Lily 's first piano recital

 Yesterday was Lily's first piano recital.  She did a great job and played both of her recital pieces perfectly.  It was just her and Kade and Jaron McIntosh.  James Lear is her piano teacher.  They had the recital at the Lear's house which is really beautiful and overlooks Lake Tapps.

I thought it was funny that Kade and Jaron each played a primary song, but not Lily.  James tried to get her interested in a couple, but she wouldn't learn them.  It's really hard to get Lily to do something she's not interested in.  So she just played 2 Suzuki songs (Honeybee and Cuckoo). She really practiced hard to get her pieces just right.  I was so proud of her.

2nd funny thing...I thought it would be great to have warm apple crisp and ice cream afterwards.  James said the recital would be about 30 minutes ago I thought I'd be smart and cook the apple crisp at their house during the recital so it would be hot.  Well James was of on the time by about 20 minutes so the crisp has to keep cooking and people choose other desserts.  I had a ton left over. But on a good note, the house smelled delicious and like fall.

An Interview with Lily and Claire

For family night a while ago we interviewed our kids.  I think this would be fun to do once a year and see how their answers change over time.  We'll see if that happens though.  The interview was pretty funny!  We did an interview about Daddy too, but I can't seem to find it.

Lily's answers (5 years old)

1 - What is something Mommy always says to you?
     I love you
2 -What makes Mommy happy?
     That I do nice things for you, like clean up my room
3 - What makes Mommy sad?
     That I do wrong things
4 - How does Mommy make you laugh?
     That you do funny things for me
5 - What was Mommy like as a child?
     Cinderella
6 - How old is Mommy?
     40
7 - How tall is Mommy?
     10 feet tall
8 - What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
     Clean up the house
9 - What does Mommy do when you're not around?
     You make dinner
10- If Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
     Do what Daddy does
11 - What is Mommy really good at?
     Taking care of the house
12 - What is Mommy not very good at?
     Not doing all of the things that I would want
13 - What does Mommy do for her job?
     Cleaning up the house
14 - What is Mommy's favorite food?
     Fruit and smoothies
15 - What makes you proud of Mommy?
     Helping me clean up
16 - If Mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
     Cinderella
17 - What do you and Mommy do together?
     Making us happy
18 - How are you and Mommy the same?
     That we both have jeans
19 - How are you and Mommy different?
     That you have earrings and I don't
20 - How do you know Mommy loves you?
     That I do the right things
21 - Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
     To Disney World because its really sunny out


Claire's answers (3 years old)


1 - What is something Mommy always says to you?
     Don't eat Pete!  Stop with Lily
2 -What makes Mommy happy?
      A funny face
3 - What makes Mommy sad?
      Like that
4 - How does Mommy make you laugh?
     This word
5 - What was Mommy like as a child?
     A funny face
6 - How old is Mommy?
     4
7 - How tall is Mommy?
     As tall as my Lovie
8 - What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
     Boing
9 - What does Mommy do when you're not around?
     Running
10- If Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
     For ABC's
11 - What is Mommy really good at?
     ABC's
12 - What is Mommy not very good at?
      Like that
13 - What does Mommy do for her job?
     The lights
14 - What is Mommy's favorite food?
     Popcorn
15 - What makes you proud of Mommy?
     
16 - If Mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
     Minnie Mouse
17 - What do you and Mommy do together?
     YMCA
18 - How are you and Mommy the same?
     Pie pie dies (nonsense words)
19 - How are you and Mommy different?
     (nonsense)
20 - How do you know Mommy loves you?
     
21 - Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
     Disney World

Welcome Baby Dallin!

We welcomed baby Dallin into our family on November 30th at 2pm.  He broke my water and decided to come 10 days early!  He weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and is 20.5 inches long.  I have had the best c-section ever...turns out 3rd time really is a charm.

He is a good eater and a pretty calm baby.  He rarely cries, but saves it up to let out a real scream...like he's on Space Mountain or something.  :o)

His sisters can't hold him enough or look at him enough although I'm sure that will wear off someday and they'll be saying "tell him to stop looking at me!" or "Dallin won't stop touching me!".  Until then, I will enjoy this family peace.

Here are some photos of Dallin Jeffery Butler at the hospital.  He has lighter hair than the girls did and less of it overall (but more on his ears).  He has my nose and my toes (I'm so sorry for those toes, Dallin).

Claire's Birthday Party

Claire turned 3 in July, but since most of her friends were traveling over the summer, we postponed her birthday party until school started.  We had 6 little girls come, which was a good turnout.  The party was "ballet" themed.  Claire just started dance lessons and is really into it right now.

We started by coloring a picture of a ballerina.

Then we had a mini-ballet class with a "real" ballerina.  The ballerina was a young woman from our ward at church.  She taught them some ballet steps and had them practice the moves.

Lovely pointed toes!

Then we had birthday cake.  I made a rose cake that I saw on Pinterest and it turned out pretty good!  Claire had asked for this cake and I think she really liked it.  She managed to stick her finger in the frosting before I could take a picture or cut the cake.

After cake, I gave each of the girls a ribbon wand that I'd made for them.  They danced and really enjoyed those ribbon wands.  Fortunately no one hit anyone else.  I was a little nervous when I saw them whipping them around.  We also did freeze dance, ballerina may I? (like mother may I?), and ballerina says (like Simon says).

After the games it was time to open presents.  Claire really liked everything she got and was sure to tell each girl "thank you" and give them hugs.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Lily's First Day of School

Lily started Kindergarten on September 4th.  Her teacher is Mrs. Ridge and she goes half-time.  Here she is leaving the house on the first morning.  So sweet!

She really enjoyed her first day.  She really enjoyed music class and told me all about the different instruments they got to try out.  She loved recess and was happy to find Charlie (another boy in our neighborhood) to play with.  She said they have 3 recesses!

She enjoyed playing horses with the other kids in class during open play.  She said they used the rope from the letter bead lacing area to tie up their horses.  She told me her horse was hit by a train and broke all of its legs, but the daddy horse (who can fly, of course) came and saved her.  She said she talked to another girl and said, "Hi." to her and that the other girl said, "Hi" back.  Then they practiced sharing and saying thank you.

She was relieved that there were stools for the drinking fountains.  She learned that all the workers necklaces (lanyards with ID badge) and that they can help her.

She told me that she cried a couple of times during they day.  Once during lunch - she didn't know where to line up with her class and because she took too long to eat and had to throw away her chocolate pudding cup.  The second time when her teacher put her on the wrong bus to come home.

Fortunately, her teacher called me shortly after putting her on the wrong bus and told me that Lily really wanted to ride a different bus (her correct bus) but that she had a different bus listed from the school.  I told her teacher that Lily had been right and now was on the wrong bus, so she had me call the other school's office (the buses all go to the other elementary school to pick up more kids before they start their routes). I called and they tried to radio the bus Lily was on, but of course that bus' radio didn't work.  So they ran outside and got her off the wrong bus and brought her to the office so I could go and pick her up.  Lily was really worried that I wouldn't be able to find her...so that caused a few tears.  I got their super fast and picked her up and cracked some jokes to help her feel better.  The next bus ride won't be so traumatic.

She said that nobody called her a crybaby when she cried, they just tried to make it better.  That made me really happy to hear.

So...the first day was great, with a few hiccups, and I'm sure she's going to have a really fun year in kindergarten!

Tahlia's Chocolate Tour

Since we were really busy on my birthday, and I wanted an "experience" more than a particular gift, we went to Pike Place market over Labor Day weekend to do our own chocolate tasting tour.

Here were the stops:
Winco Grocery Store - we got chocolate donuts for our drive up to Seattle

Cupcake Royale - the Peppermint Party cupcake.

The Chocolate Box - an amazing, yet tiny, $3 truffle made locally with chocolate from France. Wow! They also gave us samples of sipping chocolate...I will be buying this super-rich hot chocolate every time I go to the market in cooler weather. I love hot chocolate and this was exceptionally good.

KuKuRuZa - Hawaiian Salted Carmel popcorn.  So sweet at first with a salty bite at the end.  Admittedly, this was not chocolate...we started straying into "food we wanted to try" instead of just "chocolate".

Pike Place Chowder - Totally worth the line.  We got a sampler of 4 chowders (listed in order of preference): Original Clam Chowder, Seafood Bisque, Smoked Salmon Chowder, and Mexican Chicken Chowder.  They were all amazing!  Plus it fed our family of 4 because they give you all the sourdough bread you want.

The Confectional - White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.  So rich and so good.
Dahlia Bakery - owned by a famous Seattle chef.  We tried the Truffle Cookie - voted best cookie in Seattle and it did not dissapoint - and the mini coconut cream pie.  Both were really good, but by this point we were having a really hard time finishing.  We had to save half the cookie for later...(later being the next morning for breakfast!).

After our food tour we went to see the Fremont Troll.  He lives under a bridge in the Ballard area.  Pretty crazy.  Here are the girls with the troll, and yes, he is holding a real VW Beetle.

It was a great time as a family and something we wouldn't normally do, which made it special.  The hard thing is now every time I go to the Pike Place Market I'm going to want to revisit these places!

Robin - Part 3

Well....the robin won.  :o(  She built her nest right on top of the spikes!  She seems to like them - added security, you know?  And she's been sitting on the nest ever since, which makes me believe she has at least one egg in there.  And once there are eggs in the nest, you're not allowed to mess with it because they are "protected".  Well, the mess hasn't been too bad.  And we just use her, kind of like a guard dog, to frighten potential criminals away.

It will be neat to see baby birds soon.  And THEN we can get rid of the nest!