Easter Weekend

We opted for a little get-away this year--a road trip to Tennessee. I had never been to Tennessee before and I have to say that it was beautiful! Spring must be the best time of year there. The weather was fabulous, the flowers were blooming, everything was green and the temperature was perfect.
First stop was Memphis. I have wanted to see Graceland for a long time. I'm not a huge fan, but of course I like Elvis. He's an icon and his life is fascinating. However, I think the glory days of Graceland are over. It was so tourist-y and the house just looked old and worn. I was kinda feeling bad for the "king". I also thought it was going to be huge, but it really wasn't. I'm sure it was big for those days, but I know people who live in homes that size now and they aren't even celebrities. He had a pool, but it wasn't even very big. In a way it made me like him more. It made him seem a little more like a real (possibly humble?) person who lived in a real house with his parents and other relatives. His airplanes though, made him seem like a rock star. Very cool for those days. Totally 70's. One thing we both thought was kinda funny was his TCB logo. Apparently, Priscilla did the artwork (she drew the lightning bolt). It seemed very amateurish and he had it on everything. But again, it made me kinda like him more.
Memphis itself was a bit scary, old and rundown. We have a friend who is from there and she warned us. She says the city government is so corrupt that there will probably never be good days in Memphis again. She says it is a main stop for drug trafficking. It's sad to see a city go so completely downhill like that.
Next stop, Nashville. We got in town just in time for the Easter egg hunt at the (I can't remember the name of it) mansion. The grounds were beautiful. But, we were there about 10 minutes into the 4-hour long event and wouldn't you know ALL the eggs were gone. :( So we had to be content playing with the chicks and ducks. That was fun. Then off to the Parthenon. This was Emma's main stop. She loves Greek mythology and was really looking forward to this stop. Again, a beautiful park with the Parthenon right in the center. But, it was closed that day so she couldn't see the Athena statue on the inside. Bummer.
Then on to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I enjoyed seeing a country music presentation there and wandering the museum for a while. Hey, if you are interested in Hank Williams at all, this would be a great time to go to the museum. They have this huge display on him. I now know more about Hank than I ever will need to, I'm sure. My favorite part was the dresses. Everything from Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Reba McIntyre, and Carrie Underwood (that giant flowing thing she wore a couple years ago at the CMA awards--glorious to behold). Kids HATED this part of the day. Really. . .hated this whole thing. Oh, well.
We wandered downtown Nashville for a while that night. It was kinda cool because lots of people who are trying to break into the "biz" were out on the street performing. We saw some pretty talented people/kids.
Our last stop was Opryland. No show for us though. Uhhh. . . I would have had to sell a child to get in. I had no idea shows were so expensive there.
So, that was it. It was a nice little excursion that the kids pretty-much hated. But hey, at least the Easter bunny found us.
P.S.--I missed every bit of conference, so we'll be reading the next ensign very carefully. pooh!

Ellie's 7th Birthday

Well, the big Fairy Party is finally over and we can now return to life as we know it. It was actually a fun party to plan and put together, but it ended up being a lot of work. Here's what we did.
As the kids arrived I had Maddie sitting at the fairy transformation booth where they could get fairy (lip) gloss, fairy dust (body glitter), and nail stickers.
Then they went to the table to decorate their goody bags.
These were just time fillers to wait for everyone to arrive.
When all were present we started making our fairy skirts.
I had strips of tulle and sheer fabrics and taught them how to "tie" them to their elastic. They did a great job actually. I was quite pleased.
Then we had a fairy freeze dance to Tinkerbell soundtrack songs. Maddie was the DJ. She found the perfect music. Thank you, Maddie.

Then it was picture time. I had everyone pose against our fairy garden backdrop which was designed and painted by our family. Everyone helped, but I ended up doing most of the painting. This was the item that I started wondering why I thought it was going to be a good idea. Just FYI, if you are ever going to do a fairy party, go ahead and buy the fairy backdrop from WalMart for $18.00 and forget about this.

Time for outdoor games. Luckily the weather was PERFECT! I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. I told them a story about watching stars the night before and seeing a couple of stars fly right across our yard and something was falling to the ground. I finally figured out that it must have been the tooth fairy and the gem fairy, because it looked like coins and jewels that were falling. The kids were totally eating this up. I just love how their imaginations can make these things seem real. So, they took their bags to go look for "fairy treasure" (candy coins and jolly ranchers). They decided that it must have been candy fairies that I saw, because they only found candy. I loved it.
The next game we played was Fairy Freeze Tag. One girl had a yellow (fly) wand and another had a blue (freeze) wand. If the blue wand got you, you were frozen, if the yellow wand got you, you could "fly". We just took turns getting the wands (about 2 minutes each). They loved this too.
Then we played Fairy Godmother, May I. I was the Fairy Godmother. I'm sure you can figure this one out.
Time to eat. On the menu was:
Fairy Fizz- pink lemonade with 7-up
Fairy Wands- pretzels dipped in pink candy coating and sparkle sugar
Fairy Bread- bread and butter, cut in shapes sprinkled with sparkle sugar
Fruit Bouquet
Jelly Bean Jewels
and Taquitos (because it was dinner time and they needed something real to eat.)
Then Cake time. Ellie had very specific requests for the cake. It had to be 3 tiered, rainbow swirl, with fairies. So, that's exactly what she got. It was a fun cake to make. Maddie said it was the best cake I ever made-looks and taste! Wow, I don't get compliments like that on my cakes very often. Yay for me!!
Ellie opened presents, we gathered all our take-homes, and then went outside with a bottle of bubbles to wait for parents. It turned out great.

Be Our Guest

Emma's middle school production of Beauty and the Beast ran last night. Emma had several chorus parts and can bee seen here as a plate in the upper left picture. She was fabulous, of course. Two of her good friends were also in the show including Mrs. Potts and another chorus girl (who I don't seem to have a photo of). Everyone was worried that it wouldn't turn out very well, but as usually happens, it all came together in the end and they did a really cute show.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Maddie was in the High School Musical this year as a candy kid. I'm sure you all know by now about the almost-lead that she had. She was called back for Charlie along with one other kid, who they ended up going with mainly because he was a BOY. Imagine that! Still, she did a great job and had tons of fun meeting new people and making friends. And that's what it's all about. Right? P.S. I've been neglecting this post because I kept thinking we might get some better pictures, but this is what we've got. It's a racket they have going to get nice photos of the play. Seriously. Still considering it, but YIKES!

Spring Break

Nothing fancy for Spring Break this year. We made our way over to Chicago via Springfield, IL and stopped over to visit the Lincoln Presidential Library. It is a great museum with video presentation marvels akin to Disneyland. Extremely entertaining AND educational. You can't top that. Here the girls are posing next to their favorite Mary Lincoln dress and then dressing up as Mary and Abe. We learned a lot about the civil war and politics during that time. We also learned about Abe's childhood. He only had one full sibling- an older brother, and was raised primarily by his step-mother. I thought that was interesting.

Then it was off to Chicago. We stayed in Naperville at the Holiday Inn and something happened that has never happened to me before. At about 2 AM the fire alarms start blaring in our rooms and throughout the hotel. We were evacuated along with everyone else and immediately the fire trucks were there. Turns out, someone pulled the fire alarm. There was NO fire. Thank goodness, but still a strange experience. And thank goodness there was no snow that night.

The next day was spent in the city at the Art Museum. That was one place we never got to during our time in Chicago. It is an amazing place and HUGE. We were there for several hours and probably saw about 1/5 of the place. Then off to a place we HAD been before, our favorite restaurant in Chicago- Piazannos! We love their chicago-style pizza. It is soooooo yummy!

Then it was back to Plainfield for the big show! Yes, Plainfield North High School's production of Annie. It is the reason we went that direction in the first place. Very cute, and of course, we saw our friend Aram who sang, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." Maddie got to spend the next day with her friends while Richard attended some business meetings and we went to a movie. We had never seen Princess and the Frog and were able to catch it at our favorite dollar theater. All-in-all a great trip. Very low-key. I liked it. A lot.

Another Year

This was about as low-key a birthday as they come. I made a cake and let the little ones decorate it. Ellie let me wear a veiled crown and boa. I opened the dollar store gifts from everyone which included flowers, a frame or two, body wash, a tape measure, and a few other fun items. The big gift was an electric can opener--awesome! But the really big gift was that the kids cleaned the kitchen, decorated it all up for me, and behaved like angels for the whole day. I couldn't ask for more. It was wonderful.