Ready yet?

Ashlyn walked up to me out of the blue yesterday and said, "Mom, are you ready to have another baby yet?  I'd like another girl and then a boy."

Nelson's Ledges

 May 14, 2012

Dave loves this place.  The kids love this place.  I do not love this place.  I would if it were closer to my house and didn't have strange people wandering the area.  Anyway, here are the pictures:

The kids climbed through the ledges, searched for waterfalls
 and discovered a snake! 

Another great time hanging out with dad!

Fathers and Sons camp out

 May 12, 2012

Dave took the boys to Fathers and sons this past Friday and they all had a BLAST!!  Dave failed to take pictures (he's fired!) but I did get a recap.  It includes:

• roasting it up (hot doggies and marshmallows)
• a wrestling match that included the entire ward full of boys
• hunting for bugs
• playing games

Ashlyn and I had a fun girls night while the boys were away.  I can't wait for more!

Snack Pack Fast Facts

A friend of mine has been putting snack pack fast facts in her sons lunches for years.  Her oldest is 21, so she's been doing it for quite a while.  Since her son, Arlo, is friends with Trevor, I would hear about the fast facts every day at the start of the year.  Then Trevor started asking me to put some in his lunch and the fast facts kept spreading to every kid's lunch box from there!  There is a group of kids in Trevor's class that get them in their lunch boxes every day and the teacher then reads them out loud.  The kids LOVE it.  I put them in Ashlyn's lunch box too (corbin's will start next year!). 

So, what is a snack pack fast fact?  I don't know how this name came about, but basically it's an outrageous fact about food, the earth, space, animals, etc.  Examples:

•  Only female bees sting.
•  Before toothpaste was invented, some people cleaned their teeth with charcoal.
•  If you could evaporate all the water out of all the oceans and spread the resulting salt over all the land on Earth, you would have a five hundred-foot layer coating everything.
•  Scorpions glow under black light.
•  A jellyfish can be as small as a thimble or as large as two washing machines.
•  Gorillas burp when they are happy.
•  A sneeze travels 100 miles an hour. 
•  Hippo sweat is red.
•  Kids blink about five million times a year.
•  Food passes through the giant squid’s brain on the way to its stomach. 

Try it in your kids lunch tomorrow.  They will love it!  I just write it on a sticky note with love from me and stick it in their lunch boxes.  So easy and so fun.  

Book of the Week

STAYING TRUE
(April 16, 2012)

I really do like personal stories.  My mom sent this book to me.  It was interesting to read about real struggles and see her overcome them.  I think she wrote this book for herself.  (she may have even said that in the beginning of the book...I can't remember).  But I felt it was a way for her to let everyone know what type of woman she is beyond what they saw of her being married to a politician.  I think she felt like she needed to get it out there that she was a good wife and a good mom.  I hope it brought her peace. 

Combined birthday party

 May 4, 2012
I thought the idea of having Ashlyn and Corbin's birthday party at Jump Start Gymnastics was inspired. :) It was that good. Mostly because it was the first time that I did a party outside of our home and I didn't have to do anything but pick up the cake and make the party favors. Awesomeness. The three coaches did EVERYTHING! They even sliced the cake and passed it out for me and handed out all of the party favors. I got to take tons of pictures, enjoy the kids having fun and talk with friends. Did I mention it was awesome?  I loved that the coaches made Ashlyn and Corbin feel special by putting them up on this block that was covered in a colorful parachute. 

Then they had all of the kids stand around them in a circle and hold hands while 

singing Happy Birthday. It was so cute. 

Cake and favors:

This is where the fun begins...

Corbin's special day

May 3, 2012

Every child gets to have a special day each year at Corbin's preschool.
It is so great. I got to go to Corbin's class, read a story he picked out, share pictures of him with the class and make a special treat or snack with the kids.
It was so fun to spend the afternoon with Corbin and help him to feel special. 

He showed me his classroom butterflies that had just broken out of their chrysalis 

He got to be the line leader.

They released the butterflies in the garden.

We played on the playground.

I brought ingredients and pizza dough (from Alesci's) for the kids to make their own pizza's.  I cut the pepperoni's into star and heart shapes. 

Random pictures of Corbin's classroom.