 |
 |
| This free digital invitation personalized with Smilebox |
4th OF JULY!
2 weeks ago
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Carlie's 10th B-day Invite!
Can't believe I almost forgot to post this! Smilebox.com is THE BEST invitation website EVER! We had the best time making this one!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Carlie's 10th Birthday Luau!!!
I can't believe that I have a 10 year-old daughter! SERIOUSLY!!! She should be like 4! Ugghhh!!!! They just keep on growing don't they! Well, we had our usual pool party--the ONLY thing to do for a summer birthday! Carlie decided to only invite girls this year. Her party guests included: Arianna Braun, Claire Mushet, Abbygale Grant, Maya Koehnemann, Madison Parry, Emily Havey, Grandpa & Grandma Knoop, and Grandma Donna.
I had soo much fun decorating the cake this year! I found several ideas online and I just kinda combined them all. Carlie LOVED the cake too! She said, "Mom....that's not food....THAT"S ART!!!" (I sure did appreciate that comment:)
My mom and dad came up from NM to celebrate with us. No need to hire a magician or clown when my dad is around. He's total entertainment on his own!!! Those girls were BRUTAL to him and he LOVED every minute of it! Poor old guy!
So the party pretty much went like this:
SWIM:
EAT PIZZA:
HULA-HOOP AND BUBBLES:
Ethan cracked us up! We had NO idea that he was such a talented hula-hooper!!!! He just kept going and going and going!!! (Too bad this won't get him into college:)
SWIM:
EAT CAKE & OPEN PRESENTS:
SWIM AGAIN!!!
So it was a very HAPPY day for our girl! We just love her tons and tons and can't imagine our lives without her!!!
Oh yeah...it is also my 1 year birthday for BLOGGING!!! My first post every last year was Carlie's 9th birthday! So Happy 1st blogging birthday to me! Wish I would have started years earlier!!!
Summer Fun!
So every summer I swear my kids turn into fish and grow gills! A day without water to them is unthinkable! So we're always looking to mix things up a bit. They already swim 3+ times a day at home so we decided to take a quick trip over to Tempe Town Lake. We just enjoyed a morning playing in the water and even packed a picnic lunch. Perfect way to spend a Saturday morning in my opinion! Here are some of the pics:
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Mom & Dad enjoy a Sunday Matinee!
This morning I wanted Carlie and Ethan to work on a goal from their "Faith in God" books. They chose a goal in the "Developing Talents" section that required them to write a play about a gospel principle or God's creations. They REALLY got into this and we thoroughly enjoyed the finished product. They were soo thoughtful and creative about the whole thing that I just couldn't help snapping a few pics!
So they wrote a play about God's creations and Adam and Eve in the Garden. Carlie and Ethan were the narrators and Max and Tatum were the actors. In the first scene, Max is a bear on the land (green blankets) and Tatum is a fish in the sea (blue blanket representing the ocean).
THEN...there was a quick costume change and Max became "Adam" and Tatum became "Eve." The kids even made a tree (complete with a bird and a squirrel running up). They taped a bag of trail mix to the wall to represent the "forbidden fruit."
Max and Tatum ate the fruit and bam...they ended the play with a baby!
And so we all learned that "The Fall" was a good thing because we couldn't have been born without it:)
So they wrote a play about God's creations and Adam and Eve in the Garden. Carlie and Ethan were the narrators and Max and Tatum were the actors. In the first scene, Max is a bear on the land (green blankets) and Tatum is a fish in the sea (blue blanket representing the ocean).
THEN...there was a quick costume change and Max became "Adam" and Tatum became "Eve." The kids even made a tree (complete with a bird and a squirrel running up). They taped a bag of trail mix to the wall to represent the "forbidden fruit."
Max and Tatum ate the fruit and bam...they ended the play with a baby!
And so we all learned that "The Fall" was a good thing because we couldn't have been born without it:)
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Max...tells it like it is!!!
Okay, so let me just start off by saying that this is my week off! I have NO piano lessons this week and so I am just at home for the next 6 days enjoying time with my kids by the pool and doing some much needed spring cleaning. So, with that being said.....make-up is NOT on my "to do" list this week. So today Max asks me:
"Mom....did you forget to go to sleep last night or did you forget to put your pink thing in your mouth?"
(I'm a HORRIBLE teeth grinder and so I wear a pink mouth guard to bed every night--not sure how he knew that:)
I say, "No Max, why?"
He responds, "Cause you kinda look ugly today! Make sure to go to sleep tonight!"
Man, I feel really great about myself tonight! Aren't kids great?!?! The truth hurts sometimes--I'm still not going to put on make-up this week:) And I still LOVE LOVE LOVE this little guy!!!
"Mom....did you forget to go to sleep last night or did you forget to put your pink thing in your mouth?"
(I'm a HORRIBLE teeth grinder and so I wear a pink mouth guard to bed every night--not sure how he knew that:)
I say, "No Max, why?"
He responds, "Cause you kinda look ugly today! Make sure to go to sleep tonight!"
Man, I feel really great about myself tonight! Aren't kids great?!?! The truth hurts sometimes--I'm still not going to put on make-up this week:) And I still LOVE LOVE LOVE this little guy!!!
Friday, May 28, 2010
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things....
So despite the busyness of May, we sure did have a lot of fun things happen. Here are a few of the highlights:
Ethan finished up his baseball season strong! We're sure were proud of him. He gets better every season. His favorite memories of this season include: 1) making the FIRST out of the FIRST game!!! He was playing first baseman and the ball was hit in his direction. He ran and got the ball and then out-ran the runner back to first base. 2) Getting the game winning ball after a great game--his coach said Ethan stayed "Focused" and "Worked hard the whole game." So here is Ethan with his game-winning ball and trophy! GOOOO STORM!!!
Tatum is just soo stinkin' cute. I LOVE all of her little sayings right now! Her new favorite word is "SERIOUSLY!" For example, Chris was calling her to the dinner table saying, "Tatum!!! Come now!" to which she responded, "I AM DAD!!! SERIOUSLY!" Another favorite example--this happens about every day when I'm teaching piano, Tatum says, "Mom...I need a drink...Seriously!" So what's a mom to do? I jump right up and get her one:) She also LOVES cupcakes. I LOVE the way she says the word "cupcakes," it comes out more like "COOKCAKE!" Cracks me up every time! And no matter what sport Chris is watching on TV--football, basketball, or baseball--Tatum calls ALL sports "FEETBALL." She loves to ask, "Dad...are you watching feetball?" That's my girl!!! (That's how I feel about all sports on TV--they're all the same and I can only watch for a few minutes:) Here's a pic of Tatum with a "Cookcake:"
Max's Preschool Graduation!!! I like to call myself a "Pioneer" of Packer Pre-school!!! 7 years ago I signed Carlie up for Chris Packer's preschool--the class was almost cancelled because she didn't have enough students so I rounded a few more up! And here I am with my 3rd child completing her program! We LOVE LOVE LOVE Mrs. Packer. She does soo many wonderful things with the kids like dinosaur digs, and star-gazing, and field trips to super fun places like the Pumpkin Patch and the Zoo. So I am soo grateful to her for teaching all of my kids for all of these years. (AND...Tatum will be starting with her in the fall:) The graduation performance was fantastic! Complete with red carpet, diploma, and of course...TREATS! There is a song that the kids sing called, "When I Grow Up." Max has been telling us for about 2 weeks now that he wants to be a "Rockstar" and that he needs to get some tattoos because all the rockstars have them. Well, come to find out, he got to be the "Rockstar" in this song. I had to tease Mrs. Packer about the "tattoo" thing to which she said, "I DID NOT tell him about tattoos!" So funny! Mrs. Packer is AWESOME! Here are some pics of the big event! YEA MAX!!!
And now that preschool has ended for Max, I decided to skip housecleaning today and take my two youngest to a park! We went to a park just down the street from us. As soon as we got there we were approached by a 4 pack of ducks looking for food. They were NOT shy! I did happen to have some pretzels in my purse so we fed them to the ducks..BIG MISTAKE! They followed us around the rest of the time! I don't know what it is about birds and me!!! I actually hate fowl of ALL kinds! I had some traumatizing childhood experiences with different kinds of birds--they must be able to smell FEAR! STINKIN' BIRDS! We managed to get away from them in the water area of the park. Here are some pictures of our fun adventure this morning!
And now....BRING ON SUMMER:)
Ethan finished up his baseball season strong! We're sure were proud of him. He gets better every season. His favorite memories of this season include: 1) making the FIRST out of the FIRST game!!! He was playing first baseman and the ball was hit in his direction. He ran and got the ball and then out-ran the runner back to first base. 2) Getting the game winning ball after a great game--his coach said Ethan stayed "Focused" and "Worked hard the whole game." So here is Ethan with his game-winning ball and trophy! GOOOO STORM!!!
Tatum is just soo stinkin' cute. I LOVE all of her little sayings right now! Her new favorite word is "SERIOUSLY!" For example, Chris was calling her to the dinner table saying, "Tatum!!! Come now!" to which she responded, "I AM DAD!!! SERIOUSLY!" Another favorite example--this happens about every day when I'm teaching piano, Tatum says, "Mom...I need a drink...Seriously!" So what's a mom to do? I jump right up and get her one:) She also LOVES cupcakes. I LOVE the way she says the word "cupcakes," it comes out more like "COOKCAKE!" Cracks me up every time! And no matter what sport Chris is watching on TV--football, basketball, or baseball--Tatum calls ALL sports "FEETBALL." She loves to ask, "Dad...are you watching feetball?" That's my girl!!! (That's how I feel about all sports on TV--they're all the same and I can only watch for a few minutes:) Here's a pic of Tatum with a "Cookcake:"
Max's Preschool Graduation!!! I like to call myself a "Pioneer" of Packer Pre-school!!! 7 years ago I signed Carlie up for Chris Packer's preschool--the class was almost cancelled because she didn't have enough students so I rounded a few more up! And here I am with my 3rd child completing her program! We LOVE LOVE LOVE Mrs. Packer. She does soo many wonderful things with the kids like dinosaur digs, and star-gazing, and field trips to super fun places like the Pumpkin Patch and the Zoo. So I am soo grateful to her for teaching all of my kids for all of these years. (AND...Tatum will be starting with her in the fall:) The graduation performance was fantastic! Complete with red carpet, diploma, and of course...TREATS! There is a song that the kids sing called, "When I Grow Up." Max has been telling us for about 2 weeks now that he wants to be a "Rockstar" and that he needs to get some tattoos because all the rockstars have them. Well, come to find out, he got to be the "Rockstar" in this song. I had to tease Mrs. Packer about the "tattoo" thing to which she said, "I DID NOT tell him about tattoos!" So funny! Mrs. Packer is AWESOME! Here are some pics of the big event! YEA MAX!!!
And now that preschool has ended for Max, I decided to skip housecleaning today and take my two youngest to a park! We went to a park just down the street from us. As soon as we got there we were approached by a 4 pack of ducks looking for food. They were NOT shy! I did happen to have some pretzels in my purse so we fed them to the ducks..BIG MISTAKE! They followed us around the rest of the time! I don't know what it is about birds and me!!! I actually hate fowl of ALL kinds! I had some traumatizing childhood experiences with different kinds of birds--they must be able to smell FEAR! STINKIN' BIRDS! We managed to get away from them in the water area of the park. Here are some pictures of our fun adventure this morning!
And now....BRING ON SUMMER:)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Oh!!! The Wonderful Month of May!
Let me just say what I say this time every year---"MAY KICKS MY BUTT!!!" I would do Christmas 4 times in a row if it meant I got to skip May! But it's all good and I'm still alive! So if it hasn't killed me yet, then I must be stronger for it right?!
So I started the month with my piano recitals. Yes, it's plural because I have a million students, the recitals at my home, and I do 4 of them back to back so that each recital remains about 45 minutes. But, all went great! The students did great! Carlie played in all 4 recitals because #1: she's the piano teacher's daughter and #2: because she ROCKS!!!
Ethan did fantastic too! I am sure proud of his progress this year. (He had a baseball game RIGHT after he played)
Carlie and I ended each recital with our duet: "Waterfall" (I LOVE playing duets with my kids--one of my favorite things in life:)
Then....the event that REALLY kicks my butt: ACHIEVEMENT DAY. So this is the optional event that my students can participate in. It's quite intense in that they have to perform 3 memorized pieces, scales, sight reading, theory, and ear training all for a panel of judges. It's very stressful getting 29 students ready for the event and if that's all I was doing that would be fine....BUT (there's always a "but" with me:) I was running the event as well! The music teacher's association that I'm in (Desert Valley Music Teacher's Association) put me on the board 2 years ago--I think because I'm one of the youngest teachers there:) and this is my event that I have run for 2 years now. So this means that I have to organize this event for 300 piano students valley wide--rent the venue, get pianos and judges in the right places, and order and organize 300 trophies and ribbons. FUN FUN! So it all went great with no major hang-ups--small miracle in and of itself when dealing with a bunch of piano-teaching old ladies:) Here's what my guest room looked like with 300 trophies (you can't see that the floor is covered in trophies too):
BRAGGING MOMENT:
Well, my students KICKED BUTT this year! I couldn't be more proud of them! I had 29 students in the event and my average theory test score was 95% and my average ear training score was 98%. So who had the highest-scoring studio? Umm...that would be us!!! So as hard as this whole month has been on me, it has definitely been worth it! I have always felt that teaching piano is one of my many life callings and so I'm just gonna keep on keeping on until I'm one of those cute little piano teaching old ladies!
NOW I'M DONE BRAGGING! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself--my students ROCK:)
Here's all their trophies:
So I started the month with my piano recitals. Yes, it's plural because I have a million students, the recitals at my home, and I do 4 of them back to back so that each recital remains about 45 minutes. But, all went great! The students did great! Carlie played in all 4 recitals because #1: she's the piano teacher's daughter and #2: because she ROCKS!!!
Ethan did fantastic too! I am sure proud of his progress this year. (He had a baseball game RIGHT after he played)
Carlie and I ended each recital with our duet: "Waterfall" (I LOVE playing duets with my kids--one of my favorite things in life:)
Then....the event that REALLY kicks my butt: ACHIEVEMENT DAY. So this is the optional event that my students can participate in. It's quite intense in that they have to perform 3 memorized pieces, scales, sight reading, theory, and ear training all for a panel of judges. It's very stressful getting 29 students ready for the event and if that's all I was doing that would be fine....BUT (there's always a "but" with me:) I was running the event as well! The music teacher's association that I'm in (Desert Valley Music Teacher's Association) put me on the board 2 years ago--I think because I'm one of the youngest teachers there:) and this is my event that I have run for 2 years now. So this means that I have to organize this event for 300 piano students valley wide--rent the venue, get pianos and judges in the right places, and order and organize 300 trophies and ribbons. FUN FUN! So it all went great with no major hang-ups--small miracle in and of itself when dealing with a bunch of piano-teaching old ladies:) Here's what my guest room looked like with 300 trophies (you can't see that the floor is covered in trophies too):
BRAGGING MOMENT:
Well, my students KICKED BUTT this year! I couldn't be more proud of them! I had 29 students in the event and my average theory test score was 95% and my average ear training score was 98%. So who had the highest-scoring studio? Umm...that would be us!!! So as hard as this whole month has been on me, it has definitely been worth it! I have always felt that teaching piano is one of my many life callings and so I'm just gonna keep on keeping on until I'm one of those cute little piano teaching old ladies!
NOW I'M DONE BRAGGING! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself--my students ROCK:)
Here's all their trophies:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
