Brandon's Birthday and Party

I took this handsome little boy out of school on his actual birthday to have some lunch. His choice...The Habit. Probably so he could do this with his french fries. Silly boy!

A tongue as blue as his eyes.

A birthday full of tsum tsums that each came wrapped with a $5.00 bill. Lucky boy!

Family dinner at Rubio's that night.

And then over the weekend we had a party for Brandon at his favorite thing...Laser Tag.

He was so excited and had such a great time. It makes me happy seeing my kids have fun and enjoying their Birthday.

The gang. Of course Daddy had to get in on some of the action.

 Laser tag, games, laser tag, games...Then pizza, cake and presents. That's pretty much how it went. Every 8 year old boys dream.

The party room!

He didn't mind being sung to. hahaha...

Some of his loot from his friends too. Guess everyone knows he loves his tsum tsums.

 We love you bud! You are sweet and thoughtful and have a kind sensitive heart. I love watching you grow and develop into a handsome young man and I can't wait to see you continue to do so.

Happy 8th Birthday!

Father/Daughter dance

Our awesome PTA who happen to be some of my very good friends, put on a fantastic Father/Daughter dance at the kids school. Leah was SO excited. I even let her put on a "little" bit of makeup. I know...I'm a sucker. She looked beautiful though and was just beaming to get to go with her Dad to her first dance. 

Meanwhile back at home, we had a movie night to keep the kids occupied since none of them were too happy to not be a part of the school festivities.

We watched the cartoon version of "The Jungle Book" in prep for the new live action movie.

Cute invite done by a friend of mine (actually not Paul this time).

Then Paul and I got to sneak out to the last hour of a dear friends, son's, wedding reception. We've known this family since moving up to this valley nine years ago and it was so fun to see old friends from our CC2 days and catch up with current friends too. So funny that we are now going to receptions of our friends KIDS and not of our own friends anymore. HA....getting old....It stinks.

New Beginnings

Ok, so New Beginnings. My vision for the Tree of Life just didn't come together like I had hoped, but we gave it a good effort and the rest of the decorations were super cute, so I'm hoping no one remembers that the tree didn't really look like a tree. 

Apparently I failed in all tree departments because my cookie trees kind of look like four legged octupuses (or is it octupi). Either way...a valiant effort and we will try something different next year. Can't win them all right?!

BUT the program went really well. Each girl talked about a value experience or project that was meaningful to her and the Bishop shared a great message on pressing forward and not following the ways of the world.

The new girls all got interviewed and introduced by the current YW and the refreshments were good (even if they did look more like a sea animal than a tree.)

These girls are all so sweet and wonderful and we can't WAIT to get them in YW with us this year. Our group will literally almost double. 

Yahoo!

One more day from Spring Break

This Spring Break day gets its own post because it was Saturday and Daddy was with us.

We stopped at Topper's (our favorite pizza place) before heading out to the Griffith Observatory for the day.

Got to watch a planetarium show, which was really cool.

And then spent some time walking around the grounds and inside the observatory. 

It was pretty cool and the kids could have stayed forever. But it was really crowded and I had my fill of too many people. I think we parked almost a mile away from the place it was that full (and the parking up there is THAT bad. There's hardly any parking spots.) 

It was still really fun though and I definitely want to come back on a less busy day.

SPRING BREAK! YAHOO......

Wahoo Spring Break is here. Time for some fun.

Leah spent some of her birthday money on a gymnastics wall decal. She couldn't wait to get it up.

First Day! Chuck E Cheese with some good friends. Kids had a blast and went through probably 200 tokens. But it was worth it. 

Day Two! We went hiking with more friends in Placerita, then stopped for ice cream and took a trip out the fish hatchery. No Schoeni Spring Break is complete without a trip to the Fish Hatchery. The kids are definitely getting a bit too old for it, but everyone still wanted to go and seemed to enjoy it. 

Ashlyn skipped out on our morning hike. Sleeping was more on her agenda. I'm gonna photoshop her in RIGHT next to Luke. I think she'll like that. hahaha....

                                        

Buds!

Carter chilling on a bench at the Fish Hatchery.

Cute little friends. Saving this incase they get married!

The clan. Leah was at gymnastics and missed out on this trip.

Day Three! Swimming with more friends and pizza by the pool. Sounds great to me.

Day Four! Started out at the park, but the kids got bored pretty quickly and it was starting to sprinkle (AKA rain in CA), so we opted for some bowling and movie time at the Osmonds.

No movie is complete without popcorn if you're at Becky's house.

Wrapped up Spring Break with a visit to see Daddy at work. Kids had fun having lunch and then seeing what new things Daddy has been working hard on!

I'd say we had a successful Spring Break. Now to get my house back in order.