FAN FAIRECOSTUMES

Here are some of the fun costumes from our convention. 

Sora from Kingdom Hearts and Blue Link from Zelda

 Star Trek

 Medieval society 

 Two Doctor Who's

(their Sonic Screwdrivers are actually functioning T.V. remotes. I kinda want one)

 Naruto

 This little Link was the hit of the whole event. 

 Two links. 

I can't remember what her costume was, but she was one of our winners of this cute robot artwork from Scott Johnson. 

A picture of this super attractive man, hosting the event. 

 random costumes and huge fans

Wash and Zooey from Firefly. He even had toy dinosaurs. 

 Jack Frost. She won best homemade costume. Totally awesome! 

There was a big group of Steampunk group. I only got a pic of her. But she was so cute!

 And here is Barry's steampunk costume. 

This week in pictures

I always snap the funnest pictures on my cell phone (not a smart phone, and a crummy camera!) and then I never do anything with the pictures. They just disappear into oblivion, so I though I should start posting them on my blog! Maybe it'll help inspire me to write more! So here is this week in pictures... although the first two actually aren't from this week, but they're still adorable. 

Our kids prefer the "bike aisle" over the toys at Walmart any day. When we walk in the store, they beg to go straight to this aisle and they pull out bikes and helmets and just ride around. (Yeah, we're THAT family that everyone is annoyed with because their kids almost ram into innocent passersby. Fun times.) But Laycee wanted to be like her siblings so she put on a "helmet". And it makes me laugh so hard. She wore that basket around the whole store. (For the record, we don't let our kids ride around the whole store. She just wanted to wear her "helmet".)

This picture speaks for itself. It's just adorable. This man is such a good daddy. 

I heard Jaye laughing hysterically, so I came to living room to find this sweet little princess. She put her birthday tiara on Jackson. 

Sometimes, Barry has hard time because my love language is DEFINITELY NOT his love language! I am pretty much 100% words of affirmation. Well, Jaye worked hard to build a domino line that was all correctly matched, so she asked me to take a picture for Barry. We text it to him and he text her back a photo of himself giving her a thumbs up, and the message said, "Wow, that's awesome Jaye!" 

I showed her the message and read it to her. She smiled and then asked, "What else did he say?" 

She wanted MORE affirmation! I had to apologize to Barry! Looks like we've got more "Words of Affirmation" people in our house. Poor guy!

 I just took this picture because a rare nap happened at our house. It was a big deal. 

The night before this picture was taken, our kids stayed up WAAAAAY past their bedtime. Needless to say, our kids were quite emotional the next day. Grayson couldn't get his bike wheel pumped up (it's flat) and he just walked into the house, fell down on the floor and started bawling. He only cries when he's tired.

So I snapped a picture. (Such a great mom.)

This one is a big deal. It's the very first time Jackson ever sat up. I'm so glad it happened while everyone was naked :P 

Laycee strapped herself into Jackson's baby chair and happily played in it for like 15 minutes. I should use this as a restraining device more often! They should just make these for like 6 year olds, 4 year olds, two year olds... I'd buy one for EVERY kid. Just lock em in and get some chores done!

That's all she wrote folks!

Valentine's Day

About 100 Valentines left our house this holiday. We had a crazy Valentine-making extravaganza! It's one of my favorite holidays. Grayson made Twinkie Minions for everyone in his class. The tag said, "I've been MINION to tell you Happy Valentine's Day!" They were a big hit! 

I got to help out for his class party. I was in charge of the treat, so the kids made Valentine snack mix. 

Laycee made heart flower Valentines, and Jaye made butterflies. 

Growing up, every Valentine's Day my parents would take us to a really fancy, expensive steak dinner and they'd give us our Valentines at the dinner. My husband has let us carry on the tradition of making the day about FAMILY love. We can't exactly afford steak right now, but we did take our kids to see "The Lego Movie" (Which they loved!) And then we took them to McDonalds because the kids meals toy right now are Lego Movie cups. 

(Our family is a little obsessed with fun cups, so it was doubly exciting.) 

 We gave them their Valentines at Mcdonalds, but we might not do that next time. Look how sad that boy looks in the window (over Grayson's shoulder). He was staring at my kids the whole time, haha! All the kids in the play place were very interested in our family and their gift bags.

All the kids got some candy, a puzzle, and some cool pencils. 

THANK YOU OMA for the cards! The kids loved their Valentines from you :)

 Showing off their outfits from Mema! 

It was a perfect day. 

For MEMA

For you, Mema. We took these as soon as we opened a lovely Valentine's Day box from the Grandparents. That monkey has just about replaced Jaye's "best friend" Henry the Tiger. She said, "I want to take my monkey to school, and to the store, and sleep with it, because I love it so much!" As she hugged it nearly to stuffed-animal death. THANK YOU MEMA!!!

Once upon a time...

My little girl is FOUR YEARS OLD!!! Where has the time gone?!?! And like a fickle female, my daughter kept changing her mind about what kind of party she wanted. "Halloween party!" "No Princess party!" "No I want boys at my party!" "I only want girls at my party!"                      

   I have a taste of what it'll be like when she's a teenager. 

But, she finally decided she wanted to have an all girl, princess party. So we invited seven little girls to dress like a princess and come to her "royal celebration."

 Laycee got to come too. But the night before, Grayson asked, "Can I go to a friend's house tomorrow. I don't want to be at a party with a bunch of girls." (Please Son. Keep that attitude through High School!!!) 

 We started the party off by painting everyone's nails (Jaye's most favorite thing to do.) After the girls were finished, they got to decorate their very own princess tiara. (Note to self: Next time, label EVERYTHING with the kids' names. They do not hold onto to things, or wear tiaras forever, and it gets messy when they think someone else is wearing their crown!) 

    I blew up several balloons to cover the living room floor, and so the girls were told they had to find their princess treasure. They each had to find one necklace, ring, wand, bracelet, and princess wrist band among all the balloons. So we turned on the disney music and let them attack the balloons to find their treasure. Surprisingly, there was no fighting. Or crying. And it was so cute to see the girls putting on all their jewelry. 

After the treasure retrieval, everyone got to decorate a cupcake with pink or purple frosting and sprinkles. It was unbelievable to see that little number 4 candle on my baby's cupcake! She is getting so big. After the cupcakes (another note to self: next year, make chocolate cupcakes too. Apparently not all small children like Fun-fetti cupcakes as much as I do. Who knew!?) 

So then she opened gifts. Which was hilarious. A few of the little royals cried because they either A) wanted to immediately open the toys and play with them but weren't allowed to or B) they wanted to keep the gift that they had given her. 

It was a little stressful to keep all the little girls happy, but I had some awesome moms there to help out. And my little princess absolutely loved it all, so this is one satisfied queen. 

*the funnest part for me was taking Jaye to Walmart after the party to spend her birthday money. We let her wear the crown, so EVERYONE was wishing her a happy birthday. She loved it! 

you learn something new every day...

     During a play date at my house, all the kids requested drinks. Grayson poured everyone a cup full of apple juice, and proceeded to chug his. This was followed by a gigantic burp, which was then followed by proud giggles by my son. 

     His friend looked at him incredulously and said, "that was not funny." Grayson assured his friend that it was funny and burst into another fit of giggles. 

    "Well," said the friend in response, "I am a Mormon, and we don't laugh at burps." 

    Grayson asked, "What's a Mormon?"

    "It means you don't laugh at burps."

    At this point, Laycee tasted her apple juice (which she doesn't like) and spit it out. The boy turned to her and proclaimed, "Mormons don't spit either."

What an educational play date for all of us uncouth Ricks!