"This has been the best weekend!"

I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos in this post; I don't know how to get good photos with my iPhone in low-light situations (someone teach me!), and it seems like whenever I am using my phone for photos (as opposed to my DSLR) we are either in a hurry because we don't want to hold up a line of people (we try to be polite), it's dark, or people are crowded around bumping me.  So, most of them are blurry and/or dark.  Sorry.

In the middle of February, we had a particularly fun weekend.  It went like this:

FRIDAY:  We took our kids to watch the Harlem Globetrotters "play" at the US Airways Center.  We ate dinner downtown before hand, walked around and enjoyed the great weather, had a blast laughing at the "game" (Mary was really concerned that the Globetrotters might not win... it was cute.  I assured her they always do!), got our ball autographed afterward, and got ice cream on the way home.  It was really fun.

SATURDAY:  Jay and I attended a wonderful concert by the Phoenix Symphony.  We have had season tickets for years, and we always love it, but this concert was particularly amazing.  (We purchased our tickets for next season, the last with our favorite conductor!  We are sad he is leaving.)  It was a tribute to Arizona during the week of it's centennial, and featured the Grand Canyon Suite (Grofe) combined with a photochoreography presentation by James Westwater, which was commissioned just for this event.  It was spectacular.  The rest of the concert was fantastic as well, with Dvorak's "New World" Symphony (one of our favorites) and Copland's Lincoln Portrait narrated by Hugh Downs.  We were both overcome by how great the concert was.

SUNDAY:  Jay said, "This has been such a great weekend!"  Thinking of all the great events we had attended I said, "I know!"  Then Jay continued, "Yeah, I got a great FREE parking spot right in front of the arena on Friday night, and again right in front of Symphony Hall on Saturday!  AND I made the best lemonade on yesterday!"  I had to laugh.  That is SO Jay.  :P   I love that he always makes me laugh.

And yes, he also loved all the REAL great things we did.  :)

SOME OTHER FUN THINGS IN FEBRUARY:

- I chaperoned Jack's school class field trip to the IMAX to see Deep Sea 3D (fantastic),

 and then to the Sea Life Aquarium (eh, it was OK).

- Jay and I attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert in celebration of Arizona's Centennial Birthday.  It was wonderful and so much fun, especially to have them sing "I Love You, Arizona" and see Sandra Day O'Connor conduct a piece.

- Jay and I attended a gardening class, learned a lot, and finally got our spring garden planted!

- Jack finished a season playing on a basketball team.

Sweaty and tired after his last game.

- I got released from jury duty at the last minute. (It seems like I get summoned really frequently, like every 18 months, which is as soon as I'm eligible after the last time!)

- We attended another Phoenix Symphony concert that we weren't that excited about but left saying, "That was fantastic!"  We were very pleasantly surprised. 

- Mary took a cheerleading class (for fun) with some of her friends and really enjoyed it.

OTHER:

- In January we took Collin with us to the symphony to hear them perform Dvorak's Cello Concerto with soloist Zuill Bailey.  It was fantastic (do you see a pattern here?).  We got to meet the cellist during intermission, which was fun.  He is very funny, and quite the storyteller.  It was interesting to see such a different personality in person (funny and casual) than on stage (serious/dramatic and formal).

Collin also plays the cello (and is getting quite good), which is the reason we took him to this particular concert.  He loved it!  I enjoyed watching Collin mimic some of Bailey's movements during his next Jr. high school orchestra concert a few weeks later.  :)



Remember, they are only 7th and 8th graders.  :)  But they get to play in an awesome venue.... the Mesa Arts Center (Collin thought it was cool they performed there shortly after the presidential debate). 

100th Day of School

Each January, on the 100th day of the school year, every child who hasn't missed a day gets a certificate and a helium balloon to release at a special ceremony that morning.  My kids usually get to participate, and they love it.  It always surprises me how something as simple as a helium balloon can really make a child's entire day.  They never seem to out-grow it.  

Mary (left) and 2 of her friends

Dinner in the backyard on a beautiful spring evening

We had my brother and his wife over for dinner a few weeks ago.  We had dinner out on the lawn and it was lovely.  Marcus and Ashley are a great couple, and they are lots of fun!

Valentine's Day

I sort of hate Valentine's Day because it's a forced expression of "love" that ends up being meaningless because it's not spontaneous.  (I'll spare you my usual rant on the subject.)  I usually tell Jay not to buy me flowers or chocolates, but he does anyway (no chocolates this year because he knows I would have killed him since I've been really faithful to my plan and I've lost 24 pounds and 9 inches in the last 9 weeks). 

Going to a restaurant on Valentine's Day is usually out of the question because you have to make an advance reservation even at places you could normally walk right in to and get a table within a few minutes.  So, I made a special dinner for my family on Valentine's Day; steak, Jay's favorite, and my kids go nuts for it. 

I also used my wedding china and crystal, which I love, love, love!  My kids were kind of shocked because this is the first time that I have deemed everyone old enough to be careful and not break anything. :)  It was really fun.  I forgot to take photos of the food, but it was very tasty and looked lovely too, if I may say so myself.

Jack's Baptism

Jack was baptized a member of our church yesterday.  It was a very nice service.  Jay performed the baptism and confirmation, and gave Jack a beautiful and inspired blessing.  There were lots of people there to support Jack.  We love him and are so happy for the good choices he makes.

Afterward we had dinner with our two extended families (Nielsons and DeWitts), about 50 people.  (I forgot to take any photos of that because it was kind of hectic.)  My parents graciously let us hold it at their house/yard, since we don't have that kind of space, and I just brought the food. 

It was a very special and memorable day.

Student Council

Mary decided to run for student council (better known as STUCO at our school) this semester..... vice president.  She lost to a sixth grader but I'm so proud of her for working hard and being brave.  I'm sure she will try again next year.

For her speech she bravely SANG, unaccompanied, in front of the entire school... and it was amazing!  We wrote words to the song "When Will My Life Begin" from Tangled.  (See lyrics below.)  It turned out really cute.  People were very impressed.  She has a really lovely singing voice and did a fantastic job.

Though she didn't win she was selected as a student council representative for her classroom, so she still gets to be part of the action. 

Mary's Student Council Speech 

(sung to the tune of "When Will My Life Begin" from Tangled)

Seven a.m., the usual morning lineup:

Do my chores and pack my lunch for school

Practice the piano, eat breakfast, get my backpack

Grab my coat, head to flag ceremony, it's cool!

And then I do seat work

And math and science too

Diagram sentences, write spellings words, a few

I'll read my his'try book

And recite phonograms

And I get A's on report cards too

Then one day I decided to run for STUCO

I would really like to help our school

I will do my part to help us all grow.

I will lead, I will help, I will serve, I'll be cool!

So if you vote for me

Your choice will be the best

You won't regret it ever

Put me to the test

Because I'm Mary and I'm perfect for the job

The best vice president I will be

A perfect job, very,

For me cuz I'm Mary

Our school will be the best!

Mary's Friends

A few days before school started, Mary had all of her friends from school over for the day.  It was kind of crazy (nine 10-year-old girls!) but fun.

They brought their American Girl dolls and had a tea party.  I was very pleased that Mary graciously offered her AG dolls to those who didn't have one, and used one of her old baby dolls instead.  She is a good girl.

They also made pizzas and crafts, and just enjoyed being together.  They are a nice group of girls.  I'm glad Mary has such good friends.

Jack Turns 8

My baby turned 8 years old... yikes!  Jack is such a sweet boy and we love him a lot!

He had a fun party with some of his friends on Saturday.  I threw it together in the few days before, but it turned out really fun, and it was pretty easy.

Jack's past party themes have been Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Carnival, and Army.  For a theme this year we decided on "Every Holiday of the Year."  I don't know if this has been done before, but it was really fun.

As the boys were arriving they sat down and made Valentine's for each of their family members.... they fought over the "Star Wars" themed ones.

Then I dressed up in my leprechaun hat, put green shamrocks on each of the boys (so they wouldn't get pinched), and we played "Lucky Leprechaun Says" (Simon Says), and then ate green jello.  Meanwhile, Jay was hiding Easter eggs in the backyard.

So, of course, the Easter Egg Hunt was next (are you following this?) which the boys loved, of course.  They were quite please with the hilarious marshmallow chicks (not Peeps, but cute dressed-up chicks with faces from Dollar Tree) they found inside some of them (the rest had boring jelly beans).

After that they each got a patriotic boat hat and an American Flag and I made them sing "God Bless America" for me.  Then they got to "explode" a bunch of party poppers, which was a huge hit with this group of 8-year-old boys, naturally. 

Then I pulled out our "dress up box" and they dressed up for Halloween.  We had six stations around the backyard where they could go trick-or-treating, but we made them do "tricks" at each one before they got candy.  Most of the tricks were pretty silly (karate chops, kicks, cape twirls, head banging), but I saw several impressive cartwheels.

For Thanksgiving we had a "Turkey Hunt".... they shot paper turkeys with the Nerf guns.  I couldn't think of anything else (eat a lot?  watch a football game?), but the boys thought it was great. 

Naturally, Christmas meant it was time for Jack to open the gifts from his friends, but I also had a bunch of wrapped dollar store gifts so each of the boys go to unwrap one too.

Finally, we brought out the party hats, blowers, noisemakers, tinsel confetti, and (birthday) cake & ice cream to celebrate New Year's Eve.  (Jack could NOT decide on chocolate or vanilla cake/frosting, so I ended up making half-and-half.  It turned out pretty good.... all from scratch.) 

For "loot bags" I was really cheap and pulled out my stash of Godiva Chocolates gift bags (from the many times Jay has purchased them for me over the years) that I have been saving for some strange reason (now I know why) and it was perfect.  :)

Anyway, it was a really fun party and it was pretty easy.  Fortunately, the timing was great because my local Dollar Tree has stuff for Valentine's, St. Patrick's Day AND Easter right now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!  It's a big year for him... he gets to join Cub Scouts and will be baptized as a member of our church.  We are very proud of him.