Happy Birthday to the most beautiful mom

I love this picture of my mom with baby Grey, the look in his eyes says it all!

Last week was my mom's birthday. People have been known to say that you get better with age...so true for my mom. She is amazing and I didn't fully realize it until I had three boys of my own and in all honesty I don't think I will ever know all of the truly wonderful things she has done in her whole lifetime. From growing up with horses, to being a beauty queen (okay, runnerup, but mom you were so much better looking!!) to attending college, to marrying dad, to moving away for military duties, to having four handsome sons and two semi-beautiful daughters, to going back to school, to becoming an art teacher...yearbook advisor...and then a photography teacher, to owning horses again, to gaining 19 grandchildren, to becoming empty nesters and going on lots of walking dates with dad and the list goes on and on...and that's just skimming the surface! Thanks for being such an inspiration to me. I remember realizing, my Senior year of high school, how truly grateful I was to have such an amazing mom!

I remember the day I was going to go through the temple, I was living in Salt Lake and mom and dad were driving up from Brigham to meet me and Justin at the Bountiful temple. Mom called and said that they were stuck in some bad traffic and may not make it on time. I remember just crying and saying she had to be there, I couldn't do that without my mom, I just couldn't. And like always, she was there, she made it!

One of my most favorite things about my mom, was told to me on the phone by my dad while we were driving up to Brigham city last week. He told me, mom's biggest love (besides us of course) are horses, and next to that is sharing that love with her grandkids. Thanks mom, for giving each one of these kids the opportunity to have a teeny tiny glimpse into your childhood!

I remember when my Grandma passed away and mom gave a talk at her funeral. It still brings tears to my eyes, mom ended saying about Grandma. 'she was one classy lady.' Well mom, same goes for you!

That Sam-I-Am

We celebrated Dr. Suess's birthday with a big bang and lots of reading. One of the books was Bartholomew and the Oobleck, great book. Then we made our own oobleck. Perfect for two boys who love ooey, gooey, gross, and messy...but luckily it cleans up really well. All you need is 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup water, and food coloring. This is so cool and weird at the same time.

For dinner, we did the obvious. This book is one of our boys favorites. However, green dyed food does not sound appealing at all. I found an idea in a magazine to do Greens, Eggs, and Hamloaf. (Spinach, a fried egg, and my mom's most delicious ever hamloaf!) It was a yummy, fun meal!
We had a great day celebrating (I won't give you the details of the meltdowns we had of each boy that afternoon...)

I do have one regret, I wanted to make a Cat in the Hat hat, but we didn't have the book and our boys have never heard of it, they would of had no idea what I was doing (am I depriving them?) They probably would have loved it, oh well, there's always tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day....

Oh the Thinks you can Think!

Science Party

Corbin loves to learn and he loves to know how things work. He loves to combine different colored waters and see what colors they will be. Anything where he is learning something, having fun, and getting attention from me - he thrives on. We decided, somewhat together, that a science party would be lots of fun for his b-day party. (I say somewhat, because after I started thinking of ideas and getting really excited, he would change his mind and want a Star wars party, or a treasure hunt party, which was last years....! But no, I told him the fun we could have and then he stuck to it.)
I first of all have to thank my most wonderful sister in the whole world. If she had not been there, I could not have pulled it off quite as nice. She came early and helped me, took all the pictures, ran and got things that I was missing while I was trying to entertain the kids, and even used her scarf for one of our activities ;) You are the best Mandi...thanks!!
These kids are so adorable! There are so many kids Corbin's age in our ward. There are two CTR 5 classes with 10-11 kids in each of them. (We just so happen to teach Corbin's class). It's crazy! And I think it just gets bigger in the younger ages...as one of our friends says, it's a baby factory here! So as I was saying, these kids are so adorable and they were just as excited to learn and have fun as Corbin!
We started with building things with toothpicks and marshmallows while we waited for everyone to get here. They all thought it would be great fun to just stick a couple marshmallows on the end and pretend they were around a campfire! After a while they got creative with some other fun ideas!

I wanted to talk about 5 different kinds of scientists and do some learning activities with each of them.
First, we entered the world of Biology. We talked about how amazing our bodies are and the things they can do. The main focus was on the 5 senses.
For seeing, I had 10 items in a pan and covered it up. I then uncovered it and had them study the items for 1 minute. Covered it back up, and they had to tell me what was in there. Between all of them they got it!
For hearing, they covered their eyes and I made some noises with different kinds items. Those kids have excellent hearing, better than mine at least!
For smelling, they covered their eyes once again and I had them smell dirt, chocolate, lemon, and an onion.
For taste (this one was my favorite), I had them taste four different flavors; salty (pretzel), bitter (cocoa powder), sour (super sour gumballs), sweet (sugar babies).
For feel, they felt rough sandpaper, smooth tape, cold ice, and a warm washcloth.

Corbin going for the cocoa powder, I think this was just before he really got a good taste. It was hilarious to see them dive for the powder, because they knew it was chocolate, but once they got a taste they were disgusted!I love this face of Jada! These were the sour gumballs and yes, they were SOUR!
Next was Chemistry. This is my working lab area. (I had everything hiding under the table)We blew up a balloon with baking soda and vingar. Unfortunately this was as much as it blew up, boo!

We of course had to do a volcano too.

Paleontologist was our next scientist. We talked about how they study fossil bones and then made our own fossils out of play dough.

Now, for the part that took the most time planning and preparing on my part, uggg, I'm glad that's over. We talked about an Astronomer. We went out into the garage where we had the planets hanging from the ceiling. I showed them each planet and then told them that the sun was a pinata, they were very excited! Now here is where Mandi's scarf came in handy. The pinata was way too heavy to just be held by string. So she hung it with her scarf just before we brought the kids out, now if that's not love, I don't know what is! It took probably 40 hits before the thing finally broke...way to go Mason! But when the candy came out...wooohooo!

I don't know if it's rude to ask, but I don't want people to feel like they have to bring a present, we just want them to come and have fun! So I told them that, but they didn't let Corbin down, he was so exicted! Honestly, these are the nicest friends, thank you to each and everyone of you (and of course their moms!)
And one of the best parts..cake! Now, I cannot do cake, I don't know why, but it never turns out (well okay now I know some of the reasons why). My good friend Konnie came over the night before and helped (well I watched) decorate Corbin's cake. She is awesome...thank you so much Konnie! It is a magnifying glass cake.

In the end, I was exhausted, but it was worth seeing the smiles on all the kids faces and the fun that Corbin had! Thank you to all who came...Happy Birthday my little scientist!