Messy McKay

My little McKay had decided that he no longer will be fed by anyone but himself. This has presented quite the problem when it comes to soup, yogurt and a lot of other things. He refuses to let us help him at all so whenever we have cereal I give him a little bit in a bowl with enough milk to get it wet. He still manages to get it everywhere and on this day it was everywhere X10!
Sasha (our dog) loves to just sit under McKay at meal times because she is usually rewarded for it :)

Germany Party

I have decided that I need to beware of lists. I become obsessed with them to the point that I HAVE to get everything done on them. I am still working away at the 20 or so things that we didn't get done on our Summer Bucket List. I listed 83 things and we are so close to accomplishing the all. I have now created an Autumn Bucket List (which I will post about soon) but I can't seem to shake the few things left on the summer one...

Learning about a new country was on the list and I was so excited to find out that one of my new friends in this area was from Germany and some of our new neighbors lived there for a while and spoke German. I decided that was perfect for some great information about Germany.

We had them all over for a German party this last Sunday. My friend Nadine let me borrow some things from Germany to decorate with. I made some paper wheels in German colors and mounted them on BBQ skewers put them in some of the beautiful ceramic mugs that Nadine brought over. The table above was the children's table.

This was the adult table.
We also put German words all over the house to let the kids learn a few words in German.
Dinner was authentic German food (except the fact that we had hotdogs for the kids :)
Our great neighbors made this German dish called Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) It was SO GOOD! Even my kids loved it.
I was so impressed with Palmer he was pretty adventurous. he tried just about everything! The funny thing is that I cut up cantaloupe and fresh pineapple for the kids to eat and that is what he didn't want. His pickyness mostly extends to fruit.

We had zwiebelkuchen, brats and sauerkraut (which I had never had and LOVED) garnished with real German ketchup and mustard. It isn't like ours, Authentic German potato salad (complete with German pickles) and German rice pudding. We also had the fruit and hotdogs for the kids. The kids were all pretty good to try the German food.
Josh printed up different facts about Germany and gave one to each of the kids to tell everyone about. They were things about population, holidays, school life and customs. We all learned a lot. It was fun because after someone would share a fact, those who lived in Germany would tell us things about their experiences.


We then told the kids to each go and find a German word and teach it to us. It was a frenzy for the kids to get the words they wanted. The funniest were the ones who wanted the one on the ceiling.

This is a laminated newspaper that was put out in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. Nadine told the kids about that and explained about families being separated by the wall and how excited everyone was for it to come down. I think it was so mind boggling for the kids to think about something so extreme.
Nadine had an actual piece of the Berlin Wall. It was funny because when I first put it out Palmer saw it and said "wow cool, a German rock." (we are easily impressed in our family). Little did he know how cool it actually was (he found out though).
For dessert we had apple strudel. I was so nervous to make it for the first time, but it turned out so yummy!

German night was so great and now we need to go and see Germany for ourselves :)
P.S.  Even though I am not in one picture, I really was there...promise

Lincoln's School Walking Field Trip

One thing I love about the boys school is the walking field trips they go on. I got to go on one with Lincoln and his class last week to collect seeds (I was supposed to go with Palmer to an apple orchard for his class walking field trip, but McKay woke up sick that morning.  I was so disappointed I couldn't go with them!). They then took the seeds and planted them in their class garden and they are going to see what grows. Each of the kids worse a sock on his/her hand and went and rubbed the socks all over the bushes and trees to see what they could "harvest."

You may notice that the kids are all wearing black.  That was in honor of the principal's 40th birthday.  I thought it was a cute gesture. 

I love these kinds of field trips. Does anyone remember on Anne of Green Gables when their teacher (Ms. Stacey) takes them on all of those field trips out in the woods. I love that part and always thought I would do that with my kids. I am going to do one soon. Well, this reminded me of that. It was fun and the kids loved being outside in the beautiful weather and it gave them a chance to take a closer look at nature.

Lincoln is wearing a necklace that has a foot on it.  For an exercise program they have some walking path the kids can do at recess and they get points for doing it.  For ever so many miles they do they get a foot.  Lincoln just got his first foot and he was so excited!  His teacher told me they are all pretty into the program.



One of the boys caught a caterpillar and he was the star of the show. The kids all started looking for caterpillars instead of seeds...

Checking out his seed-loot.
This is Lincoln's best buddy. I love that they both have the same look on their faces. I am not quite sure what they were looking at, but whatever it was, they both had the same reaction.
Can I tell you how much Lincoln amazes me? I have had a lot of chances to watch him or be with him one on one lately and he just is always leaving me impressed with the boy he is. It was fun to get to be with my sweet Lincoln.

Flag Football

Life is so crazy right now in our home. We have something every night and usually it is around dinner time. Dinners have been sporadic and random since school began. Josh is coaching 3 soccer teams and Lincoln and Palmer's flag football team. It is nuts! Good thing the boys and Josh are loving it because the mom and McKay are not sure what to think of our schedule right now.

This year Palmer and Lincoln are playing on the same flag football team. Palmer played last year and Josh coached so Lincoln saw a lot of the football games. He was pretty excited to finally get to play.
Most of the games I don't even bring my camera too as with McKay now as active as he is, I am lucky if I get to watch the game from very far away. I spend most of my time following McKay around. He is so curious and pretty fearless! This game however was at a field that the kids really couldn't go too far away from me and so I was finally able to get some pictures. It was the perfect game to take them as well. Right off the bat Palmer scored a touchdown.


Since being married to Josh I have grown to LOVE football.  There is something so autumn-y about it.  When we are at games I study every tree to see if it thinking of changing it's colors yet.  I am sensitive to the coolness of every breeze and for some crazy reason, I want to bring a thermos full of hot cocoa with me to sip even though it is 85 degrees.  Even though it is takes up a lot of our time, we love to do this as a family.  We are making such great memories and we all come home on a high even when the boys don't do as well as they had wanted to.  These will be some of my favorite fall memories in the future, I just know it!
Lincoln was quarterback this game and I was so nervous for him! He had never played quarterback before and that is such a lot to know and a lot of pressure!
He however was cool as a cucumber and it wasn't too long before he ran in a touchdown. I was ecstatic and screaming while taking pictures doesn't result in very clear pictures, but it really was exciting!


McKay just tags along with all of the big kids.
Lincoln then ran in for another touchdown!
Josh came away so impressed with Lincoln and his "vision".
He was pretty thrilled with it all. Lincoln ended up getting 2 touchdowns and a 1-point conversion (they don't do two point conversions in flag).
To celebrate the great game we headed to The Pizza Factory for dinner.


I had never tasted their breadsticks before and they were just about the best bread I have ever had.
The boys also thought they were pretty great.
I am trying so hard to be in more of the pictures on here, but it is pretty hard when the pictures turn out like this...struggle.

McKay doesn't like that picture either.

Palmer's Football Birthday Party

For Palmer's 8th birthday he wanted a football party. I should warn you now...there are way too many pictures. I like to remember all of the details (and I would like to document them for when Palmer is deciding what retirement home to put me it. I expect an upgrade!). This party was actually pretty crazy. I didn't get all done that I had wanted as there were a lot of unexpected road blocks. Oh well, it was a little chaotic but as I have been reminded, the kids had fun and Palmer loved it so we are good.

I made the invitations in Photoshop.

I made the paper wheels in Broncos colors since they are the football team we like with the most party like colors...is that bad? Blue and white (Utah State colors), just aren't as fun to work with. I got the football lanterns from here.
I used green butcher paper to make the football field for the food table.

Centerpieces from here.
Football lollipops from here. For the base I just covered some floral foam (found at the dollar store) with white paper and spray painted a bread pan white.
I have to love that his birthday party was during football season as there are football things everywhere.


What is a football game without popcorn?
I was so lucky to have wonderful women to help me!

For the games I comissioned my brother in law who is a phenomenal artist paint this huge board. I love how it turned out! The kids had to throw the footballs (found those at the dollar store too! Even the colors I wanted!!!) through the circles and would get the points that were on the jersey of the football player trying to catch it.


The next game was to throw little squishy footballs into the bowls and get the most points.

There were some seriously talented kids at the party!

All the friends at the birthday party.


We had little football tattoos for kids to put on their faces. My boys have worn them a few times since when they have flag football games.

Okay this is pretty abstract...it is supposed to be a football made out of balloons. I worked FOREVER on it (I expect fresh flowers once a month at the retirement home Palmer)! I really did like how it turned out. Can you tell it is brown? I couldn't blow the balloons up all of the way or the football didn't look right and the started looking black when they were only blown half way up. Well...they were brown.
I bought darts and the kids got to take turns popping the balloons. Under three of the balloons were little papers that said the kids popping them got a prize. My boys won...

The last game was pin the football in the goal post. Lincoln won that one...Is that horrible party etiquette to let your kids have the prizes if they win the games?  I am really curious and have no idea.
The cupcakes were supposed to look like footballs...again we are going abstract here.

One of Palmer's best friends from school last year was his 1st grade teacher's nephew. It works out pretty great because he loved his teacher and this buddy and we got to see them both at the party! She was so great to pitch in and help and I was so grateful to have her! Thanks Maria!
Palmer picked "Rainbow Sherbert" for his ice cream. That is his favorite.



Palmer was so excited about the present part.

I had these water bottles made in our party colors for our party favors. I am sure the girls were just thrilled to have a football water bottle :)
I wrapped them up with some treats inside.
"Wat-er great time I had with you at my party."

I love putting together parties and this one was really fun! Palmer is getting excited for his baptism which is coming up in a few weeks. I can't believe how old he is!