Go Carting

For the past little while Bob has been working with the scouts building a go cart.  He was released but now that it is done they let us come over and ride it around.  First Bob and I went and did it for a date over the weekend and then on Monday we brought the family and all took turns.  They have a big field and made a course.

The date night was really fun.  Bob didn't tell me what we were doing only that I should wear jeans and tennis shoes.

Going as a family was completly different.  It took a while to get it set up so Tucker could reach the peddlas but once we got going it was better.  I think Tucker's first lap took about 5 minutes and was very jerjky, but after a little bit of practice he was a pro.  His last lap he got going really fast and was much more smooth.

I rode with Penelope and Scarlett on my lap and it was pretty funny.  Penelope was scared and kept telling me to slow down, but she liked it and had fun.  Scarlett just laughed and wanted me to go faster the whole time.

Leon didn't really like it, maybe when he is older.

The first video is of me and the second is of Bob.  He got two wheels off the ground and then it turned off.

Birds Nest Treats

For family home evening last week we talked about Easter and how Christ rose again so we can also all live again.  It was very basic which usually works best for our kids.  Afterwards I wanted to make an Easter treat so we made these Birds nests.  It was the perfect treat for the kids because they could do most of it by themselves.

Ingredients:

Chocolate (we melted milk chocolate chips)

Chow Mein Noodles

Egg candy (we used peanut m&ms)

Directions: Melt the chocolate in a big bowl, then stir in the noodles.  Next we shaped them into nests on the wax paper and put the eggs on top.  We put ours in the fridge so they would cool faster. These are so easy and fast to make!

This is the night before I delivered Leon and, no surprise, I wasn't feeling great.  Can you see my huge tummy?  I just sat there while the kids and bob did all of the treat making.

Halloween FHE/How to take a picture of your pumpkin

Happy Halloween Everyone! This is probably my favorite holiday!

For family home evening on Monday we carved our pumpkin.  I think intricate cool designe are really neat but they are really too stressful to try to do with the kids.  So instead we let them pick out something and we all got to do it together.  It was much more fun than me and Bob taking turns while repeatedly telling the kids that they can't do it.

Tucker really likes Dracula this year so when I found this Count pumpkin carving stencil online I knew it would be perfect.  Penelope loves Sesame street so it was a win for both.

Want to know how to take a great picture of your pumpkin all lit up?  Just make sure the flash is off and you use a tripod.  That way you can have a long shutter speed making it possible to get enough light in.  The longer the shutter speed the more of the pumpkin and surroundings you will be able to see.  I also set my camera to a two second delay, just to make sure there was no camera shake when I pushed the button.  The settings I used were

ISO 400 Apature 2.8 Shutter Speed 1 second

 This one only worked with Bob because the kids could not hold still for a whole second.  Seriously.

 I know this picture is supper blurry and not good, but I wanted to include one of all of us.  Tucker also really wanted to show hie dracula pumpkin that he colored.

Next we ate carmel apples and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."  I had never seen it before and really wanted to know if the Great Pumpkin was going to come (if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about).  Bob has seen it a hundred times but wouldn't tell me.  The carmel apples were good but I think next time I would rather just slice up the apples and dip them in carmel.  It was a perfect fun Halloween family night.

Valentines

Tucker and Penelope made Valentines for each other.  They were very simple and cute.  Perfect for a toddler or any kid really.

 Tucker's used a toilet paper roll construction paper and pipe cleaners.  All things we had!

 Penelope got the scissors and was cutting things she wasn't supposed to cut.

Here is Tucker's finished product.  It says "you make my heart flutter."  It was really cute because he picked out the two colors that he thought Penelope would like.  Pink and Purple.

Somewhere between the last picture and this one his wings fell off and got put back on upside down.  haha.

Penelope's says "I have my Eye on you."  I am trying to do more crafts with the kids.  More specifically  with Tucker.  I want to get him ready for school!

We had a fun Valentine themed family home evening on Monday.  For the lesson I printed up a bunch of little hearts that said things like, read 4 Nephi 1:15, or sing Love one Another, or tell how you can show love to your teacher at church.  I then put them all in a bag and the kids took turns pulling a heart out and doing what it said.  Unfortunately Penelope cried almost the entire time because she got her blanket taken away.  It was hard to do anything with  her screams in the background.  

Penelope calmed down and the activity went much better.  Everyone got 4 hearts we each wrote something we love about the other family members on each heart.  My favorites are: "I love mom because she gets my blanket for me (from Penelope)." "I love dad because he plays tiger with me (from Tucker)."  "I love Scarlett because she kisses me (from Tucker)."  Bobs was kinda funny, it said "I love Doranda's ........"  It was totally a joke and the kids did not get it at all which made it way more funny.  He said I could use my imagination to fill in the blank.  I'll say it is supposed to be cooking.

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's day!

Don't forget to sing up for the Infinity Scarf Giveaway!

Lehi's Dream/Don't eat Pete

We had a special visitor at our family home evening last week.  Lehi came and told us about his dream!  Tucker and Penelope even got to put on blindfolds and act it out.  It was fun.  I think the kids were getting confused when we first told them to hold to the rod all the way to the end where a tree statue was.  And then once we started everyone was trying to get them to let go of the rod just like in the dream.  Penelope was not as steadfast as Tucker because she did give in and let go of the rod once people started telling her to.  haha. 

After the lesson we played Don't Eat Pete.  I think it is one of my favorite games.  I first played it when I was in primary.

To play you make a piece of paper with 12 numbered squares on it each square gets a candy.  We used M&Ms this time.  Then one person leaves the room and everyone else decides which number M&M is Pete.  when the person comes back they start randomly eating the M&Ms one at a time.  When they get to Pete everyone shouts "Don't eat Pete!" and they have to stop eating.  The board gets refilled and the next person gets a turn.  The kids love it and so do I.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

A couple weeks ago for FHE we told the kids the story of the first Thanksgiving.  And for activity we made our own thankful turkey.  We each wrote things we are thankful for on the feathers.  I think my favorite one was when Penelope said she was thankful for the computer.  I had to laugh because she is always grabbing the computer mouse and pushing buttons on the keyboard every time I turn around.  I tried time outs but they really have no effect for her.  She will go right back and do it.  Then I read the study that said 2-year-olds will repeat the same offense the same day 80% of the time no matter what kind of discipline you use. For Penelope that was dead on.
For Mondays activity we retold the story and made these little pilgrim popsicle sticks.  Sometime later a king got mentioned while we were in the car.  I think I was talking on the phone to my mom about if we have any kings in our genealogy when Tucker says "mom, kings are bad, right?"  And I was like, "Some are bad and some are good just like regular people."  Then Tucker replied with "But mom, kings don't let you go to the church you want."  It was cute.  I think he got that idea from the first Thanksgiving story when we talked about why the pilgrims left.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scary FHE

On Monday we had a Halloween inspired FHE.  It started when we got out the Halloween decorations because tucker kept asking questions about what the grave was and who is that bones guy.  So I did a lesson using a glove and explained that our spirit is like our hand and our bodies are like the glove.  When we came to earth got our bodies.  I then put the glove on.  Then when we die our spirits go to a place with other spirits and our bodies stay here.  That is when I took the glove off and showed that the glove cannot move by itself.  Then we told him that when people's spirits leave their body something has to happen to the body so a lot of the time they get buried.  And that people get buried in graves that are in cemeteries. 

For the activity we went to a cemetery but before we got there Tucker said, "maybe we can dunk our heads in the dirt and see some dead people." It was funny and at least we know that he understands what graves are.  We brought our flashlight and only had to drive about a mile and a half to get to the nearest cemetery. We walked around a bit and read the names and dates.

Once home we had our treats.  Penelope and I seemed to be the only ones who really liked them.

Happy Halloween!

Blackberry Festival

My parents came in town on Monday for the Blackberry festival.  I always wish things here were bigger than they actually are.  I guess that is because I grew up in a town with more people than we have here.  We walked up and down the boardwalk and had a good time.  We tried a blackberry slug (blackberry filled donut) and a blackberry ice cream sandwich.  That was really good.  But expensive, like most food at these types of things.

mmmm... Just looking at it makes me want another one.

I would have totally bought tucker these finger puppets if they were cheaper.  I thought the black one was a ninja but he corrected me and told me it was just the black Spiderman.  I have no clue how he knows these things.  He has never seen the movies.

They had a franz booth that was giving out mini loafs of bread.  That loaf is seriously 2" tall.  I thought they were the cutest little things.  We actually ran out of bread so the kids had mini sandwiches for lunch.

For our FHE activity we walked down the street and picked enough blackberries to make a cobbler.  I think I am going to try to pick some more before they are all gone.

That is how we spent our Labor Day.