The New Bike

I have lots of kids. They are all so different. Just learning to ride a bike is different for all of them. When Faith was in Kindergarten she was determined that she would learn how to ride a bike all on her own. She begged me to take the training wheels off of Hyrum's 12 inch bike, it was the only one we had. So I finally did and she spent about 2 hours one afternoon and taught herself. I tried to help by offering to hold on, but she would have none of it. Then there is Vilate, she did a similar thing to Faith. She wanted to ride without training wheels, so she begged me to take her training wheels off and then she let me hold on to the bike a few times, but decided that she wanted to do it by herself. So a few weeks after the training wheels were off, she was off and riding all over! Then there is Gloria. She got a new bike, just before Christmas a friend gave us a hand-me-down bike and Gloria loves to sit on it. She cannot figure out how to pedal the thing to save her life. I have tried, and now I have decided that she can just love to sit on it and I am okay with that!!! Then there are the boys. Helaman loves to ride his little bike all around, the problem is that he is just not very fast and he gets really frustrated and angry when everyone else passes him. It gets really ugly really fast!!! And then there is Hyrum. He is my: "If I can't get it the first time, I will never be able to do it" kid. We have been trying to teach him to ride a bike for over a year now. He just doesn't like to do hard things. I can't blame him, most people don't! So, after a year of trying to teach him to ride a bike, he did it this week!!! Then he promptly reminded me that a few months ago as incentive, I said that when he did learn to ride a bike we would go to the store and he could pick out a brand new bike!! Oops!!!!! Why do they have to remember everything that you say, unless it involves cleaning or homework? Well, we did it on Friday. I took all 6 kids with me and we went to Toys-R-Us and Hyrum was given a budget and he did an awesome job. He was able to get a new bike, helmet and knee and elbow pads. On Saturday morning we put his bike together and he got to ride it for about an hour in the afternoon!! It was so cool!!

The great thing was that Vilate and Faith were both cheering him on and they were so excited that he got a new bike. I love it when they are happy for eachother!!

Happy Easter

On Friday, we were invited to an Easter Egg Hunt at a friend's house. There were over 25 kids there. It was so much fun. Here are some picture of the kids having a blast!!

My kids are getting so big!! I don't think I am ready to have big kids.

Spring Break

Spring Break was this last week. The kids and I had a blast!! We went to lots of different parks. On Wednesday we went to Howe park. We took some friends with us and I ended up being there with 10 kids. For the first 45 minutes, or maybe it was an hour, I was the only adult. It was a little crazy!! Then a friend of mine showed up with her 3 kids. We were way outnumbered. My original goal was to have everyone play nicely together and stay away from the creek!! Well, as you can tell by the pictures...the creek thing did not go my way!! It started with Faith and her friend Karrin down at the creek and then slowly, one by one or maybe two by two the other kids joined in and within 20 minutes, they were all down there. Then I said, "Make sure you don't get your shoes wet." Not even 10 minutes later Faith had "accidently" stepped into the water and her shoe was all wet. She asked if she could take her shoes off and I made the brilliant declaration that shoes must stay on but that we could wash them when we got home...that was the end of any dry kids. Within 15 minutes, the kids were all in the water. I must say that I was glad that my kids went in the deepest and I have to publicly apologize to all the other parents!! The kids had a blast and I have decided that we will never go back to the park with the way too accesible creek!!!

The good thing was that Gloria did not go in the water and instead just hung out with me and Nephi most of the time. We had a lot of fun!! After the kids were thoroughly drenched, we went over to the pond on the other side of the park and the kids got to feed the ducks. They thought that was really cool!

Just to let you know, I did not lose any kids and no one was seriously wounded. Hyrum did get a monster splinter in his foot, but all kids were accounted for and in good spirits when we left!!

Fun Traditions

My kids rock!! I started a tradition many years ago, where Laurence and Laurisa the Leprechauns come to visit on St. Patrick's Eve. They usually leave the kids a little treat and then color the kids green...not a lot, just some marks on their arms and maybe their face. The kids love it and in the past couple of years have tried to catch the leprechauns. So here is picture of this years trap. They made it look like a house. Then in the door way, behind the mailbox, they put a trap door and covered it with some pennies to intice Laurence and Laurisa in. According to the note that Laurence and Laurisa left, Laurisa fell in but luckily used her magic to escape. The kids got some green L-shaped sugar cookies with chocolate sprinkles from the Leprechauns. They loved it!!!

14 inches

Last Thursday I went somewhere and did something pretty scary! I have had long hair for quite a while now. I really like long hair...I think it has something to do with the fact that my mother, bless her heart, always cut my hair short. Not really short, like pixie short, but short enough that I hated short hair. I understand that it looked better short because I have really thin, stringy hair and when it gets long, it looks kind of...um...shall we say unkempt? Okay, so I always wanted really long hair. Well, I have let it grow for a while now and David was kind of tired of my long straight hair...and I mean STRAIGHT hair!! It was heavy and the curl would not last very long in it so I would not spend much time on it and it ended up in a pony tail most days. So, I did it. I cut 14 inches of my long pretty hair off. The thing that gave me courage was the idea that I could help some kid that had no hair. Yes, I donated all 14 long inches to Locks of Love. So here it a picture of me with my new short, cute hair!! Just so you all know, it was also a selfish thing...I wanted a new haircut and I am cheap...I got it done for free, well, there was a tip involved. Also, Nephi had started to use my hair to help him stand up when we were sitting on the floor. Man, that really hurt!! Poor Nephi, I guess he will just have to start standing on his own!!