Happy Birthday Dad!

We enjoyed a nice dinner at Red Robin. With our birthday coupon for a free entree and the monster dessert on the house, we saved big and Steven (the frugal accountant) was able to enjoy his birthday dinner all the more. Notice Steen in the picture trying to dive into the cake before dad.

Luckily he got lots of milkshake and learned how to suck out of a straw.

The girls also had lots of fun and said this was the best dad birthday ever. I asked them if they liked it better than when mom made dinner at home and they said "yeah, because we got milkshakes!" I hope they are always this easy to please.

What a great helper!

Steen loves to help. I had to capture the moment as he started unloading the dishwasher all by himself! (I had left it open for the girls to unload.) Luckily, it just involved throwing plastic cups and bowls into a drawer, but he did it soooo well. What is even more amazing is that he did all this while standing on the wall...OK, so I was just too lazy to go back and edit them. ;-)

On a scary note, later on in the evening after the dishwasher had dirty dishes in it, he started trying to put those away too. Thanks for the help Steen, but no thanks!

The Joy of Music

Michaela has been busy with her music, especially this last week. Today she played a solo of I know That My Redeemer Lives in sacrament meeting and did a wonderful job. She said it was "fun". If only I could have played the violin like her...NO FEAR. I used to shake so hard they said it was natural vibrato.
Yesterday, she played in a music federation festival on the piano. She played two songs for the judges and played very well in her primer category. She earned a 39/40...we're just proud that she had fun and did so well.
Andrea is watching her big sister and asking when she gets to do what Michaela is doing. Even Steen wants a part of the action. He always manages to climb up to any piano and start playing...even in the middle of sacrament meeting. Although he has never been able to actually play his solo in sacrament, I've had to chase after him a couple of times when he suddenly escapes, including in the middle of prayer! It's fun having a musical family. Maybe if I can figure out how to post a recording I'll put up a demo of Michaela or Andrea playing.