Robot Party

Monday, we had Treyson's friend birthday party.
Our guests were greeted by Bob the Robot (named by Treyson).

My attempt at making Bob the Robot, in cake.

(I know, it looks like Cookie Monster having a bad day. Not my best cake, but Treyson liked it.)

As we waited for everyone to show up, the boys colored robot pictures.

We had a robot type of lunch...

squeeze juice "motor oil"

fruits and veggies "parts & pieces"

Cheetos "memory cells"

"battery acid" salsa, tortilla "computer chips" and corn dogs.

Boys have the most interesting (ok, gross) conversations. Here are some of the topics discussed at lunch:

-Burping the ABC's, who could and couldn't do it and who knew someone that could do it.

-How to swallow and regurgitate food. YUCK!

-What's the best or grossest mix of food combos. Celery and ketchup anyone?

-A friendly debate on what robots eat.

-Loosing teeth and having gnarly cavities.

-Snot.

-How to best "spark" your Wint-o-green Lifesavers.

-Putting duct tape on your little brothers head and then ripping it off! OUCH!

Then we played a game. Robot pieces were hidden all over the back yard. The boys hunted to find all the hidden pieces.

Next, the boys created edible robots using marshmallows, pretzels, licorice, mini chocolate chips, Lifesavers, straws and toothpicks.

Then it was time for presents. Treyson received Bakugans from everyone! These boys knew what he liked. He was so excited. I think he's up to 13 Bakugans now!

Jonah, Treyson, Houston & Dylan

Then is was cake time.

After cake, we turned up the music and all did our best robot dancing. These boys had some moves! They were break dancing (or something like it), moonwalking and poppin' all over the place. I danced along with them and pretended that I knew what I was doing. (I'm not a big dancer, but they didn't know that.)

We sent our guests home with these party favors. The face parts are stuck on with magnets, so they can be played with and moved around like Mr. Potato Head. They also had goodies inside!

Two parties down.... a baptism and dinner to go.

Annual Neighborhood BBQ

Our neighborhood is so great. They consistently have fun community activities and events.

Saturday was the Annual Heritage Commons BBQ. The food was catered from "Goodwood".

Oh my goodness is was good; BBQ beef sandwiches, baked beans, coleslaw and an amazing potato salad. (It was the best potato salad, I have ever had! Seriously.)

There were bouncy houses for the kids to enjoy.

We were sitting close to the bouncy houses. There were some older boys who were pulling on the top of the house and making it collapse. I became the "Bouncey House Nazi". I asked them to stop and told them they would have to get out if they continued. When they thought I wasn't looking, they would do it again. One time, I jumped up out of my chair and charged over there and asked the offender to please leave the house. I'm sure he wasn't too happy with me, but he did cooperate (busted!). He was the example to all the others... the Bouncy House Nazi means business! (I didn't have any angry parents approach me, so they either didn't care or didn't have any idea whay was going on.)

Rylee and Taylee were asked to help out with the face painting. They were so excited. They came up with several simple designs and really did a good job. They had some "frequent flyer's" who started running out of places to put new paintings; up and down both arms and legs and on both cheeks.

Abree requested a watermelon and crown, by Taylee.

Treyson requested a penguin and bumblebee, by Rylee.

This was such a nice, relaxing evening.

A big Thank You, to the Heritage Commons planning committee.

Treyson Turns 8!

Yesterday, we invited family over to celebrate Treyson's birthday.

Because we've been doing "friend parties", this year, I've asked the kids to pick something other than cake, for their family birthday get together.

Treyson was open to anything sweet and really couldn't make up his mind, so I made him a fruit pizza. It was so yummy and Summery (a word?).

A perfect piece..at least one of every kind of fruit.

Then it was gift time. He receive a whole bag of stuff from Grandpa(including one of his favorites, a Bakugan), a book and M&Ms from Grandma, a Spiderman squirt gun picked out by Kyrick, a Transformer from Audrey and 3 Little Mermaid pictures, colored pink, by Katelyn. Katelyn was SOOO excited to have Treyson open her gift. She kept saying, "Dat my pik-tur. Dat my pik-tur." It was so cute!

He also received a few things from us including; Bakugans, diving rings, cool collapsable ball/frisbee thingy, a DS game, a Sunday suit (we jokingly call it his "birthday suit") and a set of scriptures (an 8 year old/baptism tradition in our home).

Side note: Scriptures are SO expensive! For Rylee's 8th birthday, I was able to purchase a set of scriptures at a discount, because they had previously been name engraved. (They removed the previous name as best they could and then engraved Rylee's name over the top. You can barely tell.) For Taylee, I wasn't as lucky. For Treyson, I know this sounds silly, but I said a little prayer asking that I could again find a discounted set of scriptures. I looked and looked for several months. A day before his birthday, I went to Deseret Book, and there they were, a set of scriptures (previously engraved) for 50% off! I was so excited. They were a different size than I was originally looking for, but I was grateful to find them, whatever size. When I checked out, the cashier told me that she had marked the scriptures down and thought they would go fast. She said that A LOT of people had looked at them, but no one purchased, until today. I told her it was because they were waiting for me... an answered prayer, a small miracle. I belive in miracles. Do you?

Daisylyn was one of our guests. She came with grandma, because her mom and dad were at the temple. She has grown so much. Look at those sweet cheeks!

Kyrick, Jason and Treyson playing his new DS game.

It must be a fun game, if you don't notice the sweaty, hot, boy bodies in close quarters.

One party down... another party and baptism to go.

Stake Pioneer Breakfast

Saturday, we celebrated Pioneer Day, with a Stake breakfast. It was a nicely organized event
including; a yummy breakfast, live music (Strings of Fire) and good company. The decorations were provided by the Primary children in the Stake. Each primary was asked to have the kids draw, color, design Pioneer pictures. It was fun to see how each ward did something different. Our ward had the kids draw on different colored papers. When they were put all together they formed a mock quilt. Cute!

Abree's pioneer contribution.

Treyson's covered wagon.

Taylee's oh so cute pioneer girl.

Ewwww!

My kids saw this online and HAD to try it out.

Stick spaghetti noodles through cut up hot dogs and boil as usual.

Voila! A meal only kids would love.

I couldn't decide what to top it with... ketchup, mustard, spaghetti sauce? So we just left the noodles plain. In my adult opinion, I would give it a 1 out of 3. I would only make this again, if my kids requested it for a special day or if it went with a party theme some how. They remind me of squid or octopus or maybe Halloween Hairy Toes.

The Future's So Bright...

...they've gotta wear matching shades!

I'm sure Rylee and Charity are thinking COOL.

I'm thinking FUTURE EMBARRASSING PICTURE.

Before the sleepover, we went shopping. I challenged the girls to find an outfit for under $10. We went to several second-hand stores, The Dollar Tree and Walmart. They each found a shirt (not pictured), at the first stop, for .50 cents. Then they decided they had pants/skirts to go with their new shirt, at home. So then then focus became an accessory. They looked at shoes, some jewelry, but ultimately decided on matching sunglasses for $2/each. They were so excited and felt so cool. Then the shopping spree got weird. They bought binkies, baby bottles, blankies, apple juice and snacks, with their left over cash. For the rest of the night they drank from their bottles and sucked on binkies.

I guess it could be a lot worse. Pre-teens are so weird. :o)

(I can say that, because I was one and I live with one.)

4th of July Weekend

We enjoyed a full weekend of fun with J.C. and Julia's family.

Friday night, we went to the movie in the park, at Settler's Park. It's a unique experience. It has a drive-in movie feel, without the car and tiny speakers. You bring your camping chairs, blankets and snacks and sit in the grass and watch a movie on a HUGE blow-up screen. The movies aren't new, but the experience and atmosphere make it fun.

The next morning, we went to our ward's pancake breakfast.

There were a lot of people in attendance, but our activities committee did a nice job feeding the masses. Joshua and Julia ready to eat.

Cameron the jack-o-lantern.

Abree

Taylee

Matthew's "Before" picture.

He had a late night, early morning and was hungry. Not a good combo. This picture was taken BEFORE the mini meltdown. Poor kiddo.

Treyson and Adam After breakfast, we enjoyed a flag-raising ceremony, including the Pledge of Allegiance, a patriotic musical number and a congregational hymn.Next, was the bike, scooter, stroller parade. The kids had decorated their scooters the night before and morning of, and were ready to show them off.

Slowly, but surely, everyone made the rounds at least once.

Abree taking her own sweet time.

Then we headed over to our neighborhood 4th of July celebration. We had missed the parade, but made it in time to play in the hose spray from the fire trucks. The mist was fine enough that you didn't HAVE TO get soaked, but many kids did.

This was such a fun time. The firemen were so kind and generous. They let anyone who wanted to, try their hand at spraying the big hoses. Cameron thought that looked fun and took a turn.

After lunch, when J.C. and Jason returned from work, we decided to go swimming at our neighborhood pool.

We played and played, until we were water-logged and hungry again.

We had a nice BBQ, including a potato salad, made from the bounties of our small garden.

In the evening, we went down to Storey Park, for live music, bouncy houses, and fireworks.

The Spiderman bouncy house was first on the boys agenda.

We also played in the park.

Abree enjoyed the swings.

Another thing the kids tried out was this.

What do you call it?

"Bop 'em and sock 'em"?

The kids said the clubs were kind of heavy and it didn't take much to knock them off their plattforms.

We did some sparklers and enjoyed the big firework display. Then went home for a few more fireworks of our own.

A very long, but fun filled day.