Sure you could eat the paint...

Yes. My kids like knowing they have the option of eating the paint should the desire to do so arise.

A week or so ago...you can figure it out. I hadn't figured out how to turn the date off on my son's camera, yet (my camera is being a beast.)....anyways, I made some Salt Paint for the kids while searching for something fun to do with the kids left at home.  My husband made a trip with our oldest son over to Tropic to help his father haul and bail (bale?) hay on the farm.  So, we needed to do something fun. 

Salt paint....yay!

1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup warm water
3 or 4 drops food coloring

Mix up with paint brushes in small containers or paper cups. I posted about this on the Cheap Cheap Chickadee blog, but I thought I'd share here, too.

This wee girl was not happy one bit until she was part of the action. 

And, yep, she did indeed try eating the paint. 

Mmmmm, salty.  I don't think she cared for it much.  But, of course, this did not stop her from trying to eat more of it.  Maybe I should make a yummy paint sometime, eh?  Like, pudding paint? Mmmmm, that could be good.

Well, the fun did not stop with the painting.  Oh, no.  We also made homemade pop-tarts. 

And a pop-tart is not a pop-tart unless there are copious amounts of sprinkles, right?

You can find multiple recipes for these on-line.  We used this one.  It was pretty good.  I like the idea of mixing the cornstarch into the jam to make it less runny.  That worked really well.

And there you have it. A sweet & salty day with us.

Yes, I am a geek and I've spawned wee little geek children...

Over the last several weeks we held a Harry Potterathon in our house. We watched all the movies out on DVD.  And then this last Saturday I took my boys  to see the last movie.  Of course, we had to have something special to wear.

So, I stenciled us some shirts using this method. 



Front: I solemnly swear I am up to no good



Yep, it seals it. 

Back: Mischief Managed

We are officially Harry Potter Geeks. 

Mmmmmm, New Recipes....

Oy, I get so tired of the same 'ole recipes. Probably my family would be happy to go without all the kitchen trial and errors, but I get bored.  I will spare you the ones that I will not be making again (I tried making spinach crepes once.  Nope. They're not good.) and share the ones we've loved....

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

One of my boys couldn't say enough how much he loved these.  "Oh! These are the best pancakes ever," he said repeatedly. Another one mentioned, "These are the opposite of a healthy breakfast." 

Yep. It's like having cinnamon rolls for breakfast. But they were very very tasty.  I think I'll be requesting these for my birthday. 

Soft Sandwich/Hamburger Buns

I've tried different recipes for sandwich rolls in the past, but these win. They are soft and yummy.  Perfect. 

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

I have an awesome friend who I adore.  I wanted to make some sort of delicious treat for her.  I asked her daughter what I should whip up and she suggested this.  I hadn't tried making this kind of bread before but I'm so glad I did! It was excellent!  I also made a powdered sugar icing to put on the slices.  The loaf was gone very very quickly!

Ok.  Obviously the recipes I've been trying would not be found anywhere near the "Let's Eat Healthier" section.  I should work on that.... 

Navajo Fry Bread Pizza

Yep. That's right. Fried bread topped with pizza fixin's.  Mmmmmmm.  I made the fry bread and then spread on sauce, cheese and pepperoni and baked in the oven until the cheese melted.  Yum.  It was a huge hit with the family.

And last, I'm sharing a recipe that is already huge favorite in our house.  If everyone is home, I have to make two pans just so everyone can get as much as they want.

Poppy Seed Chicken

Ooops. I didn't get a shot of this one.  But it was very very tasty and, once again, popular with the natives!  Yay! I love finding things my kids will eat without drama!

Pepperoni Hopple Popple

I have no idea why this is so popular with my kids.  Sure, it's tasty, but I'm surprised by just how much they love it.  It is requested VERY often (and it's just fun to say).

Have I made your mouth water? If you try any of these out, let me know!  

The Birthday Storm Continues

Well, I was going to blog about each of the fun birthdays and chaos that consumed my time last month.  But, well, I think we better go for the quick recap.
My handsome cowboy's big day...

This was at the beginning of summer and boy! did those boys need haircuts!

  My writing group met the night before Ryan's birthday so I picked him up some yummy pastries at The Pastry Pub and left them as a surprise for him with a note in the fridge.  Yes, if I was a super wonderful wife I would have gotten up at six in the morning and made him a fabulous breakfast.  Alas, I am not that great. 

He had to work...shouldn't your own birthday be a holiday? Although I did buy licorice and a bouquet of balloons which I delivered to the office.  He was still out in the field so he got a nice surprise when he got back to his desk. 

Later we had hamburgers and then it was time for presents and cheesecake. 

Yes, Ryan is always on a mission for his birthday to be simple and easy.  He doesn't want to go anywhere.  He doesn't want me to be busy in the kitchen. He wanted an easy no-bake cheesecake.  He just wants us to have time to hang out.  It doesn't always seem to work out that way.  But we always try. 

His biggest want was a Red Dot Scope.  And, look, I made his dreams come true...

heh heh. 

I didn't know what kind he wanted!  So, he'll just have to go pick out the real thing for himself. 

Zoe's big day...

I made her a Rapunzel dress to wear.  To say she was excited is a MASSIVE understatement.  She has since worn this dress as often as she possibly can.  To bed. To the library. To the Renassaince Faire.  Everywhere.  And then she brings it to the laundry room and asks me to wash it so she can wear it the next day. 

I used the pattern Simplicity 5695 as a starting point for her dress.  I changed it up by sewing the pink strips of ribbon to the sleeves, adding the purple bodice piece to the front and then more pink ribbon criss-crossed over front. I only sewed the ribbon on the sides of the "corset". Next I simply added the purple over skirt. Also, instead of making casing for the elastic in the neck and sleeves, I simply sewed the 1/4 inch elastic right into the neck and sleeves. So much easier. Oh, and I serged all the hems. I have to say...I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.  I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I was totally winging it. Oy. I sure love that pattern. 

We had a very full day.  Storytime at the library, picnic and playing at Discovery Park and later pizza, presents and a pretty pink rose cake...

But the biggest surprise for our sweet Zoe was the project my handsome cowboy and I had been working and working and working on.  In fact, Ryan even came down with the flu and he had to paint it and put it all back together!  It was crazy.  But he is an amazing dad and husband, what do you expect? 

Anyways, I found the idea for this on Pinterest, of course.  I made up a series of clues that led Zoe all around the house and into the backyard.  At each spot she found another gift.  And they all were kitchen-related things.  Hmmmm....but she is 4 so she didn't even begin to figure out what we had in store for her. 

Then the last clue led her to the garage because we hadn't brought our project into the house, yet.  And she found this super fun present waiting for her....

It was worth all the time and energy we put into it.  She was thrilled.  And her brothers were, too.  They all instantly began playing with it.  Someone grabbed the play food and pots and pans.  They gathered up her kitcheny gifts.  And next thing I knew the boys were on their scooters and Zoe was "cooking" up food they could "deliver".  So cute, right? 

We have a few things we need to finish on it.  Still.  We need to put on the knobs for the stove burners, a towel rack and...mmmm, wait. That might be all.  Oh, and the curtain up above the sink so it looks like there's a window behind it. 

I'm so happy with how it turned out though. So. Happy.

I did a little Tangled Movie party for her and a few friends a bit after her birthday. 

We made frying pan necklaces (they make an excellent weapon, right? :), ate flowered cupcakes, munched on treats and enjoyed the movie.  I sent the cute kids home with a box of watercolors and pictures to paint. 



The invitations encoraged the girls to dress up. At first I thought this sweet girl, Elina,
decided to wear the baby towel as a cape.  Nope.  It was her rapunzel hair. *grin* At one point, I heard
her telling another child, "don't step on my hair!"  ha! What a cute little character!

 Next up was Weston's big day.  12, wow, right?

Zoe is still wearing the Rapunzel dress.

He wanted scrambled eggs and biscuit ring for breakfast.  That biscuit ring is pretty darn popular in our house. I stenciled him this shirt to wear on his birthday (we like funny shirts)....

Then Weston had a band concert since it was the final day of Summer Band Class where he'd learned to play Percussion and LOVED it.  The concert was very fun.  He played the practice pad, bass drum and bells. 

Then it was out to lunch at Pizza Hut.  Weston loves their pizza buffet.  We all got super stuffed on pizza and then the waiters and waitresses came out to sing to him and gave him a plate of chocolate dunkers.  Mmmm, they were very yummy. 

Then it was back home for some down time, nap time and such. He requested French Dips for dinner and then I worked on This Cake that he wanted.  Hmmmm, something must have gone wrong.  Because..erm...well, it was not good.  All of the various parts were good seperately, but somehow together it just didn't work for us. It was way too sweet.  But oddly enough, Sam liked it. 

Next on to the presents. Four of them were clues to a very big present.  It was something he'd been wanting for awhile and he was saving up for it but then the price had gone too high on Amazon.  But I decided to see if I could find a better price on ebay and YAY!  I managed to find it for the original price he'd been saving up for. 

So, I snagged it and it was a HUGE surprise for him.  He didn't think there was any chance he would ever get it. 

The Lego Galactic Enforcer.

I let him stay up late that night and he spent three hours putting it together...until midnight! So. Fun.

He had a water party with a bunch of friends a week or so later.  Weston has such a fun group of friends.  Two older boys even tried to crash the party with a measly collection of water balloons.  But Weston and his friends retaliated and the older boys got drenched.  And then they stayed for root beer floats, homemade pretzel bites and games of water balloon steal the flag. 

One cute girl wrote a funny card about how they were giving Weston Night Cream so he would look radient on his birthday.  Then she gave him a big baby wipes box.  It was super heavy.  He unwrapped it to find a little Burts Bees Night Cream box (with loads of rocks in the bottom).  ha!  Inside she'd put money.  So funny!

The pretzel bites were very popular!

I can't believe my oldest is 12.  It's so bizarre. But also, pretty darn awesome. :)
Wooh.  The Birthday Storm has finally passed.  We are safe for another year.

And it was fun but I'm glad life has returned to normal.  Or as normal as it gets around here.

The Birthday Storm: Sam's Big Day

We've had a lot of birthday fun going on around here.  And when I say a lot, I mean A Whole Ton of Birthday Craziness. 

The first one in our Birthday Storm was Sam's at the end of May. He had a super great day turning 7.  His birthday fell on a Sunday so I made a special tie for him to wear to church. 

Well, I didn't actually make the tie.  I got one from DI and tried to cut it down to his size.  It didn't work the best.  I need to fix it a bit.  It ended up so it was too wide there at the collar.  But anyways, I appliqued the robot to the front of the tie and he thought it was very cool...

I also appliqued him a fun robot birthday shirt. I really love appliquing shirts.  They don't take much time and the results are so great.  They're perfect for when you need a quick Crafting Fix.  Wait.  I'm not the only one that starts to go into withdrawals, am I? 

Sam chose scrambled eggs and Caramel Biscuit Ring for breakfast.  And I picked up Papa Murphy's the day before so we could have pepperoni pizza for dinner.

And he chose Chocolate Trifle for his birthday cake.  Everyone in the family was extremely pleased with his choice.

 

Sam got quite a few sets of legos for his birthday which he was THRILLED about.  Just check out this face...

He loved putting them all together.   

Isn't it great watching your children interact?   

These boys have such a great relationship with each other.  Sure they do a fair bit of fighting, too.  But overall they have such a great time together.  I hope they always stay close.

We let each of the kids choose an activity to do in celebration of their birthday like bowling, a movie, go out to eat or go swimming.  Sam chose to go to the Aquatic Center.  So went on Saturday and had loads of fun.  We tried to set a family record for the number of times we went down the big tube slide.  I think it was 32. Individually, Sam beat us all with 17 times!  I think I did 6, maybe? 

I think Sam had a great birthday.  Even though two of his presents hadn't even arrived yet (great way to give yourself Mommy Guilt...procrastinate ordering gifts on Amazon).  Yes, that is why in this next shot you will notice the two pictures of the items that haven't come in the mail yet....a very cool lego robot book (which he adored!) and a wind-up robot building kit (which he also really enjoyed). 

ETA:  I forgot to mention he also got the robot quilt I was making for him.  Well, he got most of it and it was in pieces.  Ack!  I had to give him an unfinished quilt.  So so pitiful.  And then I've been so busy with the rest of the birthdays I haven't even been able to work on it.  blech.  Hopefully I'll get it done before he goes to college.

About a week or so after his birthday we finally got around to pulling together a friend's bday party for Sam. Sad, I know. 

I tried to keep it simple and so we had a Robots Movie Party.  We made a robots craft, ate robot cupcakes, opened presents, ate robot snacks, watched Robots, played some robot games and I sent them home with a cute little robot party favor.  And.  I can't say much more than that because I'm planning on writing up some of those ideas for Family Fun (I've been submitting to them quite a bit and they're holding onto a lot of things to see if they'll fit into future issues....yay!).

But here's a shot of Sam enjoying the present-opening time...

Oy, we sure love our Sam.  He is such a fun kid.  He's easy-going and happy. He's a peacemaker.  He's rarely the kid causing trouble.  He's a great helper.  I mean, really this kid is awesome.  I'm so glad this boy is part of our family.



Funday Monday: Do the Hokey Pokey!

Family reunions are the best, right? Wow! All those people loving each other and chatting and hugging and being so happy to see each other, right?  I love it.

My cute mother-in-law, Margaret, was in charge of her family's reunion this year and so it was held in the small town of Tropic, Utah.  This is where I went to high school, where I was an uncoordinated cheerleader and where I fell in love with my handsome cowboy. 

Alright so onto the tips and pics....

Funday Monday Tip #7: If there's a trail, hike it. 



Zoe found a new fancy cousin friend.  Ack! They're so cute, right?

 Margaret planned a fun hike for us on Friday morning.  It was down through this narrow slot canyon called the Cottonwood Narrows.  I love slot canyons.  They're so interesting....all the different colors of rocks and formations.  It's amazing how they can vary so much.


What a fun group of hikers, right? The only one
missing is our photographer, Cindy who
was kind enough to snap the pic.

It was such a great atmosphere for getting to know new family.  Some of them I had gotten to know off and on through the years.  But there were quite a few that I hadn't ever met before, or if I had it had only been briefly.  I was able to chat with Ryan's cousin, Cindy quite a bit on the hike and we laughed and visited and it was really great.

Towards the end of the hike I started to really look forward to air conditioning.  Gnats.  Heat.  Whiney kids.  Oh.  Wait....I think that was me doing the whining.  Snap. Complaining doesn't help, right? The hike took a bit longer than was planned since the little ones wanted to touch every rock, plant and bit of sand they saw.  They loved it all.

At the end of the hike, my husband overheard one little girl say, "We made it.  And we didn't even complain!"  Oh.  What a great example that little girl is to me.   

Funday Monday Tip #8: If there's a merry go round, ride it. 

Yep. I got on with Molly because she was aching to give it a shot.  I don't usually get motion sickness.  But after a few too many turns I had to get off.  Blech.  Pizza and spinning apparently do not mix for me.  Although I did have fun laughing and chatting with the kids before I got ill.

Funday Monday Tip #9: I there is a craft, try it. 

Margaret asked me to come up with a craft for the kids to do while the adults played some games. 

I threw together a simple thing that I'd been wanting to try.  I was feeling bad that I hadn't come up with something a bit more elaborate, but with a nasty flu that stormed through each and every one of us and also getting ready for Zoe's birthday party, I just didn't have a lot of time.  I was worried it would totally flop.  So I was pleasantly surprised when it was such a big hit!  Basically we made jewelry with t-shirt yarn and beads.  Easy peasy.  But it was as popular with the adults as it was with the children! 

Funday Monday Tip #10: If there's a game, play it. 

Margaret organized all sorts of games for the adults in the morning and then a bunch of games for the kids in the afternoon.  I did not do too well at the games.  Ok.  I totally stank.  But I gave them a shot!  (An A for effort?) Although I did beat Jim at the frisbee toss.  Of course, Ryan destroyed us all with his score.  And he finally just stopped playing, not because he missed but because he didn't want to keep going!  But I missed in the tennis shot and the badmitton thing and the free throw and only got one point in the bean bag toss.  Ugh!!  It was not a good sporty day for me.  So, I slunk back to the crafting table...*sniff*...where I was appreciated....

The best part of the games though?  Margaret gave away her old trophys (and she had A LOT...she is a VERY athletic woman.  Seriously.  Amazing.)  to the winners.  OY!  It was too funny.  There was a lot of chuckling over it. 

Funday Monday Tip #11: If there is hokey pokey music, or say the bunny hop or even a good ol' fashioned Virginia Reel?  Get out there and shake it all about.



I'm not entirely sure what dance move Weston is pulling
out here.  But he's having a great time doing it!





A giant family hokey pokey session. Brilliant, right?  Ha!  It was so much fun.  I had to jump out to snag a picture.  Luckily I got back into the mix for the Whole Self part and The Backside shaking.  Yep.  Good times.

 Margaret's sister, Lois, is a square dance caller and she had us out there swinging our partners round and promenading sweet corner maids.  It was really fun.  In fact, I even had a little gentleman by the name of Paul come up and ask if I would dance with him.  The next day I asked him if he liked taller women.  He said, "Yes."  Pause. "And I like babies." Yep.  That's a real ladykiller in the making. 

Funday Monday Tip #12: If there are awesome people around, befriend them!

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to know Ryan's cousin, Paige Lad.  Oy!  She is at least Twenty Shades of Awesome.  I had heard of her in the past from one family member or another.  Someone mentioned there was another writer in the family but I hadn't had the chance to meet her before this weekend.  So, yay!  I was thrilled to have her cornered at a family reunion where I could make her hang out with me. And she was so much fun!  We talked about writing, our projects, conferences we've attended and about every other thing that came up while we were making random t-shirt yarn accessories.


I made Paige model her lovely multi-colored headband.  Oh! And
she's wearing a necklace she made, too.  Yep.  We were having fun.

Now I just wish she didn't have to live all the way in Phoenix beause I think she needs to be my new best friend. 

Tonight I noticed Paige added a new post to her blog (I added her awesome blog to my roll on the side) and was shocked to see she'd written about ME!  Ack! I think I did a pretty good job of tricking her into thinking I'm way cooler than I am.  She said such lovely things about me.  Isn't she the greatest? I'm so happy I inherited her as a cousin. 

So.  The record must be set straight. Paige is the crazy amazing one.  She is easy to chat with, she's a brilliant writer (you just have to read some of the entries on her blog to see that or check out some of her writing projects), she is so stinkin' cute with her little blonde pixie haircut and beautiful smile, her kids are Supremely Awesome (which must be attributed to how cool their mom is), she plays The Superhero Game with her children (ack! Must start playing game with my family pronto!) and she danced the Hokey Pokey.  Yep. 'Nuf said.  Paige Rocks.

Alright, here is the last one....

Funday Monday Tip #13: If there is a dog your size, by golly try to ride it!

My sweet little niece, Cambree, got to ride her grandpa's horse.  She loved it.  And she enjoyed it so much that when she found another creature with four legs willing to stand still for a moment, she climbed on! 

Giddiyup!

How to {Tuesday on Wednesday...oops} Turn Your Children into Willing Slaves

Our house has gotten a bit messy lately.  And when I say a bit, I mean a whole lot. So, on Monday I came up with a brilliant plan.

I decided we'd have a home movie night with concessions.  In order for them to earn money for their movie ticket, popcorn or candy they had to do things to help the family like sweep, fold towels or vaccum.

I cannon believe how well this worked. It was crazy cool. I had willing slaves sorting laundry, picking up toys, scrubbing walls and emptying the dishwasher. It was so TOTALLY AWESOME!

When it came time for the movie I pretended to be working at the movie theater and selling tickets and concessions.  The kids loved it.  My oldest son was able to get a lot more than his younger siblings.  It was a great learning experience for them.  "Hey...wait a minute.  Look how much Weston got!" Yep. Because he kept working kiddos.

We will definitely be doing this again.  Family fun? check. M&Ms with popcorn? check. Cleaner house? check.  A definite success.