Let's Glow Birthday Party

Make a wish Hayden! (Colored flame candles.)

Freeze tag. The boys each had several glow sticks. The "it" person had to wear a glow mask!

Glow in the dark Bowling

The boys catching frogs. Yes, we have tons of frogs right now.

Hayden's Birthday Party was Friday night. And can I say I am so glad birthday's are only once a year! Phew! Hayden had a great time with his friends. Hayden was very grateful, and must have said thank you a hundred times! It was very sweet. A few highlights of the evening were freeze tag, an Easter egg hunt with glow bracelets inside, glowing bowling and football. I wanted to make glow in the dark slime but I didn't have any takers, they just wanted to wrestle and play football! Oh boys will be boys! This party was fun.

If I were to do it again I would definitely find a big black light, because it wasn't dark enough to see everything glow. All I could find was a scorpion hunting black light, which is tiny! So plan ahead and order online. The Easter egg hunt was so cool, but you have to have the larger eggs to fit the bracelets inside. It took me forever to squeeze them into the regular eggs. I couldn't get a good picture to show the eggs glowing because of the flash on my camera so you just have to trust me-its a must do! Also next time I would start decorating a lot earlier because the glow bracelets last a really long time so its OK to light them up early. And my last piece of advice would be two and a half hours is way to long! Two hours would have been plenty!! What was I thinking!

A Crafty Week

We made a trip to the Lego store.

Card games.

Potty Training.

Quilting and a new party.

These are all pictures from instagram. So in love with instagram lately! If you want to follow me on instagram, my name is ashleyelizabethhancock. Do you instagram? 

This week I was feeling a little inspired to craft. I bought coordinating fabric for my office, forever ago, to make a quilt. But that was maybe two years ago, and it has been on my to do list for that long! Yes, I know. I can be the queen of procrastination sometimes! This was the week I was determined to check it off my list. I choose to do a very simple strip quilt, which honestly, can we really even call it quilting? Probably not. But it is done, so who cares! My other craft inspiration is a new party for my shop. I have a few parties I am working on. The first is a butterfly party. Then I am going to get started on a Halloween party, as well as a black cat party. They will all coordinate, which makes it easier/cheaper for me to make. I am excited, I think this butterfly party is going to be really fun. I love the black and white chevron, with the gold and bright colors!! More pictures to come!

We also decided to start potty training. Libby has really sensitive skin and gets really bad diaper rashes, therefore spends a lot of time, when we are home, diaper-less, (Au natural). So we decided to make it official and she has been doing awesome. The easiest of the three. Hayden was really easy too, but Libby is a champ.

This week has been stormy! Gray clouds, windy, rainy. Love it. Ethan has taken advantage of it being slightly cooler (like 97) and went to the skate park with cousin Noah. This stormy weather makes me want to curl up read....but I have kids, that want to be entertained (so inconvenient!) so we've spent a lot of time playing cards. I taught the boys how to play speed, one of my favorite card games. And Ethan taught us how to play crazy eights. Its been so fun. When the kids get bored they start to rough house so I've been trying to come up with new things to do to redirect their competitive and aggressive behaviors. Some days are really long! Not going to lie! But we are having fun together coming up with new things to do.

What are your favorite things to do at home??

Lemons, Hide and Seek and Life Vests

Yesterday Hayden, Ethan and Libby played hide and seek. It was so sweet the way they were including Libby. Libby was in heaven, she loved it. She even came up with a few hiding places too, but mostly she liked looking for them. After playing for awhile she put the boys hamper on her head, and said "where is Libby?" It was so funny. She couldn't see anyone, so of course no one could see her, right?!

Libby finally held still long enough for me to do a quick little braid. It was sloppy, but I was elated. She has so much hair I've been wanting to play with it and do some cute hair dos, but she apparently doesn't share my enthusiasm for hair styling. I have also recently started using regular shampoo on her hair, I know your thinking who cares, but it feels like a huge milestone to me, because that means she does not have baby hair anymore, she has little girl hair!! And its so EXCITING!! (oh I love having a girl!)

 We haven't been able to talk hayden into trying the wakeboard yet, he will do the knee board sometimes, but mostly he likes to play in the water and throw the football around with Dad. In this picture hayden is holding onto the handle and shawn is pulling him to the swim step.

Another milestone: Since Ethan is 12 he leagally doesn't have to wear a life vest on the boat, and he can "legally" hold the flag! He is so happy, and a little smug when all the other littles are putting on their life vests....Sometimes its the little things folks!

Saturday Ethan's flag football team played in the play offs. It was so hot. They had to play five short games. They didnt win, but they made a touchdown on the best team in our Anthem league, which kicked the other team out of the play offs. Oppse! Ethan has had a BLAST playing this season. And we already have him signed up for the fall season. This is huge for Ethan becasue we usally have to talk him into playing sports. Yay Ethan!

We are anxiusly waiting for lemons to ripen and check on the tree regularly. Its so exciting. We love all things lemon. Fruit trees are illegal in Anthem, so I can niether confirm nor deny that this tree is actually in our yard. We wouldnt do something like that!

The kids have only been out of school for a week and a half but I am already certain this is going to be the best summer ever. It might have something to do with the fact that I am not working this summer, yup that definelty has something to do with it. My goal for the summer is to relax (aka be lazy), but use our time effectively. I have come up with a schedule that gives the kids downtime to do what they want, but they also have responsibilites each day, some of which they can on their own time, some they have to do a certain time. Every summer I set goals for each child that we need to work on. One goal that I have this summer for the boys is to work on their typing skills. Ethan is really good but sometimes he uses the peck method because he thinks its faster. So during their computer time they will work on improving their typing skills for 20 minutes. Another goal that I have is I want to teach my boys some life skills, such as how to cook easy meals (and maybe desserts, becasue thats way more fun) and clean. They are great at helping around the house, but I have yet to relenquish some of my deep cleaning jobs because I want it done right! But I know they are capable, I just need to give them the opportuinity to learn. So we'll see how it goes, I'll keep you posted on our summer endevors!

Happy SUmmer!

MO

Libby is helping me bake. She loves to be where the action is. We have been doing lots of baking. Chocolate cake, lemon cake, chocolate cookies, and even snickerdoodles! Yummo!
There is a tiny stream that runs next to the apartment. It is filled with tadpoles and frogs!
I brought pictures of cousins and aunts and uncles, etc. to hang on the wall. We love sharing memories (mostly silly ones, the cousins are a pretty entertaining group!) while looking at the pictures.
Here is the pool that we go to almost everyday. Libby hasn't decided if she likes the water or not. She mostly likes to walk around the pool (and make me a nervous wreck!) This pool is fun though because it has a beach front entrance so Libby can sit there and sort of be in the water, but not to deep!

We have been doing a little sight seeing. We visited the Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith was imprisoned. We went to downtown Kansas City and looked at all the really old buildings, that are amazing. We have found several really cool parks. Hayden's favorite was a park that has a 2o foot penguin and 4 merry go rounds, that he played on until he was sick! Ethan has even joined the eleven year scout group for the summer, and got to go on their camp out with his new friends. We went to St. Joseph and visited a museum about the history of the town, including the pony express and the civil war.

There are still lots left on my to do list. I want to visit the library in downtown, mostly because it is in the coolest building. I want to visit the local farmers market, and maybe find some fun flea markets. So much to do! But it is so hot here (I was hoping to escape the heat, but no such luck!)

I hope you are enjoying your summer, too!!

Mmmm punch!

Mmmm punch. I love punch. So cool, refreshing, and delightful. If you are parched on a hot day, or are looking for a special cool treat, try these...the kids will dig the layers!
In three shallow bowls you just mix 1/3c frozen concentrated juice with 1c of water. I used cranberry juice, limeade, and orange juice. Then let freeze for at least 4 hours. Then with a fork you break up the frozen juice to make an icee mixture, see pic 1. Then layer the icee juice in a glass and pour a little 7up over it, see pic 2. Insert straw and put your feet up. Enjoy.

Sweet Stickers

All you need is:
art work that has been previously made, or color something up just for this project. We colored pictures with crayon, then water painted over the crayon drawing,
scissors,
jello,
and a paint brush
Cut out pictures. Lay out a piece of wax paper, or newspaper to cover work area. Parent: Mix 1tbls of any flavor jello, with 2 tbls of boiling water. Stir until jello is dissolved. After it has cooled use a paint brush to brush on the jello mixture to the back of the drawing. Let dry. After it is dry you just lick the back of the picture and stick on whatever you want. Yummo!
Another idea is to use big hole punches to cut out decorative paper and decorate a card or gift wrap. Or use artwork to decorate a card. The possibilities are endless!

A picasso party

Thursday's we have a little special party where we have a treat and do a special craft. For our Picasso party we had chicken fries with three kinds of dip arranged on a plate that looks like a painters palette. The kids painted their own master piece to hang. And we made these cool lollipops. You just crush up hard candies (we used jolly ranchers) and arrange on a cookie sheet lined with foil and cook at 350 for about 5 minutes, or until the candies melt. Then while candies are still piping hot you insert a lollipop stick twisting it in the candy so the top is fully covered. Did that make sense? Then let cool. They turned out really neat, dontcha think?

Pizza

Monday's we spend a little time in the kitchen cooking something up. Last week we made Popsicles, which were fabulous. They tasted just like an orange Julius. You just mix up 1c vanilla yogurt with 2c of a good orange juice, and freeze in a Popsicles tray. So yummy. This week the kids made personal pizzas on english muffins. They were a hit!

Swimming Lessons

We have had a great time at swimming lessons this week. The kids are all doing awesome. Aspen was even promoted on the second lesson! Go Aspen! After swim lessons we play at the water park until lunch time! Well some of us do. Sierra likes lounging and having snacks, Ethan likes to play at the near by park...but everyone is happy so that is all that matters!

Teddy bear tea party