The Mouths of Babes

Julie tagged me with this on Facebook and I just loved it so much I wanted to put it on here for my book. Their answers totally crack me up!

Ask your child(ren) to answer the questions and type their answers in.Tag other moms or dads with kids who might have fun with this. :)

C=Charity (7), K= Kelly (5), B=Bradley (4), L=Luke (3)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
C-do my jobs (with a really nagging tone in her voice), K- set the table, B- we are buddies, L- ummm I love you [do I love this answer?!!]

2. What makes mom happy?
C- (eyes rolling) me doing my jobs, K- cleaning the house, B- smiling, L- smile

3. What makes mom sad?
C- me not doing my jobs, K- not listening to her, B- not cleaning up, L- cleaning up

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
C- Tickle me, K- tickle, B- tickles me, L- because

5. What was your mom like as a child?
C- crazy, K- I don't know, B- the brave toaster show, L- little

6. How old is your mom?
C- 29, K- I don't know, B- 21 [10 points for Brad], L-3

7. How tall is your mom?
C- I DON'T KNOW!, K- I don't know, B- 21 inches, L- big

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?
C- 24, K- 24, B- Mommy and Daddy shows, L- Spongebob Squarepants

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
C- do fun stuff without me, K- I don't know, B- clean up my room while I'm gone, L- ummmm what?

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
C- food, K- money, B- I don't know, L- I want you to tell me something

11. What is your mom really good at?
C- singing, K- drawing, B- playing catch, L- doing hoops

12. What is your mom not very good at?
C- hula hooping, K- nothing, B- catching when I'm throwing so far away, L-making hoops

13. What does your mom do for work?
C- Clean the house, K- nothing, B- play on the...do the computer [too much blogging], L- to bring daddy for work

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
C- stuffing, K-stuffing, B- Mommy and Daddy food, L- pancakes

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
C- you sometimes clean the house when I'm gone, K- I don't know, B- clean up, L- um um um I can't think about it

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
C- Cinderella's stepmother (she's "not trying to be mean, she's just saying that") [waaaaaaa!!!], K- Sleeping Beauty, B- Word World, L- Superwhy!

17. What do you and your mom do together?
C- play!, K- draw and color, B- clean up, L- fly with Superwhy

18. How are you and your mom the same?
C- our hair. K- skin color, B- I don't know. L- because

19. How are you and your mom different?
C- older, K- hair, B- I don't know, L- I can't pick it

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
C- giving me hugs and kisses, K- plays games with me, B- cuz she wikes me, L- because

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
C- I have no idea, K- he's handsome [awwwww], B- hugging you, L- going fishing

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
C- Restaurants, K- I don't know, B- to um....Arctic Circle, L- go to McDonald's [after we finished he kept asking me when we were going to go to McDonald's! the power of persuasion]

I tag: Jen Flint, Emily Davis, Leah West, Meredith Harcker, and Lacie Goddard

We should do this more often

Thursday is one of the days that Steve has off. I have to admit I kind of look forward to his days off because I know I can beg him to come with me on all my pointless errands and that I will have someone there to entertain me and keep me company (yes, it is a very one-sided relationship). Well last Thursday was a really fun one. We played with Nana and drove around a ton.

Steve taught Noah how to air drum in the car while we waited for Nate.

Lukey fell asleep.

Then that night something very funny/embarrassing happened! I am not sure why I'm posting this, but Steve keeps asking me if I have (obviously he isn't a reader) I'm sure he loves the idea of me making a fool of myself in front of you all. SO anyway. We were at Smith's Marketplace in Bountiful (keep that in mind and don't ever shop there). Picking up some treats for my dad. As we were standing in line Steve noticed some yummy Caramel Kit Kat bars and that there was a red tag that said "2/$100" under them. He grabbed one and offered to buy one for me (so sweet!). He set them on the conveyor belt and the lady rang them up. The total came to $1.68. ??????? I was surprised since he was only buying the 2 candybars so I butted in as he was handing the lady his $2 and said, "WAIT! Those were 2 for a dollar right?? Why is it so much?" The lady looked at them for a second and handed the receipt and change to Steve and announced that she couldn't do anything about it and sent us to Customer Service!!!! FOR 68 CENTS!!!! (Now, does anyone else find this strange??? That she couldn't just change the price and ring it up right???? My brother-in-law manages a Target and he's always said how Target has a policy that if.......oh wait, maybe I shouldn't be broadcasting that.....either way, Target would have changed it on the spot for me!!! or us I mean) So I was feeling kind of goofy (no kids around means I can be one I guess) and so I dragged Steve over to the Customer Service desk which only had one guy in line so seemed like a worthwhile venture. Well, turns out the guy was buying a money order or soemthing and having it sent to like Nigeria or something and was completely clueless, so it was like 20 minutes of standing there behind him. Now I don't quite know how to explain how Steve and I were acting while we were in line, but obnoxious might come close to covering it. We were laughing and joking around and Steve kept making fun of me for making such a big deal about 68 cents. There were a few people behind us eventually, and they pretty much looked at us like we were high or something. And now I know (thanks to steve) that i have a "High Girl Laugh", so it may have been even more convincing. But anyway. Okay, so we FINALLY get up to the front of the line. I'm completely hysterical by now and can hardly talk without laughing and I set the candybars up on the counter and holding back the laughter said, "we were overcharged". The lady was annoyed. She asked how much, and I replied, "68 cents" again, barely able to control the laughter. It really was funny for the most part, but at this point it was starting to turn into embarrassing. So she slides this little green slip of paper over to me and asks me to fill it out!!!!! FOR 68 CENTS!!! I looked over at Steve as I began writing my name and address, and said, "am I really filling this out for 68 cents?". Then once I finished filling out the "dollar amount" as $0.68, I realized this was a HUGE waste of time and asked the lady, "Do I really need to fill this out for 68 cents???" She said, "well, wait a minute, let me see those" and takes off (this is important in the story) AWAY FROM THE COUNTER to look at the checkout aisle next to the customer service counter to see what the price tag says on the candy bars there. She walks back over and says, "no, they're 79 cents each, says it right there." And I of course was SHOCKED at first but then realized, we're not idiots, we did see the tag, so I said, "Can you just come over and look at the tag where we got it?" (yes, that is one of the most embarrassing things I've done lately, but I did it!) And this is the funniest part of all!!! She says, "No, I'm sorry, I CAN'T LEAVE THIS COUNTER"!!!!!!! HELLO!!!! YOU JUST DID LADY!!!! Course I didn't think about that then, and just walked over to where we had gotten them, double checked the sign and YES, it DID SAY 2/$100, for the EXACT candybar we were buying, exact size and everything, I even checked the bar code number thing and SURE ENOUGH!!!!! So I couldn't control myself, I had to grab the sign, took some reaching behind the plastic cover, but I got it out of there and walked it over to the Customer Service Lady. She of course was busy with the next customer and I was feeling REALLY stupid by then, so I just set it down on her keyboard (since she wouldn't look at me) and said, "I just wanted you to see this, so you could fix it in your system". And she says to me, "Well, it's going to take a minute to fill out all the forms AND PAPERWORK (can you believe that!)....." and I just cut her off and said, "I'm good, I just wanted you to see that." I wish I would have had the time to stand there and make her fill out all the "paperwork" to get SIXTY-EIGHT CENTS back. (Can you tell I'm getting heated just talking about it). Steve was totally laughing at me. He thought it was hilarious and a huge waste of time. And as much as I think I may have gone just a little overboard......I still want to call the manager and tell them that they're screwed up!!!

(Steve always makes me tell this part) when we were at the Sushi place I realized that I hadn't grabbed the 3 cents change that was leftover from my Dad's treats.....so that's 71 cents that Smith's stole from us (or my Dad and Steve) that night!!

And at the end of it all Steve says, "We should do this more often!"

Oh yeah, and with Steve's picture on here, he wanted me to mention that "Ladies, he's single and AVAILABLE!!!" For all you single ladies out there! I love to humor Steve for some reason.

Duh. I forgot the pictures.

Put these on backwards again. But these are the pics from St. Patrick's Day. I just about died when I saw these pictures. I thought that they weren't going to turn out very good, but I was SO happy about them!!! Call me crazy, but I think my kids are so flippin cute!! So of course I played with them. Comments??

I was trying to make this one have emphasis on the green.....not sure if I like it afterall.....

This is when the kids found their pot of gold.

Looking for the leprechaun

This was on the way home from school.....who doesn't love dropping sticks through a chain link fence into the river.

And I know I totally complained about a lot of things that happened that day, but it really was a GREAT day!!! There may have been some confusion in that area :) so just thought I would clear that up :) It was a nice day!

Today was really nice too!! Thanks again, Ashleigh, for coming!!! I LOVE that you came over!!!!

Monkey Bars and a Snowball Fight

One of the things I like about Bountiful is all of the fun, DIFFERENT parks to play at. We've been able to go park hopping on the warm days. On Saturday we decided to go to North Canyon Park. It's been a while since the last time we were there as a family. Coincidentally it was the day after my mom's birthday, for her party, June 7th 2002. If I'm not mistaken I believe we went there after stopping by at Tony and Lacie's wedding. I don't know why I remember that, but I do have a knack for remembering really unimportant details :) (not that your wedding was unimportant Lacie, just less important to remember than say a Dr. Appt that I scheduled a week before....you get what I'm saying right?). I used to play at North Canyon Park all the time in High School (yes, I was one of those annoying teenagers......). We had a few Semiary devotionals there too. ANYWAY it's a fun park. We stopped at the store on the way there to get some munchies and the kids picked out candy necklaces. It was fun for me to watch Noah eat his :) Or should I say smear it all over his cute little face. He sure loved it though. Luke too........



He DEVOURED his. I put this picture on here for the sole purpose of showing you the little pieces of candy all over him.....like he was eating it so fast he couldn't get them all in his mouth. I don't know.....I think it's funny....I'm still laughing about it.....out loud. I took a bzillion pictures (as usual), I kept telling myself I wasn't going to post any on my blog, but then fun things kept happening. Bradley crossed the monkeybars all by himself for the first time, and we did go on a little walk down to the little ampitheater thing, found some snow and had a fun snowball fight. It was a pretty memorable little outing. So I post.

Nate's masterpiece. I think they put these things in playgrounds just for the Dads.

The girls saw the little stage and immediately had a show for us.

This is when Lukey found the snow.....

jumping....took me like 10 shots to get him in mid-air, but wasn't it so worth it!

Bradley kept telling me and Nate to "do it like this" when we would complain about how cold our hands were from the snow......he had it SO figured out ;)

Nate has taught our kids that the minute you see snow, you have to go over and pick up a handful of it and throw it at someone. They LOVE snowball fights. Well, the throwing it part of course. THey're not big fans of having thrown at them....obviously. It's fun for all of us though.

Noah and I were sitting on one side, down low, of the ampitheater, Nate and the boys were up at the top of the other side, Charity was down on the stage, and Kelly was clear over on the other side of the trail from the ampitheater (I just know I'm spelling that wrong, sorry). The boys were just launching snowballs at all of us, nonstop, for about five minutes.

Cute little Noah managed to stay unharmed, thankfully.

Nate has an amazing arm!! Someone needs to get this man on their football team or something!!! I couldn't believe how close he came to hitting Kelly from REALLY far away!! I would guess how far away she was, but I'm sure I would be way off anyway..... but I will say he was there from me, and Kelly was at least that far away from me in the opposite direction!!! (still doesn't help does it)

See that!!! That's Nate's snowball just feet in front of Kelly!!

This is Brad's "bring it on"

There's another one of Nate's snowballs almost hitting my children from WAY far away.

We took a picture like this in Alaska a couple of years ago (pre-Noah), and I loved it so much I thought I would try for another one......it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself :)

This one's a little more realistic. Half a second later......Charity rubbing her nose, Kelly's tongue, Brad looks okay, but Luke got his eye poked out by Noah.....just priceless.

This was Charity dancing around dodging Nate's snowballs.

And this one is the whole reason I even got my camera out while we were there.....it was Bradley's first time on the monkey bars all by himself. I was really proud of him. After this fall he wouldn't get back on them.

a long, drawn out, rambly post about my day.....and at the end, a request for a slacker-mommy support group

So today was a very nice day. I feel like I was not as grumpy as I have been lately. That probably sounds bad. I haven't been THAT bad, but maybe some of you could relate.....I've just been grumpy. Not today though. Today was nice. And not just because we were all dressed in green.

It started out with green pancakes :) One of the dorky little traditions I try to do every year. My kids are really forgetful when it comes to the lame stuff I call tradtions though, they never remembered me doing this before :) They were somewhat thrilled this time though (for some odd reason). I distinctly remember them being really grossed out one of the years.

Anyway.

It was such a nice and sunny day today I decided the boys and I were going to walk to the school to pick up Kelly. Actually, now that I think about it, it was Brad's idea. On the way home from taking them, he announced that he wanted to go for a walk. a long one. So we loaded up the double stroller. I was feeling really confident about this walk because I had remembered EVERYTHING!! Diaper bag, extra pants and underwear, food, water, tire pump, etc- just in case. Sometimes I don't take everything because I hate overpacking, but today was different, and I was happy about that. So off we went. Bradley and Luke were both walking and Noah was in the stroller. Luke is a slow-walker, so I nagged him a lot to hurry up because I really wasn't sure how long it would take us to get there, not sure what hang ups we might have. Bradley complained about his stomach hurting a little too, which I assume was a cramp. But they really did well. Especially for how steep 400 North is. If you've never been on it- it's like a straight down DROP when you're walking. I felt like I was going to fall over backward I was leaning back so far to keep the stroller and I from falling forward. I really don't think I've ever taken a walk down that road. I remember walking down to Nate's work when we lived here before, but we went down 500 South then. This was just a whole new experience for me. The boys really loved throwing "ticks" (why can brad say the "s" at the end of the word, but not the beginning?? so strange!) in the "river". Reminded me of our walks in Alaska.

So anyway.

We got to the school, took a potty break, picked up Kelly, and headed back on up the hill for our picnic in the park. About a block away from the park I realized Kelly was doing the potty dance, so we had to go back to the school and she ran in to relieve herself. A few minutes later she came out with a really embarrassed look on her face....she had not made it to the bathroom in time. Poor Kelly....I can't remember the last time she had an accident, and extra pants for HER were not on my list of extras to bring with us. RATS! She didn't want to walk (and who can blame her) so I let her sit in the stroller. We figured her pants would be dry by the time we got to the park and she could play (even though she PROMISED Dr. Woiczik she wouldn't play on playgrounds for the next month!). Well, I don't know if it's just because I was panting so hard or what, but every breath of air that came through my nose had the distinct odor of pee soaked pants and socks. So gross. That is not my favorite smell. The hill going up to the park was pretty much the same steepness of 400 North, and I was having THE HARDEST time pushing Kelly and Noah up the hill, so I made Kelly get out of the stroller (mean mom) at least till we got to the top. I am in REALLY bad shape, I seriously don't know how I made it up that hill at all, much less with the stroller and kids in tow.

So anyway.

We got to the park. I flopped down on the bench and didn't move a muscle for at least a half hour. The kids ate their weird lunch (we just brought whatever we could find out of the pantry because we were all out of all the stuff to complete most lunch foods.....time to go grocery shopping) and I talked to this girl from Kansas the whole time. She was pretty nice. She didn't have a lot of nice things to say about Bountiful (she had grown up here and moved a few years ago). But she kept telling me how "normal" and "down to earth" I was. I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but I took it as a compliment. "Normal" is not the word I would use to discribe myself, but it seems like something desirable.

So anyway.

After about an hour of sitting there wondering how I would get out of my seat, get my kids together, and haul our fannies the rest of the way home.....my dad showed up!!! Talk about saving the day! He had been driving by and saw us there! What a coincidence!!! (even though I don't believe in coincidences) So he played for a minute and then offered to take some kids home with him. SO NICE!!! Luke wasn't really paying attention when I offered him the ride home, so he missed out, but Kelly and Bradley rode home with grandpa. This made my walk home a little lighter. We ran into my new Visiting Teacher who came running across the street apologizing for missing me. I immediately assumed I had planned a visit with her and forgotten, so I played along and said it was fine. Later on in the conversation we realized that I hadn't gotten the message where she told me she was going to go on a walk at 11:00 and end up at the park at 12:00 and I was invited to come. She thought she had missed me there and essentially stood me up. I explained to her that I never did get the message, but that I have chronic forgetfulness, so even if I had and she had stood me up I probably wouldn't have remembered it :) Funny stuff. Anyway. It made me happy to know that she had even invited me. She's my new friend. We met at the RS Birthday dinner, and that's when we found out she was my VT. We keep running into each other now. She totally reminds me of my VT in AK. Yes, you, Charity. She kind of looks like you and acts like you....just a real sweetheart. She seems like good friend material basically :) So we talked for a minute and then I made the trek with my little chatterbox Luke up the hill. I'm really glad that there is nothing wrong with my heart because this would have definitely pushed me over the edge I think. Luke kept trying to figure out where we were going- our house, or grandpa's house. When we were going to be there. If that car was Grandpa's. or that one. or that one. or that one. And where "the kids" were. Referring to Brad and Kelly I assumed. Then he started getting mad at me because I wasn't answering the question, "what are you talking about?" When I could hardly breathe much less talk. Nutty little kid, that's for sure.

So anyway.

We got home and vegged for the next hour until it was time to get Charity. Yes, that HUGE walk only killed about 3 hours. I was surprised. Now you're really thinking I'm a wuss huh! I actually really enjoyed the walk. I don't think I'll do it again anytime soon, but it was nice to get outside.

I let the boys sleep, and Kelly played computer (thanks to Grandpa) when I went to pick up Charity and Nate. Just Noah and I. Charity was absolutely ADORABLE when she got to the car. She just had the HUGEST smile on her face (which was REALLY exciting considering the last couple of weeks of frowns and tears). I was so happy and had to ask her why the huge smile. This is probably one of my favorite moments of the day, she said, "I got your note!" We had forgotten to make her lunch the night before, so I had had to make it and take it to her after school started. I had left her a little note on a paper towel in her lunch, and apparently it had made her day!!!! I couldn't believe it!! She was so cute about it, "I didn't even wipe my face on it!" And actually at dinner tonight she asked if she could hang it up in her room :) Am I flattered??....you bet! What a sweetie. She was really talkative on her way home. She said she shared her cookies with two friends. She was really excited to have a shamrock painted on her face. And oh! the funniest part was, "When I was opening up my lunch box, I said to my friends, 'my mom had better have packed a dessert or SHE'S DEAD!!!'" She was totally laughing about it and so I couldn't help but smile. She's so funny. She made sure to tell me that she didn't really mean it.

We went and got Nate and then stopped at the store for a few things (you know, all the stuff to make our lunches more complete). Charity soaked up all the attention from Nate and I. And we headed home. Nate and Charity got right on planning our little St. Patrick's Day "Pot of Gold/Leprechaun hunt". Last year we did this where we hid a pot of gold "from a leprachaun" and Charity was completely devastated to find that it was merely a pot of gold wrappered candy. She stopped believing in Leprachauns as well. So this year, we let her be in on the planning. Come to find out later she hated it and wants to spend next year's pot of gold hunt "in her room". Bummer. But the other kids had a blast! Nate made a little treasure hunt for them where they searched for green things. They walked all through the neighborhood and ended up in the back yard where the pot (it was a bucket this year) of gold (again, just candy) was waiting. They like the candy :) Charity was annoyed that we wouldn't let her "find" it and made her kind of hang back and let the little ones see it first. She was the one that hid it. Are we bad parents?? Anyway. That was my fun day :) I liked it. This is one of the posts I would normally put on my journal blog, but for some reason I felt like putting it on here. Maybe it's just because I was sick of seeing that ugly picture of me from the post about Charity's birthday. Sorry to bore you all.


I did have a few thoughts today that I want to get out there.....hopefully I'm not the only one. After all the blogs I read, I start to feel like I'm "not the only one" in MOST situations, so here I go.....

Does anyone else ever feel like they're lost as to which school things to make a big deal about and go overboard for, and which ones to just take it easy on????? I feel like I NEVER KNOW!!! Last week Charity did a report (and by report I mean 5 lines about Airplanes), but she had to do it orally in front of the whole class. I had thought about sending a little toy airplane with her or something, ya know, a visual aide, but because of how casual the whole thing seemed (based on how the teacher hardly even told us about it) I thought maybe that was overdoing it. So I didn't. But then today she and Grandpa Hatch were doing her next report together. This one is on Rhinos, and she came downstairs with this huge picture of a Rhino they had printed off his commputer. I said, "WOW! That's cool, is that for your report??"
"uh huh!"
"wow! Can you use a picture for your report?"
"YEAH! Totally! You can use anything for reports!"
"Well, why didn't you tell me that?? (she probably didn't know, duh) We could have sent a toy plane or something to hold up for your last one!"
"Yeah, that would have been really cool! That's what lots of other people did."

Well that would have been nice to know!!!!!!!!! So then I feel like the slacker mom that didn't send anything before.

Then along those same lines, Kelly's friend stopped by tonight (not sure how they know where we live), and brought her a small piece of paper telling her that "in lieu of Katrina's birthday tomorrow....." basically she's supposed to bring a toy that she doesn't want anymore to trade with the kids in her class, tomorrow!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO CUPCAKES???????

Sometimes I'm so blown away by the things parents do. Sometimes I will go overboard or the extra mile, but seems like everytime I do- it's when you don't need to, or it's silly to. Does anyone get this??? Please tell me you feel the same!!!!

Couldn't teachers just color code their assignments or something?

RED =GO OVERBOARD and spend more money, time and energy than you could possibly imagine for something that will last 5 minutes and then be thrown away.
YELLOW =THIS IS ASSIGNED TO THE CHILD, BUT IT'S REALLY THE PARENT THAT WILL COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT (you wouldn't want your child to show up with something that looks like a Kindergartener did it would you??)
GREEN= this isn't all that big of a deal....relax, don't spend any money, in fact, don't even bother doing it if you don't have the time.

I can't count the times we stayed up all night doing projects when I was a kid only to have them be a GREEN assignment! Something that didn't absolutely need to be done. I really hate it when that happens with my kids. WHen you're asked to send something so you wake up at 4:00 in the morning to rush to the store to get it, using the last little bit of cash left till payday, not wanting your kid to show up empty-handed, only to find out that "I was the only one who brought something!" UGH. What do you do???

Okay, sorry, done complaining about that.

What else was I going to complain about??? hmmmm......can't remember. I am a complainer, I should have something...... oh well.

Guess I'll have to remember it later. Anyway. Sorry for the long post (that is if anyone even got this far :)---I'm thinking you should get at least 10 points for this one)

My Big Girl Turned SEVEN!!!

Charity's BIRTH day March 9th 2002 (I'm so glad I can have c-sections now WITHOUT the labor, look how AWFUL I look!! 25 hours baby!!!!)

1 year old (I loved that dress.....you picked a cute one Ali!)

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

And NOW SEVEN!!!

She's grown up so fast! My sweet little Charity has always been mature though. I look at these pictures and feel like she's hardly changed at all. She's such a sweet girl and such a good friend to me. I have always felt like I could talk with her and make jokes with her and that it was just like talking to my friends. She sure loves life and loves learning and growing. She's done so much already and yet has so much ahead of her. I can't believe she is mine though. I feel so lucky to have her. She has always been such a blessing to me. She's been such an awesome big sister for all of her siblings...being so gentle with the babies, and so fun for the toddlers. She's really just perfect for her position. She is definitely learning the meaning of her name and learning to live her life in a way that she can be an example of charity. I love how she is so aware of others' needs. Especially for someone her age. She is always good for a hug and a laugh.

Charity is really into being active right now. She loves rollerblading and can't wait to get out and ride her bike again. She is really into any kind of dancing and gymnastics. We're hoping to get her into a class soon. She would do great at it I'm sure. She's a fast runner and takes pride in her athletic abilities. She really is very agile. She still loves to draw and write letters. She is really into reading her chapter books too. She doesn't like the ones that don't have pictures yet though :) That's still important to her. I'm amazed at how well she can recall a story after she's read it....WAY better at comprehension than I ever was. She likes to dress up. Loves jewelry. Loves being the center of attention, but fakes that she doesn't really well. She is very shy at first and takes a minute to warm up to most people. She loves playing with her sister and having friends over. She is a very good eater....always eats all of her food. Love that!!! She is a good helper around the house and makes it nice for me since she's finally old enough to actually be HELPing, and not just learning to help anymore.

I really don't know what I would do without Charity in my life. I love her so much. I love her spirit and energy with whatever she is doing. She really is energetic and bouncy. I hope she always knows that I love her and look up to her! Happy Birthday Charity!

So, onto her birthday :) I really screwed up this year and completely forgot to have her sign up and decorations up before she woke up. I actually forgot that morning that it was her birthday, woke her up telling her to clean her room and get ready for school (which she did without complaint, unbelieveably!). I totally spaced it until she came in the kitchen and said, "It really doesn't feel that different to be 7, mom" I tried to fake that I hadn't forgotten, but I couldn't believe it!!!! Anyway, we recovered by making a really HUGE sign (took up two walls! the signs are important to these kids, not sure why, but they are!) and got some balloons while she was at school. She loved them both and acted VERY surprised and special when she got home.
At school that day, she fell in the mud during recess and called to have me bring her some dry pants, only to fall in the mud again during her next recess. Mrs. Stayner wouldn't let her call me a second time. She's so funny though, when she called, she was kind of laughing at herself for falling in the mud. "Mom, I fell in the mud (hee hee hee). Can you (he hee he) bring me some pants?" "Sure. How has your birthday been??" "Good. But the spanking machine....HURTS!!!" LOL!! They did a long line of spanking machine in her class. She had been talking about that all weekend. I loved her reaction! Her class also made her a poster and a crown. I was glad that they spoiled her a little at school. This is my first time not spoiling her all day myself on her birthday. I hated it. It was really hard for me to not just keep her home. I think that must come from never having had to spend a birthday away from home and family and spoiling myself.

That evening we had a joint birthday with my brother Brent. Charity pretty much stole all the attention (obviously). I don't think Brent minded since his real birthday isn't until the 14th. She was really anxious to open her presents from Grandpa Hatch. He took her shopping on Friday so she knew everything she was getting. Grandpa had told her to forget it all so that she could be surprised and other than telling Kelly everything the day before, she did act REALLY surprised!! I was impressed :) I never did that well!

So her cake was interesting. We had started out wanting to do a Strawberry Shortcake type cake (but more birthday cake-ish), and ended up with this "Strawberry Heaven" one we found on kraftfoods.com. I really screwed up on the homemade angel food cake, so thankfully, my dad grabbed some at the store. They were smaller and I ended up making two. They turned out fine, just not as nice as I had hoped. They were sure yummy though. But with strawberries, whip cream and angel food cake, can you really go wrong??

I just noticed that with the piece cut out of it, it looks like a C for Charity cake :) If only I'd meant to do that :)

Overall I think she had a great birthday. I love that she is such a sweetheart even on her birthday! She's 7 now!!