Utah

After Hawaii the kids and I drove up to Utah to see family and friends for a couple of weeks.  We were able to see a lot of people but unfortunately missed seeing some others also.   The first day we drove up to Provo and saw my old neighbor and her family Aimee.  She has the cutest family and bought a new house with land for her little farm.  She taught me a lot about gardening, homemaking and being an amazing mother.  Then we went to Orem to see my Aunts and cousins.  The kids had so much fun there.

My Aunt Pat and I

The kids loved playing at my cousin Michelle's house

Caitlyn and Cole hanging around

 Then we headed back down to Delta where we spent the week playing in the pool, being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa and visiting family and friends.

playing air hockey with Lara

making a splash on Steve and Carol's slide

Liam sliding down the stairs

snorkeling in Grandma's pool, no fish but we did find money

visiting Great Grandpa Nielsen

It flew by and before we knew it 4th of July was here.  Even our Nation's capital can't compare to celebrating the 4th of July in Delta (at least for me).  The parade, park, navajo tacos with cousins, demolition derby, and fireworks did not disappoint.

waiting for the parade to start

My cousins' kids.  So cute!

as usual a ton of candy from the parade

my veteran Grandpa, sure do love him

The following day we flew home to see our very happy Daddy!  We sure did miss him but it was great being back in Utah for a few weeks.  Hopefully, it won't take another 2 1/2 years to get back there again.

Memorial Day camping

 For Memorial day weekend we went camping to Westmoreland State park again.  We really enjoy it there and I think this is going to become our yearly tradition.

Caitlyn fell down and hurt her hands.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate as much and we were unable to go kayaking due to high winds.  

Liam roasting some marshmallows. 

Liam roasts them and Caitlyn eats them.

We were able to go swimming and play a lot of baseball with our friends from our church ward we were camping with.   

It is always nice to be able to get away, enjoy nature and relax for a couple of days.  

Easter

Coming back from vacation the day before Easter made it a bit challenging to do our usual Easter activities.  However, we did manage to boil some eggs and had bought some Star Wars and Tinkerbell stickers to decorate them. 

The Easter bunny did manage to find us leaving the kids some Church clothes, Legos, a movie and of course candy. 

Luckily, we have amazing neighbors to enjoy a yummy Easter dinner with and a fun Easter egg hunt. 

STAR WARS!!

I still remember the day my baby boy was born Halloween 6 years ago at 3lbs 6oz and now we are celebrating with a birthday party.  His latest love has been Star Wars so when I mentioned we could use Star Wars as the theme he was very excited.  There is a lot of ideas and information out there for Star Wars parties so the only difficult thing was narrowing down what we wanted to do. 

I found a no sew pattern to make little Star Wars costumes out of pleather and light sabers out of swimming noodles and duct tape and went to work.  Our invitation stated "6 years ago, in a galaxy far far away, our little Jedi, Liam was born.  The council has now called upon him to seek out future Jedi to ensure the force remains strong.  You have been chosen to complete Jedi training on . . .", we used evite which I love because its online and people can RSVP right on the site and it's free. 

The decorations, plates, cups, party favors and Darth Vader pinata were all found at Party City for reasonable prices.  We have a party city location nearby so I was able to pick it all up and not have to worry about shipping. 

The swimming noodles were the hardest thing to find, being winter now everyone has put all their summer gear into storage.  Luckily a sweet woman from my ward had some she let me have so I had enough for every child to have their own light saber.  I just cut them in half and decorated them with duct tape and electrical tape for the handles.  Our games all centered around Jedi training so they were a critical part of the party. 

When the guests arrived I put on their cloaks and then took them down to the "training" facility where I let them chose a light saber and a character mask and took their picture in front of our poster.  We then did several training exercises for balance and defending themselves.  One was keeping a balloon in the air. 

We then led them out to the Darth Vader pinata and let them take several swings at him with their light sabers.  It was a chilly afternoon so we brought it in to pull the string and drop all the candy.  Then we went back upstairs for the Jedi food.  We did "imperial pizza", "vaders veggies" and "yoda soda".  Then sang to Liam and ate cake. 

The cake I made myself with chocolate cake and chocolate fudge frosting.  Then I found a technique on Pinterest called a "butter cream transfer".  Basically you find a picture of what you want on the cake and then flip the image, resize it and print it out.  Coloring pages work well.  Then you tape it on cardboard and tape wax paper over it then outline it with black frosting then fill it in with whatever colors you want.  Then place it in the freezer while you assemble and frost your cake.  When your cake is ready you remove the butter cream image and quickly flip it over onto the cake then place the cake in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.  Afterwards, you carefully remove the wax paper and you are left with the image.  A really fun process and something I will use in the future also.  I love being able to create things, especially when they turn out though I will admit they don't always turn out - "NAILED IT!"  Liam wanted me to add a couple of his toy figures so I obliged him, after all it was his birthday. 

After cake and pizza we opened presents.  Then headed back downstairs for our last Jedi training drill. 

While we were downstairs we heard some footsteps coming down the stairs and I was asking the kids what they had left to do to truly become a Jedi master.  Then Darth Vader appeared and the kids went crazy fighting him with their light sabers.  We were able to calm them down and told them they would have a chance to fight him one on one and complete their Jedi training. 

The kids loved fighting Darth Vader individually and we had a very patient, willing Darth Vader to let the kids all have their turn at fighting him.  I had the laptop turned on and we went to Star Wars soundboard to play a few of Darth Vader's own sounds and words. 

One everyone defeated him they all went after him one more time and he barely escaped with his life.  Time was over and parents started arriving to pick their kids up.  They took home their light sabers and Jedi costumes along with a little goody bag.  Afterwards, Craig (our amazing Darth Vader) and I crashed on the couch but Liam was so happy and excited so it was all worth it. 

  I printed out their pictures with their mask on in front of our back drop (this is Caitlyn) and am making up a little Jedi certificate and will put the picture on that with a little thank you note from Liam on the back and will hand deliver those to everyone who came.

 I thought this picture said it all.  He was so happy that day and has been talking about how much fun his party was the last few days, it reminds me that life is all about making people around you happy and them knowing you love them enough to take time to be with them and serve them.