Surprise!

I have been wanting to do a surprise party for Caitlyn for a couple of years now.  I decided this year was the year! Caitlyn thought she was just having a sleepover with Amarie this year instead of a party, so it was easy to pull it off.

The girls were all so excited for Caitlyn to get there.  Keith took her and Amarie to the store to pick up some ice cream.  I asked everyone not to tell their daughters about the party so it wouldn't get back to Caitlyn. 

It worked, Caitlyn was totally surprised.  When she walked in the room and everyone yelled, "surprise" she turned to Amarie and said, "this is awkward!"  Funny girl!  There were a couple of girls who couldn't make it, but most of them were able to come.  I asked Caitlyn's teacher if she could give me some phone numbers and she told me that she wasn't allowed to, but she had come up with a plan to get the phone numbers for the girls.  She is so sweet and always wants to help.  When I told her that Mrs. Weske knew Caitlyn said, "no wonder she kept telling me she couldn't wait to hear about my birthday."

Caitlyn and I made sugar cookies that day and the girls had fun frosting them.  Caitlyn is so sweet.  There is one girl that she invited from school that she plays with at recess sometimes.  She said she always plays alone so Caitlyn will go over and play with her.  I talked to her mom about having a play date and she said, "that would be great, she never has play dates."  That is so typical of Caitlyn.  She is always looking for people who need help or cheering up.  She is so sensitive to other people's feelings.  It is one of her best qualities!

It is weird to think that Caitlyn and Grace have been friends for eight years now!  The girls all scarfed down their cookies and ice cream cones.

Caitlyn loved all of her presents!

We watched "Frozen."  All of the girls had seen it a few times and were quoting the movie and singing all of the songs.  I couldn't believe how much popcorn these girls ate.  I just kept making more and more. 

I invited Max so Jonah would have someone to play with.  They were playing spies and kept spying on the girls.  I did draw the line when they game up with Nerf guns to shoot the girls!

The girls were starting to get restless toward the end of the movie so we pulled out our karaoke machine and let them sing to Frozen.  Elisha was brave and got up first.  Jonah went and sang with her.  It was so cute!

After that the boys sang together.

There were a couple of girls that were shy, but most of them were excited to get up and sing.  It was so cute because they were all so serious about it.  It ended up being a great party.  Caitlyn loved it and kept hugging me and saying, "this is the best birthday ever."  I knew it would mean so much to her and that is why I wanted to do it for her so bad!

After the party Amarie stayed for a sleepover.  We opened up her new game and played it before we sent the girls down to bed.  They had fun talking for a while and finally went to sleep.  I love that these two love each other so much.

On Saturday I took Caitlyn and Amarie to In-and-out burger for lunch and then we went to Toys-R-Us for Caitlyn to spend her gift card.  It was fun to have a little girl time with them.  They had so much fun together and weren't ready to say goodbye even though they had been together for 24 hours!

Another Jazz Game

On Monday Jonah came home from school and said he was going to hurry and do his home work because he really wanted to go to the Jazz game.  He begged me to look for tickets.  I'm a sucker for things like this.  I had already been looking for some cheap tickets and Jonah sealed the deal when he said, "please mom, I've never been to a game with you."  I was able to get two tickets for $5 each.  We went early and found free parking.  It was definitely worth $10!

We walked around before the game started and they were giving away the bandannas that Jonah is wearing to anyone who could make a basket.  Jonah made it on the first try.  After that we found someone making balloon animals.  Jonah picked a sword.  It was a rough game for the Jazz.  They ended up losing by 20 points.  It was so fun to go.  I haven't been to a Jazz game for a long time and I really enjoy them.  It was fun to have Jonah point at all of the players for me.  I'm glad it worked out for us to go to a game together before the season is over.

Hallee has started waving at me when I put her to bed.  I have to tuck her in with all of her stuffed animals and when I say goodnight she will give me this cute, little wave.  I love it.

After the wave she pops her thumb in her mouth and grabs her pillowcase with the other hand.

Wyatt wants Hallee to let him do everything for her.  He wants to put on her socks and shoes and he wants her to sit on his lap so he can read her books.  She finally agreed to sit on his lap today.  It was so cute.

Yesterday Wyatt and Rockwell were playing and Rockwell wanted to play outside and Wyatt wanted to stay inside and play Candy Land.  They were starting to argue a little and then they ran off and I could hear them talking and they ran back over and said, "we are going to play Candy Land outside."  I was so impressed that two little boys could come to a compromise like that.  They were laughing so hard together during lunch.  I love watching them play together.

Caitlyn reached her AR goal for the term so she gets to wear her pajamas and have a read-a-thon tomorrow.  We bought her some pajamas for her birthday, but once I saw the note about pajama day I couldn't pass up letting her open them early.

She sure looks cute in them!

Playing

One of my favorite things to do is listen to and watch my kids play with each other.  I love when they are getting along and just having fun together.  Hallee and Caitlyn have been having a lot of fun together lately.  They pretend to sleep and put their babies to sleep.

For some reason they usually play well together on Sunday morning.  Last week they had a blast building tents together.

This week they were having fun racing their remote control cars and dog!

Jonah doesn't play with Legos a ton, but when he does it keeps him entertained for a long time.

This happens pretty much every day.  Hallee and Wyatt love to clear out the toy box and play in there.

This is another thing Hallee and Wyatt do every day. They love to have picnics.

This girl always looks so cute for church.  It is a good thing because she is a handful at church!

She keeps hitting me in front of people and it is really embarrassing!  Yesterday I had to take her out over and over because she kept screaming.  I sat with her in nursery for the first hour and she was fine.  I snuck out to go to Relief Society and they came and got me 10 minutes later because she was hysterical.  She was perfectly happy to stay with me in Relief Society. 

Wyatt said he wanted a picture with Hallee yesterday.  Oh man, these two can melt my heart!

Wyatt and Hallee like to take pictures so they can look at them on the camera.

Caitlyn and I got haircuts last week.  Caitlyn likes her hair short, so she was happy to get it cut.

Hallee is looking and acting older every day.  She is saying a lot of new words.  She probably says about twenty words now.  She gets so mad when we can't understand her or she doesn't get her way.  I hope we can get her to stop hitting soon!

STEM Night

Last week the kids had a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) night at school.  Caitlyn had some fun experiments in her class room. 

The kids all loved making this roller coaster.  We went to Jonah's classrooms first, but I didn't end up taking any pictures there.  His friends were in there and he just ended up goofing off with them while I talked to his teacher.

I'm glad I was able to get a picture with Caitlyn and her teachers.  This is her second year with them and she is really going to miss them next year.  They are both great, but she has become really attached to Mrs. Weske (on the right).  Mrs. Weske always tells me that she loves all of her kids, but she has a special place in her heart for Caitlyn.  She was so great with Caitlyn last year during all of her anxiety problems.  Mrs. Christiansen was telling me that she is going to have a really hard time saying goodbye to the kids this year because she is really attached to them after two years.  

The kids love this giant chess set!

Hallee kept us on our toes that night.  She was into everything and seemed to find markers everywhere she looked!

I love holidays, but St. Patrick's day has never been an exciting one for me.  I wasn't planning on doing anything until Jonah said, "I can't wait for tomorrow because the leprechaun turns our puffy pancake green."  I had forgotten that I did that the past couple of years.  I'm not very good at getting up and making the kids a hot breakfast before school, but I decided I couldn't disappoint Jonah.  Jonah doesn't even like the puffy pancake, but he was still excited about it. 

 I was talking to Katie that day and we were talking about how hard it is with social media to not compare ourselves to other people.  I saw so many pictures of mom's that had gone all out for St. Patrick's day, but it didn't bother me.  The older I get the more comfortable I am with myself.  I used to feel threatened by what other mom's do, which is bad because then I get defensive and that is when I become negative about other people.  If other people enjoy going all out for things, that is fine by me.  It doesn't mean I'm not a good mom.  I have my strengths and we have our traditions and everyone else has theirs.  It is a good place to be because I used to drive myself crazy thinking I had to be like other people!

I do like surprises!  We bought the movie "Frozen."  On Saturday night we told the kids we had a surprise for them and they had to find it.  Jonah found the movie in the microwave.

The kids were really excited.  We had some treats and we were all set for a movie night when Jenna called and said they had three Jazz tickets that we could have.  It was about 15 minutes before the game started.

Keith and Jonah love to go to the games so we couldn't pass it up.  They rushed out the door and picked up Jonah's friend, Gaven and headed to the game.

They had a blast.  Gaven was thrilled.  This is the second time that we have had an extra ticket and took him this season.  He is a great kid and a good friend to Jonah.  I'm glad they got to go because the season is almost over and Jonah has been begging to go to another game.  After I put Hallee and Wyatt to bed, Caitlyn and I stayed up and talked and did rainbow loom together.  It was some much needed one-on-one time for us.  I guess Frozen will have to wait for another night!

Children's Museum

Last Wednesday I found out that it was free day at the Children's museum.  I didn't find out until shortly before the kids got home from school and Keith had Young Men's early that night, but I decided we should take advantage of it. 

It was a lot of fun, but I think it took a year off of my life with all the stress I caused myself.  I wish I could just shut my mind off sometimes, but I don't work that way.  I really shouldn't do things like this on days where we are on a timeline and rushed, but  I didn't want to pass it up either.  The kids had a lot of fun and we made it home in time, so I'm glad we went.

Hallee loves to get out.  Wyatt is okay staying home, but Hallee starts to get stir crazy.  She likes her freedom to roam around!  She wouldn't get off this swan.  She just kept yelling, "duck" and wouldn't get off of it.

Jonah loved the construction zone.  He is sure looking grown up!

He kept going back here and having a great time.

I think Caitlyn was a little disappointed because it wasn't as much fun as she remembers.  She is getting older!  She got bored downstairs and wanted to go upstairs, but the other kids were having fun downstairs.  She ended up looking through the gift shop for a while.

Wyatt was so excited to sit in the helicopter.  It was crowded so he had to wait for a few minutes, but he loved it!

Hallee looked adorable on the phone!

Caitlyn and Jonah loved the news desk upstairs.  They thought it was so cool that they were on TV.

Wyatt loved the balls and seeing them go through the tubes.

Hallee loved the balls and had a hard time when other kids would take a ball out of her bucket.  I'm glad it worked out for us to go.