My wallpaper came FedEx on Monday and the rest of the week was just trying to open up enough time to work on it whenever I could.  I discovered that things went much more smoothly when I had my favorite partner to help me, the handsome and talented, Kevin B.  It was a very busy week.  We ran out of wallpaper before we finished, of course, but we are mostly done and the furniture is back in their places so we have all the living space back.  Yay!  I even put up curtains and think it looks quite elegant . . . except for the fake countryside scene I hung over the far window, but I just couldn't help it.  Every room needs a bit of my eclectic touch or it just wouldn't be mine!  I still need to put the pictures back up, too.

BEFORE. . .

. . . AFTER

I also taught Joy School this week.  Yay!  Ben and I learned about the joy of confidence and uniqueness.  We learned why they are all unique and I made six pages for each of them for their "About Me" books.  We were not bored during our Joy School hours but we did get it all done and I am very proud of myself!  In other news, Ben scratched his cornea on Sunday and wouldn't go anywhere without a wet rag on his eye.  I went to a doctor on Monday but it didn't help.  Mercifully, Tuesday he started acting normally again.  We also picked up his new glasses on Friday -- a little far-sightedness with a lot of astigmatism for the curious few.  He looks pretty manly in his new specs!

Bethany continues to read me her books and practice Chinese with her dad.  She likes to get out Megan's red high heels and "practice" her high-heeled walking.

Cheyenne and Calianne had their Up With Kids performance this week!  They performed twice. Once on Thursday morning and again early Saturday afternoon.  They did a great job and sang and danced and cracked jokes for the audience.  They even got trophies.  They've had a great time doing it and it was fun to see the show!

Mariah had a couple of basketball games and her Schaper practice was in Saratoga Springs, a 40 minute drive!!!  She had track all week, too, and in the track meet on Saturday ran against one of her good friends from basketball.  Mariah led the whole race only to get beat out by her in the last stretch!  Don't worry.  The rivalry will live on!  They will race many more times in their athletic experiences for sure.

Megan went to prom this week!  It's sure a good thing that I finished altering her dress last week.  It wouldn't have gotten done this week!  She's been busy with track and school and orchestra.  She had a track meet on Wednesday and on Saturday.  Saturday morning she also had another orchestra festival.  It was a very busy day for her as it was also the day of prom!  She went with her friend, Josh, from the track team and they even got to ride in a limo!  How fun!

On the dress, I added the cute sleeves (although Meg envisioned them) and the front panel and a back panel that you can't see.  The dress was too long when we bought it so I shortened it and used the fabric I cut off to make the additions at top.  Wasn't that fortuitous??  I look at it and think that I'm super awesome!  But, truthfully, it was really not hard.  Megan loved how it twirled.  That's really everything you need to make a little girl's dreams of a great dress come true!

Sarah had tennis on Friday and Saturday and came with us to Cali and Chey's play on Saturday and then went straight to work!  It was hard day for her as the store closed late and it messed up her other plans.  That's rotten, huh?  On Friday night she invited a friend of hers, Jacob, over to dinner.  Kevin also invited Megan's friend, Josh.  It was fun to have some guys at our table!  Thursday night Sarah got to participate in a fashion show for FCCLA.  She needed to model some clothes from the 1950s.  Luckily, I had made a dress from a pattern from 1952 a couple of years ago and she wore that!  They did her make-up and hair at the event and she and her friends looked so cute!  They had so much fun!

Savannah finished finals this week!  Yay!  First year of college all done!  She's been back home the last few days and also brought a couple of her hall friends with her.  They are hanging out here until their road trip begins tomorrow.  Good times!

So . . . that I had time to wallpaper at all is pretty impressive.  Especially since my schedule and Kevin's needed to align more often than Mars and Saturn.  Truly.  We are rock stars.  Blessed rock stars.

Seriously?  Is that crazy or what?  Six little boys gathered at my house to play!  We've had that many (and more!) little girls gathered at our house to play.  We have even had the random boy or two who couldn't find any better group to hang out with, but SIX boys and not a girl in sight?  Never.  I thought it was great!  But I also thought it was great that they could all play outside and not come in. :)  Ben is the little guy on the left with the Batman hat on.  He loves it when his friends come over to play.

Bethany had a good week going back to her dance classes and going back to school.  She was probably the happiest to go back to school because she missed her teachers.  Friday night she called her Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik to see if she could sleep over.  They had a great time with that sweet little girl!

Cali and Cheyenne had their last rehearsal for Up With Kids.  They perform this coming week!  They also had their first softball team practice.  Kevin is coach but a plethora of adult volunteers this year makes it so he has three assistant coaches, or in Kevin's hands: a pitching coach, a batting coach, and a fielding coach.  His assistant coaches played college baseball/softball.  It's going to be a great experience for Cali and Chey!  They also had a "Fashion Disaster" Day at school.  I thought they looked great!

Mariah had her first practice with the Schapers team.  They practiced for two hours and Kevin watched.  He said the coach had a whistle and ran the practice like clockwork.  Mariah said it felt kind of like being in the army!  She also played in games on Monday and Thursday with other teams.  She had another track meet on Friday and placed first in the mile!  She babysat Saturday night and afterwards had fun with her sisters watching a movie together.

Megan had track practice all week and also got to go to a Chinese festival at BYU during one of her days at school.  Her team placed second in character recognition!  She and Josh went to the temple together to do baptisms Friday afternoon.  I'm thinking she's pretty lucky because I've been working all week on her prom dress--adding sleeves and panels front and back!

Sarah worked several times this week and is everyone's favorite person with whom to work!  (Okay.  Not everyone.  But really close!)  We can see why since we love having her here at home, too.  She had tennis on Friday and came to the play of one of my Beehives on Saturday afternoon--as did Megan, Mariah, and friend, Jessica.  It was fun!

Savannah's friend, Miranda, came home from her mission a couple of weeks ago and their reunion was full of hugs and squealing!  It's been fun to see them together again.  Savannah finished up classes this week and will take her finals in the next few days!  She wrote a poem about bearing up and finishing well and she distributed her poem all over campus!

Kevin continues to be healthy and look amazing and keep up a blazing pace!  We will be glad when these classes he is teaching on Wednesday and Thursday nights are done, though!

I worked on Megan's dress and worked on my novel and my short story and despaired of my wallpaper ever arriving from FedEx.  I miss, miss, miss having a front room and a house that can occasionally be all put together tidy and lovely-like.  *sigh* Just a little longer, Katy.  You'll manage!  Lol!

For Easter Sunday, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's house for an Easter/birthday celebration.  We celebrated Grandma's birthday, Todd's birthday, and Benjamin's birthday all together!  We had delicious food and enjoyed visiting Todd and his boys Bryen and Brady, too, since we don't get to see them very often.  As always, it's wonderful to be with Grandma and Grandpa, too!

Savannah brought three of her friends from her dorm, too, since they all needed something special to do on Easter!  It was fun to have all of them!

The next day started spring break for us!  Our big plans for the break was not a trip, though.  Our big plans were to paint the front room and the hallway!!  Yay!  It sounds like an easy project, right?  Like, probably we could be done on Monday, right?  Maybe Tuesday.  Awww, no, no, no, my dears.  The walls under the wallpaper were not smooth enough for paint.  And then there was all that trim!  Baseboards, crown molding, doors, windows . . . EEgads!!  Still we managed to accomplish a lot and there's no discounting all that family bonding time!

 

 

We did finish the hallway.  We added texture with tissue paper and it was plenty of work, but looks nice.  Here are some before and after pics!

Before . . .

 

Sarah warned him that she was going to take a picture of his first view of the finished hallway.

We've decided to wallpaper the front room and are waiting for the paper to arrive before we can finish things up.  In the mean time, the kids have decorated the walls for us.  Clearly, permission to write on the walls has been one of the highlights of their childhood.  Who needs wallpaper?  All I need are sharpies and crayons.

Thursday was Benjamin's birthday!  So we took some time off to have a pirate birthday party at the park.  Ben had six friends come and we made pirate ships and ate cupcakes and Cali and Cheyenne took them on a treasure hunt and played other pirate games with them!  It was super fun and Ben said, "It's my best birthday party ever!"  Which made us laugh since it is his first one ever! 

This is Beth modeling one of Ben's presents -- a disguise kit.  So clever!

Ben opened presents from his family later!

Kevin took Friday off and we actually did some fun stuff!  The day was gorgeous and we had an energetic family softball game!  I'm glad we made time for it.  It's one of our favorite things to do!

 

I didn't get time to write an update last week!  Easter Sunday was full, full, full and so was everyday of spring break afterward!  So, here is a brief recap:

Megan had two track meets, an orchestra concert, and orchestra festival.  She also had tests in four of her seven classes.  It was her most stressful week of the year!  Her concert was beautiful and she made it through it all with flying colors!  She wouldn't let me take a picture of her at her concert, though.

Mariah had her last game with her dad as coach!  She also had a two-day tryout for a private club that will play throughout the summer.  She made it (no surprise there) and it should be a great experience.  She had her first track meet of the year on Friday and did great!

Cheyenne and Calianne had their choir concert on Monday and sang great!  My favorite was when they sang "Grandma's Feather Bed" by John Denver!

Bethany performed in the first grade talent show at Sage Creek!  She played "Row, Row your boat" on the piano and did great.  Her class also learned a "waltz" and performed it together.  It was so, so cute!  Beth had a great time!

On Saturday, we decorated eggs, of course.  We were tending some children for a friend, so we even had some littlies with us!

 We had our Easter egg hunt the next day between sessions of conference.  The older kids hid eggs for the younger ones and then the younger hid eggs for the older!