7 Years Old!!

Isaac turned 7 on Thursday. The day started off with a breakfast of his choice (waffles with strawberries and whipped cream) on the red plate. Then we headed off for swim lessons. After swim lessons we picked Grandma and Grandpa Hoyle up from the airport. Isaac was excited that they were able to come on his birthday! When we got home, he opened his presents. Then he spent the rest of the afternoon playing "Puzzle Quest", a PC game that Grandma and Grandpa gave him. Then Grandma and Grandpa treated us to dinner at Gattitown. Because it was Isaac's birthday, I even paid for him to get his face painted (Noah didn't want his face painted). I think it looked pretty cool, but it scared Emma to death! She kept saying, "I don't like it." I finally convinced her that it was just a "picture" on his face, but she still wasn't very happy about it. He sure was, though!


Then yesterday, we had Isaac's "Webkinz" birthday party. There were 12 boys in all (including Isaac and Noah).

The boys played games, ate pizza and cupcakes, wacked a pinata, tossed water balloons and played on the water slide. I think the guests had a good time, and Isaac had a good time, too (for the most part).

You may be wondering what I mean by "for the most part". Well, it all started out great. Then after Isaac blew out the candle on his cupcake (a #7 candle), he asked if he could lick the frosting off the bottom of the candle. I said, "of course". Well, I guess he bit part of the candle off, thinking it was frosting, and when he realized what he had done he FREAKED out! I tried to convince him that the wax wouldn't hurt him, but Isaac is hard to convince when he has something in his head. He said his stomach hurt really bad (and I'm sure it did because he was so nervous about the wax). It took a little while, but I finally convinced him to stop crying and open his presents. That cheered him up quite a bit. Then it was time to play outside. That also started out great, but then Isaac got hit in the back with a water balloon and it was all downhill from there. He cried about his back hurting. Then he got really nervous that the water slide was so crowded. He kept saying, "I'm not used to this. I don't think this is working. The line is too long. You need to think of something different, Mom." The whole thing was just too much for him to handle. Luckily, the other boys seemed pretty oblivious to Isaac's whiny fit, and kept on playing and having a great time. Isaac, on the other hand, looked like this:

It was pretty frustrating for me (after all the work I put into his party), but I handled it pretty well (no tears). Oh well, I'm not doing birthday parties for my kids next year, so hopefully I'll have time to recover and regain my enthusiasm... Maybe...

Noah's Quote(s) of the Day

"Heavenly Father and Jesus made my eyes. And they made my arms, and body, and legs, and they made my butt."

"Mom, when I marry you in the temple, I'm going to wear my Jedi costume."

Hubbard's Visit

Grandma Hubbard came to visit last weekend. We all had a nice time with her. Emma was so funny because she wouldn't call her "Grandma Hubbard", instead she just called her "Hubbard". She would say, "I want Hubbard" or "I love my Hubbard" or "Where's Hubbard?". Funny girl!

Random

Emma is really into Blue's Clues right now. And apparently the TV is either: a) too small or b) too far away. :)

Now, that's what I call a Bubble Bath. Bathtub with jets + bubblebath = crazy amount of bubbles!


The local spray park is lots of fun, but it's not fun when your 2 year old refuses to leave, runs the other direction, and you are forced to run after her (while holding towels, diaper bag, snacks water, etc.) and carry her thrashing, screaming self back to the car (while still holding all the other stuff and trying really hard not to cry yourself). It's also not fun when your 4 year old throws himself down on the wood chips, knocking his shoe off in the process, and a random dad at the park feels so bad for the poor screaming kid who can't get his shoe back on, that he kindly helps him (while you pretend you've never seen the kid before). Oh, and it's also not fun when your 7 year old is entirely bored after 10 minutes.

Swim lessons continue.

Noah is doing great. He seems to enjoy his lessons.

Emma is doing much better at hanging out by the side of the pool than I expected she would.

I think Isaac's face (in the above picture) pretty much explains how things are going for him. He did really well the first few days last week, but then when his teacher started expecting him to actually swim (without a floatie of some sort), he started to freak out. Today he tried his best, but he's just so scared. It's frustrating for me, because I REALLY want him to learn to swim! I've tried rewards, punishments, being understanding, being mean, and pretty much everything else in the world, but nothing seems to work. GRRRR!

Happy Father's Day?

Well, David's Father's Day didn't go exactly as he might have hoped. He hurt his back on Saturday (playing with the kids - ironically). It hurt really bad yesterday. It helped a little to put Icy Hot on it, but he still couldn't sit for very long without having to lie down. He couldn't even make it through Sacrament Meeting without having to lie down. So, when Sacrament Meeting was over, we went home. Later he got a blessing from our Home Teacher and the Elder's Quorum President. It's actually feeling a lot better today, but he took the day off anyway so he can rest it some more.

Anyway, I was very bad and didn't take a single picture on Father's Day. :( I meant to get one of David and the kids, but I just never did it. I was good wife, though, and made him a yummy breakfast and dinner. For breakfast he requested a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (which, by the way, looks like a great place to get recipes). It's called the Sleepin' in Omelette. It was really good and very flavorful (although, if you decide to try the recipe, I recommend using only 1 stick of butter and 4 oz of cream cheese). It was VERY rich and filling.

I'm so grateful that David is such a great dad to our kids. I hope he felt appreciated and loved on Father's Day, because he deserves it!

Today is not my day...

Today is one of those days where I feel like giving up on trying to do fun things with my kids. It's just too frustrating. I don't think I have it in me to be a good mom. I think I'll become a hermit, never leave my house, put my kids in front of the tv all day and just play on the computer or sleep. Do you ever feel that way? Maybe it's just me...

Bad Parent Moment

Here's a random bad parent moment for your enjoyment...

So, something happened about a week and a half ago that made me feel like the most negligent parent on earth. I was making dinner and the kids were playing upstairs. Suddenly I heard Emma screaming. I dropped what I was doing and ran upstairs. She was laying on the floor crying and Isaac told me he had thrown a pillow at her, and it knocked her over into the shelf that holds our DVDs. So, I picked her up and looked at her to make sure she was OK. Obviously I didn't look in the right place, because I thought she was fine, and I went back downstairs to finish making dinner. Then our family ate dinner together. After dinner as I starting to load the dishwasher, Emma walked past me and I reached down to touch her head, and realized there was something in her hair. When I looked down, I saw that her head was COVERED in blood. There was dried blood all over her scalp and down her hair. There were even blood drops all over the back of her shirt. I knew immediately that it was from her "injury" while I was making dinner. But seriously, there was a ton of blood on her hair, and neither David or I had noticed. That's pretty bad. Of course, I freaked out! There was so much blood that it was impossible to see where the actual injury was, so we rushed her up to the bath. It was so sad how much blood ran down the drain, and it took me 3 times of washing her hair (very carefully) to finally see how big (or should I say small?) the cut was. It was a tiny little cut. I've heard before that heads bleed like crazy, and that's no joke! I can't believe that much blood came out of one tiny little cut! I still feel bad that my baby had blood oozing out of her head for about an hour before I noticed, though! Anyway, here's a picture of her small little scab (as it looks today).

Swim Lessons

Today was the first day of swim lessons for Isaac and Noah. Both boys did really well, which makes me VERY happy! Isaac's lessons last year were a complete failure, since he was too scared to get in the water half the time. Today he got right in and did everything his teacher asked him to do (with a smile on his face, I might add). Yay! Noah was a little hesitant and whiny, but that's more because he was not familiar with the teacher or the pool yet. I think (hope) that won't last for long.

I've also been really worried that Emma would throw a huge fit and want to get in the water with her brothers. When the boys put their trunks on this morning she said, "I want to wear my swim "soup" [suit] too!" But when we got there she was fine. Good girl!

Now the three of them just have to repeat the good behavior Monday-Thursday for the next 4 weeks! :)

Toothless!

Isaac yanked out both of his two front teeth yesterday! Now every time I look at him, I can't help laughing. :)

Shut those books and throw 'em away...

And say goodbye to dull school days, Look alive and change your ways, it's Summertime! (click HERE).

Today was Isaac's last day of First Grade, and boy do they know how to party at his school! All week long they've had fun things going on. Monday was Hawaii day and the kids dressed Hawaiian and brought towels, sunglasses, etc. to school to "soak up the rays" in class. Tuesday was "Slip into Reading" day, and the kids brought sleeping bags, slippers, pillows, teddy bears, etc. to school along with books to read, and then had a "slumber party" in class (Isaac was too embarrassed to bring his pillow, though. Don't ask why). Wednesday was camping day and they got to use their sleeping bags again, along with flashlights, canteens, etc. Then today was Game Day and the kids got to bring a board game to school (Isaac brought Apples to Apples). At 1:30 it was party time (for the whole school). For those of you that don't live in Frisco, class parties around here are a pretty big deal. A bunch of parents come (even quite a few dads). To start the party off, the room mom presented Mrs. Johns with a scrapbook that the kids in the class made for her (we were each given two pages to decorate as we wished). It made her cry. Then the entire First Grade went outside and did "challenge rotations". They were:

Challenge1: Obstacle Course/Ice Pops
Challenge 2: Bug Eating Challenge (gummy worms) & Spaghetti Dig (pulling plastic bugs out of spaghetti)
Challenge 3: Bulls Eye Bean Bag Toss/Tattoo
Challenge 4: Water Cup Race

All the kids got bandanas to wear on their heads (to show which team they were on) and little backpack things to gather their "goodies" in (FYI: they also wore their field day shirts. Since each First Grade class had a different colored Field Day shirt, it helped keep them separated when they were outside). It was so much fun, and a great way to end the school year! Then the entire school gathered at the flag pole for a "send-off" (which is when we left). Good times!


Summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime, summertime...

Take Two!

Success! No feces in the pool today (although the water was abnormally cloudy - what did they put in there?). We had a good time (until it was time to leave and Noah threw a fit).

At first I had Emma in a vest that I bought for her last year and she HATED it. She cried and was scared because it kept throwing her off balance. Once I took the vest off her, she was happy to have me hold her in the big pool (no picture of that since I can't take a picture of myself holding her). Then she had fun playing in the baby pool (vest free). Noah took to the water just like he always does (he's a little fish). Isaac also did really well. He's always been scared of the water, but today he didn't show any fear! YIPEE! Both Isaac and Noah start swim lessons next Monday, so I'm hoping they're a success this year (last year Isaac took swim lessons, but since he was too scared to go in the water most of the time, the lessons were pretty much a failure).

Pool Closed Due to Fecal Contamination

Reaction from my kids: Not Good (especially since today was our first attempt at going to the pool this year).

Isaac: "We wasted sunscreen. And we wasted all our time getting ready to go to the pool. We could have just been playing. Why did somebody poop in the pool? Why didn't they just tell their mom that they had to go? What if someone poops again in the pool before tomorrow?" *cries about it the whole way home and then some.

Noah: *whine, *cry, *get over it quickly when I say that we'll put up the waterslide.

Emma: No reaction, since she probably had no idea where we were going in the first place.

School's Almost Over...

Yesterday was the "Celebration of Learning" for First Grade. Isaac got the "Young Scientist" award. We were kind of surprised that he didn't get the "Mathematician" award, but "Young Scientist" is a good fit, too. He loves everything science related. When his class did a unit on oceans, he would come home every day after school and quiz me to see if I knew about the things he learned about (for instance, "Mom, what are the four zones of the ocean?"). His favorite books to read are also science related ones. Pretty much every week of the year, he got a book about something science related from the library at school. I'm proud of him for being a good student and for loving learning!

Isaac also passed the tests to get into the GT (Gifted/Talented) program at school. It's a pull-out program, so starting next year, he'll get to meet with the GT Facilitator once a week to do "enrichment" activities (not sure what that means). He was one of only 4 kids in the First Grade to even make it to the second round of testing for the GT program (I'm not sure if the other 3 passed the 2nd round or not), so it's pretty exciting for him. Way to go Isaac! We love you!

Two Years Old!

Emma turned 2 yesterday (I can't believe it)!

I wanted to do something fun for her birthday, so I took her and Noah to the Wiggly Play Center before we picked Isaac up from school. They had a great time! Emma's favorite part was the big bounce house slide.


Then in the evening, Stefani, Quentin, Haley and Julian joined us for Emma's "party". After eating some pizza, it was present time! Emma was SO CUTE when she opened her presents. She was so excited about everything she got! Thanks to everyone who got her a present. She loved it all!


Then it was time for cake! I'm embarrassed to post pictures with the sad looking cake I made (I need to take a class or something). Oh well, Emma loved it, so that's what counts! She was so excited and even made a big mess. Silly girl!


After cake, it was pinata time! Emma saw the Dora pinata at Walmart a few weeks ago and begged for it (hence the Dora theme for her birthday - although, she kept saying that she was having a "Diego" party). Once the candy came out of the pinata, she leaned down, picked up one sucker, opened it, and started eating it. She didn't quite "get it" that she was supposed to gather up as much candy as possible. Luckily, Daddy was there to help her out!

All in all, a great 2nd birthday for Emma!