LEGO exhibit

On President's Day, we went to Park City to an art museum for an exhibit of sculptures made out of LEGO's.  I can't remember the artist, but I saw a little clip about it on the news a week or so ago and decided that's what the kids and I would do when they were off school for the holiday.  The great thing about it was that it was free--the only money I spent was for gas to get there and back!

The best part of the whole day was the kids helping me get ready to go.  I wanted to leave by 9 am so we could get there right around 10 am, when the museum opened.  At about 8:30, I was heading up the stairs to shower, so I told the kids that if they wanted to go see the LEGO exhibit, they needed to get things ready to go.  I gave instructions to them about making lunch for all of us to bring, getting Jonah dressed and ready, and getting themselves ready with their shoes and coats.  When I came downstairs about twenty minutes later, expecting to find chaos, what I found was that the lunch was completely made (sandwiches for everyone, all wrapped and in the cooler, cut and washed strawberries, apple slices, fruit snacks, and desserts, plus all the water bottles filled and in the cooler too).  I found that all the kids were ready to go with their coats on and shoes and even Jonah was ready.  When we went out to the car, the older boys put the stroller in the back for me and made sure to bring Jonah's diaper bag backpack.  And Westley had even picked out some CD's he wanted to listen to in the car and put them in my CD case, which was also already in the car.  We were able to leave right at 9 am on the dot, thanks to my good helpers.

 giant dollar 

life size cat

I took a picture of each of the kids (and Westley took one of me) next to our favorite LEGO sculpture.

Jonah liked the baseball bat and ball

Travis liked the life size kid looking in a puddle at his reflection

Caleb liked Mount Rushmore

Eliza liked the fairy tale pop-up book.  There was even a story written down the sides

Mom liked the giant pencil

Westley liked the giant crayons

It was a really cool exhibit and we had a good morning.  We were even home by noon.  The drive was beautiful, the weather was decent.  It was great.

Star Student

Travis was the star student in his kindergarten class a few weeks ago.

 This is the whole poster we made.

 Middle of the poster--Travis at five months and at age six

 Travis' family  (he is the third child)

 Travis' favorites--baseball (sport); dog (animal); pizza (food); red (color); Spiderman (movie)

The next few pictures are all the activities Travis like to do:

play the Wii, play the piano

 ride bikes, swim (he's been swimming on his own since he was two)

 camping, playing with Legos

sledding, doing gymnastics

We went into his classroom on Friday of that week and told all about him.  Then the class asked him questions about himself.  After that, both Corey and I read a book to his class.  Travis really enjoyed being in the spotlight. 

Valentine's Day 2013

For Valentine's Day this year, the older two boys got to make their own boxes for school.

Westley made a box to look like Perry the Platypus from the Disney show "Phineas and Ferb".

Caleb made his box to look like a giant black LEGO.

They had fun making their boxes and they had fun at their class parties.  I'm so glad we live in a place that actually celebrates these holidays with the kids and makes it fun for them to go to school!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Several cities and also wards and stakes will put on a Daddy-Daughter Dance right around Valentine's Day here where we live. Last year Corey and Eliza tried to attend one but they were all sold out (city one--our stake/ward doesn't do this). So this year, as soon as I saw the ad for it, I went and bought tickets.

Eliza was super excited.  I bought the tickets the second week of January and she had to wait all the way until February 8th.  But when that day came, she was so excited.

She requested a French braid for her hair, which was odd because she never asks me to braid her hair.  I couldn't do it, so I asked for help and a friend stepped up and braided it for me.  It turned out really great!

And she looked so beautiful in her pretty red-and-white dress and new red shoes.

Daddy and daughter ready for their date

They had a great time.  It was a dinner-dance put on by the city.  So they ate dinner, did some crafts, and had some dancing.  They had a photographer there taking pictures so Eliza brought home a picture of her and Daddy in a cute little frame they made and put it on her dresser.  What a great memorable night for Eliza!

A New Kind of "Phototherapy"

Yes, I know. Phototherapy is when they put a baby under the lights to break down the bilirubin in his body.

But this kind of phototherapy that I'm talking about has to do with making a grouchy kid a happy kid.

Jonah woke up very grouchy one morning last week and the only thing that seemed to help his mood was taking pictures of him!  So Westley grabbed the camera and started snapping away.

It's amazing how this improved his mood one hundred percent.

Fun Cake and Frosted Graham Crackers

A few weeks ago, the kids and I were bored on a Sunday afternoon, so we decided to make a fun cake.  This is what we came up with--an M&M package cake with mini cupcakes decorated to look like the M&Ms.

We had leftover frosting from the cake, so the next couple of days, we frosted graham crackers for snacks.  Jonah even joined in with the frosting of the crackers.  His favorite part was licking the knife.