Rowdy Kate

Aiden had been doing theater this year and has really enjoyed it!  He really seems to have a knack for acting and got the part of the lead antagonist in their production of "Rowdy Kate." It was so fun to go and watch him.  He did a great job of projecting and getting into his character.    We weren't allowed to take any pictures during the performance, so here are a few from after it was over...

Time to clean up...

Busy Boy

These pictures capture quite a few elements of D's life right now.  He loves watching Aiden and Aubrey play minecraft almost as much as he likes playing it himself.  

But more than minecraft he loves playing Plants vs. Zombies (thus the shirt).  He also loves his fedora and sneaking around playing Secret Agent.  He goes into what he calls "Hawkeye Mode" and is really good at entertaining himself with all kinds of super powered super hero scenarios. It's hard to get him to hold still long enough to even get his full karate uniform on (thus the pants only...)

As you can see all of that running around and using your imagination expends a lot of energy! 

Love this sweet boy!!

Theme dinner 2013

As much as I like hosting at our ward theme dinner, and wanted to do a table, I knew I wouldn't be able to pull it off this year, so I didn't volunteer.  We got assigned to the "Spongebob" table.  I needed something simple for our costumes and found a great little idea online to make character party hats.  So I made a Plankton and Mrs. Puff party hat, we donned green and tan t-shirts, and called our costumes good.  

 Derek had a lot of fun with them too!

I didn't get any pictures of the actually dinner, but we had a lot of fun.  Our host couple had decorated with an island/beach theme and we had crabby patties (hamburgers), chips, and salad for dinner.  I took stuff to make pina coladas and they are now a new favorite at our house! Here is the recipe I used courtesy of Smashed Peas and Carrots (http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2012/08/easy-frosty-pina-coladas-non-alcoholic.html)

Frosty Pina Coladas (non-alcoholic version) 

makes 8 cups

1 20 oz can crushed pineapple with juice

2/3 cup real cream of coconut (not coconut milk!)

8 cups of ice

Place all ingredients in a blender and mix together until well blended.  Pour into glasses and enjoy!

St. Patrick's 2013

This is one of those silly things that just makes me happy.  I had seen ceramic deer heads floating around blog land and the look was starting to grow on me.  So when I came across one at HomeGoods back in November I couldn't help but pick it up and put it in my cart.  As Derek and I walked around the store I started dreaming of the fun ways I could decorate said deer head for the holidays.  But I just couldn't justify the buy.  I didn't need a deer head, and I knew Jeff wouldn't be particularly crazy about it.  So I went to put it back and Derek exclaimed, "What are you doing Mommy?!  We need that deer head!"  I told him I didn't have a place to hang it and we didn't need it, and he said he was sure he could find a place for it in his room.  I was a little surprised that he had grown attached to it in the short time we had it in our cart (and I hadn't shared any of my daydreams with him so there could be no bias on his part about the fun we would have "dressing it up").  I know, I know, who in their right mind lets a 4-year old make the buying decisions?  But his determination that we needed the deer head was all I needed to justify my purchase.  It took me a while to get it up, but I found the perfect place for it and hung it right before Patty's day (so the first costume was a cute little leprechaun hat).  It makes me smile every time I walk past... so that makes it totally worth it.  

Because St. Patrick's day fell on a Sunday we had to go simple because we have early church and I have meetings.  The kids love Fruity Pebbles and I don't buy them very often so it was a real treat!  I made a green apple smoothie too, but that they didn't like that quite as well.

And another story, only mildly related...  The week (or was it two?) before St. Patrick's day we had the missionaries over for dinner.  I had planned to make haystacks and then have ice cream sundae's for dessert.  At about 930 the night before they called to verify the appointment and to let us know that Elder Hatch needed to eat dairy free.  I breathed a sigh of relief that I had planned for haystacks, and decided we would just have to go without dessert.  But then I remembered a dairy-free mint chocolate chip mousse that I had come across while planning our St. Patrick's day breakfast. I whipped that up, but decided it looked kind of sad all by itself so I checked to see if I could make brownies with a GF mix I had on hand work.  By using coconut oil instead of butter I could!  So I did, and I can't tell you how glad I am I decided to do that!  About half way through the meal Elder Hatch confessed it was his birthday and I was so relieved to tell him I had cake for him!  We put a candle in his brownie, sang happy birthday, and let him make his wish.  They are such cute missionaries and after dinner I asked them if they would sing and play the guitar for us (they had done a musical number the Saturday before at a convert baptism we had in our ward and I wanted Aiden to hear it).  We pulled out Aiden's guitar and they did a couple of songs for us.  It was so fun to have them!

My Big Birthday Boy!

I can't believe how much my Derek has grown!  He has been such a fun little boy to raise so far; sweet, considerate, loving, and full of personality!  We are enjoying every stage of his development so far, and look forward to the  coming years.  This is the first year that Derek had a "friend" party.  He really wanted to have his friends over, and I will admit I was nervous.  A little nervous about having to entertain a bunch of 3-5 year-old boys, but more about not having time to plan for it or a good time to even have it.  So I decided to simplify.  We had the party the Friday before his birthday and kept it to one hour.  I didn't plan any games.  I just covered a couple of ply boards we had on hand with black plastic table cloth and pulled out all of Dereks car building toys and trains.  The boys had a blast building and racing!  After they spent about 20 minutes doing that we had cake and ice cream, opened presents, and then I sent them out back to play until their parents came to pick them up.  It was perfect!

I made fondant using suggestions from my cousin Tisha and sister-in-law Jill and it turned out really well.  Aubrey made the mountains, clouds, and rocks on the cake and we topped it with some of CARS duplo legos.  I was most nervous about making the cake since gluten free cakes are so unpredictable and tried and tried to talk Derek into cupcakes but he was set on putting his duplo guys on a cake.  The cake was not pretty, so I was very happy with how the fondant covered it up, ha!

On Sunday (his actual birthday) he opened family presents.

Loving the Webkinz Hummingbird he got

He picked out this hat from the Children's Place.  As soon as he saw it he put it on and was sneaking around the store pretending to be Agent P from Phineas and Ferb.

After he got his hat we all had to come up with agent names, and everybody had to go get their fedoras.  Here is everybody with their "agent hat."  

 He got some awesome new books for story time.   

And here come the wheels...

So excited to learn to ride!!

Projects...

Lots of projects going on around here!  Actually there are always projects in the works, but I am determined to finish a bunch before baby comes.  I only have two months left to get it all done so I have been busy!  I started a kitchen island redo about a year and a half ago and finally had a neighbor come over and finish the trim on it for me, because I was too nervous to do the cuts myself.  Now if I could decide on a finish, I could do that and get the handles back on the doors and drawers.  I am simultaneously trying to finish my banister project that I started in December when we had our floor refinished and wood treads put onto the stairs.  I am almost done sanding and then I can put the stain on the same time that I do the island.  However, both of those projects have gotten trumped by cleaning and organizing bedrooms.  I am in the process of relocating all of my craft stuff, in order to paint so Aubrey can move into that room.  That bedroom is currently a tan color with white chair rail around the entire thing so we are thinking we will paint the bottom half with black chalkboard paint (maybe do something fun with white molding frames) so she will have some artistic freedom, and leave the top half white.  She wants to go with pink, turquoise, and lime accents so I think that keeping the walls neutral is the best way to go (that and like me she tends to change her mind a lot so black and white walls seem to be the safest way to go).  However, with time getting short, it may just have to stay tan.  Anyway, Derek will be taking over her current bedroom, and we will move the baby into his old room.  Phew, there is a so much work to be done, but I am so excited about all of it!

Spring Break At Grandpa and Grandma's house

The kids had Spring Break the week before Easter so we headed to my parents for a couple of days.  We had a great time playing, making crafts, having a "cookout," and searching for Easter baskets.  However, I didn't have a camera with me so sadly I have no pictures.

While we were there I asked my parents if I could borrow the crib that they keep on hand for when grand babies come to visit, and they sent it back with me.  My mom had bedding she had made for it so I asked if I could borrow that as well (since we don't have any of that stuff anymore).  I love the browns and teals, but wanted to add something to "soften" it a little and she was sweet enough to let me "girlify" the quilt she had made for the set.  I just added some simple rosettes and made a ruffle pillow to match out of some fabric she had in her stash.  If I can find the time I also brought back some other matching scraps she had on hand that I want to make a peacock pillow out of (found a great tutorial online), and maybe some other cute little accent decorations.

I ended up with a lot of threads that we pulled while making the pillow and Derek took those along with some fabric scraps and wanted to make an angry bird out of it, so Grandma being the creative lady she is figured out a way to do it.  Well that started a trend that Aiden wanted to be part of and soon we had an angry bird factory going on.  Derek and Aiden started rummaging through Grandma's scraps and craft supplies and came up with all kinds of birds and pigs.  Here is a picture of the original bird Grandma helped Derek make and one of the pigs we also made while there.

My mom said she is going to nickname us the "Creatives."  I do think my kids have great imaginations and love to see what they come up with.  Here are a few other things Derek has made recently.  First is Derek's creation made out of the lego candy we gave out at his birthday party (more on that to come).

Here is the creation he put together while we were gathering all his duplo vehicles pieces to be used for his party.  He was very proud of it.

And all of the kids had fun with the fondant I made to decorate his birthday cake.  Aubs made a cat that looked like Simon, but somehow I didn't get a picture of it!