Pirate Party

Hyrum's birthday isn't technically until this Sunday, but we had his party last Saturday. His birthday always falls on Memorial Weekend so it's hard to have a party then when everyone is out of town so we just decided to move it up a week.

As most of you know Hyrum is obsessed about being a pirate, so naturally we had a pirate birthday party. For our invitations we printed them on parchment paper, cut them with torn edge scissors and decorated the edges with a chestnut cat's eye. Then we rolled them up and tied them with twine and put the into glass root beer bottles to deliver.

When the kids arrived, we tied a red sash around them and gave them a pirate hat. Then we had them go downstairs and watch Peter Pan until everyone arrived. The house and yard looked so cute. We had a skeleton dressed like a pirate hanging on the front door. There were skeleton flags leading up to the front steps and in the back yard. We had a pirate birthday banner in the window and another flag banner across the swing set. All over the house we had black balloons for our cannon balls. We also had a table outside all decorated with jewels and a pirate ship.

Once all the kids arrived we played pin the pirate next to the treasure. It was a little hard to fit everyone upstairs, but it was the only place with a flat space for the map. Then the kids went outside to dig for gold coins in the sandbox. They were so excited they got to keep the gold coins. After that we went in the front yard and had half of the kids swab the deck (paint brushes and water on the sidewalk) and the other half fish in our little kiddy pool we filled with magnetic fish and seashells. Then we went on a color treasure hunt where the kids found a treasure box filled with their goody bags (white cardstock box with the pirate symbol on it, red tissue paper and in the inside was a pirate patch and telescope, pirates of the Caribbean fruit snacks, pirate candy and jewels).

Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream. Ben was up until 3 in the morning decorating the 2 cakes and they looked amazing. When the party was all done we had a barbecue with some friends and just relaxed. We didn't even bother cleaning up the house until Monday, because we were so pooped, but the party was fun! You can see more pictures in the album I created on my facebook site. The link is on my blog.

The amazing cakes Ben made! The first one's a chocolate cake that's decorated to look like an island, and the other is a white cake decorated like a pirate map.

Our little fishing pond!

Here's some of the kids digging for buried treasure.

I'm Meg

I've taken a few months off from musical theater after doing Beauty and the Beast last December, but I started getting stage hungry again this month. I noticed auditions for Sound of Music were coming up, and although I've never really wanted to be in Sound of Music, I really missed being on stage. I began working on an audition when about a week and a half ago I got an email about auditions for the Best of Disney. I knew they were going to be doing the Best of Disney, but last year they didn't hold auditions, so I just figured it wasn't an open audition. I was much more excited about the Disney production, but I would only have 3 days to put an audition together.

After talking with Ben, he convinced me to go ahead and try. There were a lot of good things about doing the Disney show instead of Sound of Music. The rehearsals for the Disney show are only going to be 3 weeks vs. 3 months for Sound of Music and there are only 2 weeks of shows vs. 1 month of shows.

I decided to sing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". The directors liked the song and cast me right there as Cinderella. I was excited because this song was much different from the songs I usually chose to sing.

They told me they would email me a schedule and cast list in a few days. Imagine my surprise when I opened the email and it had me cast as Meg from Hercules. I emailed them to double check if I should be working on "I Won't Say I'm In Love" instead and they emailed me back that they had in fact changed me to Meg.

At first I was a little disappointed because the Cinderella song was so different for me, but now I'm really excited about the Meg song. Her song is a really fun song, and it is also pretty different from what I usually sing. I'm used to singing Rogers and Hammerstein kind of stuff, so this spunky song is really going to be fun. Plus I get to have some of my friends be the Muses with me.

In all honesty I really don't look like Cinderella and look much more like Meg (minus the size 0 waist). I'm relieved I don't have to figure out how I'm going to be blond and not look awful! Besides I hear glass slippers are a killer to dance in.

Ella

I decided to take some pictures of Ella yesterday, since she didn't have any food stains on her clothes, her hair was still done, and she didn't have too many scratches, bruises, ect from playing.

Super Ben

I discovered last Saturday that I had married a superhero! We woke up on Saturday and decided to rent a rug doctor (see previous blog) and clean our carpets. I had the joy of herding the kids outside while Ben cleaned the carpets. If you've ever cleaned carpets you know it's exhausting work just pushing that huge thing back and forth and having to empty the nasty water. An easy thing for the man of steel, SuperBen!

Around noon I ran to McDonalds to get SuperBen some food. He wolfed down 2 cheeseburgers and then had to go help a sister in the ward move. It was in the upper 80's on Saturday so not an ideal day to have to move furniture etc. Not a problem for SuperBen and his ability to just fly that furniture to the next apartment.

He returned home a couple hours later, and then took off again to return the rug doctor and pick up a few things for me at the store. Actually, he ended up going to two stores because one of the stores didn't have some of the things I needed. Thankfully, he could just rely on his super speed to get the job done.

After he got back from the store he then washed both of our vehicles while I vacuumed and cleaned the inside of them. He looked like he might just pass out at this point since the temperature was still climbing, but no SuperBen decides to wax one of the cars too!

At 7:00 we finally take a break to eat dinner. We're outside visiting with some friends, when one of our neighbors asks if SuperBen could show him how to change his break pads. So he once again puts on the tights and cape, and rushes to the aid of the neighbor. Unfortunately, these are super tough break pads and take forever to get off! When they did finally get them off an hour or so later, they were only disappointed to discover that the mechanic who told them the pads needed to be changed was crazy. The pads were only worn down half of the way. SuperBen would have to deal with the mechanic later.

It's about 9:00 at night now. SuperBen comes inside all dirty from the break job and asks if it would be alright if he fertilized the lawn. Little did he know I also held a secret identity as Wonder Woman. I pulled out my invisible lasso and tied him up until he came to his senses and realized he needed a break.

I think we both decided that next weekend we are going to give up the super hero job and just play civilians!

I'm Rejoining the Human Race!

So, apparently it wasn't death circling over me, but strep throat. Yep, Ella started out with a fever and a runny nose a couple weeks ago. She had no signs of a sore throat or anything, so we waited a few days to see if she just had the virus that was going around the neighborhood. Finally, I decided to take her in to see the doctor and he said that not only did she have strep throat, but an ear infection as well. Plus we noticed she had two new mollars. Poor Baby! He did the strep test on me as well, and to my surprise, I had strep too! I hadn't been feeling great, but I had no idea that I had strep.

A few days went by and Ella started to improve when, ka-pow, Hyrum started feeling sick. Unfortunately, he got it worse than Ella and I. He was throwing up and having "accidents" all over the house. However, the doctor took pitty on us and just called a prescription in to the nearest pharmacy, instead of making me drag two sick kids to his office.

Today was the first day that we were able to go to play group and do something normal. I hated being isolated for the last 2 weeks! I'm so happy to rejoin the human race! Now I just need to rent a rug doctor. . .

Death

Lately, it just seems like death has been circling like a vulture over me and I'm just so terrified that one of these days it's going to land. On Sunday I found out a woman in our ward passed away. I didn't even know the woman, but the death was unexpected and I still felt so sad and sorry for her family.

Then on Monday, I was online to check my email and I see a headline for "Mass Killing at Virginia Tech". I've read alot about it yesterday and today to try and make sense of why someone would take innocent lives. I just feel sick inside that we live in these latter days where we are surrounded by evil.

A while ago I was discussing death with my mom and dad and I came to the realization that I really haven't had to deal with death yet. I had a great grandmother die when I was a junior in high school and although that was hard for me, I was glad she wasn't in pain anymore and could finally rejoin her husband after such a long time of being alone.

Months ago I had a counsin tragically killed in a jet ski accident, and it really upset me because it was so unexpected and he was so young, but I handled better than most because I really never knew this cousin outside of a few reunions. Most of my hurt was for my aunt and uncle who had already buried two children previous to the accident.

I really haven't had anyone close to me pass away, and sometimes I wonder how will I deal with death. Knowing my personality, I'd say fall apart, but it's hard to know until you're actually in that situation. I just feel so blessed that I have the knowledge that death isn't really the end. I wonder about the people in Virginia and how they, or anyone for that matter, would handle death if they didn't believe that they would get to see their loved ones again. I think that knowledge will be the most comforting thing to me or anyone who has ever experienced a loss.

Ideally, I'd like to say I just hope I never have to deal with death, but I know that's not possible. No one is ever really prepared for death, but we can gain a testimony that this is not the end, and that will in a sense help us be prepared to cope with the anguish of losing someone.

Tag! You're It!

Three Things That Scare Me:
1. Being Alone
2. Driving
3. Crime

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. Ben
2. Karen
3. My Kids

Three Things I Love:
1. Reading
2. Theater
3. Having people in my life

Three Things I Hate:
1. Dishes
2. Conflict
3. Waiting

Three Things I Don’t Understand:
1. People not doing their callings at church
2. Why everyone wouldn't want to be friends with me?
3. I'm going to echo Evaly and ask Why I STILL get acne- at 25 (o.k. 28)!

Three Things On My Desk:
1. Scrapbook scissors (haven't been used in a long time)
2. Enrichment Group Activity Binder
3. Flower pens in a flower pot

Three Things I’m Doing Right Now:
1. Typing (obviously)
2. Procrastinating doing the dishes
3. Enjoying the sounds of kids sleeping

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Visit Europe
2. See all my children married in the temple
3. Go on a mission with Ben

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Musical Theater
2. Yoga (when my back's not killing me)
3. Scrapbook (although it's been like a year)

Three Things I Can’t Do:
1. Most sports (except for soccer)
2. Play an instrument (only a tiny bit of piano)
3. Sew (I wish, but I don't have the patience for it)

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
1. Promptings from the spirit
2. Your children
3. Celtic music

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. Rap
2. Swearing
3. The news- it’s too depressing (I'm stealing a lot of Evaly's good ideas)

Three Things I’d Like To Learn:
1. Sewing
2. Tap
3. French (I took 2 years, but I can't remember much)

Three Favorite Foods:
1. Pizza
2. Smoothies
3. Homemade Ice Cream

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
1. Gem (she had the cool earrings)
2. Perfect Strangers
3. The Snorks (does anyone remember what those were?)

Three Things I Regret:
1. Worrying so much
2. Not traveling before I had kids
3. Wasting so much time on boys when I was young

Three people I tag:
1. Jayne
2. Karalenn
3. Jessica