Kelly's Baby Shower

Melissa and I threw a baby shower for our sweet friend, Kelly.  She has been in our ward and served with us in Primary and Kelly and I were also single moms together when our husbands were deployed.  She is amazing, talented, beautiful, really fun to talk to and an awesome friend.  Recently she moved, so now we have to plan lunch dates, shopping trips, and girls nights out so we can see her often.   She ended up having her third boy, Kellan Patrick, (she really wanted a girl, but surprise!) so we threw her a library shower.  We had so much fun coming up with the ideas and putting it together.

I decorated these ice cream cups with a K on the top for both Kelly and Kellan for our ice cream bar

Yummy!  Cookies N Cream, Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry

Baa Baa Blackberries, Roses are Red Strawberries, Ring Around the Raspberries, Little Boy Blueberries

A Variety of Delicious Toppings with Nursery Rhyme names

Melissa made this cute book garland

The Gift Table

We had a great time decorating the back patio and the evening weather was perfect!

Kellan and Kelly

We loved looking at and reading each of the cute books that Kelly received

 

Kelly got some great books to add to her children's library collection.  She was so excited to take them home and start reading to her boys.  Congratulations on the birth of another sweet little boy, Kelly!

Clark's Shiner

On the last game of the season, Clark was warming up and Tony threw a ball at him but it skimmed his glove and hit Clark in the eye.  Immediately it started to swell and turn purple.  Ice was placed on it and Clark had to start in the game.  Ironically enough, during one of the innings, Clark hit a triple into the outfield.  People were cheering and said, "He must have used his other eye!"

Clark was pretty proud of his first black eye.  He definitely thought he looked cool and loved the attention.

Primary's Got Talent

Back By Popular Demand...

Last year's "Primary's Got Talent" primary activity was such a huge success that we decided to do it again.  As if the month of May wasn't busy enough, we planned it for Friday, May 20th.  

I found these movie theater snack containers online (I love them!  Aren't they cute?) and they were perfect for keeping treats all together.  Each audience member got some M&M's, popcorn, licorice, and a drink.

Krista and Lyndsie took pictures of all of our primary kids and we decorated a "Wall of Fame".

Aspen, Katelyn, Mia and Makenna performed a dance to Jailhouse Rock.   It was great practice for their dance recital coming up in June.  They did a fantastic job and I was so busy running the music that I forgot to videotape and take pictures.  Terrible mom!

Aspen, Makenna, Katelyn, Mia

Clark, Jake, Carlee, and Aiden and Sadie Lott did a skit called "The Ugliest Thing in the World".  Jake was hidden behind the curtain and Clark was the "ringmaster" calling people to step right up and see the Ugliest Thing in the World.  When Katelyn, Sadie, Aiden, and Carlee gave their tickets and looked behind the curtain, they would scream, run off the stage, faint, or yell "Mommy!"  Then Clark called up an audience member and when he looked behind the curtain, Jake screamed and fainted.  It was pretty funny and the kids did a great job acting out their parts. 

We, as a presidency, weren't sure what to do this year because we didn't have time to practice, so I came up with a funny last-minute idea.  We drew eyes on our chins (to look like faces) and hung upside down from the stage.  Then we stuffed baby sleepers and stuck them on our heads so that we looked like babies with weird heads.  We would lip-sync to "Baby" from Justin Bieber.  I thought it would be hilarious and the kids would love catching the "Bieber Fever".  I've seen the chin-head thing before but my ideas always look better in my mind so I hoped we could pull it off and that it would be funny.

The whole afternoon we were back and forth on whether we should do the talent or not.  At the very last second we decided to do it and all rushed backstage to stuff the sleepers, shove our hair into them, and draw our baby faces on our chins.  Lyndsie was the MC and she didn't have a clue that we finally decided to do it.  She really wanted to do it since it was her last primary activity.  (She is moving to Tucson) After my "baby" was stuffed, I ran over to the curtain and was frantically trying to get her attention to come back without showing my "talent" to the audience.  She finally clued in to what I was saying and raced backstage.  When all of us were ready, we laid down on the stage floor and shimmied under the curtain to the edge of the stage.

Me, Laurie, Melissa, Lyndsie

We thought we'd hear some laughing or some sort of noise once we got out there, but we didn't hear a thing!  It was dead silent.  Then our music started and since we couldn't see anything with the "babies" on our head, we swung our heads around and mouthed the words to the song.   I heard Lyndsie and Melissa laughing after a few minutes but Laurie was silent because she had a binky in her mouth.  After about two choruses, Melissa was getting dizzy and confused with all the blood rushing to her head.  So she dragged herself under the curtain with Lyndsie close behind.  Laurie followed suit and because I couldn't hear what was going on with them due to the music in my ears, I was out there all alone!  Then we all realized that I was all alone so Laurie grabbed my leg and pulled me under the curtain.  We were laughing our heads off but the kids didn't really understand what was going on or who did the lip-sync.  When we all came out to have a closing prayer, they noticed the makeup on our chins and asked, "Oh, was that you?" 

Yes, the kids were a little confused.  Some were even a little freaked out!  Mutant babies with weird shaped heads dancing to Justin Bieber... yea, that's a tremendous talent!  (Quoted by Melissa)  Like I said, ideas are better in my head.  

After it was all over and cleaned up, Melissa and I went to CiCi's Pizza for dinner, and we started talking about the activity.  As we talked about the craziness of getting ready for our own talent, slapping makeup on our chins, running around backstage with stuffed sleepers on our heads, shimmying under the curtain, and making up words to "Baby" we started laughing uncontrollably in the restaurant.  Both of us were crying and laughing so hard it hurt, and people were starting to stare.  It was so much fun! 

This is what we really look like!  (Me, Melissa, Lyndsie, Krista, Laurie) Krista said she wasn't feeling well so being upside down would make her worse but I think she was too embarrassed to be seen with us mutant babyheads!

After the Talent Show, we had a boys' sleepover at my house.  Jake and Carter Chugg slept over while Katelyn slept over with Hanna.  Carlee got to sleep with me because Joe was out of town so we snuggled and watched Lemonade Mouth up in my bed while the boys slept in the family room and on the LoveSac.

The boys had a great night with pizza, swimming, basketball, board games, Neon Leon, video games, and a movie.  Surprisingly I didn't have to yell at them to stop running wildly through my house.  They were so good and had a great time.  Such cute boys!

The Jakes!

So cute and silly.  We'll miss Jake squared!

Carter and Clark giving each other Pokemon advice and tips

Such good and handsome boys.  We will miss you, Carter!

Jacob, our next door neighbor and another good friend of Clark's, but we get to keep him around.

Anderson Dairy

Carlee's preschool went on a field trip to Anderson Dairy and it was so fun.  When we first arrived, we entered this room that was decorated like a farm.  There were animals that talked, music that played, a video that explained the history of the dairy, and it reminded me of the Tiki Room at Disneyland.  So cute.  We then took a tour and saw how the milk, sour cream, cheeses, and ice cream were made and packaged for delivery.  Next to the ice cream area, cold fog came out into the hallway and surprised the kids.  They were squealing and trying to step on the "smoke".  After the tour, we headed back to the "farm" for some cookies 'n' cream ice cream.  It was so creamy and delicious.  What a fun field trip!

Court of Honor

We attended Clark's first Court of Honor.  He received merit badges, including Swimming, Family Life, Golf, Photography as well as his Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class honors.  He is quickly on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout!

 

May Happenings at the School

We attended the first annual Spring Fling at the elementary school.  Clark applied tattoos with the Student Council's booth, Katelyn had a performance with her Hollywood Kids group, Jake won 2 packages of brownies after his third try at the Cake Walk, Carlee got her snowcone, hotdog and played carnival games, and I won a Great Harvest bread basket at the raffle.   All in all, a success and a fun Friday night.

Clark is applying the tattoo of choice

Singing "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!" from Suessical, the Musical

Kate's duet, "Notice Me, Horton".  She plays Gertrude McFuzz.

A week later was the Multi-Cultural Showcase in which classrooms all around the school represented different countries.  Each class picked a country and the kids learned about its culture and history.  They made crafts, presentations, drawings, videos, learned to speak words in the language and even helped make food samples.  When we arrived each child got a passport to be stamped at each country they visited.  When they had three stamps, they earned a homework pass.  Clark's class did Russia, Katelyn's class did Brazil, and Jake's class did Australia.  While Katelyn was studying about Brazil, my parents were in town.  Since my dad served his mission there, Katelyn took him into her class one day and he taught the kids about the country.  He even taught some hand motions and mouth noises when you enjoy something.  Kate also brought in some Guarana soda for her classmates to try.  It was a fun night full of interesting facts about different countries.

Clark welcomed the parents and visitors to the Multi-Cultural Showcase and led the audience in the pledge of allegiance

Each Student Council member recited "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step" in different languages including German, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, and Tagalog

Jacob said the Pledge of Allegiance with sign language

 
The school also hosts a Family Picnic Lunch every month.  Parents bring lunch, a picnic blanket and everyone eats out on the playground.  The kids sometimes eat and relax with us and other times, they eat quickly and head off to play kickball or hang from the monkey bars.  Our kids look forward to it and each has taken a turn choosing the lunch but the favorite and most requested is Subway, of course!

Carlee, Clara, Amber, Nedra

Julie, Sara, Katelyn, Mia

Cathy, Audrey, Jen, Jessen

Ella, Jax, Lacee, Melissa, Brandy, Kobee

The Taylors and Allreds--accidentally clothing coordinated and very cute

First picnic lunch for Dad