Joyschool Graduation

We finally got to attend a Joyschool graduation! We missed Ethan's because we moved a month before our group even ended so it was fun to see Isaac through to the end.
Of course trying to get 5 wiggly 3 year olds to smile for a picture at the same time- even to actually all be present at the same time, was apparently too much to ask.

But how cute are they really?

And of course Miles wanted in on the fun hat action. Slow down! You'll be a joyschooler soon enough!

It's official- he's a grad and can't wait for the fall and his turn to start preschool like Ethan.

Happy Birthday to Gram!

Most years Taylor's parents go out of town for Sonia's birthday. Most of that is because her birthday is always next to Memorial Day so why not take a vacay. But this year they didn't travel so we got to celebrate her birthday.
The kids were overjoyed. Seriously! Sunday after church they went downstairs and created a whole birthday feast table complete with play food cupcakes and chairs assigned to each family member. They played "birthday party" all afternoon. That night we made homemade cards and they couldn't wait for our family dinner Monday night to give them to grams.

Grams showed the appropriate excitement and love for their creations. Of course!

Miles waited patiently, mostly because the cake sat 2 feet in front of him and he's learned if you sit in your highchair and say "peace" you generally get given the good stuff.

We were all very excited to share in the birthday moments with grams.

Cause birthdays rock!

And so does chocolate cake!

A-planting we will go

Last spring one of our combined 5th Sunday lessons was on planting a garden in your yard. Miles was just 6 months at the time and we already had summer long plans to paint and fix up the inside of our house. So we said "someday" we'll plant a garden. And then we felt guilty and over the winter decided we'd tackle the front of our yard and might as well get a garden started while we're at it.
Our best option for good sun is the south side of our house. Here's the before.
And the after. We decided on doing a raised bed garden since it's easier to water and weed and since our growing season here is so short, a raised bed keeps the dirt warmer so the plants grow more. A little more work but cuter and easier in the long run. Taylor gets the full credit for researching how to make one and getting it all done.

My job was to get all the soil and the plants... and to take the pictures of course. The boys were very excited to help plant the plants.

Taylor was very patient with them.

Especially with Miles who wanted to "pick" them right after they'd been planted and actually did pull a few out. Water in a bucket to the rescue- always a good distraction.

And here's how it looks May 28th. The first day we dared finally plant them. Hopefully we're done with snow and these crazy rains!

Of course water in a bucket is a good distraction until you dump it out on accident and then try to refill it on your own with the hose which you seem to have no control over and soak yourself. Yep, pretty mad that I made him just stand their while I found the camera and took a picture.

Zoo Trip

So we can't resist these dinosaurs. It doesn't help that there are "Visit the Zoo" flags complete with pictures of the dinosaurs lining the main road we travel to take Ethan to and from Kindergarten and to and from Spanish school each day. I'm reminded by little voices how much we LOVE those zoo dinosaurs at least 5 times a day. So we've been quite a few times. But it's fun, and easy so a mom can't complain.

This time we went along with our good cousin friends. And laughed a lot at the dinosaur that spits. And at the monkeys that climbed all over the glass right in front of us.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

We have A LOT of teachers we love. At least 6 at Ethan's spanish school and one super-fabulous Kindergarten teacher. So when Christmas and the end of the year rolls around, I comb a lot of blogs for easy, cheap, fun teacher appreciation gift ideas. And this is what I made for this spring. Start with cake balls- super easy, bake a cake, crumble it up and squish in the frosting and form balls. Easy peasy.

Then insert lollipop stick.

Dip in colored melted chocolate and add white sprinkle things (non pareils or something).

Then cut out flowers from posterboards and hole punch tiny muffin cups.

Put it all together- and you have a very springy, cheap, and easy gift.

Grab some cheap jars and jellybeans at Michaels and you're done.

Add some thoughtful, handwritten thank you cards and maybe a small giftcard and you have yourself some happy teachers.

U2

One of the great benefits of living next door to Taylor's parents is that they get tickets to most plays and events that come to Salt Lake, and if it so happens (quite often) that they're unfortunately out of town and we have to take the tickets, you know, we do what we have to to help them out. It's a rough life. We know.
Taylor's dad got tickets to the U2 concert that was supposed to happen last May. I was so bummed because I was the one out of town that time but as luck (or misfortune for Bono) would have it, Bono broke his back and had to reschedule the concert for a full year later- when I was in town! Yeah! Unfortunately Taylor's dad was out of town so he missed out on it.

Can we just say amazing? It looked like a full on alien ship had landed on the U of U football field- it moved, it flashed, and the songs were amazing.
It was fun to be with other people from Taylor's work and some of his family members and Jeff and Jessica.
And opening for U2 was The Fray which I would have told you I knew none of their songs but I actually know a lot and they're great.

Here's the view out the back of the stadium. How many semi trucks does it take to get U2 and their stage on the road??? Apparently more than will fit in my wide-angle shot!

So much fun!!! Really siblings- you should all move to Utah! Jeff and Jessica are making out like bandits and we'd love for you to be in on the action too!

La Gallinita Roja

Every spring Ethan's spanish preschool puts on a little musical play. Last year was The Jungle Book and it was hilarious. I think they outdid themselves this year with The Little Red Hen. All the kids were dressed up like farm animals and making spanish farm animal sounds. Did you know animals make different sounds in other languages? Well it's true. Chicks say "pee-o, pee-o" and so forth.
Ethan and his 2 friends were the narrator frogs (ranas). He has loved playing with these girls.

And here's his cute teachers.

Juice Straw Glasses

Taylor and Ethan brought back little presents for Isaac and Miles who missed out on the graduation trip to West Virginia. While not the most practical gift for little boys, they are a lot of fun. How often do you get to feel your cold juice running over your nose and past your eyes?

Miles didn't realize one of them was for him so I snuck his juice into a sippy cup and he didn't even notice he was missing the fun.

Someday. Not today. I have enough messes from Miles to clean up!

Someone thinks he's a big boy

Oh boy. Does this little one want to be like his big brothers or what? I quite often find him in their beds- reading or playing.

Slow down! You're too cute and cudly to be big yet!

Lazy Monday

Taylor and Ethan are still gone until tonight so I didn't really feel like doing my normal productive Monday routine- laundry, bathrooms, grocer shopping, cleaning, and the list goes on. So we took a bum day and went to the Children's Museum. Apparently we need to do this more often because it was EMPTY. Yeah for Mondays when no one wants to schedule their field trips.

We played with balls, played in the water, grocery shopped (the fun/fake way), danced to music in Kindermusic class, built ball drop things, and generally had enough fun to wipe all 3 of us out so we could all take naps. Yeah!

Zoo-rasic Park

Since Ethan and Taylor were gone Saturday too, we had lots of time to kill (not even an Ethan soccer game to go to) so we ventured out to the zoo which we almost never do on a Saturday since it's usually very busy. But it was 75 degrees (heavenly) so I thought a nice walk would be fun... and then we wandered into DINOSAURS! Every summer the zoo brings in a new small exhibit. A few years ago it was a white alligatore and last year it was Nature's Nightmares (tarantulas, buzzards, bats, leeches, etc). Saturday was apparently the kick off to this year's new exhibits so the zoo included lots of extra fun freebies.


Our local Natural History Museum is being renovated so I assume that's why they put animatronic dinosaurs in the zoo this summer. I should have taken a video because these things are LIFE-LIKE- enough to scare my 3 year old! They move, they roar, they even spit.


This one is the one from Jurassic Park where the fat guy finds him and the dinosaur spits at him and kills him with his spit. So of course this one actually spits at you- just water I assume but pretty funny, and very refreshing.


Do you see Isaac? He wouldn't get any closer for a picture and he absolutely refused to look at me the whole time. Had to make sure that dinosaur wasn't going to come after him.
Miles is currently very into animal noises. So much so that a cow is not a cow, it is a "mooo". And at the zoo he was all about waving hello to all the animals.

Part of the extras of the day was a sand pit filled with dinosaur skeletons and little plastic dinosaurs which if you found, earned you a prize.

I thought it was very smart of them to include one dinosaur you could climb on and take pictures with. Not sure my boys were as excited as I was- but at least this one didn't move or roar or even look at them.

Weekend in West Virginia

So this post has been waiting to be written for a long time (really waiting for Taylor to get around to writing it himself) but it's been long enough so here we go.
Barbara, Taylor's sister, graduated this weekend from the University of West Virginia. Taylor of course wanted to be there for the events along with his parents, but I was a little reluctant to be left home with all 3 rambunctious boys. So Taylor volunteered to take Ethan along and amazingly the weekend was quiet with just Miles and Isaac together and Taylor and Ethan got some good bonding time in.
On Friday they went to visit some local caves.

Which funnily enough my family had visited the previous summer on a family reunion trip, but Taylor missed that day because he came to the reunion a few days late. Ethan remembered it though and got to be a bit of a tour guide.

So cute!

There's Barb, on the back row in blue with her paper next to her. Sometimes it's bad to have a last name with a W.

The panoramic shot Taylor took for me with his parents just visible to the right. Apparently Ethan was good through the whole things- of course when dad lets you have his iphone to play angry birds, any 6 year old will be good.

And here's the cute group afterwards. We can't wait for Barb and her new fiance Clint to move to Utah and STAY!!! Congrats B!

And since Taylor's a fab dad, he made sure to stop at the amazing children's museum in Pittsburgh on their way out.

The angled room.

Unfortunately I made Taylor take our camera along with him since I wanted pictures of their adventure, thus there are no pictures of mine with Isaac and Miles.