For my birthday several friends met me at Panera for dessert and lots of fun chatting! Scarlett made me breakfast in bed (complete with Diet Pepsi - haha!!!)
I had a wonderful day with my family.
I realized I have been alive for over a billion seconds. My friend came over with her baby that is only 2 weeks old. I realized that he just hit the million second mark. So crazy how much different a billion versus a million really is.
1 million seconds equals 11.57 days
1 billion seconds equals 31.71 years
Then Jake turned 35! I think the kids enjoy our birthday more than we do haha! The girls made a ton of cards and other art projects for Jake while he was at work. I'm always surprised how he can go the entire work day without mentioning his birthday to anyone. In fact the only time he mentioned that it was his special day was when he was leaving. His coworker asked him a question and Jake was like "I'm headed home cause I'm late for my own birthday party!"
We noticed a leak in the older girls' room and realized we needed a new roof. My neighbor suggested we call these firefighters from Detroit that have a roofing company for in between their fire shifts. They were so fast!
I like the darker roof. But man, paying for a new roof sucks. At least it doesn't leak anymore!
Being the primary pianist was killing my bum cheeks. I decided that I wanted to make a cushion for the piano bench so my derriere would be more comfy. Jake bought me a board. I went to JoAnn's and got some really nice, thick, dense foam. While I was there my friend and her daughter from our ward showed up. They helped me pick out an upholstery fabric that would look good in the primary room. I love how it turned out! Plus now I can see over the top of the piano! haha!
Scarlett's primary class is in a room with a bunch of soft cushion chairs. Her very pregnant primary teacher told me that when she came into the classroom all the kids were sitting in the cushions and there was only a hard metal chair left. Scarlett jumped up and offered her soft chair to her teacher. *proud mom moment*
One Saturday Jake and I decided to build a garden! The whole idea was spur of the moment but so fun to put together! The girls really liked Home Depot (well the popcorn at least). We have enjoyed a little bell pepper, basil, dill, and other things from it already. And we planted Berlyn's tiny pineapple. It's so cute!
I have wanted to make a big art project to go over our bed on our giant vaulted wall. We just couldn't decide on what we wanted. Finally inspiration struck! I made a minimalist solar system out of vinyl. Then I put my favorite scripture underneath it. Science and religion have always worked in harmony in my mind and this scripture captures that perfectly. Plus vinyl has the added bonus of not falling on our faces in the middle of the night!
I bought shadow boxes after the twirls were born to showcase their newborn items. They sat in the office in their original packaging for years. Then two years ago I bought another matching box for Skye. FINALLY when Jami was here I took the time to go down memory lane and put together these cute boxes. I'm so glad that they are finally done. I love their little feet prints.
Our plum tree in front of our house caught a fungus called black knot. I emailed my Aunt Meredith who knows so much about plants. Basically she said our tree was too far gone. I was so sad! We had it removed. I was chatting with the tree guy who removed our plum about what kind of trees he suggested. He mentioned a tri-color beech. Well when we went to the landscape place we loved the tri-color beech! So now we have a pink tree for our house of girls!
The end of the school year is always soooo crazy! This past May/June was no exception. It began with Scarlett being chosen as the Student of the Month for Compassion. We're so proud of her!
The assembly was a little long for these littles.
The last awards assembly Scarlett came home with several certificates for her hard work. I love the last day of school photos. So fun to see how much they've grown.
At the last parent teacher conference, Scarlett's teacher said she's never seen a 1st grade student score that high in math. She said Scarlett really took her time to figure it out. Ms. Burnham said she doesn't even know what questions the computer asks at that point. Right now Scarlett is in the advanced 1st grade class. Her teacher said usually kids who score that high on the computer don't do well in class, but not Scarlett. She does well both places. We are proud of the hard work she puts into her education!
One morning I woke up in a panic. I had forgotten how I usually spell airplane vs aeroplane! I joked to Jake that Scarlett is probably already a better speller than me. Well later that week one of the twirls asked how to spell orange. I said "o-a-r-n-g-e." Scarlett was like "no, mom, that's not right." Uh oh! And so it begins!!! (in my defense, I usually spell orange correctly!)
We went to the Multicultural Night at the school. My girls got to learn about all different countries that the students are from. We even played a game of Dreidel. There was a lady who was writing names in Arabic for people. When I was in YWs (like 15+ years ago) there was a girl there who spoke Arabic and taught me how to write my name. I showed the lady at the school what I remembered. She said "is your name Jennifer?" Yes!!! "Well you are very close!" She fixed it and now you can see how to probably spell my name.
Pajama Day, Scarlett wanted to wear jammies that she got from when Berlyn and Braxtyn were little.
Then you might notice that it says I'm the PTO President for next year. No, that's not a typo. I really did get coerced into taking this job. The principal asked me to consider the position. They wanted someone to come in and help change the culture and mindset from the previous presidency. I really wasn't sure but I thought about it for several days. Finally my dad told me "Jen, they need you. This is totally up your alley. So now the question is how are you going to make it work." Jake and I discussed what I would be willing to do and the principal agreed to my terms (mostly that I would cancel events if no other parents are willing to help). So here we are. There will be more blog posts about the PTO in the near future. It's already starting to take over my life!
For career day Scarlett wanted to dress up in her apiring vocation: Roller Skate Teacher. And for Nerd Day Scarlett wore an old shirt of mine that says: (front) How many men does it take to build a rocket? (back) NONE! Society of Women Engineers
Star Wars Day - May the Fourth Be With You. All the girls wanted to join in on the Rey hairstyle fun.
Berlyn stayed home with the younger girls so I could go on a field trip to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum with Scarlett's class. They had us chaperone small groups so the kids could move around the museum. I had 3 girls. We decided our team name was "Unicorn Butterflies." haha! I was talking to one of the girls and Scarlett told me "You have to be an Indian to say Roopkatha's name right." Apparently I wasn't getting the accent in the right places for her.
1st Grade Musical. We got to watch the first grade musical. It was a sea creature themed script. Scarlett had several speaking parts and she also got to stay by the microphone and help other students with their lines. The only bummer was that the room was packed, sweaty, and loud. So we didn't get to hear or see very well. I'm glad Jake recorded most of the event so we could enjoy it afterwards. The program is broken into 3 videos. If you only want to watch her speaking part then watch the last video (you'll also see Skye dancing along with the song towards the end).
Singing part 1...
Singing part 2...
Singing part 3 (Scarlett's speaking role and little girls dancing at the end)
And finally Jaide and Siena went to Kindergarten Round Up. It was Pete the Cat themed and they had a great time! They have come so far in the past year. I think they are really going to do well at school!
These girls looked so sweet in their name color dresses. I just love the look when they are spinning. I bought them all clear jelly shoes and I got some for me too! They love when we all match.
Look how cute these spinning girls are!
For Mother's Day the girls all made me artwork at church. I love the answers the twirls wrote in their class. Scarlett drew a picture of me giving her a hug. Skye did the cute little handprints.
Jake made brownies. I got the first piece, and since it was Mother's Day I took the piece I wanted - right in the middle haha! The girls all got to sing in Sacrament Meeting. I was playing the piano so I didn't get to watch. My mom snuck a picture, you can see Jaide was too tired she had to rest her head the whole song on the podium. (Our guests were in town, the ballet recital was on Mother's Day too).
My mom went with the Twirls to their primary class. While they were all filling out the mom papers this is what my mom overheard...
Siena: I have a mom Jaide: My dad is awesome Amy: It is almost take your kid to work day Aiden: My mom loves me
For Father's Day we tried to give Jake as much free time as possible to relax and recharge.
The girls made artwork for Jake at church. Skye did the footprints. Siena and Jaide drew pictures of their dad.
Just hanging out with our girls. Scarlett brought me a Pepsi with my butter and jam toast. haha! I like the picture of Skye doing yoga with Jake. The bottom middle photo is Jake driving a Raptor he brought home from work. The smile on his face is from the giant mud puddle he just drove through. haha! The bottom right picture is Jake playing trebuchet with the girls. Got to start the nerds young!
I got to be the primary chorister for several weeks while our current chorister was vomiting like crazy in her first weeks of pregnancy. I got to teach the Father's Day song. I made these picture posters to help them remember the words. There was this 8 year old boy who came in, saw the posters, then asked me if I made them. I told him yes, then he looked at me and said "Good job!" haha!
I love all the music ideas on Pinterest. I found that many people use ribbon dancers. So I made a TON of these things (some for nursery too). The kids love them (even the older boys)!
I fell outside the library one day, landed my back right on the edge of the cement curb edge with my foot folded under me. My back was soooo sore for like a week, but the side of my foot hurt for several weeks. I finally went to instacare to get an xray (turns out it was an injured ligament, still took another month to heal). Anyways, I knew I was going to be waiting while I was there, so I brought a bag with the supplies to manufacture those ribbon dancers. I tied all the ribbons together, pulled them up out of the bag, then tied a knot at the bottom, then cut the ribbon above the second knot. That way I could do all the ribbons together at once. It was so fast. There was a little 5 year old there waiting to be seen. I asked her if she could be my ribbon tester and I gave her one of the first wands that I made. I saw her an hour later waving her ribbons through the air as she was walking down the hall. :-)
A few months ago Siena and Jaide were talking to my mom on the phone and they told her how excited they were for her to come see them on the stage like she did for Scarlett. Guilt Trip!!! So they decided to come visit in early May. Jami wanted to come visit to watch the show too. Since James and Hailey live so close they decided to join the party! Needless to say it was a very full house!
Here are some fun things from their trip....
Jaide put a dog leash around the wooden rocking horse’s neck and was pulling it on a walk then it tipped over. Grumple says, “Oh no, she’s down. You know what we do when a horse goes down? Girls go get the gun.”
Grumple to Siena: “What makes you be a twin with Jaide."
Siena: “Because mommy made us this way.”
Grumple: “Because she dresses you the same?"
Siena: “Yes."
Grumple: “Then when you dress like Scarlett are you twins?"
Siena: "No, I can never be twins with Scarlett." Jaide walked in.....Grumple: “Jaide, can you tell me why you’re a twin with Siena?”
Jaide: “Because Jesus made us that way. “
Grammy wrote Skye’s name down on her Magna Doodle and asked, “What does this spell?” She looked at it and started singing the alphabet song...
Grammy was sitting on the couch texting someone and the remote was next to her. She didn’t notice it until Skye picked it up and said words directly to her. She then points it at the TV and chooses a show - yes, Grammy is still watching - and then walks away.
The video of Grumple training Skye just cracks me up:
We were talking about Grumple’s ingrown toe surgery and he said it oozed toe juice. Jake responded with, “if you boil that with some sugar and pectin you’ll get toe jam.”
My dad likes to have a project when he comes to visit, so this time he installed 2 ceiling fans. Jake got the honor of climbing up in the hot and dusty attic.
Last night for bedtime stories they wanted Grumple to tell stories from when he was little. Grammy had to keep reminding him that they would believe his fibs and he couldn’t tell them he lived in a little house on the prairie. Grammy told him to tell about the job he had when we first got married. He proceeded to tell them how he fell big trees in the forest. We didn’t get too far into the story, because Scarlett stopped him to interject that he was ruining the habitat for the small animals that live in the forest.
Tonight for a bedtime story Grumple told the girls that he rode a dinosaur to school when he was little. Scarlett asked "what kind of dinosaur?" He said "the one with a long neck and a long tail." "Oh, she said, that is a herbivore, so you weren’t in any danger."
The twirls taught Grumple their tap dance:
Twinners!
We celebrated Juniper's 1st birthday with everyone here (her actual bday is the same day as mine!) It was so much less stress to help with a party for someone else's kid than for my own! haha!
Look at all these adorable decorations Hailey bought for their little Junicorn. Scarlett wrote a poem for Juniper. And the girls made her a MILLION birthday cards.
I got to use my cake decorating skills - we made pastel rainbow frosting that turned out pretty awesome. I loved the ideas that Hailey put together! She also bought stuff for a photo shoot. Look how adorable she is!!! It's so fun to photoshop photos of little kids cause no matter what you do, they always turn out cute!
Watch this funny video of the cake smashing photoshoot. Skye wasn't loving the messy baby haha!!!
We ate dinner at IKEA and stalked Berlyn at work.
Jami stayed an extra week after everyone else left. I got so many projects done while she was here!!! Plus lots of Jami time. I needed me some Jami time.
Here are some photos Jami took while she was here...
