Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Moms Monday


On the first day of spring break we headed to St. Edward State park to go for a hike.
{one of our favorite past times}



 We stopped to check out the black slugs

 The trees and sky were just beautiful! 
 We had to jump over every ditch
 I can't believe my son is so grown up!
{and cute I might add}
 We took one of the more challenging hikes and headed to Lake Washington
 Shilo and True got as close to the water as they could
 Chastin is such a  climber!
 Coaxing the birds to come to her
 What a tease! We didn't have any food for them, but they just kept coming to check:)
 It was a beautiful day!
 I was just waiting for him to fall in and have to finish the hike all covered in stinky green lake water!
But alas! He was so skillfully balanced that  he looked like a natural out there.
 Shilo trying not to be covered in stinky green lake water!
 Found some soft sand
 And a cool hollowed out tree trunk
 True's mad mug
 the boys inside a  HUGE hollow tree
first try at a good one...
 second try...
 good as we're going to get!
 just like brothers~ best friends!
 Cute girl
 Had a fun time keeping up with the boys!
 True too had to do everything the 'big kids' did! 
 With a little of their help of course!
 This tree was growing straight out from the bank! So cool!

 So of course that posed a challenge to see how far out Chastin could climb &  me waiting, camera in hand to catch the moment he slipped into the lake. But once again, he was skillful and managed to make it out and back.
 Nature is so cool looking
 True spent a good amount of time running up ahead.
And I have to say, I didn't edit these pictures at all and the trees are so green!
 Chastin contemplating...
 can he do it?

 looks like a good seat..


                                     
 True can climb on a tree too!
 Sometimes I forget that it's so pretty here. On a nice day there's nothing prettier.
 I've heard people say that before, but now that my time in Seattle isn't a life long sentence I seem to have gained more of an appreciation for the colors... Go figure!
 Chastin ran with True when Trues little  legs got tired. Such a good big brother!!!

 Such cute kids!
After our few miles of hiking we headed to the giant play structure. I have always wondered if us parents didn't tell our kids when it was time to go if they would ever get bored...something to think about isn't it? Well the whole reason for me not working on Mondays is to enjoy my kids. So I had decided that  I would wait for THEM to tell me when they were ready to go. No matter how long. We were on spring break, what else did we have to do?
After 4 hours of pushing all four kids on the tire swing, pushing regular swings, catching True as he went down the slide, chasing after them & sitting in the sun, they finally succumbed  to tiredness and were ready to go to ice cream, With no prompting on my part.
4 HOURS! That's quite some time! I usually only let them play for about an hour. No wonder they aren't ready when I say times up. {not that it's often that I have 4 hours to play at the park:) }
 Ranch Drive Inn in Bothell has dipped cones in a variety of   flavors. The kids love it there.
 Vincent loved his swirl caramel dipped cone, Shilo had swirl chocolate dipped & Chastin had same as Vincent.

I don't know that True has ever had a dipped cone, but he had swirl dipped in caramel and finished the whole thing off! {with hardly any mess! impressive!}
We had a blast on our Moms Monday! It's always my favorite day! The kids are just so much fun to be around & I'm lucky I have a job that allows me to take every Monday off!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Pinkalicious Party!

Trues favorite book has been pinkalicious for about 2 years! We have the whole collection of Victoria Kann book and this is the one he goes back to over and over again! So on spring break I planned a pinkalicious party for all the kids. It was SO much fun!
 We decorated crowns I cut out with lots of fun items! Bells, ribbon & glitter to name a few.
I asked all the kids to either wear pink or green adding to the fun:)
 Shilo
 Sofia
 True
 Kaeden
 William
 Gavin
 Our Pink and Green foods!
We ended  our party with mini pink and green cupcakes. I'm so glad we did this! It was so much fun and a great way to end spring break!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Bee ME!

When I was in Young Womens I remember being kidnapped bright and early on a Saturday morning.
I have no idea what we did, or what the activity was for, but I remember feeling special.

I wanted to pass that same feeling of love and feeling of importance onto my Activity Day girls.
So Sue and I planned a Bee Me party.
To teach the girls that it's good to be yourself!
I stayed at my house and fixed all the food and decorations while Sue 'kidnapped' the girls at 7am! 
On a Saturday! {poor kids}
She started with Shilo so she could be surprised too, then had Shilo help wake up all the rest of the girls. They had a blast!

 They returned to  a yummy breakfast of grapefruit, chocolate dipped strawberries Sue made, watermelon, grapes, bananas, peanut butter and jelly muffins & a delicious baked french toast with warm syrup! 
 We planted yellow pansies in little pots for the girls to take home adorned with a cute bee flower stake and black and yellow tulle.  
Then we tied all the chairs in tulle too.
 Ellie helped us out and decorated my sandwich board. 
 Here they are, having no idea what is going on! SO fun! Their excitement was contagious! 
 After breakfast Sue had a GREAT activity for the girls to do.
 She had them make a beautiful & creative poster with flowers and bees and a beehive to show the 6 B's from President Hinckley's talk. It was just so sweet. Every time I walk by it hanging up, it reminds me of this activity & what we should all strive to BEE!
 Hopefully the girls will be reminded too:
Be True, Be Grateful, Be humble, Be clean, Be prayerful, Be smart.
Sue brought little cake decorating sugar bees for the tops of our muffins and the girls just thought those were the cats meow!
This was so much fun! Sometimes when I'm in the midst of planning a big activity like this I think "why do I make things so complicated?" but then I see the looks on the girls faces and it's all worth it. I gain an appreciation for my calling and an understanding for why it's so important.
And there's nothing more fun than planning something fun for my daughter and her friends!