School's OUT!

Dad and Ben celebrating the end of preschool!  

First and Last Day of Preschool.  He has grown so much this year!

First and Last Day of 1st Grade.

1st and Last day of 3rd Grade!

Are we excited or what!!!

I'm am really happy school is over.  And not for the reasons I expected.  I'm happy because now I get to design my kids' curriculum.  And spend more time with them.  We will see how I feel about that in a few weeks.  But right now I'm actually excited.
If all goes according to plan, our weeks include:
Piano lessons
Cooking club
Gymnastics
Research time
Art time
CHORE time! (Yes, I'm so excited for this!)
Park playing
Softball learning
Swimming lessons (with a real pro!)
Mile walking/running
And some time for creative "free" play.

I decided I can't try to get anything done (like painting the garage--and besides I'm not supposed to be doing any projects anyway).  So, I'll take this time to train a few clients and train my kiddos.

We will have 2 culminating events.  A Research Symposium and an Art Gallery (with pieces of art for sale!)
We will serve appetizers that the girls have learned to make.
It's going to be fun.

Father's Day Love

This was the activity in primary yesterday.  Best handout EVER!  It is so funny to see what the kids wrote about Derek.  He is a great dad.

My Favorite Part of Me

For the last few years I have been seeing these projects in the hall at school.  I found out this year it is a 3rd grade project, so Libby got her turn.  The kids write about their favorite part of themselves and a professional photographer takes a picture to represent the text.  Libby is really into writing poems, so she made hers a poem. I put it up in the hall here at home and love seeing it everyday.

Piano Recital 2016

Taking piano lessons has been an amazing opportunity for growth for all of the girls in our family, including me!  I have loved sitting down with the girls and plunking out songs again.  I left piano lessons early, and never looked back.  But now, I am really enjoying playing.  I have been practicing easy hymns and playing them for family home evening (I still remembered much more than I thought!).  The girls have also enjoyed playing.  Some days.  And some songs.  But overall, they have done really well.  They have different strengths (Libby is better at picking things out by ear, and Sarah at looking at the music).  They both hate counting (ME TOO!).  For the recital they each played one song that really challenged them and one that was easy.  Sarah worked on the "Muppet Show Theme" for months.  She really had it down by the end.  "It's a Small World" was right on her level and she picked it up quickly.  Libby really wanted to play something from Harry Potter.  "Hedwig's Theme" was the one she had to really work at.  The end result was great!  "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was a quick learn, and a relief after the struggle to learn Hedwig.
I'm really proud of all they accomplished this year!

Ben IS 5!!!

This is so crazy.  My baby is 5.  I am a mom of "older" kids.  I haven't changed a diaper in 2 years.  I haven't used a stroller in 1.  I knew it would be true from the beginning, but I love parenting older kids.
They are so fun.
Ben's birthday celebrations lasted several days.

It started when he came out of his room on his birthday and said, "Shouldn't you be wrapping my presents mom?"  So I sent him to look at the table...full of wrapped presents.  He came flying back to the office and gave me the biggest hug while repeating, "Thank you, thank you," over and over.  It was worth every bit of shopping I did.
He got (as Sarah later said), shoes that were to small, goggles that were too small, and bath toys that weren't electric.  But he grew to like the bath toys and yesterday we bought new goggles and shoes.  This kid has been growing like a weed.  I had to get him new pajamas and clothes, when just a few weeks ago I thought he'd be set for the summer.  For weeks he has been planning what he would eat on his birthday.  For breakfast he chose Apple Jacks. It was also a fun surprise that Daddy came home from work early to eat and open presents with us.

For lunch he chose McDonald's.  It was a bit disappointing that we had to go through the drive-thru.  But he got to eat his plain burger and gogurt.  My kids that could use every calorie they could get don't eat the fries.  Then for dinner we went to Family Pancake house with Grammy and Grandpa Norton.

Hot chocolate for his birthday treat at dinner.  (He didn't actually drink it, of course).  But he did eat most of his waffle with whipped cream and butter.

For his treat he spent much time deliberating.  He finally decided on a BB8 "cake" of rice crispie treat.  I was delighted.  Easy to make and delicious to eat.  

Oh yeah, and Derek had a birthday too (on the day I left for the DR).  So we had a joint DBN 3 and DBN 4 celebration on Sunday.  Derek chose vanilla chocolate chip homemade ice cream for his treat.  (Ben blew out Derek's candles while he was deciding what to wish for, ha!)

For Ben's "Friend party," he brought his two buddies to the ZOO!  We went to the zoo in Tacoma, and it was really cool.  Zoo and Aquarium in one.  

The weather was good/bad/terrible/good all day.  But it kept the crowds down.  We got to touch a skink, (Libby:  "Is that skink venomous?"), armadillo, opossum, and hedgehog.  The shark tank was especially awesome.  

Up close with the Elephants.  

Dairy Queen for the birthday treat!  What a week for this 5 year old!

A Magical Wedding Week

So last week I didn't blog because I was at a wedding in Santo Domingo. It was one of the most magical weeks I have ever experienced.
#jakeandjenplus5
The Nuckols are busy mission presidents, yet they hosted us so beautifully!  Chartered buses everywhere, tours of the city given by El Presidente, a chance to hear from some of their missionaries, a Dominican ward testimony meeting, delicious food (and I mean delicious!), delightful company, and SO MUCH LOVE!  I want all of my kids' weddings to feel like this.  Derek better keep working lots of overtime, ha!  But truly the best part was to sit together in the sealing room having spent several days as a group.  We had come to know and love each other and we were rejoicing together in support of this miraculous and blessed union.

 Here are the highlights in photos (the best photos from the wedding itself are at the bottom, taken by Kristen Erekson):

I met up with my bestie in JFK.  Getting off the plane to have her waiting for me was amazing!  We had such a good time talking throughout the week.  She makes me a better woman and mom!

This was the view from our hotel window.  I have never been to a 3rd world country before.  It was beautiful and scary at the same time.  I didn't get a picture of these, but the massive tangles of wires on the telephone poles, the street signs to avoid pedestrians who will be running across the street, the garbage...it all amazed me.

This was our forecast.  But we ended up having thunderstorms on just our actual beach day. The other days were quite warm and sunny.  

Since it was raining, we took some detours around the island before we went to the beach.  These were some amazing ruins.  

All the bridesmaids at the ruins. 

We also stopped by a church building.  It was open, so we went to check it out and make sure everything was okay.  It was some missionaries having district meeting.  All though the week we had interactions with missionaries that made me remember how much I loved serving.  It made me excited for my kids to serve.  Especially if they can have a mission president like President Nuckols!

There was a model having a photo shoot at the beach we ended up at.  See the hoard of men and boys hanging around her?  This was one of the things that shocked me most about the DR. Everywhere we went there were men just hanging around.  Sitting, standing, chatting, watching...clearly there are economic problems when this many men have nothing to do all day?  Did not see many women just hanging around.  Only on Sunday we saw a few.  

Some pics from our tour of the Colonial District.  Christopher Columbus landed in the DR on (I think) his second voyage.  (President Nuckols gave us a fantastic tour, so I should remember this).  It was cool to see buildings so old.  

The square with Christopher Columbus and roughly 1 million pigeons.  The vendors were trying to sell us Rosary beads (didn't understand why we didn't want them) and Larimar--a stone found only in the DR.  I did buy some Larimar.  It's amazing. 

The pics are out of order a bit, but this is the morning of the wedding, we hired a cab and made it to the white sandy beach of Don Julio.  It was awesome.  Could have spent more than the 2 hours we had here, but I'm glad we went (even though I was a little hesitant to get up early and go...)

Lounging!

At the temple.  It was so amazing.  And so many people coming and going from the temple.  That was really amazing too.

Mrs. and Mrs. Bromley

The reception was in the Colonial District in an old museum.  I had to sit on one of the cannons across from the museum.

More posing with  my bridesmaid flowers

On Sunday before our flight Emmi and I went to Tres Ojos.  The three eyes.  It is 3 caves with lakes inside them.  Beautiful walking around and experiencing the nature there.  And hot and humid.    

We only ate at one restaurant, because the Nuckols did such an amazing job of hosting us.  El Postino.  And we ate there twice because we liked it so much the first time (on the first day and the last day).  Yummy Dominican Italian food.  

On the way home, we stopped in NYC for an 8 hour layover.  We decided to take an Uber into the city and take a look.  This NYPD officer gave us directions to yummy pizza.  When I put my arm around him and felt his vest it made me miss Derek so much!  I was so glad to be on my way home.  

Pizza!  Buffalo chicken and cheese.  And I ate most of both pieces.  Yeah, I came home 10 pounds heavier. 

I was so glad to come home to these kiddos!!!

More amazing wedding pics taken by one of the other bridesmaids, Kristen.  

My favorite part of the reception was La Hora Loco.  The crazy hour.  It is a Dominican Wedding tradition.  Men in crazy costumes flooded the dance floor, giving out masks, glow bracelets, noise makers, etc.  It was unreal and amazingly fun!

Bridesmaids.

How awesome would it be to toss your bouquet and kiss your new husband from this window?

Outside the temple

Bridesmaid selfie

Our flowers.

Rehearsal dinner (I was seated next to the groom!  So fun to be at their table!)

The rehearsal dinner location was amazing!  We were on a dock over a little lake.

Grabbing a quick selfie during picture time.  

Outside the Museum before the reception.