Cinco de Mayo

Today is my SIL, Gamer's birthday, but we took advantage of the ease of getting the family together on a Sunday and celebrated it then. It was convenient that it was also Cinco de Mayo since that is one of the holidays we have always enjoyed.

I think I've told you before that I typically send my SIL to the Hispanic store to buy our annual pinata because he can speak fluent Spanish and he is Hispanic so they give him a better price. We got this huge Batman pinata for $17 and I'm sure they would have charged me at least $25.

I picked up some candy on Saturday when I was at Sam's Club as well as the rest of the fixins' I needed for chicken chimis. It is such an easy recipe and it feels pretty authentic. Bossy made bean dip and I stepped way outside the box and made a Tres Leches cake. (Really I just stole the recipe from Martha Stewart.) But it turned out pretty delicious and the kids raved about it. I would have eaten a second piece, but I knew how many calories it had in it so I decided to pass.

When my sister and I first started having babies, we had this game of giving the niece or nephew a really annoying gift, like a baseball or something that made irritating noises. When my sister stopped having babies, I took up this fun little game with Bossy. Things like hammers and anything with sirens and flashing lights...all of these make Bossy just roll her eyes at me.

Isn't he cute?

But this time I think I definitely won the game. We gave Gamer two pairs of genuine boxing gloves! The kids thought they were great! I'm not sure what Gamer thought. They spent half an hour or so slugging at each other, laughing and giggling. Then Drama Queen decided she wanted to play so they laced her into the gloves.

That's why I married him!

With her very first hit she knocked Sport to the ground and he started bawling. My sweetie was appalled. "You weren't really supposed to hit him!" he accused. "It's just a game, like acting." Drama Queen was very apologetic as she helped pack up the gloves to send to Bossy's house.

Fortunately there was no permanent damage done and before long Sport was outside playing with the kids. We had a great time with our combined Fiesta/birthday party.

All that violence...first the pinata, then the boxing gloves...it was almost like the reason Cinco de Mayo was honored in the first place, to celebrate the victory of a war...
or maybe a boxing match.

Princess's Gold Award

Remember way last summer when Princess did her two-week dance camp for kids? That was her project for her Girl Scout Gold Award. The Gold Award is kind of like the Eagle Scout for boys except in my humble opinion it's much harder since the Girl Scouts worry way more about sustainability.

Anyway, Princess finished up the project last fall and turned in all of her paperwork. Yesterday was the huge Recognition of Excellence luncheon for the 8 girls in the state of Utah who earned their Gold Awards this year.

I was so proud of Princess! She and I and Baby Doll were the first ones to head off for the Salt Lake Hilton downtown. Princess was supposed to wander about and be a good example for all the little Girl Scouts so they would wanted to be like her when they grow up.

Drama Queen took Scout to her softball game in Riverton and then they drove to the Hilton. The Drama Queen was also receiving her 5-year leader pin although they didn't even mention any of their names, so that was kind of silly but she did get her meal and Scout's meal free, so I guess that's OK. .

The boys all went to the Scout-O-Rama with Bossy which was fine by me because we would have had to pay for their meals at $30 each. All 8 of us got into the Luncheon for free because each award recipient got to take one guest with them.

My sweetie took Prima Donna and Crafty to Lagoon for their dance competition and then they were supposed to join us downtown because the two of them were also getting awards. Crafty had earned her Bronze Award, and Prima Donna was receiving her 10-year girl pin. Unfortunately, they got stuck and didn't get to the hotel in time to be honored for their own awards and they missed seeing Princess get hers by about 5 minutes.


We had an awesome server at our table and he kindly held their meals so at least they were able to eat the delicious food.We had chicken as the entree and Baby Doll was terribly insistent on cutting her own even though she had never handled a knife and fork that way before. I was surprised how good she was at it given that it was her first time. She let me help her a little until suddenly she shouted, "I do it myself!" I was very grateful it was during a video with loud music instead of during the CEO's speech.

When Princess went in for her interview, they made a bunch of video about her project and we got to watch that on the big screen. She is so poised and together even knowing that she is speaking before a group of about 300 - 400 people. She was called up on stage and they presented her with several certificates including one from the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Utah. She also received a beautiful gold pin and a bouquet of flowers. I think she was most excited about the flowers.

I love the scouting programs! They are such a good way to teach kids about many different subjects and to help them learn about leadership and friendship. And maybe how to cut a piece of chicken with a knife and fork...even when you are only 2. Now that's sustainability!

Once Upon a Mattress

Prima Donna has been extremely busy the last few weeks and part of the reason for that has been the play she is doing for her theater class. They had auditions a couple of months ago and while she was hoping to get a major part, she knew her dance and band schedules would probably keep that from happening.

The play was Once Upon A Mattress which is a derivative of Princess and the Pea, and the part she wanted was the queen although she loved the music for the female lead as well. The biggest problem with the lead part is the fact that the Prima Donna is now 5'10" and since she is still in middle school, few of the boys are even close to that.

She was selected as the understudy for the queen, but her main roles was part of the ensemble or a lady-in-waiting. She has been singing the songs non-stop around here (except when she has been singing the songs from Les Mis...)  Sadly, she only got to play the part of the queen one day when her friend was absent.

There were actually three performances, one for the school and two for the parents. We attended on Wednesday night because it was easier with the ballgame schedule. Prima Donna did an excellent job! She is a born actress and could likely go far in that area if she wanted to put in the time. She is taking theater next year so we will see if it is something that will hold her interest.

Prima Donna is in the blue dress.

Always acting...

We took a bunch of pictures for you, but they are a little dark since they wouldn't let us use the flash. The bed had 20 mattresses on it! Crafty counted them. (Too bad my sweetie had put away the camera by the time they got it out.) Our favorite part was at the end when the ladies-in-waiting and the knights pulled out all the rocks, boxes, logs, and a huge "dinosaur" bone from beneath the mattresses.

No wonder that poor girl couldn't sleep!

Name Change

I might just have to change a blog name...

Burrito

Since the elementary kids were all still off track, I decided I'd better get their hair cut. Some of them were getting pretty shaggy. My favorite place to go is Supercuts training studio because I can get a professional cut there for free. We have been doing that for at least a dozen years now. Supercuts retrains everyone who works there no matter how long they have been cutting hair. But that means they need models and lots of them.

Crafty and Scout

So I took 7 kids under the age of 12 and me to get our hair cut. I admit it was a little crazy. Even worse than taking them all to the dentist since I wanted to get my hair cut too. I went first so Kay could watch the kids before they got really naughty. We brought cars and toys to keep them occupied, but I still had have someone settle them down more than once.

Sport

Burrito and Curly were the first kids to be cut. I wasn't paying much attention to Curly and when the stylist asked me I just told her to give him a cute boy haircut. When she was finished I barely recognized him! When I teased him a little about that he said, "Mom. But you still recognize my face!" And he was right. I still knew his sweet little face. It was his hair I didn't recognize...the curls were totally gone!

Crafty couldn't make a decision on hers so I told her to just have it cut like mine. And Scout was so certain about her cut that she chose it out of a book and took it back to show the stylist before they began. Baby Doll didn't get her hair cut. Hers just grows so slowly that I didn't want to take the chance...

All in all we came out pretty good, I think.

Except Curly might just have to change his name to Fuzzy.

Who is that kid?

Taco

Curly