Classic example of mommy/5-year-old miscommunication

It was a normal bedtime for Jacey... jammies, potty, brush teeth, scriptures, prayers, read a book, tuck her in. Her latest thing is that when we're tucking her in she loves for us to lay by her and tell her a story, usually about when someone in our family got married. This particular night she asked about Grandma and Grandpa Johnston. So I started the whole story... Grandma and Grandpa met, fell in love, he went to Vietnam, they wrote letters, he asked her to meet him in Hawaii for his R&R, Grandma and her sisters flew to Hawaii to meet him, Grandpa asked Grandma to marry him, he went back to war and she went home to plan the wedding. Such a romantic story, don't you think? Well, Jacey did. But she was very interested in what Grandma had to do to plan the wedding. So I explained that she had to find a dress, pick her colors, pick her flowers, call the temple, etc. Jacey asked, "What colors did she choose?" "Pink" "What kind of flowers?" "Umm... I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure there were some roses." This started the whole conversation about how much Jacey LOVES roses, especially pink ones. Then comes the important part of the conversation:

Jacey: "Well, I want to use pink roses too."
Me: "I think that's a good choice. Pink roses are very pretty."
Jacey: "Where will we find enough of them?"
Me: "We'll probably have to go to a florist."
Jacey: "What if they don't have enough?"
Me: "Well, they might have to send out for them."
Jacey: "Oh, you mean they could bring my pink roses in by the truckload?"
Me: "Um...sure." (While thinking to myself how it's a good thing I have at least 15 years to help her think more realistically"
Jacey: "I even know what I want my cake to look like."
Me: "Oh yeah? What do you want it to look like?"
Jacey: "We'll bake 10 cakes, then stack them all on top of each other, and pile pink roses on the top of it."
Me: "Wow, that's a lot of cake. That sounds beautiful."
Jacey: "Well, I'm going to have a lot of people there! And I want pink roses on every table.... and on every chair too.
Me: "It's a good thing we'll have truckloads of roses."
Jacey: "Yeah, and I want to super-glue the petals together and make a string of pink roses to hang between all of the trees. And I'll give pink roses to everyone when they get to the park."
Me: "Oh, are you going to have your wedding reception at the park?"
Jacey: (rolling her eyes and giving me the 'moms can be so silly' look) Mo-om! I'm not talking about when I get married! I'm talking about my 6-year-old birthday party!

So- if anyone has any ideas how I can gently break the news to my sweet girl who just can't imagine a birthday party without truckloads of pink roses, I would love to hear them. We have some time, (her birthday's not until September) but when she makes up her mind about something, she doesn't usually forget. Otherwise, I will be taking donations for Jacey's "Pink Rose Birthday Party" fund! :)

LICENSED!!

Just as we were all starting to hold our breath, Dan's license to start practicing came just in time! I don't know what exactly we were expecting for a timeline to apply for the state exam, take the test, send it in, and receive a license, but it certainly wasn't 2 1/2 months! Dan's parents are leaving on Monday for a long-awaited 2-week trip to France, and they chose the dates they did because they knew that Dan should be practicing and up-to-speed enough to cover for his Dad for those 2 weeks. We were all starting to get a little nervous that they were going to have to close the office during their trip, but prayers are answered! We may have cut it close (really close...with only a few days to spare!) but that doesn't matter now. We are thrilled, and Dan is excited to finally start to build up the practice and bring in his own patients.

Thank Heaven for Little Girls!

Jacey has been such a trooper for the past couple of months. She moved away from

a whole group of friends, preschool, soccer, and dance class to an area where she doesn't really know anyone or have any of those activities (yet). But she has still been happy and for the most part hasn't complained. We had our first playdate with a cute little friend a couple days ago, and Jacey LOVED it. They played so well all day, and we hated to send her home. Jacey is thrilled that Kiana is going to start doing Busy Bee Preschool with us. Even though it won't be as big of a group as we had before, it will certainly be more fun for Jacey that it is when it's just me and her!

One more trip....

Father and sons snowmobile trip!

Jacey and Lily

One thing about waiting for Dan's license is that we've had lots of time on our hands for short little road trips! A couple weeks ago we went to see ANOTHER new niece (yes, the Sillito family had a baby boom this year!) and her family in Eastern Washington. We always have fun visiting them and look forward to doing it more often now that we're closer. Dan and his dad, his brother, and our brother-in-law took Brent's snowmobiles out on Friday for a boys-only all afternoon ride, which Dan LOVED. Us girls had a relaxing day at their house holding cute little Abby and watching our kids have so much fun playing together. Lily is full of personality and her and Jacey had a great time. Friday night was the kids traditional trip to the fire station where firefighter Uncle Brent showed them all the firetrucks and let them climb in. Overall it was a weekend packed with fun, and it only cost a tank of gas!