Tyler's 10!

Last Friday was Tyler's 10th birthday. First we celebrated with family on Sunday, as I mentioned in my last blog. He chose a vanilla cake with marshmallow frosting. I added raspberry filling for fun.

It was yummy, but the slippery marshmallow frosting didn't like getting decorated, and the border started to slide off. Oops!

Tyler's birthday was filled with yummy food, starting with donuts for breakfast.

Later we all met Dave at Nucci's after work for our favorite pizza.

Mmmmm......

We were going to play at a park down there, but it was too cold/windy. We were also going to drop off a thank-you card and chocolates at the pediatric unit at the hospital, but it was empty - no patients and no staff. I guess it's good that they didn't have any sick kids, but I was disappointed I couldn't visit the nurses. I actually miss them!

Then we came home for Oreo cupcakes. They were SO good. I put half an Oreo on the bottom, covered them with chocolate cake batter mixed with coarsely chopped Oreos, then topped them with cream cheese frosting mixed with Oreo crumbs. Yum!

Chloe wore her cupcake outfit for the occasion.

We've had fun playing with his birthday gifts all week: Wii Just Dance 3, Dominos, puzzles, knight toys, R/C truck and metalic engraving pictures. I also took him to the movie theater to see The Lorax. It was really cute, and I liked it better than I thought I would. Of course Tyler loved it. He's one of the easiest-to-please kids I know. Happy Birthday Tyler!

The end of another great hockey season

Wednesday was the last hockey game. It was Spencer's 8th season and Tyler's 2nd. I missed a few games towards the end, what with having a baby and living in the hospital for a couple weeks and all; but my mom watched Chloe so I could go to the play-off game. They lost 3-1 to their cousins (Alec, Jacob and Peter), so that was a bummer, but I'm so proud of them. Spencer scored the most goals of the whole division this season - 28!! The next highest going into the play-offs were 20, then 15, then several 10's. Tyler got a lot more comfortable on his skates, became more aggressive and stopped a bunch of pucks. Now we get a couple weeks off before it starts up again. I want Dallin to play, because I can't think of anyone tougher than him (except maybe Levi!), but so far he's not interested.

Visitors!

Today was the Pinewood Derby. It's a good thing Tyler wanted to start making his car super early, because we've been pretty distracted the past few weeks. Dave went home early last night to help him finish it up.

Very cool design!

His cub master is so creative and fun, and they all had a great time.

I was feeling bad about not being able to be there this year, but then I remembered that I don't like those things. I get so nervous, and I hate to see the boys lose. But apparently there were lots more races this year with 4 cars racing at a time and a cool electronic finish line that showed each car's time, so there was less emphasis on winning/losing.

They came down to visit afterwards, and he showed me his awesome car.

There was a full house in the pediatric unit last night (it was so loud!), but then there were 3 discharges this morning, leaving just Chloe and another RSV baby. I'm always so jealous when I see someone go home. But it was nice and quiet after the patients left, and my sweet nurses let my whole family in to see us. There were lots of extra lunches, so the nurses gave them to the boys. They had already eaten lunch, but that didn't stop them from chowing down.

This was the first time they were able to hold Chloe in almost 2 weeks, or 2/3 or her life. They say she's changed a lot. She's doing better every day, and the respiratory therapists have started lowering her oxygen % and flow.

The nurses went nuts about how cute, polite and social the boys are. One thing I love about the staff here is that they genuinely like kids, which is why they work in pediatrics.

Levi was excited he got a knife to cut his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then he started playing with toys, running around and making a lot of noise, so they couldn't stay long.

We left Dave with Chloe for a couple hours and went bowling at Cal Poly, since it was raining and we couldn't go to the park.

It was really busy there (what else can you do in SLO when it's raining?), so they played arcades while we waited for a lane.

Everyone did great. Of course the bumpers really helped!


Brennan's bowls were a group effort.

That's a heavy ball for him!

Levi was a handful! I tried to let him "help" me bowl, but I ended up knocking him in the head by accident. He kept escaping, biting Brennan, and taking everything out of my purse. I guess he isn't quite old enough for bowling! But he liked putting his head on the ball return thingy to feel the air blowing out.

It was pouring down rain when we left, and we didn't park too close (you know how campus parking is!), so I left the boys there while I ran to get the car. I had an umbrella, but my pants got soaking wet. What an adventure! Dave and Chloe had a nice nap together the whole time we were gone.

Blue and Gold

Last week was the blue and gold banquet. This is the big annual cub scout birthday party, and we always start out with dinner - this year it was pot luck. My boys love church pot luck dinners. Dave and I aren't huge fans of them, but at least I get out of making dinner. I made a jello salad.

Tyler earned his Bear badge, which is cool because he got it done 2 months early - yay! Now he can work on earning extra stuff before he turns 10 and moves up to Webelos.


Black is slimming, right?? Here he's pinning the mother's pin on me.

See my huge finger splint? It is doing MUCH better now.

After awards and birthday cake they played a bunch of relay games. Tyler got to go first, since he had the nearest birthday.

They finished up with a funny game. All the cub scouts took off their socks and shoes, rolled up their pants and stood behind the chalk boards. Then all the parents had to correctly identify their own son's feet. At first it seemed really hard, but as we looked closely it was obvious. Tyler was #13. You gotta love cub scouts!

Cub Scout Day Camp

The first week of summer was cub scout day camp. Unfortunately it was the hottest week of the summer so far. The day I volunteered was over 100 degrees.

Our pack was in charge of the skills station for one day. After a police officer talked to each group about bike safety, we helped them make license plates for their bikes. We had a heck of a time finding adults to help us, so my nephews Alec and Braden came to the rescue.

They were there all day, helping 125 cub scouts laminate their license plates and punch holes in the top. The great thing is that it counted towards a 6 hour community service requirement they needed for boy scouts.

I actually really enjoy being at day camp. There is so much happy energy, even in 100 degree weather. Plus I love to see my boys and nephews having fun.

The highlight of the day was when the fire department came after lunch to spray all the boys. They had done it the day before too, so when the boys saw the truck coming, they all started screaming and running towards the fence.

This went on for quite awhile.

I think the firemen were having fun too.

They had fun throwing their hats into the air and watching the water blow it around.

It sure cooled them all off.

Emily's son Daniel came to day camp too. She heard someone say, "People have come all the way from Utah to be at this day camp!" Plus Emily helped me with the skills station and her son Andrew was a den chief for the day. I hope they come back again next year!

This was Peter's first year at day camp.


Tyler loved everything about day camp, but getting sprayed by the fire truck was his definitely his favorite part.

Making Money

The boys are always looking for money chores. And since Spencer gets to babysit, Tyler is taking over the lawn. He gets $5 for the whole thing, and he does a good, thorough job.

He's lucky he doesn't have allergies, like Spencer.

It's so big and heavy for him. He really has to put his weight into it, especially on the turns.

Yep, he still his his wrist band from Boomers.

Club Penguin Party

Tyler had a Club Penguin friend party. In case you haven't heard of it, it's a free online game on Miniclips. My boys love it, especially Tyler. He also has the Wii game. It was actually really easy to come up with activities because we just played the same games the penguins play.

The first and possibly most popular game was sumo wrestling. I bought a couple of 3XL t-shirts and put a pillow underneath, held in place by a rope. That alone was hysterical.

The goal is to knock your opponent off the iceberg. So we moved the couches out of the way, and the area rug became our iceberg. The rule was they could only use their big belly to bump each other - no punching/kicking.

It's a little blurry, but this picture of Brennan cracks me up.

They could have done this all day.

Then they played 4-way hockey. They had to stay on their knees, so that kept it from getting too crazy.

There were four goals (laundry baskets), four players at a time and a bunch of racquetball balls, which aren't too hard.

We also played bean counter. The computer version of the game has the penguin catching big bags of beans off a delivery truck. We had the boys go down by our front door and catch pillows that Dave threw down from upstairs and put them in a laundry basket.

They went fast, and the ones that fell on the floor didn't count. I couldn't believe how much fun they had with this. They played it for a really long time, with each round speeding up.

By the end he had 4 throwers lined up at the top, throwing them down practically all at once.

When they weren't catching or throwing pillows, I pulled them into the kitchen a few at a time to make their own pizzas (also a Club Penguin game).

After lunch we ate puffle cake balls. Puffles are the penguins' pets. This was plan B. I tried to make a big 3D penguin, but it stuck to the pan and ended up a pile of crumbs. I didn't want to waste it (I made it from scratch after all), so I turned them into cake balls, which I remember seeing on Pioneer Woman awhile ago. Tyler loved them.

Then we did a Puffle Rescue, i.e. Easter egg hunt. I made 72 of these cute little guys, hot-gluing the yarn and googley eyes and drawing the rest of the face with a permanent marker. Okay, so it was a little labor-intensive (it took all Friday afternoon), but I seriously had so much fun making them.

Spencer hid all the puffles in the backyard, and I think they all got found. Although Tyler found one just the other day.

Tyler was especially excited about getting membership cards from his cousins. Although the game itself is free, there's a lot more you can do as a member. He can earn coins playing the Wii and online games, and then he saves them up to upgrade and decorate his igloo. He "bought" a 2 story igloo today.