It's still my birthday...

Here's a picture of the birthday girl. She was so excited opening her presents!
















She opened her own presents this year and loved every, single one, especially the birthday dollars. Thanks Grandma and Tutu! She even got to pay her own tithing today, great teaching moment. :)
















She got a new "big girl tricycle" (helmet included!) and has been learning to pedal up and down the hallway! Time to take the bike outside! :)




















Her favorite gift came from Kendyl, it was a cute little doggie she named "Fifi" along with a doggie stroller, doggie bed, and doggie carrier. Very stylish! She played with and pushed Fifi around the house all weekend long.


















After opening presents and taking Kendyl to school, Brityn was off to preschool where she had fun with friends and then later we had lunch with Daddy at the park. We went to find a Dora balloon at the store and, of course, the only one they had was this gigantic, tune-playing one! Fun times with Dora!











We finished off the night with a Dora cake, (yes I bought it, I've made too many ugly ones). It was yummy and we did the Hardy tradition of re-lighting the candles several times. She got up the next morning and told me with a big smile on her face, "It's still my birthday, the decorations are still here!"

Happy Birthday Brityn!!!!!!!

My sweet little baby turns 3 today. She was so excited this morning when she came into my room to tell me, "Mommy, I'm not two any more, I'm free!" And when I picked her up from preschool she asked, "Is it still my birthday?" She was giggling with happiness when I told her it was her birthday until she fell asleep tonight!

Cupcake burgers...

So I was blog stalking and came across these cupcake hamburgers and they just looked so cute I had to try them!

There wasn't a recipe so I took what I could from the comments and just made up the rest! I used yellow cake mix for the "buns" and baked them into cupcakes without the wrappers so the sides would be smooth.

I made the hamburger patties out of brownies which I also baked in the cupcake tin. Be careful to shorten your bake time since they don't take as long as a regular pan.

Ryder was a great sport and watched us baking away!

Our finished project! I sliced out the middle of the cupcakes and used colored frosting to make the "lettuce, ketchup, and mustard" and then assembled them all together. We had dinner and FHE with some friends tonight and took these for dessert. They were a hit!

First day of 1st grade...

School finally started for Kendyl today. She has been anxiously waiting for 1st grade to start. She looks great in her clean, bright, white shirt--thanks to mandatory standard student attire. I was not real happy about having to invest in a separate school wardrobe, but the kids don't seem to mind. There is nothing girly, sparkly, pink, print, or polka-dot about it though, even hair accessories are kept strictly plain. She was very happy to meet her teacher and came home to tell us that, "My teacher looks just like Giselle (from the movie Enchanted) and sounds like her too. She must be an actor!" :) My biggest worry was her eating lunch at school, but she made her own PB and J, and consumed most of it before running out of time or out to play. She saw lots of kids she knew from our ward and her kindergarten class at recess and has already started making new friends in her class. When I asked her how her day was today she said, "First grade rocks!"

Backyard camping...

So, truth be known, I am not much of a camper. I just prefer to sleep comfortably, use a flushing non-public toilet, and take long hot showers. That said, we did get a big family tent for Christmas a couple of years ago (you know, in case we have to exodus to Missouri, or something like that!) and since we actually have enough grass in the backyard...we finally put it up!





The girls were so thrilled to get their sleeping bags out and go sleep in the tent in the backyard. I'm happy Steve was willing to accommodate them and sleep outside with them (especially since setting up the tent was his idea!).

It was a great adventure for the last weekend before school starts for Kendyl. You just had to get past the pig farm smell and the street lights to imagine yourself in the mountains somewhere! Good times!


Oh, did you notice that Ryder and I are missing in all of these pictures? We enjoyed our comfortable beds, flush toilet, and long hot shower--indoor camping at its best!

Waterslide...

On Fridays for swimming lessons, they let all the classes go down the big waterslide. Last week, Brityn could not be convinced to go down the slide, but yesterday, she wanted to do it!









This is her big smile after she went down multiple times!









Kendyl's class also got to go down the waterslide and she loves it!









This is the face of one happy waterslider!

Swimming lessons...

We decided to do a session of swimming lessons since Kendyl doesn't start school until next Monday. The girls have been super excited to go swimming every other day and it keeps them entertained with something to look forward to.

Official first day of preschool...

Today was Brityn's "official" first day of preschool. She was quite excited all morning while getting ready and couldn't wait for it to be time to go. One big hug, one "I love you", and one "Have fun, I'll see you later" and she marched in the door. I have great kids! and all those summer classes sure helped too!

My little beauty queen...

This is what I found when I went to see if Brityn was ready for family prayer...


Me: Lip gloss? You know you're going to bed right? You'll get lip gloss on your pillow!
Brityn: But my lips are dry.

I guess a little lip gloss on your pillow is nothing compared to shiny, glossed, un-dry lips! My little beauty queen!

Squashed...

I know, I know, no one needs a play-by-play of every food Ryder tries...BUT, he is just so stinkin' cute I couldn't resist!

Talent Show...

On Saturday the Primary had a talent show and Kendyl decided to dance a hula to Pearly Shells. She was in a hula class when she was three, but hasn't danced since her teacher retired a couple of years ago, but she remembered all the moves (with a little help from mom) just fine. She was very excited and did a very good job and looked so cute in her outfit! Way to go Kendyl!

Brityn was excited that she also got to sing on the stage! They had all the kids in nursery sing "Do As I'm Doing". They were so cute and did an awesome job singing. There were some really talented kids there! Even the bishopric got in with a little skit and since one of the counselors was out of town, Steve and I got roped into participating. I'm sure most of you have seen this done...hanging sheet as background where you see a face and hands (that don't belong to the same person)...long story short, I got to feed Steve an icecream sundae. Don't worry, I was nice and he came out the cleanest one, the bishop and the counselor were a mess! The kids thought it was hilarious though, so everyone had a good time. :) Unfortunately I forgot to hand my camera to someone, so sorry no pictures. :(