Happenings in May

Compared to our busy April, May was a calm month. 

 

Boston made ears during nursery.

 

Stephen tried out “planking” in DSW.

 

We discovered that the movie Matilda is a little intense for Boston.  He hid in his blanket like this for a good portion of the movie.

 

Stephen finished out his Preschool year.  I asked his teachers if the kids should dress up for their little end of year “thing” which I refuse to call a graduation.  She said that some kids did.  Well, not wanting to be underdressed, I put him in his Sunday clothes.  We made these cute little owl bags (via Pinterest) that said “Thanks for making me wiser!” and contained Dove chocolates and $5 Target gift cards. 

*A word on teacher gifts from a former teacher.  While (most) teachers really don’t expect gifts at all,  if you feel the need to give, teachers most appreciate the same kind of stuff that you would appreciate.  Good chocolate, money, gift cards, movie tickets, etc.  They don’t decorate their houses with all that apple/crayon/ruler stuff and classrooms can only hold so much.  “To teach is to touch a life forever” printed on anything = no no.  No matter how cute it may be, if it doesn’t have a use and you wouldn’t like it in your house don’t bother.  I know what you are thinking, how rude to be so critical.  After all, it is the thought that counts.  True, so be thoughtful about what you are wasting spending your money on.

 

Yeah, that is his teacher wearing shorts, so whatever. The aide is wearing a skirt at least.

 

There was one little girl that dressed up as nice as Stephen. Stephen loved preschool and had so much fun throughout the whole school year.

 

They had a final class party at a splash pad.  While there I saw Stephen’s stolen backpack sitting on the table, full of someone else’s stuff.  Yeah, real classy.  First, let your kid steal a backpack and then bring it to the end of the year class party to hold your towel and sunscreen.  Nice.  I was so shocked that I didn’t know quite how to handle things so I was a wimp and did nothing.  Of course the whole way home I thought of a million ways I could have reclaimed that (practically new since he rarely used it) backpack.

 

More random pictures…

 

Sunday afternoon naps are the best.

I prefer mine in a less precarious place, but Stephen isn’t so picky.

 

My gorgeous-eyed Boston sporting a Nutella ‘stache.

Ear tufts

 

Stephen needs a hair cut every four weeks.  Some kids can get away with this longer shaggy do but it is not a good look for my little Stephen.

 

Here is a strange stuffed bob cat (or something) we saw at the Bean Museum at BYU.  When I saw it I had to laugh because of the little tufts of hair on the ears.  Look closely.  It reminded me of Stephen’s hair when it gets long.

 

See, ear tufts.

The epic journey to Utah

In April we went to Provo for my beautiful, intelligent sister, Chery’s, graduation from BYU.  We drove up with my family and stayed with my patient and kind Aunt Sherryl for a few days.  All of my siblings were there and it was a lot of fun to be with everyone and reconnect with cousins.  We went to both the commencement and convocation ceremonies and drug the kids along with us.  They were really quite good.  Be prepared for major picture overload, but my exceptionally talented sister, Celsea, took many of these photos and I like to post ALL of them!  The crummy pics were taken with my cell phone.

Stephen and Anna at convocation which was held in the Marriott center.

These two are great friends!

 

My nephew, Jeremiah.  He is the one born the same week as Boston.  I love this kid. 

 

My lovely sister-in-law, Rebecca, and darling nephew, James.

 

Not everyone was very entertained by commencement.

 

Chery, after commencement.

 

Ah. Provo in the spring. Bliss.

 

We managed to have a lot of fun in between graduation festivities.  We ate a LOT of Creamery ice cream, cinnamon bears, mint brownies, and creamery chocolate milk.  Oh wait, that is all eating.  Eating is an activity too.  Well, we also went bowling, went the Eyring Science center, toured the Bean Museum, went up the canyon for a picnic, and spent a blissful afternoon relaxing on the quad by the library in PERFECT weather.

 

Chery and Celsea.

 

Chery and Anna.

 

Dad and Chery.

 

James and Dad.

 

James, the adorable.

 

Dad, Chery, and Mom.

 

All my siblings!  Aaron, Celsea, Chery, Cami, Allen.

 

Chery with the Aaron Quist family.

 

Chery with the Smiths.

 

There was a lot of Scott carrying Boston on his shoulders.  I dubbed Boston “lazy-legs Boston.”  It turns out he is a excruciatingly slow walker and BYU campus was a little too much for him.

 

The whole Quist family, including Allen’s girlfriend, Courtney. (Now fiancé and very soon to be wife!)

Easter and random fun?

 

We like to hide the Easter baskets and then play “Hot and Cold” until the boys find them.  They are usually hidden behind our bed.

 

The boys were pretty delighted with the candy haul…I have a great weakness for Easter candy.  It is the best!

 

Random popcorn movie night.

 

I thought it would be fun to get a can of tooting slime at Target for Boston.  His uncle Travis had it and Boston thought it was so funny how it made tooting sounds when you shoved it back into the can.  Well, as you can see it is not a good thing for a three year old.  What’s that you say?  You could have told me that?  Yeah…well I spent a good half hour scrubbing that junk out of the carpet.  Fortunately it turns out that the goo is pretty much water soluble (for the most part).  There was still a lot of scrubbing and carpet cleaner involved.  The funny part is that he lay on top of it for about 15 minutes and I had no idea.  Every time I walked by he would tell me that he was stuck to the carpet.  You know, one of those comments that you think “ok, whatever.”  It wasn’t until Stephen yelled for me to come see what Boston did that I saw this:

He knew he was in big trouble.

Happy Birthday Boston!

April 4th marked Boston’s 3rd birthday. We celebrated with a Harry Potter themed party complete with a (fantastic) replica of Harry’s birthday cake from the first movie and owl balloons. We also enjoyed a glowing Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Scott and I made Stephen and Boston cool Harry Potter shirts that say “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” on the front and “Mischief Managed,” on the back. There are disappearing foot prints going down the side. We used the freezer paper stencil method and it was waaaay too time consuming but they turned out really cool. Boston still talks about his birthday.

 

The cake was purposely messy (remember Hagrid makes it for Harry in the story) but it was a fancy lemon cake with lemon curd filling and raspberry cream frosting.  It was incredibly time consuming to make.

 

Here is half of my messy kitchen after I made the cake.  This is at around 11:00 pm.  Ridiculous!

 

Boston, ready for the party with his new shirt, a scar drawn on his forehead and his Harry Potter scarf.  The scarf is choking him in this picture.

 

Forcing a smile?

 

 

My very favorite part of kids birthdays is watching them during the birthday song and as they blow out the candles.  I love it!