The Randalls

You read the title right.  Calista has decide that she’s no longer a dancer.  She’s a gymnast.  Or a pianist.  Or a horse trainer.  She hasn’t quite decided yet what her next adventure will be.  All she knows is that she is done with dance.  I’m actually kind of sad.  She was a great dancer and caught on quickly.  But, since it’s her and not me, dance is no more.  I guess I should be grateful.  The next step for her would have been competition dance which would have been way more time consuming and a bigger commitment.   Not to mention a whole lot more outfits to buy. 

This year’s Spring recital theme was H2O and Calista’s class danced to “Waterloo”.  Who doesn’t love ABBA?  I still have the song stuck in my head and it’s been over a month ago since her recital.  All those Tuesday nights of sitting on the couch reading a book while hearing Waterloo play in the background kind of sticks with you.

Poor kid had to wait the entire recital until it was her turn.  Her class danced the very last song. 

There’s the little star on the right, kneeling down. 

Look at that form!

Had to get some action shots after the recital as well. 

There are two things this kid loves.  Balloons and flowers.  Her future husband is going to go broke.  Anyway.  She loves getting flowers after recitals.  See that happy face?

The era of dance is now over for Calista, but just starting for Piper.  Piper has chosen to start dance in September.  Should be fun!

Clear back in May we finally deemed our family ready for a hike.  Meaning, all of us together.  Mark’s been hiking with Téa before and Mark and I did Mount Timpanogos two years ago but we’ve never gone as a family.  We started out with an easy hike that Piper could manage. 

The girls were excited to go.  They thought they were cool with their new walking sticks Mark found in China.  They have cool features like a compass (that may or may not point you in the right direction), a flashlight and a handy dandy wrist strap. 

Off we go!

The girls insisted on pictures along the way.  I couldn’t say no.

Téa had to show off to her sisters that she could cross the water on the log.

Calista doing her thing.

Don’t ask me how Piper made it up farther than her older sisters.  Getting her down from up there was fun, let me tell you.

Finally made it to the waterfall.

Indiana Jones was there too.  Oh, wait that’s Mark.

This is the face I got when I told Piper to smile.  Awesome.

Mark, then had to show Téa up on the log climbing thing.

We had a great time.  Things were going great until Piper decided to throw a huge rock at Téa’s leg.  Thankfully no lasting damage was done.  Mark took Piper straight back to the car to teach her a lesson.  I have no idea what that entailed.  Téa, Calista and I headed back at a more leisurely pace.  No one fell in the stream, scraped a knee, or fell over a cliff.  I’ll count the whole outing a success.

For months Calista’s nightly prayers have included the phrase “and please let the days go by quickly”.  This kid has been looking forward to turning 8 for a long time.  She is so excited to get baptized. Unfortunately she has to wait almost a month.  She missed the July baptisms by only 3 days. 

We had to wake up Piper at 8 am this morning so Calista could open her gifts.  I think yesterday’s festivities wore Piper out.

Calista was super happy with her gifts. 

Today was the girls first day of swim lessons.  I haven’t done them for two years because I wasn’t happy with our city’s lessons.  You can’t even get in half the time, they fill up so fast.  We tried American Fork this year and I’m super glad I did.  Each class has only 5 kids and Piper’s even has two instructors. 

After lessons it was a mad dash back home to get everything ready for Calista’s party.  She chose a rainbow theme.  Here’s my attempt at rainbow cupcakes.  The sour straws were too fresh and just slumped to one side.  Téa tried her hardest to get them to stay upright. 

Calista really wanted to make stuff at her party.  So it turned out to be kind of a craft/rainbow party.  We made washer necklaces and tissue paper flower pens.  I think the necklaces were the favorite.  What girl doesn’t love using nail polish!

The girls played pin-the-cloud-on-the-rainbow.  Who knew that was another all-time favorite party game?  Here are the crazies.  These were their most crazy faces.

For her birthday dinner Calista chose Subway.  She is in love with their Italian BMT sandwich.  It’s one of my favorites too. 

After dinner we headed home and had time to put together her birthday present.  She has been wanting a desk for so long and she finally got it.  I love Ikea furniture.  It goes well in her lime green bedroom. 

And one more cupcake didn’t hurt anyone…

I think Calista was secretly wishing for contacts for her birthday.  She never came out and said it but she asked me a lot about how old she had to be to start wearing them.  I wish she could have started yesterday but we probably should wait a little while longer. 

Mark took the day off work so we were able to spend the whole day together as a family.  It was busy but successful.  We love this little munchkin.  Calista is a mellow, easy-going kind of kid.  I’m still waiting for the attitude that comes with this age but it hasn’t manifested itself.  By this age Téa was in full swing.  We love her laugh, which we hear so often and her little dimples still show up every time she smiles.  The best part about this birthday, according to Calista is that it is her golden birthday.  Happy 8th birthday kid! 

This little firecracker turned 5 today.

Since her birthday was on a Sunday we had her friend party yesterday.  She chose a luau theme which turned out to be awesome.  We all had so much fun at the party.  It turned out to be one of those parties that went really smoothly and the allotted time was perfect. 

The nice thing about having a summer birthday is the luau party supply selection at the Dollar Store.  I was able to find grass skirts and cool water bottles. 

Mark made a Hawaiian playlist on the iTouch so we could really get in the mood during the shindig.  As Piper’s friends arrived  Téa, Calista and Mark helped to size down their hula skirts (the Dollar Store only had adult sizes). Then Téa and Calista taught the girls a few hula dances.  I was totally impressed with how well these girls moved! 

Once they mastered their hula skills we moved on to making leis.  Good ol’ Pinterest helped me on this one.  I thought it’d be more fun to have the girls make leis instead of buying them.  That way the girls were able to get their craft on!  My awesome friend Jonie offered to cut the flowers on her Silhouette machine.  They turned out perfect!

Here are all the hula beauties! 

Last minute I decided we needed to add a game of pin-the-flower-on-the-hula-girl.  So glad I did.  Piper said it was her favorite part of the party.  I’d like to think it was my mad artist skills that made it awesome.  Here’s how they did.  Not too bad for a group of 5 year olds.

After ‘decorating’ the hula girl it was time for presents and cake. 

Here’s my attempt at a hula girl cake.

The girls gorged themselves on cake and ice cream (all at 11:00 am).  I like being the one to send the kids home on a sugar high that early in the day.  The last game of the party was musical chairs.  There are some party games that just never get old. 

I have to give a big shout out to Téa and Calista.  This party would not have gone as great as it did without them.  Téa cut like 70 straws for the leis the night before.  Calista helped the kids make their leis.  And both girls were awesome helpers with everything. 

When Piper woke up this morning she headed straight for the gifts. 

I have to admit I like Sunday birthdays.  They are mellow and low key.  And we just get to hang out as a family.  We went to church where Piper got up for the first time and bore her testimony.  I’ll admit I was misty eyed.  After church Piper brought me a tray of leftover cupcakes.  Her awesome Primary teachers made cupcakes for the class to celebrate her birthday.  Her teachers even gave her a giant sized coloring book and a sweet little card.  It made her feel super special.  And it made me appreciate how much Piper’s Primary teachers do to teach those little ones, which is not easy!

We ended the day with yet another cupcake just so we could sing ‘happy birthday’ to Piper. 

We love this kid.  I know I’ve said it before but she gives us a run for our money…a lot…ok, most of the time. But she adds so much to our family.  She is head strong and knows what she wants which is not always easy to handle in a little kid.  Those traits will be great when she is all grown up.  So until then I will just have that constant feeling like I’m beating my head against a brick wall.  Happy birthday Pippen!

I love this holiday.  What could be better than waking up at 4:30 a.m. and not going to bed until 12:30 a.m. the next day?  The Freedom Run is my favorite race I do each year.  It’s so crowded but it’s so much fun running along the parade route. 

This year I couldn’t convince any family to run with me so I ran with my friend Lisa, her daughter, sister-in-law, and her mom. I feel freakishly tall in this picture.

Turns out all my worries about not preparing enough for this race were for nothing.  I was able to run my fastest race time ever this year!  My time was 27:13.  What surprised me the most was that I placed 13 in my age group of women between 30-34.  Not too shabby for a thirty-something mom of three.  I pretty much floated on that adrenaline the rest of the day. 

Josh saved us spots for the parade this year .  Way to take one for the team!  I love that all the cousins still love to watch the parade.  Here’s most of the gang.

Markee and me.  Isn’t she so cute?  I made her sit on my lap to remind her that 13 years ago today she sat in my lap the entire parade just talking my ear off, and I had just met her. 

This picture was taken when everyone was just sitting around waiting for the parade to start.  We have to get there pretty early to stake our claim on the blankets but man, the wait is killer in the sun.

This year some of the parade people were smart.  They gave out great stuff.  Piper scored a fireman hat and almost all the kids got a stick of sidewalk chalk.  Brilliant!  I think next year I should add chalk to my list of things to bring to the parade.

Proof that both Mark and I were there together.  I find that it’s either Mark or me who take pictures and then we find we have no pictures with us together.

Téa found a comfy spot to lounge.

Nicolas has his mischievous face on.

After the parade it was home to get ready for the BBQ (and a much needed shower for me).  Mark got to try out his new creation.  The triple-threat rocket launcher. 

Marin got to try out her Gandalf rocket.  It was awesome.

After filling our bellies we headed to Thanksgiving Point to stake our claim at the perfect spot for playing and waiting for fireworks. 

Tamsyn took this picture of Piper.  Piper has finally learned how to wear her bow.  She forgot to bring her arrows, though.

We tried playing Rage…in the wind…as it got dark.  Didn’t work so well.  I blame those conditions on my score. 

The fireworks didn’t disappoint.  Piper stayed awake through the entire show this year.  She even stayed awake for the traditional game of Werewolves while the parking lot emptied out.  I’m so glad for the traditions we’ve started with family on this holiday.  I’m grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in our country.  Mark travels a lot to China and he comes home and always mentions how blessed we are to live in the United States.  I concur.