A Royal Nest: June 2012

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Some Random Family Fun

I didn't even notice what the kids noticed was going on here in this picture, but when they pointed it out, I had to get a picture of it. In case you can't figure out what's going on, they pointed out that they are all wearing a shirt that happens to be the same color as their dishes--Westley in yellow with a yellow plate, Caleb in blue with a blue plate, Travis in red with a red plate and Eliza in green with a green plate.

Jonah likes to be just like his older brothers, so when Westley got off the couch to lay on the floor to read his Calvin and Hobbes comic book, Jonah got off the couch with his picture book and laid next to Westley to read. Jonah actually does love to read too. He is my only child who will sit through an entire book, or more than that, at this age (15 months). It's adorable.

Eleven Years

Corey and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary this past week. These are the flowers that he got me, and they are very beautiful. He got off work at 3:00 and came home and we got ready to go on our date. We got to go to Carver's, the same restaurant we went to last year for our tenth anniversary, a really pricy steak place, but this time we didn't pay. Corey's divisional manager and regional manager just happened to choose that day to take us out to dinner to celebrate his promotion to management (something that usually happens right after the promotion, but didn't). We enjoyed our dinner and then we left to go country dancing at a club in Salt Lake City. The club is technically for singles but it caters to the LDS standards in dress and activity (no drinking or smoking) and since we are over 18, we figured nobody would care. We were probably the oldest people there, but we still had fun.

Princess Festival 2012

Last week on Tuesday Eliza and I attended this year's Princess Festival. We were fortunate that our day of the festival, it was slightly cooler, with a high in the upper 70's, so it was the perfect day to spend outside walking around because it wasn't cold or too hot. I was hoping that this year Eliza could attend the King's Daddy-Daughter Ball but it turns out we will be out of town for that event, which is the second week of the festival. Hopefully they can go next year.

Getting her hair done

Getting her nails painted

Eliza with her pretty new hairstyle

Eliza with Tinkerbell

Eliza with Rapunzel (notice Eliza is also in her Rapunzel dress)

Eliza with Cinderella (left) and Belle (right)

Eliza with Sleeping Beauty

Eliza with Snow White

Eliza with Ariel and Tiana

Eliza dancing with other little princesses in the main show area

Eliza with her friends with whom we attended the festival

A pretty picture of Eliza in front of the waterfall

Homemade Paper Guns

Here is proof that your boys will play guns even if you don't buy toy guns for them. Caleb came up with a way to make guns out of paper. He rolls the paper up to make a tube and then he rolls smaller tubes to make the handle. He and Westley got together and made a variety of guns in different sizes and different kinds. They have been using the guns, with their brown hats we found at Hobby Lobby, to play Indiana Jones (or just explorer/adventurer), their current obsession.

Dog Show

A couple of weeks ago, Westley decided he wanted to host a neighborhood dog show and invite everyone in the neighborhood to bring their dogs and have them do tricks for everyone. So I let him make a flyer and pass it around the neighborhood to everyone we knew who had a dog. We only had two neighbor kids and their dogs show up, but the kids had fun anyway. Snoopy chased bubbles. Not the greatest trick, but it is fun to watch him go so crazy after the bubbles. If he knows we're blowing bubbles inside and he's outside, he will whine and cry until we let him in the house and then he goes completely nuts. When we blow bubbles for Jonah, who loves them too, we can't have Snoopy around because he'll charge right over anyone who is in his way of getting the bubbles.

A Parade

I love summer in Utah because of all the fun events that take place. One thing that is quite popular here are the parades. A lot of the individual cities that make up the Salt Lake Valley (and actually everywhere in Utah) have town festivals celebrating the founding of their towns or just summer in general or certain holidays, like the 4th of July, and they often have a parade. The parades are usually not very huge, with some floats, but mostly businesses and teams that come through. I love the parades. One nice thing is they are free and the kids enjoy them.

We went to the Fort Herriman Days parade a few Saturdays ago. The kids LOVED getting the free candy that gets passed out. Too bad parades are starting to do away with the free candy because it could pose a safety risk (kids running into the street to get candy and possibly getting hit by a float--never mind that this has NEVER actually happened in all the years they've done these parades, it is now considered too risky), but the kids sure enjoyed it this time. Westley even got a free T-shirt from a soccer league. Corey is usually working and hasn't yet attended one of these parades with us. But we still have a great time!

Final Dance Recital

Eliza had her final dance recital of the year the second weekend of June. It was one busy day because Corey had to work. Her dance class did a little tap number to a song from Mary Poppins. She has definitely improved this year. We have liked this studio she goes to, but we're not sure if we'll sign her up again next year. There are seemingly endless fees plus it's not close enough to drop her off and come home, which means I either have to sit there waiting with all the kids or we have to run errands (again, with all the other kids) and I don't like doing it. But I might sign her up again. The monthly fees are reasonable enough and we do like the studio. This summer, on her break from dance, I have enrolled her and Travis in a gymnastics class and they are both doing well in it. We may continue her in that instead of dance, so we'll see.

Food Face

I just had to include a post entirely comprised of pictures of Jonah with food on his face. He is just so stinking adorable!

cinnamon roll (above and below)

chocolate pudding (above and below)

eating a Betty Crocker's Warm Delights and thoroughly enjoying it

Last Day of School

I know I'm a little behind on my updates, but the boys finished their school year on June 1st. They have had a good school year, but I'm relieved they're done. Last year I was actually kind of sad because they both had such great teachers. This year, they had good teachers, but not the kind of teachers they had the year before. I have loved this school that the boys are at--initially, it was hard adjusting to Utah's less-than-stellar state standards, at least in the primary grades with regard to all subjects but math and reading (they basically have no standards in any subject but math and reading for grades K-3), but the teachers do a tremendous job at implementing those subjects wherever they can and incorporating them into the boring math/reading curriculum. I am glad they are at that school. I have heard that another elementary school will be built in our district nearby, which will re-align the boundaries, and based on where we live, I feel certain we will end up at another school. I did drive by the grounds where they will be building the other day and there was nothing there, so hopefully these boys have at least one more full year (and hopefully more) at their current school. Of course, when the new school opens, there will probably be a lot of movement for teachers and school staff and we may end up just as happy with some of the same teachers and school staff at another school. If the principals and main school staff stay the same, though, Corey and I will be looking at trying to move closer to the kids' current school so we can remain in the boundaries. If I ever decide to teach again, I hope it's at a school like this one!

Westley with his third grade teacher, Ms. Kawakami

Caleb with his first grade teacher, Mrs. Evans (who is the same teacher that Westley had in first grade when we moved here)

Aspiring Photographer

Westley likes to take pictures and these are a few of his shots. Often, he'll get the camera and go around taking pictures without my knowledge and I discover the pictures when I upload them from the camera, which I did this time. These are only a few of them. Maybe some day we can enroll him in some photography classes and actually get a decent camera for him to use, since our digital camera is probably one of the worst ones out there and takes terrible pictures.