Someone loves mud!

The big boys love to make it and Cooper made a bee line for it!

Ahoy me mateys!

I have never done a birthday party for my kids before and decided that 5 was a good time to start. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. After several tries to get Turner to pick a theme, I decided for him. We did a pirate theme and there was so much that I could have done with this! There is an overload of pictures so beware! I don't know why we didn't get a picture of the invitations but somehow we skipped that. But here are the files: I printed it on onion skin typing paper and burned the edges. Then we rolled it up and put it inside a root beer bottle. It was tall enough to poke out of the tip and little which is what I wanted so that they could get it out.

I printed these on labels to put on the outside of the bottle. We had a lot of fun delivering them and it got us very excited for the day of the party!!

So as most know by now, I love freezer paper shirts. So I copied my sister who also threw a pirate party for her 5 year old and did a shirt almost exactly like the one she did... okay it may be exactly like the one she did. I think the graphic is even the same BUT I did pick that out off the computer before I ever decided to do the shirts. But then again you have to realize that we have often times picked out the same material for completely different projects! Side note: My mom and aunt use to do the same thing!

Well, I couldn't stop with just the birthday boy so I made one for his brother... brothers... okay and his sister also! She even got a matching flower (and her paint had sparkles in it.)

In case you didn't know this about my husband, he is an artist and very creative. When I told him that I wanted to do a pirate party he volunteered to build a ship for them out of a refrigerator box. I had one thing in mind... his was much grander! His mom, whom is also an artist, made an awesome pirate flag to hoist up the mast.

Yes there is even a door the opens and a cannon made out of oatmeal containers!

I have wanted to make a birthday banner for a long time for my little family. It was a nice coincidence that when I raided my fabric stash, the majority of my fabric was black, white, and red... the colors of the party! Now I am not remaking another one to match other parties- we are stuck with this one for a while.

In my ward (church congregation) we have a swap often where people bring things that they no longer want and we can take anything. Whatever is left over gets donated to charity. Last month this ship happened to be there and I was so excited! It was the perfect center piece for the party.

When the kids arrived we dressed them all up like pirates! Complete with a sword, eye patch, pirate ring, gold and silver necklaces for the girls, scarfs, sashes, and a skull and cross bones ring! Here we have all hands on deck for a high adventure!

First things first, we had sword fights on the plank!

Then we had an epic sea battle. Our cannon fire sunk the enemy ship!

The object was to punch out (the pre-cut) holes in the ship to sink it! The reward? Cake and ice cream.

Did I already mention that my mother-in-law is an artist? I showed her a picture of the cake that I was going to do and she decided that instead of plastic toy pirates that she would paint me some adorable clothes pin pirates to go on the cake! They were so adorable and added so much!

My husband also decided that I couldn't have paper sails for the ship so he made me one out of muslin a skewer and a small dowel.

I happened to find some really cool pirate candles at a party store and they were the perfect touch for this cake!

The captain's hat, sword, skull, treasure chest and parrot were the candles... I really like how it turned out!

After cake and ice cream we went on a treasure hunt. I wrote some great clues but I think my poetry skills were lost on the 3-6 year old crowd. They tore through it at record pace! At the end of the clues they found a treasure map.

The treasure map let to a treasure chest (pinata)

I have never seen kids be this polite when it comes to a pinata. There was no pushing, crying or anything! I was very impressed!

We opened presents. He got lots of great loot! My father-in-law stepping in for the captain!

Of course all the excitement wore him right out! Who else could be surrounded by 12 little kids and fall right asleep?

Overall I think that fun was had by all. I learned that two hours is probably a little long for a party for kids this age and that it is impossible to invite everyone that you want to! But overall I loved doing it and can't wait for the next one! In fact Josh was thinking about things that he wanted to make out of cardboard and so the next one might be a knight theme, complete with a castle!

Run run run away

Should I care? Should I be worried? This is the question that most frequently fills my mind about my oldest child for lots for reasons. I am sure that part of it is just that he is my oldest so I worry a little more, part of it I am sure is just his personality. He has such a strong one and I need to know better how to help him become the person that the Lord wants him to become. One thing that he does a lot is run away. Luckily it usually is only to the pine tree in the front yard.




This was taken through he kitchen window. He is just playing out here by the window. He has a bag with his blanket and I think a stuffed animal.


Here Max and Turner decided to live on the front walkway... I don't blame them, when the sun shines I want to live out there too!

But this time, I can't remember exactly what happened. I think his pants had got wet from playing outside and then he asked if he could come in and watch TV. I told him he couldn't watch TV and he took off all of his clothes and high tailed it down the street.

Luckily I got him to come back and put some clothes on. This boy sure does keep me hopping and on my knees a lot. And for that I am grateful!

Easter festivities

You would think that by now I would figure out how blogger uploads pictures and I wouldn't always have my pictures in the wrong order but that isn't the case... oh well!
This year for Easter I decided to be crafty and make ties for all my guys! My mom got me a pattern when she was visiting and it happened to be the easiest tie pattern in the world! There was NO hand stitching whatsoever. I really love how they turned out. I also made Amelia's and my skirt. I never thought I would be a matchy matchy kind of mom but guess what... I am!

Someday I really want to spend the week before Easter really studying the last week of Christ's life. But this year wasn't the year. Although we did try to focus more on the life of Christ and forget about the Easter Bunny. Why is is that I feel like I have to use the Easter Bunny in my festivities? I guess I don't want my kids to be the ones that tell other kids it isn't real. I don't like the Easter Bunny and don't see the point. Although I do love colored eggs and Easter egg hunts and Easter parties- mostly because we do all of that with family and I love being with my family.

This year Josh's parents came over to help decorate the Easter eggs. We had a lot of fun. Thanks to the blog world. We used my friend Jen's idea to use rubber cement and another idea from some other blog (I can't remember who's) and used hole reinforcers. We got some pretty fun eggs with these!

Later that afternoon we went to my Aunt's house in Lindon and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids, a fishing pond and other games. I had planned some awesome games but the weather didn't want to participate with us. We had a great Easter meal and it was just fun to hang out with my cousins. I found out that one of my cousins works for that pawn shop in Las Vegas Pawn Stars. I know... pretty impressive! I know someone who knows famous people! Of course I just might get a glimpse of her sometime... she is the jewelry girl.

Don't ask why Max is in only a sweatshirt... lets just say that this kid needs to be potty trained. I need to get to that... maybe once the twins are weaned.

We had a fantastic Easter! It is one of my favorite holidays! Okay I say that about everyone but I guess I just love celebrating with friends and family. I think I need to throw more parities!

Mean Friday

I would assume that most parents of preschoolers can relate in that a holiday lasts long after the holiday is over. Anyone have a child play trick or treat all the way to Thanksgiving? Or a child still singing jingle bells on Valentine's? Well, of course that means that Easter is daily brought up at our house right now. Although most holidays I am ready for it all to be over, Easter is different. I would love it if the holiday stayed fresh all year long! Not the Easter Bunny or candy or all the other stuff that makes Easter appealing to the masses but the true meaning of Easter. Turner is really obsessed with the week Jesus died. I love this. In fact my Brother in Law gave us a book about the last week of Christ's life with a lot of amazing art and what happened each day. Turner will sit and look at the book, page after page after page for a long time! I would say hours but that would be a lie... but for a good 20 minutes or so and if you know this boy, that is a long time!

Turner was asking when Christ was killed and I said "on Good Friday." He looked at me and said asked "GOOD Friday?" I tried to explain to him that it is good because he suffered for our sins and died that we could live again. If he didn't do that then we wouldn't be able to live with our Father in Heaven again. Turner then looked at me and said, "No I think it was mean Friday." If you ask him when Jesus died, he will probably reply bad or mean Friday. I love this kid! I hope though that I can somehow, in his lifetime teach him that it really was a glorious Friday!