Spring Celebration, Jump Rope for Heart and Loose Teeth

I love Baylie's teacher. She has been a teacher for over 30 years and has so many fun ideas. One of them is this awesome Easter bonnet made with newspaper.

Baylie went all out on her hat. (The boys make a green one that is decorated with things like snakes and lizards.)

I went to Baylie's school for their Spring Celebration.

On your mark, get set...

...GO!

After the egg hunt, they had a fun Easter snack of popcorn, marshmallows and goldfish.

Prior to the Spring Celebration, the school had a jump rope fundraiser for the American Heart Association.

The kindergarteners spent most of their time jumping in and out of hula hoops.

Side to side...

...front to back...

...and through.

Then they did some actual hula hooping - or tried to anyway.

Last, but not least, they tried some jump roping - not an easy skill for kindergarteners.

The biggest news for Baylie is that she has lost her top front teeth. First she lost the right one.

Then the left tooth shifted to the right and took up residence in the middle. (She did an awesome Olaf imitation that I'm mad I didn't get on camera.)

Finally, the left tooth came out too!

Baylie does not like to have her teeth pulled and she waits until the tooth literally falls out. She is loving having them both out right now and likes talking with a lisp.

Conference Report

Last Sunday was General Conference. I explained what conference is and what we usually do during it in a blog post last October. This time, I wanted to do something different. For one thing, we wanted to cut down on the amount of candy the kids eat. I also wanted to hold their attention for longer, keep us all in the same room and yet have David and I able to hear and enjoy conference.

I purchased these trays at Michael's, using a 40% off coupon. We used the conference bingo, same as last time, and as before, the kids pretty much just ate the marshmallows.

I also purchased an over-the-door shoe holder and filled it with small toys, crafts, stickers and a few candies. Most of the items were from the dollar store.

There were 24 shoe holders, 12 for each child, with one for each apostle. Unfortunately, I forgot about the first presidency, which meant I needed three more spaces. I ended up just combining some of the apostles into the same slot.

I was surprised at how well this plan worked. The kids stayed interested and the items kept them entertained longer than I expected. 

I was actually able to listen to conference and even take notes! It was great for all of us.

Here are some of my favorite quotes (from my notes, so they are not verbatim).

President Holland

• Today if people want any gods at all, they want gods that don’t demand much - who not only don’t rock the boat, but don’t even row it. They try to create God in their own image.
• Defend your beliefs with courtesy and compassion, but defend them. 

Neil L. Anderson

• Your generation (speaking to the youth) has more access to temples than any other generation in the history of the world. 

Dallin H. Oaks (Priesthood session)

• Men hold the priesthood, but they are not the priesthood. 
• Rather than focusing on our priesthood “rights,” we should focus on our responsibilities. 

Donald L. Hallstron (Priesthood session)

• Commonly accepted practices in the world choke our relationship with the priesthood 

Randall L. Redd (Priesthood session)

• Owning a smart phone does not make you smart. Don’t do dumb things with your smart phone. 

President Eyring (Priesthood session)

• You will be a model of the priesthood whether you want to be or not. 

President Monson (Priesthood session)

• If you ever find yourself where you shouldn’t ought to be – GET OUT! 

Russell M. Nielson

• Some people only look to their bank book for peace or to celebrities for guidance. We should follow God’s law, not man’s law. Even if everyone is doing it, wrong is never right.
• All men have fears, but those who face their fears with faith have courage as well. 

Richard G. Scott

• Do not become so absorbed with trivial things that you miss the basic doctrines. 

Robert D. Hales

• We don’t need to understand all the reasons for a commandment before we obey it. 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

• It is hard to be grateful if our thankfulness is only in proportion to the number of blessings we can count. Instead of being thankful for things, be thankful in our circumstances, whatever they may be.
• If we are grateful, we acknowledge that we don’t understand everything, but have faith that someday we will.
• We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?

Jean A. Stevens

• Heavenly Father accomplishes his miracles one moment and one person at a time. 

President Thomas S. Monson

• Blame keeps wounds open, forgiveness heals. Make sure our interactions with others are always full of love.
• Be loving and kind to those who don’t share our beliefs or standards. 

Lawrence E. Cowbridge

• The truth will always be opposed. 

Michael John U. The

• It is critical that we learn to recognize when we have enough. If we’re not careful, we will chase after temporal instead of spiritual treasures. 

Marcos A. Aidukatus

• The internet is a great tool, but it is easy to become distracted and infected by worthless info. One should not sift through garbage. 

D. Todd Christofferson

• Christ’s victory over death ended the human predicament. Now there are only personal predicaments.

I love General Conference. I always come away feeling recharged. I am grateful to know that God has a prophet and apostles on the Earth today.

Forsaking Facebook

Sorry that you're missing these beauties while I'm off facebook.

I'm not exactly forsaking facebook (I am always drawn to phrases with alliteration), I'm just consciously uncoupling from it for a month.

I love facebook. I love feeling close to my family members, even though we live a country apart from one another. I love seeing pictures of my nieces and nephews the same day that something exciting happens. I love keeping up with good friends, and catching up with long lost people who matter to me. I love seeing funny stories and interesting news. I love it when something I post gets lots of "likes." I love bragging about my awesome kids.

So why am I leaving? Because I don't love how much time I end up spending on facebook, even sometimes putting off my kids while I finish posting something I think is witty or reading something I think is important. I don't love analyzing everything that happens in my life to figure out how to turn it into a facebook post. I don't love getting caught up in drama that shouldn't matter. I don't love being misunderstood because my writing doesn't always convey what I think it does. I don't like worrying about the opinion of people who have no direct impact on my life and shouldn't matter as much as I seem to think they do.

Not sorry you're missing this beauty while I'm off facebook.

I have been facebook free for two days now and I have to confess, I haven't missed it.

Frozen Party

Baylie loves nothing more than watching movies and eating popcorn. So it wasn't a big surprise when she decided that she wanted her first ever birthday party to be a movie party. It worked out perfectly since Frozen came out right before her party.

She invited all her school friends and some friends from church as well. Each girl was given a Princess Elsa cape and a crown. You can't tell from this picture, but the capes were white with a lacy blue layer over the top, except for Baylie whose cape was a Princess Anna cape. (Shout out to my friend Erin without whom the capes would have been pathetic or non-existant. They turned out awesome.)

The girls were given Frozen money that they could use to purchase items from the concession stand.

The concession stand had cupcakes, candy, sugar dipped marshmallows, snowman donuts, Olaf noses, candy sticks and candy money. (The pom pom ball was made from tissue paper.)

We also had an official popcorn popper. (Thanks, Droppos!)

We served melted snowmen as a beverage. (Raisin eyes, cinnamon stick arms and carrot nose.)

Unfortunately, the cinnamon arms flavored the water and the girls weren't wild about it.

We played the movie with the subtitles on so the girls could sing along. They were so fun to watch! If you'd like to see a sample, click HERE.

Baylie loved opening presents, although she became a little shy.

Her friends knew her well and got her things that she really liked, especially lots of crafts and jewelry kits.

From the looks of it, everyone had a great time.

I know I did.