Creeper Chocolate Bar Wrappers

For Trevor's Minecraft party, we made these wrappers to put on the Hershey bars (1.55 oz) in the party favor bags.

I couldn't find a template that fit, so I made one.

Conference Sunday

I guess someone else has given up on posting to the blog (really, she's pretty busy), so here's a little vignette of us. We took a walk around the neighborhood in between sessions of General Conference last Sunday. We stopped by a local grade school to snap this photo.

Biking

Since March Anthony has been working on his Biking Merit Badge with his scout troop.  They've had lots of check rides that have been gradually getting longer in preparation for the two day, 75 mile, tri-state ride.  Yesterday Emersynne and I dropped him off at the church parking lot with all his gear for the campout.  Once all the boys had loaded their gear in the support vehicle the boys and leaders rode out of the church parking lot and headed for their campsite in Sturbridge some 25 miles away.

Today the ride continued with the boys needing to complete 50 miles in one stretch in order to get their merit badge.  Anthony made it to mile 28 when his bike broke down and could not be repaired.  I felt so bad for him but he was a trooper and finished up the trip riding in the support vehicle.  He and Jeremiah will plan a trip so he can do his 50 miles and complete all the requirements for his merit badge.  Anthony was disappointed but still had a really good time.

Anthony all set for the first leg of the trip.

It was super hot yesterday but the boys were well prepared.

Graduation

Today was a big day for Anthony.  He is officially done with Elementary school and will be moving onto Junior High.  Anthony had a really good year with straight A's all year long.  He's a hard worker and is very excited for the adventures that wait for him at Burncoat Middle School.  Can't believe he will be in 7th grade but I couldn't be prouder!

He found us in the audience and could no longer keep a straight face!

Emersynne took this picture of us

Anthony and his good friend Liam

It's great to be eight!

Two days after his eighth birthday Trevor was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was a really big day and he was very excited.  He put quite a bit of time and effort into helping me plan the program, carefully selecting who he wanted to give talks, prayers, and music.  It was extra special to have Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Wally with our family and to participate in Trevor's baptism.  We forgot to get a picture of Trevor in his baptism clothes but got some good pictures of him and the family afterward.    We completed the day by having pizza movie dinner and root beer floats (Trevor's pick!)

 

Pirate Party

The birthday pirate!

I found some cute pirate food ideas online and after doing some prep work I left Michaela to create.  She did an awesome job!

Croissant crabs

Octopus Dip

The highlight of the party was the Treasure hunt.  Jeremiah put a lot of time into creating the treasure map and burying the treasure.

The boys loved that they each got to take turns digging up the buried treasure.

They then got to divide the spoils (chocolate coins)

 Trevor said it was the best day ever so I'm guessing it was a success.  It was wild and noisy with eight boys running around but lots of fun!

Our weekend away

With Jeremiah's parents coming into town for two weeks Jeremiah and I jumped at the chance to get away for a few days and the kids got to spend some one-on-one time with Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Wally.  We took off for the Berkshires Thursday morning and enjoyed visiting museums, hiking, shopping at outlet stores, eating out, and having endless hours to talk uninterrupted.  

We loved the Norman Rockwell museum.  Amazing artist and it was really neat to learn more about his life and accomplishments. 

Funny how this one reminded both of us of our boys!

The weather was great and we loved getting some hiking in.  Mt. Greylock was a very steep and challenging climb but so worth it!

We had fun driving around the area and seeing the sights and came across the Tanglewood which is the summer home of the Boston Pops.  The grounds were beautiful and full of huge twisted trees.

We visited the Hancock Shaker Museum one afternoon and saw lots of baby animals.

Our last hike was on Washington Mountain.  Beautiful day but very soggy trails to navigate.

We had a great four days away and were glad to be heading back to our children.  It was great to have their hugs again and hear about their adventures while we were away.

Music Play

I got some pretty sweet presents yesterday. Two pounds of chocolate (half is really an early present for Tamara), Spam bandaids, dozens of snickerdoodles, new gloves, pens, favorite candies, The Prince of Persia DVD, a Perry the Platypus shirt (insert platypus sound here), and two Rock Band™ games for Wii ™ + the Beatles™ Rock Band™ Wii™ controllers...™.

I think my favorite moments so far have been seen my kids play the faux drums. Emersynne is cute, and Trevor was a surprise. He actually nailed a pretty tricky song playing for the (ready, Angie?)... First. Time. Ever.

I wish I could be home today when the munchkins arrive from school and make the long faces when Mommy says that it's homework time, not Rock Band™ time.

(from Randall Munroe at xkcd)

 Not to worry though, folks, the kids will be getting plenty of brain-rotting video game action in the near future if I have anything to do with it.

Creative Play

Trevor almost missed the bus this morning because he was playing in his room instead of getting ready for school. After everyone left I went upstairs wondering what mess of toys I was going to find. I chuckled when I found this scene all set out.




I can't wait to hear the story behind this one!

My little young man

Earlier this month Anthony turned twelve. What a big milestone! He got to celebrate with some friends by going rock climbing AND have a family party on his birthday.



His request for his birthday dinner was homemade Chinese food so we made yummy pot stickers and fried rice and ended the meal with ice cream sundaes.

I think for Anthony the highlight of all the birthday celebrations was being ordained a Deacon and passing the Sacrament for the first time. I was sitting at the organ and looked up as he turned with the sacrament tray and he had a huge grin on his face.


Since turning twelve Anthony has started working on his biking merit badge with the young men, started euphonium lessons, selected his classes for middle school next year, and babysat for us when we went to stake conference meetings and cheesecake factory after wards with some friends. I'm proud of my little young man!