It's been a hard days night

On Wednesday we headed down to LA for our spring break activities. We decided we were going to take the kids to the California Science center. It's free, you just pay for parking. From reading online it looked like they had a couple of areas geared toward younger kids. Well, I personally would not recommend it.

But at the same place there was also the the California Aerospace Museum. It's was much less crowded, also free and had more hands-on things that our kids enjoyed! They had a couple of actual space capsules, a space suit, airplanes hanging from the ceiling, a helicopter and more! The kids liked it here much more.

After that we decided to check out the Natural History Museum. This is where I say the 3rd times the charm. When I first told the kids that we were going to a museum, Bud told Emma that we were going to see dinosaur bones! Since the first two didn't have any, we decided we had to check this one out! It ended up costing $20 for our whole family which wasn't too bad.
We stayed down there at the LA temple apartments and N8 and I both got a session in. On Thursday we drove up to Lancaster and got some family pictures taken and a Costco run in. On our drive back home we drove out toward the Antelope Valley Poppy Perserve ( http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=627) The poppies aren't quite fully out yet, but they're almost there. In another week or two it will be a great time to go!
Tonight N8 is taking Bud and Emma camping with a few other people from the ward. We decided Mo is still into too much to be any fun camping so I'm staying home. We're going to miss the ward's Father and Son's campout so N8 wanted to get a campout in during spring break.

We're training Mo up early to be a blogger...
N8 is so proud!

Emma and Bud on the other hand are working on their veterinary skills-
But they also have the computer thing down!!
I did take Mo into the doctor yesterday to make sure he wasn't dehydrated or had something else going on with all of the diarrhea. Dr Kitty said we had done a good job at keeping him hydrated and feeding him all of the right things--bananas, rice chex, toast, soy milk, yogurt & acidophiles. She did have us do a poopy sample to check and make sure it wasn't salmonella or rotovirus. We haven't heard back on that yet. The number of diapers I'm changing has slowed significcantly, so I'm happy. We're headed down to LA and Lancaster Wednesday and Thursday so we need him healthy!!

You never know what a weekend will bring. I love that we have flex Fridays! We started out this flex with a might long list and accomplished everything on the list except one item by dinnertime! We spend the majority of the day working on the yard-mowing, digging up bamboo, cleaning out weeds, etc. N8 also took every item out of our fridge and wiped it all down! It's amazing how things get lost in the depths of the fridge. We had 3 bottles of mustard and 3 jars of dill pickles, but 7 jars of salsa!! Mmmm salsa! I worked on dehydrating more apples! This week a truck overturned full of braeburn apples and Ridgecrest became the beneficiaries of those apples! I ended up with a box/bushel/100 Apples!! I have made applesauce, dehydrated, froze, and made bread with my apples. I really should have made a few phone calls and borrowed a peeler/corer/slicer because that's a ton of apples to peel, core and slice by hand! Today they got more apples from another truck. I told N8 I was not getting anymore apples, I am done with apples!!

Today we had plans to have N8 take the kids on a hike out in the desert and get some more work done in the backyard. But... Ridgecrest wind came today and put those plans on the backburner. Instead we ran some errands and worked on the computer. This afternoon Emma and I went to a Cat Show:

I explained to Emma before we went that the cats would not be putting on a show (no dancing or jumping threw hoops!!) and that she was only allowed to look and not touch the kitties! She did convincce 4 different cat owners that she needed to pet their kitties and we loved looking at all of the beautiful felines!

Bud and a birthday party to go to after that. It was a little girl in his class at school that lives around the corner. In the past we've seen that when they have a party they get a giant bouncehouce and put in in the front yard. They did for this party too. I think this will be dubbed the marathon birthday party though. It started at 4 and Bud and I got home at 7:30! He had fun and that's what matters.

While he was at the party I ran to Staples to make copies of the Ward Activity flyer that I had previously messed up! Then I ran to the Weinersnitzal to pick up a quick dinner. While I was waiting patiently for my fast food that was being awfully slow- N8 called to let me know Mo had barffed up his goldfish crackers and Gatorade. We have been battling a stomach bug with him most of the week. Tuesday he threw up twice and we thought we were done. Then the diarrhea started and hasn't stopped. Now we're back to the barfing. If tomorrow he doesn't start to do better I'll be making a call into our doctor.

So, tomorrow Ricky and Kim are taking Bud and Emma to church. I thought it would be hilarious if they sat on the stand with N8, but realized I wouldn't be there to witness the craziness. We really appreciate that Ricky and Kim are here and willing to help. Hopefully we're on our way out of this entire buggy business!

So my parents finally send some mission pictures!! I was excited to see where there are and a little bit more of what they're doing. I look forward to seeing more pictures!

Here's their apartment in Georgetown, Guyana:
Here is the Suriname Branch:
Here they are at a waterfall in Trinidad:Hurrah for Israel!
Here they are in Trinidad:
Goat guarding the Pershad Branch (They might want to invest in a dog or two!):
A kindergarten class in Lindon:
It's fun to here of all the work that they are doing. They sound busy helping establish the church and teaching the members about family history and how to do it. It also sounds like they're both getting some good music skills in. My mom will probably come home an accomplished pianist/organist!

Mom and Dad, thanks for sending pictures, keep them coming!!

So, maybe I tend to go a little overboard with things. But, I think Emma's birthday was a blast! In the end her party did end having a few more friends that I would normally do, but it all worked out. Emma loves dressing up and she loves princess's. So I thought we would do a princess party. The problem came when I realized that there would be more boys coming to the party than girls. Not such a princess crowd. So we went with a "Crown" theme.

Just after Christmas I placed an oriental trading company order and got some great deals on Christmas clearance. Part of that order was Snow Princess Crowns. 12 foam crowns, the letters for their names and tons of foam snowflake stickers for $2.99! The kids loved doing it and I think they turned out super cute!
Online I found "Pin the crown on the Frog Prince" Both N8 and I thought the party went really well, but if we had to choose an activity that was more of a flop this was it. Now this wasn't because it wasn't cute or fun, but the kids just weren't super exited about it. Plus a few were afraid to be blindfolded. Still it's a fun idea.

I found some fun coloring pages and got some glitter glue pens. At first I thought this was a great idea. Then the kids started and I thought "What was I thinking". Megan, who stayed for the party was probably thinking the same thing! But the kids loved using the glitter pens and they really didn't make as big of a mess as I thought it would. It really kept their attention a lot longer than I thought it would.


We did the birthday cake, which I broke down and bought a cake at the grocery store. I've been battling a cold all week and decided that I just wanted that part of it all to be easier.
We opened presents. I know that some people don't have their kids open presents at the party, but seriously kids love it especially if you have the gift giver give the gift to the birthday girl/boy. Emma's friends were so generous and she loves all of her gifts!

Our last activity was decorating sugar cookies. I had a slight flop with these. I thought I would go the easy route and buy pre-made sugar cookie dough. The cookies just didn't hold their shape and I ended up making my own in the end anyways. We had crowns and swords and had the kids paint the frosting on the cookies. I think painting the frosting on is totally they way to go. Much less messy and I think I'll start doing it to get a cleaner nicer look to my own cookie decorating. I also think that I need to be better about rationing the sprinkles next time!
Each of Emma's friends got a fun goodie bag with their name and a crown in vinyl! I think they turned out pretty darn cute. Inside had some candies and a simple card game. A little faux pau were the candy necklaces in the bags. I bought them at the Dollartree and after I made up the bags noticed that hanging at the end of each necklance was a small candy cross. I will admit that I was embarrassed and meant to ask N8 what he thought, then I completely forgot. So, anyone who came to the party, sorry about the cross candy necklaces!!
Next year maybe we'll go smaller... or maybe not!! After the party Emma said this was the best birthday ever! That's all I needed to hear. We did a quick clean-up after and let Emma choose where we went to dinner. She chose Bernadino's over McDonald's! Smart Girl!

Here are a few more cute pictures from the party!

On Wednesday night I hosted our ward cooking group. We had an apple theme to go with Johnny Appleseed day. While it was a small turn out, we had fun and ate some yummy apple dishes. I decided it would be fun if we could taste as many different kinds of apple as we could find here in Ridgecrest. Here's what it looked like!

Four years ago today my little, spunky, non-stop talked, beautiful, silly girl came into this world with a BANG!!

Probably most of you who read my blog were aware that Emma was born at home, totally and completely unplanned, on our bathroom floor! In that video, N8 is the one talking, there's the paramedic (who arrived after she was actually born) and Amy! If you watch carefully you'll see N8 start to pan over to the bathroom. In a moment of sanity, he quickly realized that his wife was still on the bathroom floor, completely indecent from just delivering a baby and he quickly pans back to Emma.
Although her arrival was unconventional, we love her just that much more! She's non-stop and gives us a run for our money, but I wouldn't trade her for anything!

Happy Birthday Emma!!

So last night at dinner Bud said one of his teeth hurt. N8 and I discussed that it might be a cavity and I should maybe make a Dentist appointment for him. Then after we cleaned up the dinner dishes he came and showed me that his tooth didn't hurt, it was loose!! This was his first loose tooth and he was really, really excited! You know the term "shaking with excitement!" -That was him. We talked a little bit about how he might lose it at school in the next day or too, but that his teacher would send it home so the tooth fairy could still come.

THen, we had FHE, I did a little variation on this FHE lesson: "I can learn to listen and obey" If you haven't seen this blog, she has a lot of FHE lesson ideas for young kids. For treat we had popsicles. About halfway through his popsicle his tooth fell out. So, our entire first loose tooth experience lasted all of about an hour!

The tooth fairy remembered to come and left him $0.50! He was pretty darn excited.

This was a nice FLEX weekend that N8 didn't have any church meetings on (except for Sunday of course!). As I posted in my last post, I went out to some garage sales on Friday and I picked up some roller skates. Bud has had fun trying them out. We might need to invest in some knee and elbow pads!!
On Saturday we prepped the house for Ruth and Jim's family to arrive. We did lots of cleaning, which really needed to be done! N8 also took the kids out on a quick hike up by the college to stretch their legs. He happened to run into a 2 other families in the ward! Small Ridgecrest world!!
We had a great time with the Schouten's! The last time they were here was when Emma was just about a week old-she turns 4 on Friday, so it's been a while! We visited, the kids played and we went to dinner on Saturday. On Sunday we went to church, had a great dinner and flew kites. I unfortunately forgot my camera for the kite flying, but here are some pictures from the rest of their visit. We love to have people come and stay with us!

Mo's has a cold and was suffering from "motheritis"- Here he is being shy with Lucy!
Mother-Daughter Ruth & Lucy:
The jungle gym got some good use:
Even with the cold Mo had some fun!
All of our dress-up clothes were pulled out:
It was a lot of fun. Now back the week. On Wednesday I'm hosting our ward cooking group. Our theme is Apples in honor of Jonny Appleseed day. Then on Friday is Emma's birthday party. It should be fun!