This Month is Such a Special One ...

We were in birthday party heaven this weekend, with two at our house yesterday and one today (not at our house, thank goodness!).

We started the day with a family brunch for my niece Kamden, whose 3rd birthday is the day before Charlotte's 4th.

The kids made Fruit-Loop necklaces first thing, so they'd have something to snack on while they waited for Grandma and Grandpa to show up.

Jessica made awesome waffles, and we got a little fruity! :)

Pretty Kami!

Jess made Kami her own personal cake ...


... and inside ... so fun!


Calvin could barely stand that it wasn't his birthday so he thieved the blown-out candles from Kami's cake and sang "Happy to you, Calvin!" and blew them "out" again!

Kami sitting with Auntie Chrys (my fantastic new sister-in-law), and Grandpa (my dad) in the background.

In the afternoon, we did Charlotte's party, which I themed loosely around Alice in Wonderland. We did invitations with a picture from the book (from the chapter "Pig and Pepper") which said "For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen ... "

We put out the kids' ancient castle (I made it when Charlotte was *maybe* two from the box our TV came in, and we've been playing with it ever since) and some kid-sized tables and chairs in the yard. We hung these *super* simple tissue paper pom-poms (a rare Martha success!) in the trees.


The kids made "mad" hats. Well, the girls did anyway ... we couldn't interest the boys. *Shrug*


Here is my sister, graciously modeling one of our fabulous hat creations.

We had "Eat Me" cupcakes, "red-less" velvet cake (we left out the food coloring) and cream cheese frosting, which seems to be what I always end up making for birthdays these days.

And "Drink Me" juice boxes.

We played "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?" only we called it "Who Stole the Tarts?". We were planning on doing "Pin the Caterpillar on the Mushroom" too, but we ran out of time.

And just because I hardly ever post photos of me and Robert, here you go.


Our favors ... a chocolate bar covered up with fun paper.

And of course, Queen Charlotte herself!

I would say "I can't believe she's 4 already!" except that I can. She is growing up fast for sure, but I love watching it happen. She's an amazing girl, and we are blessed and honored to have her around!

Scenes from the Backyard

We read a chapter from Peter Pan today - and I could hardly believe it, both kids sat still and listened! It was awesome! Then I read a chapter from my own book ("Things I've Been Silent About" by Azar Nafisi) while the kids splashed in our little pool and climbed trees. It was awesome! (Edit: I totally just said that twice. It was really that awesome, though! :)


This is yesterday. I love simple summer dinners outside - scrambled eggs, grapes (which were a little sour, but I was so excited to see California grapes - we haven't been buying them all winter because they're imported - I snatched them up and we loved them anyway!) and asparagus. Perfect!



We're eating frozen blueberries these days at snack time.


And ... who hangs art on the side of their house? When it's cheesy thrift store art I don't have to care about - ME!

Art, Chickens, and Ballet. They go together, right?

Wow, it's been awhile. I have no excuses, only very good reasons. Like I've been sleeping a little here and there. :)

First, because some of you asked to see pictures, here's that thing I did with the kids' art in our stairway. This is just the beginning - there's plenty of art, wall space and green paint to go around!



In other news, we took the chickens outside! It was their first glimpse of the world outside their nesting box in our master bathroom (yeah, I've been showering in the kids' bathroom for a few weeks!). They should be outside permanently in just a few weeks. We've yet to come up with names for them, but we're getting closer. I'll keep you posted!




And finally, we had Charlotte's last dance recital for the year this week. We totally showed up on the wrong day (but not just us - there was another family that thought it was on Monday, too!). Luckily there's a playground nearby.


After that, we went out for Thai food and called it Family Home Evening.

Here are some shots from the actual day, of Charlotte on stage in her tutu:

(This one's her "are we done with this yet?" look ... but I think it's nice anyway.)

(And this one's all: "I'm outta here, I can see cookies over there!")

Constant Motion

That's where we've been this weekend - in constant motion. Which is fitting, since we have spent almost all of it celebrating our own little blur of activity.

First up: a bike of his very own, and helmets for both kids. I have a feeling we'll be doing this jaunt around the neighborhood quite a bit in the coming months:




Also, we saw this cool little spider along the way. I'm always glad when I choose to stop and point these things out to my kids, rather than just passing by. Even better, of course, when they point them out to me.


And today we went to the zoo - our first visit of many (I hope!) for the summer.

I could sit and watch elephants all day ... but there were monkeys to be seen! And tigers! And whales! (Which we ended up skipping this time, we were all zoo-ed out before we could get there.)

Also, this blue-tongued skink. So cool.

I know, I know, you don't come here to see photos of zoo animals. Here are our animals instead:

Calvin had a great time riding along on my back where he could see just about everything pretty easily - much better than a stroller.

Charlotte and her BFF Sophia. Katelyn's back there, too! I think Jason probably got a better shot of all three girls ...

Cute girly-girls!

Here's Robert wielding Jason's super-mega-camera-deluxe.

And finally, our Spring King!

Ready to spring into action ... "Look out 2 - here I come!"

Of Animals and Cookies

Just a couple shots from yesterday with the chicks. Robert and Charlotte really share a love for animals in a way that's different from me and Calvin, I think. So while they were hanging out with the chicks, Calvin and I hung out in the kitchen with a couple Oreo cookies. :)

Signs of Life

We've been busy this spring, which is why I've been so sparse here. And still there is so much to do! Here's a little peek into what we've been up to so far:

Tulips and new rose leaves.

Ah, blue skies and clothes dried in the sunshine!


Raspberry canes. I'm already salivating.


The hydrangea emerges.


Getting ready for eggplant and tomatoes.


Robert building the "aviary."

Charlotte and her impression of a rocket ship.

Treasures. :) I'd rather have them on my windowsill than all over my lawn!

And finally, some more recent shots of "the girls" ... still yet to be named. We're waiting until we know which ones we're keeping:

They're looking much more "chicken-y" don't you think?

Up next: Calvin's birthday. Because that's the Big Thing that's happening next. Can you believe he's going to be TWO?!

Simple FHE: Joseph Smith

So, I struggle with Family Home Evening. Making things simple is not really one of my strong points, and so it's hard for me to come up with simple gospel lessons that are also fun for the kids. I feel, somehow, that I have to teach them everything all at once. Which is totally stupid. It's definitely important to me, though ... what's that quote about wise parents never missing an opportunity to teach the gospel to their children? I want to be wise and establish this weekly opportunity while the kids are young, so that we have less of a chance of missing out as they get older.

This week, though, I think I've got the simplicity thing down. Here's what we're going to do:

I took a picture of Joseph Smith from my collection of gospel-art-from-the-Ensign. Mounted it onto construction paper. Cut it into 6 puzzle pieces. I labeled the backs of the pieces as follows:

1 - He wanted to know which church was true.*
2 - He read in the Bible that we can pray to know the truth.
3 - Read James 1:5
4 - He went to a grove of trees to ask Heavenly Father in prayer.
5 - Sing "On a Golden Springtime"
6 - While he was praying, he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and they answered his prayer.

(*Text is almost word-for-word from the example of the First Vision story in the Nursery manual, lesson 21.)

I will hand the pieces, in order, to the kids so they can put the puzzle together and end up with a picture of the person we just described. Then, if their attention spans are still with us, we'll read an abridged version of the First Vision from the scriptures.

And that's it.

Oh, also I promised Charlotte that we could play one of our new games - either "Hi-ho Cherry-o" or "Hungry Hungry Hippos" (I know, really reverent, huh?) - that we found in great shape at Goodwill today. So if all else fails, we'll at least have another family game night (which we're trying to establish as a regular Sunday night thing - last night was our first, and it was really fun, so yay!).