Today was a gorgeous Spring day and the kids finally got to get out and play soccer. Our ward has three teams--one for four-year-olds, one for five-year-olds, and one for six-year-olds. Each set of parents volunteers for something and pays $10. Not such a bad deal for a season of soccer and we save $110 PER CHILD! I was in charge of t-shirts and Glen is Adam's coach.
Adam and Ellie are both playing on their respective teams and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Adam took his soccer playing pretty seriously, and it looked like Ellie was too...for about 15 minutes before she started asking when it was going to be snack time. Leave it one my kids to get food involved!
Not a great picture, but shows the fun Spence had at his homeschooling teen group activity today. Earth ball, water balloon sling shots, roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, giant swings....it was as much fun as anyone could want on a gorgeous Spring day!
Cami's been hired as a mother's helper. Each week she goes and helps a mom with her three kids while the mom gets things done around the house. Cami loves the kids (and the pocket money). Today the mom brought the kids over here for her to babysit. It was so sweet to see how much they adored her.
An unnamed source has informed me that my choice of blogging topics lately has been rather RanDOm and that I might as well change the name of our blog to be "The Random Seven".
Hair, Easter, Washington DC, teeth, growing mullets, corporate rants, lists of things to do, squirrels working for the DMV, losing my brain...I guess it's true.
Gosh. Who knows what Mom will blog about next?
I was going to blog about pencils today, but I was a little worried that that topic may be a little too predictable for my new reputation, so I've decided to change my blog topic to be about... musicals.
I was thinking of writing a short little ditty about life and recording it for your entertainment, but then I was reminded of the fact that my singing sounds a little like an elephant giving birth. Fortunately for you, you're reading my blog, which means I like you and I would never want to subject you to the pain of hearing me sing, so instead I've put this video here taken in the Antwerp Central Train Station for your true enjoyment.
Pretty much we've watched this clip 783 times in the last 2 days and it makes me smile every single time.
Then when that one starts to get a little old, I start watching this one which really makes me want to go shopping and get a lemonade.
After that I'm feeling quite musical myself, so laboring elephants and all, I start walking around the house composing my own music: To the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: "Spencer, Cami, Emma, Adam I want you to do your chores. You think I can't find you there, but I see your locks of hair. Now it's time to get to work before I quickly go berserk."
Whereafter the kids cheerfully start helping while joyfully singing their own tune. To the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb: "Of course we'll help you mother dear, mother dear, mother dear. Of course we'll help you mother dear, We love you very much." ...or something like that anyway.
Yes, yes. I do take requests; just use the contact link at the top. In the meantime I'm going back to my pencil post to see if I can make it random enough for this blog.
While going through some old pictures I came across this little gem from 9 years ago. Not only do those chubby cheeks, blond curls, and cute smile bring a smile to my face, but I can't help but notice the striking resemblance between Cami all those years ago and Ellie today.
I have an alter ego that may come as a surprise to you. It's Lara the Hairdresser. Back in the day my Barbies and little sisters had the cutest hair around.
Take this super stylin' early 80's do I created for my sister for picture day one year. I don't know why, since she was the star of the yearbook in 3rd grade, but that was the last year she let me do her hair.
Now I have three girls of my own to exercise my sweet skills on. Unfortunately one by one, each one of the girls has grown a resistance to my efforts to tame their tresses. My braiding and curling skills are getting sadly underused and it shows. Ellie's hair is much more unkempt than Cami's ever was at the same age. Unfortunately for me, my own hair has never benefited from my hairdressing alter ego. My efforts to curl, tease, diffuse, part, or straighten my own quickly graying tresses has never been anything short of disastrous. My most common hair do has always been straight down or back in a ponytail. That's why I've spent most of my life with either really long or medium length hair...it's just the most conducive to my preferred hairstyles. I guess all this is leading me to why I feel so attached to my girls' hair and why when Emma announced to me that she really, really wanted me to cut her hair, I was sad. I love admiring her strawberry hair glistening red in the sun and I didn't want to see one inch of it cut off.
Alas it was important to her, so a few days ago I held my breath and hacked off about 8-inches of those beautiful locks.
Before:
After: Guess what? After I finished I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be. She looks totally adorable with shorter hair, it's much easier to brush now, and there's still just enough left to do little tiny piggy tails.
S-o many friends over to play at our house P-arks, playgrounds, and picnics R-ain and clouds...at first I-got to meet blogging friend, Lolli, for the first time N-ot enough sleep G-randma Rosanna visiting from Utah
B-eautiful cherry blossoms R-eally cheesy kids' movies E-aster eggs and too much candy A-unt Karey, Uncle Matt, & Lincoln move close by! K-ids, kids everywhere!
Happy Easter from our family to yours. May the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ fill your hearts and homes with joy and peace at this Easter season. We hope you enjoy the message from one of our heroes about our greatest Hero. We pray the blessings of the Atonement of Christ may bring peace to all of you during this special time of year and always.
Today was Ellie and Adam's first day of soccer practice with our ward's soccer league. Unfortunately it got rained out, so we ended up meeting indoors to let the kids run around while the adults talked about all the details. Here is Ellie all decked out in her soccer gear....including crocs and a necklace. The necklace was just Ellie adding her own little feminine touch to her otherwise very unprincesslike outfit. The crocs were merely the best shoes for the job, since she doesn't even own tennis shoes.
With all of Ellie's bubbly girliness and princess fascination, I was a little surprised when several times during our meeting Ellie stopped playing with her friends to ask me, "When will you stop talking so we can play soccer?"
Welcome to our family blog where you can find the latest on our family and read all about Spencer's battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (subtype M5). He was diagnosed in January 2012 and has been in remission about 13 years now. Every day he is in remission is a gift to us.
In amongst the leukemia updates you'll find a random conglomeration of humorous, boring, goofy, and inspiring tales (with photos of course) from the adventure of our life with five kids. An adventure that we're taking ...a day at a time.
Posts About Our Son's Experience with Cancer (AML)
Today was a gorgeous Spring day and the kids finally got to get out and play soccer. Our ward has three teams--one for four-year-olds, one for five-year-olds, and one for six-year-olds. Each set of parents volunteers for something and pays $10. Not such a bad deal for a season of soccer and we save $110 PER CHILD! I was in charge of t-shirts and Glen is Adam's coach. 
