Endless Partying!

We’ve had a lot of fun happenings around here the past several weeks. Birthdays, holidays and visits have made for one party after another!

Samuel turned 7 the end of March. Love this guy! He is such a good kid.

He wanted a Legos Pharaoh Quest party. I love planning parties, but Chuck and I went a little overboard on this one. Okay - maybe I went a little overboard and because Chuck is so amazing he merely went along with my crazy ideas. Although he did put the kibosh on one of my fabulous ideas. I wanted to wrap him up like and mummy so the kids could fight him at the end of their quest. For some reason he wasn’t too hip on the idea of being a giant fighting mummy!  

 

I’ve decided I love decorating our front room wall with the party theme (or actually I love watching Chuck decorate the wall).

Chuck also made this mummy piñata. It was almost a little too durable!

And the cake. One of the boys at the party made me smile when he told me how great the cake was and that he needed to have his mom make a cake just like this. The boys had a great time at each of the 6 quests and it was fun to see everything come together.

Spring is the time everyone likes to come visit. We had a lot of fun with Chuck’s sister and her family.

My family also came to celebrate all our spring birthdays (Samuel, Isaac and Bronson). Presents scattered all over the place reminded me of Christmas. Samuel really wanted a bow and arrow so Grandpa and Grandma bought him one and I about died when he shot an arrow at a target, it bounced back and nearly hit my camera lens!

Somehow Trina managed to talk me into making Bronson’s birthday cake! (She was actually going to come early to make the cake because I have the cake cutter, but she got sick so being the extremely nice big sister I am I just made it!). We thought Jenna’s Minnie Mouse cake turned out so cute we might as well go for a Mickey Cake for Bronson’s 2nd birthday.

This is the first year I can remember that we have celebrated Easter with just our little family. We had a fun week leading up to the holiday with all of our traditions. And a crazy escapade trying to get pictures of the kids in their new Easter outfits. Maybe one day I’ll post the pictures or tell the story – it’s a great one!

Bella made me laugh while decorating eggs. We had a monster egg decorating kit this year and after she finished this particular egg she took a look and it and said, “You’re soooo cute. Oh, I mean you’re so monsterly!”

Samuel had his school performance. It’s always entertaining!

Isaac turned 4. This little guy makes me smile. Love this guy too!

I convinced him it would be fabulous to have a pirate party. I ordered supplies for Samuel’s party and was able to use a lot of the same stations and supplies for Isaac’s party.

And Chuck was doing the dance of joy that my friend Kristen had these pirate ships so he didn’t have to draw a giant ship on the wall. And we found the Orlando for $10 at the party store. Can I just tell you how crazy it was to have this life size Orlando Bloom in the house for 2 weeks. Chuck scared me half to death hiding him behind a door. I let out a giant scream and the kids giggled with glee. Orlando will be making plenty of other appearances. I’m sure I could make him into a great Santa!

And Isaac’s pirate ship cake. After making 3 cakes in 2 weeks I’m a little caked out!

We’ve been biking. I’ve been pulling the kids in the bike trailer a lot lately and I’ve decided I really enjoy riding bikes.

And we’ve been hiking.

Trina and I also took a little weekend getaway to Vegas. We had to get a picture with our giant drinks and popcorn. We went to see Hunger Games and our snacks cost WAY more than the movie ticket. We ate that popcorn for days! 

We’ve had so much fun we all need a little rest!

Spring Break Adventure

We packed each day of our spring break at my parents home full of adventure. We ate too much, didn’t sleep enough and had almost more fun and chaos then we could handle! We were so lucky the weather was nice the entire time so we could spend a lot of time outdoors. Get ready for picture overload!  

Dino park is always a must.

These 2 have a love/hate relationship. Bronson is so much bigger than Jenna, but he is literally terrified of her. She bugs him to tears!

I love watching creativity in action. So much fun to be had with a simple giant cardboard box!

Grandma made Play doh and had lots of craft items for the kids.

Crossing the swinging bridge. This bridge spanning the river was so scary when I was young!

Climbing the steep stairs

Getting a picture by the junior high I attended. It always amazes me how time doesn’t change some things.

Walking along the river parkway.

Looking at all the mining equipment. The kids are standing in front of my brothers eagle scout project – looks like it could use a little fixing up again!

This was the first time we have taken the kids to the Railroad and Mining Museum. I love the inside of these old buildings!

 

I had to get a picture of this sign. One of these days I really want to do a post on my “redneck” roots!

We walked up and down main street several times. I know I write this every year, but I LOVE all the old buildings. So full of character and color. The mountain in the background. And seeing the train pass by while strolling along delighted the boys.

We took the kids bowling and it was painful! I tried to warn Trina it was going to be brutal, but she didn’t see how it could possibly be “that” bad. All I could say near the end was I Told You So! Thank goodness we were the only ones there because the poor lady had to come and retrieve the ball that had stopped in the middle of the lane because it was going so slow 4 separate times – yes, 4 times! The kids would roll their ball and it would take SO long to get to the end they would lay down and watch, or worse they would wonder off not even caring what happened.

 

Here are our totals, Trina was not bowling and no I was not the high and yes, we had the bumpers up! Samuel had an amazing game at the end and was so excited especially when I let him in on my secret – I’ve never even broken 100 bowling even with the bumpers!

We went to the Dinosaur Museum.

We fished.

Samuel caught this fish all by himself. Grandpa threw out the line, but Samuel hooked and brought it in himself. Isaac caught a few fish with Grandpa’s help, but he took off running in fear as soon as the fish reached the shore. Isaac does not like animals of any sort!

We rode the 4-wheeler.

We gathered rocks to throw in the river – and by gathering rocks I mean several 5 gallon buckets clear full of rocks.

The kids couldn’t believe we let them ride in the back of the truck for a brief moment as we drove along a slow dirt road. We did this all the time when we were young. Sometimes I think kids these days miss out by having to be strapped down all the time!

One of those “redneck” activities the kids were excited about – rolling an old tire down a hill.

Grandpa convinced the kids this was a troll hideout.

The kids managed to throw all those rocks we gathered into the river in just a few minutes.

We went to Huntington Lake. My dream would be to have a home with lake front property – ahh, maybe in my next life! I love the calming sound and smell of the water. I could just sit and look at the beautiful water all day.

Jenna stumbled and fell into the water so she ran around in her diaper for a few minutes until we rounded up a coat to wrap around her.

This is my favorite “redneck” photo of the trip. Grandma tossing a chicken leg in to the water to try and catch crawdads while Jenna is running around in a soggy diaper with patches of snow on the ground.

And my Bella girl is just crazy. There was a thin layer of ice on the water a few feet from the shore. The water was freezing and Bella insisted that she wanted to wade into the water. I let her thinking she would get her toe wet and call it good, but then she kept bugging me that she wanted to dive into the water. She is my mermaid girl after all, but really who’s that crazy! I told her there was no way I was letting her dive into the water. She then asked me what if she “accidentally” fell in. What am I going to do with this girl of mine!

We shot the bb gun.

We hiked around looking for targets to shoot.

The girls played dress-up

The boys played the ipad

The kids were in heaven to watch a video each night as they fell asleep in the basement. Only at Grandma’s would they be able to watch TV every night!

And I spent 4 nights in a row taking pictures – how could I pass up the opportunity with so many great locations!

Even I was feeling this way after so many nights of pictures! (Really Samuel didn’t mind taking pictures because Grandpa was supplying him with a steady supply of gummy bears. He did however get upset when I told him not to give me that cheesy forced smile!)

What a week! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the good time! We love and miss you guys!