Huge first week of March

March has been so busy and it's only March 7th! This first week has been packed full with fun.

We had a visit to the Children's Museum. Actually, I say we and I really mean "Mom and Cara and Iva" . They went without me. I tried not to be too bitter. It wasn't their idea. Aunt Angie invited them. Iva slept for a while, but once she woke up she was in heaven!

Cara is making a grumpy face in the photo below because she doesn't like Elsa.

After that trip, a week of birthday celebrations started! Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Bev came in from California to celebrate Grandpa's 80th birthday and the twins second birthday. We had so much fun! Iva remembered them enough she was willing to be kind and talk to them.

Siena made Grandpa a card on the spot. It was darling and she even gave him curly hair.

On his actual birthday we took the time to go bowling with him! He's a big bowler and bowls at least three times a week so we thought it only appropriate to go with his great grandkids.

I beat Mom on our first game!

That night they had a grown ups only party at Pizza Factory and Grandpa got his special 80 pizza!

For the twins birthday, we went and played at Jumping Jacks. And I mean everybody played including GRANDPA!

It was so great. We loved all the family playing time at special places. I beg to go to Jumping Jacks all the time!

Siena Plays the Piano

Guest post by Mommy:

Siena's school does a first grade assembly where any first grader can show off a talent or give a speech. It took a little convincing, but I got Siena to play the piano for her talent instead of sing a popular song or dancing to a popular song. I was so proud of her. It occurred to me when she was done that she had never played the piano in public before. I teach her and we have been going pretty slowly, but you also never get a piano recital that way! I think she was pretty proud of herself. I'm not a great teacher, but she's picking up on some basics. 

And then later that day she followed up being so big with acting like a big kid and riding in the cart. What a goofball.

Actually, now that I'm talking about her. I should probably just brag about her in general. We attended SEP's that last week in February and of course her teacher had nothing but nice things to say. Great things. Siena is an amazing reader. She's working on reading chapter books to herself and tests up to being able to read Harry Potter level books. We still struggle a little bit with comprehension, but I think it's because she's trying to be speedy, but also she's afraid of getting answers wrong so she hesitates to answer!

She is a huge help to me around the house. She folds her own laundry and cleans her bathroom. She's in charge of feeding the dogs and does it without complaint. I can ask her to help watch Iva and she likes being responsible.

She talks. A lot. But so did both her dad and her mom. In fact, we still do so really it's not a surprise. She loves to play pretend with Cara. She is really quite a cheerful kid. I would never really describe her as being in a bad mood. She's very easy going still.

She loves "Macaroni Monday" and "Thursday Chicken" which were her ideas. We literally have macaroni every Monday because of it. She's getting MUCH better at trying new foods. She even LIKES some of the new things. We are still warming up to veggies. She doesn't like ranch dressing so I'm kinda stumped! (She likes mustard but not ranch..seriously?!)

She loves to draw and color and make projects although not very involved ones. She plays outside and rides her bike a lot. And according to her she loves being with her family. She has this way of saying "Mom" that is short and punchy and drives me up the wall, but I think she's just filled with energy when she says it. Every now and then she gets strangely weepy and doesn't want me or her dad to leave her at school, but it's pretty short lived and she shakes it off well.

She has gotten much better at climbing with Grandpa. She's getting braver and more confident. I love it.

She's just the best. It's true. Love her.

Time gets away from Mommy

We know. It's been awhile. In fact, our blog doesn't even know about our big snow day in February. It's a crime.

So after complaining a little about the snow storm we had to drive through to get home from Salt Lake, we were stunned when we awoke to THREE inches of snow on Monday, February 23! Everyone in town was caught off guard. They still held school, but it was a short day so we didn't have to wait long until we played and froze!

We had to crack ice on the tramp to jump. The snow was really wet and heavy. It was PERFECT for building snowmen!

And of course a snow fort!

This is what it looked like the very next day....only our snow fort remained and we were running around without jackets.

Eating yucky snow!

It was a big reminder though that it's still winter!

Book Ended by the Preslars

After our delightful finale at Disneyland, we came straight home to a house full of Preslars! Okay actually they came after school, but we were so excited for them to come and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Mom made us go hike the Vortex on Saturday. We had tan lines from the hike!

Mom felt bad when she made everyone go up this steep sandstone and then discovered that there was actually a nice gentle trail the other way!

These guys were incredible hikers! Hardly any complaining!

There was also plenty of time to dig and play in the yard. Lots of digging. Lots of playing.

We loved having them here in St. George, but it was easy to say goodbye because we knew we were going to see them and our other cousins in FOUR DAYS. Laine was coming to Utah for her baptism.

It was unfortunate because we drove from sunshine into cold and snow. But it was so worth it.

They wanted to try the American Gothic look. It was really hard for them!

All the grandkids minus Kate!

Aunt Margaret and all her nieces.

We of course snuck in a visit to the zoo. It was mostly a bust, but Iva loved the animals we did see.

It was great!

THE FINALE!

This day was supposed to be more of a half day at the parks, but it turned out that we only left with an hour of park time left! Hahaha! Dad was fine with getting in at 2 am and Mom ran with it.

The day started out AMAZING. Mom did it. She asked to open the park and we got to!!!! They came and let in the gates 45 minutes before the park opened and let us take pictures for 15 minutes! It was kind of awkward because everyone in line wanted to get in too! We were the only ones in the park besides employees for 15 whole minutes.

At the say so of Jeff, our nice cast member, we shouted "LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!" and started the countdown. We also got another special "skip any line" pass. It was a dream come true!

We tried to squeeze in only our favorite rides, but it was proving to be more difficult because our favorite rides take time and you could feel the crowds increasing ahead of the holiday weekend. That's how we ended up still on Disney property at 7:10 pm local time!

It was a little breezy today even though it was 90 degrees. We seriously love Mickey's Fun Wheel.

This was our last ride on Tower of Terror. We tried to make it look like we were crying.

Teacups! (You'll notice Mommy was wearing black for mourning purposes!)

This is about when we discovered Iva's limit was four and a half days of Disney fun. She was a little sick of strollers and spinny rides.

Mom let her loose in Toon Town while Dad squeezed in one last ride on Pirates with us. I was bummed because Indiana Jones broke down and I didn't get to jump on it one last time. Iva thoroughly enjoyed being out of the stroller.

Last ride with Mom on Space...

Saying good bye to Main Street...

And driving off the parking lot...(Mom's getting choked up typing this. She didn't even cry when we actually left! I think it feels more real now!) You'll notice Iva is already OUT.

Our Disney posts aren't quite done. We will have to post our photo pass pictures because there are sure to be some beauties. We had a MAGICAL year. We managed to do it all!