Maggie's Fancy Nancy Party

I honestly don't enjoy throwing birthday parties for my kids, but this year I reluctantly planned a Fancy Nancy Party for Maggie.  It turned out pretty well, I think, thanks to the Dollar Store.  

I set up several stations for the kids: a "Get Glamoured Up" station where they received a hat, purse, boa, necklace, and ring; an "Ooh La La, Beauty Spa" station where they got their nails painted, and eye shadow and lip gloss that they got to keep; and a "Create Your Own Posh Purse" station where they got to decorate their purse and hat with feathers and jewels.

 Alan's mom and two of Alan's sisters (Marilyn was in town from NYC!) came and helped me with the party, and I honestly could not have done it without them!  They helped each girl get fancied up.

Alan and his mom helped glue feathers on with the hot glue gun.  Evelyn had fun participating, too.

 After getting fancy, I read them Fancy Nancy's Tea for Two book, and then we had our own little tea party with mini muffins, fruit kabobs, and lemonade.

We sang Happy Birthday with a candle stuck in red velvet mini cookies

Then Maggie opened up her presents.  I maybe should have planned a game or two, but I was hoping all the crafts and and nail painting would pretty much take up the whole time.  I think the kids that came had a fun time, and they all took home lots of stuff to keep!

Maggie's Kindergarten Program

Random picture of Evy with her Cinco de Mayo balloon from Grandma Stout

For some reason, our elementary school only does end-of-year singing programs for Kindergarten and 5th grade.  I think when I was young we did a program every year.  It's kind of a bummer.

I loved hearing Maggie sing her cute songs.  She was lucky to be standing right next to her cousin and BFF Summer.

Here are a few of the songs for your enjoyment:

This next video is my favorite:

Maggie and her teacher, Mrs. R.  She was the best (also Jared's Kindergarten teacher).  I hope she is not retiring any time soon.

Another picture of Maggie and Summer

Maggie's surgery

After having a terrible stomach ache for two days (and a fever, and throwing up 20+ times, and fatigue, and no appetite...), I finally took Maggie to the ER this week where she was diagnosed with appendicitis!  My poor, poor girl had to have surgery!  She was so brave with her overnight hospital stay and is finally starting to feel a little better today.  I didn't realize that the recovery would be so awful for her (I thought it would be like 2 days--duh): she can't lift heavy things or exert herself for the next 3-4 weeks!  No recess when she returns to school, no P.E., no ballet class...  She has been a trooper.  And, I am so grateful for the sweet people in the world who donate items to hospitals to give to sick kids.  Maggie came home with all kinds of fun stuff: two fleece blankets, flannel jammy pants, a new pillowcase, a couple of new dolls, plus coloring supplies and play dough and other do-dads.  Early birthday presents!

It was tricky to get her diagnosed.  I was reading stuff online before I took her in, and it said appendicitis symptoms in kids can vary greatly, that there are lots of other things that can cause bad tummy aches, and that appendicitis is much more common in children over 10 than under 10.  She did seem to be able to localize the pain to her lower right abdomen, and I asked her several different times to make sure she was consistent in telling me where it hurt.  I didn't know if I was being overly cautious by taking her in to the ER; however, I had to be quite pushy as a parent to have the urgent care doctor (I took her to the Urgent Care next door to the hospital before taking her to the ER) and the ER nurse that checked her in to take me seriously!  The urgent care doctor was just certain it was just a stomach bug ("most stomach viruses last 7-10 days"--whatever) and I had to actually ask her to push on Maggie's stomach to have Maggie tell her where it hurt.  Then she was like, "Oh, the pain seems to be localized in the lower right abdomen!" and sent us over to the ER next door.

The ER nurse that first talked to us said, "Maggie, why are you here today?"  "My tummy hurts."  "Have you gone poop today?" "No."  "Did you go poop yesterday?"  "No."  Then she turns to me and says, "Maggie is probably just constipated."  WITHOUT ASKING ME ANY MORE QUESTIONS LIKE IF SHE HAD ANY OTHER SYMPTOMS!  Then I had to say, "No, Maggie has had a fever, been vomiting, and has had no appetite...oh, yeah, and if you push on her stomach she will tell you exactly where it hurts!!!!"  Well, I wasn't that rude and forceful.  Ha ha.  Then after several hours of other tests, including an ultrasound where her appendix was HUGE, she finally had her surgery.  I must admit that I felt vindicated, like my mother's instinct was correct!!!!

Here's to my sweet, brave girl.  I love you.

Alan's Birthday and Tulip Festival

I guess grown-ups get the shaft with birthday pictures.  These are the only two pictures I took of Alan's birthday.  Ha ha.  I made stuffed pasta shells and yummy cheesy bread (at Alan's request) for dinner, plus Alan's favorite ice cream sandwich frozen birthday cake.  I love my hubby so much!  

We have been to the local Tulip Festival a couple of times lately (when the weather hasn't been rainy...) It has been pretty chilly!

Sweet Maggie

On a different matter, here is Jared playing his latest memorized song, the Star Wars Main Theme.  He has actually gotten even better since I took this video.  I am so proud of him.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Evelyn!

We recently celebrated Evy's 3rd birthday!  She has grown up so much lately.  For dinner we had homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade wheat bread, and berry jello, some of her favorites.  

Trying to show me three fingers

Evy's loot.  The magiclip princess dolls seemed to be the biggest hit

 Maggie gave Evelyn a couple of her old too-small dress-ups, and Jared gave Evelyn his penguin pillow pet that Evy has had her eye on for a while.  It was really cute to see his generosity with her.

 I made Evelyn's birthday cake a couple of days before her birthday because my Relief Society happened to have a cake decorating activity.  A really nice cake decorator came and shared her homemade frosting with us and helped me pipe the edging on Evelyn's cake.

Somehow I didn't video our entire birthday song, but this video is worth watching because Evelyn is just giggling the entire time, and she is so darn cute:

Evy in one of her new dress ups.  She is too enthralled with her star wand to bother looking at the camera...

Spring Break Trip to Goblin Valley

We had a fun spring break this year.  I finally sprung for a pass to Thanksgiving Point, so we went there two days in a row.  Then we took a little trip to Goblin Valley.  We stopped and spent a night with Alan's sister Amanda and her husband Todd and their kids on the way.  It was super fun to hang out with them.

This is the second spring break in a row that we went to Goblin Valley.  Our kids loved playing in the "goblins," and I had fun trying some new hikes that we didn't do last year.  ("Fun" is a little bit of a relative term for someone who is 26 weeks preggo...)

We stayed in one of the yurts again this year.  Totally rocked!--especially when it rained one of the nights we were there

 The first day we hiked a trail called Carmel Canyon, which was short but pretty cool.  We also hiked with Curtis cousins to the top of a butte by our campground.

Jared is mid-cough in this picture.

 Jared had had a pretty bad cough for 2 1/2 weeks before this trip.  It developed into an ear infection while were there.  Poor kid.  I had children's ibuprofen to give him for pain, but he had to wait until we got home Saturday evening for a prescription.  He was a trooper.

Evy all tuckered out.  Doesn't look very comfortable.

Maggie, Uncle Matt, and cousins exiting a little tunnel

Nice, Jared

 That evening we spent some time playing hide-and-seek and other games with cousins in the goblins.  The kids had a blast.

The next day we hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon, which we did last year, too.  It was such a fun hike for everyone.

Jared and Maggie with cousin Scott

 Some great views of the wind-y and skinny canyons we had to climb through.

 Our final morning we hiked to the Goblin's Lair, a big cave.  There was a cool mini-cave inside that you could explore for a bit.  I'm glad we brought flashlights.

At the top of Goblin's Lair before we hiked down

Alan in the mini-cave

An attempt at a family photo.  I'm in hardly any of these pictures, ha ha, which is probably a  good thing considering my growing belly 

It was such a fun trip and we are looking forward to going back sometime.