Operation Tooth Fairy

...was a success!!!! She was not detected...even though the floors are squeaky and it was her first visit to our house:) Way to go Tooth Fairy!

About 3 weeks ago Claira felt the first inklings of a loose tooth and finally today it came out! I picked her up from school and she started telling me all about her day while her tooth was hanging on for dear life & flipping around like crazy! I was totally giggling while she told me about her day...it was so distracting! She got in the car and I asked her if she wanted to see if her tooth was ready to come out, so she lightly touched it and it came out! She was soooo excited! The Tooth Fairy is gonna make her rich! Can't wait to see her face in the morning:)

Fall Fun & Apple Picking!

A few weekends ago we were able to take a break from school work, and play for a little bit with some friends at a way cool orchard right outside of Philly. We stuffed ourselves with way too much carnival food (This is ALL fat free right?) had fun looking around at the animals, fresh flowers, pumpkins, listened to live music, went apple picking, and enjoyed a hay ride! It was a nice day off to spend together, we had soooo much fun!

Claira & Dylan found this cute little tree stump chair to pose in:)

Getting ready for the hay ride!

Me & my buddy riding around:) The hay ride was so fun, they took us all around the farm and we got to see everything they grow there! Berries, peppers, tomatoes, pear trees, apple trees, even Christmas trees! The kids loved it!

They really can't handle looking at the camera! I love them. (Crazy camera phone pictures are the best! ha:))

This was at the park on a different day. she was soooo excited to find the first fall leaves of the season. She collected lots and took them home to show daddy:)

The 'fruits' of our labors! I'm bummed I forgot to get pictures of us actually picking apples...but you get the idea! We got about 25 pounds for $25! not bad!

The apples were either mutant HUGE or mutant small!

So far I have managed to make the best (or worst...however you look at it) of our apples. I've made a huge batch of homemade applesauce (click on that for Teresa's super recipe!), several apple crumble pies, and a batch of apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies that are to die for!!!! I have enough apples left for one more treat! Wish my waistline luck! I guess I could eat the apples fresh, but where's the fun in that?!

A Sweet Reminder For Me

Firsts & Crazy Mellow

Man, this week has turned into a whirlwind of firsts for Claira!

She bit into a nice big philly pretzel today and said her tooth hurt. Ben took a look at it and sure enough, she officially has her first loose tooth! I'm such a weirdo...I actually got a little misty about it.

In the last 2 weeks my baby girl has turned 6 years old, started kindergarten, and has her first wiggly tooth?! Can I handle all this growing up business? It's likely I can, but it's crazy all the same;)

Today Claira defined her parents' personalities perfectly in her observations of our reactions to the loose tooth. I was upstairs when Ben discovered the loose tooth, so he had the first reaction. Then Claira came up to show me.

After all the commotion she thoughtfully stated "Daddy didn't get all excited when he saw my loose tooth, he just got happy and smiled, but when I came upstairs to show you, you got REALLY excited and waved your arms around like this...(picture arms raised over head, closed fists, waving around all crazy)...and you said THAT'S SO AWESOME!" then I told her about a 5 minute story all about the tooth fairy and how rich she's gonna be (at this point Ben says "rich???" )

She's finally discovering Ben's mellowness and my craziness. I think it's great! It really works out nicely. We compliment each other right? I always tease Ben that the most excited he gets is when he slightly raises his eyebrows...which isn't that far off;)

He also doesn't like saying that he LOVES things...it's much too strong for him. He LIKES lots and lots of things, but rarely when I ask "don't you totally LOVE this?!" does he say "Yes"... he almost always says " Well, I don't love it, but I like it a lot" it kills me because I LOVE everything! I guess it does make me feel that much more special when he says he LOVES me though:)

Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated on that tooth though! To be continued....

1st Day

Claira & Ryley (friend from church)

Can't wait!

Today was Claira's first day of Kindergarten! We all have been very excited about this for months! Claira especially. She missed the Kindergarten cut-off date last year by 2 measly days so she was REALLY super ready! We woke up verrrry early (If you know me at all...this is a big deal ha ha) Time for me to start going to bed before midnight I'm thinking;) We all got ready and headed out the door 30 minutes early...which is a good thing because we got stuck in the morning rush hour traffic & it took us 20 minutes to get there. I'll be trying the city streets tomorrow instead of the freeway & see if it's any quicker. So we finally arrive and when we get there I started panicking on the inside, I didn't expect to feel so freaked out! We said goodbye and I watched her walk down the long corridor until the door closed. I remember thinking "that's it? I just leave her here? what if she can't find her class? What if she doesn't like the food? What if she can't find the bathroom?" I stood there for a few moments and awkwardly turned to leave. I'm thankful I had my friend Amber with me (Ryley's mommy) & Ben or else I think I would have broken down right then. I think an hour or two later it sunk in & I realized that it was quiet (yes, even with a 2 yr old:). I went upstairs half expecting to hear her singing...she's always singing and I missed hearing her beautiful voice. I just lost it, it was a mixture of sadness, happiness, & love. I love my girl and I missed her so bad right then. To see her empty room and untouched toys. I know every mom goes through this, and I'll learn to even enjoy this (ha ha) but you just don't know until you go through it yourself!

I expected Dylan to ask about her a lot and wonder where she was but he didn't really mention her until around 1:30. He came downstairs fully dressed in Claira's Cinderella costume...heels and all...and says "I want Claira to be Cinderella with me and be my friend. I love Claira, she's my friend" and then he got a sad face and it melted our hearts! We quickly told him Claira was going to get out of school soon and we were going to pick her up & he instantly cheered up:) What a sweet brother, I just love how loving he is! We picked Claira up from school...after an eternity... (8:15am-3pm is sooooo long!!!) and she was all smiles! She had the best day of her life! She didn't get lost, or starve, or die, or anything! I told her I missed her soooo much and she said "Don't worry Mommy, I had lots of fun!" that totally made me feel better, I'm sooo glad that she's having fun and LOVES it... I knew she would. I asked her if she missed us or if she was too busy having fun, and of course she said she was too busy having fun:) Awesome:) Here's to Kindergarten!

Can a Birthday Party Get Any More Kick Butt Than This?!

Claira is 6 today. 6! How does the time go by?! Today she said, "I can't wait until I'm 6 & 1/2!". I remember being that way. So excited for the future, so excited to be bigger and older. I love it. My baby starts her first day of Kindergarten in 12 days...that's right I'm counting, it's so bittersweet, but I know she'll love it . She's so ready!

So this year Claira wanted to invite some friends over to celebrate with us! She decided on a Minnie Mouse theme this year. So I thought I'd test my rusty cake decorating skills and try my hand (literally...and a shaky hand at that!) at a Minnie Mouse cake. I have to say I was dang excited at the end result! I started working on her cake after she was in bed so I could surprise her the next morning...I finished her cake suuuper late, like we're talking the AM realm of the night. I almost woke her up because I was so excited to show her! She loved it and it almost pained me too see it devoured in 2 seconds! ha ha!

She had a wonderful birthday! here are a few fun pictures from her day.

I think this might actually beat my Aquabat cake! Isn't she so darn cute?!

Claira & Dylan seeing the cake in the morning:) They really climbed on the the table for that!

What a sweet daddy. Making Mickey Mouse pancakes for the birthday girl! Claira let him off the hook and said he didn't have to make Minnie Mouse pancakes because she figured her bow would end up looking like another ear, so smart, kind and (gasp) rational! She was also very confused as to WHY daddy was cooking! Me & Claira were upstairs getting ready and she noticed Daddy was nowhere to be found, so she asked "where's Daddy?" I said "he's downstairs cooking" she said "Daddy doesn't cook, you're the cooker! He just sits around and does papers all day!"

The epitome of mouse perfection in a pancake.

Dylan's thought bubble: "Daddy made this? Let me poke it first...yeah, looks edible"

Pizza Party!

Costume Party!

See Dylan's sneaky blowing over there? He has been referring to Claira's birthday as "MY" birthday. We can't tell him otherwise:)

She had a wonderful time with all of her friends & was so glad they could all come, she's been talking about her birthday for weeeks! We love you Claira and are glad you have such sweet friends who love you too! Happy birthday!

August Fun

What a whirlwind August has been!

We kicked off the month by celebrating our anniversary. It wasn't anything fancy, but I'm entirely okay with that, in fact I loved it. Can I just say we have the best friends ever?! Our friend so kindly agreed to babysit the kids while we went on a little date (thanks Nat!) which is kind of a big deal because it has been ages since we have been able to slow down & go on one. Excluding our temple trip a few months back, we haven't been on a date since... (gasp) our last anniversary! Yeah, doesn't that sound awful? It's been such a busy year with Ben going back to school and all his classes have been very hard & time consuming. I think things are going to go better this school year because he actually got to choose the classes this time around! (Crossing fingers)

Back to our anniversary...So after we dropped the kids off (they got to frolic in the pool for a few hours...not bad huh?!) We decided to take advantage of some free movie tickets we got from another friend (Thanks Anne!) & made our way to see the new Harry Potter movie! It was excellent! Then we swooped over to pick up the kids & had a delicious family dinner at Qdobas (yummy fake mexican restaurant). We headed home in a hurry because Ben had to go to work, but don't worry our fun didn't stop there! Ben made it home around 10pm, his arms full of grocery bags consisting of donuts, kit kat bars, reeses, & junk food galore and we had a serious party:) We love hanging out together joking, laughing, watching funny videos and stuffing our faces...I mean who doesn't???? We had so much fun, and are definitely going on another date soon...not, like, in a year from now:)

Later our August fun continued with my niece's birthday party at my sisters house in Maryland (about 3 hours drive). We had a bbq, ice cream cake, and the kids played in the kiddie pool in my sister's ginormous backyard all day long! Lots of fun!

We set out for another Ocean City trip with my sister & nieces the next week (their first east coast beach experience!) there was a lot of choppy waves and tons of shells under your feet everywhere (because of the tropical storms waaaay offshore I'm guessing) but the weather was great and we had so much fun swimming and diving in the waves together, collecting shells, making sand castles, and enjoying the salty ocean air:)

I've also been having a blast getting the primary kids ready for singing in stake conference & for our upcoming program...I stinkin' love those kids!!!! My calling is so fun! It takes a lot of planning and searching the web for other people's creative ideas (heh heh) but when I see the kids enjoying singing time and actually singing with me, it makes it all worth it.

Harrumph

That's much better!

Playing with cousins

This picture is so hilarious...I have no idea what they were so horrified about!

Pinatas are serious business...see that game face?

My niece Libby giving it a cute little swing

This is Dylan's famous "Funny Lip". He has been showing off this lip since he was about 8 months old and Claira aptly named it "The Funny Lip". Whenever anyone requests "The Funny Lip" he will automatically make this face!

We did a little finger painting, and in Dylan's case...he enjoyed doing a little face painting as well! (Yes his 'painter's smock' is really a trash bag, it is the latest derelict fashion piece we've designed...do you love it?)

Ignore the mess in this one...I always do! Dylan thought it would be fun to try on his skunk costume from last Halloween and it still fits! We were all laughing and he just ate it up and was saying "Hi, I'm a skunk!" & " I'm a stinka'!" over & over. I finally convinced him to take it off though, it was like 90 degrees that day and he was getting soooo sweaty in that thing...it's like 100% fleece! He was making ME hot!

Huge smiles!