It is a beautiful Saturday morning. Michael is in the backyard mowing and raking the lawn with our manual lawnmower and three kiddos taking turns hanging on for the ride. I just finished getting the kids dressed in their swim shorts, shirts, hats and some pretty neat brownish looking sunscreen (not the pasty white type we usually use). Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Donaldson for past birthday gifts that include sun protection! They look so cute in their little get-ups. Sprinklers are next on the agenda.

This morning, I woke up to Gracie’s little footsteps and soon enough she was climbing all over me on the bed with hugs and kisses. She’s always been quite possessive of my tummy. She jibber jabbered on and on and “read” Michael and me parts of the scriptures, following the words with her pointer finger with an occasional finger to her mouth for, “sshh! Ryan’s sleeping”. The boys were enjoying their soldiers and tanks that were involved in a “rescue mission” last night. Grandpa Neyens would be proud of their little commando crawls into their dark bedroom with strict orders to not wake the sleeping baby.

At 9:00 we attended an Easter Egg Hunt/donuts and muffins breakfast put on by our ward’s primary. The kiddos had a wonderful time and have been thoroughly enjoying their eggs. This was followed by a reading lesson for James with Gracie joining us for the letter writing part. James thrives on the one-on-one attention and I enjoy teaching him and watching his little mind work.

James: “The cat at my preschool really loves me. It likes to lick my hands a lot. It can run this fast…” He gets on his hands and knees to show me how fast.

James: After singing, “This land is your land, this land is my land...” to me. “Mom, my preschool isn’t just to teach me how to be nice in kindergarten. It’s also to teach me how to sing perfectly so you don’t always have to be the one to sing to me.”

Jonathan’s jog-a-thon (no play on words intended) went well - 28 laps for the cause. I asked him if his nose was sunburnt or hurt. He replied that it was hit with a soccer ball– twice actually.

The first Relief Society Activity I helped plan was on Tuesday night. It was a big one, The Relief Society Birthday Party so I wanted it to be really nice. Despite only having about 30 ladies show up, and enough food to easily feed 60 it went really well. The decorations turned out darling with lots of flowers and a birthday banner, and little pots of flowers for the ladies to take home. People showed up to run the nursery and the ladies all seemed to have a nice time. It was the first time I planned a big event other than two bridal showers my mom helped me with over 10 years ago, so having had it gone well feels really good.

I was finally able to get Gracie a therapist to help with her speech after a four month break. The therapist came and it was adorable. James proceeded to tell the therapist exactly what Gracie can and can’t say and what she can and can’t do. So the kind lady is paying attention to James talking on and on about how Gracie is a “good sharer” and so forth and Gracie just smiles sweetly with her hands over her head slowly dancing like a little ballerina. I think she was showing off her skills since James was doing all the talking.