My happy list

Five things that made me happy this weekend:

1. A successful Primary activity. We did an "I Am a Child of God/Plan of Salvation" activity Saturday morning, and had our best turnout ever (at least since I've been president). We had 50 of our approximately 60 active kids there! We have never had more than 40 kids at an activity previously. The kids decorated frames with their name, the words I Am a Child of God, and fun embellishments (jewels, seashells, foam shapes, etc). The kids loved them! I had previously taken pics of each child and had them printed already, so they were each able to take home a framed picture of themselves. Connor's didn't put much on his frame, but he loved it:

We also moved between rooms and did fun games/activities for each stage of the plan of salvation. It must have been effective, because Connor was telling us all about parts of the plan of salvation yesterday, including asking Isabel, "what happens when we die?" And she replied, "um, we take a bath?" Clearly her answer wasn't correct, so he was telling her about when we die. We didn't go into a lot of detail here, just an overview. This is the stage he has been most interested in. Must be the age!

2. A book club field trip. The was a 2-part outing with the girls in our book club (there are 4 of us). We first went to a home accents sale that is held monthly by my friend's friend at her clubhouse. There were some super cute things, including an area full of fun hair accessories. I've been needing to get more stuff for Isabel's hair, and bought a couple of things, including this super cute flower - she and I both love it:


I also bought this for one of my two new shelves - need to find some flowers to put in it. I love it on the shelf, it really makes me smile:




Part 2 of our book club field trip included going to "The Other Boleyn Girl" movie. We read this book several years ago, and it continues to be one of our all-time favorites. So we had to see the movie, although we had some reservations about the movie meeting our expectations, and the casting (I was concerned about Natalie Portman as Anne, my friend Paula was concerned about Scarlett Johansson as Mary). However, all of our fears were put to rest. It was a FANTASTIC movie. Loved, loved, loved it. Both Anne and Mary were played superbly well, but I think Eric Bana as King Henry takes the cake. He was outstanding. The movie followed the book well (had to cut out a lot though), except for the storyline between Anne and her brother George. And, if you plan to see it, be warned that the beheading scenes are pretty grotesque, in both sight and sound. Overall, though, absolutely loved it! It can be so sketchy going from book to film, but it more than worked for me!
3. A successful new babysitter experience. I have pretty much been using the same two young women as our kids' babysitters since Connor was a baby. However, they are both seniors, about to graduate. Very sad about this. However, one of them has several sisters, and her 15-year-old sister babysat while I went shopping/to the movie yesterday (Brian had to work), and she was GREAT. The kids loved her and the house was very clean when I got home. Whew!

4. Cute new fun shirt. Total Melissa style and color, and perfect for spring!

5. Putting up Easter decorations. OK, I know it's only 2 weeks away. But it's hard when Easter's in March, esp. when it's 70 here one day and snowing the next. Connor and Isabel loved putting the little ornaments on this Easter tree:
And one of my favorite Easter decorations. I made it 10 years ago when I was really into the cross-stitch thing. A majority of crafts I made 10 years ago no longer work for me, but I continue to find delight in this little cross-stitched chick and bunny in bright springy frames: