Dalmation Day

Every year, in Kindergarten, there is a special Dalmation Day! The kids all dress as dalmations, they do fun crafts, eat ice cream from a bowl without using their hands, and have a ton of fun. All three of the older kids had done it, and I kept wondering if Hayden was going to get to do it, too... but I hadn't seen a note about it. The last week of school finally came, and I figured that they just weren't doing it this year. I got Hayden all ready for school, and he was about to head out to wait for the bus, when I said, "Hey! I forgot to look in your backpack on Friday." I unzipped his backpack, and pulled out all the papers... including a note. The note said that Dalmation Day would be THIS VERY DAY!!!

Oh no!

My first instinct was to say "Oh well, buddy. We don't have time to come up with a costume. The bus is going to be here any minute." How could I do that, when all the other kids had been dalmations? I couldn't send him to school with the possibility of being the only kid not dressed up! So instead I said "Okay. Let's do this!"

I found a white shirt and some black felt. I quickly cut out spots (with a pair of scissors that did NOT want to cut that felt), heated up my hot glue gun, told Hayden to hurry and find a hat that we could attach some doggie ears to, searched frantically for a black sharpie to put spots on the craft-foam ears I had cut out (only to find one that was nearly dead), then told Hayds to go grab one of daddy's socks... all the while feeling my heart wildly pumping out of my chest. I heard the bus pull up, and then pull away. SHOOT! Hurry, hurry, hurry!!

Hayden quickly put on his costume, and I ran to the bathroom to grab my eyeliner. Soon we were out the door, pulling out of the driveway, and on our way to the school. We walked in just 5 minutes late!

WHEW!

I literally flopped onto my bed exhausted when I got home. It took a little while for my heart to slow down! The smile on Hayden's face when he got home just a few hours later, and the joy in his voice as he told me all about Dalmation Day were priceless. It was worth every heart pounding minute. I'm just glad he's the last official Dalmation.

You Too!

Last year, our good friend bought tickets for he and his wife, and Jared and I, to go to the U2 concert together. Jared and I are big U2 fans, and were super excited about it. This would be the second time we have gone to see them together. Unfortunately, the concert ended up cancelled and postponed. No worries. He kept the tickets so we could go when they rescheduled. Well, they rescheduled, and we were all excited to go, when we found out that our friends would have to be in New York on business at the same time as the concert! We were bummed. They ended up giving their set of tickets to another couple. We really missed our friends :( But we made sure to text them a picture of the stage (although seeing some of the sights they saw was probably even better).

We made our own "concert shirts" (I guess I was feeling kinda crafty) and headed up to Rice-Eccles stadium at the University of Utah. It was suggested that we take Trax to avoid parking headaches, and although it took a little longer to get there, it was kind of nice to just get off the train and walk right into the stadium.

The stage was HUGE, and we heard it took them DAYS to set up. We were actually just as excited about the opening act: The Fray. I really enjoy their music, and they did not disappoint. U2 was crazy, loud and fun as usual, and we had a super fun time. The only non-highlight of the night was riding Trax BACK home. It was a long wait, a long ride, and we didn't get home until after 1 a.m. Not too fun on a weeknight (a Tuesday!) Luckily, Jared's built-in alarm woke him up in time to groggily get to the bus stop to ride to work the next morning! Would I do it again? Probably. Honestly, we are kinda cheap, and buying concert tickets isn't something we do, but it really was fun. I would just hope it was on a weekend instead. LOL!!

We made Eryn snap a pic of us just before we left. Notice that the tickets are dated for last year... they just honored the original tickets to get in this year. May 24 of this year, actually! 

The GIGANTIC stage. It was CRAZY!

Annie Oakley

I came to a brilliant conclusion this May. Not that I haven't sort of noticed it in Mays gone by, but this year it hit me HARD. May is the month that teachers try to cram in as much stuff as is humanly possible. I love my kids' teachers. They are AMAZING, but I don't love the amount of crazy they added to my May this year. Choir concerts, Ballroom dance concerts and competitions, Wax museums (as seen in this post), end of year dance festivals, parties, reports, projects... and then there are the sports. Unrelated to school, but busy still. Soccer tryouts, soccer tournaments, soccer everthing! THEN, I had lots going on business-wise, PLUS a U2 concert that Jared and I had tickets for. (EDITED TO ADD: Talk about De Ja Vu... apparently I posted that first paragraph nearly word for word in a post a few weeks ago. See? My brain is kinda fried!) SHEESH!! I tried to make visiting teaching appointments at one point, then had to cancel them due to unforeseen insanity. Oh. My. Goodness. Somehow we survived... mostly. I'm not sure my brain is functioning fully at this point, but I'm trying!

One of the FUN things Kaitlyn did during May was the annual 5th grade Wax Museum. Each student had to read a biography about someone from US History, do a written report on them, make a poster, and BECOME that person for their living wax museum. Kaitlyn originally wanted to read about Milton Hershey. Not sure why she wanted to be a guy, but we had some sweet ideas for costumes. However, when we had a hard time finding a book for her to read, she changed her mind and went with

ANNIE OAKLEY!

The wheels in my head started turning, and we came up with a costume from items we had around the house. We were planning on borrowing a toy rifle (since ours have somehow gone missing) from my sister, and the outfit would be complete!

Day of the Museum: I headed out, got in the minivan, and made my way down the road. I had a few errands to run (including going to pick up the rifle) before I would actually arrive at the school. Suddenly, the van started lurching. It was acting REALLY crazy! I called Jared, left a frantic message about how "Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the van!", then had an idea of what it could be. I jumped out and walked around to the other side to find a FLAT TIRE! Crap! I know how to change a flat (mostly), but it could seriously cost me some precious time. Like hours.

Luckily, we have AAA, so I called them and they had a guy at my house within the 1/2 hour. Phew!

Unfortunately, I now only had about 10 minutes to get up to the school! I drove straight there (without her rifle, by the way) and made it just in time... without my camera. So, while I don't have any pictures of her standing by her desk and poster in her cute Annie Oakely-ness, or video of her "coming to life" when we pushed her button, and telling us all about "herself" just trust me when I say it was AWESOME. She did a fantastic job, and the other kids in the 5th grade were super cute too.

She was very patient and stayed in her costume after she got home so that I could snap a few pictures... still rifle-less. Oh well. I love my little Annie Oakley.

Protecting My Most Precious Blessings... AKA: Why we are going private

Well, I kinda messed up, I guess. I tend to do that a lot. This time it seems a lot more serious. The problem is that I'm a photographer. Not that THAT by itself is the problem, but that the downside to having a registered business that runs out of your home, is that your home address and phone number are often listed. I've always posted my best pictures of my kiddos on my photography blog. That's fine, except for ONE LITTLE THING... I actually SAID they were my kids. AND, I apparently linked one of my posts back here to my family blog. DUMB!!! When I photograph other people's kids, I put generic things like "This little cutie..." or "This handsome boy..." rarely mentioning names in order to protect their privacy. But even on the extremely rare occasion when I do mention a name, it's just a first name and there is no connection to a parent, a location, or anything else. They are safe. In the process, I did not protect the privacy of my own family. My kids, by me mentioning that they are mine, were put at risk. I never realized how much until a shady character commented on one of my sweet Hayden's pictures on my Facebook photography page (remember, this is my PHOTOGRAPHY FAN PAGE, and not my personal Facebook profile). I got an email saying that he had commented, but when I went on to see who this guy was, his comment was already deleted. However, he had still LIKED the picture. Therefore, his name was right there. He had become a FAN (or Liker) on my page. I clicked on his profile, and found some disturbing things there. It totally creeped me out! The fact that he had actually CALLED HAYDEN BY NAME (which I think he figured out by following the link back here to the family blog, because even though I said they were my kids, I never actually mentioned names) and mentioned that he was MY SON when he commented freaked me out even more. The worst part is that he is in Riverton, UT... not very far from here. If he had commented from the other side of the world, I wouldn't be half as nervous. I'd just think "FREAK," ban him from my Facebook page, and move on. Now I've become the paranoid mom who can't even let my kids play in the front yard without me staring at them the whole time. Jared and I decided that we needed to put our personal blog into private mode. I hope there are still some people out there who want to know what we are up to... we're just going to make sure we actually KNOW them. My photography blog will remain public, of course, since it's my best source of advertising and I will continue to protect the identities of my sweet and amazing clients just as I always have, by not posting anything that would give away who they are. I love my Blog friends, and I have NOT wanted to go private. But sometimes things happen that change minds. I'm sure I'm just erring on the side of caution, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Please continue to stop by and see what we are up to. There will always be fun things happening at the Stafford house!!

In fact... I'm working on a couple of catch-up posts from May. May was one seriously crazy month!

If you are reading this, it means you've been invited and that you are my friend. Thank you for being my friend. Love you all!!


OH! One more thing. One thing I love about public blogs is the ability to see when people have posted or updated something. Sometimes it's hard to remember to look at my friends PRIVATE blogs, because of this. My sister came up with the best idea! I have started ANOTHER blog, which is public, which will just say "Hey. I've updated!" and have a link to THIS blog. Of course, only those who are on my invite list will be able to click that link and get here, so this one will remain safe and private. Bookmark it, put it in YOUR list of blogs you follow, whatever... it will tell you when we've updated. (It's up, but not much is there yet. It will tell you the next time we update here, though!)

Here is the link: www.staffordupdate.blogspot.com


Again, thanks for still being interested in our happenings.

Not-so-big-bad WOLF!

I grew up in a house full of girls. I knew absolutely NOTHING about Scouting. I knew there were Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, whatever, but had no idea what they did, how it worked... didn't even know what the heck a Webolo was. In fact, Jared laughed when I asked him "What the heck is a Webolo?" Yeah. I'm that Scouting-illiterate. Well, now I have a scout of my own. B turned 8 in March, and has been absolutely LOVING scouts. He looks forward to Thursdays each week, and going with his ward Wolf-buddies to do fun things. He had his Bobcat patch by his very first Pack Meeting. Jared is totally gung ho with the whole thing, and has even done a bunch of stuff at home with Bryson. Now Hayden can't wait to be 8!

Soccer!

Spring Soccer. Kind of the wrong title for it, since it almost NEVER feels like Spring. We played games in the rain, snow, wind (and I mean blow away the goal posts wind) and just plain cold! We did have a rare, beautiful day, so I brought the camera. Eryn had a tough season this Spring. A different coach, only a few girls from their previous teams, girls who had never ever played before... they didn't win much. I don't know if they won at all. It was rough. However, Eryn played a lot at the goalie position and did a fantastic job. She saved a ton of goals, even with some really dramatic dives. This particular day ended up being a 3-game-Saturday. Kaitlyn's was at 8:30 (see previous post), then Eryn and Bryson both played at the same time right afterward. Atleast they were at the same park. I planned to walk back and forth equally between the two, but I ended up only getting a few pictures of Eryn. There just wasn't a ton of action at her game (or so I thought, until someone said I missed her best save ever). We are looking forward to her Fall Soccer, with the return of an old coach!! It should be awesome :)

Then there was Bryson's game. I could hardly pull myself away from his game to go to Eryn's. There was a ton of action. He played goalie for the first half, and did awesome... but then came the second half. He played offense and I believe he scored two goals, including one I missed seeing as I walked back to the other game. He is doing so well! It's such a refreshing change from when he first started. You know how 4-yr-olds are... looking more at the clouds and butterflies than the ball. Fast forward 4 years, and we have a bonafide soccer player on our hands. I think he's going to be really good! I probably sound a little bias, and maybe I am, but the dramatic improvement that has happened with this kid is amazing. AND HE LOVES IT!! There's kind of an overload of Bryson pics, but I couldn't help it. Sue me! LOL :)

Oh, and what about that other kid in our family? He sat out this season, as he really wasn't into it last fall... however, he says he wants to try again, so Jared will coach him in the Fall and we'll see how that goes! He doesn't have the longest attention span on the planet, so it may be a waste of 35 bucks again, but he IS enjoying T-ball right now, so there is hope. I just want him to find something that he loves, and there is plenty of time for that!!