I Hate Dance Class

Hello Dears. I'm sorry I didn't post last weekend, I was busy taking a nap. I'm pretty sure everyone is panicking that the school year is almost over (sniff!), and so we've been JAM PACKED for the past few weeks. Also, I am lazy on Sunday. (It's the only day I get to be lazy. I pretty much live it up. Case in point: The girls and I ate cookie dough for dinner tonight. Then we had soup from a can. Colby is out of town, so we are just one tub of ice cream and Lifetime Movie Marathon from completing the Girls Weekend checklist.)

As you know, we have two little ballerinas in this family. Usually Ella is the happy cooperative dancer. She is excited to be at class, she participates and listens to directions. But a few weeks ago, she had one of her quarterly meltdowns. I got a series of notes, dramatically handed to me between door slams and screams into pillows.

Ella hates dance class. (Please note the sweet little dancer at the bottom who has been vehemently crossed out. HATE.)



She hates dance class and she HATES GOING TO DANCE CLASS. Add heart. Cross heart out.


Also, Dance Class is Stupid. (Yes, she used the "s" word. Strongly worded letters, I know.)


But here's the real problem.

I know, sweetie. Sometimes I'm just not having a good day either.

After a discussion (you know, once the door slams and pillow screams died out), I found out her day was ruined when her table mate wouldn't share her peach crayon at school. Ella NEEDS peach to draw the skin tone. Brown just wouldn't work for this picture. I can understand that. But Izzy couldn't. I'm not sure if you know this, but sometimes people make decisions that may hurt your feelings. But writing notes is a good way to get those feelings out. And really, Ella will be too self aware for me to share stuff like this for much longer, so I'm going to enjoy exploiting her angry notes for our entertainment while I can.

Luckily Ella recovered from her HATE of Dance Class in time to make it for the last practice before the recital. I went into the whole Dance Recital experience assuming Gretchen wouldn't really participate. And yes, she lived up to my expectations.

EXPECTATIONS:
Gretchen will look SUPER CUTE, and be SUPER EXCITED about her costume, but she will not dance.

Ella did fantastic! Smiled & did all the steps. Good job! (She's smack dab in the middle, the tall one.)


Gretchen looked cute.





The thing is, Gretchen loves making people laugh & being the center of attention. BUT ONLY ON HER TERMS. Friday, I took Gretchen with me to volunteer in Ella's class. Usually the last hour of Friday afternoon is spent watching science videos until it slowly degrades to dancing cat videos on youtube (it's pretty cute, all the kids get up & dance along. Besides, their test scores are fantastic, so I thoroughly approve.) I wasn't too worried about Gretchen being a distraction. How can you be a distraction from dancing cat videos? Oh, I'll tell you. You can lift your shirt over your head, spit through it, and do a crazy dance. I finally posted her on top of the cubbies, where she could no longer dramatically fall out of her chair or sit on anyone. She lost her "Happy Meal" privileges and ended up eating a hamburger with a cup of water for our special Girls-Weekend-McDonalds-Dinner. (I'm so mean, I know.) Nothing would get through to her! I'd taker her for time-out in the hall, and as soon as we stepped back inside, kids would say "There's Gretchen!!!" and it would begin all over again. (Maybe next time I need to put her in her dance outfit and tell her she'll be performing for the kids. That'll stop her!) As soon as all the kids left for the day, she promptly grabbed a book and started quietly reading to herself. ARGH!!!!

And in zombie uprising news... Gretchen saw a big van for Green Thumb Lawn care next to us (the logo was a hand with a green thumb). She wanted to know why there was a zombie finger on the truck. She is REALLY into zombies lately. Maybe because their favorite grown-up-book to look at is Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (they like the pictures).

So how was your week?

Poultry Whisperer, Chicken Charmer

Oh Friends, we had quite a week. Full of new discoveries.

MAJOR LIFE CHANGING DISCOVERY: This week we learned that Gretchen is AMAZING with baby chickens. John John got chicks at his house, and we got to go meet them on Thursday with the rest of the preschool gang. All the other kids were sort of freaked out by their weird chicken feet and "sharp nails", and would cuddle them sweetly until the chicks got their gross feet on them or squirmed at all, then they'd drop them in a mix of surprise & disgust. But not Gretchen. She examined their nasty chicken feet and then said, "The baby chickens feet look like they have sharp nails, but they won't really hurt me." Then she snuggled chicks for two hours. TWO HOURS. My child does NOTHING for two hours.

See?



She did take a short break to wash hands and eat lunch. Woo hoo! Lunch!!!



At one point I looked over & slightly panicked when the chick was perfectly still with its eyes closed. (OH CRAP! Did she just kill the baby chick!?!?!) When I asked her if the chick was ok, she shook it slightly & replied, "Yeah, it's fine." And it was! She actually got it to fall asleep in her hand! By the end she was such an expert, she could do it one-handed WHILE EATING A POPSICLE.



Now how can I use this information to help Gretchen? Could I bring a baby chick to all our future playdates (there was no fighting around the baby chickens! They're such peacemakers!) Could I bring baby chicks on our next road trip (that sounds like a fine idea, right? Baby chicks end up being Chicken Nuggets, so it'd be perfectly reasonable for us to bring them with us on all our mid-drive McD pit stops, right?)

On a completely unrelated note, while doing our hair on Friday, Gretchen asked to be Pippi Longstocking. And since I happened to have a bit of wire in my craft supplies, I was happy to oblige:

(She really does eat more than Popsicle & fudgesicles...)

Then, yesterday, we went to VIRGINIA CITY!!! Did I tell you how many cookies Ella's Girl Scout Troop sold? Almost 4,000!!!! A group of 5-8 year olds. Dude. (We sold 29 thank-you-very-much...) To celebrate their achievement, we all went to Virginia City. STEP BACK IN TIME. It was pretty much the greatest trip we've ever had there because I wasn't in charge. One of the moms organized a fantastic day for all of us. We divided up into 4 groups & went on a trolley ride, train ride, visited the museum, underground mine tour, got pizza together AND got $5 gift certificates for the candy store. AND Auntie Amber came. I know. LUCKY!!!

At "The Way it Was" Museum.


On the train ride...


With Auntie Amber. And apparently making a normal face in pictures is painful for Gretchen, cause she just can't bring herself to do it...


Trolley tour:


Old Timey-Pizza Parlor...


Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor (bubble gum ice cream + small children = Good Times)






Old Timey People outside the Old Timey Gift Shop!



Hooray!!! Thanks for coming with us Auntie Amber! And thanks for hanging out with us, awesome Girl Scout Friends!!! We love you!

And, the last bit of BIG LIFE-CHANGING NEWS!!! Ella lost a tooth. It's actually the 3rd tooth she lost, but the first two had to be extracted by the dentist because otherwise I would throw up. (I am NOT a good candidate for dental school.) This one Ella was able to work out by herself. Hooray!!! The tooth fairy came. Left a dollar. (Good thing I remembered to text her just before I fell asleep! I had to jump out of bed to let her know.)



PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK: The girls have their DANCE RECEITAL next Saturday. You're totally invited to come. You know you want to see a bunch of girls dancing to Katy Perry's "Fireworks" for the grand finale. See? It's definitely ALL CAPS worthy.

The Trip We Didn't Want to Take

Happy Mothers Day! I hope yours was as lovely as mine, and that you were able to sit in church and listen to how wonderful being a mom is WITHOUT FEELING GUILTY. (Don't worry about your daughter wearing dress up Minnie Mouse high heels to church, there isn't there a rule against, right? And they were lovely and spring like yellow Minnie Mouse shoes, and SHE DRESSED HERSELF, so take it up with her....)

It was a sad week for us. Last weekend we drove to Utah for Baby Abigail's funeral. It was a really lovely funeral, and just as heartbreaking as you'd expect it to be. Our prayers and love continue to go out to Tyler & Meghan. This is just not fair, and we're so sorry. Abigail was a miracle, and we're grateful for the 100 hours of life she had. She was amazing, and so are you. I feel blessed to have you all as my family.


We love our monkeys.

Despite the sad circumstances, we were grateful we got to spend a day with the cousins, including Uncle Tyler & Big Sister Kait. Pics from "This Is The Place" monument, which is pretty much the coolest state park I've ever been to. (Or city park. Whoever runs it, they do a fantastic job...)


















We're glad to have such a great family, and the even though sometimes the worst thing you can imagine happens, that we know there's a bigger plan out there. (But this still just sucks.)

Here's hoping next week is a little better.

Why Relax When You Can Go On Another Road Trip?

For Spring Break we drove to see Grandma & Grandpa. (Yes, we are crazy. No, we don't have any more trips planned. Oh wait. After 2 weeks we won't have any more trips.) Poor Grandma worked till 7pm every night, so we "helped". Ella picked some lovely little bouquets and labeled the place settings to avoid confusion:



The girls helped Grandpa in the yard when he got home every night, then sat with him while he watched the basketball games and asked about 1,000 questions (I don't think either of them had seen a basketball game before. The only sport that's on in our house is football. The real football. You know, the soccer kind.)



I met up with my book-by-mail book club pals Britt and Jeanette, though I didn't think about getting out the camera till AFTER Jeanette had left. Thanks for meeting us Britt & J!



We went to the Hogle Zoo, where the highlight of our whole trip was watching the gorilla pick his nose and then eat it. (You could hear the delighted screams of disgusted children for miles.)



And, for the first time in 14 years, I stepped foot back on BYU campus. (Apparently I graduated and never looked back. Though I did have fun while there and met people who I'll love forever.) I took the girls to the bookstore where Ella picked up a new chapter book. (She carries it everywhere with her now & tells people it's a "College Book" since she bought it at the University Bookstore.) Gretchen picked out a lovely picture for her room. Then we visited the library, where Gretchen almost punctured a hole in the gigantic globe in the cartography department, then we visited the Fine Arts Building where Gretchen almost knocked over some BFA Student's pottery exhibit, then we visited the museum where she hopped from one bench to another singing "Jin-Gle (hop) BELLS (hop) Jin-GLE (hop) BELLS!!!! (hop) JINGLE ALL THE (hop) WAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!" while the other patrons attempted to view Carl Bloch's paintings of Christ. Then we went to the Sculpture Garden and yelled at ducks.



In an attempt to cut down on whining and keep Gretchen in her seat (since she can now unbuckle herself) I handed her the camera. This is what she looked at for the 8 hour drive home. No wonder they both go crazy in the car:








Instead of doing laundry when we got home, we celebrated with friends at the mall....



...and had a Preschool Easter Egg Hunt & BBQ.



The best part of Easter (besides, you know, going to church & thinking about Jesus) is black jelly beans. I've got a WHOLE BAG all to myself because no one else likes them. (Gretchen told me they look like poop and taste like poop. And look like poop. The whole preschool is going through a potty-talk phase together. It's lovely.)

Gretchen ran around so much this week that she told me her face was leaking. (It was sweat). Nothing says fun like a sweaty, flushed cheeked three year old.

Now I think I'll take a nap. What are YOU up to?
xo

Lamar Odom

He's my favorite because he is really good a shooting. Aunt Apryl, you should really watch a laker game if you want to find out more about him. here are some facts. His wife's name is Khloe Kardashian. He is the 6th most known in the whole NBA. By Christian

How to Recover from Late Spring Snowstorms

I now have no reason to complain (not that it will stop me). At this very moment, I have NO DEADLINES!!! Come tomorrow morning, I expect that will change, but this weekend I've been reveling in free time. Yesterday while I was at the gym (do you like how I drop that in to make it seem like I'm super healthy? I know) anyway, while I was on the elliptical (level 10 for 40 minutes, no biggie), I planned out a picture book I've been wanting to put together for a while. Last night I sat down & typed out the manuscript (which sounds impressive, but is maybe, MAYBE, 200 words), then worked out thumbnail sketches. I even started the first page's sketch. See what happens when I get a calm in the storm? Magic.

Part of the stress I had a few weeks ago was that I had to finish all my projects so we could meet Lismarie & her family in PALM SPRINGS!!! Well, technically it was Indio, but if I say, "Indio!" You will say, "Where is that?" (Unless you are Grandpa Conrad or love Grandpa Conrad, in which case you will already know where Indio is...) So I will just refer to our vacation destination as Palm Springs. But I did it. I even cleaned the house before we left so that we wouldn't come home to a disaster. Well, it was a little disaster-ish once we got home, what with the four semi-unpakced suitcases & a carload of crap-that-you-unloaded-but-didn't-put-away-yet sitting in the hallway... Our apartment is tolerable when it's clean. When it's messy, it makes me want to go to bed and sleep for a week. So clean is good!

Right Gretchen?



Right?



Right.

And how was our vacation? TOTALLY WORTH IT. Totally worth the 2 days of driving (driving with a three year old, I might add). Totally worth the weeks of work on top of mothering on top of more work on top of cleaning and chores. Totally worth it.

What did we do?

Um. Well. We ate.


We wore our bathing suits all-day-every-day.




We swam and napped and ate and then swam some more. We floated in the lazy river. We steamed in the hot tub. Gretchen & Ella blew bubbles in the water. Ella kept saying, "Watch this!" and then dunking her head totally in the water (which I must say {without exaggeration} IS A MIRACLE!!!) Paradise. Lismarie, THANK YOU SO MUCH. It was wonderful. We met Grandpa Conrad for lunch and he suggested a number of activities we might enjoy. I had to stop him. Our only plan was to swim and lounge. Anything that involved getting into the car and planning potty breaks wasn't going to work. Sigh. Vacation bliss.

Now back to our strange, real life.

xo