Happy Birthday Kirsten!

From this:

3-29-05

To this: (in the blink of an eye!)

3-29-10

We had Kirsten's birthday party last night - she had cupcake brownies because brownies make her "comfortable, cozy and warm" (her words!). We put pink and purple sprinkles on them because Kirsten is really into Fancy Nancy right now and we HAD to make them fancy, of course!

Kirsten got a sparkly card from a friend of Tim's mom's - she loved it! (thank you so much Nancy!) She also got a Fancy Nancy doll, a card and a balloon, and a new bike. She said that this was her best birthday ever!



Kirsten said some funny things this past weekend. We had a 'shop cleanup day' on Saturday and by the afternoon, she was very tired. Tim, Dallin, Hayleigh and I stayed outside to do the last thing - give the cows hay - and Kirsten went to the house with Keenan, Tyler and Ethan. She wrapped herself up in a blanket and started to fall asleep (which was not good at all because it was 5 PM!). Keenan asked her if she was sleepy and she said, "heck yeah, of course I am!". On Sunday at her party, she asked me if she could open up her gift from Tim's mom. I told her she had to wait til after we had cake and ice cream. She said that Fancy Nancy was in the box. (she is way too smart for her own good!) I told her that it might not be Fancy Nancy, that it could be a box of toilet paper. She said that "it's Fancy Nancy. But toilet paper would be funny!"

Hayleigh had a soccer game on Saturday - they won 2-1 - yay!!! It was a nice day, so we all went to watch her. We had forgotten that Rec soccer is so darn frustrating! It's hard to go back to watching that after so many years of classic and premier ball! But, Hayleigh is having fun and learning the game and it doesn't cost anywhere near what classic/premier does!


I wanted to post this picture too - it was very foggy on Friday morning and I thought the farm looked pretty:

My Baby is 5!

Yep, the 'baby' will be 5 on Monday! We all can't believe that she will be heading to kindergarten this fall. For the first time in 22 years, I will be home during the day by myself.....hopefully I won't become addicted to soap operas or something and I'll finally be able to get crack-a-lackin' on my family history!
Kirsten went to kindergarten registration last week and had a great time! They took her to the gym while I stayed in the library. In the gym, they evaluated how much she knew - when I had the meeting with one of the kindergarten teachers, she said "well, there's not much I can tell you to have her work on this summer. She knew her colors, numbers to 12, letters, shapes and how to write her name." I wish I could take the credit for this, but in reality, it's Hayleigh who has taught her all of these things! Hayleigh comes home from school and insists that Kirsten be her 'student' and play school. Kirsten usually gets a snack or a whole darn packed lunch (that's when I'm not paying enough attention and Hayleigh figures she can sneak the food out of the pantry), so Kirsten willingly goes along with the whole play school game.




We got our baby chicks last week! They are so cute when they are little, but wow! are they loud!




Last night Tyler and Ethan had their first track meet. They missed the one last week because they both had a bad case of bronchial something that had them coughing and hacking. Track meets are very long....way longer than a soccer game. Both Tyler and Ethan had a great meet! Tyler had a foot block problem on his 100, so he came in last for that (which was very heartbreaking because the kid who came in first was 3 seconds slower than Tyler's average practice time!). I was a little panicked in the 4 by 1 or the 1 by 4 or whatever it was called (4 boys, 1 loop around the track) because Ethan was the 3rd runner and had to hand off the baton to Tyler who was the 4th runner. I was watching some of the teams practice handing the baton to each other and a lot of them dropped it! Yikes! But, it all turned out well - Ethan made up a little distance when he ran and handed Tyler the baton no problem and Tyler was able to get 3rd place by passing the 4th guy and if he had another 20 feet, he would've passed the 1st and 2nd place boys too! If you look closely in the picture, Ethan is handing Tyler the baton - they are in raider red - GO RAIDERS!



Last November when the boys played soccer, they had a FANTASTIC run in the state playoffs....so they decorated the graffiti rock at school. (I think it's awesome that the school provides them with something they can spray paint on without getting arrested) When I was there for the track meet last night, I FINALLY got a picture of the rock - Keenan, Tyler and Ethan all painted the same side ---

The Civil War

Tyler recently had to write an essay persuading people to join Civil War Reenactment Groups (strange subject, don't you think?). We thought his essay was really good and wanted to share it. I'm not sure what grade he got on, but who cares? -- it's funny!

Here it is word for word:

Do you love history? Are you really bored? Or do you have an old person that won't leave you alone? There is only one answer for all of these questions: Civil War Reenactment Groups!

History lovers can re-live famous battles as if they were actually there fighting for the Confederate or Union Army. You can collect a wide variety of weapons and clothing that could earn you a spot in People Of Walmart.

Old people that have no life outside of their retirement home can finally feel included in their friends' conversations of what they did last weekend. Instead of following you around and telling you stories from back in the day, they can be a part of a war in history again.

If you're one of those people that go home and have nothing to do you can now go out with a group of friends and let out pent up anger by running around pretending to shoot people and beat them with swords. If you would like to go relax somewhere outside of your house, join and you can lay down and play dead.

It's a perfect way to spend the weekend. So be a part of a Civil War Reenactment Group and have fun!

THE fence post (warning - gross!)

I'm not really sure who started this....some of the kids say that Keenan did; some say that Brandee did.....but for years now (like 10!), the kids have been putting their chewed gum on a fence post as they walk down the driveway from the school bus in the afternoon. I think it may be because Tim hates gum in the house and since they chew gum at school, they figured they better get rid of it before they come in the house. It's pretty darn disgusting.

Bunny tags for Easter!

I love these bunny tags and thought I'd share! If anyone is interested in these, let me know - I can make some for you too!

Soccer and Chickens

No, our chickens don't play soccer! But, they really need to learn how to stand up for themselves! As soon as we open the chicken door so the chickens can come out and peck at the ground and do whatever it is chickens do, the bully ducks chase them all around til the chickens go back in the house. And then the ducks stand guard at the door and refuse to let the chickens back out for hours! It would be funny to watch, except I feel bad for the chickens. It's been so nice out and all they do is get terrorized by the ducks!

Tim and I (well, mostly Tim - but I did help this time!) sectioned off part of the chicken house so that we can add some baby chicks this spring. We're going to go as a family and pick them out - can you say 'headache'????




Hayleigh had her first soccer game today. They lost 4-0, but it was against a team that has already played several games. We've had 2 practices, and one of the practices was in classroom 'learning' about soccer. There has been so much rain!


Hayleigh did quite well for never really playing before (or even paying attention to her siblings' games). Kirsten yelled to Hayleigh that she's 'strong' and can 'beat that yellow girl'. (the other team was wearing yellow) Kirsten then explained to me that she is planning to play soccer this fall and she wants purple cleats because 'purple is my fravit color'.

Spring??

No, probably not quite yet - but it sure has been nice outside for the past several days. We put 3 'farm cleanup' days on the calendar for this month, so hopefully lots of things will get done. Today we are working on partitioning off a section of the chicken house to make room for some new baby chicks! Hayleigh and Kirsten are so excited that we will be getting some babies! We'll take them with us when we go to the tractor supply store to pick out the chickies.

Keenan, Dallin and I were in Richmond, VA this past weekend for a soccer tournament for Dallin. What an awesome weekend! Dallin had some really great games and the team won all 4! Tournament champs!!!




Keenan and I went to a really cute shop while Dallin was hanging out with his team. It's called 'Gather'. I can't seem to get the link to show up - so I'll just give you the website. www.shopgather.com. Check it out - it looked exactly like the photo from the website - red truck and everything.