Gung Hay Fat Choi

Or, Happy (Chinese) New Year!
I told Haylee that Ellie was having a little Chinese New Year parade today, and she called me at 9:30 asking if everything was OK. I told her I was great, to which she asked, "Then why didn't you come to Ellie's parade?"
OOPS! With the recital last night I completely forgot. Happily, Ellie was able to get support from her aunt & didn't even ask where the rest of her family was.
And Haylee was kind enough to take video and pictures of the (very short) event, so I didn't end up missing it after all!
THANKS HAYLEE!

Becca's First Recital

Last night we went to Becca's first piano recital. She did a great job performing "Climb Every Mountain," "I Am a Child of God" and "Bingo." She asked me to accompany her duets (which is beyond my comprehension since I am such a lousy pianist), but decided to go solo for "Climb Every Mountain"...which really had the prettiest accompaniment. Oh well!
She did just GREAT on everything, though, and received flowers and frozen yogurt for her efforts.
What a sweetheart she is!

Happy Holidays!

We have had a very fun week full of celebration. Valentine's Day seemed to last an entire weekend. We made Valentine's boxes...Ellie wanted a purse and Becca requested a giant "love bug" (which I think we may repeat for future years). I didn't take a picture of Becca's, but it turned out cute. I just wrapped a shoe box with a black garbage bag, put a giant heart on top like wings, put little black hearts on the wings for spots, added googly-eyes, antennae and a smile and presto! a love bug.
For Ellie's purse, I just covered a cereal-sized box with different valentine's paper, took an extra piece of cardboard to make a flap, took two little magnets to 'button' it & put her name in big letters on the front.
I went to the school to help with Ellie's party, and it was very fun. They played "kiss the frog" (pin the tail on the donkey) with lip shaped stickers and a giant frog mylar balloon, made little 'love bugs' had goodies, and read stories.
That night we decorated sugar cookies, and had a little Valentine 'camp-out' in the front room, where we read stories & snuggled in sleeping bags.
Sunday we had heart-shaped waffles, and went to Grandma's house after church for more cookie & cousin fun.
Monday, the girls had school off for President's day, so we decided to have an All-American dinner complete with flag-shaped jello (blueberries, strawberries & cool-whip). For FHE we talked about agency, and choosing the right & included the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Then we let the girls build their own banana split complete with G.W.'s cherries on top.
It was certainly a fun holiday weekend!

The Gospel's True & I love you!

For anyone who wants to read a little bit about where I came from, here is a link to a little post my cousin wrote about my Great Grandma & Grandpa. Grandpa died when I was only 2 1/2, but I still remember swinging with him on the back porch & playing with wind-up toys with him in the pond behind his house. Grandma Bert & Grandpa G-G-Pa were truly amazing people! Here is the link to her post:
http://areasonofhope.blogspot.com/2010/02/gospels-true-and-i-love-you-legacy.html

It's a Major Award!

Nope, no leg lamps at our house, but we were pretty proud to discover that Becca won the "Crowned Jewel Award" at Valley View (also known as the Student of the Week)...which entitled her to a free burger from Burger King, and a special certificate from the principal. She has been working so hard this year and is such a sweetheart! At her parent teacher conference, her teacher paid her great compliments & said she is a joy to have in class...and we sure love her!

Ellie's Berry Special Day

Ellie turned seven on Friday, and wanted to have a "Strawberry" party. Not a Strawberry Shortcake Party, just a Strawberry party...so we did & it was very fun.
We started the party by making "baskets" to hold all of their strawberries (we just decorated brown lunch sacks with stickers & crayons). Then, we played some "berry" fun games. We played fruit Twister (each color was a different fruit...strawberry, lemon slice, green apple, and blueberry), Fruit Pictionary, pin the leaves on the strawberry, and a Strawberry toss (my mom made strawberry shaped bean bags, and they had to toss them into a basket). As prizes, the girls received one of the bean bags, strawberry suckers (I frosted heart shaped suckers to look like strawberries) and strawberry play-doh (those turned out REALLY cute...I made pink play-doh with glitter & added strawberry kool-ade so they smelled like strawberries, shaped them like a strawberry, put them in a disposable pastry bag (and the corner of some sandwich bags when I ran out), and tied the top with green ribbon to make them look like strawberries).

We painted flower pots, planted strawberry plants & had strawberry manicures & pedicures..here is a picture of one of the manicures after painting the flower pot :)
ate cake & ice cream, and opened presents

...and Ellie thought it was the best day EVER.