Most Relaxing Day Ever

So this week is my best bud, Tina's, birthday and she wanted to have a girls day at the beach. Seriously, I could not argue with her on that one. And I'm wondering why we never thought to do this before. It was amazing. The weather was awesome, the company was great, and the food was amazing (thanks to Lauren's mouthwatering panini's). I brought a book to read, but never even pulled it out of my bag. I mostly just laid around and enjoyed the ability to close my eyes and not have to do anything for anyone. We were pretty much gone the entire day (from about 11-9pm).  Who knows when we will get to do something like this again, so I made sure to doubly enjoy it. Even when all my friends were gabbering away, I just laid there like a bump on a log. It was awesome! 

And I have to say a great big huge thanks to my amazing husband who wrangled the kids all day. He even took them to our pool and over to a friends house for a BBQ in the backyard. He's one awesome guy! 

Like kids in a candy shop. Seriously you don't even have to see Tina's face to know she's in heaven!

That's my girl! LOL

They're gonna hate me for posting this, but I thought it was hilarious.

And yes I got made fun of for constantly re-applying sunscreen, but hey....I didn't get burnt! 

Character Matters

Ashlyn's class put on the very cutest 3rd grade play ever today. They have literally been working on it ALL year and they did a fabulous job. It was all about the fairy tale characters and how they basically needed to "choose the right". For example, "Goldilocks" should be honest (and not go into someone else's house without permission). "Humpty Dumpty" should take responsibility (for breaking his own egg and not blame other people). "The big bad wolf" should be kind, etc. You get the point. Anyway, Ashlyn being the shy girl that she is didn't want a part, but she was in the chorus and did a very nice job. I'm glad her teacher had her get up on the stage at the beginning to sing. I know it pained her, but it's good for her to break out of her shell a little bit from time to time. I had to all the time as a kid. I still remember my mom giving me money to go get a piece of candy from the store. Even though she was in the store with me, she made me give it to the cashier myself. It was the hardest thing ever for me (seems silly now). But it did help me get over my fear.

Ok, so you see Ashlyn. Bottom left, front row. Notice how she has her head turned to the side? It's not because she was watching what someone was doing. No one was doing anything. The kids were all just singing. Ashlyn just couldn't bring herself to look out in to the audience. Bless her little heart. I'm proud of her for even being brave enough to get on the stage. I know it wasn't easy for her. 

But look at the sweet adorable face?! Who couldn't love that smile?

Love that Leah

This morning while fixing Leah's hair I commented to her about how big she was getting and that before I know it, she'll be all grown and moving out. She just looked at me all exasperated and with big arms said, "OH MOM, the temple says we will be a FOREVER family!" (So in other words "quit worrying mom".) Boy do I love that little ball of energy. She's the kind of kid where you think she's never listening to you during Family Home Evening, but then she'll give the sweetest most thought felt prayer. I'm a lucky mom!  (Even though Brandon jumped on his brother yesterday on the trampoline and then swung him so hard he fell out of the swing. But that's a whole other story. For now, I am trying to focus on the positive.)

Back to Leah. This girl LOVES her friends. These are two of her best school buds. From left to right is Leah S. (as she is called at school), Gracie and Leah P. (yup two Leah's in the same class). 

Then during swim lessons yesterday (where there was also another Leah in her class. I seriously didn't know I was picking such a popular name when I named her.) I heard her cheering for her friend to jump off the high dive. I wish I could have gotten my phone ready fast enough to record it, but since I didn't, this is how it went. Leah jumped off first and then swam to the side. Her friend, Leah, was next but was a little nervous. So I hear Leah yelling to her, "You can do it Leah!! You can do it. I'm down here waiting for you." 

How such a sweet girl grew out of such a difficult toddler is beyond me. But I sure am grateful!

Summer is coming

We got lucky this year and got in to early swim lessons at the very last minute. I actually signed the girls up in February, but only got on the wait list. I had given up hope on getting in because I never heard anything. But then, fifteen minutes before the first class was to start I got a call. I'm glad I answered it because my caller ID just said "Santa Clarita" on it and I don't usually answer strange numbers. Anyway, I answered it, the lady asked me if I was still interested and could I get here for class. I said YES! Hung up the phone and yelled to the girls to get their swim suits on. They were a bit confused, but I told them I'd explain in the car, but that right now they needed to hussle. Miraculously we made it just in time. The girls were so excited!

I'm especially glad they got in because we are heading to FLORIDA in two short weeks and I'm sure we'll be swimming a bunch. This will be a good refresher for them since neither one of them have been in the pool much since last September.

Me and Brandon have been hanging out in the backyard a lot during Carter's nap time. The weather is so nice and starting to warm up. One day I was a bit tired, so I just laid down right on the grass and relaxed in the sun while Brandon ran and played around me. It was glorious. 

I guess we pretty much go to the park year round, but it's super nice right now and the kids always love going with friends and cousins.

And lastly, here is Brandon doing some mean power ranger moves for me. This kid is hilarious. Reminds me of my brother actually. He was always doing crazy karate and sword fighting moves on us. It's probably just a boy thing, but as long as no one gets hit, I'm fine with it. 

While the girls were away...

with their Dad for the day, we had a little bit of boy type fun around here. Brandon had me take pictures of snails, we made some big splashes in the water from the rain the night before, and we of course played swords and guns and build a tower or two. Plus I got some good errands ran with only two kids in tow all day. 

Take your kid to work day

This a big event around here. Dreamworks goes all out and hosts an awesome day for the kids. Complete with movie characters, art classes, screenings of movies, acting out motion capture, lunch, etc. The girls were SO excited to spend the day at work with their Dad! Leah got to join in the fun this year as well. Ashlyn wasn't thrilled about it, but she cooperated anyway. 

Here are some of the many pictures Paul took. I guess he took me seriously when I told him to make sure he got lots of pictures.

And when I called in to the girls school to tell the office they would be at "Take your kid to work day", the office manager said she wished she could go too...I told her I did too! Those are some lucky girls.

Bees

So I'm telling ya April was the month of "Does it really pay to own your own home?" We had lots of "fun" money suckers. One of them being a swarm of bees that decided to begin to take residence in the rafters of my roof. Here's how it began. 

On Tuesday the kids were playing outside when Ashlyn complained of bees and ran in. I didn't think much of it because seriously if the girl sees ONE bee or bug or ant, she's inside. It doesn't take much for her. The next day, while I was outside with Brandon, I hear a bunch of buzzing. I thought it was kind of strange so I tried to find the source. I looked all around and then I looked up. That's when I saw them. At least 50 bees buzzing up above my head. AHH!!! I grabbed Brandon and ran inside. I immediately called my pest control service who told me they couldn't come out until Friday. SO, for the next couple of days I watched as more and more bees (we're talking hundreds, and I'm not exaggerating) came to my backyard. By Friday I was counting the minutes until my pest control company was to arrive. They got to my house about noon, were here for five minutes, just long enough to tell me I needed to call a professional bee removal service and then left! I was like.....uh, what?! I thought, great, now I'm gonna have these bees in my backyard until at least Monday and who knows how much more damage they are gonna do by then. So I jumped on the computer to find a bee removal service. The first one I clicked on said "SAME DAY SERVICE". I was sold. I called them up, they came over about 5 hours later, and told me they had good news. Yay. He said the bees were still just swarming, and yet to build their hive, so it would only be about 1/4 of what it would cost if I had waited another week or so. They got their bee suit out and their nice tall ladder and proceeded to suck the live bees into a bucket. Apparently, they sell them to beekeepers. I thought that was pretty cool since bees are helpful little creatures. Just not in my backyard. They drilled holes in the side of the house, pumped some serious chemicals in there to kill any remaining bees (otherwise more will come back) and sealed up all the holes. They were done and cleaned up in about an hour. I was SO glad. So that, was that. He told me to keep an eye out for anymore because there is a small chance they can come back. Trust me, I look up there every day! 

My pictures aren't too great, but I had to get a couple shots of the guy all decked out in his bee suit. 

These were taken from my upstairs bedroom window.