Base clearing double

Maggie is playing 3rd grade girls softball. Their team name is The Bandits--a professional softball team name. She loves it. Yesterday, she hit a ball to centerfield with a legitimate base clearing double...for those of you not in the know of baseball terminology, that is when bases are loaded and everyone gets a run and the batter gets to second. She had a grin from ear to ear. Wish I had my camera there.

How does your garden grow?

I think these are peas coming up.

We have never had a garden before now--and it is quite big. With the help from Kevin, my brother, we used his rototiller and he got us some manure. We worked hard on our weed patch getting it ready for a garden. We planted: corn, beans, peas, beets, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, raspberries, blackberries, and potatoes. Today, I bought tomatoes and peppers to put in. Hopefully it will grow. There are some sprouts coming up and I am excited. Oh, we put in the lovely brick path too--we will fill it in with some sand and then border it with flowers--maybe--lots of ideas, but a little budget.

Cooper and his CrAzY outfit

Cooper came down last night after his bath and said he wanted to wear this outfit to school. He was wearing 5 pairs of underwear also. Note where he put the tie. Needless to say, I didn't let him wear it to school, but did take a picture.

Allie the Graduate

Allie and Teacher Brenda

A way excited Allie

Grandma and Grandpa Hislop and Allie

Grandpa and Allie

Cooper, Allie, Chris, and Maggie

Allie sitting between her friends, Rebecca and Brianna.

Allie had her preschool graduation/program tonight. I worried that she would turn on her "I'm shy" attitude and not participate. Well, it was quite the opposite. She was center stage...and even fell off during "5 Little Monkeys" song...and sang her heart out. She has loved Treasure House Preschool and Teacher Brenda (Bloxham). Grandma and Grandpa Hislop, Grandpa David, and our family all came to support Allie. Grandma Joyce had to work. After the program, we celebrated with ice cream from Arctic Circle and watching the finale of "The Biggest Loser."

We're Goin' to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Cooper, Jacob, Allie, and Grace...the funny thing about this was Grace

is the smallest and was getting squished.

The Giraffe was really close. She could have given us a kiss if she wanted.

All of the "gorillas" in our group.

The new baby Zuri. Allie called the Mama elephant "Mean Mama"
because she wouldn't share the hay with her baby.

It was a great day at the zoo for seeing the animals. It was overcast and not too cold.

Grace and Allie posing with the big horn sheep.

Cooper had a field trip to the Zoo and Allie was able to go. We car-pooled down with my friend, Kallie, and her daughter, Grace (3). Kallie has a son Cooper's age in kindergarten also, so Jacob, Cooper, Allie, and Grace all had a lot of fun running here and there and Kallie and I enjoyed the day chatting and chasing after them.

(We also had one extra in our group, Moses.)

Piano Recital Time Again

Maggie cheesing it up!

Maggie has 2 piano recitals a year: May and December. She loves playing the piano and practices every morning before school. She absolutely adores her piano teacher, Ruth, which makes piano lessons much more enjoyable for everyone involved. The theme for this piano recital was "Lights, Camera, Action" and the songs all came from movies. Maggie's choice was from the movie "Anastasia." The song was "At the Beginning." It was fun to hear her play and sing the song in the morning . Maggie did a wonderful job at her recital--

very proud parent moment.

Butterfly, Fly Away

We have been singing the Miley Cyrus song, "Butterfly, fly away" a lot around here. Chris will make up all sorts of lyrics to go with it. Well, for the Hislop FHE, I had the treat and it was also Wakely's 7th birthday. I decided to make a butterfly cupcake cake for her. The kids and I had fun making it for her and we even got to sing the butterfly song while making it. (FYI--the tray for the cake is the lid for a plastic tote/bin. It worked great and was a fun color too.)

Late-overs

Allie was invited to a birthday party for her friend Annika Saturday night and to attend the Princess Ball at the Treehouse Museum. (I didn't take a picture though.) Alayna, Annika's sister, came to our house for a late-over. They had dinner, decorated cookies, played and watch "The Strongest Man" a Disney classic. I really like late-overs because it takes away the "sleeping" party of sleep-overs with all of the fun events.

A new cousin, Griffin

I looked back through my blog and noticed I had not blogged about our new nephew/cousin, Griffin. He was born March 4, 2010 and joined the Kurt, Jill, and AJ Gibson family. He is a cute baby boy. I watched him the other day and took a picture of him, so I could add him to our blog. I also stole a picture from Jill's blog when he was born. He is now 2 months old. I can't believe how fast time flies and how big babies get in that short of time.

"Someone's been playin' with my Camera!"

I feel like I am Mama Bear from Goldilocks and the 3 bears. My little Goldilocks hasn't been eatin' my porridge, but she has been playin' with my camera!

Maggie's Drive-In

Maggie is a reading machine! At her school they have an AR (accelerated reading) program to promote reading. Each quarter they have a goal and when they reach that goal, they have an AR party. This quarter's party was a Drive-in. They were to make a car and then they could sit in it to watch a movie with the treats they earned. (Maggie's goal was 20 points and she had 77 points.) It was fun to make the car together. She even designed a trunk to put her blanket and pillow in.

My $20 Bosch

I saw a Bosch at a yard sale on Saturday. I inquired how much. "$30." I asked if it worked. "Yes, but it is a little noisy." I asked if they would take $20 for it. Sold. I got it home and it barely worked. It sounded very 'sick!' Oh, no I wasted $20. Well, I let it be for a couple days and then said to myself, "Self, let's see if we can get this thing to work." Only one setting worked out of 3 before I started. I cleaned up the insides and the circuits and washed everything. I put it back together, and VOILA! It works!! I fixed all of the settings. The funny thing is I already have a great mixer/blender combo, but I couldn't pass up a Bosch. So, now I have two!

Posing for Mommy

I didn't ever take pictures in their new Easter clothes this year, so yesterday I had them pose for me. It looks like Allie and Cooper grew a lot, but they were standing on rocks in the flower bed.

Star Wars Cake

I have decided that I really like to create cakes. I love shows like "The Ultimate Cake-off" and "The Cake Boss." I told Lucy that I would make a Star Wars cake for Tate's 4th birthday tomorrow, so I looked some up on line and voila, this is what I created. I love to do this...it did take a bit of time though.

Fun with the Rasmussens

Isaac

Emmett and Scott

Cooper, Allie, Maggie, Collin, and Wyatt

Alligators in Twin Falls

Did you know there are alligators in Twin Falls, Idaho? Who knew?!

Ecuador

Scott and Amie have a great donkey named Ecuador. He is a very old donkey. In fact someone asked Amie if they could use him to breed. Amie then said, "I think he would have a heart attack if he tried that." The kids had fun with him.

Road Trip!

We went to the lovely metropolis of Twin Falls, Idaho this last weekend to visit our great friends, Scott and Amie Rasmussen and their 4 boys, Isaac, Collin, Wyatt, and Emmett. On our family road trips, we always have our select music that we love to listen to. We were rockin out to 'Summer Lovin' from Grease. We sound sooo good after much practice.