Sunday, June 9, 2013

April in a Nutshell

School Project

Hunter's Curious cub project was due the week after Spring Break, he wrote his report on the solar system, and then painted a bunch of Styrofoam balls

And it turned into this:  

He did a great.  He loves learning about space,and he decided to hang up his poster up on his bedroom wall.  

Quincy
Here is just a random picture I took of Quincy.  I just love his little face. 

Walter's Birthday

Walter's actual birthday was the first part of April.  We celebrated with a birthday breakfast and the opening of gifts.   

We got him a pirate ship, which he just loved.  

Later that day we had some family over for a birthday dinner (he chose homemade pizza), cake, and he opened more presents.   

Walter is a wonderful boy and we are so pleased to have him in our family.  


BYU Rugby

BYU rugby ended another great season (they won the National Championship).  Walter just loves going to their games.  He says that when he grows up he wants to be a rugby player.  


He loves the haka.  I've seen him several times in front of the mirror practicing and he has also taught the other neighborhood boys how to do it as well.  


Soccer


April also brought the end of Spring Soccer.  Hunter still might not be the most aggressive player, but he has improved a ton since the the last season.  He was more focused, he kept trying and he got some awesome kicks in.  

Overall it was a wonderful season for Hunter.  

Walter has had a great season of soccer.  We still had to remind him a couple of times that there was no tackling in soccer, but he loved it.  He is a very determined little boy.  He had some great goals, and he also had a wonderful coach.  





So there you go-April in a nutshell.


Spring Break 2013

We decided to go to the ZOO! 
The boys loved it.  The boys both love looking at maps, so they picked up a map of the zoo and led us around.
First up was the baby elephant.  


Here's a picture of them looking at the map.

Quincy just enjoyed the ride.  





My favorite animal was the tiger.  

And of course we had to see the llama.  

Lunch time

Quincy may have gotten a bit tired of all the pictures.  

Later that day we went to the playground.  


We also hiked the Y, during spring break.  



And we also had enjoyed General Conference during Spring break.  The boys loved the conference board again.  

Sunday afternoon we also did apostle treat bags.  I had intended to actually make felt bags, but then I realized why not just use all the gift bags that I already have.  

I printed these dot to dot pages of the First Presidency for Quincy and he used his magnetic pom-poms.  


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Easter 2013

 Easter
So the next day after the double pirate parties we started celebrating Easter.
We started off by going to the Hafen family Sunrise Service.  We reviewed the Easter story and then had a small testimony meeting.
Usually after the sunrise service we all go to McDonald's for breakfast.  But this year I wanted our family to drive to the Provo City Center Temple and see the progress that had occurred.     





After breakfast we came home and the boys looked for their Easter baskets.  After  a couple of minutes the boys all found theirs.  

It was cute to see Quincy discover his basket.  

I knew that I wanted to include a stuffed animal, because he had loved cuddling with them.  





Happy Boys= Happy Mom

I realized that I didn't take many pictures of our Easter Week Celebration.  
This year I used Jen Lund's Easter Eggs idea.
But I didn't want to use a tree, so I found this cool twig looking basket at Target. 
And we also made an Easter Garden.  
Here is a picture of the entry table on Easter Sunday.  
The twig basket is empty because we opened all the eggs during the week.  


Then on the other wall we have our Easter picture timeline.  

Then across the room was our Easter/Spring Mantel  
I love my blue mason jars that I found at several antique stores in Oregon.  
And I made the baker's twine eggs in the cream bird cage.  

On the dining room table I had our egg holders and our dyed eggs that we used in the Egg Bash.  


And this year our winner was: Walter 

After a nice morning we got ready for church.  The boys got to wear their cute new Easter outfits.  



And then I attempted to take a group picture.  Here is the best one


After church we came home and had a nice Easter dinner.  

Overall it was a wonderful day.  We were able to focus on the true meaning of Easter and we were able to relax as a family.  

March Madness

(Warning this post is super long and has a ton of pictures)  


It'a been awhile since my last post, but we have been super busy.  March 22nd- April 9th are what I like to call March Madness.  I know that most people think that March Madness refers to the NCAA Basketball tournament, but in our house March Madness is birthday time.  All three of our boys have birthdays within that three week period.  And this year we also had Easter and General Conference during those same weeks.
But before we get to all the birthdays, celebrations and holidays.  There were some other fun, small family moments.  

Look how cute this little boy is!!!  He loves to climb onto the entry table.  

The boys woke up on St. Patrick's day to a path of gold coins that led to a box of Lucky Charms and green milk.  
I also made Quincy a new tie onesie for St. Patrick's Day and  Hunter and Walter got matching green ties.  I started them on Saturday and finished them on Sunday Morning.  
For the older boys I used this tutorial from I Candy Handmade.  It was simple to follow and the boys looked super cute with their green ties.  I unfortunately didn't take a picture.  

For dinner I made burritos with green spinach tortillas.  And I also made jigglers in the shape of green shamrocks and gold coins.  I also made these fruit rainbow kabobs.  


The days after St. Patrick's Day were fun and sunny and the boys enjoyed many afternoons outside playing with their friends.  

And here is another cute picture of Quincy.  Don't you love his smile.  


Quincy's Birthday
 Quincy's woke up to a pancake breakfast.  He wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but once he figured out that it was food, he ate it all up. And then he opened up his presents.  He got this cute activity puzzle from his grandparents and we gave him an outdoor swing, to hang in the tree in our front yard.   


We decided to have a small party and invite just our family.  And we went with a Cookies and Milk Theme.  Here are the invitations that I made using my Silhouette.  


Here is the cake that I made for Quincy to smash into.  


 I decorated the dining room with brown pom poms and blue tissue circle things.  

And here is the cookie buffet table.  
I made Chocolate Chip Cookies, Snicker-doodles, Homemade Oreos, Peanut Butter Cookies and Sugar Cookies.  I also made white chocolate milk mustache suckers and cupcakes with  Cookie Crisp cereal on top.  

I think that the sugar cookies turned out pretty cute.  I got a cookie cutter in the shape of a milk bottle and then put either a Q or a 1 on them.  


Then to drink we had white milk, chocolate milk and soy milk.  I love these drink dispensers that I got from Target.  
 And then I made this photo banner, with different pictures of Quincy though the last 12 months.  

Some pictures of the actually party








So many people think Quincy looks like Hunter.   What do you think?
Here a video of Hunter's first birthday


Space Adventures

In between birthdays- Weston took Hunter and Walter to the Space Adventure at the Provo City Library.  Imagine my surprise when Walter came back looking like this:

Here are some pictures that Weston took while they were are the library.







 Hunter's Birthday 
Hunter asked for pancakes for his birthday breakfast as well.   And he was super excited to open his gift and find a Solider's Fort.  He has played with his Fort everyday since his birthday.  


And then for his birthday lunch I wrapped each of this lunch items in wrapping paper.  He came home and told me how much he liked his birthday surprise.  

 Then for dinner, he asked for Chili Spaghetti and  a Yogurt Fruit Salad.  And for dessert he asked for a chocolate cake.  And since he asked for a Pirate Theme Birthday Party I tried to make the cake look like a Treasure Map.  


Pirate Birthday Parties

Both Walter and Hunter asked for Pirate Theme Birthday Party- so since they asked for the same theme, I decided to throw their parties on the same day.  
Here are a couple pictures of the set-up:
Anchor Door Welcome Sign


Dining Room table with red lanterns and black tissue circles.  

Pirate banner and a fishing net.  


When the kids came we dressed them up with Pirate hats, eye patches and swords.  
Then we played some Pirate games:
Walk the Plank
Sweep the Deck
Dig for Buried Treasure
Sword Practice
and
Captain Hook's Ring Toss
(we had more games planned but we ran out of time)  










Since we were throwing two parties on the same day we needed a bunch of food.  
We ordered some pizzas and had lots of fruit and fish and chips (Goldfish crackers and potato chips), crackers and cheese, chocolate chip cookies and pirate ship cupcakes.  



We had both red and blue juice and I found ice cubes in the shape of jewels that I thought would be a nice touch with the pirate theme.


 I think the kids enjoyed all the food.  

 And then we sang Happy Birthday.  


 We then opened gifts and then last but not least we had the kids break up a treasure chest pinata, and then the kids put all their candy in "x" marks the spots bags.  


After a couple of hours and picking up Hunter from school we did it all over again.  
But we had different games: (all of them were Minute to Win it style games)
Shake the Junk out of the Treasure Chest (just like junk in the trunk )
Separate the Gold (Skittle game with straws)
Tic- Tac-Toe Three ships in a Row
Sword Practice
Oreo Eye Patch
Floating (Balancing five soda cans) 
and
Marshmallow Target Practice








Then after all of that we ate and had cupcakes.  




We did another pinata (unfortunately neither Weston nor I got a picture of the pinata at either party) 
Then we waited for the parents to come and the kids continued to have fun


 After all of that my house was a mess, so we cleaned up.  After cleaning up for a little bit, Weston and I went out to dinner with the Wilkey's.  Blain works for Sundance to we went to Foundry Grill.  It was so yummy, and it was nice after a crazy day just to sit and relax and talk with friends.  
Then we came home and cleaned up some more and then the Wilkey's came over for a quick game night.  
We didn't stay up as late playing games as we usually do because the next day was the day before Easter and both the Wilkey's and us do the bunny and egg activities the day before Easter.  


 (And since this post is super long-Easter will be it's own post, even though it was part of the March Madness)