Our Little Leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I love celebrating this holiday!!! As does my husband. Yeah, right. At least Chris wore green this year, endured green sour cream on his baked potato and even wore Leila's leprechaun decorations for picture. Progress.

Leila made the leprechaun beard at Sandy's house this week. Adorable. The "Rudolph antlers", as she calls them, were a gift from my Mom's co-worker. Too cute!

It was actually warm enough today to pull out some of the yard toys and spend some time outside.

Our "St. Patrick's Day ice cream" dessert... mint-chocolate chip. Mmmm...

Last night after dinner, I made these special rainbow cupcakes. Thanks Family Fun magazine for the inspiration. Average looking cupcake on the outside....

...but not average on the inside! Mine didn't turn out exactly like the photo in the magazine, but lots of fun and they still tasted great!

Our reluctant leprechaun of the household. Should I remind him that he IS Irish??!!??

Winter Olympics Keepsakes

My Mom's co-worker's son, Zach, was lucky enough to go to the Olympics! While he was there, he picked up some keepsakes for Leila and my classroom. Leila loves her new flannel bathrobe and slipper set. Thanks Zach! It has the three Olympic cartoon mascots on the slippers and the robe. What a keepsake!

Sweet Treats

The girls (Gramma, Leila and me) had a great time this morning decorating sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. Gramma did all the hard work last night and arrived this morning with LOTS of naked sugar cookies. Leila insisted on wearing her chef hat and really got into the act. What a fun morning....especially since it ended with a taste test!

The "cookie boss"...

How many M&Ms fit on one cookie?

Notice L's tongue!

Happy Valentine's Day!

National Board Certified!

After a year of writing essays, documenting instruction, video-taping lessons, reflecting on his teaching and passing an assessment, Chris is a National Board Certified Teacher! Yahoo!!!! Last Monday, he was recognized at the school board meeting. Each of the recipients were given flowers, had their pictures taken for posting in the school district's central office and given a fancy new name badge (no, Chris is not LDS although he looks it in this picture). Chris is now certified to teach in any state across the country! Wow! Great work, Babe!!!

Chris and the superintendent, Dr. Apostle.

Congrats from the school board members.

Leila's favorite part of the night was Daddy's flower...

We are so proud of you!

Oh, and did I mention that he gets a bonus! Yeah!

Mackenzie's Mountaintop Birthday!

Leila's friend, Mackenzie, turned 3 this last week. All Kenzie wanted was a birthday with snow, so we were invited to Paradise, Mt. Rainier for a Saturday of fun in the snow. It could not have been a more BEAUTIFUL day! The sun was shining and the road to the mountain was clear. Leila played in last year's snow in our yard, but didn't go sledding much since all we had was a kiddie swimming pool that didn't slide too well (although we sure tried!).

She was very excited...until we got to the top of the sled run. Oh my! I was worried that maybe we had made the trek for 10 minutes of tears and a return trip home. She was having a melt down! Being the sensitive parents that we are, I loaded her on the sled with Chris and gave them a shove. The first run she got snow in her face, which made things worse. After 2 more runs she figured out that she could throw snowballs at the people waiting at the bottom. This delighted her! She LOVED it! Whew!

Dad and Leila - after she got the hang of it!

Grammy and Leila...going down sideways.

The birthday girl - Mackenzie!

Snowball in hand....headed for Mommy at the bottom.

Eventually, Leila wanted to try it all by "ME-self!".

Tossing snowballs at Grammy.

Lunch break! We ate our lunches in the new visitor center and then enjoyed some of Kenzie's b-day cake. Watch out! Those benches are slippery!!

A little more snow before heading home. The air was colder after lunch and the sun went away.

I think we can say that Leila enjoyed herself!!! It was a great Saturday. We all slept wonderfully that night!

Princess Breakfast

Leila is well-rounded. She can be the girliest of girls at moments and then turn right around and pull out her Hot Wheels. I LOVE this about her! She dances around the house in her tutu and crown during the day and then informs us each night that she is gonna be a hockey player when she grows up...a goalie no less. This weekend we took Leila to a princess breakfast in Bonney Lake and boy was she thrilled to pull out ALL her girly-girl gowns, jewelry and tiaras. No hockey sticks today! Of course, Leila chose her Cinderella gown to wear to the ball, as that is her favorite princess. We sat at Cinderella's table (they let you choose between four princesses). We had a great time!

We met up with Leila's second cousin, Chassidee. Auntie Lynn, Gramma and Papa were also there.

Princess Aurora and Miss Leila.

Visiting with Ariel.
"Mine favorite!"
Riley, Leila and Chassidee.
Leila ALMOST went over the back here!

Sleeping Beauty chose Leila out of all the little princesses there to be her dance partner. Oh my! The look on Leila's face was priceless....pure JOY!

Explaining the steps...

The funny part of this was watching the parents "dance" around with our cameras trying to get the perfect shot!
Singing the "Heart Song" (A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes) as L calls it. She has known this song since she was about a year and a half. There was a time when we sang it many times every night before bed. Special memories!
Each princess sang a few songs from her movie.
Gramma and the Cinderellas.
Daddy and the girls.

Posing with the princesses. I love that Leila is staring at Jasmine.

One more photo with Cinderella before leaving. On a side note, the young lady that is playing Cinderella here is a former drama student of Chris's. Luckily, Leila thought she was the real deal!

Randomness

In looking over our photos, I realized there are several single shots here and there that are pretty cute and probably should be posted. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to this posting except to share the adorable Miss Deeda in all her wackiness. Enjoy!

Sporting her new Eskimo hood that she made at daycare. The kids are learning about the Arctic.

"What a feeling!" She costumed herself.
Quite the princess outfit...
We spent some time over Christmas vacation babysitting a few friends.

Tevyn and Leila sharing some books.
Different day: Kenzie and Leila make some silly princesses.

A new dress from one of Daddy's students. Didn't want to try it on, but once she did we couldn't get it off of her.

To Neverland!