Blossom Time in our Neck of the Woods

I'm not sure what what happened to the clarity of these photos.  Something happened, but i don't really have the time to figure it out and wanted to get the photos up mostly as a documentation.  The ones going up on my wall will be much better :-)

But every spring the blossoms come out all around our little city.  It is the perfect time to get some photos of the kids.  We only have a 2 week window, so we have to take advantage of them while we can.

This year we waited until the last minute.  Two days later, most of the blossoms were on the ground... (imagine me wiping my forehead in relief).

Ella's Interstellar Birthday Party

This year is the year of birthday parties outside of the home.  I told the kids we could have birthday party as long as they were somewhere else other than in our house.  I am trying to simplify this year.  

So, Ella came up with having her birthday party at the planetarium.  I loved it!  So, that is what we did.  It was quite the party with 25 rowdy boys and girls.  But they had a great time, watching the movie, learning the constellations and playing in their science museum and looking through the telescope and seeing the moon!

Here are some of the decorations that I made to make her party just a little bit more special.   you know with her mother's touch :-)

These were the favors for the kids to take home.  I bought Astronaut ice cream and placed them in a bag and then attached these awesome space lollipops to them and a print out of constellations.

I served the kids festive cupcakes and ice cream with sprinkles and syrup.

For the gift table I got these cute little letter foil balloons to spell out her name.

Here is the invitations we gave out for the party.

And another close up of the favors.

Here are just some of the crazy kids that were at the party.  

And my cute not-so-little birthday girl.  Love her!

February (part 1) Memory Dump

I haven't kept up with my personal memory keeping on my blog for almost a year (maybe longer).  I need to start doing a better job of writing down my memories.

So, I am going to try doing this again, using pictures! 

Each month, my family has a grandchild of the month.  During that month, all the cousins write to that grandchild.  Sometimes you get little gifts, letters, or pictures.  It all depends on the family and their interest and talents.  

Graham was the grandchild of the month and his Uncle Ty drew him this picture.  It is dead on!  Uncle Ty is one talented artist.  The funny thing is that when Graham saw the picture he said "where is my hair?"  I see the hair Ty!

Ella had her birthday this month and here were the invitations we sent out for her birthday party.  More information coming on that soon.

Hannah got straight A's again this last quarter.  Here is Hannah and her friend when they got their award at the school award assembly.

Over President's Weekend, we were invited to go up to the snow with our friends to stay in their cabin.  My kids were so excited to play in the snow.  Jake had been asking all winter to go to the snow and finally it happened!  

We were still able to have our traditional Fondue Dinner (but even more fun with friends).  We played a lot of games and some movies and had one big sleepover for the little kids  (all the kids got to sleep in the front room together ... party!

We had a blast sledding down the road and making snowballs.  I realized though that we are not properly equipped for snow.  Something I need to work on for next year.

For Valentine's Day, I gave Chris the best gift ever.  I presented him with this.  And he had to guess what the gift was.  here are the hints:  17, some artwork (Of the coast) I painted and some caramels.

The gift was a weekended getaway to Carmel, California.  We have never been on a trip without our kids and I just couldn't take it anymore.  I really felt like we need to get away just the two us.  I am so excited!  Chris, not so much.  He is the reason we haven't gone anywhere just the two of us.  But I promised him he will love the present (after the weekend is over!)

Graham is taking swim lessons with his best friend Callie.  They have class together and they passed a level.  They were so excited to ring their bells and get their medal.  Can't you see it on their faces?

This month has my girl's favorite night of the year.  Daddy/Daughter dance!  They love going with their dad.  they love dancing with their friends.  They love the corsages their dad gives them.  It is such a fun night.  I am sad that it is Hannah's last year.  No more daddy/daughter dances for her :-(

The theme this year was Cinderella, hence the long pretty skirts and the gloves  Ella is wearing. She is too much sometimes :-)

New Beginnings - Chinese New Years

I haven't been able to keep up with my blog like i used to, but there are still things I need to document for myself, so that I will have access to them later on in life.  So, with that being said, I was put into the YW program in my ward.  I am now the secretary in YW and with that calling I get to be a part of the great things that go on in our YW program.

So, as much as I can, I am going to try and document the things we do here on my blog (mostly for me, but also for those of you that still read my blog).   So, the first activity we our New Beginnings.

We did a great Chinese New Year theme. The night was just wonderful.  It all came together so well.  Here is what we did.


To start, we passed out these invitations. I bought Chinese Envelopes from Amazon and printed out the cards with our information on them.  I punched a hole at the top an tied a ribbon through it and inserted them into the envelopes.  Wa La!

Next, for the decoration for the evening.  We knew we wanted red chinese lanterns to adorn the cultural hall.  We also bought these on Amazon for $1 each.  We had 40 of them strung across our cultural hall with chinese kites.  You walked in and it was so festive and eye-catching.

We also wanted to use the screen as a focal point (since we were playing a movie) and so we decided to make big banners to flank the sides of the screen.  I was in charge of this.  I wrote big chinese characters on the banners that represented different YW values (loosely :-) and then I used gold duct tape to make a border around the banner.  It helped make it sturdy and was easier than painting.

For the night of the event, I made these programs (that matched our invitations). 

and then we got these pretty chinese sheets from a local restaurant and included them int he program.  On the back we included this year's incoming beehive's names.  (sorry the program is upside down, I'm too lazy to go and fix that.  But you get the picture).

For the food, we decided to keep it simple and did cupcakes with fortune cookies on top.  Super festive and easy.  We also were able to get authentic chinese dragons and kites from a member in our ward which really help with the decoration!

Okay, now for the presentation of the evening.  The whole message of the evening was that we bringing honor to our Heavenly Father as we journey through this life of ours.    

We talked about Mulan and showed the clip from the movie where she sings "bring Honor to us all".  

We talked about how there is much more to life as young women than making ourselves look pretty and saying the right things…..

As daughters of God, we need to strive to let the light of Chirst shine forth in us by our actions and our thoughts. In the YW program we base our lives around Christ by living our values.  By understanding and living these values, we can truly bring honor to our families and most importantly to our Heavenly Father.

The Chinese calendar goes in a 12 year cycle. Each year has a zodiac sign that represents qualities of the people born to that year. The values and characteristics of these zodiac years are not too far different from some of the qualities we seek for in living our young women’s values.  

Then we had a girl discuss each value.  With each value we assigned a zodiac sign from the Chinese New Year.  

Faith -  OX

Divine Nature - Horse

Individual Worth - Monkey

Knowledge - Snake

Choice and Accountability - Dragon

Good Works - Rabbit

Integrity - Dog

Virtue - Tiger

With each value, we asked anyone in the audience if they were born in the year (for instance for Faith) 1949, 1961,1973 or 2009 to please stand.   "you were all born in the year of the Ox and have certain characteristics."   And then we discussed the different characteristics that are associated with that animal.  

We went through each animal for the 8 different values.  It was fun to have the audience participate, learn and see how these characteristics applied to them personally.

Along with this, we talked about the YW program, the Personal Progress program, our ward's individual YW theme (as it fits in with the general Mutual theme of the year) and then we introduced the new beehives for the year and presented them with some YW items and gifts.

So, our ward's YW theme is  "Press Forward on your Journey".  In connection with the general Mutual theme "press forward with steadfastness in Christ."

  We introduced the theme and made passports for each girl.  We told them that We are going to take a trip around the world in YW this year and along the way learn about principles that will help us press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.

Throughout the year, they will receive stamps as they travel to different countries (different YW activities).  These stamps will represent not only the countries you will visit, but they will represent spiritual stamps or principles that will help you on your travels To return to live with our Savior and Father again.

We got this idea from this video.  

The first stamp they got was China (for our New Beginnings).

I made the passports.  Here is what they look like up close and personal.

Here are the girls presenting each value.

And here are our cute YW.  This night was particularly wonderful for me because my daughter was there as an upcoming beehive this year.  i can't believe it!  It was so fun to put it together knowing she was going to be there.   There you have it.  I have to admit I have a great calling. I get to serve with wonderful women that put this together!  The thought to every detail and the messages we want to teach to our YW... I am in good company for sure!

Paw Patrol North Pole Adventure Party

Graham definitely wanted a Paw Patrol party. I wasn't totally on board (especially since i didn't want to have to redecorate my house at Christmas time to accommodate all those Paw Patrols). But then it came to me, we could have a Paw Patrol North Pole Adventure and give Graham what he wanted while still keeping up my Christmas decorations. A win-win for both of us!

Here is the big boy right before his party.

Here are the invitations to the paw patrol party.  I bought these wood bones online and painted them white.  I used vinyl and put each kids name on their bones and asked them to bring the bone with them to the party.  I used them as part of our activities during the party.

When the guest walked through the door I wanted them to feel like the had entered the north pole, so I used a lot of stuffing (to look like snow) and some cute paper trees and north pole signs.  Hopefully, there was no mistaking where you were.

At the front entry table I decorated with the favor gifts.  I wanted to give favors that would had things that were interesting to the kids.  And again mixing the North Pole and Paw Patrols.  

So, in the cute gift boxes (which I got at Target) I included

A big Candy Cane Chocolate Bar.  Because what kid doesn't love a full size candy bar.

Cute sugar cookies decorated like bones and paw prints.  (thanks to my talented neighbor)

A Paw Patrol silicone bracelet.

Some Snow from the north pole

and these awesome Christmas 3D glasses.  They turn christmas lights into different characters.  They really are so cool.  We used them to go and look at christmas lights and they made the night so much fun. 

On the gift boxes I included a tag that said "Inspected by "elf #56"  Santa's workshop = thank you division.

Here are some more decorations I had throughout the house.  Again I used stuffing as the centerpiece to make the tables look like they had snow.  A lot of pompons to make it feel like white winter wonderland.  I bought clear paw print stickers and put them on the floor and shutters, so add to the dog-theme.  

To start out the party, I had each kid choose a coloring page.  They got to color them and put stickers on them.  Then my husband turned each one into a paper plane that we used later on in the party.

For the food.  I wanted to have a north pole breakfast theme, but Graham was adamant on having hot dogs and cheetos, so since he was the birthday boy I obliged.  For the cupcakes I bought these mini paw patrol characters and make a North Pole sign out of a paper straw.  They were perfect. Simple and added to the theme perfectly.

For the menu, we served hot dogs, chips, carrots and ranch.  Fruit salad and yogurt with sprinkles and Chocolate Milk.  I learned to keep food simple.  The kids don't eat it and you end up throwing most of it away.  So, pick foods they eat and keep it simple! 

For the party activities, we had a ton of North Pole Games to play.  Here is what the kids played. (because it rained all day, I had to do these indoors, but the original plan was to do it outside).

1) Snowball Toss - I bought these snowballs and paw patrol buckets and  the kids had to stand behind the line and throw the snowballs into one of four buckets.  The first person to make it into a bucket won a prize.  

2) I made these snowball poppers (scroll down to the bottom of the page for instructions).  We used mini marshmallows to pop.  The kids had a ball with this.  They could have done with for an hour.  These really are the coolest things.  

3) Snowball Cups - Used the snowballs again and put the striped cups in a pyramid and the kids got to knock them down.  The first kid to know all the cups down got a prize.

4) North Pole Bingo - got the bingo game at Target

5) Reindeer Ring Toss - I got a cardboard reindeer head and put it up on the wall and the kids got to throw the rings to try and hook one on the reindeer's antlers.  The kids loved this one too.  In fact they loved all these games, we ran out of time!  The first kid to get a ring on an antler won a prize.

6) Candy Cane Fishing - I hooked a candy cane to a wooden dowel and then the kids had to fish a candy cane out of a cup using them candy cane hook.  If they were able to do it, they got to keep the candy cane.

7) Paper Plane Target Practice - those coloring pages we turned into paper planes were used for this game.  Each kid got their paper plane and had to stand behind a line and try to fly their plane through a hula hoop.  First one to do it, got a prize.

But the way, the prizes were wrapped up (like a christmas present) box of Scooby Do Bones.  Again to go with the doggy theme  :-)

After each activity, each kid got a sticker to put on their bone.

Then we sang to the birthday boy and had cupcakes and ice cream.

And then opened presents.  Yippee!

Graham said it was the best party ever.  He loved having his friends over to celebrate.  He loved the games and he loved getting paw patrol toys.  Ironically, he didn't own one paw patrol item, so needless to say, he is well stocked now.  Thanks everyone.  Happy birthday big boy, you are finally 4 years old.  (he has been saying it for a year (because he is almost 4 feet on our wall height tracker), but now you finally are!  Love you tons.