It's great to be 8!

Dallin turned 8 a couple weeks ago. With Maryruth's family in town, we had a family party of 25 people.

Brennan is just so excited about this one! Note the pink princess gift bag. That's what happens when you have a baby sister.

  

My kids' love Heath (ice cream, candy bars, etc.), so I made him a Heath Bar Cake. After poking a hot chocolate cake with holes, I poured sweetened condensed milk mixed with a jar of caramel over the top, let it cool, covered it with Cool Whip and topped it with crushed Heath bars. It was super yummy! 

Then on his actual birthday we had tacos and watermelon (his favorite dinner) and more cake. Good thing I made 2 of them.

Then of course there were lots of jokes about the diaper box he unwrapped.

Inside the diaper box was this awesome black and red tool bag (his favorite color combo) filled with a bunch of little presents.

Rope + red sheets + big and little clamps + flashlights = a fort kit!

My kids are always making forts, but it's hard to get the heavy blankets to stay up. Plus they always sag in the middle. This way they can clamp onto furniture and tie the rope to various things and clip the sheet to it. They get really creative.

They've made some pretty amazing forts!

Of course the best part about turning 8 is getting baptized. He was looking forward to this for a long time, and it was lovely. Grandpa gave the opening prayer, Spencer gave the talk on baptism, Tyler played his violin (Families Can Be Together Forever), Dave performed the baptism and confirmation, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and grandma gave the closing prayer. And as I mentioned earlier, everyone took turns holding Chloe. 

Afterwards we gave Dallin the option of either going out to lunch or going to the movies. He chose to see Ice Age. Then Levi screamed as we approached the dark, loud theater, so I got a refund and took him home. Luckily the boys brought me home a big bucket of popcorn. It was a great day.

Super Dallin

Dallin had a superhero friend birthday party a few weeks ago. He's not so much into the usual superheros (Superman, Batman, etc.), but he loves to play Super Dallin. So we went with a generic superhero theme.

I loved how the cake turned out. Dallin had a very specific idea of what he wanted it to look. He wanted it to be the actual shape of a flying superhero. I searched and searched online to find a good one to copy. I finally found one he liked, but it didn't have any instructions. So I baked a small round cake for the head and a square cake to cut up into the shape of a body, using the scraps for the hands and feet. It turned out way cuter than I thought it would, and Dallin was thrilled.

When the guests first arrived, they decorated t-shirts by spraying bleach onto a card stock stencil of the first letter in their name. We put grocery bags inside so the bleach wouldn't bleed through. I made them with my boys earlier this summer, and they love them.

Kristen's family went to Fresno for the weekend, but Peter stayed behind and spent the night with us so he could come to the party (yay!).

Then we played sumo wrestling and catching pillows at the bottom of the steps (back by popular demand), saying something about how they needed super strength and quick reflexes to become superheros. Once again, the games were a big hit.

Before the party Dave asked if this activity would be too rough for the girls. But no, not these girls. They are both really tough, and they totally got into it.

It turned into a big pillow fight, and I couldn't believe it when I saw Mason getting into it - he's usually so quiet and shy.

Then we ate pizza, cake and ice cream.

And opened presents.

As things were winding down, I said, "Okay, time for treat bags," then proceeded to look for them. But I couldn't find them anywhere, and the kids all looked worried. Then out popped Tyler, dressed as a masked villain. He told everyone that he hid the treat bags and that they'd need to use their superhero powers to follow the clues and find them. Then he laughed his evil laugh and ran away. He planned this for 2 days, and the execution was fabulous. The clues were things like, "Superheroes may have super strength, but they can still get the common cold. Where do they go to get cough medicine?" and "When danger strikes, superheroes are ready to swing into action."

The shirts were dry by the end, so they were able to wear them home.

The next day we had a family party at Kristen's house. Dallin loves his journal and spy pen from grandma & grandpa.

I looked out the window and what did I see...

...Two boys swaying in the little plum tree. "Ahhh! Get down from there!" The branches are not very strong, and they've already broken some. "Wait, let me get my camera first."

My boys are such tree-climbers, but we don't have any good climbing trees for them. Or that's what I thought. This stinker goes to the very top and sways the whole tree from side to side! It scares me to death.

Last night at dinner Dave told us about when he was little and climbed really tall pine trees in his yard. He'd get to the very top, and then he'd let go! The branches would catch him all the way down. He said it was really fun, but he'd get a bit scratched up. "Don't try this at home!" I said. Now I know where they get their crazy, no-fear, tree-climbing genes from.

Flip!

Spencer picked Dallin's name for Christmas this year. He wanted to get him a real chef thing, so he got him a flip Belgian waffle iron. One of the boys' favorite things about staying at hotels with continental breakfasts is making their own waffles.

There's something about flipping the waffle iron that makes it lots more fun. And it makes perfect waffles every time.

Brennan is always so excited to wear his new apron and hat.

These are some dang good waffles! We even got some real maple syrup to go with them. It's a bit strong for me, but the boys have loved it ever since they ate it at a Cracker Barrel in Maryland several years ago.

First tooth

Dallin lost his first tooth a few days ago. He noticed it was loose while eating an apple. I told him I lost my first tooth while eating an apple at lunch in first grade. Well I guess I tell that story every time someone loses a tooth, because they all finished my sentence for me.

We just figured out a cool trick. Dallin had an ear infection, which wasn't a big deal in and of itself. He just told us one evening, "Sometimes things sound funny in my ear." So Dave took a look with an otoscope, and sure enough, his ear drum was all red and bulging. But the problem is that it's a pain to give him antibiotics because he's allergic to Penicillin and hates the alternative, Zithromax. Even though it's only 5 daily doses, he hates the taste and has a huge gag reflex. He has to have a big glass of water with it and often throws it all up. So we were dreading going through that again. But on day two I forgot to give it to him, so I woke him up to do it. He drank it right down, made a face and went right back to sleep. Then he didn't remember it at all in the morning. So we did it that way every night. What a genius discovery!

Slinky Party

A couple years ago my boys got little plastic slinkies in their Easter baskets. Dallin loved his so much, it quickly became his favorite toy. Who knew something so simple could bring so much happiness? Whenever he had a share day at school, he wanted to share his slinky. He calls it "Mr. Slinky" and flies it around the house, saving people and fighting bad guys. So when we were trying to come up with a party theme for his birthday last week, we naturally thought of having a slinky party. I searched the internet for ideas, but apparently it's not a common theme, because I couldn't find much. However I did find a slinky cake to copy. I made a bundt cake and cut it in half to make 2 slinkies. Then I just iced them and used a fork to make the lines - how easy is that? Dallin got a couple of new slinkies for this birthday; we put those next to the cakes so people would know what they were.

We played a couple of traditional games, altering them to fit the theme: hot potato (hot slinky), pin the tail on the donkey (pin the slinky tail on the pig), and a pinata - but I couldn't find a slinky one (imagine that), so we just got a generic one.

We had a great turnout, which was good. There were 15 kids, including mine. I was worried about that because we threw it together so last-minute after we got back from vacation; plus people are often out of town in the summer. This was Dallin's first friend party, and he was so excited to see everyone.

Have I mentioned how much Levi loves food?

On Dallin's actual birthday (last Friday), I told him he could make anything he wanted from one of his cookbooks. He chose ice cream sandwhiches from homemake chocolate chip cookies. Then we went swimming while they were chilling. When we came home we ordered pizzas, opened presents and ate our ice cream sandwiches. We got him an Easybake Oven, which I had when I was little and just loved. He has used it several times. Happy 6th birthday, Dallin!

End-of-the-year festivities

The last couple weeks of school are busy, what with field trips and ceremonies and parties and such. Dallin's kindergarten class took a field trip to the beach - how cool is that?!

First they played at the pirate park (I got there late and missed that part - it takes me forever to get out of the house these days).


Then they went to the little ocean center there. It's a really small place, but they got to touch a sea anemone and a swell shark.

Then they put on gloves and helped pick up trash on the beach. Someone marked off a section with cones, and the kids were running around practically fighting over who got to pick up each piece of trash. It was pretty funny.

Then his brave teacher had everyone take off their socks and shoes and play in the wet sand without getting in the water. See - here she is backing everyone away from the water. I was amazed no one got too wet. It's almost impossible for my kids to go to the beach and not get in the water.

But they had fun throwing rocks and clumps of sand into the water and running away from waves.

Brennan had a lot of fun helping, and Levi was happy in the baby carrier the whole time, so it all worked out. And I couldn't believe how warm it was! I thought it was such a great idea for a field trip, and I think more classes should go there.

Brennan was sad we missed playing at the park, so we stayed to play and eat our packed lunch.

The next day was their little kindergarten promotion, where they sang a bunch of songs and handed out certificates. It was tough getting a picture of Dallin because he kept turning around and making everyone around him laugh. I kept hearing, "Oh, Dallin!" giggle giggle.

Afterwards we all headed over to their playground for cookies and juice.

Here's his awesome teacher, Mrs. Berry. Unfortunately she doesn't know if she'll be back next year because of all the horrible budget problems. None of the teachers know if they'll be transferred.

Tyler with Mrs. Baker. Their last field trip was walking to the dragon park. He's become good friends with her son Jeb, so hopefully we'll see them over the summer.

Spencer and his absolute favorite teacher of all time, Mrs. Bedell. They just finished learning about the gold rush, so they had a field trip panning for gold in the Salinas River. Then they used the gold nuggets they found (painted rocks that their teachers planted there ahead of time) to buy lunch. He LOVED it. I wasn't able to go because it was the same day as Ben's wedding, and we were busy getting ready. It's so hard to believe that summer is here already. Didn't the school year just start? And wasn't Levi just born? The year has just flown by.