The End of Hibernation

 About mid-March, we got a wonderful surprise: some sunny, warm-ish spring weather!  We took advantage of it and packed up our Sunday dinner and took it to a park in Springville to enjoy the sunshine.

 Boston was just getting over a 3-week long cold, that traveled to his eyes as well, making them swell shut with gunk every morning, and made them red and swollen.  It was pretty, let me tell you!

 He's got 5 built-in nannies in the family that watch his every move to ensure maximum safety.

 We packed along Brighton's basketball he got for Christmas in case there was somewhere to play.  We lucked out and there was!  Boston commandeered it though, as he loves balls.  That didn't stop me from playing a game with Savannah and Irelynd.  I creamed them.

 We sure enjoy the warm months!  It's nice to finally come out of  hibernation and watch the earth come alive again.  I forget how much I love being outdoors until spring arrives again, and the snow melts.

Green Day 2014

 I made this Leprechaun Lunch for the twins the day before St Patty's Day.

 We made our traps again this year, but still failed to capture a little guy (or gal!).  The kids are sure every year that this will be their lucky year.  In Kindergarten, the twins made a leprechaun and were asked what they would do with one if they caught one.  Keaton would make him show him where he hid his gold.  Waverly would keep hers in a cage in her room and play with it.  Who needs a pet?

 This is Brighton's goofy face lately.  His trap was the box with the paper over it.  The little people were too smart for this.

 Waverly used an empty 2-liter bottle for hers, putting shiny stuff in the bottom to lure a magical female inside.  But she must have been too fat to fit inside the bottle because she didn't get one either.

 This was our green lunch for the twins.  The big kids got a similar one too.

 Our St Patty's Day dinner included this fruit rainbow with dip "clouds".

 We had chicken and broccoli curry casserole, green garlic bread, green apple jello, and green beans.

 Boston was just getting over an eye cold, so he was still kind of puffy.

Spook Alley

 In March, the kids treated us to a Spook Alley.  They decorated the basement, including the Barbie house, and we walked through the dark, while they jumped out and scared us. 

 The "pumpkin" had a tea light behind it, making it glow in the dark.  We had 2 zombies, a ghost, and can you guess who Brighton was?  Hint: he's there, inside my mind.

Bookworm

  Another child after my own heart, Boston LOVES books.  This is his favorite place to read them: on the big, comfy chair in his room by the window.  He will show my to his room, pat the chair, and I'll know he wants me to read to him.  You'd think the kid would be speaking in full sentences by now, with how much he gets read to, but I'm sure he'll one day start spouting Dr Seuss poetry.  He doesn't like just any books, however.  You only have 1, maybe 2 pages to spark his interest before you get your fingers slammed in the book, and he's off to find another.  His favorites involve animals or trucks.  Then he'll point and grunt and ooh.  Today, him and Keaton enjoyed some brotherly bonding time together reading.

  He got all comfortable in the family room, using the bear as a pillow, and was reading books to himself, but I missed most of it.  He is a funny kid.

Love Day 2014

 We condensed our Cupid gift tradition to just one night, the night before Valentine's Day.  This was everyone's box they made for it.

 Everyone got big chocolate suckers in their boxes, as well as a strawberry shortcake roll.  Boston LOVED his sucker and sat on his little chair enjoying the taste of chocolate.

"Where have you been all my life, you delectable morsel of deliciousness?"

 I had to take a picture of his cute piggies.  I will so totally, immensely miss these baby feet when he grows up.

 I always have to refer to how I did the shelf the year before.  I never got a sign in the red frame, but I like this year's shelf!

Irelynd was so cute.  For Activity Days, just before Valentine's Day, they made all these cute heart signs for everyone's door.  She put them on ours, her brother's, Boston's, and her sisters' doors (which happens to be hers as well).

 

 We didn't get to make Valentine's boxes this year for the kids' classes; they insisted on doing them in class.  I guess too many parents have complained that it's become a contest.  I really missed doing them with my kids, but oh well.  This was Brighton's cute dinosaur milk jug box.

I was supposed to fly to Mesa AZ with my mom on Valentine's Day, and stay the weekend, so there are no pictures of our usual Valentine's Day dinner.  Unfortunately, the flight was cancelled due to a part replacement not working (I officially hate Allegiant Airlines!), so we ended up not going.  I stayed at my mom's til late anyways, so I didn't get any pictures of the meal Scott made, but I heard it was great!

Holiday Extraordinaire

 I would bet it's safe to say that most kids play with toys.  Well, my twins play with stuff.  Usually stuff that gets them into trouble.  Their favorite thing to play is holiday games.  When a new box of holiday decorations comes out of storage to be put up, you can bet it will find its way off the shelves, tree, wall, etc, and into the basement, or family room, or wherever the game takes place.  This "game"/mess above was staged in our office, and obviously was a Fourth of July party.

See, even the Christmas tree was involved.  That red metallic stuff makes great tinsel.  I wish I knew the story line behind this one.  They are great at weaving stories to incorporate more than one holiday, and usually throwing in Frozen, too.  Although messes like this one totally exasperate me now, I know one day I will miss this...or so I'm told:)

The contents of a Little Boy's Pockets

After we went sledding the last time with our campfire, I sent everyone's coats and gear through the wash.  When I emptied out Brighton's coat pockets, this is what I found.  I chuckled to myself as I pulled everything out for it was SO Brighton.  Most of this stuff is things he picks up while walking home from school every day.  I get so exasperated with him sometimes, but I love how all-boy he is.  Every day is an adventure, and everything is waiting to be discovered and figured out.  Brighton, I hope you always keep your sense of curiosity and discovery!

Basketball star

 Brighton expressed an interest in learning basketball (actually, he already knows everything there is to know about it, or so he says, but he humored us anyways), so we signed him up for Little Hoopsters this winter.  He sure has the height for it, but the coordination, well, looks like he inherited his mother's lack of it.  Hopefully we can teach him some because it would be a cryin shame to let his height go to waste!  The kid is built to shoot! 

 He had fun and learned a few things anyway. 

Frosty and Mrs. Frosty

 One snowy day the twins went out and built these cute little snow-twins.  We were able to use our Frosty kits for the first time since we got them, who-knows-how-many-years-ago.  I thought they were so cute, just twin-sized.  If you look closely, you can see the lightly-falling snow in the picture.  I was reminded that when Savannah was growing up, at this age, we didn't let a snowstorm go by without building a snowman.  Contrast that to I can't remember the last snowman that I went out with the kids and initiated.  When did I stop doing that with my little kids???  I suppose it's normal progression, but I felt really sad that I don't take the time to do simple things like that anymore.  {Not sad enough that I stayed outdoors with them, mind you.  Brrrr, it was a cold day!}  I need to remember to live without regrets and enjoy these moments before they are grown and gone, for it happens so quickly!

Wacky Wednesday

 One Friday after picking up the twins from Kindergarten, they told me they had had a "Yes Day" where they could ask their teacher for {almost} anything, and she said yes.  They asked if we could also do a Yes Day at home, which I warily said yes to.  Thankfully, all they asked for was if we could do Wacky Wednesday, where I hide their lunch under bowls.  We had done this several times in the past, but it fell to the wayside, along with Muffin Tin Monday and Fun Lunch Friday.  But they apparently love this, so I agreed to do it.  I loved how excited they got when I agreed, and they eagerly anticipated what was under each bowl.  You'd think they were in a fine restaurant and I was offering fine delicacies on silver platters, not pb&j's cut into stars and flowers alongside yogurt with sprinkles.  I am going to miss these two at this stage when they are so giggly and excited about life.  I wanted to capture the fun things they enjoyed at age 5.  Twins, I sure do love you and think you are so fun {when I'm not crazy with your antics}. :)

Enjoying their mandarin oranges in a muffin cup {another favorite}.

If it floats your boat...

 In our house, we don't usually allow tv on Sundays, so the kids have to get creative sometimes to avoid boredom.  That's actually what we prefer, since I hate how entertained this generation thinks they need to be, but that's a whole other soapbox post:)  One Sunday, Brighton (usually the mastermind) decided to build some boats from some empty cardboard boxes and float them in our bathtub.  He added the tinfoil as a barrier to see if they wouldn't sink so fast, and experimented with different shapes and designs to see which held up better.  I was really impressed with his creativity and critical thinking.  I think this boy has finally found an outlet for his creative mind. 

It floats!  Great design and thinking, Brighton!  That was a good use for the last roll of tinfoil.

A' campin we will go

 Like I said earlier, the boys (including Scott) have been a little tent happy lately.  Scott made a semi-permanent tent over both the boys' bunks, which they thought was so fun.  Brighton kept his for several weeks, but Keaton got scared the first night, and we took his mostly down.  The next morning when I got up, they had taken the camping theme to heart and made their room look like the outdoors, with the fake tree from the living room, and a hand-drawn "fire" over the night-light, and a camping scene.  Plus some luggage with a few "necessities".

 (I think it's time to repaint the walls!)

How to have your cake and eat it too

 For FHE in January, Keaton was assigned to do the treat.  The first Monday, he requested we make a cake.  So I did, and let him loose to decorate it.  I frosted it, but gave him a hodge-podge of items from the pantry and let him decide where to put them.  This was how he did.  Beautiful!  He was very proud of his creation.