Happy 11th Birthday Aspen

Can you believe it?  Aspen is 11 on Oct 28th.  She is our beautiful daughter.  Such a good big sister, helpful to everyone, FRIENDS with everyone.  Aspen is a talented gymnast, amazing pianist, learning clarinet, sings wonderfully, is rather gifted in school, a great cook and just an all around Great Daughter.  Don't know what we'd do with out her.

We had just a few good friends over for the evening.  We started out at the Soul Studio.  A cozy and artsy ceramic shop.  Each sweet girl picked a piece and for the next hour we giggled and painted.  Starting on the left and going round the table we have Nena, Hanna (Tall Hanna we call her), Aspen, Tyla, and Lia.

Back to the house for some pizza making.  As you can see Hanna is quite tall.  That and Aspen's kind of short.  :)

While the pizza cooked we played a few games to pass the time.  And now that they mostly know their left from their right, Twister is hilarious to watch.  Especially Hanna and Nena, with their long gangley limbs. Nena lost....face plant.

Pizza was delish.  The weather was so nice that they all headed outside.  I'm guessing Beaux got a few more bites of pizza off of these sweethearts than he should have.

Aspen's not a big fan of frosting so she opted for Pumpkin Pie instead.  I was happy to accommodate.  And spray Whip Creme is always lots of fun.  They all tried to eat with out spoons.  Then after I briefly squished a friends face in her plate....

 We all ended up with a little Whip Creme on our faces.  Some more than others.  :)

And what's a Halloween Birthday Party without a Halloween Movie.  Aspen picked a good one.  

Happy Birthday Aspen!  We love you.

Primary Halloween Party

All dressed up and ready to go.  Whew!!  What a morning.  My Activity Day Girls hosted a Halloween Party for the Jr. Primary and Nursery.  It was so much fun.  Sicily was a Flamenco Dancer, Aspen was a Grandma, and I was a Soldier.  I even got asked by one Mom if I'd actually been in the Army.  I said I wish I had but no, just a costume.

We had Frankenstein Crafts, much parent involvement needed.

 Cookie Decorating of course.  With the best icing I've ever tasted, thank you Stephanie Laroque.

 Pumpkin (Grapefruit) Relay races.  I couldn't find light enough pumpkins for those little guys to push around.  Don't let the muscle suits fool you.

 Played with Balloons and learned a few cute Halloween songs.

We also had Pumpkin Bowling, but I couldn't get a cute enough shot.  The kids were all so cute.  Ate too many cookies and wrapped it all up in just over an hour.  But that hour took a lot of work and I am pooped.

Flamenco at the Play

It was such a crazy afternoon and evening yesterday that Sicily went straight from Dance to Phoenix's Play. Since Halloween is on Thursday next week her dance class will be cancelled, so she got to wear her costume to class.  Then me, brilliant Mom that I am, took her clothes home and left them there.  So she got to be all dressed up for the play.  

London was so sweetly holding his little sisters hand for the camera.

 Then as Sicily strikes a pose I notice London's rabbit ears.  Silly boys, they never grow up.

Tell me a Story

Grade 3 hosted the cutest little play last night.  It was all about Fairy Tales.  We had Cinderella, The Fisherman's Wife, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Froggy went a Courting...everything.  

Here's Phoenix, front and center, as the Big Bad Wolf.  He wore Jared's monstrous Guatemalan Alpaca Coat and London's coyote skin hat.  He looked so cute singing and doing all the actions.  So much fun.

Each class did a different Fairy Tale.  Phoenix's was Cinderella.  They had to memorize their lines and say them as clear as they could.  As you can see, by this point Phoenix was hot so he ditched his fur coat and just went with the hat.  Wish he'd had a brown shirt on instead of one that says, "Trust me I'm a Ninja."  Ninja Big Bad Wolf, that's my Phoenix.  :)

I don't think the kids really wanted to go home at the end of the evening.  This is Phoenix and Kye.  They'd already stripped out of their costumes, but I made Phoenix put his back on since it was hard to get pictures in the gym.  Such handsome boys.

Vulcan

Bet you didn't know Vulcan was located in Alberta, Canada.  Jared had to drive through for a work project and stopped at the bakery.  Ironically he was served by a Chinese man and even got fortune cookies with his bagel and donut.  :)  It's an InterSpacial "city" apparently.  

This Welcome sign was awesome, you could remove the actors faces and put yours in their place.  But he only got the picture of the sign.  I don't know, I think he'd make a pretty handsome Klingon.

The Enterprise, but not the Enterprise.  I'm guessing this was erected in 1995, since that's the numbers on it.  

"Live Long and Prosper."

If you don't get this post, we have some serious problems, and I'm not too sure you should be reading my blog at all.  Go watch some Star Trek...the old ones.  :)

Activity Days Halloween Party Prep

It's the end of October and time for some Halloween Fun.  One of our Faith in God Achievements requires us to entertain and care for small children.  We decided this meant a Halloween Party.

Aspen started our prep off nice by having a Birthday.  So she got our latest gift which is a Rice Crispy Treat Hershey Kiss.  She was super excited and all the other girls can't wait till their own Birthdays.

So on with the show.  We decided for our Halloween Party we'd have a Carnival of Games.  Eloise is drawing the faces for a cute Pumpkin Rolling Relay.  But seeing as Nursery kids can't quite move a pumpkin by themselves we opted to use Grapefruit instead and call it good.

Cookies, Cookies and more Cookies.  And even after all the taste testing (Aspen) we still ended up with about 110 bats, ghosts, pumpkins and cats.

Now each station needs a sign, right?  And who's better at drawing and crafting than 8-11 year old girls. Their posters were cuter than I ever could have made them.

And cut, cut, cut we must.  We made the cutest little Frankenstein Craft.  But when you have a possibility of 50 kids coming, that requires a lot of cutting.  50 smiles, 50 chins, 50 noses, 50 hairs, 50 eyebrows....no wait 100 eyebrows, 100 bolts.  Whew!  I hope we don't get more than 50 kids.

These girls were little troopers.  They worked so hard.  Did not complain once.  Smiled the entire evening and were sad to leave at the end.  I was told multiple times..."We only have 48 chins make sure you cut 2 more."

They so want these little kids to have a fun Halloween Party.  And with these sweet girls I know we will.

Phoenix Photos

Enough said.  The last one's my favorite.  :)  I love this kid.

Kittens at Great Grandmas

We stopped by Great Grandma and Great Grandpas house to say goodbye before we headed back to Canada. While we were inside chatting the kids, as usual, went outside to wander among the hay.  After not too long, Sicily came running in with amazing news.  There were 6 kittens in the barn.  10 mins later Aspen came in to inform us there were actually 7.  10 mins after that they finally settled there were 8, and they were letting the kids hold them.

Great Grandma had to see that.  So outside we all went.

 They were so little and so precious.

And if they weren't being held they were eating the food we brought out for them, or tackling each other non stop.

Great Grandma thinks they were actually 2 litters.  The grey ones were the older set, and the white socked ones the younger.  If we didn't have to cross the border in 2 days I think I would have taken one home with me.  They were that cute.

But they weren't big fans of Beaux.  He tried to be friendly.  :)  Naw, I think his terrier instincts were kicking in.  He was a little more interested in them than he should have been.  Which sent Sicily into a fit.  In the end Beaux got to go sit in the car so Sicily would settle down.

Walker Haven

Last Canadian Thanksgiving we took advantage of smaller crowds and headed to Disney World.  This Canadian Thanksgiving we headed a little closer to home in Downey, Idaho to the newly established "Walker Haven" 

Even Beaux was excited to check out the new place.

 Jared and I recently purchased 40 acres of land just West of Downey, Idaho.

 And if you can't tell....it's BEAUTIFUL!

Even Beaux jumped right in.  Literally!  There's a creek that runs right through the middle, 5 seconds out of the car and he was straight in the mud.

The kids, on the other hand, headed for the shed.  Which was full of all their new toys.  3 dirt bikes (in various sizes), and three 4 Wheeler's.

London getting his first lesson from Dad.  He did awesome.  Putted around for the first hour or so then blazed himself new trails all the rest of the day.

Aspen kick starting her 4 wheeler.

 Phoenix quickly learned how to reverse after he ran into the bushes.

 Sicily's 4 wheeler needed a jump start so she started her day with a little picnic with her stuffies.

Phoenix's bike lesson didn't go quite as well as Dad would have hoped.  Phoenix was a little overwhelmed so he opted for the 4 wheeler, while Aspen was more than happy to take over the bike.

Sicily out on her cute little 4 wheeler.  She did such a great job.

All are welcome to join us for some camping, biking and fun.  We hope to be out here as often as possible. And it's right close to everything.

Jam Making

Tis the season of canning.  Since there's not much in the Faith in God booklet about food storage we decided to read a Conference Report on it instead, which is in the booklet.  :)  And watch a short video on the Church Farms.  Then apply our new found knowledge by making some jam for the girls to take home.

I wanted to use my awesome Victorio Strainer, because I knew they'd think it was awesome too.  And I had some frozen blackberries already, so the plan was to make Apple-Blackberry Jam.  

From left to right: Sierra, Sicily, Jocelyn, Teagan (a friend), Rylie, Isabel, Aspen and Nena.

 We each got a turn squishing the fruit down the funnel and turning the handle to make it all come out.

Next comes sugar, which means a little heat to make it dissolve.  Note Sicily's awesome smile.  She's crazy that one!

And last but not least, you must taste test the jam.  I made homemade bread which was hot and aromatic by the time the jam was finished. They went through 2 loaves in 10 mins.  :)  Gotta love em!