Princess Ball

I apologize that this week I don't have any pictures posted. I am having technical difficulties. Too bad too, because Sammi and Grant went to the Princess Ball this weekend, and Sammi had the time of her life. She spent the whole week counting down the days. Then, on Saturday, she painted her nails, took a special bath, and I let her wear a little make up and perfume. We curled her hair and sprayed some glitter on her and wow, did she feel special! It was really fun to her to get all dolled up. She loved having her dad as her date too. He dressed up very handsomely as well, and the two were off to the dance. Sammi had a great time. The Princess Ball is a fundraiser that the High School in Elma puts on for all the Dads and their little girls. Everyone in Elma goes, so they have to have 3 different balls! It is a fun tradition that is one small reason we love living in Elma.

The weather was so pretty this week that we were outside all week. The kids were running through the sprinklers, and yesterday we finally put out our birdseed. Today, we were seriously rewarded. The main room in our house has huge windows that overlook our garden, so we can sit on our couch and watch all of our bird feeders. Today we had a flock of 5 Steller Jays picking at our seed as well as lots of other more common birds. It was so fun to sit and watch them. Everett couldn't get enough of them. Grant always says that if you see a Steller Jay it is going to be a good day. You can imagine our anticipation of today after seeing 5 of them! What a fun morning.

I am so excited to start gardening I can hardly keep myself from buying flowers. If there were more for sale, I'd be buying them even if I knew they would frost over. I can't wait to get my hands in the garden again. I'm going to start building my own compost, and have been studying up on how to do it. We are going to plant a big vegetable garden outside of the kids clubhouse and try to do some fun things that the kids will like. I'm going to plant a TeePee, with Sweet Peas growing up the sides for a fun spot for my kids. I'm looking for a fun old chandelier that I could hang in our yard so that we could watch the prisms make rainbows. Anyway, I have plenty of ideas, but little know how, and little time! I can't wait for my garden to be like the gardens I grew up cherishing.

Enough about me, now about the kiddos: This week, I got a math and a reading workbook for my kids to share. Before I knew it, Sammi had accomplished over half of the math workbook! She just loves that stuff. I let Scotti work in the reading book, and he is just so careful with his writing, that it takes him a long time to write. He really takes his time to make sure that he does everything his best and will not even tackle something unless he can give it time to finish it just right. Cooper spent the week trying to be nicer to Everett. He made a conscious effort to try not to bug Ev and I caught him starting to irritate him and then stopping immediately, as if resisting the temptation to do so. He prayed every night for Heavenly Father to help him. What a sweetie. Ev loves Cooper even though Cooper does bug him for entertainment! Ev has loved being outside this week. He digs in the dirt and then comes inside. Then, he goes back out and tries to ride a bike a little and then checks inside with me. He learned how to crawl on the stools this week, which means he can now get on the counter without any help from me. That is bad news for me, because now nothing is safe! He also refuses to sit in his high chair and wants to sit on a stool like the big kids. Oh, the growing! It is most painful for me, I swear.