Puzzle It!

Seryn put this puzzle together all by herself this morning. She's pretty proud of that fact. Her sisters were at school and I was checking my email. Then she came upstairs and told me to come look at her castle! Such a smart kid!

Where Did March Go?

It's gone!! It just left!!! (The month. NOT my sanity! Okay, well maybe that too.)
I don't know why I've been keeping up my writing blog but not this one. (shaking head) So, since I have been so lax in my blogging, here's an update for the end of February and most of March.

Amy and Iris came to visit one day and Iris' hair was fixed so cute! I thought I'd give it a try. Although, Seryn's hair isn't as long, curly, or thick, I still think it turned out okay. And she LOVED having beautiful hair!

At the beginning of the year, I was looking for a job. (I'm still kind of looking, but I think I might be going back to school instead.) Anyway, if I got a job, I wanted Lylli to have something to do after school so she wouldn't have to go to day care for 2 hours or be home by herself that long. So I told her to pick some of the after school programs that they offer at the school. She chose Spanish Club because she enjoys Spanish and she has several friends in it, and Drama. (It's turned out to be a good thing. She's not nearly as bored when she comes home, and she doesn't have as many fits either!)

I was concerned about the drama thing because she's so shy, and she didn't know anyone in it. In fact the first day, she said she was so nervous she stood outside the door for ten minutes before she got the nerve to go in! Anyway, she played the Widow Marina in The Taming of the Shrew! AND SHE LOVED IT!!!! She did SUCH a good job! (It was a VERY slimmed down version but they performed it in old English.) I'd never have believed my shy little girl would do so well on stage! She's auditioning for the next play too, and I'm very proud of her!

Even though our winter hasn't been windy and snowy, it's cold (for Provo) and generally not pleasant outside. We've all had a touch of cabin fever. But one day, the girls decided to dress up as princesses and have a tea party! (complete with crumpets aka Wheatie cookies and tea aka lemonade)

My mom came to visit last week! That was a lot of fun! Seryn has been complaining about being hot and wanting to wear her swimsuit. While my mom was here, I made the mistake of telling her to put on her swimsuit (it was a joke, but she didn't catch that). So, I had to make good on my word, and Layla and Seryn went swimming in the bathtub, because it's just too cold to swim outside.

Okay. I have to redeem myself. Since I have so many raised eyebrows looking at me, I thought I'd tell you WHY my 8-year-old now has a cell phone.

We don't have a land line and Lylli often has the responsibility to watch her sisters for short periods of time. I don't like that she can't call me if she has problems. Even if I leave my phone home, she can't call me and Shane's usually busy. So unless we are together, it doesn't always work.

On our phone plan, all cell to cell calls (of any provider) don't take up minutes. So Shane dropped our minutes and then added another line for $10 a month. So now, Lylli can have a phone to get ahold of us if she needs to while babysitting. She also will have it if something happens during her after school programs and she gets done early. She has unlimited texting and has enjoyed texting everyone! I don't mind that. We have given her rules, and she's doing pretty well. Although, I have yet to see her without the phone. She feels all grown up now!

Oh, one more little thing. Lylli was accepted into the Accelerated School here in Provo! We (Shane, Lylli, and I) have decided that she will be going there next year. She is SO excited!! They do math for 2 hours a day, and everything revolves around Science, which is her favorite subject! They work on projects of subjects they chose, get to work out in the school garden every Friday, and eat outside on nice days! (She's thrilled about that!) The school is 4 - 6 grade and there is only one class of each with about 25 - 30 kids per class. She will be there for 3 years with the same kids and then move on to another Accelerated Program when she's done with Elementary School. They have a fine arts department and she can choose 3 subjects to study. (choir, drama, orchestra, band, guitar, art, ballroom dance) They learn Latin, and have experts come to their school and visit with the kids frequently. She is very excited but sad to lose some of her good friends. Still, we all think this will be a good thing for her.

Valentine's Party

Every year we do a Valentine's Party! This year, the girls had some friends over, and we had a HUGE party! In total, we had 15 girls! We had so much fun! I remember doing this with my grandma when I was little, and I've done it with my girls since Lylli was in school! Seryn and Layla have never had parties before, so they had a GREAT time! Surprisingly, Lylli and her friends were the wildest and LOUDEST!

AND, I after many batches of cookies, I finally created the BEST recipe for sugar cookies. Feel free to check it out!

Lylli's Better Butter

Over Christmas break, Lylli decided to do a science project. She asked me if butter was made out of oil. I told her it was made out of cream. So we decided to make it into an experiment. She did some research and she tried several methods. One of them was shaking them in a jar with a marble. She tried cream, oil, and a combination of the two. The cream worked. The oil didn't. And the combination turned into thick whipped cream but nothing more. She tried it with a mixer too and without the marble. She had a great time and loves her homemade butter!!!

Seryn's Earrings!

Layla, Shane, and BMX

Last weekend, we went to a dirt track to watch some friends race on bikes. They have a group where all the kids can ride around part of the track and they all get trophies. Layla decided she wanted to do it, and a guy there let her borrow a bike. She was SO excited and had SO much fun!!! She did a great job too! Even though the bike was too big for her!


This is Layla's race. She had to stop on the first hill. (I thought she got stuck but she stopped so she didn't hit someone.) She did a great job and says she won her race!!! She had a blast!

Shane didn't race, but he did borrow his buddie's bike and helmet and went around the track a couple times. This is his second run. His first on he lost his shoe!! Funny!

Houses

I made Seryn a house for Christmas! Now all three girls have houses. I don't know if any of them love them as much as Seryn does. She creates an entire village when she plays. Sometimes she even has all the barbies and small animals too. It's really cute!
(Lylli's is the one on the left, Seryn's is in the middle, Layla's is the green one on the right.)

The insde of Seryn's house with the furnature and her Kelly doll.

Seryn's house