and education.  We love where we live and we love our neighbors and friends and ward family.

I love my calling in Primary, although today I'm stressing a bit because tomorrow 83 little people are getting new teachers and it's all on me.  Hopefully no one will cry.  Sunbeams can cry - we expect some transition issues with them since they are only 3 - but I'm hoping everyone else will be OK.  I also love helping out at the kids school.  This is the only year that they will all three be in the same school so I'm maximizing my time there, although helping with three Christmas parties on the same day (one at noon, one at 1 pm and one at 2 pm) left me twitching a bit.

Speaking of school, the kids are doing well.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses but in general are happy and smart and enjoy learning.  They are also enjoying the extra activities that they participate in, from Scouts to basketball to piano to dance. 

My only hope is for another good year in 2012. 

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Hyde Park

We had a lovely Christmas here in Hyde Park, Utah.  It was cold but clear(ish). The kids were out of school starting Thursday but Tessa and Henry were felled by the stomach flu so we were quarantined until Saturday.  We spent alot of time watching TV, playing on the Wii and trying hard to get along.   On Christmas Eve everyone was well again so we made cookies for Santa and had a nice day together.

Christmas morning came early, but that's OK.  The kids had a nice Christmas.  We went to church and had a nice sacrament meeting with a lot of music and scriptures about the birth of the Savior and how we can honor His life by emulating His example.   The kids were exhausted Christmas night but rallied on Monday to have a fun Christmas party with the extended Wright family in Ogden.

Here are a few pictures:

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Dancing Queen

Tessa's dance school has a cute little holiday recital for the classes.  The girls show off a couple of dances to family and friends who come and applaud.  It's way more low-key than the big spring recital and a fun way to spend a dark, cold winter's evening.

Here are two of Tessa's dances:

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

The Bad Guy

I often play the role of the Bad Guy in our family.  Jay does too, but I'm home with the kids more so I'm typically the one who has to reign them in.

Tonight I played bad guy again and boy are they mad at me.  My kids love to watch Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.  It's a fun show and they like to show off how smart they are.  They turned it on tonight and found themselves smack in the middle of "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Week".  The audience was full of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders shaking their pom poms and the contestant was a cheerleader as well.  In uniform, of course.

I don't consider myself a prude or uptight about clothing in general.  My kids watch plenty of sports on TV and and in person and see plenty of cheerleading action.  But really?  I mean, I turn the channel when Victoria's Secret ads come on TV because my 10 and 8 year old sons don't need to see half naked women prancing around and, quite frankly, my 5 year old daughter doesn't need to see that either.  I'm certainly not going to sit and watch a 30 minute game show featuring women in clothing that barely covers what needs to be covered in public.   So after I picked my jaw up off the floor I made them turn the channel.  Their laughter at my reaction changed to outright indignation at the gall of a mother who is censoring their viewing for the evening.  Hopefully they'll be placated by the Charlie Brown Christmas special that comes on later this evening.

Although, as Jay just said, we are a bit curious to see if there are Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders who are smarter than 5th graders.  Hmmmm.   I guess we'll never know.

Tessa the Other Reindeer

Today was Tessa's Kindergarten Christmas program.  These programs are exercises in cuteness, as you can see from the video below - sorry for the quality. 

They seriously sang a dozen songs but the program only lasts about 25 minutes.  Tessa is the reindeer in the middle of the video with the ponytail.   She doesn't seem to love being onstage or in the spotlight, which is funny because she loves dance and her recitals.  Maybe the Summit Elementary stage is just too much for her. 

Here is a picture of her before the program. 

My favorite thing was the matching reindeer tshirts.  I would never think to do something so cute with tshirts.  I guess it's a good thing that I don't teach kindergarten.

The Ugly Truth

This evening after dinner William asked me if I thought I would have any more children.  After hemming and hawing my way through the typical "Well, William, Daddy and I like our family just the way it is.  We think it's just perfect", I took a deep breath and waited.  I figured the response would be something like, "yeah, I wouldn't want another baby sister, anyway."

Not so.  William's response - Yeah, you are getting a little old to have babies.

William's Wild Weekend!

William has had a busy and fun weekend. 

On Thursday, he went to Cub Scouts for the first time.  He is already working on his Bobcat and hopes to get it at his first Pack Meeting after Christmas.  He had a great time! 

Friday, William had his 8th birthday.  He opened his presents from us before school on Friday.

We gave him a coin collecting book, Season 3 of Star Wars - The Clone Wars on DVD, and the new Lego Harry Potter game.  He also recieved birthday money from Grandma on Friday.  That night, we went out to dinner and bowling for his birthday.  I bought two games for all six of us to bowl and, I have to say, one would have been plenty.  We aren't very good and it took forever!  But the kids had fun.

On Saturday, William was baptized.  It was a great day!  We are so proud of him for following Jesus' example and being baptized.  He was really nervous about getting baptized, mainly because he doesn't like getting his face wet!  I have teased Jay for weeks that he needed to get the baptism prayer right so he didn't have to do the whole thing twice.  So what happened?  He did the prayer fine, but forgot to say Amen before he dunked William.  For a split second I worried that William would freak out but he didn't - he trusted his dad and was baptized a second time, this time including the Amen!  Poor kid, but he sure handled it well.  He later told us that it "wasn't as bad" as he thought it would be.  I think he had a lot of people praying for him! 

After his baptism, we had a fun lunch for our family who traveled to be with us on William's special day.  We had his birthday cake and he opened some more presents - he got a fun game, some Lego's and some more birthday money.  Later that day, we went shopping and he was able to buy two big Lego sets - Star Wars and Harry Potter - with the money that he was given and had saved.  He now has quite the collection and is already planning on saving for more!

All in all, he had a great weekend dedicated to all things William.  He is a great kid and we love him so much! 

A Gangsta Thanksgiving

This is what I get when I try to take a picture of the boys at Thanksgiving dinner:

No, we haven't installed a banquette in our home; we went out to dinner this year.  All of the rest of the Wrights of Utah had bigger and better plans and so, left to our own devices, we bailed on the prep and cooking and used a gift card to Elements.  I wasn't so sure about the whole thing but it was lovely.  We showed up, ate our food, and left.  There were even a few leftovers to take home.  The food was yummy and the kids were well-behaved.  I'm not sure I'd want to go out to dinner every year, but it was nice.

This is how polite people look when out in public:

We did get some bad news on Thanksgiving, however.  Jay's grandmother died, just shy of her 97th birthday.  She lived a wonderful life and we will miss her.  We love you, Nana!

Snow Buddies

Tessa has been excited for it to snow this year.  For some reason, she really wanted to get out and play in it.  I find this funny because in the past it has taken longer for her to get into her snow clothes than to actually play in the snow - she seems to take after her mom and prefer a climate-controlled environment.

Last Friday it finally snowed enough for her to get out and play in it without getting all muddy.  She coaxed Jay into attempting a snowman, but the snow was too powdery and not good for rolling snowballs.  So they moved onto the next activity - snow angels.

First up was Tessa.  She did a good job of making a cute little snow angel.

 Jay decided to join in and make a larger, Daddy-sized snow angel.

 Here they are - the two snow buddies.

Tessa still seems to prefer me for lots of things, but there are two things she can count on her Dad to do with her - cook and play in the snow.  Thank goodness because I'm not too good at either one of those things.

Question/Answered!

Yesterday in Primary William's class had two substitutes.  They are two wonderful ladies in our ward and I'm grateful to them for filling in for their regular teachers.  One of the ladies is married to a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Whenever we see the Choir sing, we play a game of "Spot Brother Jensen" just for fun.  I'm not sure we've ever even pointed the Jensen's out to the kids - they just know that Brother Jensen is in our ward and sings in the Choir.

Anyway, yesterday William apparently asked Sister Jensen if she was married "to the guy in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir".  She answered in the affirmative and I guess they went on with their lesson.  William didn't even mention this conversation to us - he talked more about the yeast object lesson that they did in their class.

Last night after dinner our doorbell rang.  It was Brother Jensen!  He introduced himself to William (his name is William as well, but he goes by Bill) and said that he heard that William mentioned him in class today so he thought he'd bring William one of the Choir's new CD's.  William was so thrilled.  He carried the CD around all evening and listened to it before he went to bed.  He asked me if he could write Brother Jensen a thank you note for thinking to bring him the CD.  Then he said, "well, now I'm really glad I asked Sister Jensen that question!"

I'm so grateful for good, thoughtful neighbors who we are blessed to know.  I'm grateful for people who go the extra mile to make little boys smile and feel important.  It's a cliche to say that it takes a village to raise a child, but we are sure grateful for our little village of Hyde Park, Utah.

Fall Pictorial

Tessa and I had our annual "Jay takes the boys down to Salt Lake City for a Ute game" Girl's Day Out last week.  It was a lot of fun.  After the boys left for pizza and football - the Ute's won, which was nice - we went and had a little spa day for her.  She got a haircut and cute braided hairstyle and something called Glitter Toes.  I thought it would just be shiny toenail polish but no, they actually shook glitter onto her toes.  She was looking quite snazzy.

We then went birthday present shopping for a few people we know and then went to dinner at the Olive Garden.  We topped it off with a Barbie movie and cheesecake at home.  It was quite fun and as much as I like a good college football game, I also like doing girl stuff with my buddy. 

For Halloween, the kids were Cinderella, Harry Potter and Charlie Brown Dressed Like a Ghost.  I don't know if you can tell that William's ghost costume has lots of holes cut into it, just like in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".  The idea was better than the execution and he got frustrated with the sheet pretty quickly but a good trick-or-treating time was had by all.

Like A Fish?

We finished fall swim lessons today.  Jay and I were pleased that the kids pushed their way through them.  I guess our definition of success is different from some people's.  No one passed off their level.  Not one of our kids went off the diving board, the supposed reward at the end of a month of lessons.  William and Tessa barely got their hair wet, as a matter of fact.   But we were happy, for several reasons:

 - No one cried.  Our kids don't love swimming.  We go a few times a year but no one gets that excited about it.  This bout of swim lessons was not met with any kind of enthusiasm except from Tessa, who for some reason insists that she loves swimming even though she refuses to do much more than blow bubbles in the water.  So to make it through 5 lessons with minimal complaining and no crying was an accomplishment in and of itself.

- Henry showed real improvement.  He didn't pass off Level 3, but only because he didn't jump or dive into the deep water.  He is actually pretty good at swimming across the pool and he enjoys playing in the water as long as he is able to touch the bottom.   He tried but didn't succeed at the diving part of his level.  Honestly, I don't care about that.  He'll probably retake Level 3 at some point but as long as he can swim around in some fashion, I'm pretty happy.

- William and Tessa went and tried.  That's about all we can ask of them at this point.  Tessa actually fancies herself quite the swimmer, although she doesn't do much more than get towed around the water by her teacher.  William is so tense; his main problem is his anxiety about swimming.  William is an anxious kid in general, though, so he did OK knowing him and his background and approach to swimming.  To give you an idea, as we were walking into the Rec Center this morning he told me he'd rather swim in the sewer.  Nice, huh?

After swim lessons they were all smiles.  William was invited to a birthday party so I dropped him off and took Henry and Tessa to purchase their celebratory Wii games; William wants a Wii game that is out in two weeks so we'll get it then.  Why Wii games?  We promised the kids that if they went to swim lessons with good attitudes and tried their best they would get Wii games as a reward.  Yes, we bribed our children with video games to go swimming.   Between the cost of the lessons and the cost of the games, this turned out to be an expensive exercise in.....what?  I'm not quite sure.  Perseverance, maybe? 

Either that or the power of a good incentive.

The Peanut Gallery

Tessa wandered down into the basement this morning while I was exercising.  I alternate between walking on our treadmill and doing some light weights/Pilates type exercises.  She caught me just as I was starting some lunge/squat type things that really kill my legs, so I mentioned to her that I hated doing these particular exercises because I find them hard.

She sat on a bench and watched me until I got to the fourth rep and said, "Do you hate them yet, Mom?"  I nodded and kept going, counting silently.  A few reps later she said, "Wow, you really do hate them, don't you?  I can tell." 

And I was only on 10.  I really need to make sure she's occupied before I start exercising.

S is for Smart Aleck

Every week we get a progress report home from William's 2nd grade teacher.  It's nice - a quick snapshot on how he's doing with behavior, homework assignments and classroom work.  So far this year, he has received all E's for Excellent in all areas.  Yesterday, however, he had an S (for Satisfactory) in behavior.  In the comment section she had written a note explaining what had happened. 

Last week his regular teacher was gone for four days so they had a substitute.  Apparently on Tuesday William walked into the classroom, saw the substitute and said, "Oh, it's you again."  The substitute teacher talked to him and resolved the issue.  I wasn't happy, however, because I expect my kids to be well-behaved and respectful.  When I asked William about the incident, he swore up and down that he hadn't said it. 

The dilemma - it sounds exactly like something that William would say.  He has a quirky and often sarcastic sense of humor and I'm sure he was trying to be funny but he is still learning about when it is appropriate to manifest his cleverness.    It would be his passive/aggressive way of showing that he wasn't happy that his regular teacher was out of school for another day. When I told Jay about it after the kids were in bed he said the exact same thing -  that it totally sounds like William.  Yet William insists that it wasn't him.  No matter what I said to him, he wouldn't back down.  I ended up having a generic talk with him about showing respect to his teachers at school, even substitutes, and doing a better job of evaluating when it was appropriate to be funny. 

It's not that I don't want to believe him - I do - but I can literally picture William walking into the classroom and spouting out "Oh, it's you again" to a substitute teacher (to say he doesn't do well with transitions and changes in routine is a slight understatement).  Hopefully we'll be back to all E's from now on.  Until his teacher leaves in February to have her baby. Something tells me William won't be too happy about this development either.

Maybe S will stand for Sigh.  Or Save Me.

I Got Nothing

I was perusing a blog that I follow the other day and noticed that the author hadn't updated in a while.  As I really like this blog, I was disappointed and thought, "It's been almost two weeks since the last update."  I then ventured over to my blog and realized that I had likewise not updated for a bit.  Since I'm using this blog both to journal and to keep family and friends updated on the Wrights of Hyde Park and all our exploits, I thought I should make an effort to blog sometime this month.  The problem - I couldn't think of anything to write.

Nothing exciting has been going on here lately.  We are fully ensconced in school and that keeps everyone, including me, busy.  The kids are all doing well.  Henry is in Webelos now - his last year in Cub Scouts.  He is doing well in 5th grade and is working towards completing the requirements to earn the Great American Award.  There are several things that he needs to accomplish; right now he is working on memorizing the Gettysburg Address.  He's plugging along and hopes to complete everything for the award by Parent/Teacher conferences in January.  William is rocking 2nd grade.  He is looking forward to starting Cub Scouts in a few months and getting baptized (December 3rd is the big day - mark your calendars!).  Tessa is settling nicely into kindergarten.  She is learning how to read and spell words and likes her teacher alot.  She is continuing dance lessons this year and has started piano lessons as well.  She doesn't seem interested in playing any sports yet, but we'll see what the summer brings.

All the kids are taking swim lessons on Saturday mornings this fall.  I was so excited to see them offered since this past summer didn't work too well for us getting into swim lessons - between Tessa's broken arm, the stomach flu that hung around for several weeks, and our vacation we just couldn't fit it in.  Unfortunately our kids are the ones who really need the lessons - William and Tessa hate getting their faces wet and just haven't taken to swimming too quickly.  I'm a little worried that when William gets baptized it will literally be Jay dunking him forcefully so as to get his whole body covered.  It could be ugly.  Henry is a bit better - he isn't the best swimmer but he tries and can get himself around OK.  We'll do fall lessons this year and hope that nobody has any limbs encased in plaster during the summer next year.

So, there you have it.  An update.  No funny stories.  Nothing earth shattering to report.  But we're still hanging in there up in Cache Valley.  

I just wish that Schoolhouse Rock had done an episode on the Gettysburg Address.  I loved Schoolhouse Rock as a kid and have some of them on VHS tape.  Henry also has to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution, so I eagerly pulled up the "We the people..." episode on You Tube for him to watch.  He was more interested in the musical version of the Gettysburg Address set to Katy Perry's "Firework".  And no, I'm not joking.  If only I were.

Signs of the Times

The first month of school is officially over.  As much as we are all ready for school to start again, the transition can be painful.  I try so hard to be patient because I really do understand that it's hard to go from Party All The Time in the summer to 6 hours of school a day.  There are, however, only so many times I can watch Tessa burst into tears because her princess water bottle wasn't put in the refrigerator and now IS NOT COLD ENOUGH after school.  The other day it got so bad that William actually ran to his room and threatened to run away from home.  It took me 30 minutes to talk him down off the ledge.  I know, I know - conventional wisdom says to call them on their bluffs when confronted by a clearly irrational outbust, but trust me when I say that this particular strategy wouldn't work with William.  Sigh.

Anyway, I got tired of the drama so the other day I posted a sign on the door for the kids to see when they came home.  It said Grumpiness Not Allowed....Enter Only If Smiling....This Means You!  And you know what?  It kind of worked.  They came in the door laughing.  And they seemed to be in better moods all the way around.  The next day I posted another sign - this one had a smiley face with the question Is This You?  If not, go away until it is.  That day I heard them running up the stairs to see what the sign said.  I've decided to continue the sign trend - they seem to think it's fun and so far I have remembered to post something on the door.  Today's sign was a suggestion from Jay - The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.  There was a little confusion about the meaning of the sign but once I explained it - teaching irony to a five year old can take a while - they laughed and asked for a snack.  They seem to look forward to seeing what nonsense their mom can post on the door so who am I to deprive them of a daily sign? 

If you have any suggestions for good door signs, feel free to share.  I have a feeling that my ideas will run out fairly quickly.

The Nickname List

Tessa can be a funny little girl.  She has recently begun compiling her Approved Nickname List, which are all the nicknames that Jay and I (mostly Jay, it seems) are allowed to call her.  On the list are the usual suspects, like Princess, Tessie and Lou Lou (which is my preferred nickname).  Surprisingly, Rose seems to be one of her favorites.  She really wants Jay to call her Rose, apparently.  Or Sweet Pea.  The poor man can't keep them all straight.

He had plenty of time to practice this weekend as I took a little road trip with some friends.  We had so much fun.  We shopped, we ate, we laughed.  We made stops at stores from Target (laugh if you will, but since we don't have a Target in Cache Valley it's a rare treat) to Janie and Jack and many, many of the outlet stores in Park City.  The only hitch in the weekend came when an unhappy sequence of events that included a ride to Park City in the backseat of a minivan combined with what much have been a little more heat than I could handle resulted in me becoming car sick.  Apparently I'm 5 years old. 

I wasn't actually sick in the car, thank goodness.  I wouldn't go around inspecting the bushes in the parking lot of the Hampton Inn in Park City, however, if you know what I mean.  The real tragedy is that I was unable to finish my Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.  And I may never eat cheesecake again.  Sigh.

A good nights sleep had me feeling right as rain and I managed to do my share to stimulate the economy.  Thanks for a great weekend, Melissa, Kristina and Kim.  And thanks to Jay for taking the kids so that I could go have a bit of fun.  It almost makes up for him missing Tessa's broken arm/surgery fiasco while he was in China.

Almost.

A Conversation with William

Today we took a bittersweet trip to Ogden.  We went to see Jay's grandmother.  We call her Great Nana.  She is living in a rest home now and is showing her age quite a bit (she turns 97 this fall).  We took pictures with her and spent a few minutes with her.  She seemed happy to see the kids running around and playing.  We hope she is comfortable and peaceful during this time of her life.

This isn't the best picture of our little family but I love the picture of Nana. 

We hung out in Ogden for a while and then Tessa, William and I headed home while Jay and Henry stayed to watch the Ute game with the rest of the family.  I like college football but Tessa isn't the biggest fan so keeping her out long past her bedtime for something she barely tolerates at home didn't seem like the best idea. 

We had quite the conversation on the way home.  I'm not sure what they had been thinking about, but we went from "Mom, when is the world going to end?" to "Are there aliens that are going to come and blow us up?"  I was a little flummoxed by the strange conversation but tried to be as reassuring as I could that the world wasn't going to end by alien attack.

Then, when we were almost home, William asked, "Is it hard to get married?"  He further clarified that what he really wanted to know was if it was hard for me to get a boyfriend.  Seeing as I didn't get married until I was 29, most people around here would say that yes, it was hard to get married.  But I just said that Jay and I met and decided we liked each other and fell in love and got married and no, once we decided that we loved each other it wasn't hard at all.  Tessa, the little romantic, was making puking noises in the backseat.  William then asked me what kinds of places we liked to go on dates.  When I mentioned dinner, he asked me if we went to Wendy's for dinner.  I said that it just depended on what we were doing for the rest of the date or if dinner was the main part of the date.  At that, William wisely said, "Yeah, I guess if you were just going to dinner on a date, you'd want to go somewhere more romantic than Wendy's.  Like Chick-Fil-A." 

Bless his cute little heart.

Away She Goes!

Thanks to my friend Stacy, who took pictures of Tessa on her first day of kindergarten.  Doesn't she look grown up? 

Waiting for the Kindergarten Bus

Tessa's First Bus Ride

She has really enjoyed school so far.  They have spent alot of time learning rules so hopefully it will get even more fun as time goes by.  She seems excited to go back to school tomorrow so that's a good sign.

And I don't think I'll spend any time watching the clock this week.  With all the things that I need to get done, I'll be lucky to remember that the kids are coming home at all.

The Loneliest Number

My baby started kindergarten today.  Sniff.  Sigh.  I'm not normally a very sentimental person but I surprised myself as I was walking home after putting her on the bus.  I started crying.  I didn't sob or anything.  But a few tears leaked out as I walked home and began what will be my daily 3 1/2 hours of.......whatever I want. 

I wish I could post a cute picture of her but I had a major parenting fail and neglected to recharge the batteries on my camera.  We got out to the bus stop and my camera chirped and died.  Luckily my neighbor took a few pictures of Tessa getting on the bus so I'll try and post them when I get her my email address.

Today I feel lonely.  I'm used to Tessa just always being around, even when the boys aren't.  Luckily the loneliness won't last - I'm hoping to volunteer in the kids classrooms a couple of times a week and I have plenty of church and home projects to keep me busy.  I can go to the dentist and get my hair cut without worrying about making it back for the preschool pickup.  Christmas shopping will be a breeze.  I've got lots of time to do lots of things.  But today my free time has been spent checking the clock to see when Tessa will be home from her first day of kindergarten.

A Whole New World

Henry has been asking most of the summer if he could learn how to mow the yard.  This past Saturday Jay decided to start teaching him.

They only did the front yard and it took him a while but Jay said he did fairly well.  I don't think it was as fun as he thought it would be.   We certainly don't expect him or even want him to take over doing the entire yard at this point but he'll get there over the next little while.  For now, he can just help Jay out as needed. 

Besides, what in the world would Jay do with him spring/summer/fall Saturdays without the yard to mow? 

Favorite Things (The Pictures)

I am so bad about taking pictures in our everyday lives, but I did manage to take some pictures during our vacation to southern California earlier this month.  Here are a few:

We visited the California Science Center with Uncle Philip, Aunt Carol, Emily and Sydney.  We had such a good time hanging out with them!

 We tried to get a good family picture outside the Science Center at the Rose Garden.  I think we missed the roses by a bit but it was a pretty area.

We took the kids to the Griffith Park Observatory.  In the background is the Hollywood Sign, but you can't see it because of the fog/pollution/marine layer/whatever they call it.

 On the way down to San Diego, we took the scenic route and stopped by the San Diego temple.

One of our favorite exhibits at Sea World was the Artic Exhibit, featuring the beluga whales.
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 We saw Blue Horizons, which featured dolphins and pilot whales, at Sea World.

 We also saw One Ocean, the show featuring Shamu.

 William and Tessa enjoyed panning for (fool's) gold at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center near Old Town in San Diego.

 We paid a short visit to Coronado Beach.  William and Tessa picked up a few shells but we didn't stay long - it was pretty windy and cool.  In the distance you can see Point Loma, which was our next stop.

 This is Henry looking off Point Loma to the North.

All in all it was a really fun vacation.  We've decided that we like taking our little trips in August.  It's a nice way to break up the remaining few weeks of summer vacation and escape Cache Valley during the dog days of summer.  By the time we got home there was only one full week of vacation left until the kids go back to school (they go back on Thursday, August 25th), so a week away in early to mid August was just perfect.   

Favorite Things

We are back from a fun family trip to Southern California.  On the last day, I asked the kids what their favorite parts of the vacation were.  Their answers were as follows:

William - Seeing his cousins.  All the us enjoyed hanging out with the Royal family of Yucaipa, California for a few days.  We had a blast with them.  The kids stayed up late every night, we played games and we played on the Wii.  They have a cute little dog named Belle who my kids loved.  Tessa found a kindred spirit in Sydney and they played Barbies for literally hours at a time.  On Tuesday, we all went into Los Angeles for the day.  We went to the California Science Center and saw some of their exhibits, including a cute IMAX movie called Born to Be Wild.  We also went to Univeral Studios City Walk and ate lunch (Jay really wanted to go to Pinks, a hot dog place) and shopped for treats.  To wrap up our day we went to the Griffith Park Observatory and saw the giant telescope and enjoyed the planetarium exhibits.  Although we were sad to leave their house on Wednesday (William actually cried), we are so grateful to them for playing host to us for a few days!  We had so much fun.

Henry - Sea World.  On Thursday we went to Sea World and the kids really enjoyed it.  Henry found his favorite ride - Journey to Atlantis - which is a cross between a water ride and a roller coaster.  He would have ridden it all day if we had let him.  We saw all the fun exhibits, rode some cute rides and saw three shows - One Ocean (the Shamu show), the Dolphin show (I can't remember the name of it now), and Pet's Rule.  Tessa and I saw Pet's Rule while the boys were riding the water rides and I thought it was silly but Tessa loved it.  Anyway, Sea World is a great way to spend a day in San Diego.  On Friday, our last day in San Diego, we hit a few sights around town.  We went to Old Town, saw the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center (we highly recommend it) and had lunch.  Then we drove to Coronado Island and went to the beach for a bit.  Finally we drove to Point Loma and saw the old military base and took in the view and the lighthouse.  San Diego is a beautiful area and we would definitely head back there someday.

Tessa - The hot tub.  Yes, of all the things we did, Tessa's favorite thing was swimming in the hotel pool every night and hanging out in the hot tub.  I think she had fun during the rest of the activities as well, to be fair, but this is the first thing that came to her mind. 

All in all, we had a great trip.  Poor Jay got home from Australia at 3:30 pm Friday and we left for California at 6 am Saturday morning but he seemed to recover from his jetlag well and had fun hanging out with the family.  I celebrated my 43rd birthday while we were there and it was nice - Carol even made a carrot cake to mark the occasion.

I'll post pictures in the next day or so when I get a chance.  For now, I've got laundry to catch up on.  Lots and lots of laundry.

When The Cat's Away.....

....something unusual happens.  Not bad.  Well, sometimes bad.  Not catastrophic.  Just unusual.

The last time Jay left the continental United States, Tessa broke her arm and required minor surgery.  It wasn't a pleasant experience.  The day before he was scheduled to come home, William became the first victim of what I like to call Vomitfest 2011.  Good times.

So he left last week for Australia.  "It's another beautiful day in Queensland," he crowed to me on the phone the other day.  It's winter in Australia, but winter in Queensland means highs in the low-70's with lows in the 50's.  He's loving it.  Our weather is a bit warmer, but doable.  Today was quite pleasant.  It only got up to the low 80's, which for early August I'll take any day of the week.  It stayed cooler today because of the rain we had this morning.

So, now to the "unusual".  It doesn't usually rain quite as much as it did in August.  April, sure.  May and June even.  But August 1st?  We had what can only be described as a deluge for a good part of the morning.  I put on my thinking cap and plugged in our sump pump, thinking that with all the rain in such a short period of time I should be proactive.  Good, right?

Well, yeah.  The sun came out around 1 pm and it was fine.  I needed to use the outlet for something - you see where I'm going with this, don't you? - so I unplugged the pump.  I didn't give it a second thought until about 5 pm, when I asked Tessa to go down in the basement to our food storage and pick out a package of pasta for me to make for dinner.  The conversation went as follows:

Me - Tessa, how come you didn't get the pasta:?

Tessa - Because of the water.

Me - What water?

Tessa - The water in the basement.

Sigh.  I quickly plugged in the pump again and it promptly went off and has continued to go off every few minutes.  We had water in our cold room and storage space.  Luckily our basement isn't finished so it was just concrete.  I was able to soak most of it up with towels and I'm letting the rest sit and hopefully I'll be able to dry it in the morning.  There isn't enough to really try and use a wet-vac on and since there is no carpet it should be fine.  I had to move around some stuff in the cold storage room and in the crawl space but I only threw away a couple of things that should have been thown away a while ago anyway.  Crisis averted.

But seriously?  I sooooo need a vacation.  To Southern California. 

Oh yeah.  That's next week. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't actually sigh when I realized we had water in the basement.  I'll let you use your imagination as to my actual response.  I don't think the kids heard me.  At least I hope not.

Double Digits

Henry has officially hit the double-digit club. A decade. Ten years old. Sometimes I look at him and think, "how is this kid 10 already?" Then he does something Henryish that drives me absolutely nuts and feel like he's been around for a lot longer than that.

He has had a nice birthday. Since his birthday (today) is Sunday, we had his party on Friday. In years past, Henry's birthday parties have been easy. I just get a Slip N Slide, a pool, or a blow up water slide and throw the kids out in the back yard, give them a snow cone and some cake and call it good. Not this year. He wanted an Amazing Race themed party. Our friends Melissa and Trevor hosted an Amazing Race for adults about a month ago and Henry thought it was awesome. He got to ride around in Trevor's truck and help clean up or organize some of the tasks and he felt incredibly grown up and cool. So we invited about 10 kids, divided them into teams and had them race around our little neighborhood. They had do do things like count the windows on our house, solve a secret message, complete a 60 piece puzzle, and fill up a cup with water using only spoons. They had pizza and cake and ice cream. They played basketball and had a Nerf war. A good time was had by all.

On Saturday Henry asked if we could go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch so we did that and got cupcakes that we had after church today. Jay called from Australia and spent some time on the phone with him. The kids at church sang Happy Birthday to him. He's getting Happy Birthday phone calls today and I think he feels special.

He wanted a cake commemorating the University of Utah's foray into the PAC 12, but I couldn't find anyone who had a license to make a cake like that. He had to settle for this:

It's actually quite a good replication of the Utah logo.  He was happy with it.  His little cake-loving friends got over their initial reaction to it being a Ute cake (most folks around here pull for Utah State or, gasp, BYU) and devoured it it short order.

So Henry celebrates another year of being on this planet and in our family.  He's healthy (still cancer-free as of a few weeks ago), loves sports and Webelos and school, and is generally a great kid.

Happy Birthday, Henry!  We love you!

40 What?

Jay turned 45 today. He doesn't like it - it feels just a smidge too close to 50. But he's generally a good sport about his birthday so it's all good.

He had to work today (summer at his job is crazy with a capital C) so we did a quick celebration when he got home from work.

As you can see, he is excited for his noise-cancelling headphones. Hopefully they'll allow him a little sleep on his 15 hour flights between LA and Sydney.

Today William saw an older type truck in the parking lot of a store and said it was a classic, from the 80's. Then he thought Jay and I were born in the 90's. When I corrected him to the correct decade, he thought I said 16th Century instead of the 60's. I guess to him there isn't much difference. They both seem really long ago.

Happy Birthday, Jay! We love you!

Life, Normalized

I like to think we are back to normal here in the Wright household. We haven't had any medical issues in over a week, which isn't something that I could have said since early June. Jay has been in town. Summer is progressing. Life is good.

The boys both finished baseball. I missed William's last game due to the stomach flu, but he has had an awesome first year of coach-pitch. He got alot of hits and is getting better defensively. Henry's team finished 9-3. He had some nice hits and nice defensive plays as well. It was his first year of kid-pitch so it was a bit of an adjustment but he had a great time, which is the most important thing to me. Unfortunately they lost their first tournament game but he seemed happy with his season. Baseball is definitely the boys first choice of sports to play and we're happy to attend their games.

Today was the Hyde Park Pioneer Day Celebration. Our Primary kids rode on a float and had a good time throwing candy to the crowd. I was a little nervous, being a first-time Primary President in charge of the whole activity but the kids in our ward are awesome and no one fell off the trailer or anything. Jay was thrilled to be able to walk the parade with us and help monitor the float from behind for any shenanigans. I heard a rumor that he spent most of the time picking up candy from the street and eating it, but I have no independent confirmation of this report.

Henry and I went to see the last Harry Potter movie today as well. It was really good and we both enjoyed it. Poor William - he really wanted to go but I felt like I needed to see it before taking him, seeing as he's only 7 and quite a sensitive boy at that. It was a good choice. It was pretty intense and I think a few parts might have scared/bothered him. He's reading the books right now (on book 6, can you believe it?) and I think I'll let him watch it on DVD when it comes out.

Next week the boys start a two-week sports camp at a local high school. I need to sign them up for swim lessons as well. Now that Tessa is cleared for water activities, I'm going to try and get them in a session before we head out on our SoCal vacation. Which is after Henry's birthday and his Amazing Race-themed birthday party. Which I haven't even started planning yet. Which will occur while Jay is in Australia for work. What? You don't think Jay has had enough international travel this summer? Apparently neither does he. After this trip he will have missed a whopping 26 days of summer vacation.

Not that anyone is counting.

Dear Stomach Flu

I get that you come to visit twice a year or so. Really, it's not a problem. You are not fun but typically come and go quickly so we just stay home and deal with you over the course of a few days. So what's up with camping out in my house for the past three weeks? You are seriously making every weekend a downer and I'm not happy about it.

William and Henry had you on Father's Day weekend. The next weekend you decided that Henry's case was too mild to let him off the hook so you came back, causing him to miss some fun activities with Grandma. The next weekend you bothered Tessa. She was already grumpy with the whole cast/broken arm thing, but you hung around her for a few days as well. Then, to put the icing on the cake, you decided that since you'd pestered the kids enough, Jay and I were next. For the record, the past four Fridays have seen a member of our little family throwing up.

I could understand if you came to visit in the fall and/or winter. We expect it. But summer? Really? You are seriously cramping our style.

So you won. We've all had it. Can we please have a break now? Just for a little while? I'll expect you again sometime after school starts. Until then, get out and stay out.

Sincerely,
Rhonda

Cast Away

Tessa got her cast off yesterday. She's been looking forward to/dreading it ever since she broke her arm. On one hand - yay! No more heavy cast to drag around - bike riding will commence - swimming will be a possibility. On the other hand - how are they going to get the pins out? Turns out, they just pull. And from Jay's description (he rallied from his bout with the stomach flu to ferry her to the "bone doctor", which is only fair since by the time he got home from China she was hitching her cast around like she was born with it and he missed the misery that was her surgery and the immediate recovery from said surgery) it was ugly. They actually sent the pins home with us! My only question - why? Jay asked me if I wanted to keep them and I looked at him like he was nuts and threw them away. I mean, I don't keep cute things like baby teeth and locks of hair. Why would I keep a long, thin piece of hardward that resided in my daughter's arm for a month?

Anyway, I had high hopes for the days after Tessa was free from her neon pink cast. I thought we'd finally be able to talk her into going outside at least. Yet.....no. It's almost like we're back to square one. She's sooooo careful with it - she walks around holding her arm like it's made of glass and she spent most of yesterday lounging around with her arm on a pillow. She's moving it more today and I'm confident that she'll be back to using it in a few days. Perhaps I can bribe her with some Wii time if she promises to only use her right hand.

I knew the Wii would come in handy some day!

Mission Accomplished

Today I did something momentous. I finished Tessa's baby book.

Yes, she's 5 years old. Yes, the scrapbook supplies and pictures have been organized and sitting in my bedroom for literally years. Yes, I should win an award for procrastination for putting off this project for this long.

The problem is that I hate scrapbooking. Scrapbooking was all the rage back in 2001 when I had Henry. I tried, oh I tried, to like it. I bought all the cute paper and embellishments and supplies. I even went to a weekly scrapbooking night that some women in our ward in Ogden organized. But it just wasn't me. I would finish three pages in the time it took them to pick out coordinating papers for one of theirs and I didn't even enjoy the execution all that much. The problem was that once Henry got a nicely scrapbooked baby book, I felt compelled to do the same for my other children. I dutifully put William's together, finishing just before Tessa was born - she was my deadline. Since no other babies came along after Tessa, however, my self-imposed deadline of finishing the previous child's baby book before the next child was born dissipated. So all that stuff just sat there. And sat there. And sat there.

Today, however, I was perusing my To-Do list and realized how sad it was that for years the first thing on my list has been "T BABY BOOK". Since I had gotten roped into watching Tessa's dance recital for the 2000th time in the past few weeks, I figured I should do something constructive. So I pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and went to work.

Now it's done. And I have a headache and a burning desire to set fire to any and all remaining cardstock and glue sticks in my house.

101 Ways to Use a Pink Cast

1. Threaten your older brothers with bodily harm if they bug you.

2.

Hmmm. So far she hasn't come up with any other uses for her cast. She did tell Henry and William that if they bothered her, she would "bonk them on the head". If only we allowed violence in the home she'd be in business.

She's actually pretty much back to normal - all except for her newest fashion accessory. Luckily it goes with most of her wardrobe.  

The Things We Do

I was thinking today about the things we do to make our kids feel better. Or entertain them. Or make them do something that they absolutely, positively do not want to do. My list from just the past few days includes:

*Telling Tessa that the doctor told her to eat ice cream three times a day to help her bones heal. Since I've been hiding ibuprofen in her ice cream, this gets her some pain medication without the tears.

*Telling Tessa that chocolate pudding has lots of vitamins to help her heal and be healthy so she could have some for breakfast. See above re: the hiding of ibuprofen in food.

*Playing Justin Bieber videos from You Tube as Tessa lounged on my bed and bossed me around. Hey, she wanted to hear music!

*Watching Daddy Day Care on Netflix.

*Playing Sequence - State and Capitals - with a 5 year old who can't read.

*Going to multiple stores looking for the DVD versions of The Little Mermaid and/or Sleeping Beauty. FYI - Don't Bother. They are apparently IN THE VAULT. Hmph. Tell that to Tessa.

*Buying a Barbie music karoaoke DVD and singing along.

*Promising a trip to Build a Bear in Salt Lake City so that Tessa can pick out a new friend. Of course she remembers this promise, made about midnight after her surgery. I barely remember making the promise - how does she remember it?

It's been a long week.

Deja Vu

I spent Tuesday night in room 101 in the Cache Valley Specialty Hospital. This is the same room that Henry spent a few days almost exactly 18 months ago to the day following his thyroid surgery. I think room 101 must be the designated pediatric room or something - they have more beds in this hospital but it's close to the nurses station and has easy access to the recovery room so maybe they just put all the peds patients there. This time it wasn't Henry in the hospital, though, it was Tessa. She fell off a swing set and fractured her arm, right above the elbow. She needed surgery to insert some pins and they kept her overnight. This unpleasant experience was made more unpleasant because Jay is currently in China for work. I'm sure from his perspective it isn't the kind of call you want to receive when you are halfway around the world, away from your family. It wasn't really the kind of call I wanted to make either. Thank heavens for good friends in our neighborhood to took the boys for an impromptu sleepover and came to sit with me at the hospital. I have the best friends!

She came home Wednesday morning. Wednesday wasn't a good day. She threw up off and on all day and could barely keep water down, much less pain medication. She slept fairly well Wednesday night and made marked improvement today. She stopped vomiting and started eating. I was able to figure out how hide her ibuprofen (thank heavens for my garlic press) in a spoonful of ice cream so I was able to get three good doses of pain medication in her without any tears (since she was terrified to take anything after throwing everything up the day before, the ice cream trick is being kept a secret). She perked up and moved between the family room and my room, watching TV and movies and just hanging out.

She probably could have used a nap but didn't take one today. By the end of the day she was wiped out and sobbed at the thought of a bath, even though she desperately needed one. We compromised on a sponge bath and hair washing, accomplished by having her sit with her back against the bathtub and leaning her head backwards over the side. I'm going to have to find some button up tops for her to wear because switching out her shirts is guaranteed to induce tears. But we made it through the day and she went to bed around 7:30. Her friend Easton brought a balloon over and I hung it on her doorknob so that she could see it. She's got some good friends who have brought over balloons, treats, Rapunzel jammies (sleeveless ones - hooray!) and a stuffed animal, whom she named Dork and is sleeping with tonight.




Hopefully tomorrow I can coax her into her sling (she's not a fan) and out of the house for a bit, at least to sit in a chair and get some fresh air. If all goes well, we'll be at the baseball fields tomorrow night, cheering on Henry and William as they play their games. Nana and Aunt Laura are coming for a visit on Saturday, which will cheer her up.

Let's hope we don't spend any more nights in CVSH. I've seen enough of room 101, thank you very much. Come on William, we're counting on you!

Sayonara, Soccer

Soccer season is over for the year. Thank goodness. Neither of the boys enjoyed it this year and they were both glad to see it end. The weather was bad. I mean really, really bad. As in "Let's play soccer in the rain/wind/snow/sleet/hail/thunder and lightning" bad. You know it's bad when you are hoping it will start lightning during a soccer game so they'll cancel. Seriously, it was bad.


And it wasn't just the weather, unfortunately. The Wright boys went a combined 0-20 in soccer this year. Henry is competitive enough that he still went out there and gave it his best effort. William, not so much. He complained about leg cramps and the weather. He stood around. We gave him the whole "your team is counting on you to try" speech. He stood around some more. So we bribed him. I prefer to think of bribes as incentives. Whatever. The "incentive" was that if the boys both tried their hardest for their games, no matter what the outcome, we would buy them a game that they had been saving to buy themselves. The key word was Effort. Hey, it got us through the soccer season.


The season was so crappy that I didn't get a single picture of either boy playing soccer. I was too busy worried about coats and umbrellas and such to remember to bring a camera, believe me. Luckily our neighbor took this picture of William for us:

It's a great picture and it makes William look like quite the soccer player, doesn't it?

Anyway, so it's over. And it's over forever, as neither Henry nor William plan to play soccer (officially, on a team) again. I think with Henry it has just run it's course. He has played for five years and he just prefers other sports, especially baseball. William played for three years, but this was his first year playing positions and he just didn't enjoy it. It was enough of a chore to get him out there playing that we don't plan to offer him the choice next year. Lest we forget Tessa, she only likes to play soccer if she can use a pink ball so I'm guessing the rec league is out.

Jay and I were absurdly happy after the last soccer game of the year. Just the thought of not having to deal with soccer next year made us almost giddy. It's not so much soccer itself, although it's not our favorite sport to watch. It's the fact that soccer is played here in April and early May, when the weather is, to put it nicely, unpredictable. Although who knows? Maybe we'll have an early, warm spring next year with sunny, 65 degree days beginning in late March. The memories of huddling under an umbrella in a downpour or being pelted with sleet or getting wet just getting out of the car will fade. We'll wax nostalgic about signing our children up for spring soccer and all the good things that it teaches them.

Nah.

Geezer's Night Out

Last night was the long awaited U2 concert at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. The concert was originally scheduled for June of last year but Bono had surgery in Europe and the band had to postpone their American tour until this year. I wasn't sure I even wanted to go. The timing wasn't great - it was a school night, the weather was predicted to be stormy and we live over an hour away from the venue. We debated about going off and on in the week leading up to the concert and eventually just decided to do it. The kids had a sleepover at Nana's house (as did we, although we didn't roll in from the concert until well after midnight) so that problem was solved. The weather looked promising and turned out to be lovely, if a bit chilly. The fact that we are old and grumpy gave us pause - did we really want to lose out on sleep for this? Would it be worth it?

The answer was a resounding YES! It was a fantastic concert. They played a nice mix of newer music, lesser known songs and the classics. The only song that they didn't play that I missed was Desire, but they played the heck out of everything else that I really wanted to hear. The show was a nice mix of entertainment and social awareness. We had a wonderful time. We even managed dinner out with Andrew and Melisa, which was a nice way to start the evening.

Here are a few pictures:

So hooray! Jay and I had a grown-up night out. We stayed out late. We splurged.

Just don't call us tonight after 9 pm, because something tells me that these 40-somethings will be asleep. Gotta pay the piper after all.

Dancing Queen

Tessa's dance recital was Saturday night. The boys weren't thrilled to go sit in an auditorium for 2 hours and watch 38 dance routines, only two of which featured their sister. They complained more than I thought they would beforehand, actually, and it really bugged me. I pointed out that over the years Tessa has spent more hours than I can count at basketball, soccer, baseball and cub scout activities and she rarely complains. Oh, she'll complain about having to sit out in the rain during a soccer game, but I'm right there with her on that one so I can't blame her. And I believe she got a little antsy last fall at Henry's 4th grade class poetry reading. Again, I kind of can't blame her; watching 31 4th-graders read two original poems each wasn't the most exciting hour-plus I've ever spent either. My point was, however, that she has gone to plenty of their activities so once a year they can suck it up and watch her dance, darn it!

Her class did two dances. The jazz/ballet number was to True Love's Kiss, from the movie Enchanted. It was really cute and they did a good job. During their tap number they got a little confused. It was to a song called April Showers and they had umbrellas that they had to put down and move around and pick up again. Apparently it was a little too much for them because they got confused and just ended up grabbing random umbrellas to finish the number. Again, however, cute. As soon as I get the DVD I'll try and post the videos. Until then, the only picture I got of her that day is below:

She looks flushed because the finale involved all the classes on stage at the same time, doing sign language and dancing to a song that was pretty long. With all the bodies on stage and the lights, she was really hot.

After the recital the boys were good and told her that they liked her dances and had a good time. I didn't sit by them (I had to sit by Tessa in the back with her class so Jay, the boys, Nana, Great Nana, Laura and cousin Boston sat closer to the front) so I'm not sure how sincere they were but they were nice and sweet to her so that's all I care about.

She's already talking about taking dance next year, which is just fine with me. It's fun for her and gives her a fun activity outside of school to enjoy. Henry and William are already gearing up for next year's dance review, I can tell.

Pinkalicious

Tessa, like many 5 year old girls, loves pink. So when she requested a pink bike for her birthday, I took it in stride. Jay commented that it was "awfully pink" but she loves it so what can you do. When she's in full pink mode, however, it's truly spectacular:




The day I took this picture she was riding around the cul-de-sac when our neighbor came home. Tessa was trying to ride her bike while looking backwards, which is a recipe for trouble, so I tried to explain to her why she had to look where she was going when riding her bike. Her response - "I was worried that she wouldn't see me on my bike." Not to worry, I told her. I'm fairly sure that astronauts on the International Space Station could see her in all her pinktastic glory.

I personally think that the bejeweled sunglasses are the best part!

The Taste of Crow

I'm eating crow this week and I have to say it doesn't taste as bad as I thought it would.

Let me explain. I've never been a technophile. I like technology, don't get me wrong, but I don't salivate at the latest and greatest innovations. I still have the same iPod Shuffle that I bought a few years ago. It works fine for what I use it for (to pass the time on the treadmill). I have no desire for a newer/bigger/more expensive MP-3 player. Our computer is older than Tessa. My cell phone is probably the most basic model you could ever own at this point, but it's fine. It makes calls and texts - what else do I need?

Jay, on the other hand, likes his technology. Every so often he gets new stuff via work and he's typically exposed to the latest and greatest. He got a new phone a while back and it reminded me of that commercial where the woman asked her husband if he needed to be alone with his new phone - he spent the entire weekend fooling around with it. I teased him about loving a phone (or an iPad or iPad or whatever). And now we come to the "Rhonda is eating crow" part.

Because I now have a Kindle. The perfect techological innovation for a reader. I've been snobbish about them in the past. I like reading "real books". And I still do. But can I just say how nice my Kindle is? I quickly downloaded a bunch of books - lots of them were free, although I have to say that I'll have to watch how much I spend on this thing because it's waaaayyyy too easy to click "BUY". And although I only read one book at a time (just my preference) I love having a stack, or in this case a list, of books ready to go as soon as I finish what I'm currently reading.

Plus there are games. I've become addicted to this game where you have to find all the words possible with a group of letters - I can't remember the name of it. But last night when Jay went to bed he said, "Don't stay up to late playing with your Kindle". "OK", I said as I kissed him goodnight. Then I triumphantly found the longest word that I needed to fine (GADGETS) and unlocked the next level. Let's just say I was up for a while longer.

So I love my Kindle - a great surprise for Mother's Day for me. I also loved the homemade cards that my kids gave me, the bouquet of flowers from William made of pipe cleaners and cupcake liners, and the "#1 MOM" shirt from Henry (that I have threatened to wear to all his baseball games). It was a good day.

Now I just have to learn to continue to be a good mom while I balance time with my Kindle. Because believe me, it's more fun to read or play games on it than it is to play checkers with Tessa.

Sakes Alive, Tessa is Five!

How did this happen? Almost exactly 5 years ago today - she was born just before 3 pm - she was born. We were so happy to have her join our family. She wasn't exactly easy as a newborn, but we've had harder (I'm looking at you, Henry). She was just beautiful and had a headful of hair:



Now she is sassy, sweet and opinionated. She is pretty easy to please, actually, and although a big part of me is looking forward to having her in kindergarten next year - I will have almost 4 hours a day to do....whatever I want - part of me will miss the time we spend together. Oh, and she still has a lot of hair:




She's had a nice birthday. Actually, she's had a nice string of days devoted to her birthday. On Monday we opened her presents and had her cake because today Henry has a soccer game out in Timbuktu, I mean Newton. She was thrilled with her Tangled-themed cake and her gifts. She got a new big-girl bike; it's pink and has tassles on the handlebars and she adores it. Did I mention it's pink? She got a few other things as well, including some books, a new pair of sunglasses, a Rapunzel Barbie and a unicorn pillow pet.

Today she took treats to dance class and the other girls sang Happy Birthday to her as she passed out brownies. Jay and I took her to lunch at A&W (my least favorite place to eat, yet the first choice among my children of places to eat out). Tomorrow she gets to be the Special Friend at preschool and take birthday treats to share. By the time Wednesday evening comes, she will have had a few days of celebration dedicated to her. Hopefully those memories will ease the pain of her Thursday doctor's appointment, at which she is scheduled to get her kindergarten booster shots. That'll be fun.

Happy Birthday, Tessa. We love you!