cursive

I thought I should record the conversation Lily and I had yesterday after she came home from school.

E: Hi Lil, how was school?

L: Today was a horrible day....and a little bit good!

E: Oh no! What happened?

L: Well, Mrs. Groesbeck {her teacher} chose my cursive sheet to show the class...that was the sort of  good part....but when she held it up to show everyone no one ooohed or ahhhed! They all just sat there! Can you believe it?! It was horrible!!! The worst day ever!

Upon further probing it was also a horrible day because she is no longer the fastest runner in her class. She came in last place on the race because she chose to walk! Well duh...of course you are going to come in last when you walk!!!

She cracks me up. It is a rare day when she comes through the door and tells me her day was great...oh well, I guess it is the age. 

In other ramblings; I attended a concert for the Utah Symphony last night with my parents. It was a tribute to the Beatles. They had a look-alike Beatles band there and they were pretty decent. It was entertaining. Although I have to say, I really hate it when the performers chide the audience for participation (like helping them sing "Hey Jude"). I paid to have them entertain me...if I wanted to participate in the program I'd watch "Dora the Explorer"! Another thing that bugs me: standing ovations! People are so easily amused and they will stand and clap for anyone! I mean, the impostor band wasn't bad, but they certainly weren't amazing...so why was everyone standing. I have to be brought almost to tears to stand and clap for someone (as it should be). Otherwise we just encourage mediocre performances and a bunch of unwanted encores...I mean after two hours and a huge headache I don't really want to listen to four more songs! It was fun though and I was glad I went.

So there you have it...the latest from Hillville!

time for an update

I was just organizing my pictures and realized I haven't really posted anything lately (other than the awesome pic of Davie). So it is high-time for an update!

 As a reward for our month off of TV in February, we had a Family movie night with homemade pizza and rootbeer floats! We watched "Dolphin Tale" and the kids had a blast. It was such a fun night!

 Clearly Davie enjoyed the pizza. I was glad we had laid down table cloths.

 Holy Cow, this was good pizza! 

The kids looked so cute for church this one Sunday in March, so I decided to get some pictures of them. 

 Gracie even let me do this awesome hairdo that day. It was definitely note-worthy (Gracie doesn't like me to do her hair...it is a struggle everyday)

Cousin Isabel came to play and the girls had fun dressing up!

 Oh my Goodness! I LOVE these two kids....we have such fun during the day. 

 Davie is such a cool kid....

I love this picture. Scott has been getting his garden spot ready (it is HUGE). I loved watching him out with the kids digging around. The chickens were also out roaming. It made me feel like I was on a farm for a moment! 

Later that day, Scott took the three big kids on a hike while Davie napped. They had a great time.

Ok, so I probably deserve a major prize (hee hee), I threw Lily a surpise birthday party with her friends. Her birthday was the 31st and it couldn't have gone better. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I loathe throwing birthday parties - I had a bad experience once with one we did for Lily. I had kind of sworn I would only give them a party on significant birthdays like 8, 12, & 16. And even at that I would make it way low-key. Well, this year I decided Lily needed a party. Plus I love her little friends here in the neighborhood and I couldn't foresee any major problems. So I did it. I planned a surprise party and it was hard let me tell you. She moped and complained for the weeks leading up to her birthday about how she really wanted a party and no one cared about her birthday, blah blah blah. I wanted to tell her so bad...but I didn't! The day of her party went off without a hitch. It was perfect. Every single girl came. They were all ecstatic about the surprise part (it was hilarious), and they were sweet and polite the whole time. It was a lot of fun. I may even be open to doing parties more often!

So here are the girls eating pizza. There were nine of them including Lily. They were so cute and it was so fun to listen to them talk. Can you tell how excited Lily was...

 That night we had a little family party. This was the cake for that party. I thought it was super cute. 

Over Spring Break we watched my brother's two youngest children while they went backpacking. It was fun and they were easy kids to have around. To keep the kids busy one day we decided to decorate sugar cookies. It was fun! That's Clara next to Gracie. She is in between Adam and Lily's age. 

 This is how Gracie decorates cookies....frost, lick, frost, lick, lick.....

Easter Sunday we dyed eggs. I didn't boil enough eggs....Next year I won't make that mistake again!

Scott came home for lunch yesterday and it was so cute to watch Grace snuggle up to him. They kind of have a soft spot for each other...

 I have a soft spot for this boy! But he is getting too big and that makes me sad.

We decided to crimp Gracie's hair today! Don't be jealous...I found my crimper from when I was in junior high....that's right, junior high. Then she put on this awesome outfit and all I can say it man oh man, she is CUTE!!!! All the girls at the gym (she goes to the playroom while I work out) were totally digging her look!

what a hunk!

I just love this kid! We were visiting Aunt Renee's twins and he got his shirt all dirty while playing. He decided it needed to come off. Then he found cousin Isabel's cute pink Mickey Mouse ears. He just couldn't resist...we thought he looked pretty manly...especially when he flexed his muscles!