Family History for Kids

This week we filled out pedigree charts with the kids. I tried to find some that had large print for the kids to be able to write on instead of trying to write really tiny to fit it on. I was thwarted in my attempts, and Google failed me.

So I had to come up with my own way.

I printed their individual pedigree charts out from the computer and cut them apart to glue on note cards. Then we helped them glue them to their own posterboard.

It was fun to share stories with them about their ancestors while we put them together. I even sang them the crossing the street song my Grandma McDowell used to sing...

Look this way and that way
Before you cross the street.
If you run out before you look
You'll be swept off your feet.

It was a lot of fun, and they paid attention quite well, which doesn't always happen during family home evening...

Spontaneity...

It's not something we see to often around here. I work a lot and Doug's in school so we don't have a lot of free time. I can't just drop everything and take a camping trip or go to the zoo. We have to plan those things out.

However, this week I found myself with a little more free time so we did a few spur of the moment things. It wasn't anything major, but the kids loved it.

We took a trip to a new park and had a picnic dinner Monday night. I decided about 5:00 or so that afternoon when I realized I was all caught up on my work and wouldn't get more until the next day. 

A spontaneous trip to the park doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a fabulous dinner, but the kids enjoyed the turkey sandwiches (peanut butter for Adam of course), Pringles, and dried fruit strips. We also threw in some homemade cookies I had in the freezer.

Today I had a few minutes too and decided I could make a special dessert to commemorate the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. I'm certainly not the kind of mom that has a jillion ideas already saved on pinterest, but a quick google search found some sugar cookies that looked sort of like this. I didn't have time for sugar cookies so we went with cupcakes, cool whip, and M&Ms. Alex could hardly wait to eat them.

They actually turned out quite tasty...

Alex's Birthday

A mere 4 1/2 months late I'm going to blog about Alex's birthday.

Alex had been planning for weeks to have a Star Wars cake. Unfortunately, we couldn't find much stuff at Party City. I suggested Spiderman, but he just couldn't give up on the Darth Vader candle. So, we ended up with Spiderman versus Darth Vader. The men in the store who overheard us planning this cake all thought it was so cool...

This is about the extent of the decorations he got, but he loved them.

We made Darth Vader masks. They looked cool in the package, but they were kind of a pain and the elastic string that should hold it onto your head was way too big. It didn't fit any of the kids at the party. To be honest, it was too big for me, and I have a large head... Oh well, it filled up party time, right?

We also let them play Pin the Bomb on the Starship game. (That's not exactly the title, but I don't remember what it was called. It was in March remember.)

Present opening time is always fun. He got some great stuff. 

Apparently we didn't get a picture of the coolest present he got. It was a Star Wars t-shirt with some Legos Storm Troopers relaxing and said "Chillin' Like a Villain." To say Alex LOVES it would be an understatement. I think he wore it every day after school and to bed for a week before I made him let me wash it. He's wearing it right now too.

3-D glasses for the pin the bomb game. Not that you could wear them during the game because you had to be blindfolded, but it is 3-D if you look at it.

Alex had a great birthday. I think he's on a countdown for his 8th birthday, however. He can't wait to get baptized and go to cub scouts. Here's hoping I'll blog about that birthday on time...

Adam's Birthday

Apparently I'm doing things backwards today. Alex's birthday actually came first, but I figured out what pictures I want to use for Adam's first so here you go...

Adam turned 4 this year. It's still hard to believe sometimes that my BABY is 4. On the other hand it's fun to see him grow up. I really love watching him learn new things. He's been a counting fiend lately and can almost make it to 20, though sometimes 14 gets left out... He starts preschool in the fall. He's excited now, but he's still shy so here's hoping he'll like it.

Adam had been telling me for MONTHS that he wanted monkey cupcakes for his birthday just like last year. I had all the ingredients to decorate them. Unfortunately, about a week before his birthday he decided he did not want monkey cupcakes so after searching through some cake ideas he decided on a panda cake. As you can see, my work would NEVER be featured in a Betty Crocker cookbook and no bakery in their right mind would hire me. Alas, my 4-year-old LOVED it so life was good. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who notices that the panda has an abnormally large head. Not sure how that happened since I made two 9 inch round cakes. Oh well. Maybe real pandas do have very large heads??

He does have cute eyes though.

Cute pic of Adam with his itchy allergy eyes. He always starts pulling on his eyelids when they itch. Spring was not kind to him...

And this is the AFTER pic. Unfortunately, the cake was kind of gross. It sounded so good from the Betty Crocker cake book. It had Hershey syrup in the batter and everything. Never experiment with a new recipe for your kid's birthday...

We really just had a family party and watched The Gruffalo that Adam selected from Redbox. It was very cute. I think we ate chicken nuggets or hotdogs. I can't remember now 2 months later. (Yet another reason to blog as life happens, right?? Don't hold your breath.) He also got some Star Wars action figures and a Star Wars Legos set. He still plays with them, which is a good sign...

Sledding

Many years there's not much snow around here at Christmas even though it is Colorado... This year we had enough to go sledding a few days after Christmas. It was so fun.

This is poor cold Mary sitting in the van. She had fun for a while though.

Finally...

Since summer is pretty much here maybe it's high time I did a blog post about Christmas... Maybe during the long hot summer that I'm sure is coming I can look back at this and remember that it hasn't always been hot...

I don't remember if Mary or Alex gave Adam this wonderful Dollar Tree present, but the face is just PRICELESS. Alas, the gun was not. It's already broken.

Gotta love the random way Blogger uploads pictures as this should come at the end. Oh well. That's us having a blast with Just Dance on the Wii. Aren't we cute??

Alex's priceless Dollar Tree gun...

When you're a mom and you make a GROSS miscalculation when present shopping this is the face you get. I thought all the kids might have fun with super hero capes. They love watching Sky High after all. BOY was I super wrong... Needless to say, Alex now has 2 capes and Mary has 0.

At least Adam loved his.

This is the face you have 10-15 minutes after the horror present was opened... Christmas Eve was not her favorite night. (At least she didn't break her collarbone like last year though.)

 Luckily Santa was smarter than I was...

Aunt Dani came to visit. I'm pretty sure this talking Transformer helmet was her FAVORITE toy... It sounds just like Optimus Prime.

The kids had a great time buying gifts for Dani. Doesn't she look awesome with her reindeer headband?

This one's just cute.