Birthdays

My big girl is a definite princess!

This is my birthday cake and yes, I did make my own cake!

All of the girls and their pedicures

Charly got to pick a couple friends just to come over and play. Not an official party but it was a wild time!

May is a busy time for birthdays in our family so it's been kinda hard to keep up. Charly's birthday is first at the very end of April and then my birthday follows 8 days later, along with Mother's day real close to that and then Caelyn's birthday is 2 weeks after that. And that is just the birthdays in our house. There are many other May birthdays amongst the Aunts and Uncles. We only do big birthday parties for certain years to kind of keep costs down. With lots of kids it's the only way to stay sane.

This year Charly got to just have a couple of her friends come over and we ate pizza,watched a movie, and painted nails. The girls must have been a little excited because all of the kids were crazy and I ended up being by myself most of the night because Jason came home late from work. It all turned out pretty good though and I'm pretty sure they all had a good time.

For my birthday Jason took all of the kids out of the house and I had a couple friends over for Mary Kay and yummy food. Our Mother's day date was a night out to dinner and a movie. We saw the Avengers movie in 3D. It is the first time I've done a 3D movie all the way through and it was pretty cool.

Caelyn's birthday was on a Tuesday which is 'kids eat free' night at Pizza Ranch so we took her out for her birthday. Our friend Kelsi met us there and it was so great to catch up with her. We don't get to see her as much as we used to but every time we get together it's like she's part of the family.

I am so grateful for my big girls and for the opportunity to be their mother. They both have very special personalities and talents. And as we've been thinking about mothers this month I hope that we get to have the same great relationship that I have with my own mother. We faught at times when I was a teenager but it didn't take too long before I really saw her as a great friend.

Sandwiches

In our school system here anything containing any kind of nut is not allowed at school. When Charly first started school I was sending her with cold lunch and when you can't include simple PB&J your kind of left with just turkey or ham and cheese. So to mix things up a bit I started cutting the sandwiches into different shapes. Charly loved it but so did the other kids and they soon started demanding different shapes. Now there is no such thing as a simple cut in half or quarters sandwhich. The most popular creation so far is the "C" sandwich. Since my kids are all so lucky to have the same initial it makes things quite easy but Carter noticed the other day that when you take out the middle it makes the shape of a "T" so it's their first and last initial. Kinda fun I think and cool that Carter recognized a letter without me telling him. These will officially be Thrap kid sandwiches.

New Calling

On Sunday I got a new calling to work with the Activity Day girls. These are the girls from church that are 8-11 years old. We get to meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month and just do different activites with them to help them grow in their developing testimonies of the Savior and to learn new skills. This week we get to focus on motherhood and work on Mother's Day presents for the girls' moms. I am so excited for this calling. It is right up my ally and I hope that I am still doing it when Charly turns 8 so that we can do it together. I'm not gonna lie; i struggled with my last calling to be the visiting teaching coordinator. It was not that it was a lot of  work but it was administrative stuff  and woman drama that I just didn't like. I'm glad that I got to see that side of things but I am way more excited about this new adventure. Here is what we are making this week.

It's funny though. It's been about a month since I was released from my  visiting teaching calling and I was really starting to miss having some kind of responsibility.  I'm so thankful for all the opportunites to serve and for a Heavenly Father that knows just what I need when I need it.

Thrap Family Gardens Stage 1

It has always been one of my dreams to have my own garden. When I was growing up Mom always talked about having one but never did it. That is until after I had left the house. Lots of things happened that way. Sounds like a pretty simple dream, I know. Last year we spent so much time trying to get our grass to grow so this wonderful Spring that we've had has given us just the right opportunity to get the garden started this year. I'm pretty excited. It seems ironic that we have spent so much time trying to get grass grow only to rip parts of it up. Carter and Caelyn really enjoyed getting to dig in the dirt and play with the worms and other bugs. And of course it is beautiful outside and what better way to cool off than to jump in the pool.

Carissa joined for the after party by the pool. She just laughs at all the kids splashing.