Easter

Easter may just be Micah's favorite holiday (well, maybe Halloween, or Christmas, or his birthday). Coloring eggs is something Micah would do everyday, if I would let him. He is always bringing me an egg and asking if he can paint it, or draw on it, or just break it open. So, when I brought out all the Easter egg coloring supplies, he was in heaven!

After doing the typical colors, Micah set out on a mission to make his own colors. He's a smart kid and knew the mixing certain colors would make certain colors, but what he didn't know was that if you dipped the egg into every color, it would come out brown. He thought that was the coolest thing!Needless to say, we had a plethora of brown Easter eggs. :)

Abby just wanted nice, little pastel colored eggs. Micah kept telling her how to make brown, but she wasn't interested. :)

Micah liked that his hands got colored too.

The finished product! 36 eggs! It wasn't even close to being enough. The kids could have colored all night.

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

I love shopping for their annual Easter outfits. I always want them to match. This year- that was a challenge. I looked everywhere! No joke- everywhere! I almost gave up and then found these. I love them! And, the kids wearing them!

Notice how Micah put his arm around Abby?

My handsome little man!

My pretty, blue-eyed girl!

Abby was really into posing in her new dress.

We had a fantastic Easter! We hope you did too!

What Has Abby Been Up to Lately?

We are normally extremely busy, but decided to take it easy over the summer. Life got way to hectic and even though we were having fun, we needed to take a step back (especially me), and simplify. Having said, I have time to blog now!

Here are some pics of the things Abby has been up to in recent months. They are in no particular order. Just pics of her life and the fun things she does. Abby is a happy and just about everything makes her smile.

Dance...

Abby finished up her dance class in May. To say that she loved it, would be an understatement. This is her class, well some of it. There are a few missing.

Abby loved it when the photographer told them to make silly faces.

She was in the Tiny Tots class at the Front & Center Dance Academy. I can't say enough positive things about the studio and her teacher, Alexis. Abby also loved the assistants- Ashlyn (especially Ashlyn) & Sami.

Too cute!

Too cute too!

My fave! I tell ya- you never see Abby w/o a smile. This girl LOVES life!

Abby finished her old preschool and started a new one. This is a different one. It is called Brilliant Beginnings. This is her summer class. They made pudding pops on their first day. Abby thought it was great. Chocloate and friends..... two of Abby's favorite things!

Painting, on her first day. She kept telling me that "she painted around and around." Not sure what she was trying to create, but whatever it was, she was sure proud of it!

Abby had a tea party awhile back.

Top row, L to R- Kiera, Isabelle, Emmy

Bottm row, L to R- Abby, Hadley, Kami

We made Fruit Loop necklaces.

Hadley & Isabelle showing off their finished products.

We ate fun little tea party snacks- strawberries, teddy bear shaped cheese, pretzels, and tiny donuts. Some girls even snacked on their necklaces. :)

They also played "Limbo" but I didn't get any pics of that. I was too busy laughing my head off. Imagine six, 3-year-olds bending over backwards and sliding on their stomachs, trying to get under the Limbo bar. Hilarious!

Abby had her second dance recital in May. This time, the assistants to her class, danced with them. Abby is the one bending over slightly. She thinks it's great to be up on stage.

Isn't this cute?

I didn't get many pics this time because I hate watching things from behind the lens.

Even though her dance class is over, for the summer, she still finds every reason she can to dance. The other day, her friend Emmy was over. They both dressed up in dance clothes and Abby taught Emmy her dance. It was so cute! Abby kept saying, "Watch me first!" "Now you do it!" Emmy was a fantastic student too!

This picture cracks me up!

My dad was playing with Abby on the couch one day, and he summonds me in, to see this. Abby had fallen asleep! She must have been very comfortable because she slept like this, for 2 1/2 hours. Never moved a muscle. I kept checking on her, to make sure she was okay. Poor girl was just exhausted.

As you can see, Abby has a lot of things that make her happy!

She makes our family just as happy!

Micah's 6th Birthday (Gargantuan Post)

Micah turned six on April 15, 2011. He was so excited because he said that "Six-year-old's go to first grade." It took quite awhile to convince him that while that was true, he would still have to finish out Kindergarten first. :)

The kids and I spent the week leading up to Micah's birthday, in Mesquite, NV, with my parents. It was Spring Break, so while Heath slaved away at Trinity, we vacationed. :) The day before we left, we had a little party for Micah's birthday. Can you say spoiled? He got a brand new scooter and "Lego Harry Potter" for his DSi XL. And, Uncle Beau sent him "Kirby's Epic Yarn" and "Lego Indiana Jones" for the Wii. We went to dinner, where Micah had a gigantic stack of pancakes, and then went back to the condo and had brownies and ice cream. It was a pretty great day for an almost-6 year old.

We came back to Provo the day before Micah's birthday because none of us liked the thought of not being with daddy that day. So, even though daddy had to work, we still partied hard- knowing that later that night, he would get to join us.

First thing in the morning, Micah came knocking on our bedroom door to see if he could open a present. Gammy was coming down that night, so we told him he should wait for her. We finally agreed to one present, to hold him over.

Micah is always good about letting Abby share in the present-opening fun.

New basketball shorts! Not exactly what he was hoping for. He was trying to be excited, but I could see a bit of disappointment on his face, so we let him open another one.

Snorkeling gear! For those of you that know Micah, you know that this was something he was super excited about!

While daddy was at work, and while we waited for Gammy to get there, we spent the day at a couple of Micah's favorite places. Here he is at the "Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum". It is on the BYU campus, and we know the place by heart. Micah is fascinated with every. single. thing. there. :) Here he is by the "stick bug". You know, like the one on "A Bug's Life"?

Abby had to get in on the action too. While not a fan of bugs, she does love the butterflies.

Micah's new favorite thing at the museum. A giant squid! It looks like it was made out of clay, but the sign on it assures the viewers that it was indeed, alive and well, at one point. Btw....Micah is fascinated with sea creatures. Ask the kid about Sharks sometime....he can talk your ear right off. Go check his facts too....he's a virtual Shark-aficionado.

My two cuties.

We were lucky enough to catch a live animal show while we were there. Abby was fascinated with the turtle. Here she was "petting" it.

This was more Micah's style. A snake! We did learn a little saying to help determine if a snake is poisonous. "If it's black and red, get back Fred! If it's black and yellow, you're a dead fellow!"

After the museum, we grabbed lunch at McDonald's. Micah actually was happy to be there. He was just tired of having his picture taken over and over and over. :)

After lunch, it was off to "Toys R Us" for a mini shopping spree. What did Micah pick out? A Star Wars Lego set and a........

Mowqui. Remember this little guy from "Gremlins"? It looks and sounds just like the movie. Don't worry though- it does not multiply if it gets wet.

Micah reminded us several times that day that he was six now. He even told me that he had to use "two hands now to show how old I am".

Mom and dad got Micah a "real" wallet. It even had money in it. $6.00 to be exact!

If you can't tell by now, Micah loves Star Wars and Lego's. He was thrilled for this book from Abby. He had his eye on it, at the school book fair, several weeks earlier.

While we were in Mesquite, Grandpa and Micah played, "Fish", over and over again. So, even though Grandma and Grandpa had already given Micah his gifts, they sent this up as a little surprise.

Lego's, from mom and dad. Micah's favorite character from Star Wars is "Anakin Skywalker". So, he was quite thrilled when he got Anakin's ship.

One of the best things I have ever bought for my kids. Not only is it a fun game that we all can play together, but Micah and Abby can play it with each other too. No help from mom or dad is required. It's also a great counting game.

And, the gift that he was hoping for, more than any other- "Lego Star Wars III". Gammy came through big time!

A bug catching kit and binoculars. Abby was thrilled that Gammy got her one too.

The cake! Yes, it is a Ronald McDonald cake. Micah absolutely LOVES McDonald's. Our good friend, Emily, works for the owner of a local McDonald's, so she arranged to have this cake waiting for us, when we got there for lunch, earlier in the day. Micah thought that was the coolest thing ever! So did all the other kids in the Play Land. :)

Make a wish and blow!

As if all that partying wasn't enough, Micah wanted a Star Wars party for his friends. So, this was my feeble attempt at making a "Light Saber" out of a Laffy Taffy stick. The little tag attached to it read, "Thanks for coming to my party! May the force be with you! From, Micah" Although I felt like they were an utter failure, Micah and his friends thought they were, "Way cool!"

Usually, I go a bit overboard and spend hundreds of dollars on my kids' birthday parties. Heath begged me to scale back a bit this year. So, instead of a grand cake- I made these little lovelies. :) While not beautiful in any way, they were color coded to match the colors of the Light Sabers we utilized at the party. Did you know that the bad guys have red ones and the good guys have blue and green? Every little boy at the party knew that. Which color would you guess was most popular?.... Red!

In my quest to create a memorable party for under $100, instead of buying Light Sabers, we made our own. We cut swimming noodles in half and stuck them on dowels (that Micah and his friend, Noah painted black, the night before). Then, the boys got to use cool, foam, letter stickers to decorate their saber, with their name. I gave them each a balloon and they decorated their own "bad guy". Their task was to then "Use the force" to get rid of that bad guy. While this game sounded fun in my head, it quickly turned into this....

A bunch of six-year-olds, beating each other, with hand-made Light Sabers. Fortunately, no one got hurt.

When all the bad guys had been properly vanquished, we sat down and opened presents. Here is Micah with his first "Ninjago" Lego set. Thanks, Andrew!

Star Wars action figures! Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, to be exact. Thanks, Caden L.!

Micah's very first $10 bill! Thanks, Brock!

Lego Hero Factory! The green one! The one he had been eyeing! Thanks, Caden B.!

Star Wars Mighty Beanz! Micah finally got Yoda! Thanks, Levi!

A super cool Toy Story gun (that doubles as a video game)! Thanks, James!

Oooooooh! Beyblades! Two of them! Thanks, Noah!

$6 more! This kid seriously got rich! Thanks, Treddon!

The whole group of Jedi Knights!

And, what kind of party would it be w/o cake and ice cream? So, these boys sat down to some cupcakes and ice cream. These boys can eat! They finished off 20 cupcakes, an entire gallon of vanilla, and an entire galloon of chocolate! Growing boys. :)

Micah had a fantastic birthday! He is a fantastic kid, so he deserved every bit of it.

Oh yeah, I finished the party off for only $35.00 My husband was so proud. Did it suffer because of the limited budget? I don't think so.... As the party ended, Micah gave me a hug and said, "This was my best party, mom." That alone was worth more money than I could ever count. :)

Love you, Micah! Here's to many, many, many, many, many more birthday's!