The Top Ten Party

2012-02-05 2012, a photo by PorterFam98 on Flickr.

Elise wanted a friend party this year. I was kind of dragging my feet on it. So much work. But man was it worth it.

What a darling group of friends*. They were happy, friendly, interested, excited, funny, helpful, and smiley all night long. They thought every part of the party was great (or at least they acted like it).

Elise turned 10 so we picked her 10 favorite things and built a party around it.

Late night crafts and movie, lots of treats and snacks**, lots of blue, fun music (wish I had video of the girls dancing and posing), presents, photo booth, and a little soccer (well in the form of pin the soccer on Elise's head). 
*I am so so grateful that Elise is blessed with so many wonderful friends. Too many. I made her narrow her list down to a more manageable size. So many great girls her age. They are smart, talented in many different ways, cute, and good. I love it. Probably because their moms are all the same way. I'm so lucky.
**These girls must be growing. I popped 10 bags of popcorn, sliced 8 apples, ice cream sundaes, cupcakes, 2 bags of licorice, jars of other assorted candies, and drinks. There was no stopping them.

Leesy Lou is Ten!

We kicked off her birthday a little early with a family dinner on Sunday. She requested Hawaiian Haystacks.For dessert she was very specific. She wanted brownies with white chocolate chips on top and cookies and cream ice cream.Of course having her aunts, Jane and Egan, come make it a perfect night for her. They brought sweet gifts too. And of course on the morning of her birthday - only crepes will make this birthday girl happy with LOTS of "whooped" cream.

We love Elise. She is super excited to have a party this year. Pictures to come.

1 - Elise has a great smile.
2 - She LOVES soccer and she works really hard at it. And she is very committed to her team.
3 - Elise loves to sing. All the time. But sadly, singing well does not come naturally to her although she is improving. We still love to hear her.
4 - Elise is a loyal friend. She loves to be with them and she likes to have everyone included.
5 - Elise loves Quinn. She loves her brothers too but she believes that she was meant to have Quinn as her sister. She is a very good babysitter too.
6 - Elise is very independent. She likes to make her own decisions and takes her time to do her own thing. Since she was small she has insisted on doing her own hair and picking her own clothes. She really doesn't want me to be involved. Should I be offended?
7 - She LOVES to read and is constantly devouring a book in her room.
8 - She loves being with extended family. It is a regular thing for her to beg to go on a trip to visit grandparents or cousins.
9 - Elise loves to be creative.
10 - Elise loves the Gospel and choosing the right. She is a great example to us.

Book Club 2012

I love my book club. All of us lived in London together a long time ago. While our husbands worked a gazillion hours a week, we played and explored.

Now we get together once a month and discuss our books and lots of other stuff too.

We just picked our books for the year and I am so excited. Lots of variety. But my list of books on Goodreads is always growing, so I hope to read a few more besides these. The only way I can really do it is by checking out the audio book from the library and listening to them when I work out or drive around.

February - Moloka'i by Alan Brennet

March - To Mormons with Love by Chrisy Ross

April - The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen

May - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs -  

June - Divergent by Veronica Roth - Young Adult fiction.

August - Room by Emma Donoghue -  

September - How to Love an American Man by Kristine Gasbarre

October - The Survivor's Club by Ben Sherwood 

November - Pick your own Adventure 

Read a parenting, marriage, nutrition (self-help type) book and report to group

First Indoor Tri

Teague has been very interested in doing a tri ever since he saw Egan do the Utah Half Ironman. Then he saw this awesome video called Dayton's Legs. You should watch it with your kids even if they don't want to do a tri.
So he has been running (thanks to xcountry) and he is on a local swim team. And he has been training on the indoor spin bike as well. So he was ready for his first indoor tri.
The race was for kids 8-12. The challenge: a 50 yd swim, 8 mile bike, 1 mile run. We knew he could do it and those distances were probably too easy but it was a good way to start.
Teague is DETERMINED. And he is competitive. He wanted to win BAD.
His main competition was a 10 year old kid who has done 7 triathlons.
HE WON. He beat him by about 15 seconds.
It was awesome to watch him work so hard with that cute smile on this face the whole time. He loved every minute of it.
He wants to jump straight to an Ironman but I think we will work up to that. :)

Wall O Friends

I love Christmas Cards. And I love our friends and family. We look forward to adding to our wall all month long.

And I just hate to take it down. I get kind of sick of Christmas decorations and can't wait to pull the house back together (sort of). But the wall o friends - I could leave that up all year. I love seeing all these great cards, clever thoughts, pictures of wonderful families, great examples, and so much support. Thanks.

But I finally decided it was time to let it go. Till next year...

8 is Great!

Gavin is Great! And he is excited about being 8!
He can't wait for his baptism (which we are waiting a little longer for but it will be worth it).
This might be a first - but for once the one thing he wanted for his birthday was not an office supply or tool.
An ipod Touch. He had to pay for half of it so he has been saving his money and working hard. He was very, very happy that we made it happen for his birthday.

Gavin is easy to love for so many reasons. On the day of his birthday he was the VIP in his 2nd grade class. Each of the kids said something nice about Gavin. Sweetest thing to hear students talk so nicely about your kid. LOVED IT!
1 - So excited and happy about just about anything.
2 - Hard worker (at most things but not reading)
3 - Loves to help and be involved
4 - Loves details
5 - Tenderhearted
6 - overly organized (it doesn't always appear that way in his room but he has a method to his chaos)
7 - Wants to choose the right and wants to help those around him choose the right
8 - Loves to be with family

PS - He requested the oreo like whoopie pies. He did not want cake. I used this recipe. Loved it.

Need a Chore Chart?

So I think I mentioned I am re-thinking chores around here.

My brilliant and talented friend, Jul, created a chore chart. You can customize it and print it. Hooray!

No excuse now. Get those kids working.

PS - If you need a couple good reads on the topic -Read The Entitlement Trap by Richard and Linda Eyre. Quick read with so many good ideas. Even if you don't plan to use their system exactly - it will get you thinking about what we are trying to do as parents.And I liked The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack. I need to look at it again but it had so many good ideas of what kinds of chores and skills children should have at each age. And I always love anything Love and Logic.  

And PPS - I was not looking for any compliments on my last post. But thank you. Just merely trying to remind myself that we can do hard things. I could work on doing hard things with a better attitude for sure.