Mostly good times, but a couple things went wrong

Late last week I started having anxiety attacks about this week, anticipating all that it would bring and require and knowing it would be a tough one. With Valentines Day, Oliver's birthday, an unusually busy work week, and a trip out of town for the holiday weekend looming on the horizon, I knew everything would have to be executed flawlessly in order to fit it all in.

Mostly it all went ok.

But we never made it out of town. By Friday night I was just too tired. I could barely put the kids to bed without breaking down myself, and at midnight when I was finally finished folding laundry, I just couldn't pack the suitcases. So we canceled the trip. We were supposed to go see Uncle Brett in Idaho. It's snowy there. We were all looking forward to it. I feel bad and hope we can find another time to go soon.

But let's not dwell on that anymore. Let's back up and talk about what happened right.

Valentine's day required homemade cards and treats and decorated mailboxes for 3 kids. Check, check and check. We made the same matchbox cards as last year and had everything done in time for class parties on Wednesday and Thursday. I managed to slip in some Valentines shopping for Scott, but seem to have misplaced his main gift (for some reason I think I might have left it on the roof of the car when I drove away from the store). So that was too bad.

It's birthday season again at our house so this was a very fun surprise to get in the mail from Annee:


Oliver's birthday was on Saturday this year, and, as you'll recall, we were supposed to be out of town. So we planned to have his friends party on Friday, since there was no school. On Monday we got the invitations made and hand-delivered.


We took 18 kids (?!) to the Provo Rec Center to swim for a couple of hours.


It was a big group, but we managed to have fun and not bother the old people doing water aerobics too much, and only one kid almost drowned (didn't he know he couldn't swim? why'd he try to jump off the diving board?!). Thank goodness for lifeguards willing to jump in the deep end in their clothes.

Thank you thank you to Mom and Scott for coming to be extra supervising adults, for Jennilyn for keeping Huck & June, and most especially for Christine for being willing to put on her swim suit and get in the water with us (oh and also for saving that same kid another time when he ventured into the deep end again -- we did finally put a life jacket on him).

We had cake & opened presents in the observation balcony, and everyone reported having had a good time.
Scott calls this the "I AM SEVEN!" face.

All-in-all, I call it a rousing success of a 7-year-old birthday party.


Remember how last year we managed to get all the celebrating done in one day? Too bad that didn't happen again this year. Thursday night (since, remember, we were going to be out of town on Saturday) we went out to a family birthday dinner at Brick Oven, and then moved the party on to Color Me Mine where Grandpa helped Oliver paint a great race car.

But then Saturday comes around, and we're not out of town, so of course we have to do something fun again. We started at Krispy Kremes and picked out an assorted dozen, and were alerted by honking cars around us more than half-way home that they were on the roof of the car. Amazingly they held on long enough for us to realize and retrieve them. (This experience is what makes me think Scott's Valentines gift might have been lost in like manner.)
Then we moved on to play video games and laser tag at Nickel City,

hung out at the mall while Oliver designed a new hat at Lids (oh yes, you saw that right, that is a tiger getting hit by a flying dart with Oliver's name in graffiti writing),

followed by dinner at PF Changs (since, afterall, we weren't going to be able to go out for Valentines Day anyways).

No, we're not done celebrating Oliver's birthday yet.

Sunday night Christine & Nate came over to enjoy some ice cream pie.

Tuesday we took treats to school (Oli picked ring pops).

Wednesday I went back to school and read Oliver's class a story.

phew. now we're done (I think).


Other stuff...

June does Karate (she calls it "Hi-ya")


June reads Brown Bear


Huck eats his feet


Brenden got a tooth pulled

The Squirrel has multiplied

And last, but certainly not least...
Paul Jacobsen & The Madison Arm (one of Scott's bands) advanced to the finals of the City Weekly Music Awards

Come out to The Depot on Saturday to support them.

p.s.

Dear Citibank,
Thank you so much for giving me the motivation I need to finally close my credit card with you. I know I've been a loyal customer for over 15 years (that's right, I fell prey to those applications you sent around to college freshmen who had no business having a credit card), and my account has always been in good standing. I know I paid it off for the last time 2 years ago, but thought I'd leave it open to be my "just in case card." But I will not pay the newly-imposed $60/year fee just for that, and so now I must bit adieu. It's really not too sad for me, but I suspect deep down inside you will miss me.
Love, Sarah