May 2o15 Highlights

The boys had an art & music program at school

Yes, this is Tobin! The curly locks are gone again. The boy next to him has special needs, Tobin says he’s not able to talk the way we do but he understands everything you say, Tobin helps him out:)

I got to take the 4th grade picture for their book — so fun!

This is what Mari looks like at most of the boys’ soccer games – lol

The boys participated in the science fair – can you build a rocket with sparklers?

Apparently, the first one blew up, 2nd one flew over the roof. They recorded it all on the iPad and the recording was the most popular display at the Science Fair (with the boys anyway). They were all pretty geeked about it . . . boys & their fire things!

And, we had some baby birds that we got to watch — so cool, right off our front porch

April 2o15 Highlights

We celebrated Easter, the kids still like to look for the Resurrection Eggs, along with some candy and other prizes        

They had an Easter egg hunt with some cousins at Grandma & Grandpa’s house

Some swing fun at the park down the street

Mari & Kelly made a cool musical instrument for a Science project

And, it’s April so soccer season started back up

March 2o15 Highlights

It was a big birthday month for us, first my Dad turned 70 – Trish & I decided to fly down to Arizona to surprise him, it didn’t take much convincing for me, as I was in a perpetual state of coldness! I have no idea how, but my Mom kept it a secret – you should have seen his face (and heard what he said) when we appeared on their back patio!

Dad had already planned a boat trip on Canyon Lake, Aunt Ginny & Uncle Mike have a place in the same neighborhood and Aunt Betty & Uncle Gary were visiting as well.

I wasn’t really looking that forward to sitting in a boat for 4 hours, I’d rather be hiking these canyons but it was really fun

We went to a spring training baseball game, it was 90 degrees, we had perfect seats in the shade, it was glorious!  Mom’s cousin got us the tickets and we went out to dinner with them too.

Aren’t they adorable!

Oh, I love it out there!

The other reason I came, Slickables in Tempe . . . choose your own homemade cookies, choose your ice cream and make an “out of this world” ice cream sandwich!

I only chew gum when I’m flying, the kids never really chew it – I know I’m weird but I don’t care for the sugar (the boys have bad teeth) or the chemicals in the sugar-free stuff. I saved 3 pieces of Bubble Yum (or something like that) for the kids. What I didn’t anticipate was the hilarity of them having no idea how to blow bubbles! It took a long time but Mari & Tobin finally were able to make small ones, Ez – never even got a small one!

We celebrated Kelly’s birthday

And, Mari’s birthday, she had a Sound of Music theme this year, can’t believe we have a teenager!

I took this picture and then made a silhouette for the cake and some games for her friend party

We had Shamrock shakes (of course)

And, not sure how, but we somehow escaped all dioramas . . .  until this year. I quickly decided that Grandma Sandy would love to work on this with him, she loves to play with the Cricut, and so does Tobin. Check out how cool it is!

February 2o15 highlights

Hooray, a snow day

We meet Trish in the middle for some bowling & ohhh, shamrock shakes

some highlights from Ezra’s ping pong party

Kelly, of course, won the tourney (him & Ezra in the final)

Uncle Rob won the best decorated ping pong ball (and those are Ezra’s dirty names, not Robs)

Grandpa aggressively missing the ball, one of my all-time favorite pictures!

The birthday boy, love that smile!

Tobin’s trip to the Capital

And, check this out, there is a style of photography call Tilt Shift or miniature photography — you can buy a special lens or you can “fake” it, this was shot from up high overlooking the House of Reps room, isn’t it cool, I wasn’t even trying! Those are all full size desks and such:)

Ezra played indoor soccer

And, these are terrible images but it’s so rare that I actually get him scoring

You can see the yellow ball in the back of the net

And, Tobin, seriously, what else could he fit in his bed! 

January 2015 Highlights

We taught the kids how to play euchre, I can only go to 5 points with them, totally lose my patience! I’m trying to teach them to be always paying attention and be ready, nothing worse than playing slow euchre! So, when Jenna came over and knew how to play – Jackpot, they could play without me:)

A family game with my new favorite board game – Ticket to Ride

Our annual picture in front of the Christmas Tree, which almost always happens after the ornaments are off and I remember we haven’t taken it yet

Love this picture of them all reading in Mari’s bed, she has them all reading How to Train your Dragon books

A “too cold to go to school day”, calls for making pancakes

And, some mandatory reading time

And, some “you need to go outside” time, not even sure who this 3rd boy is??

I volunteered to go to the State Capital for the boys’ field trip, not realizing they were going on separate days – back to back, ugh, so I was pretty excited for the snow day that cancelled Ezra’s. He wasn’t too happy when Tobin got to go the next day, but we’re rescheduled for February.

It was very cool, love the architecture

Some sledding/snowboarding

Some friends came over and spent so much time lining up our Teddy Bear Dominoes and City Blocs all over the basement, and they kept having to restart it, it was quite a scene

Oh so excited to get some oranges from Grandma & Grandpa’s backyard tree, we are so spoiled with these!

Building snow guards for the eventual snow ball fight