Cowbell Comedy

Last night, Peter and I watched the "20 Greatest Moments of SNL (Saturday Night Live)".  My very favorite skit was showcased at #5... the cowbell skit.  As I sat and laughed, I was reminded of why I probably love this particular skit. 

 

Growing up, I played percussion in band.  I always felt so lucky to only have to tote my drumsticks around when I saw my fellow band members carrying their trumpet or tuba cases on and off the bus.  I was very small and knew I wouldn't be able to handle such band case monstrosities on a daily basis.  

In Junior High (specifically the 7th grade), we were able to march as a band in the Puyallup Daffodil parade.  Little did I realize that I would not only have to carry my drumsticks throughout the parade route, but a huge drum draped across me as well.  I ended up being much to small to carry any of the drums and my percussion pride was crushed when I was given the cowbell to beat on instead.  Worst of all, I was placed on the very end of the percussion line (because of my height deficiency) so that the whole world (or at least town) could see my mad cowbell skills.  Apparently I needed a little humility and I sure learned some that day in the parade.  

My pride, however, returned when I saw this SNL skit and how awesome the cowbell truly is... I mean if Will Ferrell and Christopher Walkin think the cowbell is a necessity, then boy was I an integral part of the parade that day.  I actually think the songs could have used a little more cowbell :)!

Here's the clip for anyone who has never seen it or for those who can never get enough (ahem Scott, Dave and Jen :)):

Great Graduate

Another defining moment in our lives (and proof that time flies)... Dallin graduated from preschool last week.  After 2 1/2 years of attending 1-2-3 Learn, he has decided to move on to the big world of Kindergarten (ok, he doesn't really have a choice).  

The preschool graduation ceremony was adorable and it was so sweet to see my Dallin lead everyone in the pledge of allegiance and rock out on the guitar for the "Shake, Rattle and Rock" song.  Dallin memorized a part for the program but was skipped when it came his turn...he didn't realize that his teachers had changed his part to the pledge of allegiance.  My sweet tender-hearted son sat on the front row trying so hard to hold back his tears (as did his very pregnant mom).  His wonderful teachers felt horrible and made up for it by giving his reading skills quite a bit of hype when they handed him his diploma... it seemed to help him forget his other woes.  

Here are some graduation pics:

A really poor-quality photo of Dallin in the graduation procession line

Dallin waiting in his performance spot 

Giving the graduation welcome and asking everyone to rise for the pledge of allegiance.  He proceeded to lead the audience in the pledge of allegiance.

Receiving his preschool diploma and report card from his teachers, 

Ms. Carol and Miss Melissa

Present 1-2-3 Learn graduate, his teacher (Ms. Carol) and a future 

1-2-3 Learn preschooler (Claire starts in August)!

After the program, we got some frozen yogurt at White Lime (YUM!) with Brother and Sister Cherry (who were so kind to come to the graduation and support their friend Dallin :)) and the Durst family.  What a great night!

We are so proud of our wonderful, smart, kind and ambitious son... congratulations Dallin!

Anniversary Eight

Peter and I had our eighth wedding anniversary on the 17th.  

Here is how we celebrated (very last minute):

We have had Spafinder gift certificates sitting in our "fun" file 

for about 2 years and decided to finally use them at the 

Mandara Spa at Disney's Grand Californian hotel.  Fabulous!!

After our massages, we went right next door to dinner at Napa Rose.  The food was incredible and the company even better.

After we stuffed ourselves with delicious food, we headed over to a very 

crowded Disneyland park where we rode the Matterhorn 

(I know, shame, shame on this pregnant girl).  In line, we realized that 

our camera was missing so (after riding the ride) we retraced 

our steps back to the restaurant where we luckily found it.  

We then decided to call it a night (a really nice and relaxing one).

Happy 8th Anniversary to the man that I love and adore more and more as the years pass by...

Winner's Circle

Congratulations to the PIF exchange winners! I put the numbers 1-8 on a paper and had Dallin circle three of the numbers (representing the order of comments on our blog).  He chose #'s 5, 7, and 8, so congrats to:

JULE

CHELSEA

ELISA

I am looking forward to creating something fabulous (hopefully) for you... I'll be in touch!  

Pay it Forward

Just for the record, I am not one of those people that wins contests on the radio or random drawings at baby showers.  I did, however, win this:

My very talented friend, Lynette, made this with her amazing Photoshop skills and I received it in the mail Saturday as a result of a PIF (pay it forward) contest.  I am so excited to frame this beauty and put it up... thanks Lynette for the beautiful picture and for breaking my losing streak :)!  I am excited to be the next one to Pay It Forward...

Here's how it works:

I will send a handmade gift to three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog (so you must have a blog to participate). Here's a quick glance back on the Pay It Forward Gift Exchange...

From Jodie's hands to Natalie
From Natalie's hands to Holly
From Holly's hands to Emily

From Emily's hands to Lynette
And now, from Lynette's hands to mine...

How fun! Let's Pay It Forward and give each other gifts just because! Comments must be submitted before Saturday, June 21st as I will announce the winners this weekend (winners will be picked at random).  

Good luck!

Father Figure

See this man:

He is one INCREDIBLE father!  Here is some proof:

1- He has gotten up with Claire every night since she was born just because he loves to be by her.

2- When he gets home from work, he immediately sheds his suit and puts on his "play clothes".  He then runs outside with the kids to play baseball, go on a bike-riding adventure, or clean up the yard with them.

3- When he leaves for work, the kids run to the front window to yell (literally) "I LOVE YOU" over and over again to him as he drives off.

4- He is a kid himself and would rather play at the park, go swimming with the kids, or sword fight with Dallin than do anything else.

5- He always says "family first" and lives by this no matter what comes his way.

6- He works so hard to provide for our family, but will drop it all to attend an early baseball game on a Tuesday.

7- He teaches our children with such love and patience.

8-He disciplines our children with such love and patience.

9- Wherever we go, kids literally swarm to him (cause he is so much fun).

10- Whenever Claire is sad, tired, or gets hurt, she immediately cries for her "Gaga" (Dada) whether he is there or not.

11-He makes up the funniest stories, songs and games with the kids (my favorite was a couple of weeks ago when we had lunch at the Olive Garden.  The kids were getting restless and so Peter told them to get under the table and hide from the Olive Garden monster.  When Peter and I would stomp our feet, that meant the monster was getting closer.  They loved this.  The game got better when the waitress brought over the chocolate mints.  If the kids knocked on the table, the monster would get scared and would "poop" a mint down to them.  They didn't want to leave:)). 

12- When he first walks through the door home from work, the kids quickly hide somewhere in the house and Peter goes on a funny journey to find them.

13- He has sacrificed many parts of "Peters" life to make the lives of our children incredible.

14- When Dallin is at preschool, he often has office dates with Claire (she gets to go all by herself to his work and spend an hour or so with Dada coloring in his office or throwing pennies with him in the fountain outside). 

15- He is an unbelievable patriarch and spiritual leader in our home.

16- He has always changed just as many diapers as I have.

17- He has way more positive interactions with our kids than negative ones...that is why they are so secure and adore him so much!

18- He is hilarious and has our kids "belly-laughing" often.

19- I will never forget the look on his face each time I have told him that we were expecting... pure happiness.

20- He is such a great example to our kids of how a man should live, how he should love his wife, what kind of man Dallin should strive to be and what kind of man Claire should look for.

Today on "Music and the Spoken Word", I heard this quote: 

"Fatherhood has the potential to make you better than you are." Peter has always been a wonderful man, and it is true that fatherhood has made him even better... 

Happy Father's Day to one amazing Dad!

Cookie Bird

Dallin played his first season of baseball these past few months and LOVED it.  He played on the 'Orioles' team and was the #1 (the coaches lined them up from shortest to tallest and handed the jerseys out that way from #1-#10...definitely a teeny Waldron).  When people asked what team he was on, he would reply "the Orioles...it's a bird, not a cookie (ie: Oreos)."  His team did really well, had awesome coaches and he really improved.  Here are some highlights:

The trophy from the baseball carnival and pizza party tonight definitely made this baseball season perfect for this little 5 year old Oriole.  Can't wait to see what next year's baseball season will bring (hopefully a better team color :)).

Farm Fruit

I woke up this morning to notice a huge blank day on my calendar... quite rare these days.  What to do, what to do.  At about 9:30 a.m., my kids were restless and I was racking my brain trying to find a creative solution.  I found an idea online, called one of Dallin's buddies (Jake) to join us on our journey, packed the kids in the car and we were off to Victoria's Gardens.  It's past San Diego and ended up being this quaint little farm with a bouncy slide, pony rides, train ride, petting zoo and best of all...strawberry fields to pick at!  The kids had a great time riding the ponies and train, and the boys could not get enough of the big bouncy slide.  Best of all, we were the only ones there.  After a lot of playing and petting animals, we washed our hands and began to fill up our individual strawberry buckets.  I think this was the highlight for these kids.  The journey to this farm was longer than I realized, so I don't when we will return again, but for today it was perfect!

Claire riding Clyde

Dallin and Jake loving the bouncy slide

Filling up their strawberry buckets

Love Linds

Happy Birthday today to one of my favorite people!  If you don't know Lindsay, most likely you will someday (she's fabulously social and fun) and are missing out for the time being.  She is so full of love, compassion, wisdom, happiness and, therefore, is an amazing friend.  I'm so grateful for her example and friendship...Happy Birthday Linds!

Pirate Party

Just imagine:

- getting some of your best buddies together for your birthday (or 1/2 birthday if you're an unfortunate Waldron child with a Christmas birthday)

- spending the entire day being pirates

- riding rides, sword fighting on an island, finding treasure, exploring caves, eating pizza & ice cream...all in the same day with a brand new pirate sword in your hand

- spending the whole day together at the "Happiest Place on Earth" (ie: Disneyland)!

Not a bad birthday party for a 5 1/2-year old boy!  

Prepare yourselves for some cute pirates:

Dallin, Trevor, Jake & Jack in front of a pirate ship

In their own row on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (went 2x)

Tough pirates in line for Pirates in front of a pirate :)

Dallin's birthday party...he just wanted pizza and ice cream (and was embarrassed as we sang to him)

In the pirate bones ball on Tom Sawyers Island

Cute (or as they said: cool) friends

Peter was so fun with these boys running around having sword fights and making airplane formations...such a fun Daddy Pirate

After a long and fun day together, Dallin opened his presents in the trunk of our car (ie: the Black Pearl)

Thanks to all the buccaneers who came and made this such a fun and memorable day for Capt. Dallin.  He loved the birthday loot you gave him and "treasures" your friendship.  Thank you also to the Crump ladies for all the help and company!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Dallin!

FYI: to any of you who are confused by us celebrating our child's 1/2 birthday in such a way, we need to explain.  Dallin's REAL birthday is Dec. 26 and we are usually gone for the holidays so he never has a friend party (and no one really wants one more thing to attend during that time of year anyway).  We allow our kids to have a family birthday and a friend birthday party and we usually celebrate the latter on their 1/2 birthdays.  There have to be some perks to having such an awful birthdate :)!

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday today to an incredible Dad and Papa!  What a blessing this man is in our lives. 

My children talk about their Papa on a daily basis, hoping the knock at the door will be him or wishfully hoping he will meet us at Disneyland for the day.  

How grateful we are for his example of love, dedication, hard-work and fun (he really is a blast!).  

He would do anything for his family and we all reap the benefits of that regularly. 

He treats my mom with such love and respect and that has been one of the greatest blessings in our family.

He is so self-less, always thinking of others first.  

Everywhere he goes and every calling he serves in, people fall in love with him.  

He taught seminary years ago and his students still call, visit and adore him.  

If any of us accomplish something (even something very small) he is the first to send a hand-written card telling us how proud he is of us.  

He sends packages to my kids randomly filled with stickers, candy and anything else that they love.  

He is so in-tune with the Spirit and is an incredible patriarch of our family.  

He puts together the best General Conference packets!

He always had the most fun family home evening ideas growing up and made life so enjoyable (airplane rides in the morning, well-planned family vacations, pop-goes-the-weasel in the pool, glasses half on half off, letting us go to seminary with him on donut day, awesome holiday decorations, magic tricks, etc, etc, etc.).  

My kids are so lucky to have him for a Papa.  I had a hard time finding a picture of him without one of them in his arms.  

I'm so grateful for such an amazing example.  We Hinckley kids often talk about how blessed we are to have this man for a father and we honor him on this special day.  We sure do love you Dad/Papa!

Happy Birthday!

Avalon Adventure

For Memorial Day, we decided to go on a family adventure to Catalina Island (Avalon) and spend the day basking in the beautiful island weather, enjoying the 1 1/2 hour boat ride there and back, renting a small boat of our own to find out that Dallin is an awesome driver, and strolling the darling streets checking out pirate loot and eating ice cream.  It was a wonderful day (minus a few toddler problems) and we even made a new friend in Oliver the otter!  Great day.

Claire taking all safety precautions on the boat to Catalina Island

On the top deck of the Catalina Flyer

We saw this cute otter swimming in the ocean.  Claire kept calling for him and he kept coming towards her.  She was thrilled and named him Oliver.

Loving their life-jackets

Captain Dallin doing doughnuts on the ocean (and riding the wakes of the other boats)

Pete having a great time "driving" the boat (ten and two babe, ten and two)

A fantastic day on a beautiful island!