Happy Valentine's Day!

spy kids

My date night on Friday with the boys consisted of activities and food tailored to their active lifestyle :) They wanted to enjoy the fine fare of a McDonald's Happy Meal...why do those meals make kids so happy?....I was hoping for something a little more along the lines of Cafe Rio(!), but a good french fry is hard to turn down...unfortunately! :/

They then ran and ran up and down the play area and got out a lot of energy. And yet - there is always more energy built up in these boy bodies...how DO they do that?!

We came home and had movie night watching 'Mars Needs Moms' - the message of that show is tender & I'm hoping they got the message that moms that ask their children to do things, do it for that crazy LOVE thing....the female martian in the show that says that line over and over is my favorite :)

The next day we split into groups - I took Madeleine to dance and then we had lunch with the Lord girls. The boys got haircuts and went and bought a new toilet seat as Jacob broke the seat when he was in time out. That boy is 98% sweet - it's the 2% that is an intense storm!

We all came home mid-afternoon to finish our Saturday jobs and play Legos....the latter wasn't exactly on the list of work for the afternoon but the 3 kiddos are in serious Lego building moods lately.

We finally had everything finished for the day & started to get ready to go to Grandma Joy's for her Valentine's Party with the Utah grandkids. The boys came decked out in their Spy Kids gear --- this is their other joy besides Legos it's to dress up and play spies and it's hilarious what they come up with. Such as Bryson's disguise of the yellow wig!

These boys crack me up - they are becoming such great friends and playing together super well for the majority of the time. When they don't get along it's intense and fireworks definitely shoot out from their personalities...but overall I love how much they can play and entertain one another and that they get so excited to show one another things that they have done. Throughout the day I hear Jacob talking about "Bryson will be so excited that I found this for him" (usually something to do with a Lego piece) or "When will the kids be home so that I can play with Bryson?"

I love my Spy Boys!

{here's a little video of Spy Boy Jacob doing a little dance with his spy get-up....I did actually watch this on the blog so I know it was up at some point - but if you can't see it please state in the comments...I can see it on one of our computers and not the other! }

Dynamic Duo

We found out there would be a Daddy Daughter Dance to celebrate Valentine's Day at the children's new school. Madeleine was really excited about the opportunity to invite Dad to come to a dance at the school - she asked him to come, plans were made, the ticket was purchased and tonight was the big event!

This is one of the times when I'm so grateful that Bryson has a job that actually works for our family to do...family things.  It would have been so rare for him to have a night back in NY when he could have taken any of the children to an event....this move continues to bless our lives in so many little ways that are proving to make big impacts.  The schedule finally fell into place yesterday when Bryson & I were talking about how to get Madeleine down to his work place so that they could go to dinner.  The older two have early out each Friday, and Grandma Joy has picked them up every Friday but today she was working...so I picked them up and we zoomed up to drop Jacob up at his Kindergarten program at the U.

I finally remembered to get a photo of our little Ute today...and appropriately he was all in red!  No worries - yesterday he was all in BYU blue....but people up at the U just call it blue.  Strange.  

I needed to run up to the outlets in Park City to exchange some clothes for the kiddos, so with the older two we drove up the canyon and marveled that there is actually more snow up at the top of those mountains!
The weather was beautiful - sunny and 40 degrees.  After being in two stores, Madeleine & Bryson begged to play on the playground in the parking lot...which I forget to do as often as I should now that we have moved back and NO ONE in Utah it seems goes to the park in the winter.

 Why would people need to do that when they have homes with playrooms they can play in, or other places they can go I suppose?  For us - this is one NYC habit that I'd like to keep....on days when the sun is pouring down & the air is brilliant blue, it's almost as if the weather is begging for people to be outside enjoying the brilliance!

 We obliged Mother Nature's request and M & B had a blast running around and chasing each other around the playground.  I don't remember the playgrounds in NY being covered with so much snow...either I'm already forgetting or they did have people that came and shoveled them knowing that children would be out to play.  The only tricky part in playing on all the snow came when Bryson stepped in a slush puddle and his feet became sopping wet - so, yes that wouldn't happen at home, but neither would getting outside and gulping in the fresh air and turning your face up to the sun to say a big cheery HELLO!

We picked Jacob up from his class and then drove down to Bryson's work. It was our first time in his office and although Salt Lake is not NYC - it's a beautiful downtown! I want to spend more time discovering the streets - there are beautiful buildings that I'd love to try my hand at taking photos of - more importantly I picture the children standing around these visual masterpieces.  I need to work on getting down there - as a huge lesson learned from NY is that time goes so quickly and I don't want to procrastinate any day that I have in any place we live.

We enjoyed seeing Bryson's office while Madeleine changed into her cute Valentine's outfit, and then Bryson surprised Madeleine with a bouquet of flowers and we pretended he was coming to pick her up when he knocked on the office door. Bryson had asked Madeleine where she wanted to go to dinner before the dance, and she chose The Garden on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building...she has great taste! I was able to convince Madeleine to let me take a few pictures of her after much persuasion, and then even more persuasion to take a picture with the handsome man she gets to go out with!

She is one lucky girl to enjoy a date with this man.  They got home from the dance and I asked them both how it was....did Dad show her a lot of dance moves?  She gave me a cute but funny look...."I danced with  my friends a lot Mom."

I looked at Bryson and he nodded in the affirmative.  She then proceeded to tell us, "But I did INVITE Dad, and we did dance for some of the songs.  It's just I wanted to dance with my friends."  And so it begins - the point in life when our little girl doesn't cling to her Daddy's legs for her dance.  She doesn't beg to be twirled around anymore....at least in public :)  I know they had a great time together and that it builds their relationship - however, as life moves on moments like this are a little bitter-sweet....she is growing up all too fast.  

He is one lucky dad to have this beautiful, smart and incredibly sweet GIRL to take out!

oh la la!

Tonight we had a Stake Relief Society Conference, and I went and enjoyed the speaker and meeting some of the sisters in my ward more. The highlight came when a sister came up and told me with a beautiful French accent, "You must think I have been rude staring at you, but I was certain you were French when I first saw you. And so I waited for you to speak, and when you spoke I realized you were not French....however, you still look quite French."

Ah - j'adore Pascal, ma nouvelle amie! :)

the theater ~ the theater

In making a move mid-year my thoughts & hopes were to give the children growing experiences that would help through the transition process.  I didn't want them to feel that they were giving up everything they had known in NY - extra-curricular classes, friends and social activities.  At the same time I knew that we needed to be careful with our time - we were close to an over-scheduled life with the classes in NY.  While perusing websites looking for events & classes I thought I found a perfect idea.  It was a play that would only be one week long.  Madeleine had been in a fall theater class and loved it, and was disappointed that she was leaving right when they were assigning parts to those in the class for the play they put on each spring.  Murray Arts were advertising "try-outs" for the play Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs on Monday, January 3rd - which was a mere three days after we landed, but I'd be able to take the kiddos over and try out, and perhaps they'd be able to jump into this activity.

We went to a Jr. High late in the afternoon on Monday and I was impressed with the 2 directors that are part of the Missoula Children's Theater {it's amazing what their organization does!}.  They put the children into a huge circle and did a very low-key, but spot on audition.  The children spoke in groups & then as individuals, they sang in groups and did little pantomime activities.  I was so impressed that these young ladies (they are college graduates, about 21+ years of age) kept over 100 children engaged for an hour and a half while having them speak parts and do these activities.  The only part that was hard to digest was that there were over 100 children and they had stated only 50 children would get parts.  I turned to Bryson Sr. and told him it would be ironic if Bryson Jr. or Jacob got a part, but Madeleine didn't as I had chosen this experience in particular to help her during the transition with the move.

The group being led through try-outs & the only disappointment ...no diversity.  It's like looking at a large container of white milk....we realize our days of the NYC mixed races and culture might not be at the same level here in SLC.  

It turned out that of the three children - our Bryson got a part in the show.  The group he was in were cast as Bats --- yes, bats.  I don't remember bats in the Snow White book or movie either however this was a new Snow White adaptation and most importantly - he was thrilled and so excited for his part!  Madeleine put on a brave face, although she allowed me to give her a side hug and whispered that she wished it could have been like the Up With Kids performance that we did 2 summers ago...everyone got a part :)

During the week between myself and Grandma Joy we took Bryson to his rehearsals and he had a blast learning the songs and moves that he and the group would do on the stage.  He was ecstatic when he found out in one of the songs he would get to play the part of Dracula and have an extra special part in his actions.  To be cast as Dracula when you are a young boy - he could end his stage career and be happy!  However, with this experience I noticed that we have someone who really loves the stage, and the outlet that it brings for his ham it up personality.

Again I was impressed while watching the directors working with the children and youth in the production.  They moved everyone through at a very quick pace (after all you don't have a lot of time in one week with rehearsals only after school!), and the children responded really well and knew the songs, movements and play inside and out by Saturday!

A rather handsome and precious bat, which gave great opportunity to act and pretend to be the mean & nasty bats his group sang about!  

There were two performances that day - which was perfect....it was actually a rather busy day for us!  We had moved our things into the new place on Friday, Madeleine had her first dance class for Irish Step-Dancing on Saturday morning...thankfully there was Plan B to get her involved!

The great part about being by family is the help and that you can divide and conquer!  When we came back from dance Grandma Joy was already at the house putting together Jacob's bed and Nana Lord was just arriving after dropping Bryson off at his dress-rehearsal that morning.  Papa Lord showed up soon after and with everyone helping out we worked hard to unpack and get beds set up for the next few hours - we were able to get a lot accomplished with so many hands working together!

Nana & Papa then took the kiddos and picked up the Lord cousins to go and see the matinee performance while we finished up a few more items around the house.  We then cleaned up and met the kiddos down at Grandma Joy's house to eat dinner and then I ran Bryson back down to get back into his costume for the final performance.  It was a lot of running around that day & again we are grateful for all the help family has been with this move.  We forgot how incredibly nice it would be to share the load with others that wanted to help - we might get used to this business of having family around! :)

We finally settled into our seats to enjoy the entire production of Snow White, and wow --- we were impressed!  To see what they had accomplished in a week was amazing - the children all knew their parts and we had a few favorite characters and lines by the end of the evening!  Down below in this picture is Ms. Hannah, one of the co-directors for the play.  She actually was the Woodsmen and her part integrated itself into almost every scene in the play so that she was on stage and present to help move things along.  The children weren't waiting for her cues - but her presence was a perfect fit for the production --- and she was really talented and fun to watch!   {Bryson is in front and to the left of her performing during his Bat number}

Bryson turned to Dracula!

And now for his BIG LINE {referring to himself as Dracula}...."That's right the one and only!"  And oh wow, did he do great...he spoke clearly and loud and I realized he loves the stage.  He comes alive up there - and although we know he is a ham at home, it's great to see extra personality come out on stage....what a character this boy is and can be!

The end of the production came all too soon - we really enjoyed this show!  For having children do all the parts we thought it was well done and the girl that was cast as the Wicked Queen was phenomenal!  I wish I could have captured her facial expressions and her acting abilities...she really helped to make the entire play.  Oh, and she had the best cackle of a witch I've ever heard!

Well done Sir Dracula and Bat-Man....we look forward with great anticipation for whatever show you are in next.  Braaahhhhhaaaaa!!!!

1776

We were up until 10:45pm with Madeleine doing her homework! I can't believe the amount of homework that girl has - then again, she is very detailed and makes sure everything is done to perfection.

Although it was was too late to be up for a 5th grader doing homework - I started to think how much I love the curriculum that she is learning here. From my observations on what she brings home for homework and talking to the teachers, there is a balance to what is being taught...and finally and thankfully Madeleine is receiving real Social Studies lessons. In fact - they get it in double-doses each day. Madeleine sits with Mrs. Moore for the first half of the day with their homeroom class - they are taught Reading/Writing, Spelling/Vocabulary & handwriting (all Language Arts) and Math. In the afternoon the two 5th grade classes switch teachers, and Madeleine's class goes to Ms. Ross who then teaches Social Studies & Science. This is also the time when twice a week the students divide up and attend their extra classes - orchestra and gym.

I can't express how much I love that although her workload is heavy and she has so much to do each evening - Madeleine is really studying the history of this country. The classes have a reader that goes through stories from history - so even in Language Arts their stories are history based (this is cross-curriculum teaching which I assumed every school did....but the NYC schools, or at least ours, was severely lacking in their Social Studies instruction as well as their Language Arts....they wrote stories ALL the time, but there was no focus on spelling and making sure children were understanding rules for grammar. I had no idea how much we were lacking in this area until we moved here!). The class right now is focusing on the beginning of the American Revolution - Madeleine has written persuasive papers on being a Loyalist or a Patriot. She draws and composes bulletins that show sides to both the Americans & the British, and her spelling and vocabulary words each week are full of words from history.

They are within a few weeks of finishing up the Revolution and then starting on how the government was established - which is part of the Declaration of Independence and learning why 1776 was so important.

I love history. It's incredible to then see your children learn and love history. We have lived in some very significant places where history was made in this country. I'm thankful that we've had the opportunity to visit these places as our family - and now I'm so thankful that Madeleine is learning more about the facts and why these places have such an impact on our lives and the story of America.

And, on a different important not about 1776....check out this bounty that I got at the store --- all for $17.76.  No kidding....I laughed when the total came up!

I am not an extreme couponer by any stretch of the imagination....however, I have been working to buy things that are advertised specials & if I can get a coupon to bring down the total that is double fantastic.

This deal above was to buy the Stauffer's Lasagna and then the bread, salad and a liter of Coke product was free (THAT is what is missing...my 2 bottles of Fresca!  How did I forget to put them in the photo?!).  The best part is that I have remembered that you can price match when you shop at Wal-Mart, so instead of running to different stores (unless I am driving by one and can go in) and taking extra time & gas I shopped at Wal-Mart this week and I was excited about the results!  This meal deal then got better - before I left I remembered reading about a coupon that Facebook put out for Stauffers....a few clicks later and I had two $2 off coupons for the lasagna.  Then when I got to the store and reached into the freezer to retrieve the lasagna I noticed that each box had a sticker on for a free package of cookie dough when you purchased a Stauffer product.  Hurray - that would come in handy for our FHE treat that night! :)

This deal is not free, and it's not even below $10 for everything...which I'm sure is against the rules of Extreme Couponing!  However, I was excited for what I found and that I was able to work with a sale and use the coupon...and throw in that cookie dough (yummy!).  The best part is that when I added up all of the items that I got - and even adding up what it would cost if I make the lasagna on my own....I came out ahead with this purchase!  And I love knowing that I have 2 lasagnas sitting in the freezer for a day when life gets too busy, or a time when I need to take dinner to someone...I say that really saves the day!