Hike to Mary Jane Falls

For President's Day we decided to try hiking Mary Jane Falls up Mt Charleston.  We parked at the trailhead and we couldn't believe how much snow there was!  The boys all had a great time trying to hit each other with snowballs.

Lydia was a great little hiker and even fell asleep for a little while!

We could not have picked a more gorgeous day.

I love taking the boys on hikes.  It is so fun to be out with them in nature.

Unfortunately, we never made it to the falls.  The snow got too deep near the end... we will have to try again this spring to see if we can make it all the way!

Field Trip

I had the opportunity to go on a field trip with James.  We headed on a bus to the Smith Center to see a production of The BFG.

Our school had front and center seats!  It was amazing.  The adults were all in awe... and I don't think the kids quite realized how incredible the seats were.

James took a few pictures while we were there.  He really loved all the details... like the ceiling.

And the set.

The play was really fun... but I was just really glad that I could spend the day with James.  

William's Arrow of Light

Even though William earned his Arrow of Light award before he turned 11 (in November) our ward didn't hold a ceremony until our pack meeting in January.  Three of his friends also received their Arrow of Light that night.

The boys are always so funny about getting their faces painted!

We are so proud of William for earning this most important cub scout award.

I forgot my little ribbon... so William pinned  me on my shirt.

He then got to cross the bridge over into Boy Scouts, shook hands with each of the boys and recited the Scout Oath.

It was a fantastic night.  We have such a wonderful ward and great leaders and do a great job with our scouts!

Wax Museum

Everyone in James's 3rd grade class had to write a biography on an important person in history.  James chose to write about J. K. Rowling.  To wrap up this project they each had to dress up as their person and do an oral report for the class and parents.  Since James didn't want to dress up like a girl he was given permission to dress up as Ms. Rowling's most famous character and have Harry Potter tell all about her.  James did a great job and I was very proud of him.

(Harry Potter and Blackbeard)

Nativity 2015

We are celebrating Christmas a day early this year because of our trip to Oklahoma... so tonight is our Christmas Eve.  We decided to do a time lapse video of our nativity reenactment.  The casting is as follows:
Henry--Joseph
Jeanine--Mary
Lydia--baby Jesus
James--shepherd
William--angel
Alex--wise man
Rich--narrator

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we invited over a family from the ward.  It was fun to have friends over!

Later in the evening we had the Fitzgibbon crew over for dessert.  It was fun to let the kids run around and play while the adults visited.

Birthday Celebrations

William is such an amazing, responsible, hard working boy.  It was fun to celebrate him as he turned 11.  His birthday was on a Sunday so it was pretty low key.  The boys got ready quickly that morning so we had time to open presents before church.  My boys are so funny... they cannot sit down to watch someone open presents!  They have to be right up in the action.

William got a new watch which he was pretty excited about.

And the quilt I made for his bed--my last one! (For a while at least)  He also received legos, new clothes (he's growing like a weed!), money, and a gift card.

I told William I was only making one cake for his birthday--so he had to choose  if he wanted it on his birthday or for his party.  He chose party... so we made chocolate mint cookies for him to blow the candles out on Sunday.

During the coming week we made preparation for his Harry Potter birthday party.  We have been talking about this party for almost a year.  The Harry Potter books start with Harry's 11th birthday... so it seemed fitting to have this theme on William's 11th birthday.

We made chocolate frogs.

And a cake that looks just like Harry's 11th birthday cake.

And we made a bunch of wands.

We even attempted floating candles just like the great hall.

And those red cups are filled with butter beer.

We started out with a meal in the "great hall" of Costco pizza and butter beer.

Next, we sorted all the boys into houses and played Capture the Prophecy (ie: capture the flag) at the neighborhood park.

When we got home we played a game with Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. We passed out the same flavor to everyone and they had to guess the flavor.  I'm so glad that I thought to pass out some spit cups before had because almost every boy spit out a jelly bean... and one boy threw up just a little after eating the vomit flavored bean.  Bleh!

William painted some wizarding currency and had each of the boys buy a wand.  We used the wands to play "keep it up" with balloons.  Everyone had a good time with that.

Then of course... cake!

It made for a house full of boys (one which was invited by the neighbor boy!  Good thing we had extras...) but it was lots of fun!

Such a great birthday with so many memories!