Croquet at Grandma's

How can a boy be any happier? Hitting a ball with a stick, whoever invented this game is brilliant.

Yes, this was a great game for these boys.

Anticipating...

so many things right now.

a trip to St. George with my sis and her family! The UPS guy to bring this. In case you were wondering why I haven't posted for so long, I have been without a camera for almost a month now.

Anticipating is looking foward to something... and this next thing is not something I really look forward to, but I guess I am anticipating getting it over with... (wisdom teeth)

In the meantime, I really want to start (and finish) this project. I found the idea from here. I have wanted to get my recipe binder looking better and get my recipes ORGANIZED for such a long time, I am so excited it's kind of sad.

and next, to make a dress like this for a cute baby girl. Pattern here.

But most of all, oh how I am anticipating summer break in one month!!!

What we do while we wait for spring

Can pretty much be summed up in one word....

Legos
and lots of them...but I don't complain, because they will play for hours upon hours and they are incredibly creative. (btw...picture above is Levi giving Corbin a hug, he is not strangling him)

Our second favorite thing to do is play the guessing game. We LOVE this game. And again, the boys are very creative. Here is Corbin being the state of Idaho.

and a tarantula.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of Taylor playing this game, but he is always, let me repeat, always some kind of superhero who runs around with the same expression...Levi has picked it up.

We also love playing indoor baseball with soft balls, just don't have any fragile things out, and surprisingly we haven't learned that by experience.

One day Justin and I were folding this blanket and putting it away. Levi ran and jumped on it and then, this activity was born.

For Corbin's birthday he got the V-motion. It's nice to have something to switch things up. By the looks of this picture you would think he was bored silly by it, not to mention it's a v -MOTION, I don't really see much motion going on. However, he does like it. But we don't allow a ton of playing time, we don't want to raise a child who only does that with his spare time.

Reading is lot's of fun in our home...we love reading! And I just love that the boys will read to each other!

And slowly, but surely, Corbin is learning to read! It made me so happy this night to see Corbin laying in bed trying to read the Book of Mormon. He has got the first few words of the introduction down..."The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture.."

We love to color and have done lot's of it this past winter. Sadly Levi has found lots of places to color (with permanent marker)...thank goodness for Soft scrub with bleach. I found him one time coloring on the wall and then pointing and saying, "no, no, no" We love finding a fun craft to do. Our boys love crafts! This day we got koolaid packets and mixed each with a little bit of water...it smelled so good, and then painted away.

They loved painting the fruits and vegetables.

Any chance we had to go outside, we were there. This day we went for a nice stroll in Memory Grove. We had to keep Levi away from the creek though. If we would of let him go right up to it, he would have walked right in without even stopping...ahh, mom moment, it freaks me out!

What better way to wait for spring then delicious Strawberries and Cream

We are now ready for you spring!

April Fools Day

I have never been big on April Fools Day...not since the time that I was 13 years old at least. Sad, sad day. You know those sprayers in the kitchen sink. Well, my older brother, Tyson thought it was great to put rubberbands around it to keep it shut and then ask me to get him a drink. And me, being the absolutely sweetest sister that I was said, yeah...(and at that time I was the only one on the planet who hadn't heard of that idea). Well, I got wet, laughed, and then planned my revenge.
Later that day, I did the exact same thing, then, sat down on the couch and asked Tyson to get me a drink...okay, pathetic I know. He didn't fall for it, but a moment later Dad came into the kitchen to get a drink and bam... let's just say, he didn't think it was funny...at...all... So I haven't done much pranking since.

So now, on April Fool's Day, I keep it fun and harmless. Last year I tried a meatloaf cake, but Justin and I didn't dig it. It was kind of, weird. So this year I made a regular meatloaf for us and I told the boys that's what we were having for dinner. When they all came to sit up, I told Justin, "you know, the boys have been so good today should we just let them have a cupcake for dinner instead." Of course the boys were extremely thrilled about that idea.

When Corbin, saw it he said, "hey, that's a meatloaf cupcake"...okay, so no fooling him...

Taylor on the other hand thought that it was hilarious when he took a lick of the 'frosting' and found it not to be so sweet.

Levi, didn't care one bit, he chowed that thing faster than you could say "Happy April Fool's Day!"

A little later that evening, I told the boys that we were having a second dinner, they sat up to this.

They knew something was different about it, but once they took a bite, they were not let down!
They enjoyed Mashed Potatoes and Gravy (Ice Cream and Caramel syrup), Peas and Carrots (lime and orange flavor tootsie rolls), Bacon (Caramel and Tootsie rolls), and a fried egg (melted white chocolate with yellow m&m)

I think April Fools Day CAN be fun....and not get you in big trouble!

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!