Timid Ballerina

My friend Amanda is teaching the little girls in our church a few ballet classes this month. Lily was very nervous about going, she has never done an organized class like this before. Despite us dancing around the house ALL the time, she kept saying, "Mom will you help me be a ballerina, I don't know how". My reassurances finally got her there and before I knew it she was participating like a pro.

Stretching.

Toe, heel walks.
I accidentally caught this and didn't even know my ghetto camera was capable of video footage. I thought I was taking a picture, but here she is walking like her favorite princess for a whole 2 seconds.

Seahorses and Buns on the Beach

The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened up a new The Secret Lives of Seahorses exhibit. We went with the Laflan's this past week on an amazingly HOT day (90 degree hot...crazy for here).

Lily and one of her best buddies, Cal.

They were just giggling while sitting in this chair together. Little did they know they were watching the seahorse courting dance up on the screen.
After the aquarium we HAD to take advantage of the warmth! Daisy was in heaven playing in the sandy tide pools splashing and squeezing the sand through her hands.

Before we get in the car I usually try to change the sand filled diaper. While doing so, Daisy popped up, grabbed her bottle, and ran. She was so funny and tipsy from lack of a nap. I had to snap some shots.

No offense to anyone else who came with us that day, but I must say, Daisy had the cutest buns on the beach!

Santa Lucia Preserve

20,000 acres of land and only 2,000 acres are to be developed (allowing only 300 homes). Santa Lucia Preserve is known as a place of natural and man made magic. This amazing place has restricted access to homeowners, their families and guests. So you can see why I was feeling pretty special when my friend Amanda invited the girls and I to go swimming here on Friday.

Wildlife is everywhere. We saw wild turkeys, deer, and eagles, but bobcats, mountain lions, and wild pigs are numerous as well. They say a mountain lion often leaves his catch on the golfing greens. Yes, there is a golf course up there, as well as an artificial lake with paddle boats and a restaurant.

Here is one of the 8 wild turkey's we saw on the way up. After a gorgeous 10 mile drive uphill we came to the pool. What? We have it all to ourselves? Where am I? Here is cute pregnant Amanda with the girls.

Lily was in aquatic heaven.

I took Daisy down the 2 story water slide. Ya, she cried,

and cried. Somebody has to toughen her up!
She did not care for the water at all! We better work on that!

She did however indulge in my strawberry smoothie. It was sooo good. I couldn't get it away from her without a fight.

On the way back down the mountain there were wild flowers everywhere. I stopped, frolicked, sang "The Hills are Alive" from the Sound of Music, and made Amanda take a picture.

Thanks for the "I feel so special" day Amanda. This place was gorgeous!

Pink and Purple Polka Dot Party!

The invitation.
The decorations.

The craft table (bingo markers make perfect polka dots).
The snacks.

Park time (thank goodness one is within walking distance).

Little boys taunting Sean.
Little boys running like little girls from Sean.

Back to the house for cupcakes (Necco candies and Yogos make yummy polka dots).

Happy 4th Birthday Miss Lily Ann!!!

Birthday Party Tips and Lesson's Learned:

-If you are providing the entertainment, stick to a 1 or 1 1/2 hour party. 2 hours was way too long (I should have broken out Twister and had more games planned)! I think we are hiring a clown next time!
-I had forgotten how energetic boys were. Warning: if you have balloons, they will be popped and used as weapons!
-Craft time ONLY lasts 10-15 minutes.
-Monitor the glue usage! 3, 4, and 5 year olds get glue happy.
-9 guests + the birthday girl and her little sister = not enough adults!
-Don't tell the kids it is cupcake time at the park, they will all run home and dig in without singing happy birthday (Don't worry I stopped them in time and made them sing to my kid:)).

I believe we all survived my lack of planning skills and truly had a great time.
Any parent who has read this and thought your kids were naughty, they certainly were not! They all behaved themselves wonderfully. I was the unprepared one. :)

Eggcellent and Egghausting Easter!

I was in labor on Easter Sunday last year, so it was nice to enjoy and reflect a bit more this year. Sunday morning we had a quick little basket hunt with a few eggs to find. Due to Lily's over consumption of candy lately, I filled the eggs with miniature fuzzy critters (I think they were from Puppy in my Pocket or something like that). I have not been the best example...I LOVE candy! Anyway, it was short and simple, just enough to make a 3 year and one year old squeal with glee upon finding their treasures.
I made our neighbor, who was trying to do his laundry, snap a picture of us before church (I forgot how this blouse makes me look like I am expecting, please ignore. I certainly am NOT!)

After church and after much relief that my talk in sacrament meeting was over, we headed out to our friends ranch in Carmel Valley. We all brought 12 eggs and a dish to share. It was a wonderful turn out and so much fun!
There was even an appearance from Mrs. Easter Bunny! Daisy would wave and wave to her and then when she got too close, she freaked.

Daisy would also wave and wave to the horses while blowing in and out of her nose. She was SO excited! We couldn't keep her away from them. So why was she deathly afraid of the bunny and not the horse? Who knows?
Heck with the candy filled eggs and fuzzy lovable bunny, there are horses to be stalked!

Rockin' Rock Climbing!

Today I journeyed out to the Santa Cruz Mountains with the youth in my ward to go rock climbing, repelling and zip-lining. It was a blast!

Sportin' my harness...who designed those things anyway?

The top of the rock about 7o feet up. You could attach your runners to a rope, shimmy across the top, and then open repel down. What a rush! That cave is where the zip-line started, the view from there was AMAZING!

See that red blur...oh yes that is me going faster than a speeding bullet down the zip-line. I wish I could have done that again and again but that was the popular event with the youth and I HAD to let them have their fun. After all it was a YOUTH trip...Dang!
YES, that young lad is putting his life in my hands....and NO, those harnesses were NOT comfy!
The whole group of leaders and youth at Goat Rock. 2009.

Big Red Barn

Once a month a bunch of ladies get together to just eat, mingle and let the kids play. This Tuesday we all gathered at the Big Red Barn, a property owned by an amazingly generous couple in our church.

We ate. A lot. My friend Sarah made these little cake chickie's and they were not only adorable, but delicious!!!

Daisy with her buddies Sally and Tes.

We hunted for eggs in the carriage quarters (it was raining).
Lily and her partner in crime, Loraya. They were some of the older kids there and therefore scored with the Easter eggs!

The rain cleared up and we were able to ride the John Deere truck around the property. The ponies would follow it thinking they were getting fed. Sorry little ponies.

Our lives were in the hands of this woman. You have some sweet shifting skills Sarah!

And of course the play area! Can you believe this place? We didn't even make it to the yellow brick road hike. Ahh, to have a 4th property to mold for your progeny. Someday!

New Beginnings

I was just checking in on a few blogs and Sean's cousin Jenny made tissue paper flowers for her niece's wedding shower. It reminded me that I forgot to post these pictures. I work with the Young Women (ages12-17) in my church and back in March we had our annual New Beginnings. It teaches the YW and their parents about the purposes of the YW organization and welcomes the new 12 year old girls to the program. We chose a garden theme this year and I was in charge of the decorations. With the help of the other YW leaders we pulled off and elegant garden party and held it in the Primary room.

We had the YW make all of these tissue paper flowers at a Wednesday night activity. The Young Women have a theme with 8 values and each value has a color.

Faith=white, Divine Nature=blue, Individual Worth=red, Knowledge=green, Choice and Accountability=orange, Good Works=yellow, Integrity=purple, and Virtue=gold. All of the colors are represented throughout the decorations. I found a lot of the loose flowers that we sprinkled on top of the draping tulle at haloheaven.com for really reasonable prices. It is such a fun website, especially if you have little girls! The big vase of flowers represented each young woman. Our YW President had each parent fill out a form of what flower their daughter would be and explain how they fit into the Lord's garden. I made this little fence for 1 dollar! Home Depot has big paint sticks for free and the long pieces of wood I found in their cull cart for .5o cents each. I simply nailed it together and painted it white. During the program I assigned 8 girls a value. They read the scripture and description of each value from little garden signs I made. Then they placed the value sign in the same color plant/flower after reading it.

This was just the back table. I saved a lot of Daisy's baby food jars and put in battery tea lights. They were all over the room and gave it a nice glow.

I didn't get a picture of the cake but it was so cute! A chocolate cake in the center covered with Hershey kisses and Twinkies all around it made a sunflower! All in all I hope it was a memorable night for the girls. I sure had fun decorating for it!

Annual Good Ol' Days

10 dollars for 3 kiddie rides + 4 dollars for a meager bag of kettle corn = 14 dollars of pure joy at the Pacific Grove Good Ol' Days.

The Hopper,

Dizzy Dragon,
and Spinning Swings (I'll admit this one made me a little queasy. I swear having kids will throw your equilibrium off!)

In addition to the kiddie rides, observing the craft booths and avoiding 6 dollar corn dogs, we soaked in our little towns glory by attending the parade Saturday morning. It was complete with a skate boarding bull dog and tap dancing senior citizens! Ya, you missed out!