It's been 3 1/2 years....

I forgot I even had this blog.

May Day dances

Our elementary school has a tradition of the 5th grades braiding a Maypole. I guess they've been doing that here for the past 60 years or so. They do have the other grades do dances as well, and with a kindergartener (Linnea), 1st grader (KaiLi) and 3rd grader (Connor), we had to attend. I am putting the video of each of their dances on here, mostly for my grandmother to view as she lives on the other side of the U.S. from us and has never even met my 3 youngest children. Enjoy, Nan! P.S. I just found that video won't post if it's over 100 MB in size, and the other 2 are 105 and 169 MB! So I can't post them. I'll have to see if there's a way to edit flip video? I haven't tried, so I don't know! Check back!

Connor and the "Attiturd"

At dinner one evening, Sterling, our 14-year-old, was being a bit grumpy. Connor sighed and said, "I guess Sterling's gotta change his attiturd." We all stared at him, so after a moment he elaborated, "You know, when someone's really grumpy, you say they have a bad attiturd." We all burst out laughing. So now, when someone is being less than cheerful, we suggest that they get rid of the attiturd. Even grumpy kids have a hard time not smiling at that!

Love Without Boundaries auction

I'm almost too late, but I want to mention Love Without Boundaries heart auction that ends at various times throughout the day tomorrow. There are many beautiful items for sale and ALL of the proceeds go to pay for heart surgeries for orphaned children in China. Please go take a look!

Love Without Boundaries Heart Auction link

Connor had heart surgery when he was 2 years old. It was through the generous donations of many kind-hearted people throughout the world that his life was saved. I will ever be grateful to those people whom I will never know.

"Kids" At Play

Our friends invited us over for dessert last night. They have chickens and 3 pygmy goats in the same pen. The goats are very friendly and love to play. The kids were so excited to play with and feed the goats! Watch the video and see the pictures below!

Happy Birthday Linnea!

Yesterday Linnea turned 6 years old. Happy birthday, our sweet girl! She woke me up at 6:30 a.m. to let me know she was 6 now--ugh! On a Saturday no less. Will the day ever come that I can sleep in till 7:30?? But I got up and made her the breakfast of her choice (don't ask! she asks for weird stuff for breakfast).

She asked for an Island Princess Barbie party, but settled for a Disney Princess party instead (because I'd already bought a box of Disney Princess plastic/paper wear from Costco). I misunderstood. How I couldn't tell the difference between Island Barbie and Disney Princesses my daughter will never fathom. But she forgave me and decided the princesses were good enough.

After breakfast, we gave her our presents. The kids gave her 2 Barbie books and some little magic coloring books. We gave her 2 summer outfits and a plush Cinderella and pony set. I posted a picture of her cake, but I swear I actually took a picture of HER with the cake and I'm not sure what happened to that picture! Maybe the kids deleted it when they were playing with the camera. So I posted the one that's just the cake. When the older kids were little, I always made and decorated their cakes--Ariel had a butterfly one year, Chani a ninja turtle (she loved the ninja turtles!)--but nowadays I think a storebought cake looks and tastes just fine!

At her party, we had a pink princess crown pinata and we also played "pin the crown on the princess" (pictured above). At the end of the party, while waiting for parents to return, the girls played duck, duck, goose on the trampoline with Daryl.

We continued to allow Linnea to choose fun things to do for the rest of the day, and I know she really enjoyed herself. She has happily shared her new fingerpaints and the magic coloring books with KaiLi, with whom she has a love-hate relationship. I'm proud of her for sharing and told her so.

Oh, and Connor cheerfully submitted to being chased around for half the party by 7 screaming little girls. Isn't it nice of him to sacrifice himself for his little sister? Lol!

Making wontons

Tonight we made wontons for dinner, recipe courtesy of my friend, Anne. (Thanks!) I let the kids make the wontons and we fried/steamed them, like potstickers. They were very good! Connor just couldn't get enough. I think he must have eaten at least 20!! The boy just loves food. :-)

If you click on the pictures, you can view them larger.