Check!

1. Boys out the door. Girls up, dressed and fed. Check!
2. Into the car for the library, early so we get a ticket. Check!
3. Check out enough books at the library so I have to use two cards. Check!
4. Keep babies occupied and happy while Abby enjoys her last independent story-time. Check!
5. Play with Marble Works in the toy room, oh how the babies love it. Check!
6. Lunch and dishwasher unloaded. Check!
7. Cancel Emma's photo appointment for tomorrow (she fell twice while visiting teaching yesterday and scraped up her face) and make a new one in two weeks. Check!
8. Dinner preparations started for green chile enchiladas. Check!
9. Color ties, or ask Abby to, for primary father's day singing activity. Check!
10. Start to prepare Sunday's singing lesson. Check!
11. Finish May Ensign. Check!

Other plans I haven't said "check!" yet to:

Ride in the car to pick up Allen from school, teach two piano lessons, have dinner followed by scriptures and dessert, get all kids in bed, finish up visual and lessons for primary for the month of June, start packing for next week's trip, start the June Ensign and read another chapter of President Monson's biography.

Today's Plans

Ross -- get a haircut tonight.
Andrea -- visiting teaching, laundry, ironing and finish the May Ensign.
Allen -- keep counting down the days until summer break (2.5)
Abby -- wear the perfect outfit for playing with friends during visiting teaching.
Jane -- playing, visiting, eating, reading, napping
Emma -- ditto

Multiple Stops

1. Picked up Catherine Sawaya at the DFW airport.
2. Stopped at Walmart to buy swim stuff and candy for next week's trip.
3. Home for snack, playing with toys and filling out paperwork.
4. Arrived at a church to register for week-long bible camp which starts in a few weeks.
5. Went to a second church to register for a different week-long bible camp.
6. Home again for lunch and naps.
7. Soon to visit the elementary school to check out Allen 20 minutes early.
8. Afternoon dentist appointments for Allen and Abby.
9. Home again for playing, reading, and dinner.
10. Plans tonight to work on primary song visuals for June and our summer plan.

Memorial Day Weekend

Sunday night started off with Ross making Cajun chicken fried rice and then, after babies were dressed in pajamas, four monkeys rolling on the bed...

Lots of giggles from Emma

This morning we headed to the city of Plano to enjoy the Indoor Safari Park all thanks to Ross watching out for those great Groupon deals. The Safari Park had a toddler area, a play table area, two climbing/sliding/ball pits, mini golf, a train ride and an animal ride, a robotic animal ride, that is. The kids loved the ball pits, and, of course, watching the birds and playing in the fountain by the entrance. Ross and I loved watching our four kiddos ride the train in the same car.

The toddler area.
Jane and Emma went here first.

Emma loved the birds the most.
She did lots of giggling.

Jane was careful about the speed at which she came down the slide.

I sat in the balls and practiced juggling while the babies played.

Emma flew down the slide. Good thing there was a soft pad on the wall because she hit it every time.

Here is the mini safari train.
Abby is waving form the car.

I love Jane's side ponytail.

mini-golf

Robotic elephant.
Each kid had a chance to ride around twice.

Abby wanted to ride on the zebra.

The fountain was tempting to Jane and Emma.
After getting their hands wet they really wanted to get in it.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning out closet and drawers and straightening the house. Ross took care of dinner again, which I love. For Family Home Evening I taught the lesson. We talked about the sacrament, I showed a clip from the Last Supper LDS Bible videos, and taught a primary song, "The Sacrament". Ross was in charge of the activity--hot/cold game, using Allen's green Washington Nationals hat and the freezer provided the dessert--chocolate chip cookies. Tonight I'm taking Catherine Bailey out of ice cream. She moves in two days. I'm going to miss her.

Chuck E. Cheese

As a family Abby wanted to celebrate her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. She also invited her friend Madeleine, whom we know from way back to Chicago law school days. The kids had fun playing the different games and carrying their token cups around, eating pizza, sipping drinks from their special cups, earning tickets and eating ice cream at home. Abby had a fun activities to celebrate her fifth birthday. And she has lots of My Little Ponies to play with (she probably has 7 new ones), a "sewing kit" (I guess she wants to be like her Mom -- she sees me sewing a lot and specially asked for one for her birthday, which I think is cute), and a new bike (with a unicorn helmet) to try out.

Ross serving five kids at the table.

Oh! I'm there too.

Jane really liked this police car.

Playing wack-a-duck

Emma really liked this Bob the Builder ride.

Madeleine loved riding this horse.

Everyone liked this simulation Jet Rider game.
It was cute to see the babies ride side by side.

Both wearing pink shirts with denim shorts.

Allen liked this wacking game. I played it with him.

The girls tried this Guitar Hero game.
I went over to help them do it and then Abby took off.
Once the gaem was over Madeleine left and I played a round by myself.
It was my favorite activity there.

These three kiddos love being together.
We will miss the Baileys when they move this week.

Grand Re-Opening

Our city's recreation center had a grand re-opening today to celebrate all reconstruction being done. All outdoor pools were open and free to the public. There were also booths passing out free hats, t-shirts, water bottles, balloon animals, hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks. It was a perfect family outing  and we didn't pay a cent to attend.

Free balloon animals!
Allen - skull wand, Abby - horse, Emma - giraffe, Jane - bunny

Abby had a butterfly painted on her arm.

Allen has a skull painted on his hand. It goes great with his wand.

Free hats!

Happy kids in the car.

Day After Birthday Report

Yesterday was a fun and very busy day. Abby had a great time celebrating.

Abby eating beignets, eggs and bacon for breakfast.

Here is here cake.
Okay, I cheated.
I didn't really make a cake because Abby requested strawberry cupcakes. I thought it would be fun to place them around a cool castle I found. I also put four new Strawberry Shortcake dolls and one pony around the castle. Both Allen and Abby thought it was the COOLEST thing ever. It only took 5 minutes to assemble.
New toys involved with the birthday dessert is the way to go. Talk about being kid-friendly.

A party favor

The birthday guests

Opening her first present. She loved the princess make-up.
Her new outfit is from her grandparents in Utah.

Eating Lunchables at the park during a wild wind.

Finishing dinner and ready for cupcakes.

Jane and Emma were very excited by the candle and all the birthday festivities. They started clapping with Ross.

She's five!

Happy Birthday Abby Sue!

In honor of Abby's 5th birthday I put together a video featuring favorite pictures from the last five years. I really enjoyed making this because it brought back lots of memories of Abby growing up and how special she is. The video is over 5 minutes long, a minute for each year, and starts with the music "Peggy Sue," which is a song I sing to Abby, (just change Peggy to Abby) often.

This is how Abby's birthday will be celebrated, as planned by her:
--Waking up to presents, cake and breakfast on the table.
--Breakfast Menu: beignets, bacon and eggs
--Party with friends from preschool co-op from 10-12pm, with picnic lunch at the park and games here.
--Lunch Menu: Lunchables (which is a treat because I never buy them. Allen even gets one for his lunch) and pink cupcakes
--A video after school.
--Dinner Menu: fettucini alfredo, carrots, strawberries, and cupcakes. Followed by a trip with Daddy and Allen to McDonald's for twist cones and time to play on the toys.
--Saturday: Swimming and then Chuck E. Cheese for dinner.

Two Articles

• My mother heard about Jabari Parker when her friend read this article and mentioned him. She asked if we knew him -- yes, we did. We were in the same ward in Chicago for three years. Ross was his primary teacher when he was 11. His mother was my visiting teaching supervisor and I remembering her requesting me email her my report to her husband email address because she didn't have one (her husband, Sonny Parker, was a former NBA star and not a member. Every time I sent my report to him I wondered what he thought, but Lola always got it), and I picked up their daughters at 5:50am and drove them to the church for early morning seminary.
• I really liked this humorous article of making a good situation from a bad one and I like the end stating the importance of a parent's role.
• Emma loves her daddy. When we dropped Ross off at the car repair shop, she screamed once I put the van in reverse, not understanding that Ross would be joining us with the other car soon, and continued until about Dairy Queen which is halfway home.  She really didn't want to leave him there.
• Jane and Emma talked to each other for a while last night once they were put in bed.
• It's game day at school today. Allen took our Hawaii Go Fish cards to play. He likes all the long Hawaiian fish names. The other kids might think they are funny names too.
• Abby has been marking the calendar each day and is very excited for her birthday tomorrow. Already this morning she has read books. done puzzles, colored a picture and played with her ponies. She plays well alone in the morning.
• The washer and dryer are both working as I type. It will be a lighter load of ironing this week.
• Ross played basketball last night. He was the key man, meaning he opened the building..
• Visiting teaching plans changed today. Looks like it's another singing/story time at the library for the babies.
• Finished Abby's video and working on preparations for tomorrow's party.

A few pictures...

Allen lost his tooth.
It was awkward for him to pose to I could see the hole in front.

Abby drew this picture.
This is our family
(Left to Right: Ross, Andrea, Abby, Allen, Jane and Emma)
and there are decorations above us.

Missing Tooth

• Allen lost his first front tooth this morning!
• A busy morning of mopping is over! Clean kitchen and bathroom floors are shining.
• Abby found more extra pages in the scrap pile to color while I do housework.
• It's really cute that whenever Ross and I are hugging/kissing and Abby is near, she wants to join in and hugs our legs and snuggles in too. We laugh every time.
• Jane and Emma got up a little early today. I left them in their clean diapers until after their breakfast mess of cereal at the table (I mentioned I mopped the floor, right? Yep, the cleanness won't last long).
• My latest thing is working on projects (indexing, stuff for primary) while watching old Remington Steele episodes. I'm on season four now.
• Allen brought home his art portfolio yesterday and taught us about the 5-point scale at Family Home Evening. We tried to play sardines (we called it seek-and-go-hide as kids) and Allen hid so well, nobody could find it. We finally just started doing scriptures-and-dessert and he came out.
• It was nice to go for a walk last night with Catherine Sawaya.
• Ross took the van to work today. Our Camry is getting a few things looked at today which means I don't have a car.

Yummy Waffles

• Waffles covered in strawberries and whipped cream, as well as bacon and scrambled eggs were the perfect dinner feast last night.
• Ross found a comic from For Better or Worse which really tickled my funny bone. So much that I fell on a bed laughing.
• Allen has an ARD meeting today at school setting new goals for next year.
• Abby, Jane and Emma will get to play with Addie today for about an hour.
• Ross woke up early today to go for a run.
• Jane and Emma are still asleep.
• Family Home Evening is tonight. Allen is teaching the lesson and Abby is in charge of the activity.

Yesterday and Today

Tidbits from...

Yesterday:
Ross -- mowed the lawn, worked out in the yard and picked up the car at the shop.
Andrea -- went garage sale hunting in the morning (finding oodles of fun new toys for great prices)
Allen -- played "pirate ship" with Abby in the toy room
Abby -- made a make-shift tent for ship (very clever how she did it on her own) and picked out a birthday bike
Jane -- propped self on tummy while playing with toys on the floor. Loved pushing around the new 50 cent xylophone.
Emma -- drool monster, but oh so cute, especially with her gruff, belly laugh.

Today:
Ross -- home teaching contacts and happy to go to 2nd and 3rd hour at church alone.
Andrea -- primary music teaching. Five journals are already written in. Making waffles for dinner.
Allen -- playing with Operation money and using a calculator to figure out all his math questions.
Abby -- found pages in scrap paper (cut-off birds, trees) and coloring them making own set of primary chorister pictures
Jane -- crazy about her new washcloth elastic pin which means longer sleeping. She also wants to carry a separate one too.
Emma -- first day of nursery today. Hooray!

And now some random pictures...

Allen and Emma were reading side by side on the couch after school.

Believe it or not, but Jane was laughing harder than she ever has before I took this. Emma was scooting around in her chair and it totally cracked Jane up.

Abby colored a few extra sheets she found and is starting to cut them out.

Emma likes wearing this soft hat sideways. She also found Abby's backpack.

Jane found a "My Little Pony" book. She is more interested in books lately.

Everyone is ready for church today!
Ross was reading the kids a book by Richard Scarry.

Oh! There's me and my curly hair for church. Sponge curlers rock.

Wanted to take a family picture with the self-timer. It works.
Ross is still reading...