Valentine's Day

So you all know how I LOVE holidays no matter how big or small.  Even though February is my crazy month, I have to make some time for Valentine's Day fun.  I got each of the kids a $1 Valentine candy to remind them how much I love them.

They always get a kick out of their little valentines.

For breakfast I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls.  They were delicious.

And Opa & Oma surprised us with special Valentine cards for each kid along with some Valentine $$ to spend on whatever they wanted to.

Thank you Opa & Oma.  That was such a fun surprise.

I found this Valentine & had to show Trek & the girls.  They are obsessed with a YouTube show called Studio C (it's run from BYU & it's a clean/family comedy sketch show).  Their favorite character/skit on the show is Scott Sterling & this valentine meme is Scott Sterling getting hit in the face with a soccer ball.  My girls told me I was the coolest mom in the world for texting that to them. ha ha ha.

For our Valentine dinner I made heart shaped ravioli pasta, heart jello jigglers, heart shaped strawberries, & caesar salad.  YUM.

Trek & I celebrated by going to a fun restaurant in Sunnyvale called The Rok.  It was SO fun.  We had 4 courses:

salad

cheese fondue (amazing)

chicken cooked on a 700 degree volcanic rock

& chocolate fondue for dessert (YUM)

It was a really nice Valentine's Day.

The Lion King Jr.

When Lorien showed some interest in trying out for the school musical, I got really excited.  Like, REALLY excited.  I did plays all through Jr. High School & High School & boy do I miss it.  What's even better is that Trek was in all his High School plays as well so he was fully on board as well.

The middle school decided to do The Lion King Jr. this year which was incredible.

She was thrilled to learn that she was a zebra & a member of the Pridelands Ensemble.

And then an unexpected phone call came for me.  The director called me & asked me if I would be willing to do make up for the entire play.  I was SO excited.  I got to design, buy (with the budget), practice, teach 8 kids at the school how to apply make up, & DO the make-up for all the performances.

I spent several weeks planning, drawing, practicing & experimenting on my own kids until I came up with some designs that I really loved.  It took a few tries, but I found a really great stage make up that stayed well & didn't smear everywhere the second you got sweaty.  Experimenting was my favorite part of the whole process.

Once I got all the make up purchased & the designs approved, I got a team of 8 girls who wanted to learn how to apply make-up.  They were my little make-up team & they helped SO much.  There were about 40 kids in the play & there was NO WAY I could do all of the make up myself.  They each took 2-3 people & did their make up.

They did all the zebras, giraffes, lionesses, antelope, birds, & hyenas so I could focus on the leads.  And they did a great job of it too.

The parents that did the costumes were amazing.  This whole play ended up being spectacular.  Every costume was really cool with a poncho & pants to fit the character & an amazingly artistic headpiece. There is some amazing talent here for sure.

Lorien looked SO adorable in her zebra costume.  Her friend Amber did her make up (she was on my make-up team).  It made me SO proud to see her up there performing.  And she had a blast doing it.

And of course I had to take some pictures of my lead make-up.  I worked so hard designing the designs & I was very pleased with how they turned out.

Scar was definitely my favorite.

Pumba

Rafiki

Timon

Zazu

The whole family came on Friday night & then Saturday night Auntie Marc came with Taya which was fun.  Taya wanted to get her picture taken with all her favorite characters

It was a great experience for Lorien & it was SO MUCH FUN for me.

It's been crazy insane & busy, but a whole lot of fun.

Great job Lo!!!  You're such a cute little actress.

Nap Time . . . Maybe

In the crazy crazy busyness of February between birthdays, Lorien's play, Cadence's band trip, & Winter Break, I finally found 30 whole minutes to myself to take a nap.

And this my friends is why that's impossible with kids.

They see me there, sleeping to myself & decide "Oh Mom wants to play with me, let's stack all our toys on her!"

Yep, happy naptime indeed.

Cadence's 14th Birthday

Cadence's birthday breakfast was a good one:

Scrambled eggs, nutella toast, oranges, & a ding dong.

Happy Birthday to my 14 year old.  She is SO excited to be able to attend school & church dances now.

I can't believe Cadence is 14 years old!!!

She got lots of wonderful presents from us, grandparents, aunts & uncles, & cousins & for some reason I forgot to take a picture of some of them in the rush of the morning craziness, so to all our family out there. . . THANK YOU for the wonderful & thoughtful gifts.  Cadence loved everything.

 

For Cadence's birthday dinner, she chose chicken cordon bleu, kiwi, & a big caesar salad.  Yum.

Happy 14th birthday beautiful girl.  We love you so much.