Jump on it - August 2010

From the first time they met, Ryan and Eric have been the best of friends.  We don't see them very often but Ryan is always excited when we do.  He asks about Eric when it has been a while and wishes they could be together more.  We went to the park earlier this week and as we were leaving Ryan and Eric pleaded with both Laura and I to meet up again at Jump on it.  How could we say no?

Ashley loved playing at Jump on it and even though she preferred having me on her leash, she was happy to be with Laura too.  Little Ryan was very cute with her, trying to get her to play on the inflatable slides with him:  "Come on, Ashley" he would say.  He was very sweet.

Izzy is always grand at making friends and Shawn is no exception.  They had a grand time playing together.  Izzy also liked playing with Ashley (as usual).  My girls really enjoy being together - most of the time. 

We had a great time together and look forward to doing it again.

Halloween

We had a grand Halloween this year.
The kids both wore their costumes to school and Ashley and I cheered for them in the parade.  That night we had the ward Trunk or Treat which we just hold in the parking lot behind the church.  We had a lot of people turn out so the kids were happy with their loot.  Ashley was a bit frustrated about why I wouldn't let her just sit down and eat each piece of candy as it came in, but honestly, she got plenty of candy - as her costume would attest with the chocolate drool all over.
The next night we hit two different Halloween parties - Uncle Jon's birthday and the Sigua's Halloween Carnival.  Ryan decided to change his costume from Percy Jackson to a rocker but sadly I neglected to get a picture of him with his black fauxhawk - it was pretty impressive though.  At each event Isabelle got less excited about her costume so she would leave off something - by the end, she was dressed in black with the pink sash (which for a time was her favorite outfit in real life). 

Anyway, we had a great time and I'm glad we're done for another year!

It's a Small World After All

Riding Small World together with the kids in October when Scott was in business meetings.  Ashley especially loved it but the big kids enjoyed looking for the Disney characters sprinkled throughout.

Ashley in the leaves

Ashley loved playing in the leaves several weeks ago.  The neighbors were all out...leaves were gathered...fun was had by all.

Bridal Veil Falls - Gen. Conf. Sunday

We went for a walk along the Provo Parkway Trail until we came to the falls.  The kids played in the water for a few minutes but it was cold, so we didn't stay long.  We were a little late to see most of the trees this year but it was still a beautiful drive on a fantastic fall day.

Isabelle's Birthday Party...back in Feb. :)

Cousins: Melissa, Amy, and Chloe

Mock Cousins: Hannah and Conner

Izzy requested a dance party for her cousin party this year.  Every other year the kids have a friend party.  This was Izzy's off year but she was delighted to have her cousins over to join her in a night of dancing, courtesy of the Wii.

They had a grand time.  We are thankful for our beloved cousins (and the two extras that my kids are convinced are cousins because they are cousins of cousins).

Ashley's Fav's

Ryan and the stairs - how can you top that?

Dad and being outside

The squirt bottle, stairs and Dad in view

Isabelle

Life is good.

My Own Shark Week

We had a great time with the Eddy clan at the Dinosaur Museum last week. 

Thanks guys for all the fun!

My Little Prank

We have some wonderful neighbors who happen to be DIEHARD BYU fans.  Their sons are especially intense about it - and therefore are intense in their dislike of Utah.


So, several weeks ago another neighbor had extra paint left over from a job and asked if they could paint the mailbox (apparently it was old and multicolored, to be honest, I never noticed before).  So late one night the other neighbor stopped by for something after they had painted the mailbox.  We walked over to look at it and I realized it was red.  I giggled to myself and came up with the perfect prank.

The next day after preparing a magnetic white "U" I snuck it over to their mailbox and stuck it on the side.  Then Ryan casually asked (unfortunately before I had the camera out) one of their sons about the new mailbox.  The 10 yr old glanced over, did a double take and raced for the front door.  I watched from my porch and saw the 4 yr old come out, look and get upset followed by the 12 yr old and the 14 yr old.  By this time I'm laughing so hard from my porch that they figured out something was up. 

The older boys were quick to say they were going to paint over it and they were all relieved when they discovered it was just a magnet. 

I guess you kind of had to be there, but believe me, their reactions were PRICELESS!!

Isabelle Prima Donna

I put Isabelle into a ballet class with her cousin Melissa (aka Lulu) for May and June.  She enjoyed dancing and being with Lu but ballet didn't really catch her fancy.  However, when it came time to perform she was charming.  The day of the dress rehearsal she cried because she had to wear makeup and said that she looked too grown-up.  But for the performance I didn't get complaints about makeup and she even let me do her hair fancy.  She was beautiful and I was so proud of her.  I helped backstage as the class mom (which was an adventure in itself) and Scott and Grandma sat through the LONG performance to see her two minute dance.  Afterward Scott greeted her with beautiful pink roses from Grandma and he took her on a date.  Her restaurant of choice?  McDonald's.  (She maybe would have gone for a real restaurant had she not been so hungry.)  They took there food and drove up near the Y (her request again) to enjoy.  Partway through her chicken nugget Izzy found a bone so they headed back to McDonald's where they were treated to an ice cream cone and a coupon for another meal.  She has since told me several times that she hopes she finds another bone.  Funny girl.

Anyway, I think the best part about her ballet performance was the date with Dad.  Needless to say, we need to schedule more time for them to be together by themselves.  She just loves it.

Two of Ashley's favorites.

Ashley has a favorite litte perch.  She doesn't do stairs well, but she can handle the first few holding on to the side, so she goes up a few and then turns around a sits down.  This time when she did it, she found a squirt bottle to complete her deight.

A few Ashley pictures

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Izzy tried to do an Ashley photo shoot, this was the most pleasant picture that resulted from that.

Cute girl enjoying Uncle Jonny's snacks.

Ashley does a funny face and blows her nose, it's really cute.

Grandpa's swing is a favorite place.

Our future karate girl.

Dad's shoulders is another favorite place.

Ashley figured out how to go up the stairs, down is another matter entirely.

Ryan's Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood Party

Ryan requested several months ago that this years birthday party be a Percy Jackson party.  Now I'm not much of a party planner, but this one caught my imagination so I was as excited about it as he was (a little more to be honest...the day of the party it was hot and he said, "Why didn't we just do a water party again?").
So the boys (and one girl cousin, Rebekah) were welcomed to Camp Half-Blood by the Activities Director (me) and were instructed to prepared their armor.  I had already cut out circles from cardboard and painted them black so they just had to decorate them with gold paint.  I taped posterboard strips on the back for the straps but that didn't work too well, if I did this again i'd need to come up with a different plan.  After their shields were painted they began their quest.  Scott was my assistant so the two of us each took a group to help and answer questions as they moved through their challenges.
They had to: 
1. Defeat Medusa by throwing darts at a dartboard where a picture of her that was covered in small balloons was taped.  (This was a bit of a challenge, especially after a few of the balloons were popped, the last boys had a harder time popping what was left.).
2. Have a chariot race (using two scooters on my mom's long driveway).
3. Defeat the Minotaur by shooting marshmallows at it.
4. Power-up by getting a clue out of the sprinkler (Percy Jackson is stronger in the water).
After their quest was over they were rewarded with their swords (cool light-up swords that my friend Katrina found for me).

After the quest they played Steal the Flag (Titans vs. Olympians) and were joined by Scott much to the dismay of the opposing team. 

Then after a quick lunch of hotdogs our Camp Weapons Instructor (Justus Lawrence) did a sword demo and taught the kids some moves and directed some practice battles.  I think everyone thought that was fantastic especially Ryan who got to battle all of his friends (although I think he was pretty pooped by the end).

We opened presents and ate cake and ice cream and it was officially done!!

It was a great time.  Hooray for Percy Jackson!!

Cul de Sac of Fire!...check out the video at the bottom

July 3rd we joined some of my family for Cul de Sac of Fire and a Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert.  It was so much fun! Our children had a marvelous time (as did Scott and I).  Ashley danced and crawled and thought life was grand.  Ryan and Iz were with their cousins, so life was pretty perfect! Plus the fact that we were close enough to the band that I could have spit a watermelon seed and it would have landed on stage.  So, so fun!