Luke's Birthday Party

This year was the first year Luke has had a "friend" birthday party. And since Luke wanted to invite 10 boys I knew I needed to find somewhere for them to go besides our house. We decided on Farr West Tumblers which is a little gym in our area that hosts birthday parties on Saturdays. The kids had two hours to play games and run around the gym. Of course their favorite parts were the huge trampoline and the giant rope swing. We kept it simple with cupcakes and capri suns. The boys were all great and Luke got some really neat gifts.

UEA mini vacation

For UEA break this year we decided to go on a quick, easy family vacation. And it was fabulous. We ALL needed the break. We stayed at the Zermat Resort in Midway, Utah. We really didn't make any plans to do anything special so we brought the Wii, some movies, a football and definitely bathing suits. We were not disappointed. And we had beautiful weather. We arrived Thursday afternoon and made a quick stop at the Park City outlets. Thursday night the kids wanted to head straight to the pool. They had an awesome indoor pool that connected to the heated outdoor pool as well. There were also a couple big hot tubs. I still haven't figured out why my kids can stay entertained in a hot tub almost as long as a full size pool! On Friday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and played at the outdoor sand volleyball court and threw the football around. Then we walked across the street to the Homestead Resort. We walked to the top of the crater to enjoy the view and take a couple pictures. In front of the Homestead Resort they had a big scarecrow display that we had fun picking out our favorites. Later we went swimming in the crater. The water is about as warm as a hot tub and life jackets are required. It was a really cool experience. The kids had fun dragging me around as I laid on my back. They also loved using the snorkel masks and tubes. Saturday we spent some more time at the pool and then decided to rent a RAZOR for a drive in the mountains. It was so much fun. A little nauseating at times, but for the most part fun...until we realized we got off the beaten path and were pretty far from the resort. And it was getting dark...and cold! Luckily our experienced driver got us back shortly after sunset. Grayden got sleepy about half way through our trip. He pulled his hat over his face and fell asleep!! It was so funny. Sunday we spent time packing up, making our room look recognizable again and headed home. We were all a little sad to leave but had a great time together.

DIY After School Snack

I am not a sugar cookie decorating fan. For ANY holiday. But for some reason kids love doing this. So for the kids after school snack one afternoon I bought bake and serve sugar cookies and cookie icing IN A BAG. Best invention ever. So with little effort on my part, the kids and I were both satisfied with checking this activity off our October to do list. Another day we did spooky houses. I saw this idea on Pinterest and unlike most things I pin on there I actually did it! We hot glued graham crackers together to make a house. Then armed with a bag of orange frosting and a lot of Halloween candy they got busy each making their own house. They turned out so cute and somehow as I was throwing them away yesterday I realized I never got a picture. Ahh! But this was something we will definitely make a Halloween tradition.