Happy Birthday to me...

 

I spent a very nice birthday on Friday celebrating and having fun.  The kids tried to be extra good and Steve changed all of Leightyn's diapers.  :)

 

Aunt Margaret wins "Card of the Year" Award!  It was hilarious!

 

 

Got some new shoes, a game, zumba on the wii, clothes, pet firefly, and my favorite present, my 2012 blogbook.  Except the cover says it is my blogbook, but the pages are pictures of someone else's family!  Not happy that I have to wait for them to reprint it correctly!

 

We had dinner at Olive Garden and then, thanks to Groupon, we had Gigi's cupcakes for dessert.  They were really yummy!

 

Steve found these fun birthday balloons that have glow lights in them.  The kids loved playing with them and the glow lasted for days!

Thanks for all the birthday presents, cards, phone calls, texts, and messages!  It was a great day!

Talent show...

The girls decided that they wanted to tryout for the school talent show and auditioned playing a piano duet of "The Music Box Dancer."  They made it into the show and were super excited.

 

 

They are very good on the piano and very conscientious about practicing and they love to have a piano lesson.  Luckily for me, it has worked for me to give them lessons, and I'm not having to pay someone to do something I can easily do.

 

They sounded great and received lots of compliments.

Awesome job girls!

Springs Preserve...

We squeezed in one last visit to the Springs Preserve before our year pass expired.  It's been a really fun place to explore and visit this year.  They had a really cool CSI exhibit that I found gross, but Steve and the kids found fascinating.

 

 

Then we headed outside to build and play and check out the animals.

 

How far can you jump?

 

And it's never a complete visit without a stop at the flash flood exhibit.  :)

 

And a stop at the playground.

It's been a fun year at the Springs Preserve!

Fathers and sons campout...

We've been having some really nice weather lately, but this last weekend it was pouring rain.  Of course, what's a little rain to boys?  Apparently nothing to stop them from going camping!

 

 

The boys each brought a thermos with soup or saimin noodles in it for dinner.  Plus lots of snacks and warm clothes.  They said it wasn't raining until they were going to bed, but they stayed dry in the tent.

 

They hiked around and played with friends and had a great time!

Meanwhile, the girls stayed nice and warm and dry at home, watching movies and eating out!

Cousins...

Thanks to Gabrielle for being so SMART and winning her district spelling bee, she got to come to Vegas for the state spelling bee!  She did really well at state and you wouldn't believe the list of words she was studying from!

 

 

On Friday afternoon the gang headed over to Flip N Out to jump and slide.

 

And Saturday after the spelling bee, we watched movies and played some Just Dance on the wii!

 

 

We also had dinner with Aunt Margaret and Uncle Dono and Ryan and Kim and family.  The cousins all had fun running around and playing together.  It was a fun weekend!