Art

My baby sister had her first art gallery showing this weekend.  She really is an amazing artist as well as beautiful.  I think she looks like a young Anne Hathaway.  Her specialty is print making but this show was for her drawing class.  We invited our friends the Smiths to go uptown with us to support her and then check out the new City Creek shopping center.  Some of the works I really admired.  I was impressed with her work because I can't draw people to save my life.  I knew which ones were hers the moment I saw them because her subjects were very familiar.  One was my William at the the age of 5, another of my dad, and the third was an old man to show the life stages.  The old man was my favorite, such good textures.  Good job Laura!

After the show we headed over to the new City Creek to see what all the fuss was about. I have to admit it was a pretty swanky shopping center.  It has a retractable roof so in inclement weather people will not me dissuaded from shopping.  This was a concept that our good friend Tiffany had a hard time understanding, that is until she saw parts of the roof.  Apparently she is a visual learner.  Thanks for a good laugh Tiffulls, we still love ya.

planting

I went to the store to get some seeds for the garden, I let the boys help me pick out some of the seeds.  We talked about what we were going to do with seeds and how they turn into vegetables. While I was there they had all their Easter stuff 75% off so I picked up a few things for Brennen's birthday to give out as favors.
As soon as we got home Brennen started nagging me, not about the party favors but about planting the seeds.  He is so excited about the garden.
I went out their and got distracted digging up the dandelions in the yard.  Brennen was my little shadow begging me to leave the yellow flowers alone and help him plant the seeds.
He was so meticulous setting each tiny seed in the rows we made. After a few minutes of planting my Peter radar went off.  I looked up to see what he was doing.  He found the jelly beans we just bought at the store and started planting them.  When I asked him what he was doing he said "I want to grow these kind." No matter how I tried I couldn't get him to understand that those kind of beans don't grow in a garden.

E- control

We have a constant fight in our house about electronics.  The kids always want to use them, I think it turns them into zombies, and my wonderful hubby grew up with it as his babysitter.  I often feel like I am trying to push water up a hill.  I'm not totally against electronics, I use them often myself.  I just don't want them in use all the time without everyone hating me for it.
 In the basement we have a BOB timer. the greatest invention ever. Basically the kids have to type their code in to turn on the TV or Wii.  I program it so they only have X amount of time then it just shuts off.  I also have it programmed to not turn on in the mornings, past 9pm, or on Sundays.  I love it.  Now I just need one  for the upstairs but its a little pricey for me ($75)  So until I can convince Scott to let me spend that much on the upstairs I have developed my own system.

I want no TV or computer on in the morning, AND all their homework and chores need to be done BEFORE they turn on the idiot boxes (my pet name for the TV and computer).  This rule tends to stay enforced as long as I am in the room, however as soon as I leave the room all bets are off and they take advantage of the situation. I realized they need a visual reminder, I came up with this.

I was amazed at the results.  Who new it could be so easy. We'll just see how long it lasts.

Quidditch

My kids tend to go in phases of what peaks their interest. Once they get onto something they practically obsess over it.  Their latest obsession is Harry Potter.  This one tends to come back around every so often. At least this time they have everything they need because of the last time Harry Potter was the all time favorite subject.  They have been playing lots of wizard chess, and with their new skates they started playing Quidditch.  Basically they skate around the driveway with brooms trying imagine balls flying at them while they track down the snitch (one of those water splash balls).

They came in to ask if I could be the referee.  I went out their only to find out that they really wanted me to throw balls at them and try to knock them off their brooms.  As a person around a lot of children sometimes, Sometimes, when they are extra difficult you think of this stuff, but you never act upon it.  I looked around for the hidden camera to see if I was being punked.  I couldn't see any incriminating devices so I went for it.  I gathered all the soft and squishy balls I could find and started chucking them at the kids.  It was a lot like dodge ball on brooms.

Classic

Classic Skating that is.  For the kids last day of spring break we decided to take them to Classic Skating to try out their new skates on a real rink. This place brings back memories. . . They got rid of the Riff Raff and have made it really family friendly. There is a full size rink and then a separate area with bounces houses and slides, a ball blast zone, laser tag, and a smaller oval around all the bouncers. They also have the traditional arcade games.  This is the place to go to wear kids out.  The great thing about this place is that you can ride scooters, trikes, or push your kid in a stroller around the rink so those that just can't do the skate thing can still have fun.  Brennen brought his little razor scooter and zipped around that track so fast I thought I was going to see flames coming off him. Peter brought his little motorcycle and did his best to keep up with Brennen. Then it was hours of climbing through the monkey maze and spending calories on all the bouncers.  The kids had a great time so I didn't feel so bad when Scott and I went off to a movie later that night. (I don't know why but I always feel guilty about doing things without the kids, I have really got to get over that.)

After the movie we realized we didn't eat dinner so we stopped by Cafe' Rio (the best restaurant ever!!!) to pick up a little something.  While we were there we ran into my parents and joined them for a nice little chit chat  and some good food.  

Spring Break

Usually I am totally frazzled by the end of spring break.  This year was a different story.  Maybe its because spring break is only 1 week here instead of 2-3wks in Cali.  Or maybe its because my week before spring break was crazy busy/hectic.  Whatever the reason spring break was a little more relaxing than in the past.  I was really struggling with the different schedule.  My radar kept going off that I was supposed to be somewhere or that I forgot something.
We did the typical go swimming thing, that's always a winner.  We met up with our friend Tiffany and her kids to go to a cool discovery park with a picnic. The weather tried to stay nice so I took advantage of it and did a lot of work out in the garden.   I have 13 garden boxes that were taken over by weeds.  I finally got them all cleaned out and ready for seeds. There were quite a few grubs in the boxes so I took advantage of the situation and got the kids to help me with the promise of doing whatever they wanted to the grubs found in the garden as long as they didn't leave them alive.  They stomped on them, sawed them in half with the spade, pulled them apart yada, yada, yada.  What can I say, I've got  3 boys.
 I got the irrigation turned on the day it decided to rain. Unknown to me, Scott had tried to get it on and left one of the spigots open, so when I turned on the water from the main valve I got totally soaked.  My supervisors (the kids) were stunned at first not knowing how I was going to react. They were overjoyed when I just started laughing.  All I could think of was how funny it must have looked to everyone else.
After a day of hard yard work I rewarded the kids the next day with a trip to the DI.  I love that something as simple as the DI is such a treat for us.  William decided on a pair of roller blades for $4.  I hesitated, yep I'm that cheap that I have to think about buying a nice pair of roller blades for $4.  Turned out to be $4 well spent. The rest of the week was spent rolling around the neighborhood.

ComedySportz

It has been a very busy week for me.  My sister went out of town so I offered to watch her 3 kids.  They were all good as long as I kept them busy and fed.  We had a game night with our friends the Smiths and the Ramirez, AND Scott's family came.  Talk about a house full of people.  On Saturday after our Easter celebration I was a little worn out but I wanted to do something with just the grownups. I thought ComedySportz. I have been wanting to go to this comedy club for some time now.  With Scott's family here I suggested that we go.  His mom declined but his sister was all for it.  I extended the invite to my mom and who ever else wanted to go.  In the end we had My mom, dad, sister Laura her hubby Bryce, my sister Kate, Scott's sister, Scott and myself. It is an improv comedy club with special standards to keep it clean.  It was HILARIOUS.  I loved that they could be so funny while keeping it all appropriate.  I am definitely going back.

Easter outfits

 I get my kids new matching Easter outfits ever year.  This is the one time I buy them church clothes and I will be so sad when they are too old for this.  Of course I have to take their pictures for memory sake.  I only had 5 minutes to do this before we had to go to church so this it the best I could do. But aren't they cute.

Easter Celebration

We were excited to have our first Easter with the family.  I was a little bummed that we weren't going to do a splash and dash egg hunt but I got over it.  This year my sister Stephanie decided to host the big event.  I was terribly worried because on Friday I woke up to snow on the ground and then mid afternoon it was snowing, SNOWING.  I thought there was no way this was going to work.  My family is quite large 18adults and 22 grandchildren, and having an egg hunt in my sisters house seemed a little out of the question.  I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up on Saturday to beautiful sunshine.  It got up to the mid to upper sixties.  I guess that's Utah for you.  Don't like the weather wait 5 min to a day, it will change.

Back to the celebration.  We invited our friends the Smith's to come because in my house the more the merrier.  I was amazed that everyone showed up.  There is usually a couple of people missing but not this day.  We started with the egg hunt.  With so many people each age group got a different colored egg they were to search for.  Even the adults were able to get in on the action.  To avoid an overload of sugar a lot of the eggs contained "bunny money" at the end of the hunt you could go to the bunny store (a prize table) and buy a prize with the money you found.  To make up the bunny store some of us brought things from the dollar store, toys that we no longer played with, or special treasures we found at DI. (My sisters, mom, and I are excellent DI shoppers).  The kids loved it.  Then it was time to color eggs, my favorite Easter activity. M Y sister boiled 9 dozen eggs so everyone can join in.  She had all different ways to color the eggs as well.  After egg coloring there was lunch everyone brought a dish to share it was all very yummy. Last scheduled activity was a pinata, it was near impossible getting a pinata to last through 22 grandchildren but everyone had a great time.  There was plenty of chatting and playing during the whole event.  I love getting together with my family.  I love they we all get along well.  I'm positive you could put all of us in a room made to hold 12 people and we could be happy sitting close and talking about what ever was on our minds.  So Easter was a success.  Thanks Steph you did a great job.  Thanks to everyone who helped pull this all together.  This beat a splash and dash egg hunt (just barely)

Geek of the Week

My kids think pancake is the funniest word.  I don't know how it started but every time they do something they think is funny or goofy they say "pancake pancake".  For instance we would play a game on the trampoline called add on.  One person does a trick the next person does that trick and their own trick, the next person does the first trick the second and then their own.  You get the idea.  Brennen's default trick was hop like a kangaroo and shout out pancake pancake.

Now that Peter is a big kid getting himself dressed he accidentally put both his legs in one pant leg.  He thought it was hilarious and started the pancake cheer.  Now it seems every other night he puts two legs in one leg hole and hops in the living room with the infamous "pancake, pancake, pancake."  What a geek.