Kali's First Race

(May 2012) Kali was in her first Gap2Gap race.  She's the first one in our family to try it.  It was a really fun race.  She was competing with other girls in her age group 6-7 yr olds.  It's a relay race.  Kali ran the first leg (3/4 mile), then Emily biked the second, Trinity roller-skated the third, then the final leg was an obstacle cores done by Emma.  The girls sure gave it their all.  I face painted stars and stripes on them and put tinsel in their hair.  What a great little team!

Kali ran so fast.  She was running with a lot of big boys, thank goodness they weren't really competing with her.  They ended up  getting 2nd place!  YAY!  Kali ended up having a huge picture of herself running in the newspaper.

Chris' 6th Birthday

When I asked Chris what kind of birthday party he wanted this year....I was so excited when he said he wanted a MOVIE birthday party.  I thought sweet, the kids will just watch a movie.  They did play a couple of little games to earn tickets for the concession stand - bean bag toss for popcorn, dinosaur bowling for a pop, then they had to pop a balloon filled with tickets for candy!  Once they had their tickets, they bought all their goodies for the movie.  Chris wanted to watch "Spy Kids 2".  The kids used their tickets throughout the movie to buy candy (I think this was their favorite part).  

I was most proud of the cake.  I have to say it turned out better than I expected.  After I cut out the shape of the cake, I wrapped it in white fondant, then painted red lines on it (at first I tried to make the lines with a fruit roll-up or licorice  but that didn't work, so I just painted it with food coloring).  I invited the troops (my kids) to help make the "popcorn".  It's pretty cool, you just take mini marshmallows  rip it into 3 parts, then squish them back together again.  Then I painted yellow "butter" on to it.  It was all worth it when Chris said, "Mom, that was an AWESOME party...thanks so much!".  

I was so proud of Chris, he was so thankful for all his presents.  Earlier in the day, we surprised him with his new bike.  He loved it!  So his brother got his old bike, now they all can ride bikes..YAY!

"Memorial Day" Weekend

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Ben and I were so mad that we didn’t take any pictures. It would have been an awesome post, but here is the run down just so we can remember...

 Friday -   1. Met Dennis' girlfriend
                2. Played games and ate "healthy" junk-food
 Saturday - 1. Took the kids out to a Chinese buffet (The Royal) for lunch, so yummy. Very impressed at           how well-behaved my kids were at the restaurant.
               2. I gave a talk at a convert baptism
               3. Ben and I went to the temple, our wonderful friends watched our little kiddos. Our kids just get a long so well. They hardly ever fight.
 Sunday - 1. Took naps (that's a must)
                2. Went camping in our back yard. The kids got to roast marshmallow over our little bbq, and eat smores! We even let them throw a few into the fire...Caden  thought that was really cool. While we laid in our tent, we watched Star Wars IV. Chris has been asking to watch it, so we finally let them. Ben brought his projector home from work, so we got to lay down and watch it broadcasted onto the ceiling...it was pretty SWEET!
Monday - 1. Cleaned the house
                2. We all went golfing (hit real balls with real golf clubs)
                3. Had FHE

WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Family Vacation!!

I think we found a great tradition for our family vacation...The Great Wolf Lodge!

It's a hotel with a huge water park inside! There were so many activities for the kids to do. The boys had a blast on all the water toys and water play area. The girls especially loved the wave pool and getting dunked by the "BIG" bucket.

At night, they have a story time. It's all automated, but then the kids get to meet the girl wolf (huge character) and take pictures with her.

By far the girls FAVORITE part had to be the Wizard Quest. You buy these magic wands and you have to go on these quests all through the hotel. When they point their wand at something, it will light up or talk back to you. You have to find all the things in the right order to finish one quest. The whole quest can take about 6 hours. All the kids were running through the hotel, and up and down the stairs (great exercise). Plus, it will remember where the left off, and they can finish next time they're there! All the kids had a blast. We stayed up late and watched a movie and ate lots of junk food. It was the perfect 2 day vacation!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

The girls had a wonderful night out with their daddy! They went out to dinner, then to a Daddy Daughter Dance - the theme was Wizard of Oz. At the dance, they got to get their face painted, dance, and play lots of carnival games.

 

 

 

 

Caden's 3rd Birthday

"Caden" and the Neverland Pirates Party! My sweet little boy is getting older...sniff sniff. We invited two little boys (3 boys were the perfect number for a 3 year old party)over for our PIRATE party.

"Grrrr...ahoy there matey"

First, they decorated their telescopes with stickers.

Hunted for buried treasure.

Walked the plank obstacle course.

And of course, we needed to end with a treasure hunt. They had so much fun doing this. Caden is always rolling up a piece of paper and saying to me "treasure hunt". Caden is such a joy to have in our family. He always has tons of cute smiles and bear hugs to give out. Happy Birthday to my BIG BOY!!

Happy Chinese New Year

"Gong Hey Fat Choy" - Happy Chinese New Year!
My parents came over for the weekend and celebrated Chinese new year with us. While Ben and I were at the temple, the kids made lanterns and learned about Chinese New Year.

 

We all got NEW shirts, because you get something "new" on new years. They also brought their own Chinese dishes and we had noodles, oranges and tea (the tea that's ok to drink ;)

 

 

 

 

Noodles represent "a long life", the oranges are in she shape of circles which represent "fullness" or a rich life , and the Chinese drink a lot of tea and have many traditional tea ceremonies - (you always drink with two hands) Ben and I had one when we got engaged.

 

 

These are the lanterns the kids made. They cut out the center and put tissue paper for the windows.

 

Later that night, we put flashlights in them and stuck them on poles. We walked around our house in the dark. The kids thought it was so cool!

 

 

One great tradition is the red envelopes. If you say Gong Hey Fat Choy, Lai See Dou Loy ("Red envelopes come my way"), then the elders give you a red envelope with money. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.

 

We finished off the night by eating out at a Chinese restaurant. One amazing thing we discovered was that our kids were really good while we went out to eat. Hmmm...we might have to do this more often if they're going to be this well behaved!

Thanks Poh Poh and Grandpa for a fun and educational weekend!