Katelyn graduated preschool

I am still wondering how this happened. When did Katelyn grow up and start preschool, and how did we manage to get all the way to the END of preschool? Well it happened, and we had a fabulous graduation ceremoney. Complete, once again, with marching to pomp and circumstance, diplomas, hats, leis, and a luncheon. She filled out an end of the year "autograph hound" book. She reported that her favorite thing she learned was about bears. Her favorite class helper job was snack helper. Her favorite craft to make was scratch and sniff fruit, and her favorite snack was valentine's cookies. Karen S. made a slide show out of the pictures we had all taken during the year. It started and I felt like she was graduating high school and I had to hold back the tears. My mom and Aunt Karla just happened to time it right for this event also. How lucky were we!

I don't know if I'm ready for her to grow up, but it just keeps happening anyway. So, all I can do is say congratulations my little Kate-Kate!

Kyleigh's Dance Recital

Kyleigh performed in Kauai Dance Theatre's production of Snow White. Her class made out with the cutest costumes! They were the little princess'. I loved the way Miss Janie did the recital. Kyleigh got to do two dances, tap and ballet. But in addition to her dances Miss Janie had dancers in costume as part of the scenery during some of the older girls dances so they got more stage time and we got to look at their cute faces for longer. Miss Janie also does a photo opportunity at the end of a class, rather than professional pictures. After we took pics in the studio we went to the golf course and got some super cute pictures. As a special bonus the recital landed during the same time as our visit from GG and Aunt Karla. That is two years in a row with grandparents here for the recital. Kyleigh looked so beautiful on stage. She is such a graceful dancer. She must have gotten that from Aunt Darci because grace did not come from me or Russ.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was fabulous. I started my day with a fresh flower bouquet that Rusty and the girls picked from the yard. Rusty is very proud of his flower arranging skills. We went to church and had our annual mother's day pie eating get together. They YM and YW serve the mothers their choice of pie, cake, or cheesecake. When we got home Kyleigh grabbed her I love hugs shirt and altered it for the occasion to say I love Mommy. Rusty and Mike made me and Holly prime rib and king crab legs for dinner. It was to die for good. At bedtime Katelyn grabbed my face in her little hands and said, "Mommy, happy mothers day. You are the best mom ever."

"Ant's paradise"

These are the fun cupcakes we made for the achievement days mother daughter activity titled, "mom, me, and a dozen cupcakes." It was a cupcake themed activity with a cupcake exchange at the end. The hot dogs are made out of a circus peanut cut in half, a caramel rolled up and some yellow icing. The hamburgers are nilla wafers, a grasshopper cookie, yellow and red icing, dyed coconut, and sesame seeds. These turned out so cute. Thanks again to family fun (and Tasy for letting Kyleigh come to achievement days a few months early!).

Beauty and the Beast

The Kalaheo school play is pretty much the most amazing elementary school play on the planet. I'm sure of it. In the last three years they have done Charlie and the Chocalate Factory, Annie, and now Beauty and the Beast. Our friend Jackson was the beast this year. He did such a great job. When he changed from the beast into the prince he was laying on his back and lifted up off the stage. The rose had petals falling throughout the play. For the forest scenes they had a sheer stage curtain so you could see sillouettes of the wolves attacking Crazy Old Maurice and then Belle. We continue to be more and more impressed every year with this play. We took the kids on Saturday of opening weekend and then Holly took Naiya and the girls the next Saturday. They went especially to try their hand at the raffle for the beautiful yellow Belle dress. On Tuesday my friend Dawn (Jackson's mom) called and asked if we were home because she had a surprise for Kyleigh. She walked in with THE DRESS!!!! I screamed. Kyleigh isn't a screamer when it comes to surprises so she gave her sideways head tilt smile then ran to put it on and has hardly taken it off. I thought for sure it had been rigged for Kyleigh to win, but no, she won fair and square with her one little raffle ticket. I knew Holly would be so excited about it that I was going to take a special trip to her house just to surprise her. We called and she was leaving Costco. She ended up coming over here. When Kyleigh walked out in the dress she SCREAMED. She was holding Aliya, who promptly started crying. I held her while Holly admired the dress. Ridge saw Aliya crying so he started crying and came over to give her a hug. Really that has nothing to do with the dress but it was such a cute little hug. We are so excited to have won the raffle. That dress will make four little girls happy, one at a time.

Kyleigh at the play with Belle and the Beast.

May 4, 2011.

Ridge's word count

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. Bird (B, B, B)
4. Huck (uck, uck)

Easter

Our Easter pics didn't turn out so great. Kyleigh looked at the pictures I was going to post and asked, "why are you putting those on there, they aren't anything special." We started Easter this year with a family home evening lesson where we cut out pictures of Jesus from the Friend, glued a cardstock back on the pictures, looked up and read scriptures and wrote them on the back of the pictures. We hung them on our "Easter tree" (a branch). Our ward had a dinner and Easter egg hunt. It was fun to watch Ridge get excited about picking up the eggs. We also dyed Easter eggs and hunted them at home, and had a visit from the Easter bunny. The Easter bunny brought us some goodies and a cake making play dough set. We thought the Easter bunny was exceptionally generous this year, then we found out that he left American girl dolls for the neighbors. Kyleigh has been asking for an American girl doll for awhile. She has even considered spending ALL of her savings to buy one. No one said anything about the super nice Easter bunny next door. Not really sure how to respond to that one if they did. We had Mike and Holly and the Petersons over for a traditional Easter dinner. It was good food and good company.

We can't fail to say that we missed the Giles this year. We called to wish them a happy Easter. Kyleigh and I were guessing how many eggs they used for their hunt. Up 60 from last year, to 300. That made us smile. Nobody does Easter like the Giles.

Hope everyone had a great Easter.