Friend Party!

Caitlyn went back and forth on a friend party this year.  I finally suggested that she invite all of her good friends from Salt Lake and she was excited about that.  I loved that option because I love all of these girls.  We missed Kiara!  I told her if she invited these girls she could have a really long party because I wasn't worried about entertaining them and I knew they would all just have a great time together.  I met their parents in Draper and picked up all of the girls and brought them to our house.  I picked them up at 3 PM and took them back at 9 PM.  The time flew by. 

I couldn't take Caitlyn with me to pick up the girls because I couldn't fit everyone in the van and Allison took Jonah so I couldn't leave him home with Hallee and Wyatt.  I was a little nervous when all of the girls were silent on the ride to our house, but I didn't have anything to worry about they talked nonstop the rest of the night and they all had a great time together.  We started out painting canvases.

I was impressed with their creativity.  I think they had a lot of fun painting.

Next they went outside to play.  I'm glad it wasn't raining, they ended up playing outside a lot!

I brought them their dinner on the trampoline. Wyatt was excited that he got to join them.

Keith was home by that time so we opened presents next.  They all know Caitlyn so well, she loved all of her presents.

My favorite thing about this group of girls is all of their mom's are my friends and Caitlyn loves them as much as I love their moms.  I love that they have all been friends for as long as they can remember and even though they don't see each other a lot, they pick up right where they left off every time they see each other.

They were all great sports about all of the pictures I took.  They all told me how many pictures their moms' take!

Caitlyn wanted an ice cream sundae bar for dessert.  The girls loved picking their own toppings.

They were all stuffed after ice cream, most of them didn't even finish their dessert.

After they played some more they turned on "Sing."  Some of them watched the whole thing and some of them ended up back outside on the trampoline.  We could have easily filled a few more hours.  I loved listening to their conversations and seeing how much fun they all had together.  I'm so glad we had them over for Caitlyn's birthday.  She thanked me for the party and told me it made her birthday so fun! 

Presents

Today is Caitlyn's birthday.  I can't believe she is 12-years-old!  She is having a party with her friends today, so we opened some presents last night.

I have been picking up cute things when I find them on clearance for a while.  The kids looked through them and picked out what they wanted to buy for her.  Hallee was so exited to give her the presents.  My girls are beautiful!

Caitlyn had to give everyone a hug after she opened their present.

Jonah was so sweet and said he wanted to spend all of his money on a gift, I talked him into spending less, I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do or not.  I love that he wanted to do it though.

She was really excited with her magic pillow!

Caitlyn was shocked when she opened a phone!  Really it is just our old phone and it doesn't have service, but she can text and call with an app as long as she has wifi.  I bought her two cute cases for the phone.  You can tell that Jonah was shocked too!

She was so excited, she just kept looking at us and saying, "really?"

We have gone back and forth about getting her a phone with service, but we finally decided that she will be okay with just wifi and apps for now. 

She ran over and hugged me and Keith and said thank you over and over again.

Jonah saw the phone cases and asked me if we were giving her a phone and I said no because he can't keep a secret.  Here he is yelling, "you lied!" 

Caitlyn was on cloud nine the rest of the night.  She started texting people immediately.   It was fun to see her so excited.

Jr Jazz

I was surprised when Wyatt told me that he wanted to play basketball instead of soccer this Spring.  He has been playing a lot of basketball with Jonah.  I kept asking him if he was sure he didn't want to play soccer and he said, "I'm already really good at soccer I need to work on something else."  I love that!

Last night was his first game.  They practice for the first twenty minutes and then they play a game.  Wyatt was so excited and he did great!

One of Wyatt's friends is on his team.  They kept giving each other five and then giving the pat on the back man hug, it was pretty funny.

Wyatt is getting really good at making baskets.  He has been practicing a lot.

Wyatt was so good on defense.  He stayed right with his guy.  I loved watching him shuffle back and forth while the kid tried to dribble around him.

Wyatt did a great job dribbling the ball down the court.  He did a great job of passing and driving to the basket.  He loved every minute of it! It was so fun to watch him.

4th grade program

Yesterday was the 4th grade program.  They did a show for the parents in the evening.  Wyatt had a basketball game at the same time, so I went to the program during the day that they did for the school.

The program was great, it was all about the history of Utah.  They had costumes and lots of props, it was amazing.

Jonah had a speaking part.  He did a great job.

Jonah knew all of the songs and did a great job singing along.

I loved the part where they talked about the pioneers and brought them out with a handcart.

My favorite song was the one they sang at the end, "Utah, This is the Place."  It is such a great song with a great message. 

They all took a bow at the end.  I'm glad we all got a chance to see the program.  Keith took the girls that night.  Caitlyn missed the assembly during school because the sixth graders were at the Jr. High for an open house.  She is so excited for Jr. High.

Battle of the Books

Caitlyn was so excited that her team made it to the District battle of the books.  Her team had four girls on it.  She was the only 6th grader, the other three were in 5th grade.  They had over twenty books that they had to read between them.

There were five schools at the district battle.

They were asked questions and they had to write down which book it was in.

They got extra points if they wrote down the author as well as the title of the book.  Caitlyn's team didn't win.  I love how Caitlyn handles things, she immediately said, "well we didn't win, but it was fun and it is really good that we made it to district."

Everyone who made it to district got medals. 

Here is Caitlyn's team and the librarian from their school who ran the program for Lakeview.  I'm so glad Caitlyn participated, she had a great time and it helped her love to read again.

Spring Soccer

It's Spring soccer time!  I'm so excited, I love watching soccer!  Jonah is on a team with the neighborhood boys again.  He is excited to be playing with all of his friends.

Wednesday was their first game.  They played great.  It is a 3rd-4th grade team.  Jonah played defense for the first half of the game.  He did awesome.  He was right in there challenging everyone.

Jonah played offense the second half, I was sad I had to miss it because I had to take Caitlyn to her battle of the books competition.  Keith said he did great and gave it his all.

Nice underwear Jonah!

The kids were wet when we left Lagoon on Saturday so I told them to take off their wet clothes in the car so they could start warming up.  They all took off their wet pants and Hallee thought it was so funny to say, "nice underwear" to everyone.

Saturday was opening day at Lagoon.  We have been looking forward to it, but it didn't go as planned.  Keith started the morning off with work problems.  He had to go into work because apparently the place falls apart without him.  Poor guy, he has so much on his plate, it is way too big of a job for one person.  It was raining, but the kids and I decided we would still go out there.  I kept Hallee and Wyatt warm and dry with a blanket and umbrellas. 

We only stayed for a few hours and it rained the whole time.  We were still able to ride some rides.  Wyatt wanted to ride bigger rides so bad.  He walked right up to Wild Mouse twice, but at the last minute he couldn't do it.  He was so disappointed in himself, I kept reassuring him that he is only six-years-old and he has all season to try. 

I had fun with Jonah on Colossus. 

I went on Wicked with Caitlyn and then again with Jonah.  It was so cold with the wind and rain in your face.

We all went on the train twice since it was covered and protected us from the rain.  All of the animals were there and active, so that was fun.  We were really hoping to ride Cannibal, but they kept shutting it down.  Caitlyn took the little ones on the Jeeps and after that we were all soaked and cold so we decided to head home.

Yesterday we went and cleaned Garth and Pat's apartment.  Kelly and her girls clean it once a week, but Kenny is in the hospital so we wanted to do it so Kelly didn't have to worry about it.  The kids did a great job and worked hard.  Wyatt played checkers with grandpa while Keith and I were finishing up the cleaning. 

After that we took the kids over to my parents so Keith and I could go to the hospital.  The kid's were thrilled when grandpa took them for a ride in the back of the truck. 

Kenny has been in a coma since Wednesday.  On Saturday night the bishopric from Kenny's ward came and gave him a blessing.  They told him to be made whole according to the Lord's will and he opened his eyes a few minutes later.  He still has a way to go for recovery, but everyone is relieved that he is going to be okay.