Mother's Day/Father's Day

It just so happened this year, that I was in charge of sharing time for both Mother’s day and Father’s day. It’s nice that I can use the same ideas again since I am in a new Primary with new children.  So we made lollipop flowers for the mothers and candy bar bow ties for the fathers. And my favorite part of it all is having the children fill out a questionnaire about their moms and dads. Here is what my girls said about us! It is so funny!

EMMA

My mother likes to:  have fun
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my mom do was:  Burn two pancakes (I think I even blogged about this one!)
I like it when my mom:  helps me
My mom’s favorite food is:  Spaghetti
If I could give my mom anything, I’d give her:  a ring
I think my mom would like to go: to a movie
The thing I hear my mom saw the most is: no! J
When my mom wakes up, she:  helps make breakfast
I wish my mom wouldn’t:  say clean up time
I love my mom because:  she loves me

My father likes to: have fun
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my dad do was:  sleep
I like it when my dad:  tickles me
My dad’s favorite food is:  anything
If I could give my dad anything, I’d give him:  T.V.  (we currently have no television)
I think my dad would like to go:  to Disneyland
The thing I hear my dad say most is:  yes (funny, how that is opposite of my answer)
When my dad wakes up, he:  makes breakfast
I wish my dad wouldn’t:  go to work
I love my dad because:  he loves me

BRIELLE

My mother likes to:  watch movies with us
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my mom do was:  do funny faces on a picture
I like it when my mom:  colors with me
My mom’s favorite food is:  turkey steak, ramen noodles (?)
If I could give my mom anything, I’d give her:  purple flower
I think my mom would like to go:  get cookies
The thing I hear my mom say the most is:  I Love You!
When my mom wakes up, she:  goes in the kitchen and makes breakfast
I wish my mom wouldn’t:  ever be mad at me or Emma no matter what we do!
I love my mom because: she loves me

My father likes to:  play with us
The most fun or funniest thing I ever saw my dad do was:   do a craft
I like it when my dad:  makes breakfast
My dad’s favorite food is:  eggs
If I could give my dad anything, I’d give him:  an animal puppy dog
I think my dad would like to go:  to Fat Cats
The thing I hear my dad say the most is:  go get ready for bed
When my dad wakes up, he:  goes to eat breakfast
I wish my dad wouldn’t:  yell at me
I love my dad because:  he is nice

Backtrack to May

All I remember from the month of May was that it rained (a lot). I'm sure for those of you that had grass it was great! But for those of us waiting to put our yard in, it just became a giant mud hole that I thought would never dry! It wasn't until I looked at our camera that I discovered we had a lot of things going on in May. And we squeezed a lot more things into the summer which is why my blog has been neglected (but more on the summer later). Here are some of the things that kept us busy in May.

We celebrated Nick's TWO yr transplant-iversary. We invited our immediate family over for a 6 ft sub and Elmo cake (which we bought at the scout auction the night before). I thought it was fitting that for a two-year old liver, we had a two-year old cake! It is crazy that Nick's transplant was two years ago! Sometimes, it seems like a dream that it happened at all because he is doing so well!

The only colorful thing that happened at our mud hole this spring was the appearance of some beautiful tulips. I think tulips really teach us patience. You plant them at least 6 months before you even see them get above the ground and when you realize it's not another weed growing in your yard, you watch.....and  you wait for the bright colors to appear. Then they bloom and it feels like spring! You'll notice Brielle added the sprinkler flags to the mix of tulips for additonal color. And it looks like it was actually a sunny day! Imagine that!

Brielle went to Jerry's nursery for a field trip. She brought home two tomato plants and one of them actually lived to produce tomatoes! She was very excited. She will be my gardener. She loves to help me water the flowers and she loves to help me weed, too!

Emma had her dance recital in May. She danced to "Do You Believe in Magic" (which they had little top hats for) and to "It's On" from Camp Rock 2. She looked very cute in her costume and I think her class did the best compared to the other first grade classes. Emma wants to play soccer again this upcoming year, so she's won't be doing dance, but luckily I have Brielle who is dying to start dance!

Poor little Brielle didn't realize the ground was still very muddy as she was playing on the sidewalk. I had to laugh because I had to dig through the mud to find her shoes. The other funny thing was that it didn't just happen once...it happened to her 3 times. Thank goodness we have grass now.

I cut Emma's hair! She picked the length she wanted it and I had a magazine page that showed me how to do it! We did it the last week of school and she loves it. It makes her look so much older!

Brielle had her end-of-the-year Preschool party at Classic Fun Center. She had a lot of fun. For some reason, I hate bounce-houses. I swear someone is going to break their neck if they land wrong and Brielle seems so petite to me that I'm afraid the bounce houses will just suck her in and hurt her. I know that is weird, but it stresses me out to take her to places like this! Luckily, she played on the playground and rode her scooter on the rink for most of the time.

Brielle's Preschool Program

 I finally got her to smile at me!

 the rainbow of colors and alphabet sign language

 receiving her portfolio

 with Tristan ("her boyfriend") and her teacher Miss Cindy

Yes, I'm still trying to catch up and I can't skip over Brielle's Preschool Program! It was really cute. They did the alphabet in sign language, sang about the rainbow of color (plus other songs), and got their portfolio's with pictures of everything they had done throughout the year. Brielle took her portfolio everywhere with her for a week--she was so excited to finally have one of her own!

Easter 2011--The Dresses

 All the cousins--don't they look beautiful/handsome?

Aww--they do hug each other!

 Emma looks a little too grownup for me

 Brielle's smiles are never the same!

My girls are so lucky that their Grandma Becky buys them beautiful Easter and Christmas dresses every year. And every year as we find socks, shoes, bows and get them dressed up, I wonder where the last year has gone and why they look so darn grown-up! And I may be prejudice, but they are the most gorgeous girls! The funny thing is that they look nothing alike! Amazing how different they can look coming from the same parents. Their personalities are very different too as you can see from the pictures. Emma likes to be the boss (I think it is the "oldest" personality); she loves to plan parties and she acts very grown-up. She works hard in school, loves to read, and rewarding her with money or presents or "pom-poms" in her jar works very well for her. Brielle on the other hand is a complete ham-- she loves to have fun at all times, does NOT like to clean up or work no matter what bribery is attached. If you catch her doing something good and praise her though she loves it! She knows how to push her sisters' buttons, but can also entertain herself for a long time playing horses or Polly's or house. She makes us laugh with all the things that come out of her mouth and she can remember movie lines after seeing it once! They are amazing girls and I am so thankful to be their mother!

Easter 2011--The Eggs!

 the eggs from home

 our glitter eggs

 Grandma's eggs had candy, money, and sweets!

This year we colored "glitter" eggs. They turned out really cute and they even came with sequins to glue on after they were dry. Perfect for my crafty children! The Easter Bunny also left us a note that said there were 60 eggs hidden, but somehow the girls could only find 57! Maybe the Easter Bunny was up too late to count correctly? :)

Easter 2011--The Baskets and Bunny

The Easter bunny made an appearance at the city egg hunt, but Brielle would not get her picture taken with him. (She did this in Disneyland, too--avoided all of the characters except for Minnie Mouse).  He also packed the girls' baskets with fun stuff like: bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, play dough, a movie, Peeps, and a chocolate bunny. The Easter grass at the bottom did not turn out to be the best idea though because my girls (the horse lovers that they are) pretended it was hay for horses and put piles of it everywhere! Then, once we asked them to pick it up, Brielle had a meltdown that continued all morning over everything else until we finally put her down for a nap and Nick and I took turns with Emma at church! So much for the relaxing morning!

Easter 2011--The Hunts!

Brielle at her preschool egg hunt

 

 Emma at the city egg hunt

 the hunt at home

 one last hunt at grandma's house

We had lots of "firsts" this year: Brielle's first egg hunt with her preschool class, Emma's first egg hunt at the city park (Emma even won an extra prize there), the first egg hunt in our new house, and the first time one of my girls has found the "golden egg" at Grandma Becky's house! And of course they got lots of candy!