It's snowing again....

I was totally going to put a snowflake background up just to show my dislike of Utah weather. But when I went over to LeeLou blogs to find one - I found she had totally cute new spring stuff up so I gave in and put a new spring one up. But it is snowing here in Utah. And yes it's April 28th. And yes it was warm enough to sleep with the windows last night. Go figure.

Here fishy fishy fishy.....

We took the younger kids up for the first fishing afternoon of the year a couple weekends ago. They had a blast. And yes Breanna was invited - she didn't want to come. And yes I also notice that my finger is in both pictures - dang phone camera.

Breanna's 15th Birthday Party

Breanna pretty much planned her own party this year. I was just the facilitator. She wanted to have a cookie party. We made these great invitations that were giant chocolate chip cookies - I'm working on getting a picture as the one I took got deleted. So she invited a bunch of kids over and they broke into groups and made 3 different kinds of cookies. Then while I moved cookie trays in and out of the oven - they sat at the table and decorated sugar cookies we had already made. Several of the kids said how much fun they'd had and a couple suggested they do this once a month. So I think they were surprised at how much fun it was.

Seth

Whitney and Tonya

Bre and Seth

Hillary and Megan

Seth (pretending to work. He realized all the pictures I was taking were of him just sitting there drinking soda)

Like this.

That is Jayden with his back to the camera. He came late and didn't help make the cookies.

Decorating cookies.

More decorating - more of Seth drinking soda.

Seth actually did decorate some cookies. These are his. And Tonyas are on the right.

Whitney showing us one of hers. And a front view of Jayden.

Finished white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies.

Finished peanut butter cookies. I didn't get a picture of the chocolate chip ones. Sorry.

Hillary decorating cookies after the big kids were gone.

I didn't get a picture of their boxes full of cookies. Everyone took home all the sugar cookies they decorated/wanted and some of each kind of cookie that we made. It was a huge success.

I Won!!

I won a contest over at The Handy Hausfrau. What did I win you ask? A great bag with oilcloth lining. No I won't give it to you so don't ask. But feel free to head over to her site and check it out. She does awesome crafts and tutorials. Her link is also on my sidebar. I'll even try to remember to post a picture when I recieve it. Thanks again Sara!

Just a quick post

I'm working on a couple of awesome posts covering Connor's 5th grade program and Breanna's 15th birthday party. But for today - Here is Breanna's first time behind the wheel after getting her permit last week. She has since driven quite a few times. Yes it's scary.

We went over and flew kites on Sunday. Hillary was the only one I could convince to go though. Sadly the wind was not as cooperative as I would have liked - but we got a kite up for a little while. And Hillary had a grand time so it was worth it.

Hillary has more dolls than she has doll beds. No this is not a plea for more beds Grandma Tinka - we don't have room for more beds. But Hillary is very good at improvising. She simply cleaned off two of my book shelves and made beds for her girls.

Note also that she felt the need to make name labels so I would know who was supposed to go in each bed.

She would also like you to pay close attention to Lindsey's hair (she's the one on the bottom). She spent a long time doing it last week.

My first recipe post

Hillary tried a sample at Sam's club and was so thrilled with it she just had to re-create it at home. The recipe is simple - anyone can do it she says. I didn't manage to get pictures of the process - only the finished product. But if you have any questions - please feel free to call her directly. Enjoy.

Hillary's Ham and Cheese on a Stick (she named it too)

Ingredients/supplies:

ham cut into small pieces

cheese cut into small pieces

toothpicks

Put one piece of ham on the plate, put a piece of cheese on top. Stab it with a toothpick. Eat.

Hillary and the two-wheeler

Hillary has officially graduated to a big girl bike with no training wheels. We took them off last Saturday. She's not very good yet - but she's getting the hang of it. She has begged everyday since to get out and practice -but hasn't been able to because of the weather. This weekend is supposed to be nice though so she should be able to then. I expect she'll have it down in a couple more days.

Update: Hillary has been outside for the last two days peddling furiously and officially has it down:)

Easter Activities

As previously mentioned it was Breanna's Birthday on Sunday - but it was also Easter. The kids were all thrilled with their baskets - and I made it through another year with NO Candy - except the few morsels their Grandma Tinka sent. And no one was sad. It may cost me more to fill their baskets - but it's a much nicer day without the sugar induced hyperactivity.

Hillary was especially pleased with all her stuff.

Breanna's pile was much bigger because she had birthday presents too.

Oooing and ahhhhing over her new magazine.

Coloring with her new coloring book and special markers-and one doll half way into the ice skating dress she coveted for several months.

Dressed in their matching shirts. You can't see them - but they are way cute - and just what she wanted.

We skipped the city egg hunts this year since Hillary is the only one young enough to participate and all she usually gets is crappy candy. I filled eggs for each of them and hid them in the living room since there was 3 inches of snow outside. I let them each pick out their own eggs at the store and Connor picked a package of Bunny shaped eggs that only had 3 in it. So he felt like he could wear his basket as a hat and just carry his eggs. Yes he's weird.

Hillary used her basket appropriately though.

I did good hiding the eggs - Breanna had the hardest time because she had to pop the recliners and shimmy under the couches to get hers.

They all eventually found them all - Hillary got rings and necklaces, Connor got GoGo's, and Breanna's were filled with cash. Everyone was THRILLED with what they got. Way better than waiting in the snow and cold for candy.

Happy Birthday Breanna!

Today is Breanna's 15th birthday. Yes I feel old. You should too.

Some days I am more proud than others.... This was three days ago when she got stuck.


Things you may not know about Breanna:

• She loves pigs. It used to be monkeys - but it's pigs now.
• Her favorite color is purple followed closely by orange.
• She claims she is only going to have one kid - but she really loves babies so I don't belive that will happen.
• She hates chocolate.
• Sometimes I call her Wilma. It's because we were buying the kids teeny-tiny mugs once with their names on them and there wasn't a "Breanna" so I got a "Wilma" for her. She loved it.
• I've never called her Lucy.
• She is a hoarder like her mother and grandmother. We're kicking that habit this summer together though.
• Her favorite cartoons currently are Invader Zim and Chowder. She longs for the days of Rugrats, Snowden and Power Puff Girls though.
• She is a really good artist - she gets that from her dad.
• She hates feet.
• Her socks never match each other. She does it on purpose. I think it's because she's too lazy to match the socks up when she's folding laundry.
• Her music taste varies widely from screamo music to David Bowie and everything in between.
• She is bad at washing dishes. Can she practice at your house?
• Despite trying to be "cool" she really likes to do community service. This includes everything from visiting the elderly to helping one of her 7th grade teachers do her shopping.

Despite her struggles over the last couple years, Breanna has grown into a wonderful young lady. She is my best friend and I hope she will be forever. I am proud of the way she has handled her struggles and come out the other side a better person. I love you Bre.

Happy Birthday

Easter Eggs

We tried to dye our easter eggs all natural this year. Through my food co-op we got a kit with a bunch of stuff to use in it. It had blueberries, spinach, yellow and red onions, beets and carrots. So I diligently boiled them all down to nothingness in water as instructed and we dyed away. There are definately ones I wouldn't ever do again - but some were WAY cooler than we'd expected.
If nothing else the jars of pretty colored water looked cool.

These are the finished product after sitting in the water for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. The pale pale pink ones on the left are from the beets. Not as impressive as I'd expected from something that stained my hands cutting it up. The orange ones on the left are from the yellow onion skins. They are actully really bright and pretty. On the right - the one on the top that is kind of a gross brown is from the red onion. Then two more pale pink beet ones. The dark ones were by far our favorite from the blueberry. A really true blue color. The lighter blue one on the bottom was when we mixed the blueberry and the beet together to try to get purple. It didn't work. The carrot didn't change the color of the egg one bit even after 20 minutes so we just dumped it out. The spinach just gave the egg the palest yellow tint so we didn't take it out. It's in the next group.

On the advice of Martha Stewart we left some in each color overnight and this is what came out. The three on the top where in the spinach. It did leave a nice darkish green scum layer all over the eggs - but I washed that off and they are an ugly yellow/green color. Those dark vivied orange ones are the yellow onion skins and they are actually kind of marbled. The red ones are the beets and the ugly brown one is the red onion skins.
All in all - I think the only ones I'd do again are the yellow onion skins and the blueberries. And I think the kids would prefer the fake neon colors. But at least I can say we did it once. And I've been told this makes the eggs taste a little funny so we'll see on Easter when we make deviled eggs from them. That will definately affect whether we do them again.