Ally had her Glee performance at Hollywood Kids Academy. She did a great job. I am always so amazed at how brave she is to jump on stage and put it all out there. The theme of the night was movie music. For her solo, she sang Moon River form Breakfast at Tiffany's.
There was also some silliness with a Harry Potter number and a skit consisting of minions
One of Ally's assignments this semester was to coreograph and rehearse her class for Zero to Hero from Hercules. It was probably my favorite number of the night.
They wrapped up the evening by singing Sky Fall. Like I said, she did great! Not to mention that she is absolutely beautiful and does a very professional job doing her own hair and makeup!
She had some good friends come to support her (Jenna, Kolby, Will, and Maddie but she ran from the camera)
The HKA Glee class
Then Jen and Jeremy (who came to Ally's show), stayed the night at our house. Ally had an impromptu party with her friends and we all stayed up way too late having way too much fun.
The next day was Aden's 9th birthday. We celebrated with a family birthday breakfast complete with a "donut cake" from our favorite donut shop The Donut Hut. I know it is said too often but time really does fly. I am so grateful I get to be his mom and we have had a blast these past 9 years. Aden has brought such joy into our lives and has made our family better each day. He is just an awesome kid!
After breakfast, Jen and I took Aden, Jeremy, and some of Aden's friends to the Children's Discovery Museum. The boys all had a blast and Jen and I got a chance to chat (kinda...it was pretty loud there).
The day after Aden's birthday he had to go into LOVE for more trainings and 2 shows. His stage managers surprised him with decorations, treats, and gifts in his dressing room. It was really thoughtful of them and it made Aden feel really special.
Here is Aden with a few of his friends from the show (Hayden and Will).
The rest of the week was pretty busy too. We hosted the cub scout pack meeting at our house on Tuesday. All the boys and their families came over to swim, eat, and play. I love having a home that allows us to do so much entertaining. It seems like we have people over all the time and it is great! In a little over a week, we had 4 parties (Ally's impromptu movie party, Aden's birthday, scout swim party, and 4th of July). I wouldn't have it any other way.
So, that brings us to the 4th of July. We had sort of an open house party. Around 11am we served a late breakfast of fruit and homemade cinnamon rolls. My mom came out at 8am to help me make the cinnamon roll using a recipe from my great-grandmother's cookbook (which she let me keep!!!!!!). I have had these cinnamon rolls before and usually they are PERFECTLY DELICIOUS. This time something wasn't quite right because they didn't rise like they we supposed to but they were still yummy enough. Most of my family came out and enjoyed snacks and American Ninja. The first round of party guests were my Mom and Dad, Melissa & Jay, Jen & Jer, and Tiffany & Will.
The kids did some crafts and we did the diet coke/mentos experiment with everyone. Aden had to leave for the show around 2pm but he was able to get some swimming in before then. But, shortly after he left Matt, Allison, and Aubrey came over. We all jump in the pool and had a blast. Will overcame his fear of the water and was soon trying to surf like his Uncle Tom.
Aubrey jumped right in and LOVED the water. She is a little fish. Matt literally jumped in from every spot he could find doing all sorts of flips and dives. Tiffany and I even got brave enough to do dives and front flips off the waterfall!!
By the evening, we had round 3 of guests. The Sprenz family from across the street came along with Gill and his wife (more of our neighbors). We also had 4 missionaries including 2 of our favorite guys of the planet Elder Lawvneecheck (spelled totally wrong but that is how you say it) and Elder Cutrer. We fired up the grill and had TOO much yummy food. People even ate the jello I make every year.
Around dusk we got out the potato gun and fired mini apples. FYI mini apples work so much better than potatoes. They go a lot further. After our potato gun experiments, two of the Elders went to the man cave to watch Frozen (doesn't sound very manly but whatever) and the other two went on our roof to watch all the fireworks in the valley. The rest of us walked down the street to join our neighbors for our own amazing firework show. The Lacey's had TONS of fireworks (legal and maybe some that weren't so legal) plus had chairs all set up for people to use. They put on a great show until the down pour of rain sent us all running back to our houses. :)
Tiffany's Mike made it just in time for the fireworks
After the rain, we spent a little more time with the Elders before I had to leave to pick up Aden from the show. Sadly he missed the neighborhood firework show but the stage manager EJ let the boys run out between shows and watch the fireworks going off above the strip. They even got to do some sparklers and pops. But just to be sure Aden got the full 4th of July experience, we set off a few small fireworks the next night.
Today we are enjoying a lazy Sunday. Thank goodness!!! After church and primary meetings, it feels good to ignore the chores, work piled on my desk, countless emails, and looming deadlines. I know the next two weeks might kill me and so I am going to cherish my evening with my family and pretend that the next few weeks will be as fun as this week has been. :)
