Those sneaky Leprechauns

Our Saint Patricks day was a pretty fun day this year. We woke up in the morning to find that the sneaky Leprechauns took it a step further with their tricks. Of course our house was messed up and of course they left some green tinkle in our toilet. But this year they left a box of Lucky Charms in addition to the chocolate gold coins and just look what was left on our toilet seat...

hehehe little green feet! What a cute and clever Leprechaun ;o)

We also found that our milk was dyed green

Kefford was not the most thrilled with green milk but he played along and didn't complain.

Rylee ate her yummy Lucky Charms in green milk!

For dinner we had green mashed potatoes, green juice, green rolls and corned beef. It was delicious and made out St. Pattys day extra fun!

Mothers Day 2012

Mothers Day was a good day for me. As usual I got pretty spoiled by my Husband and kids. I got brought breakfast in bed which was french toast, oranges, eggs and orange juice. Yummy!

I look pretty scary in these pictures since I just woke up so please no judging! ;O)

And who doesn't love a good orange smile?!

The kids could not wait to give me the gifts they made in school.

From Rylee

She also gave me a mason jar covered with red tissue paper glued onto it and filled with flowers. She was so excited when she brought that home all wrapped up. She wanted to hide it and made me promise not to look until mothers day. So cute. Kefford got me some flowers and so I cut those down and replaced the fake with the real and set it on the piano. It was so cute and such a fun gift from my Rylee.

This was perhaps the best thing ever written about me. Avy is adorable!

In addition to the homemade gifts Kefford took the kids shopping and Kenedy got me a wonder woman t-shirt, Ryker got me black pajama bottoms, Avynlea got me a pretty heart necklace that said love and a gift card to Sonic from Rylee.

For some reason the pajama bottoms embarrassed Ryker and would not carry them around the store. They are black jersey Capri length with an edging of lace around the top and I have no idea why he was so embarrassed other then he said they looked like underwear...ok?

Also Avynlea wanted to get me a different heart necklace one with bedazzles all over it but the rest of them said no to get me the one she did, she was put out about it and not happy but I loved it and wear it often!

Good Mothers Day and I really love my kids!!!!

Rylee turns 5!

Rylees fifth birthday started out with her being allowed to open one present. She opened the present from Grandma Bonnie because it had come in the mail the day before and the suspense was killing her. She kept asking the day before all day long if she could open it but I said no she had to wait. And wait she did, until the next morning. Grandma Alison came over the day before and Rylee got to open her present which was some cute outfit. Lucky for us so that Rylee could have something new and cute to wear on her special day.

So Rylee opened up her package and found a super cute Princess Piggy Bank that her Grandma bought her from Disneyland. The little darling of course loved it and loved the sound of change she heard coming from the inside.

So once we got through the day we had dinner, which was pancakes, and then Rylee got to open the rest of her presents.

As you will be able to tell from looking at the next set of pictures Rylee has been well trained in the art of picture taking. I did not once have to tell her to pose or smile as soon as the present was opened she turned to me, displayed the gift and smiled for the camera. She is an easy one!

Rylee loves watching Dora and so I bought her a movie so that she can watch Dora in the car or whenever she wants. I have since regretted this a little since it has been non-stop Dora everywhere we go, but it's OK I just banned her movies from the car for a while.

This girl loves to wear dresses and so I was happy to find some really cute ones for her to indulge in. The great thing with all of these gifts is that she was with me when I picked out and bought all of them. Either I am really good at being sneaky or she is really good at being oblivious.

To go along with the dresses I found some really fun leggings to pair with the plainer dresses. The patterned dresses will be worn with leggings already owned.

She really wanted a new swimming suit and picked out this really cute Hello Kitty one!

And of course the girl who loves dresses needs to have a dress to wear to bed, so she got a new nightgown!

Grandma Marge sent Rylee some money which as soon as it was opened went right into the piggy bank. She said she is going to save money until her piggy bank is full and then she will buy whatever she wants. Awesome!

Rylee wanted a Rapunzel themed birthday and so I got balloons and cups and plates with Rapunzel on them and then made pink cupcakes with purple sprinkles. She was a happy girl!

5 Things I Love About Rylee:

1) She is my cuddler and loves to give me hugs and kisses. I love snuggling up with her especially in the winter because I am always cold and she is always hot so she acts as my personal heater!

2)Rylee loves to help me around the house. Not all the time but often enough that it is appreciated she will get the urge to clean and will tidy up her bedroom and makes all of her siblings beds. She is so sweet.

3) Rylee has a fun imagination and has no problem playing by herself and losing herself in her games. I love overhearing her while playing with her barbies because she gets so into it.

4)Rylee is a leader and is a big help to her teacher at pre-school. Her teacher often tells me that Rylee likes to help the boys solve their conflicts without getting bossy or know it all about it.

5) Rylee is a beautiful dancer and is so fun to watch in dance class. She really gets into it and always does her best!

Rylees Favorite Things:

Food: chicken nuggets

treat: cotton candy and M&M's

movie: Rapunzel

TV Show:Dora the Explorer

Color: Dark pink and purple

Toy: Brittney the hamster

Friend: Gus Gus and Brylyn

animal: Hamsters and ponies

thing to do outside: play at the park with family

Book: Dora

Color book: Strawberry Shortcake

primary song: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

about thing about being five: That sometimes I won't suck my thiumb

Piano

We got a new piano teacher this year and one thing she does differently is have her kids participate in Festival. Festival is where you practice and memorize two pieces of music and perform it in front of a couple of Judges. The judges take notes and then give you a score based on how you performed the highest score being superior. Ryker and Avynlea were both signed up to participate but after seeing how Avynlea struggled with learning her piece we all agreed the best option for her would be to opt out. This was her first year playing and it was so frustrating for her and so it was a good decision to not make her do it. Next year though she will be involved. So it was a lonely Ryker who went to play at festival.

Saturday morning in the beginnings of March I drove Ryker to his performance. I left pretty early because I have never been to this place and since I have my Dads obsessiveness about hating to be late I wanted to give myself plenty of time to arrive on time. I had directions from the head person of the festival but those directions led me to Eagle High School and not where I was supposed to be. I drove and drove and drove all around trying to find this dumb place. I called our piano teacher and she did not answer and I called a friend whose kids were doing the same thing and she had no idea. I finally called Kefford and he got online and told me how to get there. We finally arrived and i was pretty ticked about the whole thing but trying to be cool for Rykers sake. I knew he was pretty nervous and he did not need his Mom blowing her gasket.

So after all that it was a good thing I left early because I was only late by five or ten minutes. Ryker almost immediately went in and since I could not go in with him I watched through the window.

When he came out I asked him how he did and he said OK but he repeated a measure. I told him that was fine since he didn't act like he messed up he just kept playing. I was worried though that he would not get the superior scoring but tried not to let it bother me since I was just proud that he actually did it.

When we finally found out how he did, about a week later, Ryker and I were both excited about his score. Yup he got Superior! I am so proud of him and his hard work. Ryker definitely complains the most about practicing but he has such great talent. One of the notes from the judge was "You are a musical boy- keep persisting carefully and you will go far" I really hope he sticks with it because he is a really good pianist.

On a side note, one of his judges was the wife of the composer whose music he was playing..pretty fun!

So a couple of weeks later Aynlea and Ryker had a little recital for the parents. It was on a Saturday at 3:00. At about 2:10ish that day I got a call from my friends husband whose daughter was in the same recital asking if we were coming to the recital. I said yes and he said they were all waiting for us. What? He said the time was at 2:00! I could not believe it. I rushed the kids inside and hurried Ryker and Avy into their nice clothes. I looked at Rykers notebook and sure enough it said 2:00. I could not figure out where I got 3:00 from. We got there at about 2:30 to find everyone still waiting on us. I felt super bad. Ryker was up first and he did awesome!

While we were waiting for Avynleas turn I took some random pictures of Rylee and Kenedy!

Finally Avynlea had her turn and although she never smiled she looked beautiful and did a fantastic job!

Wendy, the teacher, had two recitals one the night before and then the one on Saturday. Our recital only had a handful of kids performing and so we got out of their in about half an hour. That was nice not having to sit through a bunch of,  *ahem* boring *ahem* songs. Ha!

I am really happy with how all of my kids are progressing on their piano playing and anticipate having a very musical family in the years to come. :o)

One more side note, I looked in Avynleas notebook on the way home and saw that Wendy had written 3:00 as the recital time. So no I am not time management challenged. I was very happy to realize our lateness was not my fault. Phew!