preschool graduate

 It's official. He passed!

Jackson's preschool graduation was super cute! They sang lots of songs and got their diplomas. His teacher makes these great scrapbooks with tons of pictures and all their work from the year. Jackson loved preschool, but I think he's excited to go to kindergarten where he will hopefully have some more boys in his class (he was one of two!). He was quite the ladies man this year! Whenever I went to his class the girls were always hovering around him, and during graduation 3 of them screamed "I love you Jackson!" when he went up to get his diploma!!

Blue Horse, Blue Horse, what do you see?

Jackson and Mrs. Chris

The Birthday Fun Continues...

Landon's birthday was on Mother's Day this year. What a great day to celebrate! He got to open a present before church, then later we headed to my parents house to celebrate Mother's Day and Landon & Kensie's birthdays.

 Both kids got lots of fun gifts and had fun playing with their cousins. Kensie especially loved the certificate to get a pedicure with Grandma!

Then it was time for CAKE! I had fun with this cake, and it was really easy. I tried something different on the inside and was worried about how it would turn out, but it was fab!

construction tape!  If you want to learn how to make the stripes, go here.

 Landon tried to use his finger to extinguish the first candle so Grandpa helped him blow out the second one! Poor kid. What's up with my kids and candles on their second birthdays??

I'm TWO!

 

The next day was Kensie's birthday. After school Grandma Holbrook picked her up to go shopping! Kensie looks forward to this every year. She came home with lots of cute clothes!

That evening we celebrated Landon and Kensie's birthdays with Grandma and Grandpa Holbrook. We had Cafe Rio and opened presents. Since I live to annoy Kensie (or so she thinks!) I wrapped all her presents in a big present ball. She had to unravel and unravel to reveal each gift. I fit 3 packs of gum, 2 candy bars, earrings, headbands, a cross stitch kit, socks, and a night shirt in there!

 

her face says it all!!!

Time for cake! This was my 3rd birthday cake in so many days. I'm ready for a break (at least for a few weeks anyway!).

eFoods

I was recently contacted by the good people at eFoods. I am a huge believer in food storage and emergency preparedness and was interested to see what they had to offer. I have my cold storage room filled with the "staples"- wheat, rice, beans, powdered milk, etc. But let's be honest, it's nice to have meals (that my kids will actually eat) too.

eFoods' mission is to empower every family to have food security in the case of storms, natural disasters, or even financial crises like shrinking income or the loss of a job. Their meals come packaged in mylar bags and totes.

 Look at what you get with their 1 year family pack! Wouldn't that be awesome to have?! Talk about having peace of mind. I'm not as crazy as some of the Doomsday Preppers, but I would love to know that our family would be okay for a whole year if needed.

The eFoods packs look like meals my family will like, and I am excited to be able to try some of them and let you know what I think. I will be posting about that in the near future, but for now I wanted to make you aware of this company and a great promotion they are having right now.

 In remembrance of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Japan a year ago, eFoods Direct has created special family preparedness offers for bloggers and their readers: Don't forget to enter the special coupon codes, Food40 and Food50, when ordering to get this memorial discount.

Kensie's Spa Party

How to have a successful party for an 11 year old:



1. Find a really excited almost 11 year old.

2. Make the invitation.

3. Invite lots of BFF's.

 

Mary, Ellie, Abby, Lauren, Madi, Kensie, Brynne

4. Do a fun project, like making bath salts. Make sure Dad is available to play games on his phone and make embarrassing comments as needed.

5. Give the girls lots of sugar so they become extra giggly and loud.

6. Sing REALLY loud to the birthday girl.

7. Provide all the essentials for nail painting and hair-doing. Don't forget the glitter hair spray. This is essential. Also, don't forget to make them use it outside.

 

8. Make sure you have music playing so that the girls can squeal & sing & dance to songs by One Direction and such whilst doing hair and nails. Do not forget this step.

 

 

9. Sit back and relax as you watch unique hair styles being created, get up to speed on the latest 5th grade gossip, and hear the word "like" 1,240 times.

The end is near

School's almost over. Why do I always feel like this time of year is so exhausting? I'm sick of carpools, homework, making lunches, and getting up early. The nicer the weather gets, the harder it becomes.

The kids feel the same way. I can tell. I can tell because they want to ride bikes instead of do homework. I can tell because they want to wear shorts and flip flops to school every day. I can tell because Landon says "out mommy" when I put him in the car for the millionth time that day. I can tell because we all live for Saturdays when we spend the afternoon tromping around the gardens or at the dinosaur museum, after which we must always have ice cream.

Summer can't come fast enough!

at least there is good dancing music in the car!

Women's Conference

I got the chance to go to BYU Women's Conference this year for the first time. My friend Jennifer asked me and another friend, Allison, to help put together a Sharing Station. If you have never been to Women's Conference and have no idea what sharing stations are (like me!), they are an annual idea exhibit, created to provide resources for serving in your home, ward and community. We had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for the theme we were given, which was strengthening testimony through music. 

We got to BYU around 8:00 to set up, and then headed over to the Marriott Center for the opening speaker, who was Ruth Todd. It was great! Then we headed back to our booth from 11-3 while (not very many) people walked around to look at the exhibits.  

Jennifer was kind enough to let Allison & I attend some classes during that time. I totally felt like I was back at EFY. Great atmosphere!

From 3-5 we hung out and grabbed some dinner (sharing stations were not open then), then headed back from 5-8 to man the booth. We had a lot of people come by during that time, and many even came back a second time to show friends and family. We got great feedback on our handouts and ideas, especially the Sing A Story books (thanks, mom!). People were taking pictures and everything!

There were so many great booths, with tons of ideas. I can't wait to go online and find them all. Below is the link to our handouts and ideas:

Handouts and instructions for making the Sing A Story books

After we packed up, we made it over to the evening concert, which was quite the experience. I shed some tears (mostly of laughter). I could not believe how wild these women got! Screaming for Alex Boye?! I've got to be honest, I was having more fun watching the sign language interpreter try to keep up with him!

Everyone was hyped up about the surprise guest, who ended up being Eliza R. Snow (not really, you know. Although I'm pretty sure some people thought it was really her for a minute!!!)

Then there was the whole Michael McLean trying to rap debacle! It was pretty bad, and I'm surprised it's not up on YouTube yet. Maybe it is, I'd better look!

Oh man! I found it!! Skip to 2:50. It's so bad! He totally forgets the words.



But in the end it was a great message, and Hillary Weeks pulled it all together.

It was a great day and  night, and although our ride home was a little hairy, I had such a great time! Thanks girls!!