St. Patrick's Day and Relief Society Birthday

So Tuesday was a busy, busy day.  It was the Relief Society Birthday Dinner and I was in charge, so I ended up going to the church three times that day to help set up and make sure everything was ready.  But first, I did take a couple of green pictures for Saint Patrick's Day.

Everyone wearing green.  And even everyone looking forward.

Whitney insisted I needed a picture of me in green.  We are still working on not cutting off heads.

The girls got to use green fingerpaint to decorate a cardboard box.  They loved this activity. And that pretty much sums up our Saint Patrick festivities.

I was worried about this Relief Society Birthday Dinner.  But it turned out really well.  Maybe I will be recovered enough by next year to do it again.

These are the table settings.  The Relief Society Presidency got together and made these beautiful flower bouquets with mirrors in the middle (to go with our Inner Beauty theme).

Here everyone makes faces.  I cut out a whole bunch of face pieces and told everyone to make a beautiful face.  My mom and sister were able to come to the activity.  So I appreciated their support.

After making faces and talking about how beauty is different for everyone, we ate a scrumptious meal.  We had cream puffs with different fillings - the chicken salad and ham salad were delicious.  And we had plenty of food for everyone.  That was a relief.

I made a video presentation about beauty.  I think everyone liked the video.  (Thanks goes to Will for turning my powerpoint into a DVD)

Kind of a blurry picture, but we are playing a matching game using the virtues found in Proverbs 31.  We talked about what makes us really beautiful.

At the end, I gave out 'Beauty Bags'.  They didn't have the typical 'beauty' items in it.  Instead there were things like cotton balls for showing others gentleness and compassion.  Anyway, I am hoping that the wonderful sisters in the ward learned something about being truly beautiful on the inside and out.

   Now I am just planning Whitney's big Oompa Loompa party on Saturday,

Whitney's Birthday

My big girl has turned five.  Holy cow! How did that happen?  We did a smaller party on her actual birthday; my family was able to come from the Tri-Cities for dinner and celebrating.  We are going to be having another party with Whitney's friends in a little while, so that should also be fun.

We went to story time in the morning.  Whitney's birthday is close to Dr. Seuss' birthday.  We are the only family who consistently comes to story time.

So the story time lady threw Whitney a birthday party.  That was really nice of her.

Whitney got a birthday crown and a coloring book and a few other small party things.

Megan enjoyed the cupcake at the party.

Then the evening with my family here.  Whitney picked brownies over chocolate cake.

And we got yummy fudgesicles.  Megan liked her brownie, until she saw the fudgesicle and then her brownie was no good anymore.

My parents brought some fun presents for Whitney.  Whitney also got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa Keeler.  

The lucky girl got so many fun things.  Most things have already been opened and used.

Megan getting in trouble after the party.  She wanted to poke all the brownies.

And my sister Kaitlin left her water bottle here, that was quickly discovered and utilized.

Anyway, it was a really fun day.  Happy Birthday Sweet Whitney!!

The Randoms

We are potty training here - what could be more fun?  So we have been trying to stay home as much as possible.  These pictures aren't going to be super exciting.  But here they are.

Megan smiling in Will's (I mean her's) BYU hat.

Megan seems to like Rachel's potty toilet more than Rachel.  Here she reads a book while sitting.

We were ready for church about 30 minutes early one Sunday.  That is no small feat with little children.  So we spent awhile singing primary songs.

Megan is my best cleaner.  She had spilled some milk and decided to try to clean it with a broom.  Good try little girl.

Whitney informed me that she needed snow.  We haven't really had much at all.  Poor kids.  So we made paper snow.

And now the "snow" is falling down.

Megan and her friend Asher playing under the computer desk.

I use a lot of methods to try to help Rachel stay on the potty chair sometimes.  This balloon fight worked really well.

And at story time last week.  The kids used animal magnets to make a zoo.

A Happy Day of Love

We had a good Valentine's Day.  It is nice remembering how much we love each other and how much we love our kids.

We planned a service Relief Society activity for right before Valentine's.  We wanted to heart attack and give cookies to some less active sisters in the ward.

The girls loved helping make the heart shape cookies.  They also liked licking the floury table clean.

After Family Home Evening, the kids each got to decorate one cookie for a treat.  Megan thought it was fun, but needed lots of help.

On Friday, we surprised Will at work by decorating his door.  We decorated his door last year and someone rudely took down our hearts one day that Will wasn't there.  He was upset about that.  We decided that he needed decorations again.

Will made Valentine's breakfast - some heart shape birds in nest (or whatever it is called).  I cannot remember the name, but it was delicious.  Thanks for cooking, Will.

We don't have any Valentine's wrapping paper, so this was the reddest gift bag I could find.  Opening presents was fun.

The girls especially liked opening presents.  They got some candy and some new princess shoes.

Megan wasn't too sure about her shoes.  I guess they were harder for her to walk in.  But she did smile for the camera.

And it wouldn't be a fun day without playing some live action SuperSmash Bros.  Will made it up and it is Whitney's favorite game.  Something about poking each other with swords is exciting.

There was a ward dinner that evening.  The high priests cooked delicious chicken cordon bleu and the youth helped serve and babysit.  It was a fun evening.

Will and I played in a couples see how well you know each other game.  We got second place and won a "dinner at home" date package.  It had two cans of ravioli, a water bottle, and some plastic cookware.  So that was kind of funny.  

Anyway, it was a great Valentine's.  I am glad Will and I are still very much in love after 7 1/2 years.  I hope everyone else had a great day also.

Our Climber

We have a climber in our house - a very short and very cute climbing machine.

Her name is Megan and she is almost 18 months old.  She is by far the most climbing child of all my children.  And she is persistent too.

Megan smiles for the camera after successfully getting on the box.

This position is funny because Megan climbs up, and then gets scared and goes back to the box.  And then collects her courage and climbs up again, and then down again.  It was funny to watch.

Finally tumbling headfirst into the crib.  At least that is a soft landing.  You cannot tell, but she was smiling for this picture.  She was quite pleased with herself.

The computer desk is another great spot to climb.  She gets on the chair and climbs all the way up.  Our heater control is up on the wall, so Megan climbs up and pushes the lever up and down.  The poor heater doesn't know if it should be doing fifty or ninety.

There are other spots that Megan likes to climb, but I don't take pictures of them because I am quickly trying to pull her down.  For example, Megan enjoys getting on the kitchen table, laying down on it, and then spinning while saying 'Whee'.  It would be really cute and funny if it didn't make me so nervous.  We have now placed all our chairs sideways and moved them away from table.

But then Megan gives me a cute smile (after stealing some lipstick) and all is forgiven.  Hopefully we can get through this stage without a concussion.