Memorial Day 2010

This has been quite the eventful Memorial Day. It was a lot of fun, though, so we enjoyed the busy-ness of it all.

This morning, Chris went with the men in the ward paintballing. While he was away playing, Callie and I took the kids to our city's hometown Memorial Day parade. It was a small parade, but the length was perfect for our 2 and 3 year olds. Lexi loved it! The girl scouts gave her candy, a boy gave her a flag, and the sheriff gave her a sheriff badge sticker. She also liked waving to all of the people in the parade. At the end of the parade, the fire fighters raised the flag on one of their ladder trucks. This was neat. Then, we recited the pledge of allegience and listened to a lady sing the national anthem. She did a good job. After that, there was a ceremonial program, but the girls were done by this point, so we walked back to our apartment. On our way back, airplanes flew overhead as part of the ceremony so Lexi loved that! It was fun.

Then, when Chris was done, he came home, took a quick shower and we were off to our former bishop's house for a ward potluck and play. Lexi got to jump on a big kid trampoline, play on the swing set, interrupt the teens volleyball game, many times, becasue she wanted to play in the sand, and eat lots of good food. The festivities were cut a little short, however, because it started raining and thundering and lightening, so at that point, we packed up our stuff and went home. For the potluck, I made a paula deen cobbler recipe in my slow cooker and it was such a major it, I added it to my food blog under the category: dessert. you should make it sometime, people apparently love it!

On our way home, we were kind of happy the rain fell upon us so that Lexi could go home and take a nap before the Wagners came over for swimming and BBQ. Well, the nap did not happen, but it was nice to relax for a couple of hours, regardless.

Then, the Wagners came over and the girls swam in our new kiddie little tike pool for a while. Lexi was talking about swimming all day and wouldn't you know, she got in for a bit, but then decided it was way more fun grabbing the pool toys and running away from us to throw the toys. Such fun! After the girls had their fill of the pool, we went inside and made dinner. We had BBQ hamburgers with all the fixings, potato chips, a salad that Callie brought over, fresh pineapple, and corn on the cob.  It was delicous! Chris did such a good job grilling. Then, after eating and talking for a bit, the day was over, books were read, and Lexi was put to bed.

It was a fast, fun-filled day to say the least. I am very grateful for this holiday to remember those who fought for our country and those who are fighting currently for our country. My family can enjoy freedoms and safety because of the men and women defending our country. I am so proud to be living in the USA and I am forever grateful again for the military and the service and sacrifice they provide in defending and supporting this great nation.

Whit's Party

On Monday, we attended Whit's birthday party. She is a good friend of Lex and she just turned 3! Her mom did an amazing job on the party. It was a flip flop water theme. The kids did all of these fun water games and the cake looked just like a flip flop! It was too cute! Chris was in charge of taking pictures and unfortunately, he did not do a very good job because we only have these two that turned out remotely okay. Sorry, callie, hopefully the other moms took pics for you. But, Lexi had a blast! In fact, I am now going to buy Lexi a little kiddie pool because she had so much fun with the one from the party; I figure we can do that as an activity all summer long, when I don't feel like going to the big pool. Anyways, thanks Callie for the invite we had a blast!

Felt Finger Puppets

Lexi's little friend, Whit, just celebrated her 3rd birthday. As  I was blog searching for RS craft ideas, I came across these adorable felt finger puppets from the blog: The idea room. Having a bunch of leftover felt from doing a felt playhouse for Lex, I thought I would make these puppets for whit's birthday present. By the way, post of the playhouse will be coming soon. It turned out so cute! Anyways, the felt finger puppets also turned out really cute. I was so proud of myself! I got the templates from the idea room and I have to say, that mine turned out just as cute as the originals! I  put these puppets with two adorable books and that was the birthday present. I was going to wait to post this project until I had all 18 puppets made, but it is taking longer than expected so I thought I would post the ones that we gave to Whit. When I have all 18 done for Lexi' set, I will post the rest.  But until then, here are the finger puppets that I love so much. Hopefully the girls like them just as much as I do.

Flower Card

My friend, Callie, just celebrated a birthday and even though money is tight right now, I wanted to make her a little something. So, I found a cute flower template online, used scrapbook paper, ribbon, and a button I already had and made her this cute little card. I loved doing this card. The lady whom I borrowed the idea from made her cards using fabric, which was also cute! Here is the address of the blog I got the idea and free template from: http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/05/make-flower-card-for-mom.html I think I will be making many more of these in the future.

Mother's Day: 2010

Today was a good day. It started off great, had some gliches in between, and ended sweet, so all in all, it was GOOD. First, Chris took care of Lexi this morning so that I could take a LONG shower. I even had time to shave my legs :) Then, as a family, we made semi-homemade donuts and mango smoothies. YUM!
First, we got out the ingredients:

Then, Chris was the frying master:

Lexi and I were the decorators:

And, then our final product turned out pretty darn pretty and very tasty:

Here is our mango smoothie before the blending action:

And after:

And then, here is Lexi and Chris enjoying breakfast:

I enjoyed it too! If you can't tell, I was excited about breakfast! It was fun that our whole family worked together in the kitchen to create it, I enjoyed the help :)

Then, Chris surprised me with these pretty yellow flowers.  I am going to transfer them to a pot very soon so that we can enjoy them for a while. I love how yellow and happy they make me feel.

After getting ready for church, Chris took some pictures of me and my girl, the reason I can even enjoy celebrating this holiday. I think these two pics turned out the best:

As for the rest of the day, we went to church and then came home and had a yummy dinner. We had pulled pork sandwiches with broccoli salad. Delicious! Chris also helped make dinner, which was so special. We ended the day with a family walk, a game of 5th grader, and talking to our moms and doing a skype session with my family. It was a good Mother's Day. Oh, at church, all the moms received flower seeds, a chocolate bar, and a pot to plant the flowers in. It was sweet. It looks like come Memorial Day I will start gardening.

I do have one sad story though, which made me feel really bad. I decided that I would try to curl Lexi's hair for church, to help her natural curls out. Well, I apparently got the curling iron too hot, and well, I fryed a big patch of her hair. All of the sudden, I smelled this horrific smell and when I looked at the pretty brown, turning black very quickly, hair on the iron I knew what I had done. Needless to say, Lexi now has some "layering going on in front" Luckily though, I did not burn her scalp and no severe damage was done, so I am sure she will forgive me. And, you cannot even really tell that much. Geez! I don't think I will be curling her hair for a while, I am now terrifed to try. Maybe that is why God blessed Lexi with naturally curly hair, because he knew her Mom couldn't do hair :(

Anways, I am truly blessed to be called a mother. I have a wonderful daughter whom I love more than anything and one daughter happily growing inside waiting to come to Earth in just a few short months. I am honored  that God has confidence in me to send his choice spirit daugthers to our home so that I can nurture them and hopefully help them return to Him one day. Although, every day being a mom is not always roses, I am so glad the good times outweigh the frustruating times. I am in awe how one little smile, one little, "I love you" can make me smile and make the whole world seem like a perfect place. Being a mother is truly the most rewarding job out there! I love it!

Mother's Day "Tea" Party

I was in charge of hosting playgroup today, and so I decided that we were going to do a Mother's Day "Tea" Party. Lexi and I had a good time, so I hope everyone else did as well. It was also a pretty good turnout, considering a lot of people were out of town. So, let me walk you through the party.

The Moms and Kids started off by doing two painting projects. The first was a Thumbunny Loves you card. The kids used white acrylic paint as the ink pad, and then used their thumb to make the bunnies body and ears. The ears are actually half of a thumbprint. Then, when the paint dried, they used a permanent marker, with help from mom, to make the eyes, nose, and whiskers. Here are Lexi's examples she made:

Then, the kids made a flower by gluing on the paper flower, cut previously and drawing a stem with a paintrbrush. Their hand prints were the leaves. They turned out so cute,  I think anyways. A picture is the center of flower. Again, here is Lexi's picture:

Here is a picture of Erin and Jewel and their girls doing the painting projects:

After painting and washing hands, the kids dressed up to get ready for the tea party. I brought some stuff and the other moms brought some stuff and the girls went crazy dressing up like princesses. I have to mention that Talon was there as well, the only boy and came already dressed up as Mr. Incredible. I brought a mirror so that the girls could look at themselves all dressed up, and I have to say, they liked it. Lexi even kissed herself in the mirror once.

Then, when everyone was dressed and ready to go, we went to the table and had our tea party!

The menu:

1. Tea (apple juice)

2. Heart shaped sandwiches (pb and j/pb and honey)

3. Animal crackers

4. Decorated cupcakes

The kids LOVED the food. In fact, the sandwiches were a bigger hit than I anticipated! It was cute. They used little tea cups and we even served the juice out of a tea kettle. The kids had a good time. This time was fun too because the moms had a chance to socialize and eat themeselves.

After the party, I made little party favors for the moms and girls. I am quite proud of them, I think they turned out so cute! I cute leaves and a flower out of cardstock and then glued on a lollipop for the center and stem. I put them in a green styrofoam half circle that was sitting in a plastic bowl. They were also going to be the centerpiece for the tea table, but last minute I decided that was a bad idea, and I am glad I changed my mind, the flowers probably would not have survived the kids sitting at the table. Anyways, that with the favor passed out, that concluded our tea party. Thanks everyone for coming!