Kindergarten Graduation

Joseph's graduation was today.  I will admit that I teared up!  They were so cute!!  The music teacher had prepared 3 songs (with actions) that they performed.  Preston did most of the camera work on his Droid, so I will need to get that from him sometime.  My camera work wasn't the best because I was a little preoccupied chasing the 15 month old that should have been napping- around!  (seriously she's crazy! ) :)

  Here are a couple pics I was able to get:

 Yep, that's my kid picking his nose....

 in line to get his diploma

They had a little reception/ party in the classroom afterwards.  The best was when they went outside and had a pinata!  His teacher prepared a slide show with pictures she took throughout the year.  It was sweet when she teared up after when she was thanking us for letting her teach our children.  Ahhh.  So he has one day left on Friday (that is 2 hours long...) where he gets to go and get his yearbook signed.  I will take that 2 hours, because I need that time to pack!  I will pick him up and head straight out of town.

That is... after I drop this guy off at the hospital.  He decided to rupture his ACL, and now can't be left alone.  It works out great, because he has 12 weeks of rehab ahead of him and the first 2 weeks is the worst- so woohoo the vet will handle this!

I'm a *little* sad at what it cost us because I was going to finally get rid of the nasty carpet in the master bath, but looks like that will have to wait.  I've gotten some comments along the lines that we should have just put him down.  This makes me a little angry.  If you've ever loved your animal- would you seriously kill it because it hurt its knee, and was perfectly healthy otherwise?  Maybe you would, but not me.  As much as he annoys us, we love the little turd beast.

 Maybe I'm evil, but I was really hoping he would get a cast.  I wanted to see him try to walk with one. :)  But I will take the shaved leg, leaving the furry foot that looks like a giant sock.

Anything I can do, you can do better....

We've all seen those mommy blogs where they show you their awesome, perfectly made craft.  Yeah, this is my version.

  I have been sewing a lot lately, and even though these pictures will say otherwise- I HAVE improved.

So I like to bite off more than I can chew sometimes and go into things without thinking.  We are taking our trip this Friday and I thought it would be fun to make neck pillows for the kiddos.  They chose animal ones.....

So here is Joseph's, it's a dragon-lizard-dinosaur thing.  It turned out OK:

 So here is Thurston's,  It's not that bad really, the shape is good, the colors are great and the face is cute...

 until you look closer and wonder if it had a stroke???

 This angle is cute?  I think I messed up on the angling?  But he's still cute right?

 Here's Aleah's.  Yeah, I don't know either.  Somehow it didn't quite make it into the horseshoe shape.

       But look how cute the face is!?

 Too bad I sewed it upside down.  Those things?  Yeah they are supposed to be the feet that it is resting its precious head on.

 Well, it's not that bad, right? 

In the end, they all love them, and they are comfortable and 'personalized'.   Maybe I should stick to making cakes....

Why do they have to keep growing up?

So this week (and next I assume) has been a sweet emotional time.  I went through this last year when Joseph had his last day of Preschool, and today I was the same with Thurston's.  He was so excited to go to school today he ran out of the car and when I offered to walk him to class his response was "No!  I'm going to go myself!"  And off he ran.  They had their field trip and walked the green belt and had a snack along Indian Creek.  He said he had so much fun!  Tonight was his preschool graduation.  I was torn because it was also Joseph's dual language family night.  So Preston and I split up and he took TD and I went with JoJo.  Luckily we were able to make both and I was there just in time to see Thurston get his "diploma".  This is his picture.  It's so cute I think I might cry!

 And here is his Preschool picture.  He told me the day he got them taken that he was sad he didn't get to sit on the bike.  Now I know why! :)

 It was cute seeing him interact with all of his friends.  (and girlfriends...).  He is Soooo excited to be in Kindergarten!
  So now, here is my other Monkey!  He is in his last week of T-Ball and has loved it.  He really wants to be in real baseball NOW.  It is obvious when he slides into home to avoid the being tagged out.  Seriously so funny.  He's quite a good hitter too. :)  I love these little guys so much, and am holding on to the days that they still want me around (and let me snuggle with them). 

And here is the little Principessa... in her chair (that I recovered for her) enjoying Pingu (her absolute favorite)!

 ....Pingu again.  This time she decided to unload and get in the basket.  I love her!

Two Weeks!!!

What happens in 2 weeks?  Just about, not everything, but a lot of stuff. ...
    It is Joseph's last day of school (Thurston gets out a week earlier), and we are picking him up from school and heading out of town for the next 17 days (or so).
   The first few days we will be in SLC checking out the Clarke Planetarium, and then I finally get to make good on my Birthday gift- Les Miserables!!  I had a dream the other night that it ended up being a High School production and they weren't even in costume.  I was so angry that I paid that much for tickets and it was a bunch of kids trying to do my favorite musical.  Fun times.

   Preston will be flying home as I play single Mom for the week (while he may or may not have a week long guys night with his friends...).  BUT I do get to spend a couple days with my Mom AND Katelyn is graduating.  I'm freaking out, so I can't imagine what Julie is doing.  They are going to take off to Moab and will be hiking for a couple days.  I will be heading back to the Avenues to play in a pool. ( I don't do camping/ hikes anymore...) :)
    I know ya'll are so excited to be reading my itinerary, but stay with me- because the next Friday, Pres flies back to SLC and the we head to St George to check out a Dinosaur Museum for the boys.  But that's just a small stop on our way to San Diego!!  WOOHOO!!
   The boys keep talking about Legoland.  I've heard many peoples opinions on how they loved it or hated it.  Seeing as I have no desire to ride the rides, and my boys LOVE Legos- I think it will be a big hit for our family.  Plus we got the 5 day pass for the price of one that includes the water park and aquarium, so we can come and go as we please and not feel like we have to stay all day.  We are so excited to get out and play and be near the Ocean again (first time for kids). 
  I would like to say that I will get a great tan, but we all know I freckle, burn, peal and remain pasty white- so sorry to disappoint.
  I'm super excited to finally get to see some long lost friends, I hope they are as excited to see us as we are them. :)

It's been like 7 years, pre kids and all.  This was them Dancing at my 24th birthday party....

  So yeah, I'm pretty stoked.

   And for those who care, the Badger that was in my garden yesterday has not returned and my cat survived.  For being such a fierce big hairy thing, he was kinda cute (only because I was looking at him from my second story window!!)      

Toothless

The day has finally come, Joseph lost his first tooth.  I think he was getting a little antsy about the whole thing.  All of his friends were loosing theirs, but he still hadn't.  We can thank his nervous habit of biting his shirt for it.  I guess the little guy was gnawing on his shirt button and bit down wrong and snapped some roots.  Poor tooth didn't stand a chance with Mama's ninja fingers.  I had that tooth yanked out in less than 3 seconds.  He was super excited.  And would you look at the fro' on that kid?!  I think he is auditioning for the role of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  But for reals, its usually not that bad, let face it- if we aren't going anywhere that day, the kids hair (nor mine as well) gets brushed. 

 My friend Tricia made this cute tooth monster pillow.  The mouth is a pocket, and makes it convenient for the tooth fairy to do the necessary exchange.  :)

Joseph wrote a note (and drew a pic) for the tooth fairy, and as usual, I have not taken a photo and I write an empty promise to one day include the said picture.  One day you will log on to see all those empty promises made right, but until that day, you're gonna have to deal with it.
  So, the tooth fairy wrote him back, and it turns out ours is a dude.  He goes by the name of Al Dente :) and is looking forward to doing further business with us.  He is the Thomson's official tooth fairy.  I'm already looking forward to yanking another tooth out. MMmuuuaaahahhaaa....

Paintings for a Mother's Day Bieber Party...? Anyone?

First, I must say that I was spoiled greatly this Mother's Day! Preston surprised me on Friday when he came home from work with all this!  He was holding the roses, JoJo was holding the daisy bouquet, Thurston the white roses, and Aleah had the bag of chocolates (and was running away with them). :)  Thank you Albertson's for providing decent priced and beautiful flowers!  And esp thank you Dear amazing Hubby for getting them for me! :)

For actual Mother's Day, I was allowed to sleep until 10am!!!!  I KNOW!!! :D

Then I got bored and started reading while they were getting things ready.  They all came in at 10:30 bearing homemade gifts and cards and cinnamon toast and juice/ milk.  First the giant card, then I opened Thurston's gift.  The wrapping paper was construction paper with cats walking on a rainbow trying to get to the pot of gold.  He made me a butterfly out of a painted doily and a clothes pin. :)

JoJo had written Te Quiero Mama!  and his was the cutest picture of him they took at school.  He was wearing a hat and a large dress coat and the pic was in black and white.  He constructed the frame out of large Popsicle sticks painted to look like caterpillars.

I remember my Mom has a part of her wall in her bedroom that has all the crafts we made as kids for Mother's Day.  To this day, they are still there.  I feel so special to have items to display of my own now.  I will admit that I teared up looking at them today.  I should have taken a picture of all of them.  I prob will later! 

We then got ready and Preston took us to a special Mother's Day brunch at the Ono Hawaiian Cafe.  It was sooo yummy!!  The coconut french toast, the special made to order omelet, the braised beef, Kahlua Pig, coconut fruit bowls, eclairs, mini cheese cakes, salmon... seriously I haven't had to eat for the rest of the day!!  I am so blessed with the best children in my life!  Each one is so crazy special to me (esp the crazy part).  It's so easy for people to see why it would be hard to raise children, but its not so easy to put into words just how amazing it is to be a Mom.  It's worth all the crap and crazy times and fits, because at the end of the day when you are snuggled reading a bedtime story and they snuggle back and say " I love you Mommy!" it all was worth it!

Now for the Bieber. 

So if you were walking along in the clearance section of Walmart, and you saw that there were Justin Bieber party supplies on sale for 25 cents, could you- would you pass up that deal?  Yeah, me neither!

We celebrated my belated birthday yesterday: 

 The awesome cake Kim and Bill made for me:

 Loot bags!  Left over Easter candy, play dough and demotivational candy grahams*. (this is what I used to leave on peoples desk/ computers at work for fun.  Instead of the 'lifesaver' candy grahams, mine were with Riesens... IE You are the Riesen Darwin could be right/ babies cry/ we check under the bed at night  etc...) They're great fun if you have a group that welcomes insults. :)

 Pulled out the wig.  We were going to play pin the hair on the Bieber, but ended up not.  But Preston looks fabulous.  BTW, if anyone wants a Justin Bieber poster, let me know. ;)

 The cake.  Don't know what's going on with the elf ears though!

 Nothing wrong with a room full of nerds.  I love all the faces here...

 You are what you eat, and I love me a lot of cheese...

 We finished the night by dancing our hearts out (a couple of us anyway) to Dance Central on the Kinect. 

   So now for the painting.  I painting this for my friend Tricia.  Travis was a little sad that I painted over the existing painting, but I think he liked the result.  I don't know if you've noticed, but I am a little obsessed with Orchids.  They're my fave.

Horray for Thurston!

Hooray for our little Thursty!  He got into the Spanish immersion program!  Now he and Joseph can speak Spanish together.  I have to admit that I am waaay excited to have both the boys in school all day next school year.  I love them dearly, but you know what I mean!

He and his special 'friend' Rachael will be in the class together. :)