Silly Singers

Since I just posted about the kids choir concert, here is some silly, less dignified singing for you.  Matthew got this idea from scouts and Anna and Grant were more than happy to be a part of it.  We thought they looked like weird little potatoes or frogs or something.  I don't know how to describe this really.  It defies explanation.  Enjoy! (Grant on the left, then Anna, then Matthew).  And sorry I am laughing in the background through the whole thing.

Super Singers

Matthew and Anna both participated in the school choir this year.  This past week they had their end of year performance.    Here they are ready to head to the show.  Matthew is only 17 months older than Anna and about a head taller.  

There were about 75 kids in the choir: 60 girls, 15 boys, so the boys were in high demand.  And 7 of the 10 kids at Matthew's birthday are in the choir.  I don't know if that's part of how they became friends or if its just a coincidence.  In any case, Matthew got to stand right in the middle of a bunch of his friends so that probably made it funner.  Matthew is on the left (middle row) and Anna is on the right just in front of the choir director's arm (bottom row).  Her face is partially covered here.  I had trouble getting a clear shot of her.

They sang about 10 songs from different movies.  Some memorable ones were The Candy Man (from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better (from Annie Get Your Gun) and Consider Yourself (from Oliver).  I did lots of plays/musicals when I was a kid and Oliver was my first real one - we did it in 4th grade.  I really wanted to be the Artful Dodger but the director wouldn't cast a girl in that roll, so I got to be a made up side kick of Artful Dodger named Jenny Bell.  But I got to do everything he did and sing all his songs and have half his lines, so it was ok.  And I got to speak with a heavy cockney accent, which was fun.  Anyway, Consider Yourself was one of our big songs, so it has a special place in my heart and it was fun to hear the choir sing it.    They also sang Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy which some of my friends and I did for a talent show in junior high dressed as the Andrews Sisters.  Brings back good memories.  But I digress.  Sorry, I'm always just reliving my glory days lately.  :)  The choir's rendition of Anything You Can Do was also very cute and funny.  That's a great song too!

So now choir is done for the year.  I'm glad the kids got a chance to try it.  

The school year is wrapping up and its almost summer again!  Hooray!

Scheels

We went to Scheels (the all sports superstore) in Sandy a few weekends ago while Scott was here.  Scheels is a huge store that's like a cross between Cabela's/Bass Pro Shop and Nike Town (or a large sporting goods store).  It also has a huge ferris wheel in the middle of store.  That was our first stop.  I liked Scheels better than Cabela's because it has gear for sports I actually like, like soccer, basketball, running etc.  I'm not as big into ice fishing, and hunting (Cabela's type activities).  Scott and I were even able to buy some stuff for our upcoming half marathon (this coming weekend).  Emma was too small to ride the ferris wheel so Scott waited at the bottom with her.  Matthew and Anna were tall enough to ride without an adult and I took the two younger boys.  Here we all are on the ferris wheel!

Here we are before hand, waiting for our turn on the ferris wheel.

Matthew and Anna getting loaded into the ferris wheel.

Going around!

Emma by the fish tank.  She had to wait while we rode the ferris wheel.

Throughout the store there were lots of things to climb on and take your picture with.

Here's Grant in the monster truck.

Matthew in the monster truck

John takes his turn.

Anna sits in the monster tire.

By a bear!

They had a shooting gallery (also an archery course, a small bowling alley and a kids play structure among other things).  Matthew tried the shooting gallery.

So did Scott.  He's a good shot.  Part of that military training.

And posing on the big field under the lights!

Everyone was doing their own winning sports moment here.

Fun!  So I give Scheels a big thumbs up!  Glad we got a chance to go.

The Lego Store

One of our planned activities for Spring Break was a trip to the Lego Store.  There is only one Lego Store in Utah and its about 20 miles from us.  It's also in the middle of a mall, so going there with kids is a little tricky (like cat wrangling through the mall).  But I made the trek with all the kids.  At the store they have a place where you can make a mini figure and build different things with Legos.  Matthew made this mini figure and said it was future him.  I sorta got him closing his eyes here, but I liked his future me mini figure.  His future me was wearing a lab coat and holding an ion gun and a wrench.  Engineer, right?  :)

John enjoyed playing at the build a car display.

Emma liked the wall of organized Legos.

John played with some cars for a while.  He especially liked this set of Lego micro racers which we ended up buying 'cause all the kids had so much fun playing with it on display.

The wall of Legos! Grant was playing with a Lego top thing that one of the employees was showing him.  The employees there were great.  Very engaging and kind to the kids.  We made a few Lego purchases and started making our way home.  We were probably at the store an hour and a half or so and had lots of fun.

On the way out of the mall we got smoothies at Orange Julius (which took FOREVER!!) and all the kids enjoyed that.  Here is Emma with hers after we got home.

Building and creating things with Legos is good for your brain!!  And they are so fun.

Grant made a car of his own.

And one of his other creations.  Love it.  Not sure what this was but it reminded me of a vulture.  Glad we got to visit the Lego store but it will probably be a while until we go again.  Not until after we move...which is coming up.  The latest we've been told now is that we can close in mid-June.  But everything is fluid.  :)  Hoping its sooner rather than later.

Here's the latest picture of our house.  Scott went on a "frame walk" this week with the superintendent and was able to check out the house inside and out.  Things are moving along.  They have put in some insulation and are starting to do dry wall inside.  Scott was also able to register the kids for school at their new school in California for next year.  So that's good!  The school district accepted our house contract as proof of residence at least until we move in.  So things are coming together. 

Grant is Five!!

and also I had a birthday somewhere in there...

Grant loves his birthday.  And he's been really excited for it to come along this year.  He's been counting down the days to his birthday since Christmas.  We finally made a little countdown calendar for him.  He's also been telling me what he wants to happen on his birthday for some time.  I was starting to worry that the real birthday wouldn't live up to the idea of it in his mind.  Grant's birthday (and mine, which is 3 days before Grant's) both fell on the kid's spring break this year.  So we had big plans for some spring break fun.   Scott was here visiting on the weekend prior but had to leave on Monday (my birthday) to head back to work in CA.  So we had a mini celebration for Grant over the weekend.

Grant shares a birthday with his great-grandfather, Grant Reeve (my mom's dad), who lives nearby my parent's house in Utah.  So it's an exciting week all around.

On Saturday - Grant's mini pre-birthday with Scott, we got Sonic take out for the kids.

We used an old piece of cake just for singing Happy Birthday.  Grant asked if he had to eat the cake.  No.  No you don't.  :)

And he got to open a few presents early while Scott was there.  

He got a hexbug, which he as excited about.

And the next day we celebrated my birthday early, so Scott could be there.  I don't have a lot of pictures, but it was fun and we ate tacos and cheesecake.  Then Monday, my actual birthday,  I took Scott to the airport.    By the time I got home I was feeling pretty sick.  I had been up in the night helping Grant who had been throwing up and apparently I caught it.  So I spent most of my birthday in bed with a stomach bug.  Luckily my parents helped watch the kids.

By the time Grant's birthday arrived I was feeling mostly better.  Here is a Minecraft Creeper piñata I made from a box.  The pinatas at the store seemed pricey - after all its just a box shape.  So I tried to make one.  All ready for party fun.

TNT licorice.  I got a bunch of ideas from pinterest for this party.

On the big day we made  Grant bacon (with eggs...but mostly bacon) for breakfast.  And Grant really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese on his birthday.  Chuck E. Cheese wasn't that close and I tried to talk him into some alternative place but he was firm.  So we drove to Chuck E. Cheese in Salt Lake.  There is one in Orem (slightly closer) but he also wanted to have lunch at a place up north, so we went that direction.   My mom offered to watch Emma during our Chuck E. Cheese trip which was very helpful.  

When we got to Chuck E. Cheese it wasn't crowded (thankfully) and we got our tokens.

Three little children disbursed with their tokens right away.

One just stood there almost paralyzed with indecision.

It was very strange.  Grant had really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese but once we got there he seemed nervous and scared.  It wasn't crowded and the place was clean and nice, so I'm not sure what the problem was.   He usually jumps right into things.  I tried to encourage him to try some different games and he finally found one he liked - the roller coaster simulator, which he rode a bunch of times.

John felt like a rich man.  He rode every riding attraction he could find...repeatedly.  When he ran out of tokens he would shout across the room, "MORE MONEY!!!"

Grant was reluctant to get free tickets from Chuck E. as well.  The other kids got right in there.  Is "Birthday Paralysis" a thing?

Anna cleaned up on Skee Ball.

After we spent all our tokens we headed to lunch.

Grant said he wanted a hot dog from Freddy's.

So we went to Freddy's.  I wished Scott was there.  He is the best at ordering food for all of us.

It's not easy!!  Grant wanted his own mint milk shake too.  He ate some of his food, took a few sips of milkshake and then told me had a stomach ache.  He recently had the same stomach bug I had so maybe he wasn't quite all the way back to full speed.  We still had fun though.

Anna and John at Freddy's

Then we headed home and I prepped for a few Minecraft themed activities at home.

We had a brewing station (which is a thing in Minecraft to make potions)

The kids mixed some potions for dinner.

Anna made a potion of strength and then ran around the room performing various feats of strength.  Grant was convinced his swiftness potion had made him faster...but the slowness potion had no effect.

We got the cake all ready

Grant helped me decorate it with some M&Ms and some of his Minecraft guys

Then we had a long treasure hunt with some games along the way.  

One stop was the nether portal (it's supposed to be purple).

A feed the creeper (or attack the creeper or whatever) game.  

We threw balls into his mouth and eyes.

We played pin the tail on the Minecraft pig

Anna pinned her tail perfectly on the pig.

On our treasure hunt we gathered different Minecraft entities, like gold, coal, TNT etc.  John is ready to eat his licorice TNT.

And we had to defeat the creeper piñata at the end.  I had been so busy running around I never got the creeper hung up by a string, so he just had to sit on a table.

The kids beat the stuffing out of him with sticks.  Eventually the candy came out and all was well.

Grant got to blow out his candles

And enjoyed opening his presents.

He got some candy, lego sets and walkie talkies (plus a few other things)

He was excited to play with the walkie talkies.

Grant, at one point, told me it was a great birthday, so that's good.

He did ask if he could forego the cake again.  What's wrong with my cake?  :)

Anyway, it was a fun day - a birthday success.  And now I'm tired. 

Happy 5th Birthday Grant!!