Dr. Seuss Night

Earlier in the month of March, the PTA at the kids' school (which I am apart of), put on a Dr. Seuss night where we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday!

The kids were able to go to different stations and have books read to them, make a fun craft of a Dr. Seuss hat with red life savers, Oreos, and frosting, have a snack of goldfish crackers and the final station was a picture booth.

The kids had a great time going to the different booths with their friends and celebrating Dr. Seuss.  I would have taken more pictures, but I was helping at the picture booth.  It was a great night of fun. 

St. Patrick's Day

The night before St. Patrick's Day, the kids set their own traps for the leprechaun when he would come and come he did. The leprechaun came and made a mess, turned the milk green and left a treat for the kids.   

The kids were given a treat bag with Rolos wrapped in tin foil and rainbow colored sour strips along with Lucky Charms from the leprachaun!

Later that night, we had some of our good friends over for our dinner of corned beef stew, Irish Soda Bread muffins, boiled cabbage, and a rainbow display of fruit and for our beverage, we had green Kool-Aid.

To end the night, we had Family Home Evening with our friends and a delicious rainbow cake for dessert. 

It was a fun green filled day!

Basketball Camp

During the months of  November and December for Emmy and January and February for Ben and Hyrum, the kids participated in a basketball camp put on by the janitor at their school.

The kids were able to develop and strengthen their basic basketball skills and drills. The kids had a great time; they especially loved doing the camp with their friends.  The kids experienced much growth and improvement in their basketball abilities.

Close to the end of February, there was an award celebration where the kids were able to listen to a local athlete and were recognized for their participation in the camp.  There was also a pizza party to celebrate the following week. 

We are grateful for the opportunity the kids had to participate in the camp.  Also, we are grateful for the good men who put on the camp for the kids. 

Valentine's Dinner

We loved having my parents and sister here for the long Valentine's Day weekend. My kids always love it when they come to visit!  We had delicious blueberry pancakes for breakfast( that my kids always insist that my dad makes). We went out to lunch at McDonald's, which is always a treat for us. Next, we went bowling. The kids love to bowl. The kids wanted to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 with our visitors.

Probably the most anticipated event was the Valentine's Day dinner. Of course, we booted the kids out while we set the table and got everything ready.  Notice the gorgeous flower bouquet Brandon gave to me. 

The kids were thrilled with what they received at the table.  They were big fans of the Trading Cards from Grandma and Papa and the fun valentines from Sean and Tracy and Millie. They boys thought the football cups they received were pretty awesome. Hyrum was in love with his bacon!

The girls were happy with their valentines as well.  Lucy was a big fan of her necklaces.  Of course the girls received flowers from their daddy. 

We had delicious shush-kabobs, rolls, a salad, heart burn potatoes and Danish Dessert.   It was a yummy feast with the people we love. 

To end our Valentine's celebration, we released a floating lantern.  It was pretty awesome.  Everyone loved it, except Brandon. He was stressed it was going to start a fire in one of the many farm lands we have here.   

It was a fun night of celebrating the love that we have for the wonderful people in our family. 

Valentine's Day

To start Valentine's Day off, I made the kids a delicious breakfast of french toast with strawberries and whipped cream.  The kids loved it!

The girls helped me make sugar cookies for Brandon's work and for other plates of goodies we would take to some elderly ladies in our ward. As you can imagine, my girls were very helpful; especially the two year old!

The next thing we made was chocolate covered strawberries. Emmy had been begging for me to make chocolate covered strawberries with her, so we did.  Of course, Lucy was right there with us trying to help.   As you can tell from the picture, many strawberries had bites out of them before they even made it to the chocolate!

Emmy was in heaven with different colors of chocolate and sprinkles to explore and create with.  She is still my little artist!  

Next, we took the strawberries and cookies, along with some other goodies, to Brandon's work.  We stopped and picked out some fun movies to watch and lunch from Wendy's and headed home. 

The boys were able to help me deliver the goody plates to the elderly while Emmy was at dance. 

Late in the evening, my parents and Millie arrived to have some fun with us.  We even saved our traditional Valentine's Day dinner until the next night so we could celebrate with them.  We had a great Valentine's Day. 

Valentine's Day Fun

 I love the holidays with my kids. They get so excited over everything. I love that they are thrilled to share the love pillow with everyone in our family. It makes me smile when I see them write little love notes for each other and put them on the intended's bed or in their Valentine's Day mail box. 

Our Valentine's excitement this year included Hyrum and Brandon working very hard on the Love Machine as Hyrum's Valentine box (the place where his class puts their Valentine's for him). As you can tell, my two boys slaved over this metallic beauty trying to recreate Brandon's own memorable robot box from years ago. Love Machine even rode in the front seat on the way to school; there was even a seat belt in place. 

We loved getting Valentine's in the mail from Grandma, Millie  and Papa and Hot Chocolate Grandma.

The kids loved receiving their Val-o-grams from Brandon, Lucy and I at school.

I caved and bought the girls some fun Valentine's necklaces...they loved them. 

The kids also had a wonderful time at their class Valentine's Day parties and loved exploring their valentines from their friends and eating lots of candy when they came home from school. It was a great way to start our Valentine's celebration!