Game Night

We started a tradition in our house, last winter that we've continued doing this year that my kids just love. Every Sunday night we have game night. We rotate who gets to choose the game and everyone looks forward to it. Tonight it was Max's turn so we played a raucous round of Mousetrap. The highlights were when I couldn't find my game piece and had to use a foil covered chocolate instead and the laughter that ensued when my piece finally made its way to Shane's side of the board and mysteriously became an empty piece of foil devoid of chocolate; and then when Max's mouse was on the cheese wheel and Shane landed on the turn crank space, Max couldn't stand the anticipation of watching the trap move its way towards his mouse and finally stood on the chair and shouted an anguished, "NOOO!" and then laughed and laughed when his mouse was caught. I know that the kids won't always be interested in hanging out with the folks, but for now its one of our favorite things.

Max's lyrics

The yesterday this song came on the radio. I wasn't really listening until Max said to me, "You know that song about cleaning?"

To which I replied, "huh?"

"That song on the radio, it says (singing along) cleaning makes you stronger, grow a little taller."

And then he wanted to know if cleaning really does make you taller... well, I think it probably does.

A weekend visitor

About two weeks ago we had a special weekend visitor. My sweet nephew Ethan came to stay with us. Now its been awhile since we've had a toddler in the house and I was nervous I might have forgotten all things pertaining to having such a person around, but I'm happy to say it is a little like riding a bike. Ethan fit right in with our crazy crowd. The kids just love him... I mean love him. I was nervous about Max especially getting a little jealous of my attention being diverted, but it wasn't even an issue. The boys couldn't get enough of him. Mason really was a great helper and loved doing things for Ethan. In this picture Mason is taking him for a ride in the laundry basket, an activity they both thought was hilarious.

We had such a wonderful time. I forgot how much extra joy having a little guy brings to your house. About an hour before Michelle and Kendon got back, Max asked in all seriousness, "Can we keep him?" I had to tell him I thought his mom just might really want him back, but we were sure lucky to have him visit.

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Halloween

This year the kids rejected my suggestion of going as Harry and Ron for Halloween, and decided they wanted to be ninjas... (well first Max wanted to be Batman, but then changed his mind to being a ninja like Mason, thankfully Mason didn't mind). I have to admit I was a little bummed, as you know I get really into making the boys costumes every year. But I accepted their desire to be ninjas and instead of starting a huge sewing/hot gluing project we took a trip to Target and got outfitted for Halloween. They still looked cute and really had fun. I love Halloween, its so much fun.

 

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First Snow

He had to gather the whole yard's worth of snow to make the season's first snow man.

 

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First Day of School

Second grade for Mason he's getting so big.

Max didn't start preschool until two weeks later.

Max went to Miss Karla's preschool for a few weeks, but one day I heard that Mason's school was looking for a teacher's aide, I sent my resume over and the next day they called me for an interview and then hired me right afterwards. Its for just a few hours in the morning, but the best part is that Max gets to come with me and attend the kindergarden class while I'm working. Its a great program for Max, although its taken him some time to get used to going everyday. We've all had to get used to being a little more scheduled in the mornings, and we don't have as much time at home, but so far its been totally worth it.

 

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Max's Birthday

The last adventure of summer this year was Max's birthday. It was Max's first friend party so we tried to make it special, while still keeping it simple so that I didn't loose my mind. In the past I will admit that birthday parties have caused me a bit of stress so I tried not to go crazy on this one. We kept the guest list limited to the few friends that Max plays with on a regular basis (and cousin Ethan of course) which I think helped the most to keep things manageable for me.

Max decided he wanted to have a dinosaur party which was so much fun. We started with lunch, then we went on a dinosaur safari... We started with the dinosaur dig, the kids loved this and could have done it for hours.

Then we had to hurry over to "Volcanium" where it looked like our volcano was ready to erupt. Max and I had made this volcano out of salt dough a few days earlier.

I wish I had a better picture of the volcano, because Max was really proud of it. We spent a long time building it and decorating it with dinosaurs and palm trees, Max even suggested that volcano have a cave at the bottom with a dinosaur in it. I think that is what he is pointing out to his friend Jake in this picture.

After the volcano eruption we had to head over to the dinosaur hatchery to make sure all the dinosaur eggs were ok. We found that the large eggs had made it through ok, but the small dinosaur eggs were missing (gasp) and we would have to go find them

This was by far my favorite activity. The "eggs" were made out of a mixture of flour and water and used coffee grinds that dried hard on the outside and were soft on the inside. In the middle of each egg was a little dinosaur. The kids thought it was to great that they got to smash their eggs on the ground so they could get their dinosaurs out.

After that we opened presents and ate cupcakes, the kids had all collected a little pile of mini dinosaurs by that time, and so we spent the remaining party time playing dinosaurs. When everyone left they took home a large paper mache dinosaur egg filled with treats. The kids thought this was a especially cool.

 

The party turned out great. I think everyone had a good time especially Max. Later that night we had Shane's family over for dinner and cake, which was also a lot of fun. Max got to choose what we had for dinenr so it was chicken nuggets of course...

Ethan mowed the lawn for us

We opened presents again

And of course had more cake, it was a lovely day.

 

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Max's Birthday

The last adventure of summer this year was Max's birthday. It was Max's first friend party so we tried to make it special, while still keeping it simple so that I didn't loose my mind. In the past I will admit that birthday parties have caused me a bit of stress so I tried not to go crazy on this one. We kept the guest list limited to the few friends that Max plays with on a regular basis (and cousin Ethan of course) which I think helped the most to keep things manageable for me.

Max decided he wanted to have a dinosaur party which was so much fun. We started with lunch, then we went on a dinosaur safari... We started with the dinosaur dig, the kids loved this and could have done it for hours.

Then we had to hurry over to "Volcanium" where it looked like our volcano was ready to erupt. Max and I had made this volcano out of salt dough a few days earlier.

I wish I had a better picture of the volcano, because Max was really proud of it. We spent a long time building it and decorating it with dinosaurs and palm trees, Max even suggested that volcano have a cave at the bottom with a dinosaur in it. I think that is what he is pointing out to his friend Jake in this picture.

After the volcano eruption we had to head over to the dinosaur hatchery to make sure all the dinosaur eggs were ok. We found that the large eggs had made it through ok, but the small dinosaur eggs were missing (gasp) and we would have to go find them

This was by far my favorite activity. The "eggs" were made out of a mixture of flour and water and used coffee grinds that dried hard on the outside and were soft on the inside. In the middle of each egg was a little dinosaur. The kids thought it was to great that they got to smash their eggs on the ground so they could get their dinosaurs out.

After that we opened presents and ate cupcakes, the kids had all collected a little pile of mini dinosaurs by that time, and so we spent the remaining party time playing dinosaurs. When everyone left they took home a large paper mache dinosaur egg filled with treats. The kids thought this was a especially cool.

 

The party turned out great. I think everyone had a good time especially Max. Later that night we had Shane's family over for dinner and cake, which was also a lot of fun. Max got to choose what we had for dinenr so it was chicken nuggets of course...

Ethan mowed the lawn for us

We opened presents again

And of course had more cake, it was a lovely day.

 

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Salt Lake Vacation

In August we realized there were two consecutive weekends that held events in Utah that we wanted the attend, so we decided to cap off our summer with a week in Salt Lake.

The first weekend we were there Shane went to a car race. He loves racing his mustang. The kids and my dad and I met him there for awhile, but it ended up being a break so we didn't see any racing. Since we were already in Toelle though we stopped off and visited my uncle Don, who has recently taken up bunny raising. The kids thought the bunnies were great and really wanted to take one home. I asked Don if we could borrow one for a few days, but he said there was a no return policy on the bunnies.

The best part about the trip was that Shane was able to stay with us during the week, although he did have to go the library and work on their speedy internet connection, every afternoon he came home and we set out on a family adventure. We had a great time, every night we were busy with some kind of adventure. Many of those adventures involved swimming so I didn't take a lot of pictures. One night we went swimming at the local pool. One night we went to Seven Peaks Water Park. I didn't know if the kids would love this one, but they had a blast. Mason who generally doesn't like thrilling rides LOVED the waterslides, he coudl not get enoug of them, and even went on some that made me a little uncomfortable. Max was a little more timid and spent most of the night in the lazy river with me.

One of the things I miss most about the Salt Lake valley is the easy access to the mountains, so one night we hiked to Donut Falls. It was a beautiful hike, and I was especially pleased to see how much the kids enjoyed being outside in the mountains.

Of course the thing that I was looking forward to the most that weekend was on Friday when Shane and I went to see Wicked. We left early and went downtown and had a nice dinner and then walked around the City Creek Center. It was so nice to spend time together, and the show was fabulous, even Shane really enjoyed it.

It was such a great week, I think we'll have to make it a summer tradition.

 

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