Miriam is 5

This spunky gal turned 5 a couple of weeks ago.

Dancing during her birthday pizza picnic.

We invited grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts over to our house for a little celebration.

First, we ate. Miriam requested pizza: "One pepperoni, one cheese and one for the grown-ups." Last year, it was absolutely frigid on her birthday, this year, we lucked out and got to eat outside.

Analee getting up from the picnic blanket.

Miriam with a strawberry thumb.

Then we smashed a homemade piñata.

Gwen getting a blindfold-free, plastic bat turn.

Rebekah, being the oldest kid there, had to be the last in line. And when she hit it hard enough to knock it off the rope on her first contact, she was sorely disappointed that I allowed Miriam to finish the job while the piñata was on the ground.

Then we brought the party inside for present unwrapping and cake.

Unwrapping her transforming ninja turtle from Grandma and Grandpa Scott. I love this girl--sometimes she's such a pretty princess, and other times she plays like a tomboy. She loves ninja turtles, pirates, Star Wars and a bunch of other "boyish" stuff. 

Holding up the Barbie clothes she got from Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis. The one on the right is an astronaut outfit. The funny thing is, the space suit will only fit on Barbies (not Ken dolls), but the helmet wouldn't go on any of her Barbies because they all had SO MUCH HAIR ... but it WILL fit Ken. We solved the helmet problem by giving one Barbie a shoulder-length bob.

Rushing back to the present locale with gifts in hand.

Seth working out the transforming turtle while Analee, Miriam, Bennet, Cooper and Rebekah watch.

The birthday banner Rebekah and Analee made for Miriam's birthday.

They asked her what her favorite color is, and when she replied, "Rainbow," her sisters made sure her name was in precisely that color.

 

Miriam also received a Barbie Lego set from Cooper; wooden blocks, dress-up shoes and a Jake and the Neverland Pirates play set from us; a Barbie book/miniature play set from Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis; and a Frozen kite, Sofia the First coloring set and Minnie paint set from Bennet. (Winnie immediately claimed the Frozen kite as her own ... because FROZEN!)

Then came the cake.

Look familiar? Maybe because this is the fourth version of this cake that I've made.

Miriam licking frosting off the mermaid Barbie after blowing out her five candles.

We love this smart, funny, beautiful 5-year-old!

Miri-ism #33

This conversation took place while Miri and I were on our daddy/daughter date.

Miriam: Dad, I have been worried lately that we haven't been following the prophet.
Me: Wow, okay, what do you mean? How do you feel we haven't been following the prophet?
Miriam: I don't even know where he is! Where is that guy going all the time?

Miri-ism #32

Seth explaining how geocaching works to Miriam before taking her out on a daddy-daughter date.

Seth: And you have to keep your eyes open to find the treasure.
Miri: But I have to blink sometimes!

Gwenism #8

At Grandpa Wirkus' place watching Wild Kratts on PBS.

Andrea: Are you like an anteater, Winnie? Do you like to eat bugs?
Gwen: No! Because they will be angry in my mouth!

Spring break

My lovely cousin Annie got married in Utah the Friday before our spring break officially started, so we decided to pull the girls out of school a day early to attend the event and start our spring break a little early.

On Friday, we attended all the nuptial festivities. The wedding was lovely, the luncheon was yummy, and the reception was ... hard to find.

 Miriam thought we should pull funny faces for Grandpa Scott's camera while we were waiting outside the temple for the newlyweds.

Seth chasing Winnie around the temple grounds.

Andrea, Winnie, Seth, Analee and Aunt Jessica sitting on the bench after the big group photo. When we realized we weren't needed any more, we went to the hotel, then over to the luncheon.

Since this was the only problem we encountered on the trip, it's something we can laugh about now. But as our GPS tried to lead us through locked gates in uppity neighborhoods that eventually led to a residence and definitely NOT a reception center (the address on the invitation, as we found out, was for the owner's house and not the event center), as we tried calling others at the reception center to give us directions only to get more confused, as we pulled into a church parking lot to use the wifi for looking up the reception center only to plug that into the GPS and get directed to another gated community, tensions were running high. Seth and I, in our frustration, raised our voices to each other, and Miriam calmly told us that if we were going to yell at each other, we shouldn't have gotten married. That led us to apologize and forgive (which was easier to do once the guard in the gate house gave us directions and allowed us to drive through the neighborhood to reach our destination). We got to the reception an hour later than planned, but the brownies and ice cream made up for it.

Saturday we went swimming in the hotel pool, then headed to the aquarium in Draper.

Seth and the girls at the interactive water wall.

Seth and the girls (Analee is hiding behind Rebekah) walking across the rope bridge.

Rebekah taking pictures in the viewing bubble.

Inside the shark tube.

After the aquarium, we grabbed some lunch and met up with Aunt Melissa, Uncle Kent and their girls at the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.

Analee and Rebekah pedaling to give power to a row of lights.

Miriam playing in the water.

Seth and Kent watching Winnie and Emma playing at the toddler water table.

Ana wearing a water smock.

Then we followed Kent and Melissa to their apartment and met up with Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis who had come for the weekend. They watched the kids while Seth, Kent, Melissa and I went out for a yummy Thai dinner and Coldstone ice cream.

On Sunday, we drove back down to Kent and Melissa's and attended their stake conference with them. Then we left Winnie at their house so she could take a nap, and the rest of our family went north to Temple Square.

Cute girls (and a Barbie) outside the Conference Center.

Looking out the waterfall window during our tour of the Conference Center.

In the auditorium, someone was playing the organ. Miriam thought it was a little too loud.

I was going to pose with the girls on Temple Square, then commented on how my lips were probably black from eating the unwanted jelly beans left by the girls. They wanted to see how black my mouth was.

Silly picture on Temple Square.

On Monday,  we took the girls to the zoo. We thought it might have been bad planning to go to the zoo on the coolest day of our trip, but it turned out to be really good--there weren't as many people at the zoo, and the animals were quite active.

Analee with the gorilla statue.

The absolute cutest animal in the entire zoo.

Andrea, Winnie and Miriam on the carousel. The two younger girls were too wary of the up-and-down animals to ride any of them.

Seth and the girls looking at seals and sea lions.

Miriam the bear.

Winnie sizing her foot up.

The lion showing off his incisors while Analee watches.

In all, the trip was a success. We saw my both sides of the family, we entertained the girls with sightseeing, and nobody got sick, lost or maimed.

To see more photos, click here.

Random cuteness

Sometimes these sisters like to dress up as silly princesses.

Winnie models her Sunday outfit in February.

Complete with heart tights!

Miriam and Gwendolen are good sports about going to the older girls' elementary school all the time. This time, it was for their AR/AM assembly.

This time, it was so I could spend two hours shooting pictures for the yearbook.

We like to visit Grandpa Wirkus at his house and eat all his huckleberry ice cream. Rebekah was dishing up for everyone.

Winnie playing in the toy basket and Grandpa's.

Miriam with her toy setup in Grandpa's family room.

Winnie giving Grandpa a hug goodbye.

Analee showing off the dandelion she found in Grandpa's yard.

Post V-day couple's retreat

Rather than having an extravagant Valentine's Day, Seth and I had a delayed couple's trip at the end of February. We stayed in Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin again and went cross-country skiing at Harriman.

We found out that a race was being held at the state park the day we happened to be there, so we tried staying clear of it by going around the Silver Lake loop. Unfortunately, we discovered that the trail isn't groomed, and the recent thaw and freeze had made most of the trail risky at best.

After Seth fell for the seventh time (Andrea fell twice), we decided to take off the skis.

This is how we made it around the west side of Silver Lake.  What a manly man, carrying two pairs of skis.

Couple selfie.

After clearing the lake and making it back onto groomed trails, we joined the race just in time to cross the finish line. We thought we could skirt around it, but that wasn't a possibility as the trail funneled everyone to the cow bell-ringing crowd. 

Skiing only lasted for the first half of the day, so we went back to the cabin, watched a movie, took a nap (me), played games (Seth while I napped), watched another movie, ate dinner and went to bed. Pretty awesome stuff. 

We packed everything up the following morning and arrived at our church back in I.F. in time for stake conference. Our parents had taken turns watching the girls while we were away, and Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis got all the girls ready Sunday morning and met us in the chapel.

Miri-ism #31

Miriam describes some of her antics from the last time she visited a friend's house.

Andrea: You're a funny girl, Miriam.
Miriam: I know. That's why I was born: to make people laugh.