Early St. Patrick's Day

Well, I have a few more posts that I keep forgetting to write up. This is the first year we did something for St. Patrick's Day, and it happened to be a day early. I am the 8yr old scout leader, and we did a St. Patrick's Day party on the 16th, and Zac's preschool party was on the 16th. Since I was already doing decorating and snacks for both parties I decided we'd just go with it.

In the morning, the boys found that Lucky the Leprechaun had made some mischief around the house....

He also left chocolate gold coins

There was some other odd things too! These canning jar rings are coming from the lazy susan, where a note was left and lead up to the fridge door!

The milk was green! (The Koolaid was already for the parties.)

There was a tower in the family room

The note from Lucky was backwards! We had to put it up to the mirror to read it!

Zac (tired) showing me his gold

Max's gold

After lunch I went help with the treat for Zac's preschool party. I made these rice krispie clovers with green sprinkles.

All packaged up

I also got some mints in gold wrappers

I also served green milk, and Lucky Charms.

Then after preschool it was on to the Scout Party. The boys had a major say in the planning. We had pizza and green koolaid, ate doughnuts on a string, had a watermelon eating contest, and a silly string war. We finished off with green slushies and more doughnuts of course!

Green Wreath

Sorry for all the pictures, but I LOVE this wreath! I don't even know why! Maybe it's because its fresh and green? or because I love having something on the door for the current holiday? or because I love the little bit of glitz? or because it was $12 to make? or because it came together so quick and easy? because I got just the right amount and kind of supplies to put it together? none wasted and no holes! and I actually made it? Or because I like it better than anything the stores had? or because its for St. Patrick's Day but is subtle?? I love the hiding gold coins and foil clover garland!

Anyway, my friend Emily and I decided we'd get together once a month or so and do a craft. I had been wanting to make a St. Patrick's Day door hanging for some time. I needed something to get me from Valentines to Easter! (I'm working on gathering things for an Easter one too!) I went to JoAnns and since it was only like a week before the holiday everything was on sale 50% off! And I had coupons for sale items too! It was great!

Little Boys and Their Fits

Max hasn't begun huge fits ......no that's not exactly true. He'll start crying for something seemly so ridiculous (yesterday, he did it when Zac splashed in puddles and got Max's pant leg all wet) but he can work himself up within a couple minutes to where he can't breathe and starts the beginning signs of passing out from lack of air: losing balance and pitching backward while I'm holding him. Luckily, he never has passed out. I have no idea what I'd do if he did.

 He is a very stubborn kid. (I read a book about strong-willed children last month and it has really helped and opened my eyes to understand/deal the strong-willed.) Max is much more stubborn than Zac.

This is his defiant, "I'm NOT eating dinner, just chips and sour cream" look.

When told he won't get anymore sour cream until he eats a bite of dinner, he has to get down from the table and throws himself on the floor. But this is pretty much the extent of his fits. He'll get sent to bed otherwise, so he controls himself.

But Zac, that's another story!! He really struggles to control himself. He is very sensitive to emotions. (Which also has its positives, because he can be really in tune when someone in the family needs help.)  I don't even know why he is throwing such a huge fit. Its also interesting that he can go from 5-60 in less than 2 seconds! You'd think he was 2 yrs old with this fit!

Sad, I know. But I just had to document it for the future. These fits are a lot less frequent as he is getting older. I think lots of it has to do with being hungry and tired. He doesn't sleep as much since the boys have shared a room. He can tell when he is falling asleep, whether its nap time or nighttime and he'll hum or sing to keep himself awake. In the morning he doesn't sleep in.

A Very Merry Unbirthday to You!

I was wasting time on email, googlereader and facebook, when I got an email from babycenter.com telling me it was Zac's half birthday. I remember Callie did a fun unbirthday a while back and I loved the idea, so I copied!

It started out as a half birthday, I bought balloons and I decide we'd make it an UNbirthday so we could all celebrate!

 photo : Harrison Ellenshaw

Zac was pretty disappointed that no presents were involved. Haha  Anyway since it was recently valentines day I had lots of sprinkles so I used them again. (This picture is making my mouth water...not good for my diet!)

The boys played a video game while I made the cupcakes. We only have one game so we occasionally rent one on the weekends. Its fun and also forces us to make boundaries so Zac (and us) don't waste too much time :)

Party Time!

We each had our own candle to blow out. We sang/listened to the Alice in Wonderland Unbirthday song instead of the regular one. And if you remember it is a little long...Zac was getting impatient.

Sooooo, Good!!

This is NOT something we are going to do every year or even regularly. But if I feel up to it and we have a slow day, why not? :)

President's Day 2011

This feels so long ago...

We didn't have much planned on our day off, so we decided to do a couple things we'd been talking about but never got "aroundtoit". 

We went out on the frozen lake, Deer Creek.

We were a little out of place since we weren't there to ice fish, but it was fun. It was a beautiful day! Seriously, it was soo warm out there on the ice. It would have been so nice to lay out!

The boys. (The trees are the shoreline.)

This is looking toward Provo

There's actually a picture of Me with the boys :)

This is how far we were from "land"

The ice under the snow. It seemed really thick.

I love these pic!

When else could you EVER stand on a buoy?!

Then we spent the afternoon in Provo. We used gifts cards we had to Old Navy (Zac and Max each got a hoodie) and Hobby Lobby to get some easy kids crafts for when we got home.

We went to see the animals at Petsmart. Then stopped at Noodles and Co for dinner-so good! 100x better than a similar place here in the Valley, not to mention better priced. The boys always eat good when we go there too, so that is a bonus! Then we got a redbox and headed home. 

We had short naps and watched How to Train Your Dragon (I was surprised how much I really liked it!) and the kids did their crafts.

It was a nice family day!

Its been 2 months?!

I knew I was behind, but I had no idea it was that far! I've been busy with other things, and when I have the time, blogging isn't what I feel like doing.

A basic catch up or thoughts as of late:

My sister is pregnant with her first baby, so that is really exciting! Finally, there will be a cousin on my side of the family!

The Spring in Heber Valley is far crueler than Spring in Utah Valley.

With the possibility of a tropical vacation mostly funded by Skdy, I decided to make March my work out month (Kind of like November was...). I started doing classes and I really like them.  They are MUCH better for my motivation! I've been going 2-4 times a week for the last 6 weeks. I didn't take any measurements so I don't know exactly what has changed. But I know its working. I've been doing a Group Power class 2-3 times a week, a couple cardio classes and an abs class. This last Monday we finally got confirmation where we are going and when we are going: Costa Rica in a few weeks. I'm sure glad I was working out! For these next few weeks, I'm cutting my calories a ton. I got this "Hungry Girl" recipe book and it is helping a lot. My goal is to lose 5 more pounds before we leave. Along with the announcement of this trip has come lots of stress to get ready in such a short time frame. Expediting our passports is just one. But it looks like we are making good headway finally.

The Spring in Heber Valley is more cruel than Spring in Utah Valley. (Yes, I just said this again...)

Stay tuned for lots of back posts. It may take a few days to sit down and write about the pictures, but I'm starting to upload them today.

Written: April 8 (To keep things in order with respect to date,  I'll be post dating the rest of the posts too.)

Truffle Shuffle

Perhaps watching Goonies for a few moments tonight while looking for "E" rated Xbox 360 games at the Blockbuster in Park City brought this title to mind, but Max owes me a truffle shuffle (only his little body is too skinny to make it look right)!

Again, I've been pretty bored, so I decided to volunteer to help with the Valentine's Party at Zac's preschool. I decided I wanted to make oreo truffles, and have the kids "pipe" frosting on them and put sprinkles on them. Jon was out of town so I made the truffles on a Friday then I dipped them on Sunday afternoon. I moved the truffles out of the kitchen so they would be safe while I made dinner. But, Max was in the other room taking bites out of my truffles!!

After he took a bite, he had the sense to turn it upside down so it wasn't noticeable! He is soo sneaky!

My plan was to have 4 truffles for each kid. There are 15 in the class. They could eat two and take two home for their parents or their Valentine.  I found little boxes at XpedX and they were the perfect size. I put pink and red tissue paper in the bottom to keep the truffles higher.

Max and Jon helped with stuffing the tissue paper and cutting the magenta tulle to tie around the closed box. They are such great helpers! (Zac has truly been pushing his limits and testing how far we'll let him go. He was sent to bed early that day for not napping (he really needed it) and for waking Max up after only 40 mins of nap. Zac can tell when he is starting to fall asleep and he'll start to hum or sing, or get down from his bed so he won't fall asleep. So unfortunately, he didn't get to help.)

My organized basket so I won't forget or lose anything :)

The activity was great! This party was much less chaotic than normally, and all the kids had a good time and loved the treat, except one cute little girl. Even with Max's ruined truffles I had enough extra boxes to give one to both teachers, both aids, and bring two home for Jon and Me!

I hope the St. Patty's Day party goes this smooth! Does anyone have fun ideas for a treat or game that is St. Patrick's Day themed?