I heart you!

I sure have some very special valentines.  Here is my little cupcake with her Valentine's Day outfit on.  I bought this skirt pretty much the instant I found out I was having a girl.  I could not resist. Owen said on Sunday that he liked her skirt because it looks like tissue paper.  It really does.

Harper has been so sick.  Here she is, partied out.

My two favorite Katherines!

The valentine mice we got the kids were a huge success.  The boys have been building houses and playing mice ever since.  Bennett was definitely the most excited about his, which I just love.

I do like to decorate my house for holidays.  I love these dangly hearts from the dollar store.

Roses from Jason...  He is really great about remembering stuff like this.

Family night on Valentine's Day ended up being really cool.  We hadn't had any sort of romantic day, with sick kids, the regular run-around and whatnot.  But for FHE our lesson was about family unity.  We built a paper chain with each link representing a member of our family.

We started out with Jason and he told his memories of when he first met me.  The kids were so cute.  Bennett looked embarrassed and enthralled all at once.  Jason described the outfit I was wearing the first time he ever saw me, and told them he thought I was beautiful, and that he wanted to kiss me.  This got them all giggling hysterically.

Then I added my link to his and told about what kinds of things we did while we were dating, and how we eventually got married, and how our family was that much stronger.  We were strong while we were on our own, but now we were even stronger together with common goals and love for each other.

Then each child got to come up and we told about when they were born, and how happy we were, and what joy they bring to our family now with their unique, individual gifts.  We have our paper chain on display in the kitchen to remind us just how lucky we are to have each other!  What a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day.

I'm a lucky mama, and I love my family!

Beaver Mountain and Uncle Jonny!

Jon and his girlfriend, Rose, were our guests of honor last week as they came to help with Jake's birthday party.  More about that if you keep reading...

Rose had only been snowboarding once before their trip to Utah.  She did so great!  Jon was a very good teacher, apparently...  She is still smiling here; I am usually crying at this point if Jason's trying to teach me.  Not that he's not a great teacher, but I'm a very lame student.

All our kids were sick while Rose and Jon were here.  Yesterday we found out that Rose is now sick.  Soooooooo sorry!  In this picture, you can see how Harper was feeling:  NOT GOOD.  Man, the custom paint on that Suburban should have cheered her up, right?

Jake is like a machine on the magic carpet ride.  He doesn't care who is watching him, or anything else.  He just rides up and down, up and down.  Time for the big hill for this boy.

And Finn took his first ride down too.  Straight down the mountain to Daddy.  Going way too fast, I might add.  He loved it.  Check him out!  Oh, and yes, he was still wearing his splint from his last broken arm...  I was a little nervous.

I think Bennett and Owen have more fun playing around in the snow than they actually do snowboarding.  They are getting really good, though.  I wish I could keep up with them!  I love seeing them cruise down the hill to meet me- no fear at all.  It's awesome.

Here's our little camp, just as the sun dipped behind Little Beav.  Brrrrr!

On our way home, we had to stop and take pictures of this magnificent snowman that someone built.  It is so awesome, and it's a total mystery as to how they built it!  

Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall!  (Finn's fav song.)

Our day in Logan Canyon was totally therapeutic for me.  I absolutely love the drive to Beaver Mountain, passing the snowed over, icy river bottoms and the trails I have cross-country skied on.  Great memories and incredible beauty.  I love living here!

Now, some shenanigans with Uncle Jonny when we got home from church on Sunday:

Belly-button talkers.

Moments at home.

I feel like we are conducting a social experiment with Harper.  With four older brothers, will she end up an extreme princess or a tom-boy?  Here she is all dressed up, playing with a cross-bow.

Owen is famous for falling asleep everywhere and anywhere.  He is also famous for being an outstanding reader.  He is currently reading the 4th Harry Potter book.  Yes, he's in 1st grade.

Finn's hair was exceptionally sweet the other morning.  He is sleeping with the big boys now, and it has been great.  If he gets scared at night, Owen lets him come sleep with him in his bed.  Owen's such a sweetie.

Jake vs. Wild

Jake, our comedian and maker of funny faces turned 5 last week.  He and his brothers really love the show Man vs. Wild, featuring the amazing Bear Grylls.  They actually love American Pickers even more these days, but it's hard to have an American Pickers party with 5-year-olds.  So, we had a pretty sweet survival-themed party for him.  It didn't exactly go according to plan, but, hey.  You win some, you lose some.  Jake was soooo excited about everything.  Little did he know all the surprises we had in store for him.

 Here are his invitations.  I am hoping I won't end up in jail for using this image:

Even though I loved Jake's birthday party (mostly) and I'm glad we did it, I think the joy he found from his birthday breakfast that morning was enough to sustain him for another year.  I got him a pack of those little boxed sugar cereals... you know the ones.  He was so excited!

I made an awesome cake.  A snake made with red velvet cake for a gruesome effect.  When Finn saw the cake batter he got seriously freaked out.  "EWWWWWW!" he said, "Dat a buddy nose?"  (Is that a bloody nose?)  Ha ha ha!  Nasty, but very accurate description, there, Finn.

So you just cut the bundt cakes into smaller segments and link them all together to make a snake.  Voila. Magic!

I only wish I had better food coloring, but whatever.  Here he is:

SO.  The party!  We had a very, very special guest come all the way from Bellingham to surprise Jake for his big day!  Jason's brother, Jon, agreed to play the part of Bear Grylls at Jake's party.  We kept the secret from all the kids, and they were all totally amazed when he appeared.  We took all the kids from the party up to the canal after a short talk about survival.  Their goal was to build a shelter.

As they looked around for supplies, suddenly one of the kids spotted Jon and said, "I think there's a hobo under that bridge!"  Jon burst out and grabbed Jacob at that moment.  My boys, Ruby and Jade were screaming, "Uncle Jonny!  Uncle Jonny!"  Joy filled the air.  And then tragedy struck.  Jon slipped and took a nasty fall, dropping Jake on his head.  (onto a rock, mind you, dear reader.)  The tears flowed, and for a moment, the party was ruined.  Jon kept checking Jake's head for blood- he hit that hard.  I have it all on video; it's not pretty.

Anyway, soon Jake was consoled, and on we went with the construction of a very fine shelter for any other hobos who may live under that bridge.  Unfortunately, Jon was so rattled by the experience, he was unable to carry out his duties of British accent-speaking Bear Grylls.  But it was still fun.  Half the kids had no idea who the heck Bear Grylls is anyway, so whatever.

Yay!  No blood!

Here is the very incredible shelter:

Because the kids were so famished from their labors, we were able to find a tasty snack for them... WORMS!  These things were so realistically disgusting, but they were actually gummy worms from Oriental Trading.

I have to say that the worms really freaked some of the kids out, but not Finn.  He was game for anything.  A true disciple of Man vs. Wild.

The next challenge was to find food.  We had bags of food hidden around our back yard.  (Hot dogs and chips.)  The kids had to build a fire and cook their dinner.

Jake!  What an awesome little dude.  This guy has more life in his little pinky than most of us do in our entire bodies.

Look at this cheezer.  This face comes after the command, "Jake, just give me a real, normal smile for this picture."

Cutting into the red velvet wonder.  The kids went nuts.

There was one section of the party which I did not capture on film.  That is because it scared some of the small children at the party, and reduced them to tears.  SO.  No pictures of the snake pit/ spider cave.  Bummer.

Happy 5th birthday, Jake!

Owen's Science Birthday!

My big boy turned 7 on January 31.  He has always been the sweetest kid around, and I love him so much.  Happy birthday, Owen!  Here he is with his new birthday kicks!

Okay.  If you didn't know, I really like to throw fun birthday parties for my kids.  I don't mean expensive ones.  I mean fun ones.  And this one was definitely one of the best.  Since Owen is waaaaayyyyy into science, we decided to invite friends over to do a bunch of experiments. It was so cheap to do, and the kids absolutely LOVED it.  Here are the invitations:

As the kids arrived, they built geodesic shapes out of gumdrops and toothpicks.  They loved this.  Jake built these things all day long.

Then we went outside and watched a mentos-Diet Coke geyser shoot up into the sky.  Look at their faces... they LOVED it!

Then we divided into groups.  Dr. Lee was conducting experiments in the kitchen.  The kids inflated balloons using gases formed by combining baking soda and vinegar!  The kids were astounded and amazed!

Safey first, Bennett!

Then they made "Elephant Toothpaste" using hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, food coloring and yeast.  Awesome, awesome project.

We also made alka-seltzer rockets out of film canisters (free at photo labs), made gak using glue and borax, did color mixing and separating experiments, and looked prepared slides using Owen's microscope.  I'd be happy to share more details with you if you are interested.

And last...  the exploding volcano cake!!!  It was sure ugly, but noone seemed to care.  I stacked 2 bundt cakes on top of each other and stuck a long skinny bud vase down inside.  Then I frosted all around, attempting to disguise the bud vase.  It was too tall, but oh well.  Then I put chunks of dry ice down in the bottom of the vase.  I mixed some marshmallow creme with red and yellow food coloring and thinned it down with water.  (You are supposed to use corn syrup, but I didn't have any, so whatever.) I put the marshmallowy stuff down inside and then lit the sparkler candles.  After the kids sang to Owen, we dumped a little hot water down in the vase.  The "volcano" started to smoke, and then lava burst forth out of it!  Ooooohhhhh, it was so cool.  I highly recommend this idea- what a hit!

Here is Miss Harper playing in the after-party mess.

Gumdrop structures!

I am lucky to have a Mom who works in a doctor's office.  She supplied us with awesome medical supplies to use at the party, and also in the kids' take home science goody bags.  Their parents probably thought some of the stuff was kind of weird.  (Like vials for blood!)  But the kids were SO excited.  Beyond.

Stay tuned Jacob's birthday party report next week...  Jake vs. Wild!  I'm so excited!  I love celebrating with my kids on their birthdays.  I had always thought we would only have parties every other year until I had a friend with older kids change my mind.  She reminded me that there are only a few years where they really want a party with games and their little friends.  Then they get too old and cool for such things.  That made me so sad!

We have such a great time putting these parties together.  The kids help me search the internet for ideas, help me make and deliver the invites, and of course love the party itself.  This one was extra cool because the kids learned some awesome science facts too!  Yay, science!  Yay, Owen!  Love you, buddy!