May the Fourth Be with You

We were invited to our neighbors "May the Fourth Be With You" party.  Bracken was so excited, and wanted to dress up.  Since he's never seen Star Wars he was asking me all sorts of questions about what star wars people look like. We pulled up pictures on the internet and he decided to be Obi Wan Kanobi. He worked on his costume and k'nex light saber most of the day.  The best part was that he filled the light saber with green glow sicks, so it really glowed as it got darker.  He's so creative!

I think Bracken's favorite part of the evening was when they handed out about 30 cut-in-half pool noodles decked out as light sabers, and let the kids go crazy smacking each other. They went bezerk!  Amazingly there were no tears, and lots of shrieking and laughing.  Such a fun night.

Happy 4th Birthday Chandra!

Chandra is the cutest mixture of girly girl and tom boy.  She loves fancy dresses, princesses, flowers and all things sparkly and beautiful. She also loves bugs, mud, dirt and worms.  Her birthday was a mixture of all the things she loves.  

Bracken gave Chandra a little bug kit from the dollar store, and her very favorite present that day...a lady bug she named Sissy.  She played with it all morning long, letting it climb up her bunk bed, her wall, or her arm, then catching it, putting it back in it's house and feeding it grass. She was heart broken when he disappeared, and so happy the next day when Bracken found it for her again. (At least, they looked close enough to be identical. :) 

At first she wanted a Sleeping Beauty Princess cake.  Since I was not going to make the equivalent of a wedding cake for her birthday, we came up with the idea of a butterfly cake, and that made her just as happy. 

She invited a couple of her little friends to come over for a butterfly tea party.  They all dressed up and were super cute. 

Then they switched out of their princess clothes and ran around outside chasing bubbles and looking for bugs.  

 We made and ate butterfly cupcakes...

And that night we had tacos and cake and ice cream with Melissa, Steve, Zedek, Shaylee and Glade. Happy Birthday big 4 Year Old!  We love you Chandra!!

Outside!

 Spring is here early, and we are spending every spare minute outside.  We are super grateful for our backyard, for the church parking lot, and for our next door neighbor's backyard.  Sister Staple let's us play in her big yard whenever we want.  It has an old swing set, a slide, lots of fruit trees for climbing, flowers for picking, bushes and pine trees for forts, houses, and secret hideouts. On this particular day they also found old gourds for turning into dishes for their "playhouse".  I love when they play outside and use their imaginations. 

Bracken's Electronics

It all started several months back when we let the kids take apart a broken CD player.  They had a hammer, saws, and little adult supervision...my bad. I picked up pieces of CD player for weeks! Then Bracken went to a YM activity with Brian where they learned about electronics and he got a battery and parts from an old DVD player that would spin when he connected them.  After that, Brian's remote control helicopter and our DVD player died.  Bracken claimed them for his "electronics workshop".  He spent days taking them apart, telling us that he discovered why it was broken, and having all sorts of fun. Now I'm picking up little pieces of the DVD player from all over the house.  But it's worth it!  He's having a blast, and making plans for all the robots and electronic devices he's going to invent. I love watching him discover.

Easter!

We drove to Kaysville to have Easter dinner with Shaylee, Glade and Breonna. Shay, Glade and Robyn put together an Easter egg hunt for the kids at the park.  It was awesome!  They had tons of fun eggs, toys, treats, and coins.  Kinsey even got her very own big egg with a stuffed animal duck inside.  It was a great way to finish up our General Conference/Easter weekend. 

Chef's and a Fancy Dinner

 These kiddos are so cute!  Bracken has been wanting to do a fancy dinner for a while where we all try really hard to use our manners.  Tonight he took matters into his own hands, asking me to make them Chef hats, then cutting, stirring, and sharing his constant bursts of creativity as we cooked together.  Bracken was the "Supreme Chef," Chandra was the "Taste Tester Chef" and I was the dish washer, onion cutter, and knife over-see-er.

Bracken made a menu, wrapped silverware in napkins, used glass plates, had beautiful background music playing, and helped everyone remember their manners.  Chandra took her job as taste tester seriously.  She also decided she needed to be the decorator Chef and drew and cut out stars and purple swirly's to decorate their "Supreme Chef's Cafe." Such creative cute kids! (And dinner was yummy too.  My favorite part was that they ate everything.  Even though the rice had "untouchable" onions in it, salad isn't their favorite, and we burned the roasted carrots a bit. I should have them help more often!)