Lake Owen 2009

We just returned from our 4th trip to Camp Lake Owen. The first two years Morgan just went and we stayed in cabins nearby with Madeline and Meg. The second year Grandma even joined us for part of the week and we visited Morgan at camp throughout the week. Last year Grandma came to stay with Meg for the week and both Chuck and I went with Morgan and Madeline and worked at the camp. Chuck as a boys counselor and I as the camp nurse. This year Meg was invited to come even though she was under the age limit. She did great the whole week, only had one night of "Mommy, I'm tired", which was Thur. night. She sat on my lap most of practice and even fell asleep. I can't blame her. She is used to having one hour of gymnastics a week. Last week she had 20 hours in the gym, that's not including all the fun play time outside of the gym. It's non-stop all day long. I was very proud of her making it through the week. We had an eventful week. It rained from the moment we drove into Wisconsin and continued for the first 5 days of camp. We were not prepared for this. We have never gone before during the first session of camp. It never got above 40 degrees. The girls still had a blast, soaked clothes and all! Chelsea Memmel was the famous gymnast for the week. Our gym took 34 gymnasts so this qualified us for VIP perks. We got 1. VIP t-shirts 2. a private signing/picture party with Chelsea (which are the pictures of her in the red sweatshirt)3. Our girls also get their picture in the brochure for next year( which will be the picture of all the girls in the foam pit)& 4. a VIP dinner on the beach which was yummy fondue and games (you see how well Meg "Limbo's"- not her strong est event. They also had a drawing with all the girls at the camp and the winner got to have Chelsea come to their cabin one evening and read to her, have question/answers and tuck her into bed, which Madeline won! Chelsea even gave her a stuffed bunny rabbit. I absolutely lucked out and got partnered with another nurse which I loved! Her name was Michele and that is her sitting with me underneath the Lake Owen sign. She is someone I hope to keep in touch with for years to come. We had a very busy week with a ton of kids on meds, a broken wrist, 1 tick removal, a sleep-walker kid who the whole camp was looking for, and lets just say, by the end of the week neither one of us wanted to hear "can I have a band-aid?", "can I have motrin?", or "I need cough drops" again!!!. Bottom center picture in Morgan with her favorite coach Kari Lords, who is a coach at Southern Utah University. She is also LDS, and we love her! She has been there every year we've gone to Lake Owen. We were very lucky to get to see her this year, the first session is the only one she is going to this year because she is getting married Aug. 1. Chuck celebrated his 38th B-Day at camp. Not exactly a day at the spa, but he was a trooper as the same. He had a pretty good group of boys(some of those boys can be let's just say rebellious, and mouthy!) About 75% of the camp is girls gymnasts and 25% is skate board guys (with those big ramps and things they do tricks on). It was Thur. when the rain stopped and we got a little sun and were able to play at the waterfront on the toys. Chuck and Morgan also got to do the ropes course, and Madeline, Meg, and I had our turn on the bungee tramp. All in all another fun week at camp!

Here's our big girl, Meg all grown up and graduating from Kindergarten...how the year's go by so quickly. We're very proud of her. She had a great time this year with lots of new friends and many fond memories.

Morgan's 5th Grade Graduation

Morgan is now a middle-schooler! Mom's definately having a harder time with this transition than Morgan. This was a great year having all three girls at the same school for the one and only time. Mom Dad & Meg were able to go to her promotion. She was honored with a certificate for high honors in Math, Language & Science signed by Pres. Obama. This is her favorite teacher for the last year in the middle top row (in turquoise) Miss Brown taught her Language. Her principal in middle right(in black) Mrs. Stephan. Mrs. Kurowski in the middle- Honors Math , Miss Grannan on the left (home room teacher). Bottom Left- Mrs. Bogart her favorite teacher of all times taught her in 1st grade but not since (but happens to be her friend Maddie's mom. Good Times, lots of memeories.

Field Day 2009

What could be better then playing all day with your girls in beautiful 80 degree weather. Today was Northpoint's Field Day. The kids had a blast, and are a touch sunburned from the adventure. School's out next week and this is an annual tradition where all the kids from the school participate in all kinds of outdoor activities including...tri-cycle racing, tag, relay races, water games, etc.

Madeline's 3rd Grade Graduation

We went to 3rd Grade Graduation last night 5/20/09. Don't understand it really, she will be at the school 2 more years. Nevertheless, they worked hard on lots of songs and she did great. These are two of her friends, Hannah with the red hair and Alexis with the silly face. I will post some video next of her singing.

Well Madeline had her final meet of the season. She worked hard and managed a 1st place medal on bars, a 3rd on vault, 5th on floor and a 3rd place medal in the all-around.

Miss Tacy for Dinner 5/14/09

  Miss Tacy was in town this week for work-stuff. So the night beore she went back home to Florida, we had her over for dinner. She left Samson at home this trip, so the girls were sad, but happy to see Miss Tacy. We miss her living closer, to be able to see her more. She requested I make her favorite, so we had tonkatsu, yakisoba, rice, won tons, and for dessert lemon bundt cake with fresh berries and cream. We celebrated her birthday a little late. The girls each gave her a ceramic mushroom to put in her yard back home. They were so pretty. One was a bright red, turquoise, and mustard yellow. I guess I missed that photo-op. Looks like I just got a picture of the bag. Dang! The night went too quick as usual, but it was great to see her. Can't wait for her visit this summer. She was reminded by all three girls to bring Sammy (They miss Sammy can you tell?, He started out as our puppy the year we moved here, with a brand new little Meg, and a million feet of snow I was a little overloaded with life so Tacy took him for us and moved to Florida where she has spoiled him rotten, and loved him for us). We love you Tacy!!!

Madeline's Author Celebration 5/14/09

 

Madeline's 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. White agreed when I called Madeline "sassy" in the poem that I had to write when I went to her celebration yesterday. "A perfect description!", she said. Not sure how enjoyable it is to go to these things when I have to write a 17 part poem with no warning about a child who sits and stares at you while you do it! Geeze!!! But Mom made it through, and it ended up pretty good if I must say...

Little Seth

 

Yeah... He's here! Celeste finally had Seth on Tues. May 12! Seth is the cutest little thing. Not very tiny at 8lbs. 4 oz. but next to Sarah's Coleman he's just a little peanut. I was lucky enough to go to the hospital when Celeste was still in recovery, Tues. morning. I got to hold him and go with them to her room. Boy Mom and Dad were soooo tired, not to mention Mom still "loopy". I visited the next day as well and held Seth. Mom and Dad felt better that day, and were then ready to leave the hospital. Celeste and Seth went home yesterday on Thur. Not a very long stay for a C-Section but Celeste was in great need of peace and quiet (2 things you don't get much of on the Mother/Baby unit that's for sure). Apparently she thinks she will be able to get that at home with 4 other kids running around- Hah!

Gary's surprise BDay party 3/09

 

Couldn't pass up blogging Gary's 40th BDay. We surprised him by all being at Papa Vino's when he thought just his little family was going to dinner! Jana had a great cake for him and we all got a kick out of how the frosting made our teeth blue. Good times!

LASLEY GIRLS 3/09

 

They grow so fast... Morgan- 11 Madeline-9 Meg- 5

Mom's 60th B-Day Bash

 

Mom had a huge Birthday Bash for her 60th in Mar. of 2009. I know this is now May, but with just getting a handle on this blog thing I wanted to include it even though it is out of sequence. She told me it was more stressfull than planning my wedding and now I know why. She went to an awful lot of trouble. Tons of yard work to make the yard look just perfect. Hired a DJ, two piano soloists/singers. Had our good friend do flowers. A Friend made her a cake and put her picture on it. A company came and made taco's/buritos/quessadilla's to order. We all cooked for two days getting ready for the party. Grandma made homemade chocolates and a Margaret a friend put them all in individual boxes tied with bows for party favors. The list just went on and on... I was lucky enough to have a wonderful husband that flew me out for the special occasion while he stayed home and worked and took care of the girls. It was a very busy,fun and fast weekend. Grandma, Dean, LeeAnn, Linda G., Shirleen drove all the way from Idaho. Georgi my favorite cousin flew in from Kansas City. Aunt Diane, Tina, Mardi and Cortni flew in from Texas. We all missed cousin Kenea who couldn't come. It was so great to see so much family and even more friends from all over Calif. who came just for Mom.

Happy Spring!

     

Mother's Day 2009

 

Family, Friends, and Fun on Mother's Day. We were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with our good friends the Kennard's and Lee's. It all started with a good laugh watching Celeste wrap up Sarah in her new baby carrier-Sarah wasn't too sure about the logistics of it all. The weather did not really cooperate with us. The food was delicious! Chuck marinated tri-tip and cooked it on the grill. We had "dogs" for the kids not brave enough to try the tri-tip. Celeste's yummy pasta/chicken salad and my Grandma's potato salad, baked beans, rolls, and yummy desserts that Celeste and Sarah both brought.Oh and the best part- the Dad's did all of the clean-up, what a treat! One minute sunny, the next gloomy, then the clouds just opened up and poured! You can see some of the kids got stuck out on the play set trying to wait out the shower. The day was going great, with the kids playing and the grown-ups hangin out until we heard the big BASH! A baseball crashing into the slider door. Knowing that it had to be one of the Baseball-playing Kennard boys, I was calm going over to assess the damage . But low and behold it was our Morgan with the rocket arm that did it! It will certainly be a Mother's day to remember.

BYU Dancer's- May 8, 2009

 

We had so much fun hosting the BYU Dance Company in South Bend. Chuck was in charge of organizing the troop of 16 dancers. There show was amazing and so fun to watch at St. Mary's College here in town. Even more fun for our girls was watching there faces when the director announced which dancers would be coming home with us for the night- Michelle & Cami, there favorites from the performance! We got home after 11pm on Fri. and had a snack then got to bed, only to wake up a few hours later. Had a yummy breakfast then got them back to the bus to head to their next destination in Chicago. I hope we get to see them perform again some day!

Coleman's 1st trip to the mall

 

I'm just getting the hang of this whole "blogging thing". This was Coleman's first trip to the mall at about the 1-2 month mark. The other pictures were when Celeste and I went to see Sarah and Coleman at about the 1 week mark. So many friends having babies, hmmm.....