Early Birthday Party

This kid is almost nine!

Last week we had an early birthday party for Jared.  His birthday wasn't for a few weeks, but our baby is going to be born around the same time.  We decided to embrace the earliness and have Jared invite just a few special friends to go see "Finding Dory" in the theater while it was still brand new.  Jared invited two friends from our ward, Kincade and Lauren, and a friend from school, Jace.  The movie was super awesome (everyone got to pick some concessions, as well), and then we came back to our house to have cake and ice cream and open presents,  I forgot to take a picture of Jared with his presents, but they were just perfect for him: a new strategy game, a build-it-yourself solar robot, an R2-D2 bubble machine, and an animal balloon kit.

This party was way easier to plan and carry out than the Fancy Nancy party that I threw for Maggie in May.  I think that he had a great time, which is the most important thing.

We'll post pictures of his REAL birthday when it comes.  :)

Fairy Tale Festival

 I realized recently that I haven't intentionally taken one single picture of my baby bump this entire pregnancy.  So here is a token picture at precisely 36 weeks.  Just to prove I was actually pregnant.  Ha Ha.

 This past week we went to a local garden for their Fairy Tale Festival.  Here is the "umbrella garden."

Monet Pond

 We were pleased to meet many of the Disney princesses as we walked around!  We saw Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Mulan, Elsa and Anna, and probably a couple of others.

 I was thrilled to see the princesses, too!  I thought, "We should go to this festival every year and never, ever stand in line to see princesses at Disneyland!!!!"  Now that sounds appealing.

 Maggie and Evelyn also met a real mermaid, who said she was Ariel's cousin.  She gave them some mermaid treasure.

 Jared's favorite part was playing Wizard's Chess with Daddy.

Bear Lake

Earlier this month we went with Curtis cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandma up to Bear Lake for a long weekend.  The lake itself was pretty cold, but we had to plan the trip for June for not only my upcoming baby but also to work around other vacations and girls' camps for the families.

 Jared had to get pretty wet to swim out to the trampoline we rented, and then he was so cold he didn't want to get back in the lack for the rest of the day.  He enjoyed reading under our shade umbrella.

 This is the closest that Maggie and Evelyn have ever been to a beach.  I feel kind of guilty about that.  Maybe one of these days we will go to a beach in California.  Jared, at least, has seen the ocean and a real beach when we traveled to Mexico last October.

Evelyn and Maggie enjoyed spending most of their day at the beach getting all sandy with their cousins.

I had to get this cute picture of my niece Eve, who was rather obsessed with eating sand that day.  

 It looks like I only snapped pictures of our day at the beach, but we also had lots of fun playing games, going on a walk to a natural spring, and eating at a delicious truck stop late at night.  :)  We are grateful to my sis-in-law for playing hostess for all of us in her childhood home!

Goodbye, Angela

Earlier this month we said goodbye to Alan's sister Angela as she left for the MTC to prepare to serve her full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You can't actually see my HUGE belly very well in this picture!

 She gave each of my kids a little gift as she hugged them goodbye--I had no idea how she even had time to plan that!

Maggie got a new Elsa necklace

Evy got some new nail polish

Jared got $5 worth of state quarters for his quarter collection!

We will miss her while she is gone, but we love to write her letters and emails!

Here are also a few pictures of the local splash pad from that same week.  Jared likes to pretend he's getting too old for the splash pad, but I think he has fun when we get there.  Usually my kids like to play in the river, but this day they were enjoying the spouts of the ground.

Maggie's Dance Recital

Maggie with her teacher, Miss Korrin

Maggie finished up another year of ballet.  She has improved so much since last year!  We had a good experience with her ballet studio this year (I especially loved that she had a morning dance class before PM Kindergarten), but I am excited to put her into an even better studio next year where hopefully she can improve her technique even more.  

Maggie in her recital costume

Maggie is 2nd from the left

Taking a bow

Maggie loved receiving a medal after her concert was over

End of School

 One of the last days of Kindergarten was Western Day, and I thought Maggie made the cutest little cowgirl.  I already posted a picture of Maggie with her teacher a couple of posts ago, but here it is again.

Maggie and Mrs. R.

Jared on his last day of 3rd grade with Mrs. M.  She was totally crying as she hugged her students good-bye.  :)  She was really sweet to play a couple of games of chess with Jared the last week of school.

Jared did a lot of fun end-of-year things that I forgot to document with pictures: they dissected owl pellets to find mouse skeletons inside, they did an egg drop off the school roof (Jared's egg almost survived in its popcorn and marshmallow cushion), and they exploded bottles of Coke.  He had such a fun year.

Jared and Maggie also participated in a dance festival, where each grade learns and performs a dance for the parents.  However, I was sitting in such a lousy seat that I didn't take any pictures of that event.  :)

Maggie's 6th Birthday

 Maggie sure got spoiled on her birthday!  We had her friend party on her real birthday, then she still got to open even more presents from her family later that day!

New clothes, barbies, and Frozen shoes, lunch box, and swim towel

We sure love our 6-year-old princess!

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!