Graduation from Preschool

Emily's preschool had a graduation program. The class performed a few short fairy tale skits. Emily was a little black kitten in the story of "The Three little Kittens" Then they sang a spanish song Sapo the song Herman the family pet and the banana song. The teachers also gave them a little graduation bear with the year 2011. Emily promptly named this new addition to her beloved stuffed animal collection "numbers" because he has numbers on him. It was a hard for me to see Emily so sad as she said goodbye to her teachers Miss Hailey and Miss Debbie and especially her friends that she has been with the past two years. She's been coping by planning a "stuffed animal" party that she is going to invite her friends over for. Every day she comes up with something else to include in the party. She's yet to pin me down for a time for this party. I'm glad she's not to that point because I don't have the heart yet to tell her I don't have most of her friends contact information to invite them to this party.

Bathroom Be Gone

Can I tell you how excited I am to finally have my nasty bathroom remodeled. I've hated the yellow ceramic tile on the floor. The more I cleaned it the dirtier it looked. Shower doors are also my nemesis of life. As a teenager my sisters and I cleaned my Aunt Fern's house every week for a little extra cash. I despised her shower doors that enclosed the tub and grumbled through the tub cleaning which was made harder because of the shower doors. Lucky for me we bought this house with grimy shower doors on the tub. I don't think in 7 years I've cleaned my bathroom or bathed my girls without contemplating ways to get rid of them. My wish was finally granted thanks to my hard working hubby who demolished it this past weekend. After uncovering the tile Bart found a rotting sub floor. The handyman told Bart it had to come up. As Bart started ripping it up he discovered an enormous amount of nails. It's almost like someone gave a ten year old boy a bucket of nails and told him to go to town on the floor. Not a fun project but Bart, my hero, inch by inch dug up the floor.
Stay tuned for the finished project......

Star Struck

I've been on many autograph adventures with Bart but for the first time I think I have been star struck.
Last Tuesday, Bart's birthday, Bart takes the day off to chase U2. I'm finishing up at work and Bart calls and ever so carefully and nicely asks if I'd like to come and help him get U2's autograph. I having no interest in going frankly tell him "I hate wasting my time but since it is your birthday I'll go"
I head up to the UofU stadium and begin the painful process of chancing an autograph. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long because a stream of black Suburbans soon roll in. Bono, Edge and Adam get out and come over to the line of Fans seeking pictures, autographs, or just a glance at the stars. Adam and Edge were very gracious to sign and then Bono made his way up the line to me. He stopped when he got to me and turned the photo I wanted him to sign over. At this point I'm literally thinking "Oh crap he's not going to sign this photo and Bart's going to want me to ask him again later" But to my surprise he looks at me and says "You have the most beautiful smile and proceeds to sketch a portrait of me". At this point I'm frozen in shock and embarrassment as he keeps looking at me. When he asked me my name I for a moment totally forget it. After I stammer it out he says "That sounds very Irish". He finishes my portrait signs by Bono and hands it back to me.
I then notice how he proceeds to make human connections with many of the people in line. He joked with some kids who were going to their first concert that he hopes he doesn't disappoint them, he brought a girl in a wheel chair who obviously had cerebral Palsy out of the barricades got down on her level talked to her and then took a picture with her. It was very refreshing to see some genuineness in a celebrity.
So I've been star struck. Who knows maybe I'll go get one of those life sized posters of Bono and stand him up in my living room. OK so maybe not but if U2 comes back to town I'm for sure getting tickets!

Watch out Jeff

Bart has a brother who by trade is a finishing carpenter. He is very talented and can build just about anything including an amazing addition to his own house. When I picked Emily up from preschool, she was sitting at a table, glue gun in hand, with an assortment of items she'd made out of Popsicle sticks. I was amazed when her teacher told me Emily did this house all by herself. She recreated it from a book they often read. (Notice how the house stands on chicken feet, that is exactly how it is in the book. Nice touch Emily!!)
So Jeff if you would like an apprentice I know of a 5 year old who has some mad skills with a glue gun.

My mother's Day

Emily made my mother's day extra special this year. On Saturday I overheard her talking to Bart about making me breakfast. Later that day she came across a jewelry box in the garage and asked me if she could paint it. I set up her paints and left her to make dinner. A little while later she, trying really hard not to give away my present, asked me if she could "borrow" a ring from my jewelry box. She left the room only to return a short time later and handed me this beautifully painted box and told me to not open it until Mother's Day. Wow was I surprised when I opened it the next day to find one of my rings inside the box.


Early the next morning as I was waking up I heard the sound of little feet scurrying into my room. Trying to "act" asleep I soon heard them make there way back to their room. A little while later, thinking Emily had went back to sleep, I arose and as quickly as I made it out of my door Emily was stopping me asking me why I was awake. I told her I always wake up early and she said but it's mother's day and you are suppose to stay in bed because we are making you breakfast. She then added "on mother's day you aren't supposed to do anything and daddy is suppose to do everything." (Thanks to whoever instilled that into Emily's head) As I pretended to go back to sleep Emily begged Bart to get up and make me breakfast. Breakfast was great. At church Emily filled out a questionnaire about how well you know your mom. I laughed at her response to the question "what does your mom like to do" Emily said "She likes to cook, that's about all, Oh and wash dishes"

Emily always knows just what do give me for mother's day starting as a five week old she slept through the night for the first time on mother's day. Man am I lucky to be a mom to my girls!!

Hole in the Rock

For the past few years my family has been talking about going to the Hole in the Rock for Easter. Each year we've abandoned the idea for a few reasons. 1st it's located in a remote location in South Eastern Utah. 2nd there is usually a newborn infant in my family and who wants to take a newborn on a trip that requires 7-8 hours of driving on a rough road. 3rd we haven't been able to all be together for Easter in a few years.
So this year when Allyson announced she and Matt were coming for Easter and since nobody has a newborn, I told everyone we should go to the Hole in the Rock.

Why go there? Well often on a Sunday afternoon my dad would thumb through history books about our ancestors including one about how his great grandpa Wiff Pace and his brother James Pace who helped the early Mormon settlers move from Cedar City and New Harmony to Bluff Utah. After I married Bart, I learned from his Family History Buff Aunt Harriet that Bart's paternal ancestors were in the same company. Since I was fatiguely familiar with this story and the strong family ties, I was pretty excited to read the book Undaunted by Gerald Lund. After reading it I knew I wanted to go and see all these landmarks described in the book.

Our Easter started out bright and early with my mom's annual Easter Egg hunt for the grand kids. It felt like winter but the kids managed to still find the Eggs despite cold hands and cash them in with Grandma Becky. Then we all loaded up our caravan and set out for the Hole in the Rock stopping at first Dance Hall Rock (this was where the Saints camped out for a few months waiting for the Hole in the Rock to be blasted into a road). Then we stopped ate lunch at Hole in the Rock Arch. Finally we made it to the Hole in the Rock. It was an awesome sight. I couldn't help but think what kind of people would get to this break in the cliff and say "we can go down this". It's funny to think they are the same people who named the landmarks things like Devil's Garden and Hell's Backbone. (Matt pointed out how opposite it is in Hawaii where all the landmarks have heaven names) interesting huh?
After we played around at the top while the most adventurous ventured down to the bottom where it meets Lake Powell, we loaded up and made the trek back. A trek it felt like when with an hour to go Jane decided she had enough with the traveling and yelled at the top of her lungs to get out for the remainder of the trip. I'm pretty sure Matt, Ally and my mom won't be signing up to travel with us anytime soon. After Bart mentioned how miserably long the trip was I reminded him that at least we didn't have to do it in a wagon.

So much to do with the Cat & the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2

What happened when I planned my 5 year old's birthday party hoping that the weather would cooperate and it can be done in the back yard. Well it started snowing so I moved on to plan "B" and ended up with 17 kids running around in my basement. All I can say it good thing our downstairs renters moved out a week before which left a very empty basement.
Despite a change in plans the party turned out perfect. Emily and I have been planning this party for months. The inspiration came from my sister Allyson who threw a "Dr Seuss" baby shower for her sister in law. I fell in love with the invitations and committed Allyson to do some for Emily's birthday. After she hooked me up with this life sized poster of "The Cat in the hat" the ideas started to flow.


Here's the invitation Ally so nicely prepared.
The front

The back

I originally had this great idea to tape cat prints in my driveway leading to the back but due to increment weather I used them instead for decorations. For food we served Goldfish in a fishbowl, corn dogs, veggies, and my sister Brooke's Rainbow Jello that I set in clear plastic cups. Here's my basement after we set it up.




When the guests arrived they signed their name on a name tag. Then they colored hats using markers, dot paint and stickers
As the guests were finishing eating and making their hats a surprise visitor arrived. The Cat in the Hat joined the party. Bart being the best dad in the world agreed to Emily's plee to play the cat for her party. This was completely Emily's idea. A few months ago while we were shopping online at "Oriental Trading" buying party favors and things, Emily noticed a Cat in the Hat costume. She turned to me and said someone should be the cat at my party. I replied really who? Emily replied "Hmm. It would have to be someone really tall (pause) Hey I know Daddy could do it." Later when I informed Bart about this idea he asked me why I didn't immediately derail that idea to which I replied I never derail Emily's ideas. The kids just died when they saw the Cat arrive. Bart did a fantastic job!! The best part when after the games and the cat's job was done. Jane started getting fussy so the cat told everyone he needed to go and picked up Jane and headed up the stairs. One of Emily's friends was very concerned and came up to me and said "Hey you better stop him he's taking your daughter"
When the Cat arrived he sat down and read the "Cat in the Hat" book by Dr. Seuss
Then we played pin the tail on the cat.

Next we played a game where the kids each took a turn being either Thing 1 or Thing 2. Basically they had to race to pick up a mess using the thingamajig (stroller).


Thanks to my creative and smart sister in law Mary for rescuing me and making these hats using a feather boa and then gluing it on a hat. Don't you think they turned out perfect!!
We tied up the party with Emily opening her presents, singing the Happy Birthday song while Emily blew out the candles on this cake I made and then of course eating the cake.



In the middle of the party something hit Emily and she didn't feel so great. She barely made it through opening her presents and blowing out the candles and then she curled up with her new mini pillow pet on the ground until it was over. Poor girl! Later that night she told me "Although my tummy hurt I was just so happy to be part of the party.
As the guests left we gave out a bag of party favors which included a swirly lollipop, Dr. Seuss pencil, bookmark, fish notepad, and cat in the hat stickers.


PS. I need to send a special thank you out to Google for supplying me with most of the ideas for the party. Life is so much easier with google around!

PPS: If anyone has a need to throw a cat in the hat party come my way. I have a whole box full of decorations, games, and some left over party favors.