Everyone’s Birthday Party

Aunt Alesha thought it would be fun to do a big birthday for all of the kids.  The kids were thrilled!  Ashley said with a huge smile, “Is this some kind of joke on me?”

We made them all stay outside as we decorated, bagged the presents and got the cupcakes all ready.  Then the fun began…

We played games in the backyard…

   

We didn’t have the pinata, but we did have the bag of candy.  So we had all the kids sit on the back patio and had “an invisible” pinata.  It was so funny to hear the kids talk about it.  They would see a few pieces trickle down from the sky on some of the hits, and then all of this candy rained down when the pinata broke.  Jerrica wants an invisible pinata for her birthday now….

 

The invisible pinata may have had a little help.  :)

Then we all sang Happy Birthday and everyone got to blow out their own candle. 

 

What a fun afternoon Aunt Alesha!  The kids were proclaiming it the best birthday party ever!

24th Celebration

We started out with the parade.

Then chatted at the Sanford BBQ.  Afterwards, we let the kids play in the Primary games and then the races.  All of the kids line up with their age group and the winner gets a 2 liter of pop and everyone else gets a sucker.

Here is Ashley -

Here is Rebecca -

Rebecca won in her age group.  She picked out a Dr. Pepper and gave it to grandpa.  It’s his favorite soda.

Here is Kaylee-

    

It was a close one but Kaylee pulled it out and won.  She WASN’T sharing her pop.

I liked Jacob’s big smile as he raced.

On to the egg toss, I loved the expressions in the throw, the catch and the break…

Next up is the three legged races.  These two crashed and burned before they even took their first step…

  These two wanted to do the three legged race, but we were out of belts.   Then the fire truck sprayed everyone with water after the tug of war.  These two little ones quite enjoyed the water.  Poor Sydney wasn’t running with them because she got a horrible rope burn.

We topped the evening off with a family dance at the church.  We nominated Kristy and Ryan to be the chaperones.  The dance was perfect for getting younger ones comfortable with a dance situation.  “Cotton Eyed Joe” was a favorite.  Rebecca danced SIXTEEN times with different boys, she would quickly add that Uncle Ryan was one of the sixteen and she WAS NOT going to count him anymore since he is already married.  She danced so much that her flip flop broke.

Here they are in the evening ready to head out.  They didn’t get home until 11:00pm!!!

Sanford Pioneer Days rocked this year, thanks to all of the friends and family.  I love this celebration because I get to see high school friends.

Summer Treats

I LOVE summer treats and drinks to cool off.  I came across this book -

Here is the link to the book -Pops!

We have loved some of the popsicle combinations.  Today we made root beer float pops.  You basically put a chunk of vanilla ice cream in your mold and then top it off with chilled (so it doesn’t melt the ice cream) root beer.

I’m excited to try the coconut pops. I love how there are summer foods and treats just for the summer.

The Mountains

My parents love going up the canyon to relax, so one day we spent up in the mountains.  It was so nice to go up and play and yet be able to drive a half hour home to a hot shower.  Here is what “some” of us did while we were there.

Some pouted after falling into the creek….

Some had banana boat treats…

Some ate s’mores….

Some got really dirty, actually ALL of us got dirty…

Some collected every wildflower they could find….

 

Some snuggled with Grandma so others could hike….

Some hiked in a mile to the waterfall…

Those “some” included ME.

It was beautiful and perfect for some to cool off…

Colorado is so beautiful!

When we got home some went to the movie to see this….

AND that was our Tuesday!  I don’t think I’m ever going to get caught up!

Pretend Play

When all of the cousins get together they do this massive pretend play. 18 cousins were there for the week.  I was surprised at how many different businesses they ran.

The first night they ran a hotel.  They had front desk clerks in Grandma’s computer room.  There was tapping on the keyboard and spreadsheets on the computer screens.  Post it notes were filled with info for each client. Secretaries were on the phone talking with people.  I think all of the adults and teenagers went down checking into rooms from the pretend hotel.  Ryan even checked out the honeymoon suite in the hotel.  :)

Then came the hairdressers.  Some were a little more gentle on the scalps than others.  Grandma LOVES for her hair to be brushed.  I was surprised at some of the hairdos that came out of the shop.

Then one afternoon Aunt Kristy set up a car wash with all of the kids.  She had the cars and vans all lined up on mom’s lawn.  The little ones were WAYYY into their “Sparkle Car Wash”.  Kristy is so good to detail cars and vans.

They also had secret agent offices set up in grandpa’s shed and would hold secret club meetings.  Secret notes were passed and secret treats were eaten in the secret club office.

Grandma has  a lot of plastic and ceramic animals in her greenhouse.  Mix those with her live turtle, cat, kitten, the dogs and that makes for plenty of play with veterinarian and pet store.  Those kids drug all of those animals all around the yard that I thought they were playing zoo at times.

 

I was asking the kids tonight about all of the pretend play to make sure I got everything.  One of them piped up and said they played Doctor too.  I didn’t follow up on that one…. maybe I should have!

Pretend play is so fun and important for kids.  Just a few props and they are off and running with a scenario. 

My favorite is seeing their faces light up as adults or teenage cousins come to join in.