Happy birthday day of service

Grandma's 72nd birthday was last week.  What do you get the woman who loves to shop for herself and already has the stuff she really wants?  We asked her that and she said, "I want a day of service in my yard."  So that's what we did (although some of the men voted to hire it done next year -- haha!).

The littles helped inside, too.

After the work was done, we had a bbq and tossed back a cold one with grandma (cold root beers, that is).  Happy birthday, mom. :)

Nose job

A couple of weeks ago, Paige went to a classmate's birthday party.  When I went to pick her up afterwards, the father met me at the door with a concerned look and said, "We've had a little accident..."  Uh oh.  He took me inside and there was my Paigie, laying down on the couch with blood all over her clothes and face.  Ewww....

As many fun parties go, this one had a piñata ... and Paige's nose got seriously whacked by the stick when everyone rushed in for the candy.  I knelt down beside Paige to comfort her, and then realized that I also needed to comfort the friend who had accidentally hit her and comfort the birthday girl & her parents.  It had clearly been a traumatic ending to the party.  The sweet mom has been so concerned about Paige ever since and often calls to check up on her.

Not knowing much about noses myself, I wasn't sure how to tell if it was broken.  It wasn't crooked, necessarily, but she was in a lot of pain for several days.  Finally took her to an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor who said that she had badly fractured her septum and would need surgery.  Boo.  Surprisingly, the news wasn't as traumatic to Paige as I had thought.  She was just happy she'd be asleep for the whole thing.

See?  Didn't seem scared at all ...

Well, maybe a little bit.  She got a little teary as they wheeled her away from me. :(

After the surgery, the doctor told me that he hadn't ever seen a septum so shattered.  He'd had to piece it back together before securing it back in place.  Ouch.  

She got a really funky ice bag in the recovery room ...

... and was too drugged up to really enjoy her wheelchair ride to the car.

The rest of that day and the next were NOT fun, poor girl.  She was super sick ... and then finally started to perk up a bit and has felt next to normal ever since.  A personal visit from her school teacher definitely helped. :)

She's received treats and flowers from lots of wonderful friends, neighbors and family. I loved the flowers from our neighbors, the Schwabs, with a card that said, "We hope you 'nose' how much we love you." She nose, she nose. :)

Thankfully, she's dancing around the house like normal today ... But no more piñatas at our house, I'll promise you that!

La Caille

The 6th grade at Haley's school has a manners dinner every year at the posh La Caille restaurant.  Very, very posh.  The kids dress up in their best and their parents vie for a spot on the bus so they can go, too.  Mike & I played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide which of us got to go with Haley.  My 'paper' beat out his 'rock.'

Unfortunately, the lighting was poor and my camera took super grainy shots.  But better than nothing.

Haley and her bestie, Kate.

It all seemed well and good until the 1st course was escargot....

She ate it, though, and decided it wasn't as bad as she had feared.  The rest of the dinner was a lesson in which silverware to use, etiquette, and general table manners.

Outside, her cute class explored the grounds and took lots of pictures.  These kids have been together in the same class for the last 4 years.  They have become such a close, little family and I'm dying to think they will all separate to various jr high's next year.  Many, many thanks to the two amazing teachers she has had this year -- Mrs. Higley and Mrs. Gould.  I couldn't have asked for a better experience for her 6th grade year.

Funniest part of the evening for me ... Haley followed a little gosling around and said, "Hey mom!  Check out my gosling.  I named him Ryan."  Get it??

Opera

I've mentioned before my love for the Spectrum program's 3rd grade opera.  This year, it was Paige's turn.  I begged and pleaded with her amazing teacher, Miss Merrill, to let me play the piano again and she thankfully agreed.  What that means for me is being with the kids every step of the way as they learn the songs, choose their parts, work on choreography, paint the scenery, practice and practice and practice.  I have so much fun seeing the whole process come together.  These kids wrote every word, came up with every note, decided every costume, and choreographed their own moves.  It's amazing watching Miss Merrill guide and encourage them, but all the while giving them creative control.  Very cool!

This year's opera was called "Trouble in the Clouds" and had everything from dragons and fairies to scientists, wizards and spies.  There was a plane crash into a volcano and a magical brew that included "cockroach pies, snake eyes, rats' tails, ogre boogers and turtle poo." See what I mean about it being truly theirs?

Painting their scenery ...






Paige chose to be a scientist ... the only girl in that group.

Crazy hair just goes with being a scientist, wouldn't you say?

Striking a wizardly pose ...

Adorable fairies!

The spies' big line was, "If you need anything in return, just call 1-800-Spies-R-Us."


The fake mustaches were a hit with every group.

Sure love their cute teacher!  And sure love these crazy, fun, talented kids. :)

Always a dance production happening around here ...

Ballet recital every spring for my two dancers.  Amazing costumes this year -- especially for these monarch butterflies...

And my little ballerina there on the left was front and center and did us proud. :)  A few weeks later was the contemporary recital.  These two live for performing on the stage.

Recap

Going way back, a few April Fool's Day pranks ....  Christian drew mustaches on the glass of pictures around the house, Haley & Christian dragged Elle's bed into the hallway (which thankfully she thought was funny and wanted to actually sleep there that night), the milk turned blue, and Christian left the note below on Haley's door.

Still cracks me up.  Speaking of my creative son, caught him doing this the other day....

Balancing on a rip stick seems hard enough but carrying his pretend sister, Sarah, didn't slow him down any.  By the way, I love that Sarah is wearing my girls' clothes.  She feels so at home that she walks in, finds a sweater she likes and wears it until they're done playing.  Makes me happy. :) Love that family.

Serving with the Stake Youth Council is fun for me.  These are some of the cute girls I get to work with .... love them, but especially the 2nd one from the left since she's the only one who reads this blog. :)  This cupcake fest was for after the General YW meeting.  We ladies felt pretty creative as we color coordinated the cupcakes with the YW values.  YW is crazy sometimes, it's true.

Just have to add this little gem ....

This would be 2006 -- Christian was 8, Haley was 6 and Paige was almost 3.  Cute princesses but that Secret Service Agent is killing me!  He took that so seriously.  He had a pair of handcuffs around his wrist that attached him to the briefcase and wore an ear bud in one ear.  Love it!

These are 2 of Haley's favorite 'gingers' at the moment.  Ed Sheeran on the left and Mr. Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) on the right.  Ed Sheeran is a musician and writes some music for One Direction, which is how Haley found him.  But the music video for Lego House where he uses his look-a-like, Rupert Grint, to actually be him is pretty darn entertaining.

My Mr. Mayfield dropped in on a girlfriend lunch for my birthday awhile back since we were close to his office.  I heart this man.  Seriously.


He may have possibly given me a birthday gift that looked a little like this ...

Birthday kisses from these 2 ....

The tale of the Snake Killer

It all started last summer ...  The kids spotted a small garter snake in the back flower beds.  I mean, small.  They tried to catch it, but he eluded us.  Fast forward a couple of months and we saw a significantly larger snake.  Either that baby seriously grew up or we were starting to have a snake sanctuary in the backyard.  The kids (and I) were freaked out.  I took to wearing tall galoshes whenever I worked in the garden.  We were on constant alert.  Then came winter and no sightings - obviously.  Cold-blooded, duh.  But I've been on the lookout since the weather has warmed up.  Nothin' .... until a few days ago.

I decided to mow the lawn last Monday, and was mowing near the garden when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  There, in the middle of our little strawberry patch, was Mr. medium-length garter snake.  Not making a get-away, just enjoying MY garden.  I yelled to the house for Elle to bring me a pair of boots and gloves .. and a shovel.  I had no idea what I was going to do to dispose of the trespasser but wearing boots and gloves would definitely help me feel a little more in control.  Didn't stop me from getting a serious case of the heebie jeebies just looking at the thing, though.

Once I was armed, I crept into the strawberry patch.  It started to inch forward so I knew I had to make my move quickly.  I stepped down on it to stop it from getting away.  Didn't kill it, yet, but I felt well protected in my cute, red and white polka dot rain boots.  That snake couldn't hurt me any! I was totally laughing at myself, though, knowing that any of the neighborhood kids would have just picked the thing up and kept it as a pet.  I, on the other hand, couldn't let the poor thing live!  So I used the shovel to sever the thing in half.  Well, a little closer to the tail-end than the head but still pretty well close to half.  Once it stopped wriggling around and I had sufficiently stopped shuddering myself, I scooped up the 2 pieces of Mr. garter snake (ewww!) and left the shovel on top of the railroad ties near the garden.  I figured that since I had killed it, Mike could dispose of it.  Or at least the kids could see it and appreciate how amazingly brave their mom was for killing the thing.

A few hours later, the kids came home from school and I told them about my adventure.  Haley went outside to check it out and said, "It's tiny!"  I knew it wasn't python-length or anything but it was still a good 14 inches'ish.  When I looked at the shovel, that's when this whole story became a significantly more disgusting tale.  The "tiny" bit she saw was the tail portion ... and that's all that was still in the shovel.  The head-half of that stupid snake was gone!!!

Got the willies yourself now??  Eww!  Either a cat or bird or something came along and gobbled him up, or Mr. garter snake wasn't really dead and is now plotting his revenge against me.  I'm seriously hoping that he bled out somewhere and that we don't ever meet again.  But when my mom asked, "Do you really think that he's a bachelor snake and that you don't have others?", I was freaked out anew for what else is slithering around back there.  It's just a garter snake, right?  No biggie.  But it's a huge biggie to me!  And I've still got the heebies.

Mike started calling me Snake Slayer but I guess in truth I'm just a Snake Maimer.  :(

Ewww! Heebie jeebies again....