Carousel Cowboys

It's Spring Break and the guys are going a little stir crazy here at the house. Yesterday we had an "at home" day, and today we just had to get out. I was so glad that Aunt Keren just happened to have a fun idea! We headed across town to the Jantzen Beach SuperCenter where there is an old restored carousel. The boys were excited of course and didn't mind the half hour car ride. Chandler watched the first ride, and then hopped on with me. They had this super cute row of tiny horses for little tikes, which was very cute, but we decided to ride together, which was even more fun! Chandler grinned and giggled the entire time, just couldn't stop smiling! It was so fun to have a first timer! After the rides, we got ice cream cones and then headed back home. What a fun little day trip! I hope the rest of Spring Break turns out as fun as today!

Quilting Victory

I finally got brave! After getting my machine in working order, and a lot of help from my friend Shari, I finally worked up enough courage to start free motion quilting Chandler's airplane quilt, and it was such fun! I can't beleive how easy it was once I got the hang of it, and how fast it went. Watch out Gordon, this opens up a whole new world of sewing project possibilities!!! :)

Happy Birthday Aidan! (and Daddy too!)

It has been a long, tiring, but fun day. Today was Aidan's actual 4th birthday, and his birthday party, as well as Gordon's birthday celebration. We started the day with a very excited Aidan ready to start the party! He was very excited to see the Birthday elf decorated his doorway while he slept. He was just sure he had grown quite a bit in the night (as he is now 4) and went to the mirror in the bathroom to see if he could see his whole face now. And amazingly, he is just sure he can see more of his face now than he could yesterday. :) (he can also jump higher, run faster, and eat more, according to him) Aidan, who is always our fashion conscious boy, got himself dressed in his new shirt that he asked me to specially wash yesterday so he could wear it to the party. At about 10, we gave him his gift from us and Grammy and Grampy, which was the bike. It was such fun to see him so excited! He and his brother spent the next hour doing circles in the garage, and then when the rain stopped temporarily Daddy took the boys for a ride. It was great!



The party started at 1:00 and 7 little boys descended upon us. For the most part they were very good, and it was a success. The re-lighting candles were so fun and Aidan thought they were so funny! Gordon and I did decide that birthday parties at this age should be 90 minutes though, and not two hours. The kids were tired by the end and ready to run. Lucky for us the rain cleared at the end and we took them all out in the backyard to play soccer. The only bad thing was that Aidan had hurt his knee on the little trampoline upstairs, and couldn't run. He was very upset as this was the one thing he wanted to do at his party, play soccer. But, he was limping and it was obvious he was REALLY hurting, so we made him the referee. He spent the last half hour blowing whistles at people, and having a wonderful time!

After the party, we started cooking for Gordon's birthday dinner. We had steaks on the newly polished grill (see a couple of posts ago) as well as Mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and deviled eggs. Aidan saw the eggs and said "Oh, my favorite! Rotten eggs!" and then followed up with "Mom, maybe you could put some of these rotten eggs in my lunch sometimes! Not every day, but maybe sometimes!" We cleared up their real name and decided maybe we'd start with hard boiled eggs in the lunch box. We'll give it a try! Gordon opened his gifts, lots of fun camping gear from his family, my family, and us, and then had his very own personal strawberry cheesecake that Keren made. I was so glad she made the cheesecakes! I don't think I could have taken on one more thing this weekend! I'm definitely ready for a nice rest tomorrow! Enjoy the photos!!!

Stuff and Things

Today was a fun day, despite my cold, Chandler's teething, Chandler's cold, and a cake that fell. (I get to remake that again tomorrow). Thank heavens for Grammy who let me call and whine for sympathy several times. First, my quilt is ALL DONE! I can almost not believe it! This is my favorite picture of it, with Chandler sliding down like he always does. I love that his bum is the only thing in focus. . . He always slides down this way, but likes it better when the sheets are all messed up so he can really hang on and slowly lower down. Very fun. . .

Next in randomness, we got Aidan's four year picture taken today. It was the first time I've been to JC Penny for pictures in years and I must say they've improved greatly. They have the cameras off the stands and in their hands, so if you kids move instead of having to tell them to sit still and reposition the camera, they just move with the kids. It was fantastic. A very positive experience. He's a very rough sampling from the proof sheet. I love it. Kind of crazy, I'm actually looking forward to going back for Chandler's 1 year pics!

And finally, we got a very exciting package from Grandma and Grandpa in Alaska today for Aidan's birthday, and when he saw it was for him there was just no stopping the fun. Why not spread out the goodness anyway, right? He was so excited to get some fun mail, and LOVED the contents too! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!! We had fun with this all afternoon. We are very excited about this soccer ball birthday! We made the cake part of the soccer ball cake today for the party, and are really looking forward to the frosting fun tomorrow! Hopefully Chandler's teeth will calm down and he'll let us actually do it!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Ethan's Primary Talk

Here is Ethan, practicing his talk for Primary one last time before we left for church. He did so great!

Dirty Jobs

As a mommy, I've done my fair share of dirty jobs. But I was channeling Mike Rowe yesterday when I took on this job! We've been wanting a BBQ forever, but squeezing it into the budget is a bit tough. I drove past this one today for $10 at a garage sale and decided it might be worth a little elbow grease (and I do mean MAJOR grease) to eat delicious chicken and burgers this spring and summer! An hour later, I am dirtier than I can remember being. A long bubble bath (and a lot of scrubbing - ME) took care of that, and now we can grill to our hearts content!!! We just need to get a propane tank and we'll be ready to go! I can almost smell the deliciousness now. . . Look at that sparkle!