Best day EVER!

The stars must have been aligned this week, and I still can't believe it really happened. I got to spend the day at Disneyland with two of my brothers, one of my sisters-in-law and none of my kids! Don't get me wrong I LOVE going to Disneyland with my kids, but going with just adults is a lot of fun too! No stroller, no diaper bag, it was great! I had such a fun time going on all the big rides! Here we are waiting in line at Star Tours.


This is what happens when Kristy and I left the boys alone for a few minutes in the giant Lego store in Downtown Disney. (Toad is Logan's nickname)



Us Holman's have weak stomachs and none of us wanted to go on the Teacups with Kristy. Josh and I can't even watch them we have to turn our backs when they are going! Poor Kristy had to go as a Single Rider(TM).


Logan finally braved the teacups so Kristy didn't have to be a Single Rider(TM).

Fifth grade band concert

This week we got to attend Sam's final band concert of the year. She has enjoyed playing the clarinet this year, but won't be continuing on in Middle school. She decided that having to practice two instruments with everything else we have going on is just too much. Their concert was quite enjoyable. I'm not sure if it was the music being played or the fact that Amanda stayed home with Connor and Mads, so that Shaun and I could just sit there and listen!


Sam and her best friend Shay fake playing their clarinets.


Sam and her other best friend Kinley.


The three amigos. Sam with her two best friends. Kinley decided to break up the trio by playing the violin and not the clarinet. No worries, their friendship survived!


The girls fake playing and Sam narrowly escaping getting bowed in the eye!

Utah- Land of Contrast

Being a fifth grader, Sam is studying the United States. For an end of the year project each student had to pick a state, other than California, to research and do a project and report on. It was very easy for Sam to decide which state to do hers on, Utah. We got the report written and for the project we decided to use her postcard collection to create a poster. Her Holman grandparents send my kids postcards every time they go on a trip, no matter how close or how far they go. This means that Sam has received postcards from about every town and city in Utah. We created a poster with the postcards, that was essentially a map of Utah. Then Sam filled in any blank spots with pictures of the state tree (blue spruce), the state insect(bee), and the state flower(sego lilly). I think it turned out great!


For an extra special treat for Sam's class we made these Utah cookies. I happened to have a Utah shaped cookie cutter and then Sam made little yellow chocolate bee's, since Utah is "The Beehive State", to put on the cookies.

A quick trip to Utah

My grandpa Holman passed away a couple of weeks ago so the girls and I headed up to Utah to attend his funeral. Shaun and Connor had father-sons camp out and t-ball games so they stayed home. We had the first annual Holman brother mile race while we were up there. Unfortunately Matt couldn't be there and Ty is actually a runner and didn't want to embarrass his much younger and more out of shape brothers so he opted out. I didn't even run and my side hurt by the end, I think I laughed a lot! It was pretty funny, but they both finished their mile with respectable times.


We drove up to the cemetery in Logan on the Monday following the funeral. They had a very nice service for my grandpa up there. Here's Josh entertaining Grandma.


My handsome pall bear brothers. Just wish Matt could have been there. He's always fun!

Country Fair

This week was our school's annual country fair. I spent the night putting in my time working at booths and Amanda, now the big middle schooler, even worked at a booth. Shaun took the kids around and the the biggest hit of the night, for my kids, was the face painting. Here's Sam sporting her body art.


I'm not sure what this is called that Connor got painted on his face. Maybe a superhero, or more than likely a villain, knowing Connor. It could also be a Mexican professional wrestler for all I know. All I know is Connor LOVED it and even more loved the attention he got walking around the fair looking like a small freak! He was also pretty excited about winning these cupcakes at the cake walk, and this big purple playground ball!


Madison, of course, got the princess face painting. No surprise there!

YAP

With the end of the school year looming, our calendar is overflowing with end of the year programs, recognition nights, and all sorts of concerts and recitals. I love it but it can get a little overwhelming at times! One of those events is YAP night at our elementary school. YAP stands for "Young Authors Project". All year the kids work on writing, illustrating and even making the cover to their own book. This year Connor's was a collection of short story's. They were adorable!


Sam and her friend Payton showing off their poetry books. And yes, Payton is only a fourth grader and about a foot taller than Sam!

Biz Town

Sam got to go on one of the funnest field trips ever a few weeks ago. It was to place called Biz Town. I wasn't able to go, but Shaun got to go with her and he filled me in. Apparently it is a big two story building set up like a city, with businesses from all over San Diego. There were banks, a newspaper, UPS, Jack in the Box, Best Buy and even Sea World! There were a lot more, but these are just the ones I remember. The kids got to go spend the day working at these businesses. There was a lot of preparation going into this and the kids took it VERY seriously! Weeks before the field trip they all had to fill out job applications and apply for three different jobs. Then right before people came in and interviewed them for a position. Sam wanted to do something with the newspaper. She ended up getting CEO/CFO of the city newspaper. She was very excited! The parents that went got to "work" at the businesses also, and Shaun got to work at Best Buy. They worked all day and even got a paycheck at the end of the day that they could spend at some of the businesses. Sam, being a CEO, got $9.00 and hour, versus a regular employee that got $7.00 and hour. She was loving that! At the end of the day they handed out awards to some of the kids and Sam got the "Dressed for Success" award. Well deserved considering the amount of time that went into her picking out a hair do, a dress to wear and even an appropriate nail polish color! She had so much fun and I'm sure glad Shaun got to be there with her to share in her excitement!

Cheese Ball Shame

I bought these at Costco yesterday and I'm not ashamed. Well, maybe a little. I mean, who buys a bucket of cheese balls that is almost the size of their youngest child?! But I couldn't help myself. Funny thing is, I don't even like them.

Mother's Day

This year in Nursery the kiddos made these cute butterfly/hand print magnets for their mom's for mothers day. My mom had bought me this kit at Pebbles In My Pocket for Madison to do. I just made up a bunch for the Nursery kids and had a cute Mother's day craft for them to do. Of course all they did was sit still for about 20 seconds while I traced hands. I pretty much had to do all the rest except for a few of the older kids put their own polka-dots on!


Here's a close up of the poem that I found online to go with the magnets.


I made my favorite caramel chocolate rice crispy treats for some of my mommy friends. Amanda and I went out at about 10:00 Saturday night and put them by their front door so that they would have a yummy treat waiting for them first thing Sunday morning. They are a repeat of a treat I've made before, but believe me, they're worth repeating. None of my friends complained! Check out thispicture of them, and here is how you make them:

Make a double batch of rice crispy treats and press into a 13X9 pan. Melt caramel (I used about 1/2 lb. that I bought at a baking supply store, make your own, or unwrap a lot of those little Kraft caramels!)and pour over the top, covering the entire surface. Let that set up then cut into squares. I cut one 13X9 pan into 12 squares. They're quite big, but trust me, as soon as you bit into one you'll wish it was bigger! Then dip in molding chocolate and set on parchment or wax paper, caramel side down, to dry.

Softball

Softball season has come to an end in the Young family. Both girls had such great experiences this year. Amanda's team, Squeeze Play, was not the most winningest team in her division, but she had so much fun this year. Her coaches were a lot of fun and she was good friends with a bunch of the girls on her team , making it her funnest season she's ever played! She got to play a lot of first base this year which she really enjoyed. She also received a Scholar Athlete Award at the closing ceremonies which came with a $50 Savings Bond! Way to go Meem!


Amanda's last team meeting of the season.


Sam's team, the Bruisers, had a great season. They went undefeated until the last game of the regular season. They then went on to redeem themselves by beating that team in the playoffs and winning the championship of their division. During the championship game our pitcher got hit in the hand and so Sam had to go in and pitch. She is not normally a pitcher, but she did great! Especially considering it was the championship game and everybody had started to arrive for closing ceremonies, she had to do it in front of a couple of hundred people! The umpire came up to her after the game and gave her the game ball for doing so great! Shaun was able to help coach Sam's team this year and they were both very excited to win!



Being crazy!


The champions partying, with Connor and Mads right in the middle of it!

A birthday dinner

My brother Matt (the most thoughtful of my parent's children) sent my dad some Omaha steaks for his birthday so that he could have one last bar-b-que in his back yard. Dad grilled them up and we had an early birthday dinner for my dad. BTW-the steaks were delicious!


I included these pictures from my dads birthday dinner because they have my grandpa in them. Just days after this my sweet grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and his health is rapidly declining. This will be the last family dinner we have with grandpa and I just wanted to remember him being there.

Treasures

For those of you that don't know, when my parent's sold their home they turned around and bought my grandparent's home. My grandparent's home has an apartment in the basement which my parents cleaned out and renovated to live in while my grandparents live upstairs. My grandparents were getting to where they needed round the clock care and rather than move them to a nursing home my parents decided to move in and help them. While we were in Utah we spent a lot of time cleaning out the basement and moving stuff. One morning while I went to get my hair done the big kids helped my mom clean out some stuff so that my mom could paint and they could get the new carpet laid. This was Mads station while they worked.



In cleaning out we inherited quite a few treasures. An intercom system that my kids have enjoyed, and this chair back massager. Everyone enjoyed this especially Mads!

Crazy cousins

While in Utah we were able to attend Shaun's grandpa Young's viewing and funeral. It was sad because we all loved grandpa so much, but it was good to know he was now no longer ill and that he was reunited with grandma. The upside to all of this is that ALL of Shaun's siblings with spouses and children were there. This just doesn't happen very often, even though it is so much fun when it does! This crazy group of cousins has so much fun together! Sam took a few pictures of all the cousins at the viewing. I wish we had gotten more and some of all of Dell and Vicki's kids together, but we all know why I didn't...and his name is Shaun. I thought this was a cute picture of the little girls!


The girls.


The boys.


The whole gang!

One woman kitchen

Since we knew this would be our last visit to this house the girls and I went around the house and took a bunch of pictures of it. We snapped this one and I had to post it. Of course mom was in the kitchen , or as she calls it her "one woman kitchen". Every time anyone would try to help her in any way in the kitchen she would always tell us that she didn't need any help and that her kitchen was so small it was meant to be a one woman kitchen. We always took that explanation with no argument. It sort of stinks that her new house has a bigger, nicer kitchen. Does that mean we're actually going to have to help mom in the kitchen?


We also went out and took pictures on this little bench in front of my mom and dad's house. Many a picture of my kids has been taken on this bench.

A house sold

My parents recently moved out of the home they have lived in for over 20 years. It was nice to go home during Spring Break, just before they moved to spend a few more days in their home. This is what happens when you are moving and mention to a couple of your sons that you might be getting rid of your family room furniture before you move. They get rid of it for you. And by get rid of it I mean sell it on Craig's list and pocket the money.


We had to resort to playing the Wii on lawn chairs!


And this is what happens when you have a crazy uncle Josh.

Easter dinner

Our spring break was the week after Easter and so the kids and I were planning on heading to Utah to spend some time with our family. Sadly, Shaun's grandfather passed away just a few days before we left so Shaun joined us for the trip to come to the funeral. We spent Easter Sunday in the car, but this is what greeted us when we got to my mom's house. A yummy smelling Easter dinner and a beautifully set table!


A close up. How cute are these bunny boxes! I still have mine, minus the yummy chocolate that was inside!


Dad whipping up a batch of his delicious cheese potatoes!

The hunt

Looking at other people's blogs I see their kids out hunting for Easter eggs in their cute sun dresses and polo shirts and khakis. Well, not at this house! Everyone is so excited to get up and hunt that anything goes. Example #1,Connor in his mismatched PJ's.


Mads sporting her sister old tap shoes and awesome bed hair.
Happy Easter!