I Laughed So Hard...

The kids came home from school to a healthy snack of red grapes.  And they proceeded to do what I always forget that they always do with grapes - let's see how many we can shove in our mouths to make our cheeks look like hamsters and then we'll make funny faces!  I though Joe's upper lip made a pretty good Dr. Seuss character look a like. (minus the crossed eyes...)

 

Lily didn't make faces using grapes, but wanted to be sure to get in the fun...

And Melodie.  Well, Melodie wins the prize.  Cause when she pulled this one I couldn't even hold the camera still,

and then I fell on the floor laughing and unable to speak through my laughter as I confessed to the kids that she made me laugh so hard that I was going to need to call a timeout for a bathroom break.

 

Then I had Joe help take these photos cause I couldn't hold the camera still. 

Pretty funny kids, it's good to have a good laugh with good company!

Concert Characters

Last night was the Spring Concert for the Jr. High kids. Melodie got ready by getting dressed up in her black concert attire. And for this girl, a change of wardrobe is another opportunity to get in character! Ok, Melodie, don't tell us, let us guess who you are... Are you a librarian?

Like Ann the Librarian's sister or something? No? Ok, let me think...

Ooh, ooh, I know!  You're that Ratatouille guy! Anton Ego!

It's Anton, or his girlfriend or sister, right? Did I guess it? Yes!

Ok, Anton-ette, give me another one. Mel's gotta break character for a moment while she thinks...

Ok, she's got one, prepping herself

And who do we have here? An angry babushka?

Definitely a babushka, oh wait, now you're looking a little more calm and gentle...

Yente the matchmaker! Yup, that's it, I can tell. I win again!

Melodie cracks me up! Here are a few other times that she made me laugh - funny faces, grapes in mouth and glass face. Funny girl.

Funny Filters

It was a wonderful Sabbath day. Church was great, we talked about family history and family records. It made me want to continue to blog and do better on my spiritual blog. I am almost finished reading a book about President Nelson, it's great. I'll insert the blog post link here of my favorite parts after I finish reading it. And so yeah, it was a good day. And it was fun tonight - the kids were on Corey's phone for a while, making funny faces with videos and making themselves laugh. Here are a few snapshots of the moment:

Here's Ethan speaking Ferb-Latin. I'll explain that again later.

That still shot for the video above is for when they all laughed at Daniel. And Peter got a good laugh too....

So they were on my bed for a long time, laughing and recording again and again. Ok guys, I'm glad you're having fun, but we need to go to bed.... So then they'd get up like they were wrapping it up...

But then they'd just change locations.... onto the couch we go!

Plus Mel just joined, and she wants to see what you guys were all laughing at. So it was fun. Then we did go out to the landing for family scriptures and prayer, and then they started showing the videos again - cause Wes and Hyrum didn't see!!

It was fun. I'm glad that Christmas break gives us time for fun moments of sibling bonding like this.

Party Time!

Lily is 7 years old today! Let's take a look at this cute little birthday girl~ (I remembered to do a birthday photo!)

Say "cheese"!

Last year Lily celebrated her birthday in Brazil, shortly before we were to return home. I told her then that we'd try to do a party after we got back, and I had full intentions of coming through, but then we had a baby and it never happened. The same good intentions and fail happened with Wesley (who's birthday is on Saturday). So, I really had to do a party this year. A week ago we planned it all out, and we decided to do them on the same day. Yes, it will be a little crazy, but I was trying to accommodate the birthday boy: Wesley had some friends who were going to be out of town on Friday that he wanted to invite. That's okay, Lily was fine to share her birthday, and so I spent Monday through Wednesday gearing myself up. It had the potential to exhaust me, but luckily I listened to a talk about Enduring on Monday (great talk, totally hit the spot) and I've resolved to "be the rock the river cannot wash away" -  SO - let's do this!! So first things first: I woke up and got myself in a good calm zone with a morning walk. After I got back I woke up the kids, I let Lily open her presents from Corey and me~

Then she disappeared into her room to play and was no help to me getting ready, but it's her birthday and she can do what she wants to, right? So the other kids helped make cupcakes and put up balloons. Lily's party was going to be from 1 until 3. Then an hour break to recoop before Wesley's party from 4 to 7. Natalie ate her breakfast as she played with one of Lily's new ponies. And I just thought she looked so cute, just like an adorable 2 year old, but almost three! Just a month until her birthday!

Doesn't she look like she's ready for a party? Those are her "rainbow pants" and cute little tutu - She is just a precious little girl. So, Lily decided on a "Animal Party" and wanted to paint faces, so that was the main activity for her fiesta. When the first guest came, I started doing the faces. Of course Natalie was first, cause she's queen. It's so fun how kids sit so still and serious for face painting...

Then I did two of Lily's friends, and Mel asked to help. Her work put me to shame. I was way impressed with her puppy.

After I did five faces, I passed all face painting responsibility over to Mel because 1) I needed to manage the fun/chaos... you know, stuff like serving up ice cream and cleaning cake up off the floor and because 2) she is just way better than me. Just check out her cheetah!

Lily and her friend Ashley played tag with the zebra being chased by the cheetah round and round the house. Behind them is a little "Tape the Tail on the Zebra" poster that Mel made that morning for Lily's b-day version of pin the tail on the donkey.

I told the other kids to each plan a game for the birthday party. Hyrum did pomp - changing it to "crocodile in the middle" and Abi did hot potato with a zebra stuffed animal, and "zebra zebra Lion" aka duck duck goose. Her friends posed for a picture for me before the party was over. Cute kids.

I think Lily and her friends all had a good time. After everyone left, Abi and Sophi could finally have a turn getting their faces done. Mel and Abi figured out that it was easier on both of them if Abi just lied down as she got painted.

Then Sophi's and Natalie turn. 

Sophi just had some butterfly-ish decorations on.

Natalie wanted to get done again. She did not hold still very well this second time.

We decided to make her Super Natalie with a super hero mask. Kinda funny. She rubbed it off a bit while it was still wet.

The Super Hero thinks she needs some cake!

Not yet Natalie... you're not turning 11, plus there is one more party to host, and then we'll cut up that cake for you. For Wesley's party, he had chosen to have a water fight. As his friends began to arrive, they worked together in the back yard and filled up water balloons and put them in buckets. After everyone was here the official fight began. Wes asked Corey if he could join them (Corey was able to come home early and got here right before 4). The first part of the waterfight was relatively tame and controlled.

It was good the first hour. Hour two got a little intense. The hose got sprayed in the house a few times (by Ethan getting Corey first then another time getting Hyrum.) Joseph joined in, giving the young kids another person to gang up on. The fight went from just the back yard into the front yard too - they needed another hose.

Our front railing that you can see in that picture above is very weathered and is kinda falling apart. It looked really bad near the end of the fight. Ethan said it was from Joseph climbing on it. There were many posts knocked out. I'm afraid the whole thing is just gonna fall over, so that's when I called the fight and told everyone to go in the back yard for pizza. After pizza, time to sing happy birthday. Happy Birthday to you ..."in two more days!" (Wesley sang that after each line, he insisted on being correct on the actual date of his birth).

Make a wish, Wes!

After that, he opened gifts on the trampoline and they admired his toys and gifts until one by one they were picked up by their nice parents.

So, that was our party day. I hope everyone had a good time. Anything else we still need to do today? Yes, I'm going to go to bed early. :) Goodnight!

Digging, Supermoon, and FaceApp

So, the youtube algorithm introduced me to a pretty amazing video yesterday. I was inspired by Mr. Tfue and his amazing digging skills. The kids have still been a little bored... not as bad as the first week, but I saw this and thought, hey, let's get to work! So I sent the video to Hyrum and said "We should do this!" We have dirt in our yard! The little kids have been playing out there yesterday and today since the weather has gotten warmer. They dig and make cookies. I joined them for a little big. I just wanted to dig a hole. I'll just start with a simple hole before I do an underground cave, pool, or house. I was digging and I knew it would be harder than Mr Tfue's clay ground... we have a lot of roots and rocks. But I still dug away, and after an hour I got maybe a 10 inch square pit. I made a pile of dirt next to me. Sophi came over and was very pleased with my dirt pile.

"It's really good that you're doing this! Cause dirt is in ALL of our recipies!" Ha, that made me laugh. Then she followed up with "Dirt and seeds..." as she continued her meal prep. Owen helped me dig.

Lily, Sophi, Natalie, Owen and Daniel... we were all out there playing in the dirt in the great outdoors.

I took a break after an hour. I'll go back out tomorrow. Time to do my real work of making dinner and cleaning. I've been cleaning the kids feet a ton, the floor gets dirty quick with their dirty shoes and feet. I cleaned them off and they came inside. Joseph invited Owen and Daniel to read a story with him. Daniel was out after like 1 minute.

He's been playing hard. Joseph also helped Natalie practice her violin. It's been really great to have another helpful adult around...who doesn't have any time commitments at the moment.

Mel is helpful too, but she's doing school stuff. The kids are doing pretty good at helping around the house, but reading with the kids and helping them practice music gets extra brownie points. Thanks Joseph.

Tonight at sunset we went out to see the full pink super moon - it is going to be the biggest and brightest of 2020. We couldn't see it from our house cause of the mountains, so we drove down the hill and street for a bit and found a good spot to park.

So pretty!!! And it was right by a nice field that was surrounded by a little hill, perfect for taking fun sunset photos! I also like that the hill kinda keeps all the kids fenced in, and that the hill makes it hidden from busy traffic to the north and any passer-bys in the neighborhood street to the east. Corey sat holding Peter while the kids ran around.

Venus to the west.

Spending time outside was great. The weather will be nice again tomorrow, so we're going to come back here to Waterford again tomorrow night. It kinda felt like our own private yard that is big enough for all of us to have plenty of space to run and play.

Back at home, we started to brush our teeth and get ready for bed. Natalie and I brushed our teeth in my bathroom. We wanted to give her a smile with full set of teeth, so I opened the FaceApp. It's been several years since I've used it or since we all played with the faceapp together.

We gave her some makeup. It still looks a little weird on the bottom left, but she's a pretty girl. And then played around with it a little more. Here's Grandma Natalie.

We played around with it with the rest of the kids as we waited for everyone to gather for scriptures and family prayer. I just gave Joseph a haircut, cause it was "so long". He meant to get one before quarantine in Guatemala started, so he said he has needed one for over two weeks already. He's keeping the clean RM (returned missionary) look for now. But we used the app to see what he would look like with a beard.

Ethan and Hyrum and Wes moaned at the awesomeness of it.

"Joseph! You have to grow a beard!" "You would look so sick!" "That is so dope!" "You would look so epic!" "I would respect you so much!" Here is old Joseph.

Cute. So we explored all the boys with beards and on the "cool old" filter. (Ethan's shirt changed from the picture above cause he got into his pjs.)

Ethan's reply to himself "I look so sick..."

"That's gonna be awesome." Hyrum - looks like a punk that's too old to be living at home.

Old Hyrum looks a bit like George Lucas.

Beard Wesley -

And old Wesley.

"I can live with that!" As long as they have beards, they think they look awesome. Here's Owen with a beard.

He's a little too young for facial hair, but he's cute.

Daniel couldn't have a beard, cause the app thought he was a girl. We decided to not put makeup on him, and we just went for old.

He is a scary crazy grandma. I'll have to get one of Peter later. For the girls we did makeup and then Grandma. Make up Mel -

And Grandma Mel -

You look good Mel! Make up Abi

And Grandma Abi.

Pretty princess Lily -

And Grandma Lily.

Makeup Sophi - we thought she looks like a Latina

And Grandma Sophi!

I was pretty happy with my Grandma look.

Maybe the app is going easy on us. I also explored bangs.

I probably won't do it, but I might pull some of my short hair toward the front more often. So that was fun. Some other faces that made me laugh today were on our chore board.

We had a poor showing at the morning devotional at 8:30. So for the three kids that were in attendance (Joseph, Hyrum, and Sophia) I gave them smiley faces instead of just check marks. Later in the day, someone came along and gave all the people that were not there frowny faces. When I saw that, I thought it was a little harsh, so I changed it to asleep faces with just closed eyes and a straight mouth. Then tonight I came to prep the chore board for tomorrow and found this and it made me laugh so hard...

All the people that were asleep were now smiling in their sleep, and the people that were awake looked tortured and like they needed and wanted to go back to bed. Hyrum's face really made me laugh. I could tell by the level of this sophisticated artistic work that it was Mel who was the creator behind it.

Daniel colored over most of the faces on the bottom, so he drew over Abi sleeping... Mel had her snoring with her mouth open.

They're funny kids.