Toofless at the Alumni Pops Concert

After weeks and weeks of wiggling, Clayton FINALLY lost that second front tooth! Of course, of all the times for that last root to snap, it was in the middle of a concert at Melissa's old high school. Dr. Bentley is leaving the music department at Hillcrest and some of the alumni went back to sing at his final concert. Melissa sang two songs from Wicked and saw some old friends; Mackenzie and Madison enjoyed touring the high school where they filmed the Disney movie Hatching Pete, and (after being told it would have to dangle until the concert was over) Clayton was thrilled with his loss. Overall - an enjoyable evening.

Morgan's Preschool Graduation

The other night we had preschool graduation. Our last one for our kids. I can't believe I'm done with that stage and my baby will be in kindergarten next year!

This year Morgan really enjoyed attending the Tree House Preschool. She adored Mrs. Skousen and learned a lot from her. She also loved having her two friends, Lexi and Lauren, in school with her.

The program was great, as it always is when little kids sing.

True to form, Morgan spent all month singing the songs around the house, then barely sang a word during the actual graduation. I really haven't figured out why she does that; it's a crack-up, but it's a bit frustrating, too! Luckily she did at least participate in the pledge of allegiance and say her part. She was thrilled to get her diploma, grinning from ear to ear.

Morgan really had a fun time memorizing her part in the ceremony!

The first time I wrote my name,
it must have looked a mess.
My mom did not know what it was;
she had to guess and guess and guess.
But now our names look great!

Fun with Cousins at Zermatt

Last weekend Wendy (my sister) and her girls came into town somewhat unexpectedly, so we decided to have some emergency fun! We all (us, Wendy and her kids, and Kevin and Patrice and their kids) met at Zermatt and had a great time. It was a great cousin fest! The kids swam (of course); played chess, horseshoes, board games, and "spy"--whatever that is; we celebrated birthdays, went out to eat, and enjoyed gelato (or at least the kids did).

The munchkins also rode the carousel, which the two littlest thought was pretty special (and I think the rest of the cousins thought was a lot of fun, too, but are just a little too cool now to admit it.)


One of the big weekend highlights was the candy bar game. There is a big pile of candy bars in the center of a circle composed of all the contestants. Each takes a turn rolling dice. When a contestant rolls doubles, that contestant gets to pick a candy bar from the pile.

The trick is that you don't want the others to know what candy bar you pick because in the end (after all of the candy bars in the pile have been picked), you have a speed round where contestants who roll doubles get to pick a candy bar from another contestant, only you have to guess the candy bar right when you announce which one you want, or you don't get it.

So each of the kids went to extraordinary measures to conceal their pick from the pile, and that was cause for quite a bit of fun.

The candy bar game reveals kids' personalities. We all had a great time. It was funny to see Morgan's little personality come alive, especially as she "nonchalantly" hid her stash in her shirt!

FYI: If you'd like to stay at Zermatt, let us know as we might be able to make arrangements for you to stay there at a great rate!

Dance Festival: Being Cool Versus Having Fun

Dance festival was last week and the kids had a good time. It would seem, though, that maybe Clayton had the most fun. How much fun could we all have if we just had Clayton's attitude? You'll have to watch the video to understand.

Actually, the dance festival was really fun for everyone, even those without Clayton's energy! This year's Dance Festival was the finale to Hispanic Week at the school so all the performances were traditional dances from Spanish speaking countries. Clayton is currently taking Chinese, not Spanish, so he was the maracas player for the second grade dance. The fifth grade did a couples dance, but they had too many girls for the number of boys, so even though their Spanish is coming along great, Maddie and Kenzie didn't dance with their group either. However, because they had taken sewing, they became the costume committee and made all the cute skirts, ponchos, and hair bows for the fifth grade costumes. They also helped with the decorations, spending two hours making and hanging the chains of flowers along the fences. We ended with the family dance and a picnic lunch of traditional Guatemalan food. It was a perfect morning and we all had a great time. Everbody Dance!

Spring Soccer

Clayton finished his soccer season yesterday, and in his final game he had the eye of the tiger! After waiting on the bench for the first few minutes, he really went after it and scored early on. He was quite pleased with himself and seemed to have a lot of fun, and he had a great "header" off the other team's throw-in. He also had a fun time playing goalie with some good stops.

Coach Weaver, who is a UHP officer, came by our house (with his police car and uniform on) later in the day and gave Clayton a silver dollar for heading the ball during the game. That was a good gesture from a good coach, and it will leave a lasting impression on Clayton. Some neighbors likely wondered why the police were at our house (but we'll just leave them wondering unless they read this post)!

Backyard Theatre

Grandma Besaw has a great selection of kids costumes, and the kids all love to dress up in them. Often when we go to Grandma and Grandpa Besaw's, Madison and Mackenzie become on-the-spot playwrights and conjure a skit for everyone's entertainment as the evening's grand finale.

The top picture is of them rehearsing for a recent production. I was honored to meet one of the play's central figures who let me take a picture of her. She truly did a remarkable job of playing the blue fish in act one and the lovely princess in act two.

Happy Birthday to Melissa

Melissa just recently celebrated her birthday. I didn't take her to NYC, but I did take her to Olive Garden with the rest of the family. During the day she accompanied Morgan on a preschool field trip. That evening we went out to eat and opened presents. The kids were all very excited to give her gifts. I put Mackenzie in charge of all of the wrapping; she did a fabulous job. Hope you had a happy birthday, Melissa! Incidentally, Morgan took the picture of Melissa with the gifts. Looks like we may have a budding photographer on our hands!