*christine's wedding*

What a beeeeauuttifulll day.

It is always lovely to be in attendance at a sealing and hear the promises that you made at your own sealing. And to hear some good advice to boot.

My cousin Christine was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. She is originally from Michigan and so with the wedding came a slew of my dear family members who I don't get to see very often.

It is always a delightful reunion.

My cute grandmother also was there for the festivities. She really has such a fun relationship with the boys and is so darling with them. I am so glad she was able to make the trip.

There was also some fun family time with those that we see quite often. I love my family!

Introducing the happy couple. Christine and Paul.

Liam was kept quite entertained by contorting Dave's facial features into different configurations. It didn't hurt that his contageous giggle was going in full force either.

Then Luke took over the camera. He got some pretty interesting pictures. The ones of his shadow self portrait and the leaning church office building are my favorites.

Congratulations Christine and Paul. Thank you for an unforgettable day.

*lovely, perfect day*

Due to Parent Teacher conference the boys had a long weekend. The boys always try to finagle a movie out of me or a trip to the rec center when this type of thing occurs, but the weather was unseasonably warm and absolutely delightful so I suggested a day at the park flying the new kites they received for Christmas.

My plan was unanimously received in the affirmative.

We went to Galena Park in Draper. It is a fabulous park with a large field, a skate park, a playground, and an area full of basketball hoops. Something for everyone.

Kite flying didn't start out too well. The three older boys had "manly" kites and Liam was very disappointed that his was a butterfly. He refused to use it for a while. The other boys' kites took so much effort to get up in the air only to come crashing down seconds later. Suddenly Liam was pleased as punch since his was the only one that would fly, and with minimal assistance. He was absolutely estatic when we were able to unravel the entire spool of string and watch his butterfly dance in the sky. He just sat crosslegged on the ground holding his kite and watched it soar with a huge grin on his face.

He wasn't shy about rubbing it in his brothers' faces either. "I used to be sad that I have a butterfly kite but now I love it because it is the only one that works."

We did have fun trying to coax the other kites to fly though.

However, the fun did wear off for those whose kites did not perform. So, they amused themselves with the other activities around the park.

Even Liam indulged. A funny thing happened while I was hanging out on the bench watching the boys at the skate park. A mom was there getting ready to leave and she was rounding up her boys to go home and she called out the name Nick. We chatted a little about how we loved coming early to the skate park so the little kids could play without worrying about the teenagers taking over. Then she called out to her oldest boy, whose name was Nick. I commented that my oldest was a Nick as well and then settled in a little bit to read my book and got to reading until she said to her youngest boy "Okay, Andrew, grab your scooter and we will go get in the car." I whipped my head around and said "that is so funny, I also have an Andrew." We got to talking about how many boys we had and how she has three and she asked me what my other boys names were and when I mentioned I had a Luke, she started laughing saying that was the name of her third boy! What are the odds? But now she knows what to name her fourth boy, if she has one.

We played hard for hours and then decided we were hungry. We went to Wendy's and ate hamburgers.

After we were done eating, Luke spied this little shop and said "And now we will go get a treat." I thought it was a fantastic idea.

All they wanted was a fancy sucker. So as I was paying for our treats the boys found a bench to sit on. I came out and commented how cute they looked and how I needed a picture. Andrew said: "See, I told you she would say that!" and they humoured me with this darling photo.

Then it was cello lessons and baseball practice. Liam brought his kite out again and went into his happy place.

I then joined my sister and my girl cousins for dinner in honor of my darling cousin Christine's wedding the next day. We went to Red Rock and ate the most succulent veggie pizza I have ever had. I have craved it ever since.

Then back to my parent's house for games with everyone. We had a few rounds of the bowl game and then played Mad Gab and laughed until our sides hurt.

I dare say that this day was practically perfect in every way.

As I was sitting down to go to the bathroom today, I noticed a surprise.

On the seat.

But it is not what you are thinking. It was artwork done with a black permanent marker.

In Liam's deliberate handwriting he wrote Luke's name and drew some pictures.

I confronted my dear son about my findings and he said:

"It wasn't me. It was Luke."

I told him that I knew it was him but we all had a good laugh about what was probably going through his head when he was creating his masterpiece. He probably remembered the trouble he got in when he wrote his name all over our walls and his bed and multiple other items of furniture about a year ago so he thought he would try to place the blame on someone else.

I was going to take a picture of it but there was a different kind of present waiting inside the toilet, but we won't talk about that. So, a talking to and few swipes of a magic eraser later and all evidence was cleared.

And our toilet seat is probably the cleanest it has been in a long time.

*seusstastical*

The Kindergarten at Liam's school celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday. I am sure many of the schools around did as well, but as always, I was super impressed with his teacher's creativity.

The parents were invited to come and read the works of this literary genius with the kids. My cute dad came and read with Liam.

The kids were told they could dress up as their favorite Seuss character. Here are a couple of my favorites:

There were tons of activities.

We made oobleck, which was just cornstarch and water with a little food coloring. But you would have thought we made it rain macaroni and cheese with how delighted they were with the results.

Then they had their feet painted to represent the Foot Book...

...and they made hats to give kudos to the famous Cat in the Hat.

I absolutely adore his class. I am fortunate that I am able to volunteer on a weekly basis so I have been able to get to know all of their little personalities quite well. He has made some good friends. I wish that I could have his teacher follow him throughout his academic career.

For dinner we continued the celebration and had red velvet and plain pancakes stacked like a hat, fruit truffula trees, green eggs and ham and for dessert we had Grinch parfaits which was just layered pistachio pudding and cool whip.

In the words of Dr. Seuss: “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

So much to blog still but wanted to post something that happened last night so I don't forget it.

After Liam's bedtime story he asked me to sleep next to him. I obliged since I hadn't had much sleep and always love the opportunity to snuggle. I wrapped a blanket and one of my arms around him and my hand was dangling off of his chest. He reached down with his little hand and moved my hand back onto his chest and patted it.

He said: "I like to know that you are there."

Man, I love being a mom.