Lucy's Butterfly Tea Party!!

Inspired by the newest Fancy Nancy book about butterflies our little Lucy has acquired a great love for butterflies. So this year for her birthday party we invited 4 little girls and Ike to a butterfly tea party. I love tea parties. It is one of my most favorite pastimes. My sisters and I would spend hours planning and cooking for our spontaneous tea parties. So this was definitely one of the funner parties for me to plan. Ryan of course thinks I go way over the top, but he probably would say that if I only got some balloons and gave the kids a sucker, so we take some of his advice, and some we don't. Although I can always get him to help out, and he ends up really enjoying it I think.

Amby designed these fabulous invites. She is the best, and does it so fast too!

Ryan and I made this cake together. Ok, I know it looks very homemade and more than imperfect, but with all the candy on top the kids couldn't have been more pleased.

The birthday girl!!

musical chairs

Here are the ladies and gentlemen at the table drinking with their pinkies up! I don't think I have ever seen Ike sit down on his chair to eat.

My mom came down and did this cute craft, along with helping on just about everything else too!

I had green and pink bread made for the butterfly cream cheese sandwiches. They were a hit!

Each girl got a different tea cup to drink from. All the tea cups belonged to Lucy's great, great Grandmother.

The table all set for the party to begin. We had butterfly wings for each girl and a butterfly headband at their place too!

This was the favor Lucy gave each girl as they left. It is their very own tea cup filled with candy to take home.

My mom made these darling little butterfly funnel cakes.

My dear friend Erin came over the morning of the party and we dipped strawberries and rolled them in sprinkles.

The highlight of this party was that we have been raising 5 butterflies over the last 3 weeks. They came in the mail in a small jar as caterpillars and then we transferred them to a larger home where they made themselves into cacoons and then simultaneously they bursted into beautiful monarch butterflies. It was so fun to watch. We let them go at the party and all the kids were jumping trying to catch them. I am so sad because I thought I took video of this moment, but something didn't work on the camera and we ended up not having the footage. sad. It was so cute to see how excited these kids were to see these real butterflies be set free.

Goofy Kids, and Fun Mom

I thought I'd just share a quick story about each of the kids from this past weekend:

On Sunday in the middle of Sacrament Meeting the power in the church went out. The lights, air, and yes, the microphone, all went down with it. We soldiered on, but the acoustic difficulties made it impossible for people to hear with Molly grunting around doing her thing. So she and I went out in the foyer for the rest of the meeting. I sat down on a couch there, and she wandered over and over to the big stone stairs in the lobby. Every time she would reach the stairs, right as she was beginning to get a foot up on the first step to begin her climb, I would say "Molly," and she would turn to look at me, and I would say, very kindly, "No-oo0." Each time I did that, she would turn her whole body around to face me, and would respond: "Na-Naa-ah!" I would say again "No." And she would say, more fervently, "Na-Naa-ah!" After three times back and forth, she would satisfy herself that she'd done her best to convince me, and then just take off up the stairs. We had this conversation over and over. It was kind of fun to have my first arguments with her, and I can tell she's going to be a keen debater.



It's kind of a struggle to get our kids to be reverent during their prayers. The temptation is to put your head down while saying your prayer and let the rest of your body move and roll and jump around as it will (I struggle with this as well). So Macy's been pushing hard for kneeling prayers, to get the kids off their beds so they won't be as tempted to wiggle. I haven't enforced this very well when I'm on bedtime duty. Anyway, on Sunday, Lucy was on her bed and I told her to just say her prayer, without demanding that she alight to the floor and kneel down. She put her head down on her pillow at the head of her bed and started praying, but obviously started to wiggle and roll and move all over during the prayer. Rex and I were both sitting on his bed with our eyes closed, but we could definitely hear Lucy covering a lot of ground on her bed during her extra-long birthday prayer. Then, still in the middle of her prayer, both Rex and I were startled by a huge CRASH, and I looked up to see that Lucy had wiggled all the way to the foot of her bed and fallen backwards off of it, while still praying. She was pretty shook up, but I laughed about that for the rest of the night. Maybe she learned a lesson. Probably not.



Saturday night Rex wanted someone to play soccer with, and I was too tired. We told him to get Lucy to play, and he harrumphed "too easy!" So Macy volunteered, and again he harrumphed "Too EASY!" Macy was a little put out by this. I told Rex that he might get more than he bargained for with her. So he decided to take the challenge and back up his word, and Macy got up for the big game as well. They went outside for the game and Lucy and I went out to cheer them on. What followed was the most competitive soccer game we've ever had on our storied backyard field. Each of them played a little dirty, and both had some nice plays to embarrass the other. Out of respect for the opponents, I will not be reporting who won, but the video tells the tale.

Point:
Rex v. Macy, Part I from Ryan on Vimeo.

Counterpoint:

Rex v. Macy, Part II from Ryan on Vimeo.

And the fatal blow:


Rex v. Macy, Part IV from Ryan on Vimeo.

Now if that's not a fun mom, I don't know what is. The way to Rex's heart is through competition, and sweet Macy gets up for it when she needs to.

Birthday Girl!

Today makes four years that we've had the funniest, goofiest, sweetest, prettiest, liveliest little girl I've ever heard of. That's a day worth celebrating!

When I was out looking for a wife, I always assumed I'd be the funny guy, and my wife would just laugh at my jokes. Turns out Macy ended up being the big comedian in our relationship, and now that same pattern is playing out in our kids. If there's anyone in our family that draws big laughs all the time, it is definitely our Lucy Rose. She's the kind of kid that just seems to have a lot up her sleeve. She's always singing a funny made-up song, pulling a silly face, making up goofy words or names or games, or playing some random trick on someone. This week we're actually moving Lucy into her own room, simply because we can no longer tolerate all the laughing those two do after we put them to bed in their shared room. And it's always Lucy that starts the laughing.

And that's not all good either. She's got a lot more mischief in her than we saw with Rex. If you tell her not to do something, it only makes her more likely to do it, and laugh when you get on her about it. Today at Rex's soccer game I was tired from playing volleyball, and I asked her not to climb all over me. Sure enough, every two minutes I was peeling Lucy's legs off of my forehead and stripping her hands from under my chin. And of course every time I did, she just laughed and laughed and laughed. Sometimes that seems to be her default state.

Baby Lucy with Mom, on her blessing day

Baby Lucy with Dad

Baby Lucy with Rex

Lucy is a girl's girl in every way. The fancy dressups and deliberate flirtiness and the obsession with her hair and mirrors and bows and pink. But that's all mixed up with such a rough-and-tumble little monkey that it's hard to make sense of it all. More than most girls I've known, Lucy can take a hit. She can be tossed long distances and trip over a soccer ball and get bounced on her head on the tramp and eat a carrot straight out of the dirt. She's the only one in the family I can get to weed with me. You can imagine the good will that alone has created. Plus, she's so easy most of the time. She's completely content to be home doing nothing, or out doing everything. She loves friends and siblings and cousins, but can play by herself for hours. What a fun, easy girl to live with.

First Birthday

Second Birthday

Third Birthday

After these four years, it's impossible to picture our family without her. She loves hugs and hates kisses and loves to wrestle and and wears Disney Princess shin guards and requested hot dogs for her big fancy birthday dinner. We're so proud to watch her turn four, and look forward to everything else she's going to do.



Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Photo dump!!

These two photos were taken last weekend while Ryan and I were at Deer Valley. The last swim of the season....boooo!!
My mom took this one, and I love it. I love that little Molly face...if you know her, you have seen it a million times, and then I love how Lucy is sitting on my cute childhood bench faded in the background in her favorite dress. Love those girls!

Lucy has asked me to take a picture of her almost everyday that she has school. I think she is very excited about her new school clothes. What a big girl!

Retreat!

We had a lot of fun this weekend. My firm had its associate retreat on Friday and Saturday, where just the associates get together somewhere for a day of fun and are joined for the night by spouses and significant others. There are about 25 associates at the firm, and I really enjoy them as a group-- one of the reasons why I like this law firm so much. This year we got together at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley, and it was great.

We started the day with some meetings, but then headed to the Olympic Park in Park City for some activities. The first was the bobsled run. This may have been the most intense experience of my life. This is the fastest track in North America, hitting speeds of around 75 miles an hour and pressure of up to 4G's in a ride that lasts about a minute. The first few seconds, you feel like it's just a sled ride but much faster. After that, you hit another hairpin turn and your internal organs begin to climb through your skin and your spine curls into a little fetal ball and the tears just voluntarily fly out of your eyes. It shakes as you round those corners and you start wondering for real if you're going to survive (they tell you to shrug your shoulders the whole time or your neck will never be able to support your head.)

The boys of Sled 1

Wade getting ready

All set to go

Untitled from Ryan on Vimeo.

I sort of think I'm kind of a tough guy, but honestly, when given the chance to go again, I didn't volunteer. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it- I just don't know how anyone could do that multiple times in a day. (The drivers go 10 times in a day sometimes, although the welcoming host who gave us our orientation, and has worked there three years, has only been down once. Wuss). Anyway, it was pretty cool, and one of the more unique experiences I've had lately.


After the bobsled ride was the zip line. This is just a ride down a cable that runs steeply down the side of a mountain and overlooks a lot of the valley to right, ending at the very edge of a cliff. To do it after the bobsled makes it feel like jumping on the grocery cart as you push down through the produce section, but it was still a lot of fun.

Two of the guys in ready position

First-Person Zip Line Ride from Ryan on Vimeo.

We ended the visit to the Olympic Park watching some impressive ski jumpers from China do their thing:


Aerials from Ryan on Vimeo.

After a flag football game and a long jacuzzi bath, it was time for dinner with spouses. Macy showed up and we went to eat at the lodge with everyone- including the Beans, which always makes these work events much more fun.

In full break-it-down mode

The Stein Eriksen is a pretty amazing place, I guess the nicest place I've ever stayed. We came back to our room to find that they'd started some calming classical music, laid out our robes and slippers on the bed, and served a little drink and ice service as well. We also had a pot of hot chocolate and cookies brought in, complements of the firm.



The next morning we had breakfast and headed down to Provo for the BYU-UCLA game, the biggest game of the season for BYU, and one guaranteed to be the Cougars' toughest challenge. First we took a stroll around campus with Wade and Kerstin. It's always fun to see how the place has changed since last you visited. The new Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Center is really nice. I wish those leather couches had been there when I was wandering around looking for a place to study.







The game was fun, but not what we expected agains the Bruins. Here's what the scoreboard looked like before we left near the beginning of the fourth quarter:



It was about this time that we remembered we still had three kids running around somewhere up North. So we headed up to Davis County to get the kids, who were hanging at Andrea's. We hung out too while they played kick the can, and then came home all tired out. Thanks to Reed and Julie and Greg and Jo and Ange and Brennan for making it all possible, of course.

The Sad Cat

Seems like every kid can read when they turn two now. People just rush to it, desperate to get their kids reading for pre-school, or maybe for the first birthday party, or whatever. I've never understood it. Maybe it helps a kid to feel like they're ahead of the curve, and the confidence becomes an asset. Or maybe having an extra year of reading . . . nah, sorry, I just don't buy any of it. The desperation to get a good education in pre-school, the intensity of home pre-training, etc., it just kind of makes me sick to my stomach. (I blogged at length about my strange, visceral prejudices against educational elitism a long time ago, a good example of a normally even-tempered person descending into full-on rant mode)

So the skeptic in me has always fought against the educational craziness. I push back, in my own way, with the only weapon I have- Rex. I've been very casual about these external measures of his education, happy to educate him by reading to him and just answering his questions, without any formality or real expectation of measurable advancement. Crazy to use a kid like that as a pawn in my own war of contrariness, but this is an important principle, so he'll understand one day.

Anyway, my bitterness has led to a very laissez-faire attitude when it comes to his progress at reading. Macy is much more on the ball, and also the one that's in tune with what his pre-school was working on, what they want him learning, etc. Further, she stays very well-informed, through her mom, about the developmental stages our kids go through, and what the experts expect of them at a given age. This has meant that Rex has learned letters in the last year or two, learned to spell his name, etc., under the direction of a non-ideological and simply nurturing mother. (and in spite of my scorning nihilism).

All of this is just pretext for what happened tonight. I sat and watched Rex kind of figure out how to read. And what an incredible thrill that was.

He's been able to pick out an odd word here and there, and knows the sounds of most letters. He's even sounded out words with great difficulty, but I've never seen him work out a sentence before. Tonight, he picked up a little book sent home by his Kindergarten teacher-- The Sad Cat. The cat has a top hat. The rat has a red car. The rat had fun. The cat did not. The cat was sad.



And Rex just read the book.

He figured out that it doesn't work to sound out 'the,' and just started recognizing it on sight. He deduced that the strange, non-phonetic word 'was' just needs to be reasoned out, give the context of the sentence. He started reading 'cat' and 'rat' instantly, due to their being repeated in nearly every sentence. He applied reason to the phonetics and letters at every turn, and pushed through word after unfamiliar word. New words he had never encountered in print before- fun, had, did, not, car-- they all became part of his repertoire, things he came to possess and could use. I couldn't believe what a thrill it was to see him say "The . . . e . . . n . . . d . . . . en . . . d . . . end. The end."

The cat had fun. The boy read well. The dad was proud. The dad wondered if he shouldn't perhaps stop making big issues of out nothing and just enjoy the wonder of amazing little kids.

Update

We just finished our first week of school!!! Rex has enjoyed kindergarten quite a bit so far, but was also happy to see Saturday and Sunday come. Rex and I both have been anticipating school for so long that when Lucy started preschool a day earlier than Rex I was surprised to be more sad about her leaving me. I just had not thought about that transition at all, and although it is only two mornings a week I was a little torn up to see her independently head on in to her cute classroom and start a new phase in her life. She was definitely tired after school each of those days, and took good naps all week. I am glad it is only two days a week. I would miss her greatly.

Rex then started the next day, and I had planned on being really sad to see him off, but was actually more excited for him than anything else. He has been so ready, and so bored at home. His little class is darling...I am thrilled with it. Lots of boys and so many great moms. If you would have driven past Bonneville Elementary on that day you would have thought there was a movie premier going on for how many parents stood there with their power shots, SLRs, and video cameras. Flashes were going off constantly for seriously 25 minutes. It was pretty hilarious. Yes, we are all pretty over the top, but I love these parents all the same. I feel we have the same goals with our kids, and I am so glad so many of them will be in and out of the classroom all year long.


Then Saturday night we headed up to Cecret Lake up little Cottonwood Canyon for a second go around. Last year, about this same time we tried to do this hike, in my very pregnant stage, and well, we never made it to the lake. This time we made it!! It was well worth it.

And don't forget, The Ice Cream Truck!!!!