Fun with circles!

One day last week we learned about circles. I'm best with food, so we had a circle lunch.

I've found that Brighton will eat almost anything, if I give him a toothpick to pick it up with, and something to dip it in.

Then we stamped circles with a potato.

And, he got a little carried away with it. Notice the tongue hanging out? Yeah, he got that from his dad. If something takes a little more "oomph!" to accomplish, the tongue comes out, always from the side of the mouth.

And, our piece de resistance, a circle page!

Today's star student

Irelynd was proud to show off her poster we put together for her star moment in her 2nd grade class.

Hi my name is Buzz, Buzz Lightyear.

Ok, Brighton had a really busy day this day. He started out giving Keaton a "minor" trim, and ended with spilling red paint on my craft room carpet (I was smart, finally, and bought washable, but that apparently doesn't apply to carpet because it's still pink!) Maybe calling Brighton Buzz wasn't such a good idea after all, because he's taken it to heart. He got a hold of his dad's clippers one morning in the bathroom while my back was turned blow-drying my hair. I turned around in time to hear him say, "I'm giving Keaton a haircut." Goodbye baby blond curls, hello 60-year-old man combover! See that bald patch right in the front? Yeah, that took almost 2 years to grow! At least it wasn't Waverly he buzzed!

Love Day 2010

Year's ago, before kids, Scott and I went out to dinner on Valentine's Day at a popular restaurant. 3.5 hours later, as we were just sitting down to eat, we swore we would never be so stupid again to venture out on this crazy night. We usually celebrate it with the kids at home. This year, Savannah's activity days leaders provided babysitting for a few families in the ward, ours included. So we had a nice adult dinner instead. I always thought it would be fun to have a nice fancy dinner with adults for Valentine's Day, but never tried. I was glad to have people over this year! Here is my table set up for company.
A few of the details...

We were lucky that we found some people who wanted to spend their Sweetheart Day with us! We had Alice Springs chicken, salad, breadsticks, honey-glazed carrots, and a very sinful, but to die for chocolate soup, I got from Bro. Shearer. Ok, I thought it was divine, if others thought the raspberry coulis on top was a bit tart:) Thanks for a fun evening, guys! And to those of you who missed, we'll get you yet next month!

We had our traditional Valentine's Day dinner with the kids on Sunday. Scott took charge this year and put it all together himself, complete with treat bags for everyone. Didn't he do a great job?!

Savannah looks like it's going to bite her.

I even got these beautiful flowers too. Anybody else hate red roses? For me, anyway, they are too cliche.

He made heart-shaped chicken and mushroom quesadillas. They were delish!

And for dessert, a heart-shaped brownie and ice cream cake! Thank you, Honey, for spoiling me today. I love you!

Emily's diaper cake

We had a very small family shower for Kyle and Emily a week ago. She's having their first baby, a girl, so I HAD to make her this cute diaper cake. As you can see, her name is going to be Navy.

For instructions on how to make one of these, go here.

I also was trying to channel Amy Atlas, with her beautiful candy bars, but fell very short. Still, I am compelled to take a picture of my food, and food creations. I made these yummy pink lemonade cupcakes with merengue frosting (realizing too late that I didn't have any pink cupcake liners, so I had to use my leftover Twilight pack liners, which totally threw off my color scheme of pink and brown.). I also made dipped Oreo suckers, and dipped pink marshmallow suckers. I had envisioned pink and brown for those, too, but, due to my bad planning, didn't check my inventory, of which Brighton had gotten to and devoured my chocolate. So, again, not my vision, but a good practice.
I was really just wanting to try out my cupcake recipe I found for next month's UVMOM cupcake party. It's gonna be fun, girls!

Just leave the dang bandaid on!

No big story here, but I thought the pics were cute, and I have not a lot to blog about. We have been trying to get Waverly to leave a bandaid on her head since she injured it before Thanksgiving. She repicks the scab every morning, making it bleed. I just know she's going to have a huge dent in her head from what should have been a minor cut from falling against the stone hearth in the great room. At least when she's yelling at me as a teenager because of it, I can say I did my part in trying to clear it up. Hence, the injured soldier look below.

As a postsript, this set-up only lasted 5 minutes, if that. Her determination was greater than the stickiness of the coloflex. And we're back to square one...

Christmas postscript: Letter to S.N.

I found this note under a pile in our craft room and had to document it before putting it away. The girls decided to write Santa a note this year to ask him a question they have been dying to know, plus give him necessary instructions on where to deposit their gifts, in case he didn't already know.

In case you can't decipher it, it says "Dear S.N., why do you not like to be seen? look on back. Don't do cursive PLEASE; we can't read cursive." The back side reads: "P.S. Go to Savannah and Irelynd's room & put presants under their tree. (Do not put all of our presants there.)

I'm embarrassed they didn't bother to say please, but apparently Santa followed their instructions and they found a small gift each under the little tree in their room the next morning. By the way, in case you were wondering, Santa's favorite cookie and drink is Oreos and eggnog:)

More "bang" for our buck

No story here; just a small event! Savannah got bangs!

"Look Mom, I'm Hagrid!"

Beats me what an old cowboy hat has to do with the Hogwart's game keeper, but Brighton was excited to show me his costume. I guess, like father, like son. (Refer to Savannah's Harry Potter party for an explanation). I love 3's!

2009 Highlights

Every year, (since last year anyway), we poll our kids to find out what they think the highlights of the year for our family was. Here was last year's list, in the order it was suggested (NOT by me, as evident by #1).

1. September--Molly the Schnauzer joined our family.

2. The twins learned to walk (sometimes that is a highlight, other times I wish they had never learned to move).

3. June—we survived our first year of twindom!

4. April—Scott had foot surgery to correct a minor birth defect. Not exactly a yearly highlight for either of us, but it was an event.

5. July—We spent a week in Denver on vacation. Probably not a highlight for Uncle Craig, who endured Brighton for 7 long days, but we appreciated his and Cindy’s generosity in allowing us to stay with them.

6. November—Irelynd followed in big sister Savannah’s footsteps and skipped the rest of first grade. Now I am losing two daughters a whole year early!

7. October—Savannah was able to participate in a two-day workshop with the Young Americans at school. She learned to sing, dance, and groove.

8. October—Brighton got potty-trained!!!!! That should have been #1. Only 2 more to go!

9. August—My mom graciously played Nanny to my children for 5 days while I attended Education week with my sister Patti. It was wonderful! Maybe I need to look crazy more often!

10. June—Irelynd got to attend her first (and last) year of Camp Hobe with Savannah. First, because she was finally 6, and last, because, alas, Savannah has worn out her 3-year invitation. Bummer! They both had a great time and didn’t miss us at all.

Snowman party

We started a tradition last year of having a snowman party in late January. After the rush of holidays the preceding 3 months, January feels like a screeching halt. The girls invited a few school friends and we ate and played snow-related games.

I always have fun with this theme--I love icy blue and white together. And I finally got to use my after-Christmas sale silver chargers! Yeah!

I made these chocolate-dipped pretzels following directions from Family Fun. I love that magazine!

Making snow bracelets from OTC.

Another Family Fun creation: it's a cheese ball. So cute, isn't it? That's mozzarella cheese, by the way, not coconut.

Snowman donuts.

The girls made mini pizzas on hamburger buns. The idea was to make a pizza snowman face, but no one got it.

We played snow charades, where the girls had to pop a white balloon and act out the snow-related activity. I was surprised on how fast they got some of them. The next game was to wrap the snowman--with TP and crepe paper, add on a nose, scarf, and hat. This was our winning team.It's supposed to be a carrot, but looks more like quack quack!

We ended with melting snowball, where the girl left holding the package when the music stops gets to unwrap one layer and the group has to follow the directions on the next layer, like pass backwards.

Irelynd and her two guests.

As a side story, if you notice above Brighton's left eye, there is a small cut. The night before, at bedtime, he was reluctant to go upstairs and ran from me. So, to make it a game, I chased him down and threw him over my shoulders, like a sack of potatoes. Only, I was a little too close to the mantle and slammed his face on the corner of it. Hence the super glue on his eye and the $250 dr visit. Lesson learned: when playing sack of potatoes, make sure the mantle and all other obstructions are a safe distance away. Brighton no longer likes that game.

Savannah and her guests. I had my eyes opened during this party to what's coming. Notice the girls' padded...uh, chests? They took the cotton balls from the cotton ball shoveling game and stuffed them, along with any layers of wrapping paper they could wrestle from each other, to make themselves more...uh, buxom. I have to admit, I'm a little scared.

Everybody's gotta have a goal!

For our first FHE lesson of the year, Scott taught a lesson on setting and achieving goals. Everybody wrote down their goals for the year and when they hoped to acheive them. This was Irelynd's only goal. In case you can't read her handwriting, it says, "become a fairy."
Does that mean we've taught her well how to set lofty goals, or blurred her sense of reality? I choose to believe the former:)

ssshhh!

"The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping baby".

"Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot"

One day, in trying to be like big sister Savannah, Brighton found his own set of earphones, with a built-in antennae to boot!

Hats off to you!

So, Waverly has a hat fetish. "Hat" was even one of her first words. I don't know why, or how long it's going to continue, but it's interesting to see what she finds to put on her head. Sometimes, like below, it's a legitimate hat. Othertimes, not so much.

And my personal favorite...

Good thing she found it after it had been cleaned and put away!