24th of July (a bit late)

I'm quite behind in my blogging, so I've decided to work backwards. I'll document some highlights of our summer vacations starting with the 24th of July in Salt Lake City. We got tickets to The Days of '47 Parade and we all had a fantastic time. The kids loved the horses, the marching bands, the beautiful floats and the "pretty princesses".

Emi, James and Clara sportin' their shades as they watch the parade from the bleachers.

Dad, Mom and James....We LOVE visiting Utah and watching the parade!

This was our favorite float! We were a little partial simply because my Dad was in charge of building this float (that's my Dad walking in front of the float). It was a giant ship, and everything covering this float was donated to the church humanitarian center. It's covered with colorful quilts that people in my parents' stake made, and the waves are made of socks...that were also donated. Even the wooden ship frame was donated to a local park. Pretty cool! My Dad put forth a TON of work organizing and building this float, and it looked great! The kids loved seeing grandpa walk in the parade!

After the parade, we walked around temple square and took some pics. It was a beautiful, HOT, dry day.............ahhhhh! Summer in Utah!

The evening of the 24th, we drove up to 'This is the Place' monument to show the kids where the pioneers first entered the Salt Lake City Valley. It was fun celebrating a "Utah holiday". It's still strange living in CT when the 24th of July rolls around each year. I still think "Gee, how come no one's celebrating?" :) We had a wonderful trip to Utah, and thoroughly enjoyed visiting family and friends!

Happy Birthday James!

James is THREE! We had a great day complete with birthday decorations, pancakes on the "You are special today" plate, a bike ride to the park, washing the car (a.k.a. playing with the hose), a trip to the library, swimming at the pool, James' dinner of choice (hot dogs, salad, chips and "root beard") and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! What a day!

James was so cute today on his special day. He would sing "happy birthday to me" throughout the day, and whenever someone would wish him happy birthday, he would reply "tank you, I tree".

Emi and Clara were equally thrilled that there was a birthday to celebrate. They helped color birthday signs to decorate the dining room, and they were sure to give lots of extra hugs and kisses to the birthday boy. During morning and evening prayers, the girls expressed their thanks "for such a wonderful little brother" and that "we could celebrate James' special birthday." How sweet!!

Gifts from sisters, mom & dad and two sets of good friends delivered little gifts today....what fun!



James LOVES planes, trucks, diggers, tractors, buses etc. He received several matchbox planes and trucks.....and he immediately began pretending with them.

"Blow out the candles on your cake and make a wish......" Happy Birthday buddy, we love you!

School Pics

I always look forward to early June because that is when my kids get their b&w school pictures!

This Week

I have nothing new and exciting to post....but it's been two weeks, so I need to update! During the past two weeks, I have been absolutely obsessed with trying to find the right paint color to paint the exterior of our home. The people at Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore seriously know me on a first name basis and they just laugh when I walk in the door of their store! I have 10 quarts of sample paint in my garage and every surface of the shed in my yard is painted in all 10 of those colors! The good news is that I'm really close to finding the perfect color! The new windows go in this Tuesday and the painter is scheduled to begin after that.....I'm so nervous! I hope it turns out okay!

Here are just a couple of pics from this past week. Hopefully we'll have a few more sunny days this week! To quote James "It's not a beautiful day.....again!"

James and Clara pretending. Here, they were making a 'secret little house' under the bathroom counter. Another favorite pretending game is airport!

Emi's second grade class hosted an 'author's tea' this week. All the parents come for tea - or lemonade :), cookies, finger sandwiches and most importantly, to listen to the kids read their original work! Very cute.

Our neighbor passed this little bike down to James. I went and bought a set of training wheels and now James is on his way! He's very excited about his big boy bike.

Dance Recital

This week has been all about dancing. Emi has been taking a jazz class this year, and Clara has been taking tap at Terpsichore Dance Studio in Simsbury. Both of the girls have loved their dance classes and have been eagerly anticipating the year-end recital. We have spent many hours this week at dance classes, dress rehearsals and two weekend performances. The show was held at Kingswood Oxford (a private school in West Hartford). Emi and Clara both did an awesome job! They were so cute and they had so much fun! Emi commented that she could hardly wait for dance to start again in the fall, and Clara exclaimed that she loved to dance with all of her new friends! (The cute thing is that "all of her new friends" are teenagers!) The "big girls" are sooo great about watching over and helping all of the little dancers. Several of the girls have really taken to Clara, and they are all now buddies!

The girls had to be "on stage" about two hours before the actual performance began. So after dropping them off, Jim and I took advantage of being across the street from Blue Back Square and we grabbed dinner (and dessert!) at one of my favorite spots....The Cheesecake Factory. There's nothing better than date-night dinner AND afterwards watching your kids perform on stage. What a fun night!

Below are a few pics from Friday and Saturday night. This video is really poor quality (it's just from my camera...which was low on batteries) but it shows the first part of Clara's dance. Clara is the platinum blonde :) wearing a blue shirt and pink skirt. I love her poses!

Emi and Clara striking a pose on stage during intermission.

Pre-show prep. Riding scooters with curlers in their hair! Just a little tip....don't try to apply mascara to your five year olds eye lashes. It's not worth the drama! :)

It's very tricky to get a somewhat clear pic when dancers are moving all about on the stage! Emi's in the middle about to do a hop of some sort!

The girls posing during intermission with Piglet - one of the main characters of the show and one of their dearest friends!

Happy Memorial Day!

I can definitely say that living in Connecticut has heightened my awareness of patriotism. It's New England, the birthplace of the American Revolution and CT is known as the "Constitution State". People here are very patriotic and there is a great respect and reverence for veterans and the brave men and women who are currently in the armed forces.

Memorial Day is a big deal! There are picnics (complete with historical and patriotic programs), lots of little league baseball games and many towns have parades. Simsbury is no exception. The veterans, firemen, police force, brownie troops, cheerleaders, HS band and little league teams all march in the parade. There are old restored cars too. The people line either side of historic main street and wave flags and cheer as the parade passes by. Our town puts on a GREAT parade every Memorial day.

Waiting for the parade to begin.....it was a beautiful sun-shiny day! James and Clara were both happy to spot both of their preschool teachers marching in the parade!

James loved the "fife and drum corps"! For the rest of the day he was saying "Me play drums!"

Emi is in the middle waving. This is her brownie troop marching in the parade. She looks forward to it every year!

Mothers Day

My kids were so excited for Mothers Day, it was just too cute! I must say it was a wonderful day from start to finish. The goodies were amazing! Jim and the kids baked homemade cinnamon rolls and eggs for breakfast and the day ended with a homemade hot fudge ice cream pie....made by my awesome husband! I came downstairs this morning to find the dining room decorated with flowers, cards and lots of cute pictures drawn by my little artists. The girls loved going out with Dad to shop for little Mothers Day gifts and James loved helping me open the gifts :) I've included a pic of James and his tow-truck. He's enjoyed many happy hours recently playing with trucks and diggers!

After church this afternoon, we as a family delivered these Mothers Day gifts to a local nursing home. Throughout the week, Emi, Clara and I made these pretty tissue paper flowers. It was a really neat experience to deliver them today. The kids were wonderful about talking with all the different "grandmas". It was so sweet to see these cute old ladies just light up when the kids walked in their room and give them a flower. It was a highlight of the day!