Fun Friday

I have known for a while that Legoland was free the last hour of operation. You can drive right in and walk right in. Although I have known these things for some reason I have not take advantage of it. Well today that all changed. When I got home from picking Riley up from school I packed up all the kids and we went to Legoland. We had a blast!! We were a little late getting there due to lack of planning. For some reason I am doing things VERY spontaniously this week. We only had half an hour in the park, but that was enough for a lot of fun.

We started out with fairy tale brook. Sydney was loving every minute of it. Carley wasn't so sure. To Hailey and Riley this was old news, but still fun. They are both old enough to remember when we had season passes. Oh the good old days!!



Look at Carley's cute little face. Doesn't it just scream WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME MOM??? Poor little thing.

Next we visited the safari ride. Carley wasn't big enough to go on this one, but I don't think she minded. Riley got to ride it twice, onece for each of his sisters. I love how he takes care of them when we are on an outing like this. I gave him the camera, and we got some pretty fun pictures.

Isn't Riley a great photographer?!!

After that we had time for one more ride. Hailey and Riley both really wanted to go on the dinosaur roller coaster, so we headed over there. I was really hoping that Sydney was going to be tall enough to ride. If she wasn't we were going to have a melt down. She was so excited. The top of her head hit the right bar, and we were in business. Hailey cried the first time she rode this roller coaster because she was scared. I was interested to see how Sydney would react. My little adventurer, snuggled between her older brother and sister couldn't have been happier. Since they were the last ride of the day the operator let them go around one extra time. They all had a lot of fun.



Waiting to go. Sydney was so excited.



Catching them as they zoomed by.



My favorite picture of the week. Sydney getting off the roller coaster and letting me know how much fun she had.

When we got back to the car I said, "Anyone who had a good time say OH YEA!!" I think you could have heard them from where ever you are if you had known to listen. We are defently going to have to do that again. In the words of Sydney, "It was todiwy FUN!!" She todiwy wants to do it again.

After all that we came home and had a picnic dinner. I put an old blanket out on the floor and we had pizza and chips while we watched Alvin and the Chipmonks. It was a very fun Friday!!

Chef Sydney

Tonight I impulsively decided to have Sydney be in charge of making dinner. She chose what we ate and helped with all of the preparations. We had spaghetti, asparagus, Greek salad, and raspberry lemonade. It was really yummy!! She had a BLAST!! Every time I called her Chef Sydney she would giggle. She especially liked it when everyone thanked her for the yummy dinner. It was a lot of fun. I need to do things like this more often.

Making the noodles.

Putting the salad together




The Juice. I told her to smile, and this is what she came up with. She is SO much like Ryan in her facial expressions. Never a dull moment!!



The final product!! Bravo Chef Sydney!!

Valentines

We didn't do a whole lot for Love Day this year. Ryan's birthday is so close to it, and with everything else going on we kinda skipped it. The kids didn't skip it though. The Monday before V-Day we used to put together all the kids valentine cards. I thought this would be a quick fun activity. Two hours later when the kids still weren't done and it was bed time, that thought was long gone. When there are at least 32 kids in each class and two to three teachers it takes FOREVER to fill out all those little cards. I was really glad we got a head start. The kids finished up over the next few days and had fun exchanging them with their friends at school. Sydney was really excited. This was her first Love Day in school. She couldn't wait to give her teacher the card she made for her. It was cute. Happy Valentines Day everyone. I know I am a little late, but we are still in February, so it still counts!!!

The Museum of Music

On Thursday I got to go on a field trip with Riley. I was in charge of a group of six boys and one girl. Ceci, Riley, Jackson, Henry, Christian, Riley D., and Jesus. I know poor girl, but she was a tough cookie and handled it well. I told her she could help me with the boys and be my little bouncer. It was kind of fun. I made sure the boys always let her go first. They didn't think that was too fair, but I thought it was great. I told them that they may thank me for teaching them how to treat a lady someday. We rode a bus to the Carlsbad Museum of Music. After we got there we went into a room with the two other groups from Riley's class and made paper plate tambourines. It got really loud really fast. I was relieved when they collected them before we left the room and told them that they would get them back at the end of the day. The next room we went in had a drum for everyone. Our guide talked to the kids about tempo. She chose a few kids to come up and "conduct" everyone. When they put their hands up we were supposed to go really fast, when they put them down we were supposed to go really slow. Riley and Jackson were chosen from my group. When the kids were done the museum guide asked for an adult to take a turn. I was taking a picture at this point and not paying much attention, but when I heard the other adults coming up with excuses for not going up I had to put an end to it. It was fun taking a turn. I made one side of the room go fast while the other was slow. I know, tricky hun. It takes great skill to do what I do I tell ya. LOL!! After that we went on a lengthy, and slightly boring (don't tell the kids I said that ), tour of the museum. We went through 100 years of music history. The kids learned the charleston, and the swing. When our guide was showing the kids the swing she grabbed a few girls that were in her vicinity and started dancing with them. Riley was the closest boy. Realizing that he was going to be her next partner if he stayed where he was he quickly ran to the other side of the room. I wish I had video of it. I'm sure he broke some kind of record for quickest evasion. After our tour we got back on the bus. It was fun to spend the morning with Riley and meet some of his friends that I had only known by name. Now I have faces, they better watch out.

Blue and Gold

The first week of February Riley participated in his first Blue and Gold banquet as a scout. As part of our ward Blue and Gold they have each of the boys make a dessert and auction it off. They use the money toward scout camp. Having been in primary for many years I was really excited to work with Riley and make something fun to auction off. When I found out the theme was "The Old West", I started finding fun cakes we could make. Cakes that looked like boots, horses, cows, etc. I was so excited!! One day when Riley got home from school I asked him what kind of cake he thought he would like to make and told him I had some ideas that I had found on the Internet. He informed me that he didn't want to make a cake, he wanted to make dirt. Well, okay. So much for all of my years of planning and excitement. We made dirt. We had a lot of fun with it, and got the whole family involved. Riley and I crushed the cookies while Ryan and the girls mixed up the creamy filling. We put it together in a sand bucket. In each layer we included worms and rocks (chocolate covered cherries), and finished it off with a shovel in the top. It just goes to show that no matter what ideas and plans you have for your kids, they get to make their own choices. Even if it means you get to eat dirt.

Riley with his "Dirt", awards earned, and his painting of a cowboy.
Great painting bud!!

Ryan's Birthday!!

Ryan's birthday was on the 12th. We started out the morning with a breakfast of bisects and gravy in bed. --I have pictures of this but have been forbidden to share.-- That evening we had Ryan's long time friend Jon over to share a Feta Pita bake dinner with us, Ryan's choice of dinner. Followed by the once a year -once a year because that is how often I make it- cake. The cake is death by chocolate. Gotta love it. There were so many candles on it that the chocolate on the top started to melt. Then the kids and I gave him cards, and they went to bed. Then the fun began, and sadly I don't have any pictures of it. His WII buddies started showing up for game night. --what were you thinking happened??!-- It was a great turn out, and they played to the wee hours of the morning. Happy Birthday Honey!! I hope it was a good one.

Pay It Forward

My blogging friend flipflopmama, is having a fun little game on her blog. I'm playing along.

So this is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this (my) post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch...You knew there would be didn't you? Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift.

Difference In Style

It is said that women use twice as many words a day than men do. Well, it has been brought to my attention that we must write twice as many too. Ryan says my last post was "too wordy." After looking at it again I'm sure he is right. In my defense I don't want to forget anything. Since I kinda use my blog as my journal I am allowed to be as wordy as I want. Right?!!
I thought I would give you a chance to see which style you like the most. My version of our trip to Utah has already been posted. Here is Ryan's version...

We went to Utah.

Let me know which one you like the best.

Quick Trip

Last weekend Becky and Weston blessed their new little boy Holland. Ryan and I had been planning on making a quick trip for the blessing before Ryan lost his job. After the job loss he didn't feel like it would be possible financially to make the trip. I really wanted to go for a few reasons 1. I felt like it was really important to support Becky and Weston. 2. I knew that Ryan would feel bad for a long time if he didn't go. and 3. Who wants to miss out on holding fun new little babies?! I was pretty resigned to the fact that we wouldn't be going when out of the blue Ryan said, LETS GO!! This was Friday morning, and I thought GREAT, only one problem. I was throwing one of the ladies I VT a baby shower on Saturday morning. We would have to leave after the shower meaning we would have to drive late into the night. Oh well, you do what you gotta do, right?! Well when Ryan got home from taking the kids to school he said the car was acting funny. He quickly took it over to our mechanic and found out that our transmission is starting to go out. GREAT!! Now we couldn't go again. We had gotten every one's hopes up, we told Becky and Weston we were coming, we told the kids we were going, and now we had to let them down. I knew there was going to be a lot of crying and fit throwing. Well Ryan called Becky and told her the sad news. I think she was pretty sad because she called back a little later and told Ryan that they would like to rent us a car so we could come. After a little talking we decided to take them up on their offer and we were ready to hit the road again.
We left our house about 12:45 pm on Saturday and got to Weston and Becky's about 1:15 am. I'm glad Ryan is such a great driver. The kids did pretty good considering they had to sit in the car for 12 hours. We stopped in St. George about 7:30, got the kids ice cream, and let them play in the McDonalds play area for about an hour to wear them out. -- Yes, I let my kids play in a McDonalds play area. I'm sure that I will have to have counseling at some point to help me come to grips with that one. For those of you who don't know, I have a bit of a McDonalds phobia. I did draw the line the next day when Ryan tried to put some of the kids in the same clothes they had worn when they played there. I told him I had to wash them before they could be worn again.-- When we got back in the car they crashed for the rest of the trip. It was pretty nice. I was very grateful that Weston and Becky's church didn't start until 2:30pm. If we didn't have kids we would have been able to sleep in. LOL!!
We did a quick hair job on Becky and got everyone ready. Weston gave Holland a wonderful blessing. The family dinner after was a lot of fun too. It was good to see Ryan's aunts Kathy and Caroline. We hadn't seen them for many years. It is always fun to get together with the Fullers. They are a wonderful family!! My kids love playing with Tamera's kids. I am a little surprised that the clubhouse is still standing after our kids got done with it. They had a lot of fun. I am so grateful we got to be there. We already miss so many things being so far away.
The kids LOVE Holland!! There was more than one fight over who's turn it was to hold him. Carley was especially attached to him. She would cry and get very upset if you tried to take him from her, and if someone else was holding him she was begging for him. Riley was really excited to have another boy cousin.

On Monday morning we left Weston and Becky's mid morning after a wonderful breakfast, --Ryan still raves about it Becky!!-- and headed out to Mountain Home to surprise Brittany. Everyone but her knew we were coming. I like surprises and thought this would be a fun one to pull off. When we got to the Mountain Home turn off I called Brittany and asked her what she was up to. She said she was playing with Tasha and the boys, Tanner and Jackson, (Tasha had gone up to "visit" Brittany so she could be there when we got there, and to give Brittany a reason to get herself and the baby ready). I hid a chuckle and said, "I want to come play." --I knew she wouldn't think anything of it and would play along because we play this game often.-- Brittany, without skipping a beat or suspecting anything, said, "Okay come on over." Again trying really hard not to laugh, I said, "Okay, I'll be there in a minute." She said she would call me when Tasha and the boys left and we got off the phone. I was really excited. When I closed the car door Brittany heard it and started complaining about more people coming to see her and the baby. --She doesn't like a lot of people around her new little one, and who can blame her.-- She looked out the window, looked back at Tasha, who I imagine is about to burst by this time, and said, "You have got to be freaking kidding me!!" She burst out the door and said, "You have got to be kidding me!! What are you doing here?!!" I looked hurt and said, "You said I could come over." It was great!!! I had a lot of fun with it. It was a lot of fun to see them too.
Tessa is SO tiny, and has SO much hair. She has as much hair as Carley does and Carley has been working on hers for almost two years now. Tanner and Jackson have grown a ton. Especially Jackson. All the kids had fun playing. True to form Sydney and Tanner enjoyed their love hate relationship. One minute they are playing great, the next they are fighting and hitting. Maybe someday they will just play nicely. Riley and Hailey had a LOT of fun being able to run outside and play. They don't get to do that here. They hardly fought at all. They would go outside, be gone for hours, and play nicely together. It was great. I hope someday they can have that at their own house. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them outside because I spent all my time holding Tessa. My Mom made a birthday cake for Ryan so they could share in the celebration of his birthday. It was YUMMY!! That night after all the kids were in bed we stayed up WAY too late playing cards. It was a lot of fun. No one really wanted to go to bed, but we all knew we would be in a lot of trouble if we didn't. We hit the sack about 2:00am and thanks to our kids were back up and moving somewhere between 5-7:30. I'm glad my kids are a little older so I got to sleep in until 7:30. After we raided my Mom's pantry and paid a visit to Grandpa and Grandma Lindsay we hit the road again.
It was good to be able to see everyone even if it was only for a day. It was well worth the time and money we spent on it. We would do it again in a second. Either we will get a job or we won't, we may run out of money at some point, but we will never run out of the memories we made on a quick trip to Utah. Thanks everyone for your help and support!!