Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

The last week of school is always filled with lots of excitement as we all anticipate lazy mornings and summer vacations. I get almost as giddy as my kids about that summer flexibility, but this year felt a bit different for me.

Saying goodbye to the quirky, fun, and wonderful Ms. Martha (right) was kind of  tough. She's had Reese, Claire, and now Everett for preschool, and we're sad Leah will never get the chance to be in her class. She radiates love for these kids!

Ms. Sheila & Ms. Martha

Claire had 2 years at Landmark Academy, and while I'll admit to not getting super attached to the school, Claire ended up with such a sharp, tender-hearted teacher. She was chill and mellow, and I didn't know how to read her at first, but she helped Claire learn by leaps and bounds.  Quite often throughout the year she would also have the kids write notes to each other filled with compliments... which I thought was one of the best lessons of all.

Claire & Kaylee

Ms. Makelky

Reese has been at Second Creek since preschool and this somehow made my brain decide that crying like a baby the entirety of our last drive there was something normal to do. It's been a good school to us with some fabulous teachers, some of Reese's dearest friends, and we truly will miss it.

All done!

Tom accuses me of not being sentimental (because I don't hoard random "keepsakes"), but that's really not true. We're super excited for the changes coming our family's way as we will be moving in a few months, but when I think about leaving behind friends, places, and routines, that sentiment is strong.

Bring on the summer fun though, my littles! (May your mother just not lose her mind with all that needs to be done!)

Ain't No Party Like a Pink Eye Party!

There is officially no rhyme or reason to this blog. Thanksgiving? Nah. Christmas? Nah. My children have pink eye? Better get a post up!

If you were disturbed enough for it to make an impression on you, you may recall the time back in 2011 when Tom made a "pink eye cake" for my girls to help cheer them up for all the hand washing and drops they had to get in their eyes.

Well, pink eye has been back in the Bjorkman home all week, so back by popular demand, so is Pink Eye Cake!

 I give you the new and improved 2016 version.....

Now more disturbing than ever!

Fake sad faces....except for Everett, whose face spends half its time this way.

Delish!

Another memorable Pink Eye Party for the books!

Merry Christmas!

(Not staged. Just mad that I told him to stop waving. :) )

Halloween 2015: Bjorkmans Under the Sea

My kids are turned back to humans (Yes, Cynthia. I STILL have your pictures up!), snow is on the ground, and I am officially depressed.



Not really. Too many other fun holidays coming up to be depressed, but oh the JOY that Halloween brings me. Really, when else do I get to shove the people I love most into ridiculous, over-the top costumes?

Believe it or not, the trickiest part involving this family costume was trying to take a picture altogether. Every time we were all dressed up, craziness would ensue....throw-up, tears, you name it. I was a bit of a grouch about getting them taken, but I wasn't about to let all this hard work go un-photographed. The shot above is my little Halloween Miracle.

In attempts to keep the kids down with doing the family theme each year, we switch up which kid is the main character and try to do something they really enjoy. This year was Claire's turn, and although I was hoping to mix it up from Disney, Little Mermaid seemed to be the obvious choice for our Ariel obsessed little lady. Or as we like to call her...Clariel.

Reese was pretty excited for her first time to be the official bad guy. Pinterest pictures, a sewing machine, a Don King wig, and a little creativity helped us pull off this Ursula costume. Way to rock the evil look, Reesey!

"Keep singing!!"

And Everett. Oh my sweet Everett. What a good sport for playing along with this! I told him he could have two costumes this year. One for family and one for preschool. A $2 thriftstore Batman costume did the trick for preschool, but holy smokes did he make the most adorable (and funniest) King Triton there ever was!

Sebastian was not a fan of her hat and had to be bribed with candy to keep it on. She had no issues being shoved in a pot when it was time for pictures though.

I quite enjoyed having her as my sidekick. Or was it me as her sidekick? I always end up with the roles that don't make total sense when I'm not standing next to everyone. I do find it pretty fun to find that random side character to fit in with the crew though....even if it's at the risk of being asked, "Chef Boyardee?" "Ratatouille?" "Can I have some lasagna?"

"Les Poissons. Les Poissons. How I love Les Poissons!"

And finally, we have the handsome Prince Eric. I was quite proud that this typically Mr. Ba-Hum-Halloween-bug went along so nicely with everything this year. He even went out and purchased this punk rocker wig to give it just the right touch of ridiculousness.

I have to admit that after people's sweet comments, I feel such pressure to keep this up each year. I mean, I absolutely love it, but it's gotta end sometime, right? I suppose we'll keep trekking along until I'm all out of ideas, my children start protesting, or I just plain get too tired. But for now, we'll just call this another happy Halloween!

Reese's Puppy Paw-ty

Come. Sit. Stay.

It's Reese's Birthday!

We've done simpler parties the past few years for Reese (pick-a-few-friends-and-let's-go-out type), but she wanted a good old fashioned party at home this year. Puppy themed. Can't believe this was the first time she even thought about this idea. It sure was a fun one, and a great way to celebrate our dog-obsessed girl.

All the darling puppy guests.

Reese H., Reese, Cali, Rachel

E Tom, Leah, Claire, Maile, Abby

+ Bridget

 

 

 

 Food Time

 

PUP-peroni Pizza, PAW-sta Salad, and Toilet Water (blue Hawaiian Punch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Games

Trying to step on (and pop) each other's tails....

Musical Chairs to "Who Let the Dog's Out?"

Losing is Ruff!

 

 

 The kids were all so polite and sweet, and just plain adorable. This was truly one of our smoothest and most fun kid parties, in my opinion.

 

Reese actually told me that her whole birthday was the best one yet. We love you, Reesey-Girl!

Our 2 Year Old!

2 year-old life started off a bit rough for Leah.

She was already awake, but everybody running in, turning on the lights, and singing "happy birthday", was a apparently a bit too much excitement to be greeted with first thing in the morning. I get it, Leah. I had those overly chipper BYU roommates myself. Pretty sure I pretended to fall back asleep too.

 Leah still crying and Everett freshly poked in the eye. Somehow the best we could get.

The sadness was temporary. Running through her birthday balloons, a Wendy's frosty, and time alone at the park with Mommy seemed to brighten up her day just perfectly.

Last year I majorly cut back and only did a cupcake for Leah. Really, just a cupcake. No party. I thought that simplifying would make me happy, but guess what? I hated it. Turns out that I quite enjoy doing fun, creative-birthday things for my kids even at the sacrifice of some of my sanity (and possibly Tom's). I was determined this year that I wanted to do more for her, but realized that we had no good weekend or weeknight to do a big shindig with friends. Plus, we realized we have no friends (only kind of kidding).

Realizing I was sad about this, Tom and I came up with a compromise. I could still do a theme and make it cutesy, but it would be just us. Just our little family of 6 on her birthday. And that turned out being perfectly awesome. Not too much work, and just a slight touch of over the topness to appease me.

Fashion was the theme. This girl is a little more than obsessed with picking out her clothes and REALLY loves dresses and skirts. It can often turn into a full on brawl to get her to wear anything that matches or pants. Unless it's Sunday, then of course she wants to wear pants. So a FASHION PARTY really seemed to be a perfect fit for our little fashionista...

We even included a fashion show where the kids put on accesories behind the curtain and walked out all fancied up. By this point, my parents joined the party via Skype and Leah was completely mesmorized with staring at and talking to them. The other kids got pretty into it though.

Leah finally broke away from skypeing when she got her new doll stroller, and wouldn't let it out of her sight. She'd get mad if anyone (Claire) would touch it and even slept with it in her room that night.

 How beyond happy we are that we've been loving this fun, spunky, hilarious, sweet thing for 2 whole years now!

 Happy birthday, my favorite 2 year old!!!!