Payson 2010

Every summer we like to try to take a Saturday and visit Grandma and Grandpa B while they are camping up in Payson. It's a short drive away and gives us a chance to beat the heat, if only for a day, and spend some fun time with family. Because of swimming lessons and everything else we had going on this summer, we weren't able to get up there while the weather was really hot, but we wanted to make sure we got up there at before the camping season is officially over for the year.

The weather was absolutely beautiful! The boys got to ride their bikes around, and we took a fun nature walk around the campgrounds.

After a long day of exploring, Grandpa made some yummy hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, and afterward we did everyone's favorite camping pastime.... roasting marshmallows and making s'mores! The boys loved helping Grandpa build the fire.

Benny didn't want to wait for his marshmallow to be roasted!

Mmmmm... S'mores!

Here are a few more photos of our fun day.

Of course before we left we had to take our annual photo with Grandma and Grandpa in front of their trailer (watch the boys grow up right before your eyes!)

2008

2009

2010

Soccer Star!

Joshua has officially started his first organized sport. We've been wanting to get him into something for a while now, but like with so many other things, it was just hard to get our act together! We thought soccer might be a good fit for him, so we went for it. How cute is he in his soccer uniform!

At the first practice, the kids decided their team name should be the Dragons. Josh was a little disappointed because he wanted to be the Tigers, but he still thinks the Dragons are pretty cool. He's doing so well! He had his first game yesterday (against the Dragon Sharks), and got a few good kicks of the ball in. It was so fun to see him out there!

At half time it was time for a quick snack!

He really had a great time, and definitely worked up a sweat!

Although no official score is kept, our count was a 2-2 tie. Game 2 is next week, and we're so excited to see him get some more time on the field. Go Dragons!

REAL Cake Decorating

I've been dabbling in cake decorating for a little over a year, and I just love it. It gives me such an awesome outlet for my little creative streak, and when I'm done, I have a cake to eat! What could be better? I've just been kind of winging it, trying different techniques that I hear about online or on one of the many cake shows on TV, but I have never had any real instruction. So I finally decided to take the Wilton classes so that I can actually have some kind of idea of what I'm doing. And to make it even more fun, my dear friend Jen is taking the class with me.

Our first class was last week. It was mostly introduction, so not much decorating going on. We practiced making stars on some sugar cookies, so not horribly exciting (so I didn't take any pictures), but I still learned so much! This week we actually got to decorate a cake using a gel image transfer method. Here is my finished product. I'm happy with it!

Next week we'll be learning all sorts of techniques and decorating some cupcakes. I'm so excited to keep learning. Wilton offers 3 different classes, and I plan to take all of them, hopefully over the next couple of months. I can't wait!

Pumpkin IVF

My experience in attempting to grow pumpkins has been so much different this year compared to last. Especially when it comes down to how these pumpkins are blooming. last year, I had tons of male blossoms. I would go out to water the garden in the morning, and it would be bursting with bright orange flowers, but never had any female buds come to bloom. This year, however, I've only had about 3 male flowers bloom. They've been growing, and right before they would open, they will shrivel up and dry out. I suppose the excessive heat we've been having hasn't been helping things. BUT, the other day, I got to see a sight I have not yet seen....

Finally! A girl has come to the party! What's even more amazing is that I've only had about 3 male flowers open, but there just happened to be one open on the same day as the girl!

So of course, I had to play matchmaker with these two crazy kids. What can I say.... I just don't trust the bees to get the job done, so I have to take matters into my own hands. The male needs to pollinate the female in order to make a pumpkin, so I took the male flower, stripped him of his petals...

And performed what I like to call "pumpkin IVF".

This is uncharted territory for me, so I have no idea what to expect from this point. All I know is, she might be pregnant. Only time will tell, I suppose. Here's what she looked like today.

I'm not entirely hopeful, as the male flower didn't really seem to have a whole lot of pollen, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. But even if this one doesn't pan out, I at least have new hope that maybe we'll get somewhere this year!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

As I mentioned in my last post, Ben's birthday party was featured on gabbafriends.com. For being featured, I was entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card to the Gabba Store. They separate their features into categories (birthdays, holidays, Gabba Sightings, etc.) and select one winner from each category at random each month. I found out on Wednesday that I had been randomly selected out of the birthday category! I won! I was so excited. I never win these things! I can't wait to spend it. They have some super cute tshirts for the boys, and I also plan on getting a CD with all of our favorite Gabba songs (which I may live to regret!). Thank you, Gabba Friends!!!

Official Gabba Friend

I found out today that Ben's birthday party was featured on the Gabba Friends website today! I'm so excited! In addition to the notoriety, I also get entered into a giveaway for a $50 gift card to the Gabba Store. I never actually win any of these things, so I'm sure that won't happen, but it's still fun to be featured! Check it out!

Pumpkins: Round 2

I was so disappointed that my pumpkins didn't pan out last year. I wanted so badly to grow a pumpkin, and got so close! So I wanted to give it one more try. My failure last year didn't come without lessons learned. The biggest one being that pumpkin vines grow out of control. Last year I planted 12 pumpkin seeds, in addition to some butternut squash. Wow, was that way too much for our little garden! This year, I planted one single solitary seed (actually planted two to begin with, but when I saw the first one growing so quickly, I pulled out the second one, thinking that the one would be plenty!). I was hoping to be able to plant the seeds I had tried to save from my pie pumpkin last year, but those seeds had turned moldy (my fault - always store seeds in an envelope and never in a plastic bag), so I bought some seeds for casper white pumpkins. Andrew thinks they're creepy, but I think they're pretty, and can be used for baking! Here is my pumpkin vine, planted about 6 weeks ago.

(They're looking a little sad today because they didn't get watered until about noon, and it's 105 degrees outside, but they'll perk up with another drink this evening.)In another few weeks this bad boy will have filled up the whole garden!

I'm hoping that this year will be more successful than last year. I'm hopeful as I have already seen some female buds starting, although I haven't had any flowers open yet. Hopefully in a couple weeks we'll have some blooms and soon after that we'll have some fruit starting. If not... I officially give up on pumpkins!

John 14:1

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me.

Kindergarten!!!

What a big day it was! Joshua started Kindergarten today! I just can't believe it. He's officially in school. He decided to keep him at the same school where he's gone to daycare for kindergarten. They have an awesome program, and he only has 6 kids in his class! He has been so excited to start kindergarten, and had such a great day! Of course I had to get the "first day of school" pictures before we left the house (Benny also moved up to the 3 year old classroom this week, so it was a big day for him too!)

School starts at 8:30, so Andrew and I thought it would be fun to go into work a little late and skip the before care today so that we could see him get started on his first day. The class lines up outside of the pre-k room where their teacher, Mrs. Harren, takes them upstairs to their classroom.

This is where I was totally caught of guard. We have been at this school since Joshua was 10 weeks old, so I figured that moving up to Kindergarten wouldn't affect me very much and that I wouldn't get too emotional. Boy, was I wrong! As soon as he was lined up to go upstairs, here come the waterworks! I was crying, and then laughing at myself for crying! But no matter where it is, starting kindergarten is such a right of passage, and the official beginning to his educational career. It's a big deal!

When they arrived upstairs, they learned that the first thing they do before going inside the classroom is give Mrs. Harren a hug. :)

They each have their assigned seats with their supply boxes and pouches on the back of their chairs to hold their work. So school-like!

The first thing they did was learn the pledges of allegiance: to the American flag, to the Christian flag, and to the Bible.

After the pledges, it was calendar time, and our cue to leave. But of course, not before snapping one last picture.

In light of their big day, we thought it would be fun to celebrate with dinner out. Joshua picked In n Out, which is always a family favorite.

And we finished our meal with a couple of milkshakes!

Hey, Andrew! Save some for the rest of us!

It was a wonderful day of new beginnings! I can't wait to see what they learn and how they grow this year. It's so exciting, and we couldn't be prouder of both of them!

Benny's Birthday Bash - Yo Gabba Gabba Style!

Yesterday we celebrated Ben's 3rd birthday with a Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday bash! He asked for a Yo Gabba Gabba birthday months ago, so needless to say he was pretty excited. It turns out that his party fell on a weekend where most of his friends were not available to come, so it ended up being just a family party. But with all his cousins here, there were plenty of kids to play with and everyone had a great time!

After eating some pizza and other yummy food, we gathered up all the kids to play some fun little party games, Gabba themed, of course. The first was Pin the Eye on Muno. I made a DJ Lance hat, which doubled as the blindfold for the game.

What was hilarious was that pretty much everyone got it right on the money. I'm thinking the blindfold was a bit too see through!

One of the most beloved songs from Yo Gabba Gabba is "There's a Party in my Tummy" all about eating healthy foods. So our second game was Party in Brobee's Tummy. I made a Brobee out of poster board and placed a basket in front of it. Each child got 5 chances to throw a piece of food into the basket. It was a big hit.

After the games, Benny asked if we he could open his presents, and what the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets! He got so many fun toys!

Next came the cake! As I have taken to doing over the last couple of years, I sort of went a little crazy on his cake. This year I made sugar cookies decorated like the Gabba Gabba characters to incorporate into the cake. I also included some of the cookies in the kids' goody bags.

The cake included as many aspects of the show that I could. The bottom tier was DJ Lance's boom box, with the character cookies on the sides. The top tier was DJ Lance's hat, with Muno standing up the back holding a birthday banner. I was so happy with how it turned out. Definitely worth staying up until 2 a.m. finishing it!

My family hung out for a while after the party was over, and played Benny's new game Scatterpillar Scramble while we all had some extra visiting time.

After everyone had gone, Ben was officially partied out. We were relaxing, watching TV and we noticed Ben's head begin to bob while he was sitting in his new chair.

So instead of continuing to watch him try to sleep with his head bobbing back and forth, I seized the opportunity to have a little cuddly nap on the couch. What a perfect end to a great day!

Happy birthday, Benny! We are so proud of the big, sweet, imaginative boy you are. We love you so much!