Birthday Season Begins

Still giggling over the whoopee cushion.

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted, life happens.  Now I'm back and committed to posting more regularly.  Birthday season, the time at which we have 5 out of our 8 birthdays, plus few other special occasions, at our house is always a little crazy, but a lot of fun.  This year we had some extra things thrown in there which were fun, but the age for birthday parties collided this year and we also had two parties, which was crazy.

So the birthday season began with Easter this year and all the fun of that.  Then the following Friday was Billy's birthday.  We had a family party on Friday and he was showered with gifts.  He got lots of  legos, tickets to a movie, and lots of other fun things, but the best was a in a card from Mr. Reece (Bill's boss).  It was a whoopee cushion!  The present opening came to a halt as he farted it over and over again, making everyone else there laugh and laugh as Billy was dying over how funny it was.  Who new the best present would be something so simple.

The next day was the big party. Billy decided on an army theme.  The boys were told to wear camo, and I made dog tags for all of them.  The weather was supposed to be cold and rainy, so at the last minute we did some changes and the party was all moved in the house.  We started with "flight school" and everyone made/decorated paper airplanes while everyone arrived.  Then we did some calisthenics Simon Says and then marched the boys upstairs.  Bill was awesome and constructed a whole shooting range in the bonus room.  The boys had a great time shooting down cups or the targets on Winnie the Pooh.

After the shooting range, we had a "rescue mission" (treasure hunt) in which they ran all over the house and finally outside to rescue lost soldiers (little bags of army men and a parachuter guy.)  The sun was actually shining then, and almost warmish, so they played outside for a few minutes.  We finished up with presents and cupcakes and a little more shooting while waiting for parents to come.  As the last boy left, we all gave a big sigh of relief as having survived 8, 8 yr. old boys.  Billy had a great time, though, and that was the most important thing.

Since this was such an important birthday, the fun wasn't over yet.  The next Saturday, Billy was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He had lots of family there, both sets of grandparents, Uncle Shaun, Aunt Alana, and Chase, and cousin Ashtyn (it was her birthday, too.)  Uncle Shaun gave a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost.  He told Billy that he was given lots of presents for his birthday and that each person thought about Billy and just what he'd want to receive.  He told him that Heavenly Father did the same thing and gave him the most special gift of all.  Shaun is just the best, he always does such a good job speaking!  Then afterward, we had everyone over for a little luncheon.  It was a great day!  I asked Billy how he felt and he said, "Warm."  I said, "What does that mean, warm inside or warm outside?"  He replied, "Both.  The water was really warm, but I felt warm on the inside, too."  Of course that was said with his little twinkly, dimple grin.  I love this boy!

Upcycling and Recycling

So I've just recently learned a new hip and cool word - upcycling.  Here's the definition:

• Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.
• The repurposing of a material into a product of higher quality. An example would be a purse made out of woven candy wrappers.

I'm not quite sure how this differs from recycling, but blogs that are way cooler than mine use this word all the time.  So here's my newest "upcycling" projects:

 This mirror, in all its lovely golden splendor, hung in my parents entry way for a long, long time.  Underneath it was an equally lovely, and matching gold shelf on which two ivory and ebony little elephants stood.  I asked my mom the other day if I could have the mirror.  She said yes and pulled the dusty thing out from under her bed (my sister had already taken the little shelf). So in the mode of upcycling, and because I get asked at least 6 times a day, usually more like 12, what's for dinner, I decided to try my hand at making a chalkboard out of a mirror to post our weekly menu on.  It actually was pretty easy and if anyone wants to make a chalkboard out of something, I have TONS of the chalkboard paint left. (Found out later, there are much smaller bottles in the craft section, instead of the paint section.)

Next is my other new love, painting on t-shirts using freezer paper as a stencil.  I've cut the freezer paper using my Cricut (or I also did one by just laying the freezer paper over a picture I printed out and cutting) and then iron it on the shirt.  Then paint away.  Maddie's shirt had a stain on it which I carefully covered with the butterfly.  Jon was very sad when his favorite shirt (which is a hand-me-down from Billy, and before that cousin, Chase) got a big snag and hole in it.  So I cut out the felt guitar and painted it and the shirt.  Now he has his favorite shirt back and he thinks it's cooler than ever!  I also painted a shirt for Cheyenne, Natalie, and me (covering up a hole I patched).  I even painted all of the kids Halloween shirts.  My kids are now becoming a little leery of telling me they have a stain because they know I'll whip out the paint and fix it right up, instead of just buying a new one.
What do you have sitting around your house just waiting to be upcycled?

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Love Notes by Lauryn

Happy Halloween

What a fun weekend we had! I'm kind of liking Halloween on Saturday/Sunday, it sure makes things less rushed and enjoyable.  Friday the kids all wore their costumes to school.  Maddie had her hair done first, and after I was done ratting it up, I showed her in the mirror.  She almost started crying and didn't want her hair "crazy".  After Chloe's got "crazy" too, and then we sprayed them blue, she decided it was kind of fun.  However, Jon wasn't so keen on wearing his "church clothes" to school, especially since it wasn't red. (If they wear red on Friday's they get a pride pass to redeem for candy and he didn't want to miss out.  I assured him that there wouldn't be any pride passes given out and he'd get lots of candy anyway.)  Billy was just psyched that he got to wear his costume all day long since it was just camo pants and shirt, and everyone else only got to put on their costumes after lunch.  Even more exciting for Billy was getting to wear his camo pants and shirt together since his dad had told him he couldn't before because one is "desert camo" and the other is "forest camo" and they don't match. :)  I was even a good mom and went to the costume parade - first time I've ever done that.

 Saturday we had a nice relaxing day at home and especially enjoyed having Bill home with us, a rarity in the last couple months.  Finally, it was time to get all dolled up again and have some more fun.  This time there were tears for a minute when Jon had to wear his "church clothes" again, but the threat reminder of no trick or treating if he didn't wear them quickly stopped the tears and he had a great time.  I even joined in with them thanks to my sister's great Cat in the Hat costume.  Cheyenne and Natalie were too, old for trick or treating this year, but luckily their brothers and sisters got plenty of candy to share. 

Fun Weekend!

A few weeks ago, sheesh time is flying by, we had a fun weekend with most of the cousins on my side of the family.  Mom and Dad were reporting their mission (YEAH it's so good to have them home!) and Brad and Geri and boys, and Leslie and Luke and boys were up visiting along with Shaun and Alana and boys and Ashtyn, who is going to school here now.  The women did some fun shopping one day, I found some super cute bedspreads for Chloe and Maddie.  We had a BBQ on Saturday and the kids all had a great time playing together and hanging out (because Cheyenne keeps telling me she's too old to "play" anymore. :) )  Then later that afternoon we went to Yellowstone Bear World and had some fun seeing the animals, feeding the fish and ducks, and a quick turn on each of the rides (of course the little kids loved that the best and we only had a short time on those.) Then Sunday Mom and Dad gave some wonderful talks, they really are awesome missionaries, teased Ashtyn endlessly about Keaton, and had a nice luncheon together.  I love my family! Most of all I love that we all like each other and enjoy speanding time together, the adults and all the kids, too

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Back to School

As I'm sitting here with my kids around because it's already potato harvest, I realized I still haven't written about school starting. This year was a little different start to school.  For the first time ever, Cheyenne wasn't ready to go back to school. I guess she had a fun summer.  Billy was a little nervous about his teacher (thanks big sisters who didn't say anything good about his teacher, even though they never had her.)  Chloe, Maddie, and Jon couldn't wait to get to school and I really wasn't sure I was ready for them to go.  But the first day came anyway.  Cheyenne had friends in all her classes, so that was good, however she makes friends so quickly and easily it doesn't really matter.  The funniest thing is I had 3 of her 5 teachers and one other was teaching when I was there, I just never had him.  She also started seminary this year, which she was a little unsure of (church in the middle of every day) but has now found she really likes it. 
Natalie has a different group of friends in all her classes this year and that's kind of fun for her.  She has one teacher who plays 80's music everyday and she's quite proud of herself for knowing almost every song she's played. She has one teacher who's a little annoying, according to Natalie, with her creative learning ideas, and that's about all I hear about school. Trying to get Natalie to tell me anything about school is like pulling teeth.  That's my challenge with her this year. :)
As I said, Billy was a little nervous about his teacher this year, and after last year's mess, I was, too.  I was really hoping for a great teacher who would be kind and loving, not like last year's and that's what we got.  Billy came home the first day with a smile and said she was a great teacher. YES!  He also has some good friends in his class, again, not like last year.  He's really enjoying school, especially reading.

 Then there's Chloe, Maddie, and Jon.  They're in afternoon kindergarten, which means 11:45 to 2:20, a quick couple of hours.  They couldn't wait to get there, I on the other hand was leaving my babies.  Yup, I cried, but not until I got to the car.  That first few days was a little weird, it is so quiet with everyone gone.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself.  However, that only lasted a few days and now I love my two hours by myself.  It's two hours that I cram everything I possibly can into, errand running, cleaning, crafting, reading, visiting teaching, temple sessions, it's hard to narrow down what I'm going to squeeze into that time each day.  But back to the three, they LOVE school.  Their teacher is wonderful and three other kids from our ward are in their class, too.  In fact, since we have to drive them to school this year, we carpool with two of them.  They're learning a ton and will be reading before we know it.  I also get to help in their class on Thursday's, which is pretty fun for me.

So now it's back to the homework/practicing/chores balancing game after school.  Sitting with 4 kids to do homework with 20 minutes of reading/being read to, each night, trying to help Cheyenne with geometry (ha, ha), making sure everyone gets their piano practicing done, it all gets very interesting at times, but it's all good.

Wow, what a summer!

What a great summer we had, but it went WAY too fast!  One great thing I did was kind of take a break from the computer, I just had too much fun doing other things, but I did miss blogging a bit.  Anyway, here's a little snapshot (or two or three) of what we did. 

Birthday times 3!







T-ball fun, except for the wind and cold.

 



This is what Maddie did most of the time.




Jon aptly nicknamed "Chicken Little" by his sisters as the helmet was too big and would fall over his eyes.  So cute!




A very cool 4th of July, notice Drew wrapped in the blanket and everyone in jackets.




Natalie's 12!!




A great week camping.

 

Chloe learned to ride a bike is a whizzing around everywhere!



I'm very reluctantly adding this picture, but Pioneer Trek was a big part of the summer. It was a fantastic experience.

 

Long time, no posts

I can't believe it's already July! Birthday season at our house was filled with lots of fun, and lots of cake and ice cream. 5 birthdays within a month's span (of course, 3 being on the same day) is a lot of fun, but nice to be over with, too. School ended with all it's fun and it's been so nice to see our new addition take shape and become a fun place to hang out. June flew by with the triplets playing t-ball twice a week, with a practice in between. We had a fun weekend of family visiting. And now the weather has finally warmed up and we've been spending a lot of time outside. I have four little "fish" who can't get enough of our swimming pool (aka watering trough.) :) We also got a new/additional computer, so I've been trying to figure out all the new things and moving all my stuff to the new one. However, all our pictures are on the old one. Hopefully, we'll get that worked out very soon and I can post pictures of all the fun we've been having.