Sunday, June 29, 2008

Bringin' Home the Bacon


Well, not bacon exactly, but you know what I mean. Troy's coworker, Steve, has a wife, Mary, who has a family, the Morgans, who have a farm in Layton. On this farm there is a trout pond, kept stocked with fish. We were told there was an open invitation to take Stomper fishing up there, so on Saturday morning Troy took him up. I wish I had been there. There's something so delightful about watching the expression on your child's face when they are doing something they're proud of. I guess some of the fish in this pond have been around for quite some time because they were pretty massive. This guy was one of the smaller fish in there, and it was huge! Maybe 18 inches or so.

So, you know that I love cooking. I have to admit, though, that when my child handed me a huge old dead fish I was a little put off. Too much of my food comes neatly packaged from the grocery store. They try hard to make our food pretty, I think, and this fish was lacking in that department. Thank heavens for the internet because all you have to do is type in "grilled trout" and you get a thousand ideas for what to do. What we did was mix together herbs (picked from this year's garden...joy!) and olive oil and garlic, rub that all over the inside of the fish, and grill it whole for a while. It made for such a tasty dinner, with a little broccoli and some really great lemony garlicky creamy saucy stuff on the side. Well, on the side, on top, and basically slathered all over.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to see Stomper so excited about his catch and to enjoy it together as a family that same day. The kids actually ate it. Look out, Morgans, we're coming back! This time we want a BIG fish...

The New 'Do

It was Stomper's idea. Really it was. I guess the idea came from a show he really enjoys called The Avatar - the hero is a bald kid named Aang:



Stomper has been begging and begging me to shave his head. He didn't just want short hair, he wanted to be bald. BALD bald, like a ping pong ball. I told him we'd do the best we could and we used the clippers with no attachments on them. I wasn't willing to go after his head with my razor, but he seemed pretty content with the buzz. Now he's wondering how I'm going to attach a blue arrow to his head. Huh. I haven't figured that one out yet. What's funny is how much I love that bald little head of his. I can't stop rubbing it, which drives him a little crazy. I'm also loving his brown little face, now framed in by his pasty white pate, except for one little brown spot on the back of his head where his cowlick is - I guess the sunshine could get through there. Anyway, he's suddenly shy about it and doesn't like people to talk about it, but I love his little head so much I might keep him shaved clean all summer!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Guess Who's Autograph I Got!


Well. I don't even know where to begin. I guess it started a couple of years ago when I and my friend Amie were visiting teaching a woman in our ward by the name of Michelle Van De Graaff. We were sitting and chatting with their family, who were all excited because Rick, Michelle's husband, has a sister who's husband wrote a play and it was going to Broadway. It's called The Drowsy Chaperone - heard of it? It was new in 2006 and won 5 Tonys. Rick's brother-in-law played the narrator and everything. (Bob Martin - he's the frumpy looking guy two people to the right of the stripy gal in the center of the picture. Keep your ear out for him - he's working on about three more shows right now!) I remember all three of the Van De Graaff kids trying to act out pretty much the whole show for us on their front porch, and Amie and I, though charmed, didn't really get it. Well, this week The Drowsy Chaperone is here in Salt Lake, so Troy and I bought tickets and planned to go see the show with our friends the Grundvigs. Unfortunately, Troy found out just a couple of weeks ago that he had to go on a business trip to Portland, of course over the 25th. We were both really disappointed that he couldn't join us, but luckily TL got her sister, here from Seattle, to attend instead.

Adam, TL, Julie and I met up at Macaroni Grill, where we enjoyed some pretty awesome Italian food - the winner for me was Adam's dish; a sweet and tender tarragon pasta with lobster and shrimp. (Sorry for the unnecessary information - but I will always remember that pasta.) We then strolled over to the Capitol Theater just in time to get to our seats in the mezzanine and glance at our programs. It was at this point that I just about started jumping up and down and screaming. I looked at the program and saw that playing The Man in the Chair (basically the narrator) was Jonathan Crombie. I'll know if you are a true fan if I have to tell you no more. However, if that name doesn't ring a bell I'll just say two more words. Gilbert Blythe. THE Gilbert Blythe. Now, if you were 10 - 15 years old about 25 years ago (I was) you probably did what I did and watched Anne of Green Gables on PBS. I, cuddled under a blanket on the couch, which had been scooted up close to the t.v., watched it with my mom, as it was on over three evenings. And you may have, like myself, fallen irrevocably in love with Gil. And there he was, on stage! I, having instantly reverted to a 10 year old, almost jumped off the balcony. Of course I'm kidding. What I almost did, during the applause, was scream out something like "YAY GILBERT!!!!" I only wish I had.



The show itself was one of the most hilarious, clever, and entertaining shows I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend seeing it.

Well, after the show, I felt just elated. Something about seeing a really wonderful production just fills me with joy and sort of sad longing that we only get to live one life. I'd never trade my life that I have, but a life on stage would have been grand. Too bad I can't sing. Maybe in some alternate universe I can. We chatted with our friends, the Van De Graaffs, in the lobby for quite a while, and I'm telling you, I was dragging my feet as we left I was hoping so much to see the cast make their exits. Alas, they didn't. We strolled back to the car and pulled out of the lot, chatting about where to get a little tasty treat. We drove by the theater, and saw the Van De Graaffs out front...talking...to...Gilbert. PULL OVER!! TL did a screaming U-turn across 2nd South and I leaped out of the car. Michelle had already very graciously told Mr. Crombie that he had a rather middle aged fan who tried to climb out of the balcony to get to him, and she had gotten an autograph for me. I hope she didn't mind too much that I also got my own autograph.

Gee. I have to admit that as fun as it was to meet him, there's something I hate about being a fan. How do I describe it? It just makes you so un-unique and like you're one unrecogniseable spec among a thousand. Of course, I probably wouldn't have felt so foolish if I didn't get so star struck. Heart pounding, hands shaking, sweating a little. Yeah, nothing very graceful about that. Especially when you try to think of something intelligent to say, so you ask, "Are you enjoying traveling around the country?" (Dumb question anyway,) and he kindly says, "Yes, especially because I get to travel with all these wonderful people." I look around me and realize that I'm standing smack in the middle of a group of like five of the actors from the show and I didn't even notice it. Nor did I have the grace to ask them for their autographs as well. I was too busy being a 10 year old. Blithering? Is that the word? I think that's it. That and IDIOT. Oh well. I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera. At least I got his autograph, not to mention the fact that I got to see a really wonderful show. I hope I can be a season ticket holder some day.


(How much do I love that he signed the cosmetic surgery add on the back? Nice.)

I jumped back in the car, and was slightly mocked, deservedly so, for being sweaty and pathetic, and then we went out for THE best frozen yogurt I have ever had. Luna Berry, on 4th South and 7th East. Go there. Get some yogurt.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Happy Solstice to You

Yesterday, being the summer solstice, was truly a day to celebrate. Don't YOU celebrate the solstice every year? Well, we sure do! First of all, the 21st of June is the day of my first date with Troy, this year being the eleventh anniversary of that fateful event. For the record, we drove up Guardsman Pass with a Mr. Jim Schnepel and his date, about whom I remember nothing, except that she had red hair. Maybe. Anyway, it was fun, and ended sort of early in the morning of the 22nd. My parents were in Belgium at the time and knew nothing about it except that by the time they got home I suddenly had a serious boyfriend. Surprise! The other reason we always celebrate is because we have a group of friends who always celebrate. The Stringhams generously hold an annual shindig in their back yard, complete with a couple of grills, a bounce house, the guys performing in their band, and at least a thousand children. I'll get to that later.

The day started off adventurously when I went on the back porch. I looked up at my hanging baskets, which I am notorious for planting every year and subsequently neglecting so they are generally dried up little twigs by mid July. This year would be different, I promised myself, and so as I looked up at my lovely little plants I noticed that one plant was all fat and happy and the other was little more than a twig. Observe:



Upon closer inspection I found a large, green, horned and disgusting caterpillar-ish thing happily chomping away at the plant. My first thought was, Hey, it's Saturday! Aren't you hungry little caterpillars supposed to be eating through one slice of salami, one cupcake, one piece of chocolate cake, etc...you're not supposed to eat through one nice green leaf until tomorrow! Of course what I actually felt was a combination of fury at the beast and sorrow for my plant (I had actually been watering this one!) and so I thought of the best punishment I could. "Hey Stomper! Come look at this!" Yeah, I'm not sure the little thing made it through the encounter, but it surely kept my children occupied for the morning.



Following the release of a somewhat less-than-fresh looking "Catty" (as dubbed by Stomper), it was time to take a dip in the pool. You always know summer is really here when we inflate our rather large back-yard pool. I'm so proud of us. Troy and bought this pool before we even had kids, like six years ago. I can't believe it is still in one piece. The kids had so much fun. They both begged me for goggles for about three weeks, so I finally got them each a pair, and Bitty especially loves hers, no matter how uncomfortable they appear. They were like two little fishies romping around in our very own pond.



I won't pretend that the end of the day wasn't the part I was most excited for, and not just because of the big Summer Solstice party. Oh no. What I was excited for was that my sister had my kids over for a sleep-over. Yipeee!!! Troy and I don't do too many evening dates together because there are no local sitters in the 'hood that I'll let put my kids to bed. This is in part due to my own traumatic memories of being a young babysitter and being expected to know how to put a gaggle of kids, including small babies, to bed. I can't even get my own small babies to go to bed. So I pretty much ask only my mother or my sister to put my kids to bed. And since I don't actually pay them and they have lives of their own, I don't ask them to do this very often. But my kids adore going to my sister's house, and it's so refreshing just to take off with my boyfriend and not worry about getting home or anything. We decided not to hit the party early enough for dinner. Instead we grabbed dinner to an old favorite - The Pub at Trolley Square (mmmm...nachos....) Well, I got a really yummy crab cake salad and Troy let me pick at his nachos. (Tangent - does anyone else miss the Nachos MaƱana at Crompton's up Emigration Canyon?) We then arrived fashionably late to the party, and were able to enjoy some tunes from the band:


From left to right: John, James, Shawn and Zach
Trivia question: which of the four people pictured here did Rachel not go out with at least once? (There's a prize for the winner!)

Luckily for all those guys as well as me, this is who I ended up with:



Yes, Troy and I really loved hanging out, chatting with wonderful friends, and not keeping one ear tuned toward the mass of screaming children to detect the cries/crimes of one of our own. We just sat there and enjoyed ourselves. So much so, we didn't head home until after midnight. We had plans to go catch a late show or maybe even set up the projector in our back yard and watch a movie that way, but it turned out to be too much fun to be one of the last few and faithful along with James Jardine, Jared Madsen and of course the Stringhams. You know, every time I think of how blessed I am in my life with my perfect-match husband and piles and piles of beloved friends whom I truly adore, I want to shout for joy. I love my life.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Perfection

I'll admit that when our plans to go to the Mayan last night fell through, I was actually disappointed. Troy's life-long buddy Mike is a great diver and spends a few evenings a week diving at the Mayan restaurant. We had made plans with the Mayfields to visit, eat some dinner, watch Mike dive and even get a backstage tour of the place. We were all sad to find out that Mike wasn't actually working that night. We decided to postpone those plans and find something else to do together. I'm so very glad we did because we got the wonderful opportunity to enjoy a little slice of summer heaven.

Picture this: Sandwiches. (Yes, I know, that's heavenly all on its own.) But wait, there's more. They were Emigration Market sandwiches. (Mine was a portabello burger....) A blanket on the grass. Children frolicking. Kids and Dads tossing the football to each other. Swings. Toddlers. There were even puppies. Those didn't belong to us, but they certainly added to the picture. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much better than that.



Not great pix, but I only had my cell phone, so I used it. Duh. Remind me to bring my camera next time!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Certainly


Bitty has a new favorite word. Certainly. You know how sometimes you don't realize how much you use a word until suddenly your children are saying it all the time? For a while Stomper said "actually" a lot. I know he got that from me. Bitty uses her new word quite a bit, but today may have been one of my favorites, as she very assertively let her brother know. He was asking her to wait her turn and she replied,

"I certainly can wait, you silly boy!"

Look out world, here comes Bitty.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

In Like a Lion

I know this phrase is often used in reference to the onset of Spring, but this year I'm choosing to apply it to summer. Spring was more like..."In like a psychotic hamster." At least that's how I felt about these last few somewhat bipolar months. Anyway, this week was officially our first week of summer as far as being out of school and stuff. We totally took it by storm. As I have mentioned in the past I find the heat of summer plus the schedule-less days to be rather oppressive, and my best defense is to plan a bus-load of fun and kind of grab the season by the horns. I guess I got a little over enthusiastic because this week was a wee bit over the top.

I'll give you the run down, in case you care, which you probably don't, but I want to get this down for posterity.

Monday - the start of swimming lessons, immediately followed by meeting my mom downtown at the Church Museum of History and Art (she's a docent there) for a special day of activities and crafts. Swimming went pretty well, except that Bitty's tot-class teacher is totally an old school lady, who kind of just grabs your kids (from out of your arms!) and brings them in the water with her whether they're crying or not. Bitty had been excited until another child in the class started screaming, and then of course Bitty started screaming too. It was a little upsetting at first, and I was thinking of complaining or something. But by the end of the class Bitty was in heaven (and screaming because I was getting her out of the water) and the next day the other little screamer only spent half of the class crying, so I think Linda wasn't so bad after all. It's not like she's mean - she's sweet with the kids. It's just that she doesn't try to get the kids to warm up to her at all. After the museum and picnic lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with friends and getting muddy.

Tuesday was round two of swimming, then lunch at The Becky's, followed by hours of play, and then dashing off to the gym. Basically the kids were away from the house for like 10 hours.

Wednesday was a miserably cold swimming lesson, followed by a marathon zoo trip with the Grovers and Grundvigs. I don't think I've ever spent five hours straight at the zoo before but that's what we did. The kids had so much fun, and then we played on my friend Ruth's front yard for an hour or so.

Thursday we skipped swimming due to more chilly air, and instead trekked up to Ogden to the Dino park with the Mayfields, plus of course we had to play at their house for a while when we returned.

Friday my mom took the kids to the park and the library, then we had friends over for the rest of the day. Plus I was totally manly and helped Troy lug a literal truck load of dirt out of the basement. Wish I had taken a picture of that one!

Saturday we traded babysitting with the Grovers, shopped for Father's Day, cleaned out tons of boxes from the basement, then went to a BBQ at our friends' home in Woods Cross. That was also so so fun. Troy and I were both very happy to just sit still on lawn chairs, eat a yummy dinner and watch the kids frolic.

Today we kind of went to church (don't ask) and then had all the parents plus my sister and her girls over for a BBQ. I was so happy. In that group are one vegetarian, one, uh, meat-arian? and some dieters. Not a good combo to cook for so I just said forget it and we did burgers (some of the meat variety and some of the not meat variety) and hot dogs and salads and fruit and basically it was totally awesome. I haven't enjoyed a big old hamburger for such a long time! One piece of advice: No matter how much your nose is running, do not take Benadryl before guests come over. About half-way through the meal I felt like I hit a brick wall and could barely keep my eyes open. I was pretty much drooling and slurring my speech and not completing sentences. It was awesome.

So now it's Sunday night, 9:30, somehow the kids are still awake (but lying down in bed in a dark room so that shouldn't last too long) (actually it's now 10:30 and it did last a long time...) and I can finally get a little down time! Tomorrow it seems we're starting the fun at break-neck speed again as we head back to swim lessons, and are planning dinner at the Mayan, a trip to the aquarium and Stomper's summer school this week. I can hardly complain because I have too much fun stuff to do. I don't know if I can keep it up all summer, though. We do need a few lazy days in the sun, I think.

I just had to include this little video from the museum on Monday. One of the stations was about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and they tried to teach the kids a few things about music. It was pretty much totally over Stomper's head, but then at the end when they had all the kids get up and pretend to audition for the choir I was laughing like crazy. He just looked so intent, so serious. He looked a little upset even, but when it was done, he was so proud of himself. He wore his little badge for the rest of the day.



Here's a little slide show with the highlights of the week. Whew! Long entry, long week!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Mommy's Ready for a Sandbox


Need I say more?

I didn't think so. (Okay, those boys are darling, but cleanup is a rather major endeavor in cases such as these.)

In other updates, church was totally the best-of-times, worst-of-times yesterday. The first two hours were somewhat miserable, as both my children totally felt apart. Stomper spent the first half of primary under a table and the second half with me, curled up and crying. He acts so traumatized sometimes and I can't figure out what the trigger is. Bitty also spent a good chunk of the morning in tears, also for unknown reasons. I was about to throw in the towel and just go home when I guess somebody flipped a switch, because Sacrament Meeting, which we have last, was really quite enjoyable - not something I expect on a normal basis. Stomper colored pictures for the older girls he adores (both of them are pre-teenagers who pay attention to him and he's rather smitten,) including writing "To Sarah From Stomper" in very nice writing, and then passing them secretively through faithful messengers like his little sister. My heart just fills with joy to see him do this (the writing, not the note passing) because he has never shown much interest in learning his letters, coloring nicely and carefully, or fine motor skill type stuff like that. And then suddenly in like the last three weeks it has just clicked and he's drawing all sorts of great pictures instead of scribbling and doing so well with his letters. Being a mom is all about reveling in your children's lives. Something as little as him writing his "s" correctly just makes my heart sing. And Bitty got all cute and cuddly. That hour almost made up for the previous two!

After church we had been scheduled to have an afternoon at our friend's the Tuckfield's home, and it got pushed back two hours later than we had planned. This was no problem for me - the minute Troy passed the message along I crawled into a cocoon of covers and settled in for a long and snorey nap. Then I heard my daughter's approach, and as she climbed up on the bed I thought to myself, "There goes my nap!" That was the last thing I remember for 1 1/2 hours. She just curled up into the proper spooning position and we both zonked. It really was very sweet. You know what that means, though, right? I planned on having a very late-night mommy-daughter date with her, but after several hours of total bliss at our friend's house (they have lizards, beagles, big kids who like little kids and can also do flips, not to mention the trampoline - what more is there in life?) I guess we wore her out. After putting Stomper to bed she starting crying and saying, "I need to go to sleep with my brother!" She climbed in with him, and we didn't hear from her again until the next morning. Yahoo, yipeee, amen.

Friday, June 06, 2008

A Rainbow of Flavors

Too much cotton candy. Or maybe it was the snow cones. All I know is that my children have had too much sugar this week, ingested in a variety of very odd colors. I will not tell you details of how I came to realize that there had been too much food coloring in Stomper's digestive track, I'll just say I saw blue. That's all I'll say.

Our local Elementary school let out this week, and so of course there was a carnival to attend. It was pretty much in our back yard (just over the fence) and so it was an easy walk to make. I joined my friend Emily and her three boys, where we tried to keep track of all five kids for an hour or so. After our two toddlers got way too frustrating to try to corral, we decided to divide and conquer. She took the big boys and stayed at the carnival while I took the two toddlers home to my house. A good plan. Her little 2 year old and my almost-3 year old and I sat in the grass in front of our house for almost an hour playing. It was actually a pretty warm night - the rest of the day had been rainy and chilly, a weather pattern that has been dampening both our valley (yay!) and my spirits (boo!) all spring long.



Another exciting event of the week was the opening of the new carousel at the zoo. Now, if I had my way, I would have preferred that the zoo put maybe some new animals in the spot once occupied by the hippo house-o-stench, but the carousel is pretty cool. I had been planning this visit for a long time - I read that the zoo would be doing a ribbon cutting at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, and I knew that if there were ever a time to hit the zoo, it would be then. Who's going to get up and be at the zoo that early on a chilly Saturday morning? Besides me, I mean. I'm always so glad when I do stuff like this. It's great fun and worth the effort. The line was indeed short, and got even shorter as the ribbon-cutting festivities came to a close. There were people dressed up as circus animals, wearing tall stilts that they could jump around on like loons. My favorite was the monkey, but unfortunately as he was jumping around he landed in a wet spot and hit the turf pretty hard. I felt so bad for him but he was back to his regular bouncing a few minutes later. Kudos go also to the lioness, who had glued two fangs on her incisors plus had very wiry-looking whiskers actually coming out of her nostrils. Very good costume. I would maybe have set a limit at sticking things up my nose, but I guess I'm not that dedicated to my craft. We rode the ride three times in all, and didn't even go see any animals because we were just about all funned out after that. Especially because as we exited the ride the first time, we were handed two big bags of cotton candy. At least this stuff was pink.

Buried Treasure



You wouldn't think that fixing our attic would require Troy to spend quite so much time in our basement, but alas, that seems to be the case. This time it's because he's connecting ductwork to get cool air to the top of our house. This has required additional excavation, and has turned up a couple of interesting finds. I'm just waiting for the day that we find a body or something horrible like that. Truth be told, Troy did find a couple of bones, but we couldn't identify the species. He also uncovered a pair of shoes that are obviously from a previous era. They're totally falling apart, but they're sure neat to see. Now I'm waiting for Troy to uncover the legs that go with them.... bwa ha ha ha!

Off to a Good Start



Here we are, looking down the barrel of another summer. Those endless summer days are stretching ahead of us in a mirage of high heat, kids fighting, and too much t.v. Well, so far, we're off to a good start, partly because our temps are still in the 70's with cloud cover and rain showers. Last summer I felt like I did a good job embracing the season and planning many fun things to do, so that's what I'm going for this summer as well. We've already signed up for swim lessons (although they start next week and I think it's going to be seriously chilly at 9:35 in the morning) and some fun summer school stuff for Stomper. And this week I got the whole family out the door and on a bike ride to the new Luna's Italian Ice Cafe on 9th and 9th. It was actually really fun to have a little family date that included semi-decent exercise and a sweet treat (mango with soft-serve vanilla ice cream is really unbeatable, by the way.) We bought that bike trailer at a garage sale several years ago, before Bitty was even born, and we've never put it to much use. I'm glad to say that this year it's already been out four or five times and I don't totally hate it. Of course, I avoid major hills because I can't get up them, but a nice outing along 9th East is really quite fun. Now wish us luck on the kids fighting part, because I don't know how to fix that. I've tried clonking their heads together, but to no avail. Ha Ha.

Note to Self:

Do not leave your two year old unattended on the potty. This action may result in consequences such as an entire roll of toilet paper being deposited in the potty, creating a mountain of paper extending up between your toddler's knees.

Noted.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Those Crazy Summer Nights

Let me paint a picture for you of a moment I enjoyed earlier this evening. I am sitting in a very comfortable deck chair on a lovely June evening in my neighbors' back yard. Their yard is much preferable to ours in every way, especially for our children, because our neighbors have recently acquired a small flock of chickens. It is these chickens I am watching, as I sit comfortably in the chair. They seem to be running for their lives because my children are ecstatically chasing them all over the yard, and rushing to me in delight every time they pet one. "Mom!!! I petted Henny Penny!" Both of my children are filthy. Chocolately chins, scraped knees, muddy hands, crusty hair, and sparkling eyes. Bitty has gone so far in the day as to be dressed in nothing but a diaper, which, by the way, is not empty, if you know what I mean. But neither was it especially...uh...full, and she was having so much fun, it was hard to stop her from romping around. The air was warm and gentle, the neighbors have a beautiful garden, dripping in enough floral scent to mask even the scent of my daughter. A great summery moment, which of course ended in major tears due to an over exhausted Bitty. Man, she knows how to throw a tantrum. I'll have to leave the details of it to my husband, who accompanied her to sleep away from the rest of the family.

Well, I feel like I've been absent from the blogosphere for a while, mostly due to lack of sleep, though I must confess that I am sitting here typing at near midnight. I just have a few events and moments that I have to record. First, the other night (it may have been more than a week ago, who knows) I had just gotten Bitty to fall asleep. I went in my room to peek at her and snap off the light. This of course woke her. Her eyes popped open and she smiled, threw back the covers and said, "I had a good night's sleep!" Nooooooooo! Luckily I did convince her that the night wasn't quite over yet and to close her eyes again.

We also got to attend the Butler Elementary School Spring Carnival with The Becky and her family. Stomper is getting big enough to kind of run around on his own at those things, as long as he is with Becky's kids. At first Bitty wouldn't go on any of the...what do you call those big blow up things? Not rides, really, I don't know. The big bouncy things you climb on and slide down. She wouldn't go near them. So I initially thought we had payed 10 bucks for her to play on the playground, but by the end she caught on to them and three days later was still begging, tearfully, to slide down the shark again. My favorite was an American Gladiators type deal where two kids at a time climbed up on a big mat with two pedestal things on top. The kids get on the pedestals and try to beat each other off with giant q-tips. Stomper took on Becky's oldest child, and it was nothing short of hilarious. He had a hard time wielding his q-tip.



Another big event for Stomper this week was 'graduating' from preschool. When we went to pick him up from school today we went a little early. All the kids were sitting, lined up, and wearing these great graduation caps the teacher made. Fabulous, except that I couldn't get Stomper to keep a straight face for a picture. They sang a couple of songs for us and got a packet of their work for the year. It was fun. I'll be very sorry to leave Bennion Elementary - we've had a good experience there. Miss Trista and Miss Valle were awesome!