Happy kids for Christmas

Christmas has left a happy family behind. There was some concern...a daughter who really wanted things not in the budget and twin boys who wanted a real puppy (Not happening!)

But even though one gift is still in the mail, my daughter is happy. She wanted several smaller things and I was able to get most of those. She can do amazing things with yarn and is great at Bananagrams.

3 boys got bikes and loved them....the twins had not really wanted bikes, but with them going to school next year I REALLY wanted to get them started riding. Pillow pets were also a hit as were Mario pjs for 3 and Scooby Doo for one boy. A as a budding scout and scientist got a wood car to put together and a Sweet treat science kit and marble making.

T got a sleeping bag, great for the scouter in him and he has a safe bow and arrow that shoots marshmallows. He also got a microscope and remote control car thanks to grandmas. Both the older boys got water rockets....Dad remembers them growing up. Some toys are just classic.

So enjoy some Christmas day pics as we enjoy our gifts.

Gingerbread time again

The tradition continues. Yesterday's gingerbread festivities...baking, decorating and delivering took all day. See some of the results.

I do enjoy eating gingerbread which is part of the reason I continue every year. I enjoyed doing it with my family growing up. Now I watch my kids and enjoy it for more reasons. Seeing each of the kids personalities come through on the cookies.

My kids get better at decorating each year which actually makes it easier for me to do so many since decorating is the most time consuming part. C 's designs are better than mine. S got really good at doing eye this year making little cones of frosting per eye. A wanted to make special cookies for friends he was thinking of this year. T has fun designing the cookies and wants to do the boys. R just put as much frosting on each cookie as he could squeeze out of the pastry bag. His probably taste the best. Toby had fun with the last ones, making tongues stick out of mouths or writing cute things like "I like pink" on a boy cookie. We just had a lot of fun. Sitting around with my family interacting and laughing and eating is such a fun thing for us all to remember.

It is also heartwarming to have R say....."this was a fun day". The kids get all excited to carry the cookies to the door to give away to their friends. These are the memories I will continue to hold. The ones the people who get the cookies do not see.

Also check out our gingerbread houses from last week. C needed her own big house while the older boys made their graham cracker ones. ( can only bake so many houses!) The twins just wanted to put the candy one....and lots of it! We did it on my birthday and I think it was a great family party time!

Cubs Pushmobile

I am about to have 2 cub scouts in the house. A already feels like he is a scout since he comes with me to all the den meeting since I am a leader. He participates whenever he is allowed. When we signed up for the Shac Jam I signed him up as a scout since in a school troop he would be....just in our pack you come in at your birthday. So unofficially I have 2 scouts already.

When Pushmobile sign ups came up last month I said, can we sign A up. He will be there all day anyways with me and his brother and he will want to participate. He shows that every pack meeting. So we sign him up.

Good thing we did. The Wolves came in 2nd place...losing first by only seconds. He had a lot of fun!

T also ran well. He got to run with the boys from his old den, before the ward split. He always enjoys seeing these friends.

Running around between the races was fun for all the kids as was talking to other parents for me. I also got to hold a new little baby which is nice too!!

A Perfect Camping Weekend

We were all looking forward to this camping weekend. T was missing soccer games "I can't wait to go camping" and C was missing a school field trip but everyone was on countdown to go camping and this trip did not disappoint. We tried a new campground this trip and it offered lots of cool places to explore. Our camp sites were right by a little gully where the kids explored and created stories. This little hut was created before we got there but our kids enjoyed it a lot. We saw lots of armadillos and the paths they left behind beneath the leaves.

We named this the Island tree, cool to climb upon and hang from.

Every year we break out the hammocks and walkie talkies some of the cool toys we take camping.

Something I enjoy camping is cooking over the campfire. I enjoy foil dinners, some chicken and rice, maybe some BBQ. Not my kids. They like hotdogs and eat them almost every night. I do bring spaghettios, some mac and cheese and ramen for a change of pace. But we all enjoy roasted marshmallows and smores.

We had perfect weather cold enough for campfires at night, but warm enough to wear short sleeves during the day. Our kids were not ready to leave and wanted to stay. That is how much fun we were having. Can't wait to go again.

Halloween

I know it is 3 weeks late, but life has been busy. I wanted to share our costumes. Mario is still a big theme with Mario, Luigi, and Toad making appearances. The boys loved getting mustaches. Then we also have Harry Potter's Luna Lovegood and a cute little pumpkin to join the party.

First day of preschool

My youngest two got to start preschool this past week. It is a neat preschool held at a local high school run by high school students. My oldest 2 kids went there and really enjoyed it. And I was happy to get the twins enrolled, even their same age cousin got in as well as a few church friends.

That first day, one twin was ready and has been putting his backpack on quite frequently asking "When do I get to go?" The other says "I do not want to go to prechool!" He wants to stay home and have Mommy be his teacher. This is all really strange to me because at the start of the year when they entered sunbeams Son # 1 was in tears for weeks while #2 walked right in with no problem.

Honestly it went as I expected and both boys loved it. No problems with tears or fears once we walked in the doors. I just knew they were ready.

When I first got there to pick them up they said, Mommy we were playing a game we aren't ready to go home. So here are some Happy Boys on their first day of preschool. They are happy and I am happy to have some Mommy time scheduled a few days a week.

Shac Jam

We had LOTS of cub scout fun at Shac Jam. A 100 year birthday party jamboree held for scouts in our area. The Cub world area had lots of fun activities and crafts for the whole family to enjoy which is great since not only do I have one scout but I have 3 scout wannabees and they all got to enjoy this event. In fact we counted A as a full scout (signing him up as such) getting him his own dog tags since he is only 4 months away from joining, but if we were with a school pack he would already be a wolf.

The only thing the twins who are 4 did not do with the big kids was shoot bows and arrows.....they were allowed but I knew they would not do well with the bows since sling shots were pretty difficult for them. But they had fun shooting pet food from a sling shot at a pie pan.

They made cobra horns, first aid kits, Egg racers (and raced them), paper hats, those little drum things with 2 strings that you twirl...what are the called. We made them using CDs and beads. Along with crafts they had lots of fun games with hula hoops ring toss, big earth balls, these straw flying devices they had to throw thru hoops. This picture was where you catapulted ping pong balls into holes. Jousting with noodles was a big hit as well.

Then while the big kids had their shooting range safety talk the twins and I ran their first Pinewood derby race where everyone racing got their own matchbox car. We also got to see a record setting rocket launch and watch overhead as airplanes flew for our entertainment overhead different formations and smoke trails. Twins loved that during lunch!

The kids were only sad that they could not go check out the boy scout side as well....they saw a rock wall they wanted to tackle. It was a great day of family scout fun!!

What to post??

I see that I have not posted in a month, but as I see that I wonder what should I post?

I like to post with pictures but I have not taken any recently. Life has been consumed with lots of computer work in Sept because I am volunteer coordinator at school and I get sign ups the first 3 weeks of school then it takes time to enter over 100 names in the computer and then send out emails to all the appropriate teachers, commitees etc.

Scouts also keeps me busy with planning weekly meetings. One for me and now T goes to Webelos which is another night. T also is playing soccer with practices and games to go to. I feel like every night of the week I have somewhere to go......

During the day I have all the daily and weekly chores to do and we have story time and playgroup as well as volunteering. Life is just busy.

Looking ahead I have 2 boys getting excited for Preschool to start...2 1/2 weeks!! Then what will I do with my free time??

Time to try 2 wheels

As we were undecorating the bikes from the 4th of July parade, I had R helping me. I suggested he sit on his brother's bike and he thought it was cool. He actually wanted to sit on his sisters and my bikes as well. On his brothers bike could reach the peddles this time (last christmas when we checked he could not) so I suggested it was time to put the training wheels on for him. He thought that was a cool idea. Time to go past the tricycle which is so slow and he looks like he is getting big for it, his knees starting to kit the handle bars.

Well I had loaned the training wheels out to a fellow twin mom so it took some time, then they sat on the kitchen counter for a week or so until Dad had enough free time to put the wheels on. Finally we got them on yesterday. S jumped right on and gave it a try. R was a little scared this time. It was high in his mind but he did get on and was having some fun after his inital hesitation until he fell over. Then it was done. The picture is a not happy face because it was after the fall and we were encouraging him to try again.

Right now big brother A has the other small kid bike in use but he is growing bigger and is in need of a bigger size, when that happens R & S will not have to share. I hope to have them accomplished bikers befor school starts next year so they can ride to school like their big brothers. Great for a mom who hates the carpool line. I would rather ride bikes with them and I often do just that.

MARIO!!

I have been thinking about updating the blog, but what to write about when life around here has been pretty simple. We swim, play with friends, done some school shopping and played video games.

Video games......lots of Mario Brother video games. R discovered playing New Super Mario bros Wii in the spring and he can play for hours. With his brothers home over the summer, the Wii has definitely gotten some use. Great for all those rainy days in June! We also play a lot of Mario Cart and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games. We had Super Paper Mario but it got scratched a year ago and my boys started asking about getting a new one, so I did get a used copy off ebay (cheaper than buying the newest Mario game brand new!)

So when school shopping, T wanted a new Mario shirt since he had outgrown his last one and he was my first Mario fan. So I got one for him and picked one up for R on that same trip knowing R would love it. When we got home S wanted to know where his Mario shirt was (He did like the red shirt I got him that says "I can't help that I'm cute. It comes naturally!") But he wanted a Mario shirt and so did A too. He actually likes Scooby Doo more than Mario but did not want to be left out. So just this week I took them shopping and now all have a Mario shirt to wear when they got back to school. I have 4 happy boys!

Sea World

It has been a long time since we had a FAMILY vacation...I'm excluding camping trips which we take a few a year. Last trip was Disney when I was pregnant with the twins 4.5 years ago. Plan A this year was to go to Utah, but that did not work out so we wanted to go somewhere closer. We considered Galveston and San Antonio....we picked San Antonio since our kids had never been there, and I can't remember going ever.

During our planning phase we hits some bumps...mainly our vacation funds had to be spent on car repairs (3 times in May!!!!) But then I explored using reward points from our credit cards. For years we have been accumulating them what better way to spend them. I felt pretty good paying for the hotel room and Sea World tickets with reward points. We only had to spend for meals, parking and little things like that. I am frugal and I can be proud of it!!!

We had an AWESOME time. We got fun passes so we could go over several days for one price. We drove the 3 hours, checked into the hotel, then had an early dinner and hit the park deciding to do the Summer Night shows on a day we did not spend all day in the park. Good call....every other day our kids were very tired and would not have made late nights.

C was excited to be able to ride roller coasters, boys were a bit more timid. Maybe it was because the first one we went on, Journey to Atlantis, we got wet. R did not like that at all. It made him cry and mad. A, T & S on the other hand loved it and wanted to go again. Their favorite ride (all the boys) was Shamu Express which we did every day, sometimes more than once. The shows that first night were really cool. Sea lions were funny. My boys wanted to see the Orcas, they never did call them Shamu. Watching Diego taught them they were Orcas. So a few rollar coasters and 2 shows and the first night left them wanting more....only complaint. Tired feet!

The next full day we decided to make our wet day and we wore our bathing suits planning on spending part of the day in the water park there. We did start the day by feeding the dolphins which the kids thought was really cool. All except A, he wanted to ride the Shamu Express first and was protesting against feeding the dolphins, his loss. We tried to convince him to no avail. So after riding his ride we went to the water park and had fun on the tube rides and wave pool there. (Splashtown near us is better) We left the water park late afternoon to do some of the splashing rides in the main Sea World park. The lines were a bit long (45-1 hour) but we pretty much got them all done. The one the twins were too small for they got ice cream while they waited.

The 3rd day we decided to plan it so we could catch all the shows we had not seen yet. The older boys liked the 4 D theater and we saw all 3 shows they did there. We sat in the splashzone of Shamu because the kids wanted to get wet, but we went prepared with ponchos to cover us and R. After the inital Splash S hid under it as well. The Shamu shows were not the best. I preferred the Sea lion shows that told a story and were funny. The new Azul show with beulga whales and divers and arialist was my favorite. I think over the 2.5 days we did everything there was to do at Sea World and had a great time and built great memories!!

We planned one extra day and went to the Alamo the next morning before heading home. It was interesting but the little guys did not want to stay long. We had done some prep work and got library books for the older kids to read before we went so they knew the history and went looking for some things they heard about.

It was a fun time for all of us.....makes me want to start planning our next trip. Where should we go???

Family times

This past week has been very full of family....brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma etc. When my brother comes home each summer from Malaysia he requests my sisters come to visit....since I and my other brother live near grandma we are already here. So everyone descends and the fun and chaos begin. Beach trips, lots of swimming pools, meals together, Splashtown, and even a deep sea fishing trip for the men this year. Here are just a few snapshots from a fun week.

I also can't help but remember the sad days from this week. The sweetest little girl lost her battle with cancer. That was a hard day for me, seeing her mother, my best friend so low and lost without her little princess. I can't say her funeral was any easier. She will be greatly missed. I have so many memories of our families together...swimming, camping, playing together. We had the 3 amigos, my twins and her. Her family is lucky to be sealed for eternity, a forever family. I only hope we get to see her again someday as well!!

Favorite Cub things

I was thinking about the song "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music as I tried to list the fun things boys enjoy at cub camp. I was not successful in putting words to the tune but can I list some of the fun things these boys enjoyed.

Archery
BB guns

Launching paper rockets

snow cones

volleyball

Ultimate frisbee

Chasing grasshoppers

Sitting on Buckets

Marshmallow guns

the Ninja game

Kickball

Funny skits

Model boats

Playing Marbles, chess and ring toss

hammering birdhouses and pinewood derby car display shelves

Mixing paint colors and painting like artists

fun times, songs, stories and long days with your buddies

This year was fun, I look forward to next year when I will have 2 sons there!!

From K to 5

Today was a milestone. This little girl who was so tiny on her first day of kindergarten is now done with elementary school.

She finished 5th grade today. She has grown so much and I am so proud of the young women she is becoming.

What have we learned in the last 6 years. C is very smart and school comes easily for her. She likes cursive more than print. Her favorite subject is writing or language arts....just exclude spelling which she does not like. She enjoyed writing a book this year about the school mascot, the Coyote.

She also has a passion for art ...winning a few contest along the way....and looks forward to taking art in school next year. She enjoys crafts and creating things whether from fabric, clay, beads, whatever. She is very creative.

She is also a good friend and loves spending time with her girl friends whenever possible (Can you blame her living with all brothers!!) She enjoys the outdoors including camping, swimming, and soccer.

She is just one awesome kid and I'm so proud of her and look forward to what lies ahead in her promising future.