Henry's Birthday and Mother's Day

Henry's birthday sometimes falls on Mother's Day and he doesn't like it. I told him I don't care so much about Mother's Day so it can just be his birthday but he still wanted to do his own thing so we pushed some birthday festivities to Saturday so he didn't have to share.

He requested a white cake with blue frosting and sprinkles. He found sprinkles that matched the color of his frosting perfectly and went to work.

He's saying "sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle."

Good work!

Who does he look more like?

Or....

Trick question. He looks most like Erica.

For dinner we had wings, macaroni and cheese, and caesar salad. Then it was time for presents and cake. He got a basketball, football and an orbeez gun, a shark squishmallow, and lots of treats and snacks. Corey and Nadine got him a BYU hoodie and blanket and he got some birthday cash from my parents. (His friend Landon is next to him.)

Then it was time for birthday cake!

The shark's name is Davy (Davy shark, do do doo do doo do do) but he changed it to Finn.

After he went to "sleep" we decorated for his birthday. It was weird not putting out the presents. He told me that he would have an easier time sleeping tonight because he won't be so excited to open presents because he already did.

Sunday morning birthday breakfast. He chose pancakes, bacon and sausage, eggs, strawberries, and chocolate milk.

Looking good getting ready for church. Justin didn't have any meetings that day so that was nice. He usually leaves when I'm still asleep and I don't really see him until I get to sacrament meeting at 1:30 then he gets home about 4:30. But this day we were together all day!

The kids gave me the curtest homemade cards. James filled out this quesetionaniare at school, Erica made this little book, Henry wrote this card.

My favorite pages from Erica's book

And they each picked out a treat they knew I'd like. (I already ate the Werther's caramels James got me before I took this picture.)

The obligatory mother's day picture. Notice how tall they are getting! Fun fact, Sarah's dress she got at an antique store in Idaho last summer. It's homemade from the 1940s and it's awesome.

My parents and Matt and Lisa joined us at church. Erica sang a solo part in the mother's day song and I about lost it. She was so nervous but she did such a great job. In relief society I sat with my mom, mother-in-law and sister-in-law. That was a nice way to spend the hour.

After church we had a mother's day/birthday bbq in our backyard. We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs (James was the only hotdog v. 22 hamburgers) and everyone else brought salads, drinks, chips and desserts. It was so delicious!

Even though we sang to him the night before, I made everyone sing to him again and had him put candles in the brownies I made. He didn't mind. He had to sit in side the house to keep the breeze from blowing out his candles.

12 Fun Facts about Henry

1. Every night when I tell him goodnight he asks me what we're going to do tomorrow. 

2. He loves to make dessert. Cookies, rice krispie treats, and frosting are his favorites.

3. His favorite classes are orchestra and PE. He plays the cello but at home he plays his cello music on the piano all. the. time.

4. He talks so much middle school slang I tell him I don't understand him. It's also fun to misuse their slang words just to drive him crazy. "That is a cap" makes him the most mad. "Take out the 'a' mom! It isn't' a cap, it's just cap." But "cap" is a noun, I insist. It's a good time.

5. He started a window washing business with Landon and he made a lot of money in a week. I don't know if they are really great window washers or if we just have kind and generous neighbors.

6. It's really hard to get him to take a normal picture.

7. I only had to wake him up twice this entire school year (he ended up staying home sick one of those times. The other time he was sick I had to talk him into staying home).

8. He is my morningest morning person. He says he just can't sleep in. He gets a little anxious if we're out late that he won't get his 10+ hours of sleep.

9. I have to be very specific when I tell him his chores and explain just what I want done. Even then he only pays attention to half of it. I've started writing things down.

10. He has a lot of friend groups and I wonder if they'll eventually merge into one. He's got his friends from his Rees elementary days that he says he sits with at lunch (they call themselves the narwhals), a couple of friends that live close by that he plays hangs out with after school, a friend that lives a few streets over that has a small group that gets together to have nerf and orbeez gun fights and play Dungeons and Dragons on Friday or Saturday nights. 

11. He would watch sports highlights on youtube all the time if I let him.

12. He is so goofy and immature but mostly a good student and has a pretty good attitude about all his new responsibilities in YMs. He takes passing the sacrament very seriously, only mildly grumbles about collecting fast offerings, and is the best garbage taker-outer after church.

May Days

Ever since James got his new bike he has been all about riding his bike to and from school. In the mornings he's a little hard to keep up with.

Erica doesn't care about going fast and would prefer I drive her but she's a good sport.

Spring runoff like we've never seen it. This is Hobble Creek and it is loud. We don't live anywhere near where the runoff will affect our house but I see sandbags all over Mapleton and Springville. I haven't heard of any damage yet but people are being very proactive about clearing the debris in the rivers and placing sandbags. Let's hope all the prep pays off.

Erica made a double chocolate smore and melted her chocolate in the microwave. I was so proud.

Our new library is finally open! The kids didn't have the greatest attitude pulling up to the new building or while walking in out of loyalty and affection for the old building across the street. All their negativity melted away when they saw the cool new book drop right inside the doors. The new library is pretty and new. I miss our old library as well but this new one has a drive up drop box and that wins me over.

 On Friday I chaperoned at the art museum during the 8th grade field trip. The kids were to find an artwork to write a poem about. I basically stood around in this room like a security guard and said "walk" twice and was asked 4 times by the kids if I worked there. 

Want to know the most interesting piece of art in this whole room? Literally every kid stopped and looked at it.

This one. I sent this photo of it to Justin and he said he liked it too.

The artist of this sculpture was in my ward growing up. Erasmo Fuentes also plays the classic guitar and he played a medley of hymns in sacrament meeting and it blew my mind. I'd never heard a classic guitar before. His wife made all the salsa for my wedding reception. AND our wedding reception was at this art museum.

Erica had her first track meet on Tuesday. She was not excited. She's not competitive and really doesn't like people watching her. I tried to be encouraging by telling her most of the day is just playing on the bleachers with your friends.

Turns out she's pretty fast. She won her heats in the 50 and 100 and qualified for the finals in the 50. Unfortunately that's as far as she made it but she decided she liked racing.

That afternoon the workers finally started digging up our old cracked and wonky patio. More details to come (because it's not done yet).

Last night Henry and Sarah had their orchestra concerts. Sarah also stayed for the high school orchestra so she was there for like 6 hours.

I went for an extra long walk this morning to avoid the construction chaos at home. It's always worth it when I can find a spectacular view of our mountain.