Happy Birthday Tate!!

     Tate turned seven this year!!  For some reason his age always shocks me.  I don't know if it's because he was the baby before the babies or what, but I can't believe he's seven!  This year is a party year at our house so I asked Tate what he wanted.  His request was to go with AJ (his very best friend) and have dinner at Arctic Circle and then watch a movie.  I was great with that!  So we made sure AJ was planning on it and I was thrilled at the simplicity.  Until the day got closer and Tate's mind was planning, planning, planning!!  It started with a costume...okay, I let AJ's mom know he was to wear a costume.  Tate wanted to dress up as Thor and wanted me to buy him a costume for his party.  Luckily he has a very creative brother who stepped in to make him one when I said I could buy it if we took back the present we'd gotten him.   McKay is so creative I love seeing what he comes up with.  Then, since Tate was dressing as Thor the boys convinced him to do an Avengers themed party...the night before his birthday.  How our Mom's survived without the internet I'll never know, but I googled some Avengers cupcakes, pulled out the Avengers for the movie and we were good to go!  Whewww! 
     The party was a hit!  AJ dressed as Iron Man and they had a great time playing, eating corndogs, and talking in lispy toothless voices that I LOVE!! 
                                             Happy Birthday Tater bug!  We sure love you!!

 

Peter Pan

     Keaton participated in the school choir this year.  He willingly admitted to me that he did it solely because he would get to miss some school time for performances, but I think he really enjoyed it.   For the spring-time performance they did a play.  This year they did Peter Pan.  So fun! Keaton was thrilled with his role as skunk-boy, a lost boy.  He planned out and created his costume and memorized his lines.  It was fun to go and watch him!  Great job Keat!

Ready to act!

Singing with the other lost boys

Keaton and our neighborhood friends after the play

Happy Easter!

     This year I had a great time learning how to make chocolate eggs from my good friend Alison.  She had five molds so we had to do two differently, but they turned out great and it was so much fun to do.  These are homemade marshmallow eggs surrounded with ganache covered in semi-sweet chocolate...yum! For Avery and Breckens we just cut out egg shapes from the homemade marshmallow and put them in the freezer and then dipped them in the chocolate. 

 

 

       We always start our Easter in Scipio.  Scipio is a little town just off the freeway past Yuba Lake.  It's where my Grandma and Grandpa Peterson grew up and where I grew up visiting.  The city puts on an Easter Egg Hunt every year so we go down the Saturday before Easter to do it. 

 

     All the grandkids....McKay holding Weston, Keaton, Tate, Brecken, Avery and Wyatt.  Ready to go!

     The age limit is twelve and McKay's birthday wasn't for another two weeks...lucky duck.  I love Wyatt's smile in this pic!  Hayley told him to do something silly first and then he laughed at himself, so cute!  Sweet baby Weston couldn't last the egg hunt, he plugged in his thumb and fell asleep.  

 

     We did a few family pictures after the egg hunt.  Upper right hand corner (going clockwise): My parents and my Aunt Tracey and Uncle Brent, the original "kids" of my family, Avery totally enthralled in baby Weston, my immediate family, & the girls.  

 

 

     After the egg hunt we head up to the grove and have a BBQ and play in the beautiful campsite.  My kids love to "fish" with sticks and swing across the stream. 

     On Sunday we went to the Larrabee's and had a great time playing with cousins and doing another egg hunt.  We're so blessed to be so close to our families and to enjoy great family holiday traditions!!  We love you families! 

 

 

Happy April Fools Day!

     Apparently we celebrated April Fools at our house....that's sharpie courtesy of older brothers.

Let the biking begin!

     Corey did his first race of the year a few weeks ago in St. George.  It's the True Grit 50 and he did great!  It was a beautiful warm St. George weekend! 

 

A Comedy of Errors

     When Mac came home with one of the main parts for his 6th grade Shakespeare play I was nervous.  There were so many lines, many of which he didn't have a clue as to what they meant.  Boy did this kid prove me wrong.  He worked so so hard and memorized every line perfectly.  He'd repeat one of his big parts and I'd ask him if he knew what they were saying, and he didn't, but he could still recite the lines.  We talked about the play and what it meant and he loved it.  His teacher has been so wonderful for him and thinks the world of him. I'm so grateful for good teachers who see the strengths in my children and let them shine.  Ms. Larson has done that for McKay. 

     It was a great day watching his play.  Both sets of Grandparents were there to watch Mac in his starring role.  Great job McKay!!!

Check out that wig!!

Love you Mac, we're so proud of you!!

Rough Day on the Playground

     This kid had a rough day.  I got a call while I was out shopping and the lady at the front desk said she thought I should come take a look at him.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  His eye was quite swollen along with his fat lip.  It was a good enough that I took him home to rest.  When we got home I said "Wow, Tate you must have been running fast!"  to which he replied with a straight face "no, I was just speedwalking."