Road Trip- Viva Las Vegas

Last week I had a Bottema family reunion in Tooele Utah.  For those that don't know where that is, let me do the math for you- it's about a 13 hour drive from where we live.  Since we have 3 small children there was no way we were going to drive all that way in one day, so we made a pit stop in Vegas!  We got there Tuesday night and drove the strip and the kids were amazed by it all.  They even got to see the Mirage volcano explode!  The next day we went back and did some fun tourist stuff.

First stop- M&M's World!  We bought bulk M&M's and saw a 3D movie.

Then it was off to the Coca-Cola store!  We took a picture with the polar bear, played with the merchandise, and got to sample sodas from all around the world.  That was a lot of fun.  There were some good ones, some interesting ones, and one terrible one from Bahrain!  

We also got pictures with creepy characters that begged for money!  Haha, it's all part of the experience right?

We also went in the Hershey's candy store where we saw 3 giant statue of libertys made out of Jelly Belly's, Twizzlers, and of course Hershey's chocolate!  We ate lunch at Shake Shack, which I think other than this Vegas location is only a New York chain.  Oh my goodness---it was amazing!!!  It's a must do if you're planning a trip to Vegas soon.

  That afternoon we went to the aquarium at Mandalay Bay.  It was so crowded and hot and humid in there, but we had a blast anyway. 

We also went swimming in our hotel pool that night, and ate dinner at Hash House.  I had heard about this place while browsing good places to eat on Pinterest, and I was so excited to find one right by our hotel!  The food was amazing and came in the most gigantic portions I've ever seen at a restaurant.  Seriously, you should split your dinner with someone- it was ridiculous.  But awesome :)  This day was also my birthday and I'd have to say it was an awesome one!

Kindergarten Graduation

Well this first school year for our family has just flown by!  Kate has gone from not reading, to reading whole books at a time, reading fluently, doing math and writing book reports.  She does it all on her own and hardly asks for help.  She is a smart little monkey, and we sure LOVE the school she goes to.  I've been nothing but impressed.  We've loved every moment.

Graduation was yesterday (yeah--I'm blogging on time) and it was the most adorable thing ever!  They sang the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, ABC Blues, and Kindergarten Kindergarten.  When it was time for her to get her diploma she ran up there to get it, and gave us a big wave as she did. 

We are so proud of Kate!  I can't believe I have a first grader now!

Kate's Birthday Party!

As soon as I knew our backyard would be done by the time Kate's birthday rolled around, I knew I wanted to do an outside party. Every year I want to throw an outside party, but every year we don't. One- because we didn't have a backyard until now, and two- because it's usually way too hot to do an outside party here by the end of April. It's usually high 90's by the end of April. USUALLY. So I planned this big water party, with a big water blob, a pool, water guns, water balloons, and a PVC pipe car wash. Kate was so excited and helped me plan everything.  Well the day of the party comes, and it's a COLD and RAINY day!  Isn't that always how it goes?  We got about an hour of playable sunshine and the kids had an absolute blast!  The last hour it got really cloudy and cold so we had to kind of improvise for the rest of the party!  We did limbo, duck duck goose, and Dustin even read a book!  Haha.  Overall it went really smoothly and according to Kate is was the "best day of her life" so I'm going to mark this down as a "win" in my book.

Dustin drew an awesome enormous Sebastian on our back wall. Kate and I made little fishies out of paper plates, and we drew seaweed on the wall.  I made the water blob using this tutorial, and the PVC pipe car wash using this tutorial.  I'd have to say the blob was the hit of the party!  The kids went crazy over it!

I told Dustin to go slowly opening the presents to kill some time, so he closed his eyes and had the kids guide him to the presents.  It never got old for the kids and resulted in uproarious laughter every time. 

The kids were all bundled up in their towels by the end but it was a great time!  Happy Birthday Kate!  I can't believe you are 6 years old already!

Cinderella!

"Impossible!  For a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage!  Impossible!  For a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage!"  


On March 13th Kate, Jaylee, Lacie and I all went to Roger's and Hammersteins Cinderella in the ASU Gammage Auditorium.   We bought our tickets through a group buy and had been waiting a whole YEAR to see this.  It did not disappoint.  It exceeded all my expectations and then some!

It. was. AMAZING!!!
Easily in my top 3 shows I've ever seen!

The set was beautiful, the costumes were so elaborate and gorgeous, and the costumes changes were mind blowing!  Cinderella "transforms" in a matter of seconds.  There is one that I can't even explain.  She goes from wearing a torn pink dress to a gold gown and ALL she does is twirl.  And not only do her clothes change, her hair is completely different too!  It's so crazy, and I have no idea how they did it.  They had almost all the original songs in the play, plus a couple new ones.  The plot was revamped and made a bit more modern and there is a big twist!  I was so blown away by everything.  It truly was a spectacle and I'm so glad I got to share it with my daughter. 

Worth. Every. Penny. 

Kate would scream, cheer and clap after every song.   We had amazing seats as we were in the 19th row in the center.

Oh and SURPRISE we also had Fran Drescher in our cast!  She played the Step Mother and she was awesome!  It was so cool to see someone famous.

The girls had a BLAST!  They loved every single second and I loved seeing their reactions and how swept away they got in it.  The whole thing was just such a magical experience.  I hope it comes back in a few years so we can go again!

"For the world is full of zanies and fools,
who don't believe in sensible rules,
who don't believe what sensible people say.
 And because these daft and dewey eyed dopes
keep builidng up impossible hopes
IMPOSSIBLE
things are happening every day!"