Zack Turns 5

Wow! It seems like it was only a week ago that we celebrated Zack's 4th birthday. Time really goes fast. He is 5 now--based on the fact that we held a cousin's birthday party last Sunday while we were in Idaho and he blew out the candles on the cake. I had to explain to him twice that blowing out candles on a cake doesn't change your age. He is 4 again, as long as we keep the birthday cakes away.

Easter

We went back to Idaho for Easter weekend. We had our annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday afternoon. There is still lots of snow on the ground so we did the hunting inside. This year instead of hiding individual eggs we did an egg treasure hunt. We had clues for each kid to figure out and in that spot there were enough eggs for everyone. My favorite clue was for Branson: "Do you like your eggs wet or DRYER." See, he figured it out, eventually.

The adults are lazy and we don't hunt for eggs. We do have to take a few steps and pull an egg out of a bag in order to get a prize. The Easter egg hunt is always a good time and there are always some slightly disappointed grown ups. This year was Logan's year to get ripped off. The eggs have numbers inside which correspond to a prize. Mom read the wrong prize (a bottle of Axe body wash) which actually belonged to number of the egg Brandon picked right after. So instead of the body wash he had to take a lame prize. Poor Logan, getting sprayed in the head by silly string was only the beginning of a disappointing day...

Dad likes peanuts.

Matt likes peanuts even more.
Brock was the coolest kid at the hunt. And he knew it.
Later the kids colored easter eggs. Zack loved his glitter eggs and wanted to make sure we brought them home. I totally forgot about it. When we were driving home Zack asked if his eggs were ok. Dang. Shh, he hasn't remembered since.
As mentioned, there is still a lot of snow in Idaho. I packed a pair of shorts for Ben and Noah to sleep in-- TO SLEEP IN! This doesn't look like sleeping to me. You might think it was warm, but it was only 40 degrees.

Easter baskets:

Breakfast, lunch and pretty much dinner:
I admit that I like the sugary marshmallow goodness that is a Peep. I saw this little bunny car creation in Family Fun magazine. They kids loved doing this really easy project.

Zack's Big Day

Back in his Little Einstein's days, Zack's favorite episode was one involving a birthday party. He has become an expert in all the things required to make a great birthday like cake, balloons, streamers and goody bags. All his knowledge made me a little nervous about his birthday expectations, especially his cake. He wanted a cake with dots, sprinkles, flowers, lines that go like this (he would draw it in the air with his finger) and a cherry on top to make it fancy. We looked online at different cakes and he didn't find anything that he really liked until we came across the wedding cakes. He was serious about the fancy part.

Zack's birthday was on Tuesday. We were in Idaho for a funeral which left Matt in charge of decorating and cake making. That took the pressure off me and Matt did a great job. We didn't get home until 8:00 and we were travel weary (at least I was) so the party was a little subdued but Zack still had a "really good" birthday. I even managed to figure out gifts for him. He wouldn't tell me what he wanted because he wanted it to be a surprise. I even took him to the store to try to figure him out and he was really vague and actually got bored looking at the toys.

This is Matt's masterpiece. His cake impressed Ben so much that he requested the same one for his birthday. Zack liked it but said it needed more decorations.
Here is the cake with Zack's finishing touches. He also had it in his head that he wouldn't officially be four until he blew the candles out on his cake. He is a funny little kid.

Not a good idea

You may find yourself at the store and see a new product. You might, as Matt did, think that the limited edition cherry chocolate flavored Dr. Pepper will be delicious. It's not. Trust me. I like a cherry chocolate as much as the next guy and I really enjoy a refreshing ice cold glass of Diet Dr. P, but even I knew that this would be nasty. Matt was so excited about it that I let him learn this lesson the hard way. Chocolate cola is never a good idea. But if you want to try it for yourself I have a 12-pack that I am happy to share.

Spring!

We've had a few nice days in the last fews weeks mixed in with some cold and snow, but today I have decided it is official: Spring is here. See my cute little flowers that Zack insists are roses. I am seriously giddy with excitement. It was so nice today that the kids chose to stop playing Smash Bros. Brawl so they could play outside. I am sure more snow is in the future but thank you little purple flower for giving me hope.

Party Girl

It's funny how everything seems to happen all at once and then nothing. Like right now, I've got a whole lot of nothing going on. For the last week I've been running around busy with too much to do and now I have no choice but to clean my house. I am just that bored. Here's a run down of the craziness.

On Wednesday (Feb 27) I helped Liz throw a baby shower for Lisa. Liz did nearly all the work. My main job was to go to Costco and get a sandwich tray. I buy them fairly frequently and have never had a problem. This particular Wednesday was nuts because I had to go help at the school and had to be at scouts at 4:00. I finished at the school at 2:00, went to my nearby Costco only to discover that I should have ordered the stinking tray 24 hours in advance. Fortunately, the Sandy Costco doesn't have such strict rules and I was able to drive up there and grab the tray. Then I headed over to the Riverton Library in time to check out the books Noah needed to get his next book report finished by Friday and I made it to scouts--10 minutes late. (So the day wasn't perfect). Scouts went long and I ended up getting to Liz's a little late. Good thing she was prepared and calm.

Lisa's shower went really well. She looks cute with a basketball belly. Liz dazzled (as usual) with her darling cupcakes and party favors.

We had a ward chili cook off on Friday. The committee asked each auxiliary to provide some sort of entertainment. The Elders Quorum saw fit to turn that over (by turn it over I mean force) Matt to do it. They wanted him to play the guitar but since his type of music might not be preferred in a ward party setting he ended up going with plan B: reading Laffy Taffy jokes to the audience. I would have preferred to stay home with Mike and Di and watch the Jazz game but ended up there, which was just as well because the Jazz sucked it up. To Matt's credit he made the best out of a lame situation and was even kind of funny.

So Saturday was a basketball game and Noah's party. If you are keeping track that is 3 parties in 4 days.

The kids were out of school on Monday and would have liked to party but I had a million things to do to get ready for Enrichment night on Tuesday. Our food lady moved so I made another trip to Costco (thankfully Mike and Di were here and Mike took the boys so I didn't have to drag their whining bums). I divided up the ingredients for 8 pork roasts and delivered them to the kind ladies who were willing to cook them for us. The boys chipped in and took the door fliers for me. I finished up the slide show game I was in charge of and watched the Jazz beat Dallas.

Tuesday was enrichment night. I went to the school early so that I could make sure the books got switched out, drove the kindergarten & preschool car pools then went to the church to set up. We didn't do a lot of decorating and that went smoothly. Our enrichment night was great. I hope. Because it has been such a long winter we did a tropical theme. We gave out leis (the color you got was the color of the table you sat at). We had yummy mango salsa and chips at the tables to snack on before dinner. We did a guess who slide show game using childhood pictures. Then we played a version of the tray game where we put items relating to previous RS general presidents on the tray. They doubled as the centerpieces and I thought it was a great way to incorporate the RS history, since that is sort of the purpose of the required RS birthday enrichment night. For dinner we had pulled pork w/ rice, a yum yum yummy broccoli salad (thanks Costco) and a fruit tray. Then we played a version of speed dating (called fast friends) that was a hit. Birthday cake ended the night.

Our ward is a little out of control on the party thing this month. Wednesday night was the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold banquet. In case you didn't notice, I am now a bear den leader. Which means I should be getting released as enrichment leader at any time. Really, any time now. No rest for the weary on Wednesday. I had a PTA meeting in the morning followed by setting up for Blue & Gold. That's all I had to do so I am not complaining. Noah wasn't feeling well so we didn't even end up staying the whole time. And the Jazz won again.

The final count: 5 parties in 7 days. Now I have a good week with little to do before I get ready for Zack's birthday and the big Easter egg hunt. Don't worry though, I have plenty to keep me busy: a bookshelf to paint, I'd like to be able to walk into my storage room again and I've got a few books I have been meaning to read.....

Wii Party

Matt and Noah came up with the idea to do a Wii themed birthday party for Noah. The event is over and I think it went pretty well. We invited 10 kids and had them rotate through 4 different stations: Guitar Hero, design your own Mii cupcake, Smash Bros, and bowling. We gave coins at each station (3 for the winner, 2 for 2nd place, one for last place). At the end of the party we had had trophies for the three kids with the most coins. It all ran pretty smoothly. Thank goodness for this site which had lots of good ideas, especially the invitation. I pretty much copied it.