Saturday, June 13, 2009

Star Wars Birthday


We bombed battleships, crossed the hot lava to Yoda's Cave, had a pod race, had blaster gun practice, and had an asteroid hunt, then we made our way to Jabba's Restaurant.

Jabba' Restaurant

Menu: Padawan Pizza, Ashoka Sherbet Cups, Vader Chips, Yoda Soda, and R2-D2 cake.
We made our own rainbow sherbet cups (birthday boy's favorite) out of applesauce cups, I love not having to dish ice cream to impatient 4-6 year old kids. The yoda sodas were also a lot easier than pouring drinks. We made our own mini pizzas and froze them ahead of time. The trick with freezing pizza is to put the cheese and toppings on first and the pizza sauce last. That way when you cook them there is no soggy crust problem. Most homemade freezer pizza will cook in 20 minutes at 400. This was perfect for our padawan pizzas, YUM!


It wasn't until we looked at this picture that we figured out why the candles mysteriously went out before we finished singing happy birthday.

A favorite game was the Jedi hot lava challenge. They had to build a bridge from the sidewalk all the way to a playhouse (Yoda's Cave) in the back yard without touching the grass. I blew a whistle if they touched the grass and they had to go back to the sidewalk. Not too many kids fell in!


R2D2 Cake. I made a chocolate cake from scratch (denser and less crumbly than a cake mix and therefore could be carved into the right shape). Then I just freehanded the general R2D2 look. Making the cake was a party all its own the night before.

June activities


Swimming Time


Strawberry swimmer


Swim Lessons around here are everyday for two weeks. We decided to just go swimming for two weeks and teach ourselves, that way none of the kids would have to sit by the side of the pool when it wasn't their lesson time. This plan worked great. It was overcast every day and we practically had the pool to ourselves.

In the mornings we usually painted or built crafts for a couple of hours. I usually don't like to get paint out, but we set aside the time with no other distractions and it worked pretty well. Even little AP painted and enjoyed it.

As mentioned I've been working on a Star Wars party. It was a great creative outlet for me. My favorite part was probably making Yoda Sodas and the R2-D2 cake



Cake in progress

Just like mom


This was a fun moment. I found AP changing her baby's diaper. She sat in the exact place I do to change diapers, carefully arranged the diapers exactly like I do, and had the wipes all ripped in half just like I do (I've always felt wipes come too big, so I always rip them in half). It was very cute. (After I got over the fact she'd unfolded all the diapers and shredded a box of wipes).

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Kid pics

Kindergarten store: This was the last week of kindergarten and a very cute activity. The kids were learning about money values. They each made ten homemade things and priced them 5cents each. They brought 50 pennies to school and got to buy 10 things from the other kids to take home. AJ made fairy wands. Thanks Stacy for the picture!
Kindergarten Graduation
A day at the park
J's last week of pre-school was "classic children's books". On Gingerbread Man day we decided to make our own at home.


AP is going through a phase where she doesn't like to wear clothes. She actually said "I'd rather not" (a phrase she overheard from her sister) when I came at her with clothes the other day. Then she ran around giggling "no thankyou, no thankyou, no thankyou!" However, she does like to wear glasses (like mommy) and to wear everyone elses shoes.

You are Never Alone

I thought I'd share an experience that I wrote down this month in response to the talk "None Were With Him" by Jeffrey R Holland.

When I was in highschool, I went on a tour in England with a group from school. One of the places we visited was about 2 hours from our hotel in London, in a small town square, with a wall around it. You could leave in four different directions through an arch in each wall. I was thumbing through a book in a little shop, when I looked up I gradually realized that not one single person from my tour group was still in sight. They had vanished without my noticing, it was almost time to meet the bus back to London. I didn’t know where the meeting spot was, but I instantly realized what had happened. It was time to go and my group had taken off at a run because the bus driver had an exceptionally tight schedule that day. It was very possible that because of the rush I would be accidentally left behind!

I had a serious problem though, I had no idea which of the four exits they had taken. I remember instantly realizing with terrible clarity that I had never been more dangerously alone in my whole entire life. It was a very long lonely moment. I had to act quickly, but I didn’t know what to do, I doubted anyone would be coming back for me in time. I only had one hope, it was that the Lord would help me. In the same instant that I caught onto this hope, I was suddenly running. Without thinking, I ran through one of the arches, down one street and turned down another little side street, as I turned, I miraculously saw my tour bus. They were nearly finished loading, no one had noticed my absence. I jumped on the bus and it pulled out of that little English village minutes later, I don’t recall a head count in all the rush.

I was rescued from this situation almost immediately, before I could even phrase words to a prayer, the instant I even hoped for help, I was nearly carried in the right direction to where I needed to go. If I had been truly alone, even if I had remained calm enough to think, the odds of me randomly choosing the right exit, the right twists and turns, and choosing quickly enough to meet my group in time were almost zero. That is one time in my life I am certain I had divine assistance. The truth is, He is always there. I know we are never truly alone.