May 6, 2016 Natasha's Birthday Party

Natasha got to have a sleepover birthday party this year.  It was tough finding a day that worked, so it ended up being a couple weeks after her actual birthday.

She and her friends had a glow in the dark party up at the gym.  They opened glow sticks and splattered them on the walls, which freaked me out because I was worried they were going to get it in their eyes and all over the gym floor.  (Katie and Tasha did both get some in their eye.  I flushed Katie's eye with lots and lots of water in the kitchen sink, and then they were fine and went back to playing).



Abby, Consuelo, Tasha, Katie, Ashlyn, Sophia and Ally


Natasha wanted mint chocolate chip ice-cream cake with oreo crust, so I made two pans of it which the girls ate in two sittings.  After dinner and cake, Jake went to bed and I talked the rest of them into playing Come to My Dungeon. Even Tamsyn, Thurston and Dantley got to play.  We played it in the house and put the bean-bag in the middle of the living room to be used as the dungeon so you could see it from upstairs as well as downstairs.  We played for several hours.  It was so much fun that the girls played it again the next morning.

May 4, 2016

For Jake's 40th birthday I spent a few months gathering memories from people in his life from when he was a small child to now.  I tried to do it without him knowing, so sometimes it was hard to get in contact with people I knew he would want to hear from.  Luckily he leaves his email open on the computer, so I was able to get email addresses and go through his Facebook friends to help remember other names of people I should try and contact.  My goal was to get at least 40 people to participate and I ended up with more than that.  Jake really enjoyed the book, and we all had fun reading some of the stories about him, especially ones from his mission and college years. All in all I think it was a success.


We got a kick out of  what Grandma Helen wrote in his card!

We had Jake open his presents in the morning before he left for work, because the afternoon and evening was going to be filled with baseball games, track meets and church meetings.



Thurston brought home some certificates from their school assemblies- Excellence in Goal Setting from April 27th and Excellence in Self Reflection from March 3rd.


Thurston also has been asking for weeks if he could bring Hawthorne in to his class for "Share Day"
It took a while for me to get to it because he needed to have his shots and it never seems like a good day to bring a cat to school.

April 30 - May 2, 2016

Just a few pictures of our beautiful place.  Love it so much here!


Tamsyn had a meet in Ridgefield.  She tried her hand at the javelin, and ran the 1600 and tried the 400.


Thurston had a game right after Tamsyn's meet... but I only got a picture of him eating these nachos after the game.



Natasha had her last soccer game.  It is bitter sweet.  She has loved soccer and played it for so long.  She is planning on attending tryouts again, but with everything so up in the air right now we think it might be best if she doesn't play next year.

After the game they had an end of season pizza party.  All the girls got scarfs (that parents were coerced into paying for... because you don't want your daughter to be the only one who doesn't have a Harry Potter dress up scarf for later in life ;)




May 1, 2016
I took family pics for Kim Bingham.  It was part of my giveaway at a Favorite Things party that Shana hosted (maybe in January?? I can't remember)



We had the sister missionaries over for dinner and the kids got in a selfie with them.



May 2, 2016
This kid can be such a great little helper.  Especially once we get outside.  Glad he is using the watering can this year instead of his rain boot.