Double Digits Daisy

Daisy is always very patient being the only summer birthday. Her birthdays are often a little scattered with people going here and there. This year, we were up in Idaho the day before her birthday. But we were back to play on her actual day. However, it was the sabbath so there were some limits. No balloons until Monday and only family activities.

Daisy really wanted to open presents right away, but she had to wait until the afternoon. Daisy got some fun gifts. Once again, I love this age where they are easy to please. I think everyone should enjoy small, simple gifts. It makes life a little sweeter.

Daisy's bigger gift was rollerblades. She has been borrowing Ivory's for a while, so it is nice that she has her own. And she is already pretty good on them.

I think I must be lazier in the summer because I have made Daisy ONE cake for her birthday. (In ten years, one cake? Wow. Although it was very creative.) We've done brownies, lots of cupcakes, and even some pie, but not a lot of cakes. So June and I thought we would make a fancy cake. I saw this picture online and it looked tasty.

The cake part went perfectly. Then there was a bit of a glitch with the frosting. There were some really complicated, detailed instructions for the frosting and I wasn't feeling it. But I thought I could do a little fudging and make it happen anyway. I bought store-bought frosting and added some pureed strawberries. But they didn't go well together and the frosting became sludge. Tasty sludge, but the wrong consistency for frosting. Then add the ganache on top and everything started to ooze. Then my white chocolate chips were pretty old and they didn't melt very well, which means they didn't drizzle very well. The overall product left a little to be desired. One might say that we NAILED IT.

Oddly, it looked better in person. Maybe because you could smell it. It smelled divine. And tasted even better, but we may have to work on presentation.

Daisy is patient with her mother's failures and she could not see any problems with her birthday cake. She happily blew out her number 10.

Daisy chose painting as her afternoon activity. The girls found some wooden things that have been sitting around waiting for some color and they spruced them up. I love their finished products. I wonder if you can guess who painted what.*

The following day, we made sure to get Daisy balloons. She is a good kid. We also went and did some sculpting but that is another post. Gotta love this tender-hearted kid. She makes every day special.

* June did the owl
Robyn did the bird
Ivory and Daisy did the flowers together
Pearl did the butterfly (she did an akuma from Miraculous. I was very impressed.)

Fa La La La La

We go caroling every year.

It is a tradition.

Most years we don't get any pictures because I forget.

This last year, I didn't get many pictures.

But caroling gets its own post because it is important.

Have you ever had carolers come to your house?

Maybe not because no one really does that anymore.

But we will continue the tradition.

And one of these years we will get a violin in there or something.

I told Robyn she should bring the snare drum and we would sing 'Little Drummer Boy.'

She thought I was kidding.

Thinking about caroling makes me excited for next year. (This year)

We went with the Hulse's.

They is good folk.

And here is our crew.

I almost never remember to take pictures of the goodies we make.

And I forgot again last time.

But I DID take pictures of the more adorable, cutest, creative, awesome, sweet tags June drew to put on the goody plates.

Seriously, so best.

That is all for today.

Maybe think about caroling this coming December.

It will make people happy and no one has ever thrown rotten food at us.

Not once.

First Ballroom Competition (December 2017)

Hello. It is September. I love Autumn, although it isn't quite Fall yet. The days are still too warm, but they are cooling and the earth is fat and happy and getting ready to hibernate in a few short months. This is one of my most favorite times of the year. However, it means the holidays are right around the corner, and that means December is only a breath away. And I STILL haven't finished blogging December from last year. (Yes, you may point at me and say 'shame')

I'm behind for the summer, although not terribly so, but I do NOT want December to roll around with posts from 2017 still waiting to be done. So we are going back in time to our very first Ballroom Competition. I have already posted about Ballroom Competitions from the Spring, but this one was special, because it was our first. The Elementary School had never done one before, and June was taking Junior High Ballroom and she had never been to a competition before. And they were the same day back to back, so that was nice.

First up was Elementary. I found Beth in the crowd and we sat together.

And Maggie had made the cutest sign ever to cheer on her brother and sister.

Here they come. If you can spot Daisy and Ivory in this somewhat blurry picture...give yourself a pat on the back.

I'm assuming the program was the same as other ones. I can't remember that far back. I don't think I took videos of all the dances. Perhaps I was saving my battery for June? Maybe I got lazy? Maybe I figured I would get some of the video from Beth? Who knows what the plan was back then. But I do have a few. First up was Ivory and Hudson dancing the Tango.

They did a good job. I only had eyes for my kids, but when I'm able to go back and watch again, I can see that they seem to know what they are doing a bit better than some other couples. Tamie was such a great coach.

Next up was Daisy. She was dancing Cha Cha with Henry. They did a great job.

Such cuties!

And here is one more with Ivory dancing Swing with Hudson. They had a little more trouble on that dance. Ivory didn't feel as confident, but they did just fine.

The boys are such gentleman. They always escort the lady from the floor.

The last video I got was of the large group dance. I'm not sure why our group only dances half the time, but I thought it was very cute that all the schools learned the choreography and danced together.

Then they gave out awards. There was bronze, silver, and gold. And then there was a top team in each category. Our school got gold. Good job kids! But so surprising when they took the top team spot in Gold. So basically they won overall. And this was their first competition. It was super cool. Ivory and another girl went out to receive the award. Look how ecstatic she is!

We were so proud of our kids. They went on to get first place at BYU for the Elementary Division. This was a great first year of ballroom for all the kids.

Here is Daisy, Ivory, and Hudson.

Then we switched gears. Some parents and dancers left. Others arrived. And the Junior High part started. June's partner was John. She changed partners at every competition, but John was her first partner. They did Waltz first.

Then they performed Cha Cha. I love how June's skirt swings in this dance.

I don't remember what the individual teams got in this event. But I do remember that their school got one of the large trophies. There is one for Sportsmanship and one for Spirit. Our school got one of them...can't remember which. Santa presented the award. Two things I love about this next picture. First, Santa came to the Elementary School competition as well. He looked like a normal Santa. But for the older kids, he changed his hat to a steam punk theme. I guess normal Santa isn't cool enough for older kids. Also, check out Sean's face. He was so excited. It looks like he almost blowing people over with his cheer of triumph.

Here is June and John. John was super thrilled to take a picture. Most guys react this way.

And the team. They are pretty happy. Maybe they got Spirit?

It was a fun first day of competition. I feel like it was the day that started it all. I think several of my girls learned to love ballroom this day. And we are still doing ballroom today. June is on team, Daisy is competing again at the Elementary level, and Ivory is biding her time since they won't allow 7th grade girls to take it. But it is just around the corner for her.

Cazier Day o' Fun 2018

Last year Jami planned a Cazier Day of Fun, which is another word for reunion, but apparently the Cazier side doesn't jive with that word. But it went so well and was a blast. Thankfully, she planned another day of fun for us this summer as well. Thanks Jami...what would we do without you?

This year we met at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. I have been to Lava Hot Springs a few times in the past. They are natural hot springs that have been adapted to make a swimming sort of area. You can choose which pool to enter depending on the amount of heat your body could handle. (I always stayed well away from the hotter side. I don't even like hot tubs.) We went there once for Roz's birthday, in the winter, and it was really fun.

In the meantime, they have expanded quite a bit. The hot springs are still there, but there is a huge swimming park that does not use the hot springs at all as far as I can tell. They are just in the near vicinity. There are slides and some platform diving. There is a kid's area inside with a rock wall, etc. It is a cross between 7-peaks and the Provo Rec Center. We have not been there since all of that was finished. It was pretty cool. People bring their canopies and make a day of it.

Once again, we didn't help plan the day, but we wanted to contribute. We brought some food, but our biggest addition to the party was shirts. This is our thing now. We enjoy doing it and the kids like to get involved. This year, we had Robyn helping with a design. But she left and went to CA and her initial design was too detailed. So we switched over to June and let her go to town. (To be clear, both girls are very good at art. June excels at fonts, but both could easily do a nice shirt design.) I really liked what June came up with.

Because of the woodsy font, we decided to go with green shirts. Hobby Lobby usually has all my shirt needs, but they didn't have all the sizes this time. We had to get half the shirts online. But amazingly, we managed to match colors exactly.

Except for our baby onesie. It came in spring green instead of Irish green. (Or maybe it was the other way around.) Regardless, it wasn't quite the same, but I figure he won't be wearing it for long.

We drove up in the morning and it was a gorgeous day. Once we got inside, we went straight to playing. It was a nice relaxing day. We swam, did slides, hung out at base camp and ate food.

Here is some of the crew. Tyler took more pictures than I did. He didn't get everyone, but he did a pretty good job. (Certainly better than I.)

Kolby's beard was pretty awesome. It causes him to do foolhardy things like jump off the highest platform.

Actually, he would do that without the beard as well. In fact, almost all the adults jumped off the top. Kathryn, Tyler, Kolby, J.R. Not me in case you are wondering. That thing was high!

I spent my time playing spikeball and teaching the new peeps. This is the first time we have played with our Idaho family. They weren't too bad, but they didn't really like it. Maybe if we played in a larger area. We were a bit confined by the stuff around us.

Some great memories were watching Kolby and K.J. smash cans on their heads. Don't worry, they were empty.

Also, I love this shot of the J Cazier's. I was trying to catch Henlee curled up against her dad, but you can also see LeGrand hanging out on momma's lap. Love it.

LeGrand was definitely our youngest member of the crew. He is a sweety. My kids love having a baby around.

It was a great long day playing in the water, relaxing, and then playing some more. We ended the evening by heading over for pizza at a nearby restaurant. The only problem was they only had tables outside and half of them were in the sun. It was so hot. (For those of us in the sun.) Here is table one hanging out in the shade.

Table two was half and half. (Shade was rapidly taking over their table though.)

And poor table three. We were really taking the heat.

Eventually the shade found us. Dinner was delicious, but everyone was ready to go home. It was a long day. Looks like Daisy is done.

What a great group. It was really fun to see everyone and hang out. Even after all day playing, we are still looking good.

Even you Pearl. Love the bowl on your head. This is what you do with a bowl when you don't want salad. Big surprise.

It was a fantastic day. Thanks again for organizing this Jami!