Mike's birthday

January included Michelangelo's birthday. My brother and our brother-in-law have birthdays really close to his, so I decided to have our own celebration at our house the day of his birthday. Monkey decorated with crepe paper and we invited some family to come over. It was small and simple but I think Michelangelo really enjoyed it. We had a great time.

I was working at my first long-term substitute job at the time, so poor Michelangelo had to go grab his birthday cake. He ran into one of our high school kids from our Sunday School class working at the bakery and decided to not tell her that the cake was for him. He picked up some icing instead. I loved it because I could put whatever I wanted. Captain Awesome is a character on a TV show we used to enjoy watching. ;) Michelangelo is my Captain Awesome.

Boo tried to blow out the candles. This is when we lighted them again and told her to let Daddy do it. She's having a bit of a hard time with that. Needless to say Michelangelo let her help blow out the candles with him.

 Our favorite things to do with Daddy:

• Monkey: Practice soccer with him. He is the best soccer player in the world!
• Bug: Go to Daddy's studio to draw and eat
• Boo: "Daddy my best friend."
  
• Vee: Dancing, teaching the 16 and 17 year olds with you at church, watching Downton Abby and Psych together, going to the theater and going to the park with you and the girls.

In other news. Bug lost her first tooth that day. Sorry you can't see it the tooth behind it was practically already grown in. I was also growing out her bangs before a miscommunication happened and they got chopped. So we will try again.

The sun came out!

And my allergies were being tame. Hooray!
Our neighbors invited us over to play and plant flowers.

Such a beautiful day!

The weekend festivities

This weekend was so fun. I got to go with Monkey's class to Red Butte Gardens. That was a fun trip. I haven't been there since I was little. It was beautiful. Monkey's teacher brought a container of ladybugs and the kids had a blast letting them go. I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my oldest.

Michelangelo had a lot going on this weekend. He was in charge of curating an exhibit at our local art center. He did life drawing sketches collected from art professors he has come in contact including Dean Keller who passed away in 2006. It was to educate the community about the importance of learning to draw the figure in order to create quality art. There were sketches from professors from BYU, U of U, BYU-I, SLCC, Lyme Academy of Fine Art and some of his own to show the progression of what an art education can produce. There were a lot of late nights, but it was beautifully done.

For the past 7 or 8 years our city has done a Chalk Art Festival. It such a great community event to see all kinds of artists come out and create such beautiful pieces of work.

The weather was great and didn't rain on the finished paintings.
Michelangelo did a quick drawing of Boo's pouty face taken from this picture. I think it turned out awesome. Boo loved seeing the "baby".

They also have a spot for the kids to create their own artwork. It's Monkey's and Bug's favorite. They had been talking about going to draw with chalk all week.

Monkey drew a blue bird with a girl and a sunset. All my pictures of the finished product have my shadow covering it so your just going to have to believe me.

This is Bug's drawing of a girl with a butterfly net on a hill and a bird flying above.
Boo wanted to get right in there but it was causing problems. Here she is on her side of the sidewalk with Daddy. She is definitely his daughter. Look at those faces. I love those faces!