Tyler went with Uncle Brian to deliver flowers to Aunt Laura at work for their anniversary. We dressed him up in his best suit, gave him a flower delivery hat and clip board with script and he walked in with the flowers. Top that off with a trip with Uncle Brian to Hardee’s and you have yourself one fabulous night for this 7 year old.
Wish I had pictures from the delivery end. I heard it was adorable.
Dad and I decorated mom’s grave for Mother’s Day. I got her the bird house. She collected them.
Tyler and I went to the zoo for his 1st grade field trip. This was us on the train. We also rode the carousal. So not posting a picture of me on a plastic giraffe.
This guy tried to eat Tyler’s visor. It was pretty funny- too bad I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get the action shot, but Tyler thought this picture was pretty funny- they are about the same height. We had a great time.
Sammie got her tonsils out last week! She’s still recovering and eating a lot of pudding and popsicles, but she’s doing pretty well. It was time- she had strep throat 6 times since Christmas and tonsillitis once!
We also had our living room and dining room floors refinished. Aren’t they pretty? We celebrated the occasion by going out to buy a new sofa and chair to further spruce up the room. It’s delivered tomorrow and I can’t wait. It’s weird having an empty room.
We celebrated May 6th with the boys for Sammie’s party. She got a lap top computer, we ate her favorite foods pizza, corn, watermelon and root beer floats. Quite a combination!
A few weeks later we celebrated with friends at RAOK (Random Acts of Kindness) Birthday Party. Instead of gifts her friends brought new or used children’s books and at least one gift card with an idea of what random act of kindness we could do with that card.
The girls came up with some great ideas! It was a wonderful day and we just loved every minute. Laura came with me to make sure I didn’t go insane with 5 little girls in my car for a whole day. She was a gem!
Our first stop was the hospital- where we visited the child life department of the Children’s Hospital- and donated books to the play room, water and chocolate to the nurses and post it notes with encouraging messages for the bathrooms.
We also taped quarters to a vending machine on the floor Spencer was on a few years ago.
One of the girls wanted to take gift cards to the library and give them to the librarians. They were so surprised and confused- the general theme of the day.
We went to the grocery store and took 3 gift cards to give to the people behind us in line. This was the girls favorite one. We had one woman say she gives acts of kindness at least once a month and she has never gotten it back until that day. It really made an impact on the girls.
Sammie picked Taco Bell/Pizza Hut for lunch. We gave the cashier a gift of the makings of s’mores. He was probably the most confused and flustered. Laura saw him run out to his car to stash his gift though so we guessed he liked it.
We bought a families lunch at Steak N Shake. So fun.
Taped popcorn to Red Box machines- love this idea. The girls all had such great ideas to contribute to this day.
At Starbucks we raced in, startled the poor man getting ready to pay for his coffee, and plopped a gift card down on the counter and paid for his coffee, the person behind us in line’s coffee, and left 2 more cards with the cashier to treat the next 2 people to come in. It was pretty dead in Starbucks that day- it was a hot day!
After Starbucks we went to St. Louis Bread Co. and did the same thing.
They loved tapping on car windows in the drive through at McDonald’s and DQ to hand out gift cards before people paid.
This lady’s face in the red car says it all. After this photo she started waving and going nuts giving us thumbs up signs and just so happy.
We didn’t get a photo of the park- we handed out water bottles to those walking around the lake and a DQ gift card to a family fishing.
This party was a great success! We all felt the fun and joy that comes from giving service. The people we served that day were so happy and surprised and overwhelmed and impressed by Sammie’s sweet idea of a RAOK birthday party. I was too actually.
On Sammie’s birthday- May 7th- we took her to the St. Louis temple for the first time! She was so ready to go and happy to do the service there.
She is so excited about young womens! She’s going to girls camp in a few weeks and then New York in July.
Here’s a little catch up from April. Spencer’s been home with me since January so not a lot has been done on the blog. It’s been a good experience over all for us- he’s such a sweet boy. He misses school and will be going back in the fall to a new school.
One thing Spencer has enjoyed is shopping. We figured out after one week home that every time he said “No, I don’t like the __________ toy” he really meant “yeah, I do like that toy and would really like to buy it please!” However, the first few times we actually bought things he liked he would fuss and cry and say “No, I don’t like the _______ toy.” It meant quite a few funny looks from the cashiers, but eventually he’s gotten use to buying things and being comfortable with it. This is a favorite- his farm toy. He’s really in to farms right now.
Sammie, Nicole and I went Easter dress shopping and she got a new dress and shoes! She’s looking so grown up lately. I can’t stand it!
Our handsome boy.
Sammie finished her Faith in God program- a lot of work. It’s a program the church puts on that is for girls ages 8-11. The girls check off goals in 4 areas- Learning and Living the Gospel, Serving Others, Developing Talents, and Preparing for Young Women (the program they graduate to when they turn 12). It’s a great program that I’m in charge of at church and it will be weird not having Sammie there! This is her with our primary president after their interview.
She also had an interview with our new Bishop and got her temple recommend. Youth can go to the temple at age 12. She was so excited this night- and a little sad to say goodbye to Faith in God girls as well.
Sammie went to 6th grade camp- 5 days away from home with her academic team at school- in March and she had a fabulous time. We sent in a lot of her food because of her food allergies, but they didn’t have any issues at all. We on the other hand ate all peanut and egg items while she was gone- we loved eating tortellini, breakfast casserole, cakes with eggs and more. She had a good laugh about that fact.
It was fun! It was her first of 3 trips this year. The next 2 are this summer!
She was fine- only homesick at night she said- until she saw me on Friday picking her up- then she kind of lost it. It was a special moment for us- being reunited after our longest ever separation!
We made her a welcome home banner.
