Ella's Birthday

Ella chose to do a Build-a-Bear party this year.  Honestly, this is the first time we've ever not done the party ourselves and it was pretty amazing.  

We did it on a Friday night.  We drove through the world's worst thunderstorm to the mall where the girls had Chick-fil-a for dinner.  After dinner was done we headed out of the food court to Build-a-Bear.

The employee who hosted our party showed everyone all the many choices of stuffed animals they could choose from, but naturally every single girl went for the exact same bear.  I had to laugh about it.

Getting hearts for their bears...

... and bringing them to life.  Everyone got two hearts.  One to put in their bear, and one to give Ella's bear a birthday wish.  Awww!

Then they stuffed them.

Then they gave their bears baths...

Then they got to choose whatever outfit in the store they wanted.  I was happily surprised because I chose the second cheapest party package.  There were a few princess gowns, but my favorites are the boys: Boba Fett and Darth Vader.

Singing Happy Birthday to Ella.

That was seriously the cutest party I've ever seen.  It was so precious and I was pretty sure my mom and I were going to melt into a puddle the whole time.  Thank you Ella for choosing such a sweet party, and one that I did no work for.  :)

Heather's Birthday

The girls made a birthday dance for me as well.  :)

A week before my birthday Ben told me that he was throwing me a tea party for my birthday lunch.  He spent hours preparing for it the night before making recipes from some of the books we brought back from England.  Above are lemon crackers (we don't know why they're not called biscuits because they're like lemon cookies) and meringue with whipped cream and berries.  The meringue Ben made was even better than what we had in England!

We also had tiffin (look it up!  So yummy!) and raspberry dark chocolate tartlets.

My parents brough the cucumber sandwiches -- one of my absolute faves.  Also, I highly recommend demarura sugar over white for your tea.  I like it so much more.  And speaking of tea, we drank my favorite: Black Cherry Berry.

All of us loved it.  It was all so delicious.  But the kids really loved it.  I don't even know how many cups of tea Thad went through.

Meringue cracks easily when you pick it up, so Ella resorted to eating it like this.  :)

The man who did it all.

Ben kept telling me that he bought me a great birthday present.  I couldn't figure out what on earth it could be so when I unwrapped a version of my favorite statue (above) I was thrilled.  Ben had it shipped to my parents' and they kept telling me, "Oh, Ben did really well this year picking you a gift."  It's the bust version of this statue and I keep it in our living room.  It's the only thing I wish we could have brought home from England that was just too expensive and too heavy to transport back.  Ben really knocked it out of the ball park this year.  I felt so loved.  :)

Ben's Birthday

The girls came up with a birthday dance piece for Ben's special day.  The night before we were walking by their door when we heard them practicing and Ben and I just stopped to listen and try our hardest not to laugh.  It was so sweet!

They did a reverse stage in their room where we had to sit behind the curtain until they were ready to perform.

Ben made his own birthday dinner of smoked ribs (in his new smoker that he gifted himself).  Then for dessert is was a tres leches cake.

Yes Day 2017

Every year I have a Yes Day with the kids where I have to say yes to everything they want to do (within reason).  As usual, their requests weren't huge.

Breakfast was at Bagels+, a nearby deli.  We had yummy cinnamon rolls, muffins, and other treats.

Then the kids wanted to do science experiments.  We did a few.  Some were duds like this one ended up being.  We were supposed to have cleaner coins after they soaked in vinegar.  It didn't do much.

Then they chose to paint.

Then they each wanted to buy a toy.  So I gave them a $6/each budget and they picked what they wanted.  Lily got a fidget spinner.  Skyler got silly putty and a couple of slinkies.  And Ella and Thaddeo got Beanie Boos.  

They spent quiet time watching a movie instead of playing upstairs.

I think we went to McDonald's for lunch and then for dinner we had a ward pioneer party.

The details of Yes Day are already fuzzy for me, but I remember telling them that I think this was the last time we could have a yes day because the kids were struggling to be happy and I was really struggling to be happy.  We'll see if it happens again next year or not.

Lily's 9th Birthday

I took so many pictures of Lily's party and accidentally deleted most of them.  So here's the basic idea of her party.  She wanted a pool party at our neighborhood pool and I was ecstatic.  I just booked the clubhouse, ordered pizza, made cupcakes and party favors, and called it good.  So easy!

I had to put Ben and my dad in charge of playing with the kids because I've been on fertility medications that made me super sensitive to light.  So I took these pictures from the club house balcony.  

It was a fun day and Lily was happy so that's all that's really important.  :)

Thad and Ella's Swim Lessons

We have this awesome family in our ward that lives a couple of streets over from us.  Their daughters teach swim lessons in their backyard pool each summer.  Jane (to the left) is the one who taught both Lily and Skyler to swim.  Bekah (to the right) just started teaching this year, which was great because Ella and Thad could practice at the same time while Lily and Skyler played in the deep end. 

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but Thad really doesn't have any fear.  He would happily drown himself and has tried several times.  He just comes out of the water breathing heavily before he jumps back in and tries drowning himself again.  Hence the swim lessons.

This video actually was quite the achievement for Ella.  She's much more afraid of the water, but she has all the coordination that Thad still lacks.  That little woman has overcome a lot of fear in her two weeks of swim lessons.  She went from barely being able to blow a couple of bubbles in the water to swimming.  And all of this at a low teenage teacher price.  Totally worth it.

Look at how great she's doing!

Thad's jump into the pool -- every single time it makes me laugh.

His coordination isn't quite there yet, but I think after swimming this summer and taking more lessons next year, he'll have it down nicely.

I accidentally took this picture but it is one of my favorites.  Thad and his eternal wedgies as I call them.

Bubble-butt.

Thaddeo and Bekah

Ella and Jane

The way Thad always jumps into the water cracks me up every single time.

And this video of Ella always makes me laugh.  I'm such a good mom.