Museum Field Trip

Andrew had a class field trip to the Museum of Nature & Science today & we had such a great time! He's been talking about seeing the dinosaurs for WEEKS & wanted to walk around with his teacher, Ms. Krista to see everything. He didn't get to the whole time, but he still loved everything! Here he is with some of his friends waiting while all of us gathered to go in. It's so fun to see him interact with all of his friends & greet each of the kids as he saw them. He's really become so much more social & really loves his friends at preschool.

Andrew has never been to a museum before, so it was fascinating to see how he reacted to different things. He had to look at everything & have me read him each placard in the first room & explain things to him. It was fun, but I was grateful I didn't have to do it for EVERY area we went to.

The lady here was super nice & let Andrew touch everything. It kinda hit me how a year or so ago he wouldn't have liked it because of how sensitive he was to touch but he's come a long way & even told me how different things felt.

And yes, I did park Eliza right next to a dead bird. I thought it would be more interesting than a blank wall since she couldn't see high enough through the window to see the scientists working on cleaning fossils. She was content as well as her play buddy.

Andrew LOVED the dinosaurs! He couldn't get enough of them.

This tall one was his favorite.

And he knew this was a T-Rex head before I told him & he got to hold a T-Rex tooth, too.

He had a lot of fun walking around with his buddy, Brady, as well.

Once we finished looking at the dinosaurs we went to look at the Mummies. I was a bit nervous that it would freak him out, but it didn't. Afterwards, we went to the Discovery Zone & played a lot! He & Eliza could not get enough of everything. It was as if they had never seen toys or puzzles before, but I'm so glad they had a blast. We spent a good hour or more in here just exploring.

The fan was a big hit. Eliza would laugh every time the scarves landed on her.

And Andrew learned a lot about elevators, pulley systems, & magnets.

And also enjoyed building many different things.

He loved this owl puzzle & did it at least 15 times. He even let me do it once.

And before we left he had to put the body parts all in their right place & learn about all of the different parts & what they did. He did a great job putting it together.

Eliza really liked the brain.

As we got outside Andrew reminded me again of his awesomely vivid imagination. Before we went he thought that we would see real dinosaurs, like in a zoo. Once we were safely out of the museum he said, "Mom, I'm so glad we didn't see any real live dinosaurs that wanted to eat us. But I was ready to run if we did." He is awesome & such a delight. Even on the way over I was cracking up. We were almost to our exit off of I-70 & Eliza had fallen asleep & we were both kinda quiet for a minute & Andrew said with a slight giggle of discomfort, "Mom, sorry it's so quiet & I'm not really talking. I'm just thinking." It was awesome. I so love this boy & am glad I could go with him today.

Star Wars Party

As we all know, my kids like to throw parties. Like a lot. Joseph decided that he really needed to throw a Star Wars party & gave us all invitations.

Since we had a few days to prepare & since it was a serious party & all, I decided to pull out the big guns so that we would all surprise him. It just so happened that I saw a pin on pinterest that day about Star Wars parties & treats & showed Rick. We decided we could pull a few of the ideas off for the party.

And secondly, I have this awesome friend, Karen, who happens to have TONS of great Star Wars costumes, so I asked her if I could borrow some. Gratefully, she said yes. And yes she did. She decked the whole family out!

Our cute little Chewbacca.

Yoda, Leia, & Chewie chewing on a cucumber.

And here is Joseph (because he was the only one who came up with his own costume as our costumes were a surprise for him). He's some patrol guy that is fighting Darth Maul on the back of the wii game. He actually did a really great job of replicating him.

Here's the bunch. I was Leia as well. Joseph was over the top surprised & excited to see us all in costume! His grin was so awesome!

Then we told Joseph that we had yet another costume upstairs that he could wear if he wanted. Of course he did.

And then we showed him the kitchen. He thought all of the treats were "AWESOME" and so amazing. He starting laughing at the Yoda Soda the most. I'm so glad he loved the surprise. The kids like to pull of these little surprise parties for us, it was great that we could do one for him. We should do it more often.

Then we headed down to the basement for some games that Joseph prepared for his party. First, Joseph gave out prizes to the "best dressed" for the party. Eliza won!

Eliza rarely lets us carry her up the stairs anymore. It cracks me up!

Joseph had a fun scavenger hunt game for us & we had to find power ups along the way.

On this bucket portal thing Joseph had every name of every robot in Star Wars taped onto it. And we had to use R2D2 to open the garage for us so we could get the next clue.

Here's Leia just being pretty.

And Yoda with his favorite toy from Christmas.

And what Star Wars party would be complete with out a light saber duel?

And we also got to search for the hidden Ewok.

After all of the games we changed & had treats. And also did a little science experiment with some of the treats.

I think the Star Wars party was a success. Maybe one of these years they can watch the movies.

Choose The Right!

Andrew got a CTR ring today & he is beyond excited! He talked about it the whole way home & basically every other comment he makes since. He is constantly saying, "I just love my CTR ring!" He says it will help him to remember to choose the right and not the bad because that won't make him very happy but choosing the right does. He's right! I love this giddy little boy & am glad that he wants to choose the right!

A Super Saturday

We had such a blast today! We have really awesome kids. It's funny how many times Rick & I caught ourselves saying that these last few weeks. We love them so much & are so grateful to be their parents & are so glad we got to spend a super fun day with them today.

It started off early with Rick heading out to play football & Lexie saying she really needed some mommy time. So, we started making some snowflakes & of course everyone joined in. We had a blast making them together.

Then we went ice skating with one of Lexie's best friends, Cassidy. It was a blast! It was a first for our kids & Rick & I haven't been ice skating since the cruise when Andrew was a baby. I was impressed with how kid friendly they made it. Andrew loved using a bucket to push himself around & would even go around & around in circles like he was on the spin cycle of the washer. Then he started going really fast & then just gliding across the ice. The best with him was probably watching him crawl on & off of the ice. It was hilarious! He did get brave later & skated standing up all on his own. It was pretty fun to see how he progressed. I liked how the workers there would periodically come & get him & skate with him just to get him on his feet. So nice. And they didn't get mad at him when he decided to stack 4 of the buckets for him to use by himself. It was a lot of fun & he loves ice skating!

Lexie was really quick about getting around the rink & used a cone for a bit but decided holding onto the wall was easier. She did brave it a bit by staying off of the wall but preferred holding dad's hand & the wall most. After we ate lunch she started begging to go back for more! She is sold! She says it was, "super super fun!"

Joseph was the quickest at really trying to figure skating out. It didn't take him many times holding on around the rink before he started letting go & taking off. He really took to ice skating & wants to go back every day until it closes.

Poor Rick didn't get to do too much skating on his own. I had Eliza in the wrap the whole time so I didn't skate so he would go from one child to the next over & over. He decided next time he either needs more adults or a better back. He did a great job helping everyone & had a really fun time doing it, despite his bad back.

And here are the kids, Taren, Cassidy, Andrew, Lexie, & Joseph. It was so awesome watch the kids learn/attempt something completely foreign to them.

We went out to lunch with Cassidy's family & then headed home for the afternoon. The kids went down to the basement & started working on making a Fair for us. They started talking about it a few days ago & decided it was time to put all that talking into action. It was awesome.

They gave us wristbands once we entered.

They had a play place for Eliza so she wouldn't be bored.

Here is the "Animal Toss"

and "Dinosaur Bowling."

We played Whammy & "dress the doll" with some of Lexie's dolls.

They had stations where they set out pieces for Rick & I & timed us while we made a rocket ship or a castle with the provided materials.

Here are our finished products:

I used to think that I was a pretty creative kid growing up. We played a lot of pretend & make believe & were pioneers a lot & such, but Rick & I decided our kids totally have us beat on the creativity level.

Can't wait to see what they come up with next. We sure love these kiddos & especially love spending time with them!

Resolutions

We didn't do too well on our goals this year. We were going to read the New Testament as a family & were going to follow the Sunday School manual for it. We did well through the gospels, but ended there. We went back to reading in the Book of Mormon but then went more on memorizing scriptures as a family. That all started one week when I forgot to work on a scripture with Joseph for Primary. I quickly told him Jacob 6:12 & he memorized it in less than a minute & recited it perfectly. I figured that was an easy one for all of the kids to learn & it kinda went from there. It was a lot of fun & the kids love reciting them. Andrew has an order that he says all of them in each time. The scriptures we've learned this year (in no particular order) are:

Moses 1:39, Mosiah 2:41, 2 Nephi 2:25, 1 Nephi 2:15, D&C 6:36, John 14:15, John 11:35, Amos 3:7, Jacob 6:12, Alma 37:37 & Articles of Faith 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, &13. You may notice that many of them are pretty short. This is done for a reason, so Andrew could really learn some. But, he also knows the long ones really well. We also made sure the kids have at least on scripture memorized from each of the standard works.

So, onto our goals for this year. At tithing settlement our Bishop handed us our Ward goals so we went over those as a family & will work on those:

-Become more Christ-like, that is, be pure in heart with no disposition to do evil.

-Hold Family Home Evening weekly; no excuses.

-Read the Book of Mormon daily; cover to cover annually.

-Be self-reliant in finances, health, and storage.

-Be worthy to worship in the temple; go as often as personal circumstances allow.

And added to these are our family goals:

-Memorize all of the Articles of Faith

-Memorize a scripture from each book in the Book of Mormon.

-Learn how to do more chores.

-Consistently have morning Family Prayers together (with Dad before he heads into work not just with Mom).

The kids also have the assignment to think about their own goals they'd like to work on this year & report on them next Family Home Evening. I'm excited to see what they've come up with.