Cotton Candy Fun

My Brother Joshua and his Fiance Mallory came one weekend for a super quick visit. While they were here Kefford and I took the opportunity to escape our house and go out to eat with two cool people. We went to Hometown Buffet because we heard it was pretty good and boy was I glad we did. In addition to all the different kinds of food to eat, in the dessert section were sticks of cotton candy! I could not believe my eyes i was so excited! I had a little bit of dinner and then I went in for the kill, Cotton Candy here I come. I went for my first Cotton Candy and it was so delicious. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I did not stop with one. Each time one of my dinner partners went for their one stick of the yummy pink fluff I talked them into bringing me back one as well. So yes, don't judge, but I ate four sticks of Cotton Candy that night and I do not have any regrets.They were so yummy and satisfying! Eventually we all got a little slap happy with out Cotton Candy and even though we were in the middle of a restuarant we got creative with the pink stuff!.

A short story by Kefford

So there I was, on a hot afternoon, starting to feel a bit dehydrated.  I had just come inside from the hot sun where I'm sure I was working hard doing something productive.  My wife had already handed me a bag of cookies that I consumed within seconds.  This only added to my desire and need for some kind of fluid.  Upon opening the fridge door, a reflection of light bounced off of a small bottle of TruMoo chocolate milk.  I knew I must have it.  I quietly asked if it belonged to someone.  The only response I heard was "it's all yours."  I didn't know if the response came from someone else or if my subconscious was telling me to hurry up.  I quickly grabbed it, shook it up and took the lid off.  By this time I had already settled down on the couch, ready to enjoy my refreshing drink.  As I poured the first gulp into my mouth I was a bit disappointed at the lack of chocolaty taste.  Within the next 3 seconds, after swallowing, I knew something was horribly wrong.  An aftertaste, that can only be explained as moldy and dead, took control of all my senses and just about knocked me off the couch.  Upon regaining my sense of sight and while sprinting toward the kitchen sink, I was able to glance at the EXP date on the small bottle in my hand.  My new found knowledge only added to my desire to somehow reach down into my stomach and pull out whatever I had just put in, but all I could do at this point was spit and rinse over and over.  I felt betrayed and defiled and still thirsty.  So I went back to the fridge, checked the exp date on the milk, and drank some.

Little bit of randomness

Every year while the boys go on their father Son Campout us girls get to have a girls night. This year it was only Me, Avynlea and Rylee because Kenedy was at her Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's enjoying a week by herself being spoiled and loved.

So I picked up Avynlea from the bus stop and off we went to our first activity. I did not tell them where we were going I had them guess. Avynlea guessed that we were going to Souper Salad and Rylee had no guess. They were both surprised and thrilled when we ended up at Monkey Bizness. It is a fun place filled with inflatibles for the kids to climb on and play on. I tried to get some good pictures of them coming down the slide but they all ended up blurry so I finally juat had them pose.

After about an hour at Monkey Bizness they were done and ready to go eat. Eating out is not a common happening with our kids and so they were super excited about this part of the night. Unfortunately this is also where the picture taking ended. So sad.

So I took the kids to The Cheesecake Factory because I was really craving their strawberry shortcake. We ate out on the patio because it was such a beautiful and warm day. Before we got our food I talked ot the girls about acting like ladies becasue we were in public and we did not want to embarrass ourselves or make people think we were weird. they both did good until the end when Avynlea got full and bored waiting, then she started wandering around. So I ordered my dessert to go and away we went.

Next stop was the store to get cupcakes and mini icecream drumsticks to eat while we watched our Redbox movie "A Mermaids Tale 2".

Once that was all done it was bedtime for the girls and laying in bed reading for their Mama. After the girls were asleep and while I was lying in bed I heard a noise downstairs that sounded like a door shutting and then a little bit later I thought I heard a nooise that sounded like little feet. I got super scared and willed my self out of bed ot investigate. I turned on every light switch I passed and opened and searched every room luckily finding nothing. I was still freaked out though. So I went back to bed after turning the lights out. A little bit later Avynlea came in my room for some reason and I told her to get in bed with me. I was so happy to have her there cause it made me feel a little bit safer..weird that a seven year old made me feel safe but I think it was just having someonein bed with me. Now that I think about it how sad that Rylee was left all alone in her room. What if someone really was i our house and poor Rylee was stuck by herself. Note to self do not leave child alone in room if feeling freaked out and hearing things. Luckily we all woke up the next morning safe and sound!

I was driving in the car one day with Rylee going to the school, I think, while she was watching a movie. I looked back at her and she looked so cute I could not resist taking a picture. This five year old is such an avid thumb sucker it has been rare to see her watching a movie without it in her mouth. I think she is so pretty and I love seeing her without that darn thumb blocking her face.

We had a first Aid clinic to get ready for girls camp and I was in charge of teaching about Shock. So Kenedy helped me make a poster about the symptoms of shock and how to treat it. Avynlea asked if she could help and so I told her what it was and asked her to draw a person in shock.

This is what she came up with. I laughed so hard when I saw her drawing. Apparently she misunderstood the type of shock I was talking about because she drew a girl with the cord of a vacuum cleaner in her mouth! Loved it and I made sure to point it out to all of the girls taking the class!

Rylee at the Zoo

At the end of her PreSchool year Rylee got to go to the Zoo for a final fieldtrip. She was so excited about this trip and really dressed up for the occasion!

As Rylee and I were walking around I realized that this was the first fieldtrip I got to go on without any little kids in tow. It was a nice feeling and it really helped me enjoy my time with my little Rylee who is quickly getting not so little anymore.

rylee with two of her pre-scool friends Gus whom she calls Gus-Gus and Brylynn.

the pre-school gang...Rylee, Gus-Gus, Brylynn, Amber and Jeffrey. Missing is Logan

Rylee was very excited to see the penguins and they were really acive that day. Lots of swimming in the water and preening on the land. I had rylee pose with her favorite penguin outside their habitat.

And of course every time we come to the zoo we have to have the kids take a picture on the little tiger. Someday these pictures will make a really cool flip book!

After touring the Zoo was done everyone went home except for me and Rylee. I packed us a lunch so that we could have a little picnic in the rose gardens. I thought it was cute to have Rylee pose with this statue. She is accepting an apple from the Lady.

And here rylee is taking her apple!

We both thought the blue water fountain was cool and had fun imagining it to be blue slushee for us to drink..yum yum!

Rylee is so silly and I love her fun poses!

It was a fun day spent with my youngest and we both had a really good time!

6th Grade Awards

A week before the last day of Middle School I got a letter in the mail telling us that Kenedy was going to receive an award at the 6th grade awards assembly. I was excited for her but a little worried about how this was all going to go down. The awards assembly was from 7:45 till about 9. That meant we had to have all the kids up and ready for school so that we all could go to the assembly. Kefford would then have to take Ryker and Avynlea to school since school for them starts at 9:15ish and I would have to drop Rylee off at preschool which starts at 9 so that I could get to my 9:20 dance class which started at 9:20 and it usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to get there. What a rushed morning this was going to be.

The first award Kenedy received was for maintaining a GPA of 3.5 or higher all year. Way to go!!!!

The second award she got was a PRIDE award. This was a more exclusive award. The letters in PRIDE all stand for something different, P for Perseverence, R for responsibility, I for something, D for determination and E for something. Each teacher was respnsible to nominate one student from all of their classes for each of the different attributes. Kenedy got the PRIDE award for Respnsibility from her Music Teacher Mrs. Johnson. She was surprised and happy and I was really proud of her,

Kenedy has always impressed me with how hard she works at her school work and I am glad that she sets such a great example for her younger siblings.

Dance Cuties

This past year I was given the awesome privilage of teaching dance classes. A woman who moved out our ward a year ago owns a company called the dance connection and the gist of it is the dance teacher goes to the daycare and teaches a class once a week for those who sign up. Whith rylee being in pre-school and Cyndi needing more teaches I was given the opportunity to teach some classes. I didn't want to have to leave Rylee while I taught and so I taught while she was in school and then on Monday while she was not in school I traded with a friend some weeks but mostly Rylee just came with me. It was a lot of fun, sometimes frustrating, many times stressful but so worth it. I really fell in love with most of the girls :o) I got to teach and look forward to doing it again in the fall.

I wanted to tak pictures of htem all dressed up in their recital outfits but recital was so crazy and I was doing a lot of running around so that did not happen. I did teach for two more weeks after recital was over and so I took pictures of them in class. I taught seven different classes with three classes on Monday, two on Wednesday and two on thursday. My Monday and Thursday classes did their recital dances to Rapunzels "I See The Light" and "Kingdom Dance". My Wednesday classes did their dances to a Tinkerbell song and "Never Smile at a Crocodile". Because my classes were small we combined them for the recital and so I only had three dances performed at recital.

 Rylie, Bella, Kennedy, Mikayla, Perri and Taylor. Missing is Brylynn

 Abby, Abigail, Arika, Finley, Emma and Maddie
Maddie is wearing the purple costume that all of my dancers wore for recital.

Taryn,  Livia and Janie

Morgan, Audry and Amori

These are the crocodile hats that my amazing sister-in-law Brit made for my Crocodile dancers. They were so cute and looked awesome on stage!

Gabrielle, Olivia,  Kiera

Holly and Avery

I have a little story I want to remember about Holly. Holly was a sweet girl and a very dreamy flighty girl. In class during our dances she would get lost in the music and just do turns and sways before she would come back to reality and join the otherr dancers. She was really sweet and it was fun to watch her. At the recital she did an awesome job on her dance and after it was all over I went out to congratulate my dancers. I saw Holly and went to give her a huf and I told her how proud I was of her. She had a couple of bouquets of flowers that her family had given her and she wanted to give me one of her roses. I told her I appreciate it but it was bught for her and she should keep it. She said "No I want you to have it" and then she asked if it would make me happy. I finally accepted the flower and told her that everytime I looked at the rose I would think of her and that it would make me very happy. What a sweetheart little girl!

Callie, Alysha, Alyssa, Lucy, and Veva

I am very proud of all of my little dancers, I was super nervous about them being on stage not knowing how they were going to do but they all did amazing. I got comments from quite a few people that my dancers were the best ones. I will miss the ones who will not be there anymore but look forward to being back with the ones who will return!

14 Years!

Kefford actually gave cut roses for our 14 year anniversary this year. He has never given me roses before because he sees them as a waste of money since they die quick. I think he has learned that even giving me potted plants is a waste of money since they die quick from my neglect. I am not a plant person.

Happy Fourteen Kefford! I love you!!!