Extracurricular Activities…

So a few weeks ago, we were just thinking that since Paul had to do some work in the southern part of the state, perhaps we could get to St. George via California instead of the normal way of just driving down south.  To top it off, since young Mr. Cael is only 4 and not yet a part of the public school system, we opted to bring him as our enthusiastic/enduring/endearing traveling companion!  That means that we are now either the lamest parents ever, or the coolest parents ever—depends on which kid  you happen to chat with… 

Mr. Toad is simply gleeful to have me and Cael there to pose with him, and in case you’re curious, Mr. Cael is a BIG fan of Mr. Toad and I am completely and seriously serious!  A genuine fan, thanks to clips on Youtube and super DVD’s from the library when I can find them—just curious, does your 4-year-old ask you to sing the song from Mr. Toad when it is tooth-brushing time?  Yeah, he’s that kind of fan...

The boys in blue are all about the celebrating… celebrating the rides, the fun, maybe the fact that they saw a Solid Gold Dancer!  Because the full-length black spandex, the hot pink tube-top, and the shiny gold sandals had to be a costume, I’m pretty sure?  Although if you begged the question  “who wears short-shorts?”  At Disneyland in May, that would have to be a solid 9 out 10 ladies, and let’s just say that Martha Stewart would not have called it a “good thing”. …

There are so many things to learn, see, and think about on a tour of Storybook Land, like why the family in front of us in one of the lines had a mom with tattoos of her daughter’s names (I’m assuming) on her shoulder blades “Isabella” and “Breanna”.  We had a good 15 minutes to study this before dad showed up with the similarly-fonted tattoos on his forearms;  yes, the font was the same, “Isabella” was the same, but poor “Breanna” became “Brianna” on dad’s arm.  Uuh, oops…typos on tattoos, not so good…

Sometime I will post about Cael’s adoration of the letter “H”—again, I am totally serious, as is he, and hey look, it’s an “H”!!  (For the record, this H is not from our hotel, I don’t know that Priceline offers Disney properties, hmm)…

Dad and Cael so ready to take flight…

The other Goff’s didn’t do too shabby themselves—they totally pumped up the party with Uncle Allen and Aunt Jessica and the cousins with delicious dinner from The Pie, magic smoothies from their magic blender, intense rounds of Disney Scene-It, special and wonderful Ratatouille muffins—so puhlease,who needs mom and dad??  The dad/mom/Cael SoCal special was a quickie, and upon our return, it was dance recital time and the girlies danced beautifully (thanks for the hair-do’s, Aunt Jessica)…

Miss Kylie getting ready to hustle her bustle…

Miss Morgan and our cute friend, Taylor, downtown Salt Lake City at the Conference Center for Temple Celebration rehearsal—it’s been a lot of work and it is so grand to see the plan coming together…

Miss Kendell playing the field…

 

Cael making a friend and running in circles (developing a young and deep love for geometry, perhaps?) at Kendell’s softball game (we’re on the 1 soccer game plus 2 softball games each and every Saturday program for a few more weeks)…

Cute cousins celebrating the May birthdays…

Time to bring out the water slide--we’ve got to make the most of these delightful 80 degree days…

And last, but not least, tutu-mania!!   Morgan had big fun playing the integral role of “Moth” in the 6th grade production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsomer’s Night Dream”—Moth, Mustard Seed, Cob Web, and the other delightful fairies worked in such harmony!  Embarrassingly enough, my only previous experience with this particular production was from a potentially racy episode of “8 is Enough” where Joanie was in an extremely “artistic” version of this play and opted to perform au natural without the knowledge of her dad, Tom Bradford, who figured this all out when he brought his date, Abby (their future stepmom) to see this fine bit of community theater and support his “free-spirited daughter.”  It must have turned out okay, because eight IS enough to fill our hearts with love… 

The Mostly Good, with just a touch of The Not So Much…

Can I tell you something that is so fantastic??  Being the mother of a middle school ceramicist, that’s what!!  And not just your typical, run of the mill “I’m taking ceramics in jr. high because I’ve already taken music appreciation” kind of teen, but the awesome kind that makes his mom her very own orange/ striped mug WITH a handy handle as a super Spring surprise—thanks, Curtis!!

Also on the good list:  4 out of 5 kids with their Easter smiles (the non-smiler could not keep that plastic egg away from his mouth, but I’m sure he was smiling on the inside) with the weeping cherry tree in full bloom—that was some sweet coordination on Mother Nature’s part with Easter occurring during the one week that the tree spends in its blossomy splendor…

Okay, this is on the not so good list, but props on the multi-tasking, with Scene It, Scrabble, and 5 rolls of paper towels going on at the same time?!  This is what I get for thinking I can do the eliptical upstairs with the door open as to “hear” the goings-on down below…

Back to the good—mmm, tasty good Red Velvet Cake!!  This was the first that I’ve delved into the wonderful world of red velvet deliciousness, and it will not be the last…

Wait a sec, more BAD!!  In the interest of full disclosure, 90% of the damage had already been cleaned up prior to this shot taking place, just so we’re really, really clear.  The boys are always looking for new adventures, and apparently new snacks…Again I was eliptical-ing, more confidently because of the locking latches my sweet husband installed on the pantry and the hall closet doors.  While the latches up high near the top of the doors work great when they are in the proper locked position, they lose all effectiveness when little boys figure out how to move bar stools right up to the door so they can reach  the latch and then get to all of the magical things inside and disperse said magical things all over the carpet…

Oh yes, GOOD!!  Kylie’s room is now a fresh and lovely shade of robin’s egg blue (and as a bonus, I have finally been able to get that fresh and lovely shade of blue out of my hair, where it did not look so great—it was only on the left side, and now it is completely not there at all—whew)…

Hallelujah, it’s more good!!  Kylie’s fantastic report on servals!!  What is a serval, you ask?  Why, it is a small wild cat found in Africa, and also in this diorama in Kylie’s classroom…

Ugh.  Yes, ugh.  That’s all I can say.  Ugh, and ziploc baggies.  The very same ziplocs that I had the boys use to contain the morsels from the last incident (most went into the garbage, but I did want the boys to help clean up their “mess”  and why did I put these bags full of chocolate chips BACK into the pantry?  I don’t know, it was so great to clean it up the first time I guess, and we do still have bar stools ??)  Did you notice that they worked a new game into the mix here—one that was not in the LOCKED hall closet, just trying to keep things fresh…

Good stuff again, Morgan and Kendell getting ready to dance like nobody’s watching, except there WILL be people watching them move and groove to the sounds of Miley Cyrus this weekend at their competition at the one and only LAGOON…

Brothers playing croquet, of course that’s totally good…

Our exotic cat, Zeke, checking out the seasonal flora, again good…

TOTALLY GOOD!!  OUR VERY BEST TULIP YEAR EVER ,EVER, EVER!!   (I am quite fond of the tulips…)

And teeth, I am also fond of teeth, and am thankful to have them.  Teeth fall into the category of “good”…

A Boy and his Birthday…

Question:

What do the songs “Breathe” by Faith Hill, “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners (I think that’s their name, and the song is “Come On, Irene” if you happen to be my husband), and something about a “Valentine” by LeAnn Rimes, all have in common??

If you guessed that these sweet tunes working together in sweet harmony would make for the ideal soundtrack at the birthday celebration of an exuberant 4-year-old boy, you’d be exactly right!!

View Full Album

The great thing about having a fun boy turning 4 is that it doesn’t take a whole lot to absolutely thrill him—a couple of pizzas at the park with a Buzz Lightyear kite and we’re set!!  Then to top it off, “take your work to the park mom” brought her laptop (but not her headphones) and did some karioke for us with her best songs—we got dinner AND a concert, bonus!!  Her kids wanted to play their DS’s, but laptop mom said they needed fresh air, so no electronics for them, and she needed to concentrate (on her singing?) –true multi-tasking at its best!!

**Note to self, next time I get Cael some b-day duds (on sale, of course) with the intention of having each item be worn with something else that actually matches, go ahead and just get things that match together, like an outfit.  New b-day duds must be worn together, it’s a basic Cael rule, so now I know (and knowing’s half the battle)…

After MUCH Technical Support…

Could this truly be working for me??

Could the fabulous Windows Live Writer be something that I can actually use??

**Hooray**

Happy Birthday to Cael!!

There is never a dull moment with Mr. Cael here, and now our #5 is officially 4 and is he ever pumped for "cake and presents for my birthday"...

Love this kid, whether in a state of self-imposed silence, or deep, deep thinking, he's quite a guy...

The other day I picked him up off of the couch and asked him, "Are you my Baby Cael?" He gave me a slightly perturbed looked and promptly replied, "No--I am 'Big One' Cael!"

What can I say--he speaks the truth...

The Incredible, Edible Egg...

Easter Eve started out "eggs" tra special with our ward's very first Easter Egg Hunt at our building's new outdoor pavillion--we had clouds but no morning rain, hooray for us!! Kylie scored an awesome red dinosaur head egg, Curtis continued to lament the fact that we actually used up the bag of sweet-tart jelly beans to fill the plastic eggs with instead of keeping them all at home for him to eat--too bad, so sad. It was a delightful little event and Curtis knows he would rock in a 14-years-old and older category next year...
You know Spring has sprung when the leader of the pack gets the backyard projects underway--the dahlia's are going to love their new Paul-installed dripline...

Of course, the eggs must be dyed!! 5 bowls of color seemed to work well for the 5 egg-dyers...

Ooohh, eeeggggss...

For the record, the nearly-red egg is the sole property of Cael and he most certainly will not be relinquishing said egg, and under no circumstances should you challenge him on this or even think otherwise...

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU!!

Marchtastic!!

Here's the rundown--March is such a lovely month, and an especially lovely month if you happen to be a girl with a birthday (that's me), an anniversary (also me), and the birthdays of lots of other delightful personal faves..March is definitely a good time to be me!! This year, we even had a few days where it wasn't totally snowing--bonus!!

Uncle Jens came through town, always a niece (and nephew) fave--especially when he sports Gramma Jan's complete favorite shirt (she may not actually agree with that last statement there)...

Kylie got baptized!! She has been looking forward to this special day (one that was even Spring-like) for years!! She opted for the low ponytails in the hope that they would not float up in the water when her dad baptized her--great choice for Ky with both the hair and getting baptized as the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (in our family, at least)...

Mom and Ky in the dressing room ( I promise I'm not actually up to anything here). When I met her to get her changed out of her wet clothes, the first thing she said was, "THAT WAS AWESOME!! Can I do it again??" And now, she really feels like she's eight--and hey, it's great to be eight!!

This is a whew, I can't believe it and I am so thankful--our darling Gramma Jan flew down for Kylie's special day and rented a car that she drove to visit her sister. Morgan, Kendell, and Kylie tagged along, as did a Nintendo DS. The DS in question was not realized to be missing until Gramma Jan had turned in the car and flown all the way back to the Evergreen State. After some very sickish feelings in some stomachs, an answering machine message to Hertz Rental cars, not to mention some prayers and preparation to learn a very expensive lesson, we were shocked to get a call this morning to let us know they had the item in question and we could come pick it up!! Paul, the all-star dad brought the DS home, and hopefully it will just STAY there...(thanks Hertz!!)