Spring Garden

We spend a lot of time working in the yard together as a family. It is something we enjoy! but a lot of work. Come spring time we are glad to get simple rewards for all of our labor after a long winter. So the following pictures are things around the yard that make me smile.

Tulips and stocks blooming together that I planted last fall.

Ranaculus! I just love this flower.

Almond trees dressing up for their spring debut.

A four year old dressed in camo overalls vacuuming the lawn.

The next picture obviously isn't our yard. It is at the Clark County Wetlands (what? you ask. There is a wetlands in the middle of the Mojave Desert. I hadn't really heard of it either. But it is FREE to get into and free is always good). The kids and I spend the day there a little while ago hiking around and passing some stuff off for Barry Bretton's Bear. One thing we were working on was photography. I let him walk around with the camera taking picture of whatever he saw that was beautiful in different light through out the day. The following picture is one he took. Beautiful! It makes me smile too so I had to add it.

New Glasses

If you have a child that wears glasses you know how expensive they can be. There is nothing quite like a $300 breakable, but needed accessory in the hands of children. If your child's eyes are so bad their prescription changes drastically every six months, your pocket book hates glasses. That is why I am doing a shout out to Zenni Optical. You know when you find something really good you have to shout it from the roof tops. My friend, Melissa, told me about this online company two years ago and they are so good I have to tell others about them. What if I told you you could get a pair of polycarbonate, anti reflective glasses with 180 degree opening hinges shipped to your door in two weeks or less for $20. Are you calling me a liar? Well, it sounds to good to be true but it is totally FOR REAL. I have ordered Barry's glasses from them for two years now and thank my lucky stars every time I do. We haven't even had one pair of them break either so it isn't cheap quality. Here are his two new pairs we got today (he liked one and I liked one and for $20 each we can totally get both).

It is super simple too. You just upload a photo of yourself and TRY ON the glasses you like on your photo. The glasses look just the same when they arrive so there is no guess work involved. You just type all the prescription info in and it saves all your information. If your prescription changes, it is super easy to alter it on your account too. Also if you order $50 or more, shipping is free but standard shipping is always around $8 or less. Plus, each pair comes with a case and a cleaning cloth and they have tons of styles and sizes to choose from (more than 200 just for children). If you need glasses, you have to try this company. I promise you will be counting your lucky stars and blessing my name every time.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. So here is a quick recap since it is February. The new tradition I started this year is each sibling has one sibling to do a gift for. But the catch is they have to make the gift for them. Everyone was responsible for coming up with their own idea and carrying it out to the best of their own ability. It was a huge success. The kids took it and ran with it. Brahm needed help though.

Vallie had Brahm this year. She wanted to make him a puzzle. She colored a picture of a tractor. Then glued it to a board. Dad help her use the jigsaw to cut it into pieces and then she sewed a little bag for him to keep all the pieces in. She did a terrific job and Brahm loved it.

Brahm had Barry Bretton. He (with alot of my help) sewed him a colored pencil and paper holder so he can take art projects with him on the go.
In the summer Barry Bretton wanted to learn how to knit. He begged me every day to teach him how to KNIT (I know, not your average 8 year old boy wants to learn to knit). Well the problem is his mother has no idea how to knit. So with the help of the sweetest little old lady, Sister Adams, in our ward, I learned how to knit and in turn taught him how. He knitted Vallie the cutest little purse for Christmas.

Our homemade gifts were a huge hit and they taught the kids so much. Needless to say, they will stay a tradition at our house. As for Santa....

He brought a sword set for Brahm.

Fairies for Vallie

And a Kindle touch for Barry.

Sidenote-I convinced Barry Bretton with all the reading he does he needed to ask Santa for a kindle so he could read all the classics for free. He has been pouring through books on it . Much to my disapproval, he stays up until at least 10 pm every night reading it under his covers. I finally have to get after him to go to bed. I think there are worse habits but I swear this kid requires less sleep than it do. I know I should be ashamed but in his nine years he has read more books than I have in my 32 years. He is defiantly inspiring me to read good literature.

We were so blessed this Christmas and are so grateful to have our wonderful family and the gift of the Savior. Christ brings such joy and hope into our lives.

Monster Mash!

Brahm's birthday was a monster of a good time. Brahm is a funny boy. He is scared of monsters therefor, they intrigue him. So naturally he wanted to have a monster party. I wanted to show him that monster can be fun (and not so scary )!

At the last minute, I made each of my kids monster tees out of old tee shirts they had and scrap fabric. I wish I would have thought of it earlier ( I would have made them for all the little boys). My kids were soooo excited to wear them. Beside making monsters fun, my other goal was to do it for as inexpensive as possible. So all the things I got at the dollar store or things I had around the house (except the dry ice).
I have some wreaths on my front door that I change with the seasons. These are my "Monster Wreaths".

We also made monster footprints out of poster board that led from the sidewalk all the way to the front door. Monster Eyeballs for effect.

My little monsters!

I mean angels:)

I kept the food simple with little tags relating them to monster parts.

Now, I don't claim to be a cake artist but here is my attempt at a monster cake. I know pretty poor. Vallie's comment was, "Why is the monster wearing a mustache?" It is suppose to be a mouth, OKay.

The Monster Slime was a huge hit. There was not one left after the party.

Monster Blood, I mean homemade rootbeer.

We read the book GO AWAY, BIG GREEN MONSTER! the kids loved it. Made monster spray out of water and special monster elixir and went for a monster hunt outside spraying any monster that came in our path.

Coloring!

Monster Feet

Monster Mash!
Monster Family Portrait

Monster Bowling

Cake and

Candles

Monster bubbles!

(If you have never done this with your kids, you must! A good friend taught me this years ago. You take hot water, dish soap, and dry ice and it creates this amazing mixture of bubbles that smoke when they pop. I am telling you, hours of enjoyment!)

Monster Art

Phew. We are over with birthdays for almost a whole year.

Christmas Eve

Nothing quite says Christmas Eve like new pajamas at our house and I wish I could up load a video I took on Christmas Eve to show our kids personalities. But picture this: BR reading the Christmas story from the Bible, Vallie and Barry Bretton carefully listening to each word, Brahm......Where is Brahm? Oh yeah, JUMPING on the couch, spinning circles around himself, and talking just about a mile a minute. Needless to say, he was so excited for Christmas to come. Doesn't he just look too excited? It made all the kids SOOO excited. They all had a hard time falling asleep. So hard they slept in until 7:00 am to compensate. Aren't kids so funny but I have to say I still get to excited to sleep on Christmas too:)

Barry's Spy Party

Barry Bretton turned nine back in November. We had a great birthday party for him back then but I got busy with the holidays and did blog about it. So here it is. Barry Bretton is totally into anything spy. So naturally he wanted to have a spy party for this birthday. So here are all his guest (minus 2) in disguise mode before they had to go on their big rescue mission. They each had a mustache, glasses, and spy badge. Of course we had spy music playing the whole time. For the invitations, I thought a little outside the card. We used some voice disguising software and burnt all the information on a CD they could listen to. It had all the information about the drop zone for the mission (Operation Birthday) and that if they survived the mission what time they could be picked up. OF course the message would self destruct in 5 seconds and also they needed to RSVP on a secure line so the mission would not be jeopardized. They were put in a manila envelope, marked confidential, and hand delivered by Barry Bretton in his Halloween costume (spy suit). All the boys were so excited and were totally engrossed the whole time.
He wanted his cake to look like a bomb so this is the best I could do. We also had pancakes for food because Nate the Great always eats pancakes to help him solve his mysteries.

We set up a training facility before the boys got released around the neighborhood to solve the crime. I didn't get pictures taken of everything. I was busy running everything but here are the few I did. We had a gun range where the boys got some target practise with an air soft gun, laser beam challenge, a memory challenge, decoding practise, and an obstacle course. In the obstacle course they had to go under a bunch of trip wires without setting them off, run through tires, push-ups, toss a grenade in a bucket, and finally knock down a target with a little homemade pneumatic machine gun they each got to take home (they promised not to aim them at any siblings, friends, or neighborhood cats:).

Laser beam challenge

Decoding

We had a great time. The boys solved all the riddles. Each one led them to the next one until they solved the whole puzzle. I think the highlight was either launching off a real rocket over at the park near our house or defusing a bomb. We had a great time and all the boys survived the mission which was even better:)

(Two parties down just one to go. Stay tuned next week for Brahm's party details)

Vallie's Birthday

What I love best about children's birthday parties is that they imagine things so real. That being said, Vallie wanted a chef party this year (perfect, we can totally do chef at this house:). I don't know who was more excited. I think if I was a little girl I would choose a chef party. Anyhow, I thought we had made most of the plans until I told Vallie we needed to go to the fabric store to get some fabric for the aprons. This is how the conversation went:


Vallie-Chefs do not wear aprons (all annoyed that I would even suggest such a thing).
Me- Well I just thought it would be cute. Plus it will help you with your sewing so lets do it anyway.
Vallie- Well, they have to be all white then.
Me thinking- (White aprons are not cute. They need ruffles AND frills AND patterns on them. Can you just imagine 10 cute little girls with frilly aprons. So cute!)
Vallie- Can't we just make chef coats?

That is when I caught the vision she meant serious business.

So chef coats were made.

Dough was made. Pizzas were rolled, topped, and cooked.
Fruit was chopped and fruit platters were arranged. I have to add all the children were so intense. Pizza and Fruit Kabobs were devoured in the "Restaurant".

Milk shakes were drank.
And cakes were decorated.

Instead of presents, Vallie asked every friend to bring a recipe of their favorite food (she wants to start her own cookbook). Since her party, we have had lots of fun cooking up her friends favorite dishes in the kitchen. I have to say the party was a HUGE success. Happy sixth birthday Vallie.