Pinewood Derby and Ballet Recital

This week we also had the pinewood derby for Jacob's scouts and Afton's first ballet recital.

Ok, I feel terrible to actually admit this, but in my defence this is completely Dennis' relm of expertice, but we put off finishing Jacob's car till the last possible moment, but it turned out good and he had fun! We definitly learned some tricks for when Isaac gets to make one. Pack Nights are always fun here and I love that they're for the whole family. They gave each of the boys their own drivers licience and Jacob won an award for the "Most Aerodynamic Car" as well as a trophy for racing! It was really a fun night.
Afton started taking a ballet class this year and had her first recital on Friday night. She was so thrilled to be getting a new purple costume! She loved getting all dressed up with make up and lipstick! It was such a better experience for us than our former dance recital experiences. I mean it was good music, elegant movements, modest costumes, a well qualified teacher and the class was offered at an unbelievable price, mostly because she just wants to share her talents with the girls! We've really been blessed to find Nichole! We're definitly on born next season when the class starts up again.

Snowbird

We were able to spend some time last week at Snowbird with some friends of ours. They had access to a time share up there. I've never been to Snowbird before. I've never been snow skiing for that matter, but there were still people out there on the slopes even though it's May. It was a perfect week for it. The weather was fabulous! The kids had a ton of fun playing games and swimming in the heated pool. It really was heated!!! (I somehow missed packing my swimsuit, bummer, but my friend was good about taking care of the kids in the water.) I missed Dennis a lot and had a bit of a head cold that the elevation seemed to agitate. We had to come home on Thursday and when we pulled into the carport Jacob said, "Oh, it's good to be home!" I couldn't have agreed more. I spent the rest of the day out in the yard pulling weeds and planting some flowers and plants.

Happy May Day!

I totally missed May Day yesterday. Dennis' mom gave us some flowers one year on May Day and I thought that would be a fun tradition to start, I just always forget, so even though I'm a day late, I wanted to give you some flowers from our yard.
We've been doing a bit of yard work in our yard today, in between rain showers of course. We bought a few more bushes for the yard, another red rose, a dwarf honeysuckle, 3 current bushes, and a dwarf pink pixie lilac bush. I love May!!

X-men Beginnings Movie

Although at this moment I can't remember if the movie is Wolverine or X-men Beginnings something or other, but Dennis and I made it out to see the newest X-men movie today. I'm pleased that it was so much better than the monstrosity of X-men 3. It was extremely intense though and I did close my eyes during a couple moments and can I just mention . . . Hugh Jackman!!
I love stories that build off other movies the way this one did. I love seeing the other side of things. Very fun characters and though I'm not a comic book x-men follower I will admit that I watched the cartoons when I was younger. For some reason I always sort of liked Gambit. The character in the movie did lack the accent though and I wanted to hear it.

Leo the Lion

Today we took the boys to City Hall to participate in a Jr. Olympics program that the city sponsored. Leo the Lion from the Real Soccer team was there to greet us as we walked in. Khora was very nervous about this strange creature with the funny eyes. She wouldn't go near him but she would wave hello.

The boys participated in several different events: basketball, soccer, tennis, and track and field. They had a lot of fun! The wind and rain was a factor in their performance out on the field, and we ended up pretty wet. Isaac spent about 20 minutes playing around with the tennis ball while we were waiting around and thought it was so much fun. The city is having a tennis workshop next week for the kids. The boys want to get some tennis rackets so they can play together. The only tennis court in town is only a couple blocks from our house, so we may give it a try! By the way have any of you ever heard of "Pickle Ball". Google it!!

Thursday=House Day

Well another Thursday is over with. I have set aside Thursdays as my take care of the house day. I get my dishes caught up, laundry at least down to the laundry room and order restored to the house, at least to a point where it's livable again. It's also my day to do my grocery shopping. Today was the first trip I've done with my coupons in my handy sheet protector and the only buy it if it's on my list rule enforced. Yes, I'm trying out the grocery Smarts shopping tips. I still don't know what I'm doing at all, but I figure I'm going to give it a try at least to keep my food storage up. I even signed up for extra Sunday papers for the coupons.

The main problem I find with my couponing is that I tend to buy things that I wouldn't normally buy simply because I have the coupon for it. Case in point: I ran to the store yesterday and picked up a few boxes of Kashi brand cereal and granola bars. Never had them before and they're about the same price with the coupons that I would normally pay for cereal and granola bars, so I'm not really saving anything. Although I did get a free pack of Wrigglies Winterfresh gum to put in my purse so that was cool. I need to do a little tweaking in the system I can tell that already. But I'm actually excited about it and going to give it a try. I did score on the Oreo cookies today. I went way out of my way to Albersons for their 2/$4 sale because I also had a $1 off coupon for them. My kids are thrilled because they are an extravagance for sure. I also requested my first "Rain Check" for bottled water to use in our food storage. So I didn't really start off with anything fabulous to report except that I still think Macey's is my store of choice. I'll let you know how it goes.

The best news of all is that tomorrow is Friday. That's dubbed as my "personal day" so I get to do whatever I want. I may just go pull more weeds, but I love it!! There is also scrapbooking at the church. I love Fridays!!!

Happy Birthday Dennis

This is my chance for a Dennis Post since it's his birthday today and even though he probably won't even read this I want him to know how grateful I am to have him in my life, and even more than that, he is my life!
You have always been my tall dark and handsome, musical, athletic, artistic knight in shining armor. I love your good heart and your strength. I love how you put your best work into all you do. I love how you find ways to serve. I love how devoted you are me and our children. I love that you change diapers and do laundry, and so much more. I love how good you are with people. I love how you play the piano at night when the children are in bed. I love that you love to work out in the yard with me. I love that you want to spend more time with me and that you coach soccer and baseball even though it usually means giving up time for other things. You're just amazing!

I love you so much!! Happy Birthday!!