The Saddest Girl in the whole world

Aislyn is a very easy going and sweet child. She entertains herself easily and we have a lot of fun together while big Sis is at school.  But....there are those moments when the fun stops and I have to be a mommy, and I have to tell her no. It usually involves her wanting some sort of snack, and it's usually right after we've eaten a meal.

This happened today. She came to me holding an apple, and said in her oh-so-sweet-and-soft voice, "Momma, can I have an apple?". (We had just eaten lunch, of course). I said, "Weeze, we just had lunch! AND, the last time you had an apple, you only ate half of it. So no, not right now".

 Then she hits me with this:

And then this:

And finally this: (see the apple?)

She did not appreciate my taking pictures of her sad sad sad times. I love her 'sad face'. She sticks that lip out, and I'm jelly. So, I caved and let her eat it. And she ate the whole darn thing. MUAH!
And see? Her hair is not done. I didn't lie on my hair blog. I really don't do their hair fancy like that most of the time. :)

My big 1st grader

This year we got the 'I want to kill myself when the alarm clock goes off' schedule for school. I'm not sure who's grumpier, me or V in the morning. But we are coping, and it's actually been a good thing for us. Spence and I have needed a reason to go to bed at a decent hour for a long time.

Here's Miss Salt, looking sassy and spiffy at 7:25 a.m., ready for 1st grade. Did I mention that the first day of school was the day after her 6th birthday?

She lucked out this year with the bus. Since she's the only kid on our street who goes at that insane hour, and has the nicest bus driver in the world, he picks her up and drops her off right in front of the house. Her favorite things about first grade are:

1. Eating lunch in the cafeteria

2. Having TWO recesses

3. Going to school all day long.

She pretty much loves everything about school, and thinks her teacher is the coolest. I love her enthusiasm for everything and how independent she is. She's not scared of anything!

Veruca's big 6th birthday!

Veruca, or "Tera", as her lil sis likes to call her, is now 6. She made it. There were many days this past year I wasn't sure she would. But we both made it there, intact, and somewhat sane. She's now officially 6 going on 16.

To celebrate the occasion, we let V pick her celebratory venue. She chose bowling. Spence gave me that smirky smirk and I just had to suck it up and agree to go. I LUV bowling. But V was excited and delighted, and it was her big day!

The happy bowlers. Their teeny feet were just so darn cute in those shoes.

Scoping out the lane and trying to figure out how to lay down the bumpers. I especially needed it.

This was Violet's 1st time bowling. She got the second highest score.

Veruca got 3rd place.  Dad of course was the winner, and we'll leave it at that.

We went home and had some partying. There were some presents.

And there was some cake.  (Aunt Karlyn and Andrew came to admire the cake as well.)

It's supposed to be a castle. I spent a good deal of time making her cake, and yes, I did enjoy doing it! It's not the greatest, but we all thought it was fun. We had to split her name in half to get it on the cake, as I'm not so skilled at the licorice writing. She had a super duper birthday (her words). This year instead of her usual large bash, we did a 'family' party, and we appreciate all y'all who came. She felt loved and special (and grown up!). Happy Bday C!

HAPPY 60TH POPS!!

Well, the Big Cheese, The Master, The Old Man turns into an official senior citizen today! Today I called him to wish him a happy birthday, and I said, "What are you doing?". He replied, "Well, we are in the car driving to California (they had been in Reno all week) to go do some skydiving."  I could hear mom harrumph-ing in the background. I wish you luck--and I hope you make it down in one piece. Nothing like the present.....right!?

At Thanksgiving Point. I liked going with the old peoples. We got a golf cart.

Still cute after 37 years together. Love you guys!

Biking this summer

We spent a lot of time biking this summer. This was the only time I remembered to bring my camera to take pictures to document our adventures. This was one such adventure down the Provo River trail. It was dreadfully hot and muggy. I don't know what we were thinking. But we still had fun. Cuz we like each other.

It takes us a long time to get ready to go. Thus all the pictures at this stage.

Weeze fell asleep. She must have run out of snacks.

Shade is a good thing. We'd stop and enjoy it often.

Yet another picture of me sans makeup or hair fixing. Veruca is gorgeous as usual.

Old friends

Welcome to the world of the sillies. It's even funner with their oldest friends, Maddy and Ruby. Maddy was C's first friend in the world.....and now look at them, all grown up and wearing makeup. Not well, but they are still learning.

This is what happens when you let the big sisters put on the makeup. Maybe Barnum and Bailey are looking?

Straight out of Cosmo.

 

These are my friend Hillary's girls. She is my good old neighbor friend from Payson. We have missed having them just next door......*sniff*. Look how giddy my kids get when they see her girls--they go noodly! We like our old buddies.  (Me and H get noodly too--just no one gets a picture of us).

Enjoying the final days of summer before the learnin' begins. Gotta meet the otter pop quota.

My big fat birthday

Here's the old lady and the chilis.

See how they are helping me out? My Spence makes a mean chocolate cake.

Spence took us to Liberty Land for the big day. He could have taken me to Chuck E Cheese and I would have been happy. I was just glad to have him for the whole day.

                                    

Miniature golf. I smacked it over the top of Lincoln's head and almost into the water. Bubs showed us all how to play, since she's been M.G. before. I wasn't a very good student.

Since it was my birthday, I got lots of smooches. From willing participants.

 

We decided that Liberty Land really caters to the younger (and smaller) set.

Getting ready to roll

 

Veruca got a car all to herself. She cruised around like a regular little teenager.

The bumper boats were our favorite. I got the one with the broken squirty thing though, and kept spraying the attendant (on accident of course!). C got stuck under the sprayers in the back and got soaked. It was pretty darn fun.

The Chilis and the Dad of the chilis

We took the girls up the canyon and had a picnic...since both times we were planning on going camping did not work out (I'm not really that sad about missing out on the camping, but the girls would like it.) Doesn't Spence look cute? He's a big boy now.....he turned 30 in June. He's all growed up.

Violet and Veruca playing in the fire pit. That's the funnest part. And the getting dirty part.

Weeze playing with her cars. She said she was parking them, and getting them ready to race.

Showing me the muscles. BAM!

Every time Weeze says her prayers, she asks "Please bless us that we can go to the park in the morning." After hearing this about 20 times, I figured I had better take her to the park. This is how the two of them got ready to go. Veruca with her adventure purse, and Violet with her wife beater on.

Blowing mom kisses. She loves me.

I love them bunches and bunches.