Blue and Gold Dinner

I was asked to head up the Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner this year. It was so much fun to plan. The theme was space. I found these blue and gold balloons at the dollar store and the boys made space themed centerpieces with their dens. I got these posters with all the planets to decorate and for a trivia game.  

When everyone arrived we had little space sticker sheets for the little kids to play with while we got started.  The cub master had us all count down from ten and shout "Blast Off!"

Then we watched this quick little video about how astronaughts stay clean:


While the video played, we passed out some of the cool napkins so everyone could clean up before dinner. Then we had a big spaghetti feast.

After dinner, the boys did one minute presentations on astronauts that were/are eagle scouts. I found this amazingly long list of them here.  It was fun to hear what great stuff they came up with.  The coolest part was when the last boy got up and presented all this information and ended with saying that most importantly, his astronaut had sealed his parents for time and all eternity in the Temple!

Some space posters made by the boys:

The families brought creative space themed desserts for a little contest, which then got devoured.  We finished up by doing a quick trivia by guessing which planets were which on the walls.

A rocket centerpiece:

I had a great time helping plan this special evening and I think everyone had fun. Now I really feel like a full fledged scouting mom. I am really starting to enjoy the scouting program.

From the iPod

I always find lots of random pictures that the kids take when I clear off the iPod. Like for instance, every single page of Eden's favorite Hello Kitty book:

Random piece of a cutie:

Every single Skylander on the portal:

Then there was Lily's trip to the dentist.  She was with me when I took Eden and watch the whole time so she was totally excited to have her own turn.

I had a reaction to an antibiotic and got this lovely full body rash.

I got to cut my sister's twin's hair into cute bobs:

Random selfie:

Family dinner at Grandpa Dickinsons.  He has gotten very sick since then so this is a nice little picture to remember dinner with all these great grandkids right before.  He is bedridden now.

Sisters:

Peter's Birthday

I have kinda dropped the ball with Peter's birthday the last couple of years so I was determined to make it special for him this year. The night before his birthday he was planning to take Dallin to a chess tournament right by his parents house. I arranged to have Peter's dad take his place and steal him away to go suit shopping. He has been without one for a couple of years and has mentioned getting one quite a bit. I had my mother in law join us because she has probably bought at least 30 of them in her lifetime and we had no idea where to go or what to look for. Lucy babysat the other kids for us to make it all work out. Peter was happily surprised when we came in an swooped him away to go to the mall. We shopped for a couple of hours, almost bought something, and decided to look a little more the next day. We had a great time though. When we got back to the house, there were balloons and the kids yelled surprise we had some cake and ice cream.

The next morning was Peter's actual birthday so we showered him with gifts first thing.  Peter NEVER buys clothes and his wardrobe was in seriously bad shape.  He got some new work pants, t-shirts, coat, etc.  He was really happy to not feel like a bum any more.(forgive the bad ipod pictures)

Tanner wrote a book for Peter called "My Dad is Kind."

Because we think he looks like Captain America:

I made his very favorite breakfast ever, german apple pancakes.  We haven't had them in a couple of years. I wasn't quick enough to get a picture before it was devoured.

After breakfast we took the kids back over to his parents and continued the suit search succesfully.  We spent hours at Nordstrom Rack finding a suit, some new shoes and a few other wardrobe staples he was still lacking.

On Sunday we hosted our family dinner so we made one of his favorite traditional Norwegian Dinners, potato balls and Argentine chipa bread from his mission.  His grandpa and aunt Dorothy came too. 

We sure love this guy.  He works hard all day, comes home and works hard being a dad, and still manages find time in the wee hours to be a great runner.  It was great celebrating Peter for the weekend.

Sister's Weekend 2013

 After having so much fun on a beach getaway last year, we decided to make a yearly tradition of it.  We were all hyper about getting away from all responsibilities for a couple of days. I love hanging out with my sisters so much.  When we arrived at the beach house we unloaded all of our "goods" on the table and quickly realized that we had the makings of a perfect weekend:

 We watched movies, stayed up late talking, took a nice walk/jog on the beach together, went out to eat and did I mention we talked a lot. Laughing, more crudeness than characteristic of us, sharing motherhood joys and trials, and lots of love and support.

Just the four of us:

 Our favorite food was Pirate's Cove for breakfast. This place is amazing and right on the water with windows all around.  Best eggs benedict that ever met my mouth.

 A cute baby belly was involved.  Don't get mad Cami!

 Laurel and Beth:

 As we were packing up to go home Beth said, "Wow, I feel like I just had a two day long bubble bath."  That pretty much sums it up.  Hmmmmm....Maybe we should make it bi-annual.

Mother Son Dance

A while back Lucy and I took Dallin and Tanner to the Mother Son dance at the elementary school. The boys didn't want a whole lot to do with anything accociated with dance. Doesn't Dallin look excited?

Tanner was equally enthusiastic!

Dallin smiled a little better for Lucy:

Tanner still wasn't warmed up:

The dance floor was covered in balloons so the boys ran around and had a great time playing for a while and we even got a little bit of dancing out of them by the end.  Silly boys.  Maybe we will have better luck next year.

Easter 2013

We had an eventful Easter this year.  First off, for Family Home Evening we made ressurection gardens. The kids filled small containers with soil and then made tombs with a rock in front and little pebble pathways. Off to the side we made crosses with twigs.  Then we sprinkled grass seeds to represent new life in the week to come.

Later in the week my aunt invited all of the Arave grandkids to bring their kids to her house for an Easter party. It was fun to see some of my cousins and our big bunch of kids all together. 

 Luke loved the dogs:

 They got to dye eggs.  There were so many! It was a well organized event that went surprisingly smoothly.

 Then we had an easter egg hunt in the back yard.

 Luke was missing his nap time so he spent most of his time here or in my arms.

 The lake.  This was my grandparents house before so I have so many childhood memories at this place.

Cousins:

 Checking out their loot and enjoying cupcakes in the shade.  The weather was as perfect as can possibly be that day.

 Lovely Aunt Helen. She enjoyed hanging out with all these kids.

L

 Serious group trampoline jumping. I have never seen so many kids on at once before, and I have seen a lot.

 

A couple days later we went to a community event with bounce houses:

 And a second easter egg hunt:

 We came to this last year so we figured out a great strategy for the kids to get to the middle quickly and fill their baskets.

 Then they gave us a hot dog lunch.  The kids got to explore a fire engine too:

 Trying to turn the wheel:

 The Easter Bunny:

 After lunch the crowd really died down so the kids continued with the bounce houses for as long as possible without many lines. It was such a nice day that we stayed even longer and walked around the track a couple of times.  I think we were one of the last families to leave.

 Easter morning the Easter Bunny brought more little toys and a little less candy since we had so much candy elsewhere.

 Eden set out her basket with all the little bunny friends she could find the night before. I love her.

 Our traditional breakfast is Eggs a la goldenrod.  It was nice to have some protein to balance out the sugar. After breakfast we watched some videos online about the Crucifixion, Atonement and Resurrection and talked about why we celebrate Easter.

 At church I got to sing with our ward choir for the Easter program.  It was mostly singing with narrations and one talk.  The spirit was so strong.  I love how I feel when I sing hymns of praise.  It is so much more magnified to be part of the choir for me than to sit and listen, although that is great too.  I got to sing a duet about Mary seeing Jesus at the tomb.  I was Mary and felt a lot of emotion thinking about what that must have been like for her.  It was a special experience for me. Going to church on Easter is my favorite thing.

That evening we had a big family feast and another egg hunt at Peter's parent's house with lots of friends and family.

 Lori put tickets inside the eggs and after the hunt, the kids got to go shopping at a little "store" set up in the basement with lots of dollar store toys.

 With such a busy Easter week, we did our other Easter FHE activity on the Monday after:

 Eden's Easter shiner.  She got wacked in the face with a serving tray at Grandmas house and it is still there a week later.

A fun busy Easter week.  I had hoped to do more each day to learn about Christ's last week, but I think it still went really well.