My good luck charm boy.....

This last week the High School put on a play. It was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Of course the second Ryder and Brooklyn heard they wanted to go see it. Misty was a stage director for it so she got us in as a family one night. Nils and I took Ryder and Brooklyn and they didn't budge! They were glued to it. During intermission (if that is how it's spelled) they sold Wonka candy bars. They were $2 and each night they had one golden ticket in one of the candy bars. We of course had to buy one for Ryder and Brooklyn. They ripped them right open as soon as we got them and then quickly realized there was no golden ticket and felt bummed out. Well, then on closing night my mom asked me if I wanted to go watch it with her. It was such a good play I said I'd go watch it again! Ryder had done a lot of chores that day for me so I told him he could go with me to it again. Again, during intermission we went out to buy him a candybar. As we got up to pay, he handed the lady his $2 and then turned to me and said "Mom, I think we better buy Brooklyn one and take it home to her so she isn't sad. Maybe we'll get the ticket!" I just couldn't tell him no after he was being so thoughtful. :) So we bought two candybars. We walked off to the side and he wanted to open them right there. I asked him which one he wanted as his and which one was his sisters. He picked his and ripped it open. All of sudden he pretty much tosses the candy bar to me and yells out "YES MOM, I GOT IT!" A little embarrassed I was because people were looking at us, but he had got the candy bar with the golden ticket in it! His face just lit right up. LOL We took the ticket over to show the lady and for getting it, he got a $20 gift certificate to Main Street Grill! He could have cared less about the gift certificate when she handed it him, he just made sure to ask if he could keep the golden ticket!! :) He kept telling me, as we walked back into our seats, "Mom, I can't believe I got the golden ticket." It was funny he was so excited. After the play we ran into some family friends and he showed them his golden ticket he had got. They told them it was really neat and then Ryder said, "Don't tell Willy Wonka though okay? I dont' want to go to his place." hahahaha....it was hilarious. He litterally thought Willy Wonka was going to take him on the tour I guess. As we left all the cast members lined up so you could shake their hands. He said it was fine to tell Wonka thanks. Wonka was played by Misty's good friend, Dixon, so he got a big hug and showed Wonka his ticket. Of course Wonka gave him a high five and told him it was fantastic! Ryder thought he was the king of the night!! :) I guess I should keep Ryder when there is a drawing and let him pick out tickets or something for me; I guess I have a lucky charm on my hands. :)....and now I can have a night out to Main Street Grill too! Enjoy the pics I got when we got back. I didn't have my camera with me at the play though dang it to get a picture with Willy Wonka.

Bragging on Ryder.....

So I didn't get a picture or anything, but I will write a post for it. :) My little Ryder finally made it into the High 5 Club in his Preschool class! To get into the club you have to recognize all your alphabet letters. (Maybe not a big deal to some of you reading this, but to me a big deal.) He really stuggled there for awhile with things and for him to finally do the alphabet was fantastic. So proud of him! Also, we took him on the 29th and did a Kindergarten testing. I think he did well. He got most of them, expect regonizing his numbers. He wrote his name, recogined the alphabet, knew all but one shape, and did the other things. (can't remember now what all was on there) I think it was crazy all the things they want them to know BEFORE kindergarten! I thought that Kindergarten was for learing all those things.....Oh well. I guess we now know where he sits better for his age and whatever. He is doing better and better each day I think. Each time I sit down to go over letters or things with him he improves. (At least in my head I think so.) He does great writing his name finally too. When he wants to draw or write something he doesn't know how to spell it, but if I tell him the letters he does it great. Still lots to learn I'm sure, but he's just growning up too fast. I am still having a hard time realizing he'll be heading off to Kindergarten, but hopefully I'll be okay with it once it happens. So, just a post to brag on my Ryder....he is a great boy!! :)

Our Family get-away

A couple weekends ago our family took a mini get-away so to speak. Nils had to attend a quick Reinke meeting on Saturday for his job in Layton so we decided to just go down as a family and make it a fun outing. We went down Friday and came back Sunday afternoon. It was a blast. We let the kids swim, went to Chuck E Cheese, did some shopping with them and just had it be about the kids. We thought the kids probably wanted to get away just as much as mom and dad. :)
Chuck E Cheese was a very fun time for them. Dang me forgot my camera though so I didn't get any pictures.:( We had a coupon that allowed us a large two topping pizza, 4 soft drinks, and like 300 game tokens. We had never been there before so we hoped 300 tokens would be enough. WOW. To say the least!...we had TONS of tokens. lol We figured the rides and games there would be like 2 or 3 tokens each. NOPE. They were all just one token. :) So you can imagine it took us a few hours to use them up. It got to the point even the kids had done all of them pretty much so Nils and I were putting tokens in machines just to be done. Once you play a game you get tickets then the tickets can be used to get toys or prizes. The kids each got a slinky. Ryder then picked out some sticky bug thing. Then Brook got a braclet. They did have a lot of fun and for our first time Nils and I felt like we really got our money's worth and it was great most of all to see the kids just have fun.
The kids were sad to come home and have been begging ever since to go again. We thought maybe making it an annual get away as a family because just staying in the big hotel was fantastic to the kids. Nice to just relax a little and not have things at home bugging us. I did get a few pics from swimming so enjoy those and maybe next time I'll remember my camera when we go other places.
Here is Ryder floating all by himself. If you know Ryder you know how scared of the water he gets. Here he finally realized it was fun to float and kick around!!

Brooklyn was put in a sitting float thing. She had arm floaties too but would get too daring and try to slide them off or dunk herself. This way we could watch her a little better. She did dive in once without anything and THANK GOODNESS her dad wasn't far off and opened his eyes under water to see her sinking!!! Crazy girl is just too brave and daring for me!

Here is our little Gavin floating. He LOVED the water and would reach his arms over the edge just to splash and feel the water.

I finally got all them together for a quick pic in the water. What fun it was to let them swim around and play. They all just loved the pool!!

This next is my favorite. So cute. Little Gavin got tired right out and the next thing we knew when we looked he was asleep in his floatie! When we took him out to get back up to the room and dressed boy was he upset at us. He wanted to float in the water and sleep. What a fun little boy he is.