12 X 2 = AWESOMENESS

Two twelve year olds?  

They've had a great weekend, and are ready to start their 12th Year full steam ahead!

First, the birthday party:

friends came over for dinner, capture the flag games at the neighborhood park, cake, presents, and general pre-teen "hanging out"

They had a blast!

The football field ice cream cake

Friends and presents

Happy Birthday!

THEN, 

March 17, 2014

Krispy Kreme (of course)

Wrapping presents (and rewrapping them after Gideon snuck into my room and had a heyday unwrapping... I wish I could have seen his blissful glee!)

Sonic and Baskin Robbins for the twins' free food

Jumpland (a trampoline park) for a Mom & twin date

Dinner, Family Home Evening (with green moustaches for our random activity)

Presents, and Cake again (football cupcakes)

Gideon's unwrapping frenzy...  luckily he didn't open or ruin any actual presents.  

He did, however, color all over our bedspread with the markers...  

The box says they are washable, and we are testing that right away!

Green moustache intermission...

Okay, back to the twins...

YESSSSS!!!!! A watch from PoppaKeith and Jeanene!

YUM!  2 boxes each of Lucky Charms!  

I didn't take pictures of all the presents... 

They were thrilled with "Sunday clothes" money from Mamma, candy, favorite foods, books, and football gloves from our family, and well wishes from everyone!

And NFL Football Cupcakes...  YAY!

White Sands National Monument

The kids and I joined up with some friends and visited the 

White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.  

What a blast!  

It was a perfect mix of snow sledding and a beach... and without the cold and the wet!

We definitely plan to go again!

We still need to clean out our van though... 

and take care of our ouchy sunburns...oops!

Jonas is pretty fast at getting up the hill!

The kids loved sliding and burying themselves...

Reuben borrowed my hat to try to minimize his sunburn!

The cold sand kept us from overheating in the middle of the day.  

It was cold enough that Evelyn begged for hot chocolate!  

Well, she is my daughter... there never needs to be an excuse for hot chocolate!

Reuben and Troy plotting their burial (hahaha)

Leslie on top of "our" hill

Gideon enjoying the best sand park EVER!

Jonas and his friends creeping us all out with their zombie effects

Micah comforting me as he lovingly put more sand around my head... 

I finally allowed them to bury me with their promise that they would all 

willingly climb in the van when it was time to go.  

a...a...A...AHEM, children!  

Croquet Activity

Last night for FHE we watched the portion of Alice in Wonderland as she plays croquet with the flamingos and the queen...

We also ate marshmallow popcorn balls as part of Owen's Create Random Original Quirky Unique Edible Treats activity...

Apparently my kids really like acronyms!


Recipe: From AllRecipes.com

Best Ever Popcorn Balls

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup margarine 2 teaspoons cold water

2 5/8 cups confectioners' sugar 1 cup marshmallows 5 quarts plain popped popcorn

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the corn syrup, margarine, cold water, confectioners' sugar and marshmallows. Heat and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Carefully combine the hot mixture with the popcorn, coating each kernel.
2.	Grease hands with vegetable shortening and quickly shape the coated popcorn into balls before it cools. Wrap with cellophane or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Economical FHE activity

Troy decided that we should go to Bahama "Bucks" for our

  Family Home Evening economics activity.  

 Bob and I threw a twist in when none of the kids helped clean up after dinner:  

if you don't work, you don't get bucks!

We talked about the importance of a job well done as opposed to not even done! 

We did "let them" sweep and mop the floor, 

and then we brought them home some Bahama Bucks shaved ice.  

Yummy treat.  

We felt kind of mean, but also thought this was an excellent opportunity to teach the principle of 

work = paycheck!  

No free handouts here... (at least, not with all these chores needing to be finished...)

We also saw on the menu that there are 60 snowballs available anytime for $12.99  ........ 

I think I see a summer snowball fight in the future!