Alaina’s 10th B-day “Late-Over”

What the Heck is a "Late-Over"?

It's the kind of party you let your kid have when you don't want a full blown sleep over, but you don't mind hosting the kids till 10 or 11pm before kicking them out.

Alaina opted for a late over Birthday Party this year, with Grandma Rose's house as the venue.

A Relay Race in the back yard started off the night and was a big hit! Go Girls, Go...Faster!

After putting on a lia and a flower in their hair, the girls had to get a hula hoop around their circle twice without letting go of their teammates hands, then end with a Hawaiian hula dance to say that their team had finished the race.

A little craft to kill some time.

After dinner is where the real fun begins...

Ever hear of doing your make-up blind folded. How about doing someone else's make up blindfolded. How about doing someone else's make up blindfolded as fast as you can so that you can pass the baton to the next teammate who in turn paints the next face all sorts of shades of Red, Blue, and Blush, and so on and so on down the line till YOUR TEAM FINALLY WINS THE RACE!!!

Heck Yeah! This was a blast to watch as the girls went nuts on each other in a mad dash to do the best makeover they could in the shortest amount of time possible.

It was funny. Even Dan had to try his hand at it.

Can anyone say "Glamore Shots!"

SCORE!!!!! Alaina gets her own DS from Mom, Dad, and the Kids.

Make a Wish!

And before settling in for a movie in the theater, the girls had to show off the Hannah Montana Hoedown. Some were superstars who had way to much practice for their own good, and others were barely keeping up. But regardless....they were all having a blast.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAINA!

We love you and are glad you had a fun Birthday!

Kase wanted to "MAKE" some money...

Kase's new Motto...

When you don't have any green dollars... MAKE MORE!!

Right before we were heading out the door to run errands Kase went to grab his wallet just in case he wanted to buy something at a store. After noticing he only had coins left in it, and no green dollar bills he came up with a quick solution to the problem.

He grabbed one of his older siblings green dollar bills and headed to the copy machine, to get himself a little spending money. It was like an ATM, as far as he was concerned. 

Seriously.....You should have seen how serious he was about the whole thing. "Mom, can you please cut this out to be the same size as this one" he says as he brings me the scissors and the original bill. 

Dan was in the room and nearly applauded the little stinker for "thinking outside the box" and finding a way to "make money out of thin air". That is the entrepreneur in Dan coming through. BUT.... after explaining what happens to kids who make fake money like that, and how going to jail would really suck for a 5 year old....Kase shrugged and said "Oh, so how can I get some real monies in my wallet. I want to buy something at the errands!?!"

Gotta Love him!

Miamaid’s Crazy Hat… Un-Birthday Party

Tonight for mutual we had an Un-birthday party to celebrate all of the girl's birthday's for the year.

Spring has Sprung!

I have always wanted daffodils in my yard. I think about it every spring when I see all the beautiful tulips, daffodils and other spring flowers starting to bloom in other peoples yards. I think, man I'll have to remember to plant some bulbs this fall so I can have spring flowers growing in my yard. Then next Spring comes and I think "Crappy"!  I never went out and planted in the fall. Shoot! Maybe next fall :(

Well, after only 11 married years of forgetting, this last year, In the Nick Of Time, I remembered to plant some daffodils. The kids helped me plant them along a couple of my fence lines and have been very excited to see if they would grow. 

We've been waiting all winter and.... ta-da. Spring has finally sprung! This is what they looked like last week. Just a couple in full bloom.

And now this week we have tons. Yeah!

Now I get to pick my own little spring bouquets whenever I want, and can quit stealing from my neighbors :)

Ky's 9th Birthday Bash

Ky chose the Court Club for his birthday venue. Rock Climbing was first on the list, and the kids loved it. The goal was to grab the chicken dangling from the top, and return to the sidelines bragging about how fast, or skillfully you accomplished that goal. For a while the boys were climbing only half way up and then coming back down. But after Hailey made it to the top before any of the boys, their manly ego's kicked in. They weren't about to be out done by Ky's little sister. 

When it became to easy for them to make it to the top they threw in a few challenging obstacles of their own. (Here's Ky climbing the wall blindfolded. Some of the other boys tried to climb the wall carrying a ball in one hand.)

Next was the Ice Cream Cake, Presents, and Birthday Spankings.

And lets not forget about the Real Reason Ky wanted the court club. Check out the killer action sequence my stud of a photographer husband took. 

On your Marks... Get Set...GO!

That's right....One of the kids Chickened Out. 

Happy Birthday Ky. We love you. We are so proud of you!

You're Awesome!

Easter Eggs

Egg Salad Sandwiches 

HERE WE COME.

Easter Craft

I thought it would be fun to do a little Easter craft with the kids while Dan was at the Priesthood Session of conference last night .

Alaina and I found this craft in the Family Fun Magazine last week. She really wanted to try it out so this ended up being our Easter Craft of choice.

We started by hanging balloons from the ceiling and then cut our tissue paper into little squares.

The kids dipped the colored tissue paper into a flour-water mixture and then smoothed it onto their balloon.

After several layers of tissue paper, computer paper, then tissue paper again, they were done.

This craft was definatly messier than expected!

The balloons ended up taking overnight and most of the next day to dry. It was a beautiful day today so we ended up hanging them outside during conference to finish drying.

Tonight we were able to finish up our eggs. The kids favorite part of making this was the popping of the balloon. They thought it was pretty cool that their egg held its shape even after they popped the balloon and pulled it out of a tiny hole in their easter egg.

Next we cut an opening in each of their eggs.

Then decorated the outside and filled the inside with a little Easter scene.

The kids had lots of fun making this craft! They plan on giving them away to someone special before Easter.

Here are the kid's finished Eggs!

How to avoid the Spring Break crowds...

...it's pretty easy, you simply plan a trip to a location where you have the opportunity to do tons of outdoor, summer like, activities. Somewhere like the Spokane Riverfront Park (you know... carnival rides, feeding the ducks, gondola ride, IMAX, miniature golf, train ride, carousel, snow cones etc.). But the trick is to go do all those fun outdoor summertime activities on a day like this...

Snowing in April...What?? Seriously??

I totally did not anticipate this kind of weather. When planning for this little out of town day trip one of the first things I did was get online and check the weather. It read mid 50's with o% chance of precipitation. Hows that for a weatherman's accuracy! 

The snow got a little cold, but was great for crowd control. We didn't see another family there all day. We had the whole park to ourselves. 

Between my sister and I we had 9 kids at the park today so the weather ended up working in our favor in that we had no lines, a theater to ourselves, and the kids were able to run wild and free with no one else to worry about disturbing.

A few of today's highlights...

Riding the Gondola over the Spokane Falls

Taking the Train around Riverfront Park. 

Feeding the Ducks... and Seagulls. The kids were impressed that the seagulls could catch bread in mid air.

Riding on the Carnival Rides, over and over until they were sick.

We went inside for a while to get warm and watch the IMAX movie. After the movie the kids played a few video games and went miniature golfing.

Our trip wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the big Red Wagon.

And who can forget the Garbage Goat. There is a button on a rock that you push which starts the suction/vacuum pressure in the goats mouth and then you  can feed it your garbage or sticks or anything you want. The kids always have a lot of fun with this.

We visited the carousel several times today. The kids had a lot of fun on this ride because it goes really fast and you get to reach WAY out and try to grab rings as you're riding. They wanted to ride it again and again to try and get a larger number of rings each time.   

 We had a blast in Spokane! Thanks for hanging with us Les!

The kids and I have been having lots of fun together this week during spring break. I love it when the kids are out of school. We get to decide our own schedule, and with school out, that means soccer, scouts, mutual, activity days, and piano is out for this week also. It has been sweet! We have mostly been staying close to home but find one extra fun thing to do each day. We have gone swimming at the Court Club, Gymnastics, Children's Museum, Library and then a picnic at the Park, and tomorrow is our movie theater day. Super fun hanging with the kids.

Happy Spring Break!