May Days

Wow, a whole lot happened in May yet I never got around to posting about it, so here's the recap in mostly pictures.

Mother's Day. Super fun and lovely. The kids woke me up with breakfast in bed (chocolate croissant - yum!) and gifts. I got to go to Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society during church because the men of the ward took over Primary, which was great. Adrian made dinner and bread sticks to go along with it - the first time he's ever made bread and he did a great job.

Nina had her Humpty Dumpty Day (aka egg drop) at school and her egg survived due to this foam contraption Adrian and Nina made together.

The kids had their last day of school and Nina graduated from kindergarten! I now have perspective 8th, 3rd, and 1st graders. That is crazy to me. This school year went by SO fast!

Ben's 1st Pine Wood Derby

Last night was Ben's first Pine Wood Derby and oh my was he excited about it. Adrian and Ben worked so hard on his car. Ben did a lot of the final sanding himself and we all worked on the paint job. I made the lightning stencil for him. Very fun stuff. It was a pretty good little car in the races too, though it didn't place. Adrian and Ben have already started formulating a plan for next year to make a faster car. Ben has a pine wood derby car book and it's now a permanent fixture on his bedside table. At home, after the derby Ben asked if we were still proud of him - seriously he is so tender-hearted - and Adrian picked him up and paraded him around the house saying very loudly, "this is my son Ben and I'm very very proud of him!" It was a sweet moment. Well done Ben and Adrian!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Today has been great and also stressful (for me at least). I gave a talk in sacrament, on Easter... I don't know why it's so stressful, but it was. I guess because of all the Sundays each year I look forward to Easter Sunday the most. I love the focus on the atonement and resurrection and I usually leave church feeling spiritually fed. Not that I don't try to feel that way every Sunday, but Easter is special. I gave the talk on the resurrection. Preparing for it was a great experience. I've been reading so many talks and scriptures, that it really helped me to focus on the Savior this week. As for the actual talk, well I'm just glad I didn't pass out (my heart was beating SO fast!). And I followed Tracy's rule of always getting a new dress when you talk, so I got a new Easter dress too, which made me happy.

Here's a few outside pictures with the new Easter outfits. The kids all have super squinty eyes outside. They all have Adrian's very sensitive eyes, which is why you don't see Adrian in these pictures at all.

Everyone complaining to me that they want to go inside. "The sun is too bright!!" I call them my vampire children.

Happy Birthday Adrian!

Adrian had a birthday last month! (And I'm finally getting around to posting about it.) We went out for hibachi as a family and then at home we had cake and presents and played Risk. It was a very Adrian birthday. Just look at how happy he looks surrounded by his children and Risk pieces.:) We love you tons and tons Adrian. You are an awesome husband and father!

General Conference Basket

Every year it seems like I do something different to get the kids excited about General Conference. Sometimes its Conference bingo sheets, or Conference notebooks, or just a basket of Conference treats to munch on during the sessions. For Conference this weekend I saw a great idea on Pinterest (which I am currently addicted to), you make bags for each general authority and the kids can do or munch on whatever is in that bag during that talk. Yay. It sounded fun. So last night I went to Target and got a bunch of treats/snacks and coloring/activity books/etc. to put the bags together. Thank goodness for the dollar section. The checkout clerk totally judged me and said I "sure was buying a lot of junk food". Sheesh. Then she said when she saw my carrots and celery (for a chicken noodle soup I'm making soon) she said, "at least you make your kids eat some vegetables". Holy moly. Stop the judging! It was just too much for me at that point (I could feel my face had turned a bit red) to explain the whole General Conference treats thing, so I just smiled when really I wanted to hurt her. But I'm okay now. Harboring bad feeling towards a clerk who was probably just trying to make conversation would hardly be General Conference-like. :) Anywho, I hope the kids like this incarnation of the Conference Basket and that it helps them to be excited about watching all the sessions this weekend.

So here is my list of goodies/activities for each bag:

• President Monson: Fun Size M&Ms
• President Eyring: Twizzlers
• President Uchtdorf: Gummy Bears (because he's from Germany :))
• Elder Packer: Coloring Books/ Hidden Picture Activity Book
• Elder Perry: Stickers
• Elder Nelson: Pringles
• Elder Oaks: Fun Size Almond Joys (my whole family loves these - Elder Oaks will be very popular)
• Elder Ballard: Lego Mini-Figures
• Elder Scott: Rice Krispie Treats
• Elder Hales: Dried Pineapple
• Elder Holland: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (another apostle who is going to be very popular)
• Elder Bednar: Little 100 Calorie Twinkie Packs
• Elder Cook: Felt Coloring Posters with Markers
• Elder Christofferson: 100 Calorie Milano Cookie Packs
• Elder Anderson: Snackwell Caramel Popcorn Packs

**Then in the back of the basket I have a folder with a bunch of coloring pages and Conference activity sheets to do any time during Conference.

Hunger Games

Adrian and I went to the Hunger Games midnight show a week ago and it was SO fun! I love that we can be crazy together.:) I thought the movie was so well done. I love the actors they chose and thought it was one of the best book adaptations I've ever seen. I guess that's what you get when the writer is one of the screen writers too. Didn't you think the acting was great?! Oh, and have you listened to the soundtrack?? For the most part it's very Appalachian folky and I love it, surprisingly. (I'm not as big of a fan of the Taylor Swift songs, but I can see why they choose her since this movie is so big with teens.) "Daughter's Lament" actually made me a little misty the first time I heard it and the Maroon 5 song is haunting and gorgeous. Oooh oooh and you can also buy Sting's "Down in the Meadow" on i-Tunes and it's a beautiful lullaby.

Cub Scouting Fun

Ben just started Cub Scouts a couple months ago and he adores it. The structure and goals are right up his alley. He thrives on that. Ben makes new years resolutions for himself and actually works on them. This year one of his resolutions was to learn more about South America and he's totally working on it. I think it's an awesome part of his personality and I really hope he keeps it up. So anywho, Scouts is just the best thing in the world to Ben because it's all about working on new thing and signing them off. He's having fun. Here's a couple of pictures of what he has been up to. He and Adrian are SO looking forward to the Pine Wood Derby. I can't wait to see what kind of car they make.

Ben with his Bobcat badge and the Mom's pin for the Bobcat which he really didn't want to relinquish to me.:)

Ben with his Blue and Gold Banquet cake. Our pack has the tradition of the scouts and their dad's making cakes together for the banquet, so Ben and Adrian made this rocking Angry birds cake. I think it's so cute and was so impressed that they made the fondant and decorated it all themselves.