Coolest birthday party ever.

Spencer's friend Connor turned "7" a few weeks back and in lieu of traditional party, his super-cool Mom orchestrated a Disneyland party with just the boys and their Moms. It helped that we all happened to have passes this year ;) Such fun!


I'd never been to the park with just one of my kids before. What a blast.

After minimum day from school let out, the boys had arrived. And the tram was just the beginning...

(Connor, Kai, Travis, Spencer)


I just about cry when I see the cuteness at Disneyland during one of my favorite Holidays. I know how lame that sounds. But I AM a sucker for the cute Halloween decor of any kind.



I couldn't get over these real flowers and how they look just like the colors of cute little candy corns :)


Fun in Fantasyland



The Haunted Mansion transformed for the Holidays



The Mommas



A fun inside shot




Loving us some Captain EO!

Cute Laura & Camille...and funny enough, in the upper lefthand corner I ran smack into an old Elder who served a church mission in my ward when I was 16. What a small Mormon/Disney world!



Dinner at Pizza Port


The entire crew (Jill, baby Hannah & Travis; Laura & Connor, Camille & Kai, Me and Spencer)


One last photo op on Main Street


I'm so grateful that Spencer has such good boys to go to school & church with. And I'm equally glad that their mothers are my good friends. What a fun memory this was to make!

Volunteer

Is there anything better than volunteering in your child's classroom & watching their little face light up when they realize you're there?



I think not.

It works out that I get to be Leda's Kindergarten co-librarian this year (Yeah!), but today was the day her class had their Halloween party and it was so fun!

Stories


Candy Corn Bingo winner


Scary spiders


My diligent helper "taking 5"


As always, I had fun volunteering with my good friend & neighbor, Laura ( w/sons Jonathan & Michael). Laura's oldest Anna and my Spencer had Mrs. Brown for K a few years back (and even the same 1st grade teacher last year) and now our middle kiddos get to share a year together with Mrs. Brown as well, kinda fun!


And last but not least, a beaming smile on my daughters face.


My Mommy heart was nice and toasty today!

And disclaimer: My child is not wearing her cute Halloween gear (sigh) for a good cause: it's Red Ribbon Week and today was "wear red" day...she (my only one, so I run with this sorta thing) will be aaall decked out tomorrow, and the next day...don't worry about it.

Too fast

We just got our family pictures back and while I'm thrilled to have them done(and glad the planning is now behind me)...I was struck with bittersweet emotions while looking through them.

My children are getting big. They are definitely no longer babies and Chase isn't a toddler anymore, for sure. Inside I heard a voice screaming, "IT'S GOING BY TOO FAST!"

Aaron and I walked around the Pumpkin Patch with them last night and reminisced about how it used to be back in the day when we couldn't go anywhere without our double stroller, diaper bag, wipes...and where we followed closely behind a 4 year old, 2 year old and a very stubborn 1 year old. On one hand it seems like yesterday and then I look at a picture like this and realize that it really was years ago! Whoa.



But this age of 7, 5 & 4 is sooo much fun and we are enjoying most every day of it :)

School pictures 2010

Funny story the morning of school picture day:

I was practicing "smiles" with Spencer (2nd grade) and Leda (Kindergarten) before school , because you see we're in that awkward smiling stage. You know, where they look more constipated than happy?

Here, exhibit A:



And it's more Leda these days than Spencer, though we're not out of the woods with him just yet.

So after we practiced some killer smiles, Spencer says to me, "Mom, I just don't wanna smile with my teeth, I want to keep my lips closed."

I thought about it for a moment and said, "But I really like it when you smile nicely with your teeth, can't you do it for me?"

Silence and stares.

So I then said something like, "Okay Spencer. I get it, you want to do things your way. So how about this: YOU decide how to smile. Teeth or no teeth. YOU get to choose. But right before the picture guy says "CHEESE!" I want you to remember this conversation and that your dear mother at home REALLY wants you to smile with your teeth, okay? And if I remember right, you get 3 or 4 poses, so maybe just some of those you could smile with teeth---for your Mom?"

More stares and a very toothless grin.

I sighed and sent him off to school.

Leda I wasn't so worried about. I figured we'd get what we get with her. You never know these days.

When they came home from school picture day, I asked how it went. Leda said "Fine" and Spencer was tight lipped and would NOT tell me how he smiled. He told me I would have to wait and see. He's already such a "big-brother tease!"

So fast forward a few weeks and here are Leda's school pictures:



Ahh, perfection...right? She's so cute I could just kick her (and have). Way to smile Leda!

So, you can imagine how excited I was to see my Spencer's pictures! When he bounced in the house an hour after Leda got home, I begged to see his proofs. He was ALL grins as he brought them slowly out of his backpack. It was time to see if he made his Momma proud! Will I see a smile with teeth or without?

Well.....



Yep.

The punk smiled toothless in ALL four shots.

And what's funny is it almost looks like at shot #1 he's thinking in his head, "I CAN'T smile with teeth, I CAN'T smile with teeth!" and by shot #4 he's got a head tilt like, "Take THAT Mom!"


We had a good laugh.

(and by the way, I still think he looks darling)

And now we have a very funny story about school picture day 2010.

Oh and I'm too cheap to buy the real packages that break the bank, but a class composite is on it's way and I get to keep these proofs that will forever make ME smile a big TOOTH-FILLED smile!

Pumpkins & Beehives

I get the awesome opportunity to work with the "Beehives" (aka: 12-13 year old girls in the young womens program at church) and they are a HOOT!

They came over to my house last night for some "Dinner in a Pumpkin" and to make some mean Pumpkin bars--thanks to a recipe brought by Laura (Ek). It was delish and we had a great time.


Dinner before



And after





Pumpkin Bars









And y'all know how much I LOVE Halloween and all things pumpkin-y...so here are the recipes for you to enjoy!


DINNER IN A PUMPKIN (cooks.com)

________________________________________
GROUND BEEF MIXTURE
1 to 1.5 lbs. lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 tbsp. salt
2 c. each chopped celery and onions
1 c. diced green pepper
In large kettle, brown beef. Drain. Add salt, celery, onions and green pepper.
DINNER:
1 sm. or med. pumpkin
1/4 c. soy sauce
4 c. ground beef mixture
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 (4 oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 c. cooked rice



Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut top of pumpkin off and clean out. (Save top.) In medium bowl, combine beef mixture, soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, soup and rice. Put into pumpkin. Replace pumpkin lid. Place on baking sheet and bake 1 hour or until pumpkin is tender. When served--scoop some pumpkin out with meat.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.


Note: If you want to fill a medium to large pumpkin (like in the pic), expect to double everything in this recipe EXCEPT the meat---just use 2# of meat…any more than that is too much, in my opinion. And ground turkey tastes fantastic! I just throw in a bit of steak seasoning with it.


PUMPKIN BARS
3 eggs
1 15oz. Can of Pumpkin
¾ cup sugar
½ Brown sugar
½ cup oil
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger or nutmeg
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
¼ cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups. Powdered sugar



BARS:
Beat together the eggs, pumpkin, sugars, and oil until well blended. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix until smooth. Spread batter evenly in a greased 10 x 15’ baking (jelly roll) pan. Bake 25 minutes at 350. Cool before frosting.

FROSTING:
Beat softened cream cheese, butter, vanilla until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar a little at a time and beat until smooth.

reflection

Tonight Lucy barked at her reflection in the sliding glass door for about ten minutes....

(iphone photo, but at least it captured the moment)

I'm not sure the last time we've been quite so entertained ;)

Chase turns 4

We did things a bit out of order this birthday because Grandma McLendon was in town and we wanted her to be a part of the festivities!

We celebrated a bit early at a family birthday party at Chuck E.'s place. We were so grateful for the grandparents being there! We missed you Daddy Mac.



He wanted me to make him a puppy dog cake this year...easy enough!




Opened presents complete with christmas wrapping!(a scooter from grandma & grandmpa M, a most coveted pillow pet from grandma & grandpa D, and a buzz lightyear from his family to sleep with)



And his dear sisters reaction to him receiving the coveted pillow pet? Kinda priceless. She needed a big lesson that night (stinker) but I wanna remember it always so I can look back and giggle:




the party guests (aka: siblings) got their wiggles out




And the birthday boy had a great family birthday party and parents had no prep or mess to clean up. Win/Win!



Fast forward a few days and you get the birthday boy at breakfast---complete with his request of a homemade Orange Julius.


After church (and plenty of spoiling from our terrific primary and his teacher Sister Allen) we had Grandma & Grandpa over for dinner and cake. You can never have too much cake!



And the obligatory birthday family picture in our designated spot that I realize isn't that great of a shot, but feel I must post since it's for posterity.



The next day he got to celebrate again at preschool with homemade doggie treats. (look close, his eyes match the plate, ahhh--love those greens!)

What a way to ring in the good old year of four, eh? I can't believe my baby is four.

Some things I want to rememember about Chase at this age:

-He has a bit of trouble saying the "S" sound in front of words like this: Spencer is "Pencer" and Scooter is "cooter"...He sounds so cute and is already starting to fix this, I'll admit I might be a little sad to see this go.

-He rides his bike and scooter better than any of the other kids did at his age. He's quite coordinated.

-He's very sensitive and intuitive.

-He still requests a song when I tuck him in at night.

-Chase has the most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen.

-Whenever he's told to put on his shoes, 9 times out of 10 he will put them on the wrong feet. Doesn't matter if it's his converse, his thongs, his church shoes, or the fact he's done it a hundred times...he will most likely put them on the wrong feet and not see a thing wrong with what he's done.

-He's afraid of monsters and wakes up about 3 times a week, afraid of those darn things.

-He bites at his fingernails despite every effort to get him to stop. I haven't had to cut them in about 6 months.

-He LOVES Nutella, any kind of soup, will eat salad before digging into his meal and often requests seconds of salad no matter what else we're having for dinner.

-He is still our most stubborn & stoic little boy, but we know that he loves us even though we are going through quite the phase lately. Seems like there is always some sort of phase with this one!


-He hates any solo attention on himself. He gets embarrassed really easily if you make too big a deal of something he's done.

-He loves to sleep with his shirt off like his big brother and he hates socks.

-He's deathly afraid of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, but we still drag him on it each and every time.

-He has the sweetest giggle and LOVES to be silly and make his siblings laugh.

-And he still does this thing with me and hope he never stops: While hugging him tight I say, "I got a bubbies!"---and then he says, "And I loooove him". This will make no sense to you, but it's our thing and I love it.

What would we do without our bubs? We sure do love this crazy kid of ours!