Welcome to our World

 What a joy it was to see Michelle celebrate with her friends with a sleepover on Friday night and with her family on Sunday night.  The party planning ended up being pretty last minute because she was torn for weeks about who to invite. She wanted everyone to be comfortable even though she hangs out with different groups of people.  So Michelle decided she would invite the friends she eats lunch with everyday.  S, N, & E are very different girls and it cracked me up to hear them interact.  The only thing they seem to have in common is kindness!  It was a joy and so easy to have them here.  After Church Michelle and I baked a cake for when my parents came over for her favorite dinner of smoked salmon. We used our go to chocolate (GF) cake mix from King Arthur Flour but added a raspberry filling based on a recipe from Nadiya Bakes and chocolate frosting from scratch thanks to one of our Six Sisters cookbooks.  It was delicious. Michelle said sh...

 I loved this  funny video my brother in law, Mark, shared about February being the worst month of the year. It acknowledged how bleak winter can be after the holidays but reminded me there is good in all the mess and that spring always comes. We had gorgeous weather to finish February and begin March. I teased the Activity Days girls it was about time the weather was nice for us when we got to have a wonderful time ice skating together! The day Michelle and Natalie and I went ice skating both Kate and Danny had a friend spend the night. Middle schoolers can be hilarious. It was entertaining to see the difference between the boys and the girls.  Let’s just say price wise it all worked out the same but in much different ways. The boys played on the PS4, went to Get Air, and watched the new Batman movie in the theater (and loved it).  The girls went out to eat, went shopping, and spent time resting.  Turns out Kate was sick and had to miss three days of school un...

I got a kick out of watching Danny having to take individual and team photos before this game. He put on a grin that got a laugh from his teammates. Definitely not taking his 7th grade rec basketball phots seriously. He does take his game seriously, though. This was a pretty frustrating game for him but they still won the entire game. He even made it to the 4th quarter without fouling!  It was so hard to be out of town for two of his games.  Grandma and Grandpa reported he played really well and got plenty of fouls. Lol. Pictures like this Natalie’s teacher sends melts my heart. Only the room moms are allowed to be at the class parties now so I love seeing her happy and have memories to place in her annual scrapbook.  “Turtle Blankets” It was REALLY hard to miss one of Kate’s three day tournaments. I didn’t even know about it until we were in Pheonix for her first out of state tournament. I almost canceled our Disney trip right then and there. This one was close by and he...

The day we flew out of Denver became a “Delayed Start” day, with school starting two hours late due to snow.    So instead of pulling children out of school early, they ended up not going at all. Well, the children who came with is that is.    The original plan, years ago, was for me to purchase an annual pass to Walt Disney World for the 50th anniversary and take 5 trips in 12 months: one for each member of the family. Well, Covid threw that out the window but I still took Kate last October. She and I had so much fun Hubby decided to join Michelle and Natalie on the trip I had planned for them. And Danny?    He and I are going to wait until the new Guardians and Tron coasters are open and also go to Universal. At the rate that Tron coaster is moving he and I won’t be back until a year from now!    And with the crowds we encountered this trip, it might take me a year to recover! Disney’s Hollywood Studios Our favorite park was our first day and bo...