Painting Pumpkins... Better Late Than Never...

For our Family Home Evening activity we finally painted our pumpkins... post Halloween as I was in the E.R. the day we were going to originally paint them. The kids had a ball... and so did we! I'm glad I have a husband that enjoys doing these fun little things with our kids!!! :O)

Jaren painting his pumpkin AND he still manages to have his hand down his pants... er... diaper in this case. Our little Al Bundy!!! :O)

Eden choosing some paint colors. Sweet smile!

My two lovable dorks... Ollie and Ed!!!

Me, Jare and Edes. Jaren wanted to help me paint MY pumpkin...

LOVE this proud face!!!

Oliver and his ghost pumpkin!

Eden posing with her pumpkin masterpiece!

I don't think Ed was thrilled with his finished product...

My ghost squash and Jack the Pumpkin King!

Crazy kiddos!!!

Couldn't resist posting this sweet picture!

Jaren doing a little table dancing during our judging of the pumpkins...

The lineup...

FHE - Modeling Clay Fun

Oliver got some cool modeling clay for his birthday that he said we all could use for this week's Family Home Evening activity! It was a fun and creative night for all of us! :O)

Jaren modeling some of brother's handiwork!

Eden and all of her creations!

Wacky boy!

Oliver made his mommy a necklace with his share of the clay! How sweet is that?!

Concentrate! Making some beads for Oliver.

Spider-man magnet I made for the fridge.

Ed working on his crafts!

Here are Ed's finished works of art. :O)

Old Crayons - New Crayons

STEP 1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees while peeling paper off of old crayons. I used a butter knife to score down the center of the crayon which made it easier to peel off.

STEP 2 - Break crayons into small pieces and place into mini muffin tin.

STEP 3 - Place into oven for 4-5 minutes, until soupy.

STEP 4 - Using a hotpad, take out muffin tin and place onto small cookie sheet. Optional: By using a toothpick you can create swirling patterns on top.

STEP 5 - Place cookie sheet into freezer for 30 minutes.

STEP 6 - Cover tin with towel and turn over onto counter to keep the new crayons from breaking in two.

STEP 7 - ENJOY!!! :O)

Fun With Sidewalk Chalk!

Memories of MAY...

Let's see here... oh, yes... May started out with Jaren's first three day stay at the hospital for his respiratory problems. He's definitely following in his older brother's footsteps. We think he's allergic to milk and wheat so far. He's probably got allergies like the rest of the males in this family, go figure! The kids had fun visiting brother and playing in his "cage"!

Jaren was released on our anniversary, Cinco de Mayo. So we've been married for 8 years now. Good news... we STILL love each other. We never got to celebrate it, but we do fun stuff together every now and again anyways! I love you, Stinkyface! Thanks for the beautiful flowers!




Krista, Tiona and I celebrated Connie's graduation from UNI at the Olive Garden and let me tell you, we were just roaring with laughter! Congrats again for a wonderful achievement!!! "Outer Darkness Cheese"... I'll leave it at that!!



I helped the girls with a craft this month. They were studying about "Things that Grow": babies, animals, chicks, plants, etc. We made a little nest with some chicks in it and they LOVED it!




We also crashed the Lou Henry Elementary "FUN FAIR" (well, my mom teaches there, so we really didn't crash it... ;) They go all out for the fun fair! They have a petting zoo, dunk tank, blow ups to jump in and all sorts of games and yummy food. This year the kids won two gold fish a piece, so after we left, we bought a little tank. Yeah... fish die fast. Not a great pet for the kiddos. I've also found out that if a pet does NOT make noise... it doesn't really get taken care of... the squeaky wheel gets the oil... ya know what I mean?!


Here are some pictures of Jaren trying to keep on standing next to the couch. He eventually toppled over, but was a tough little tot and didn't even cry! He's also just too cute when he flashes me his cute smile when he plays with his toys.






I took the girls to the Arboretum as well this month. Here are some pics of that:




At the end the month, we had a Book of Mormon Ward Activity which I'm glad I took the kids to. They had lots of fun going to the different stations and having hands on activities. Good job to those who made it possible, the kids had lots of fun!