Eyeshadow

 Imagine me sewing, happily talking to my friend, while Sofia and Dylan play downstairs.

All is peaceful and their is enough noise that your not worried to much.

Sofia comes running upstairs so so excited.

"Mom, mom look at my eyeshadow"

Yes that is blue marker and she is elated about how beautiful she is.

 Dylan looked so guilty so we asked him what happened.

It was all Sofia's idea and he watched. 

Even though it is washable she still has a bit of blue on her eyes.

What a silly little woman.

Best Sunday of the Year

The Primary Program is really the best Sunday of the year.  Yesterday was no exception.  My kids were pure entertainment.  We spent the week and morning before church beautifying them and practicing their parts.  I look forward to this every year.  And I know the Primary Presidency works really hard on this.

Now for my kids,  Shall we start with the oldest

Noah:    who is 7 

The entire time he looked like he was extremely tired and totally bored.  He had a dead pan look on his face.  He was wearing his "James Bond outfit"  from Ginny's wedding with no tie.   He rarely sang the songs except every once in awhile one of the sentences.  Kersten made the comment that he needed to teach Noah the "watermelon" trick.   The boys and their Dads sang the 3rd verse of Praise to the Man together.  Noah just stared into the microphone.  One of the Sunbeams was singing his heart out,  which made this fabulous.  

When it was his turn to do his speaking part
which was to be about how he loves the stories of war in the Book of Mormon, such as the Armies of Helaman and Captain Moroni.
He swaggers up to the microphone as if to say "I am going to nail this"
and says " I love the temple because we get married there, not on the beach or in a church but in the temple" and struts back to his seat.
Kersten and I were laughing so hard that the bench was shaking.  A couple behind us tapped us on the shoulder and said that it was their favorite part of the program so far.  He spoke with such confidence and was factual.  This is the boy who at the age of 3 played Star Wars and flung Spiderman webs all over the stand during the program.

Now for my Sofia: who is 3

This girl said she looked Perfect.  She wore her Easter dress and a flower headband

 she got from Avery's birthday party (Kieran's daughter).

She threw a huge fit before church because she had to wear makeup,

so chapstick was smeared all around her mouth and on her cheeks.

because it was a "special occasion"  I gave in and put a bit of eyeshadow on her eyes.

When on the stand her hair had flipped over the headband and was in her eyes.

She attempted to sing only her favorite songs. 

She started rolling her eyes into the back of her head and 

pulling on them so you could see the whites of her eyes. 

She has dancing fingers so they were all over during the music. 

Our favorite part was when she starting swaying back and forth like Stevie Wonder, 

looking up toward the ceiling, bumping into the kid next to her. 

When her turn came up for her speaking part... That morning she had it down pat.  

She was suppose to talk about how she loved the temple because her mom and dad got married there.  

And that we are a family forever.

She talked all week about how she got to talk in a real microphone.

She says "I love the temple, it's great.  I go there. "

Gives her million dollar grin and bounces back to her seat.

And her parents go into another round of hysterics.  

Their performances were really quite epic.  

At least our children offered up some entertainment in church yesterday.

They made me proud.

Painting Sofia's Kitchen

Before

 Last weekend Dad went backpacking, so Sofia and I decided to do something fun.

We painted her kitchen.  This kitchen used to be mine when I was a girl.

As you can see it needed a little tender love.

Sofia had to help so I put one of my paint shirts on her.

And we began.

I love painting furniture.

I love the evolution of it all.

As something old looks fresh and new.  

After

I painted it a retro blue color.  

I matched the color of the paper that I made her light switch and the letter I in her name.

I LOVE how it turned out.

Originally I was going to get some red and pink flower handles from Hobby Lobby.

And I still might get them.  I had these knobs hangin around so I used them

Sofia loves her new kitchen. 

That is blue, the "color of moonlight" just like Cinderellas dress.

I am very happy with how it turned out.

I was nervous how it would look on her bright pink walls

I think it turned out fantastic.

I bought 3 cans of paint at Home Depo 

and all of them were different shades of blue for different parts of my house

Hmm,  I see a theme right now.

9 wishes

One of Noah's friends asked him if he had 9 wishes what would they be
Thanks Elise for having him think of this.

Here was his response

1.  That we could play Star Wars for Real.

2.  That I had super strength

3. I could shoot lava out of my hands

4. That I was an Octo Millionaire (A millionaire 8 times)

5. Shoot lasers out of his eyes

6. It would rain Trix anytime I wanted

7. The fastest Jet that is armored and fully equip

8. A tank

9. A computer that shows him where all the bad guys are.

 SOFIA

She had to have 9 wishes also.

1. Princess Boat

2. Magical Coach with Horses

3.  A real life puppy

4. Fairy Godmother

5. Magic Unicorn

6.  A Ballet

7. Flowers all over, especially sunflowers and pink ones

8.Tiara crown

9.  A Chocolate Milk and Pudding River

Sofia's First Day of Preschool Ever

 Sofia was so excited for her first day of Preschool.

Her energy was palpable as we got ready for school

It was actual torture to wait until it was time to go

since it is an hour after Noah leaves.

 I had to make up things we needed to do, Just on the first day of school.

Like take pictures by every plant in the front yard.

Paint our fingernails glittery,

Put lip gloss on,  Sing the ABC song, 

Even after we finally got in the car I took the long way to school

Luckily we could call Aunt Ginny and Daddy before school

 We finally arrived.  

And Teacher Pat was so so excited that Sofia was there.

There was no nervousness. 

Just happiness.

 When I was little my preschool was in a basement too.

My mom took a picture of me by the door down the stairwell.

So of course I had to also.  

She remembered where to put her backpack

and went right to the rug where her name was. 

 Here the kids are lined up after school to wait for their parents to get them.

Sometimes seeing pictures of her with other kids just reminds me how tall she is.

Sofia said her favorite thing about school was the sandbox. 

I thought that very educational.  

Here she is with two of her best friends from our neighborhood

Mika, Molly and Sofia

After we went to McDonalds and played.

She then told me that she also liked the songs at school

It was an awesome first day of school.

I have a 2nd Grader in my House

Noah, a 2nd Grader

Sofia posing with her 2nd grade brother

Today was the first day of School,  it feels random that it started on a tuesday.  I was grateful for that extra monday with my boy at home.  Last night while I was tuckin  Noah into bed,  I told him that I would miss having him home all day.  And that I thought we needed a secret signal that no one else would know.  It would mean that "I love you, I need a hug and I am thinkin about you."  He jumped at the idea and came up with the signal right away.  He woke up showing me that sign.  I kept exclaiming how I just could not believe that I had a 2nd grader.  Because 2nd grade was a really fun year for me.

On the way to school he asked me if it is okay to marry friends.  (lately at our house we have had to explain to Sofia that you cannot marry your brother when you grow up).  I said that you for sure can, and that daddy and I were friends way before he held my hand or kissed me.  He piped up with "oh, good then I can marry Bailey".  That made me laugh

YOu could tell he was nervous, excited and a little scared.  He has a couple of friends in his class he was pretty excited about.  His favorite friend Thomas was not in his class,  he said that he could at least play with him at recess.

Walking into his classroom

Everyone got "Cool" sunglasses to wear on the first day, so here he is walking into class.  He gave me the secret signal.  Also he kissed my hand from the kissing hand (they read that in kindergarten) and I got a big hug and a kiss.  I will take all the love that I can while I can get it.

Noah with his teacher Miss Allen

After school,  I asked him how his day went.  He said really good.  He showed me his desk and he is right by the chalkboard at table 1.  As we walked I asked if he liked his teacher and he said "oh, Yes,  she is like a World of Happiness.  She calls us all friends and is so so happy to be teaching.  Just so happy.    So I say it was a successful first day.  He was NOT so happy about having to do a bit of homework tonight though.

A Bit of Summer

 We miss you Ginny

So glad we got to see you a bit in june and july.

I love this pic of Sofia and Oma Christel

 Swimming lessons.