Greeley

There is nothing like a summer road trip.  We set off on our trip to Greeley, CO at about 2:00pm We drove up to Valeries and had dinner with her and her family and picked up my dad who had flown to Austin a few days earlier. then my dad, Rocklond, Knoxx and I all drove in my Toyota Sequioa for the next 18 hrs.  

We drove all night so that the kids would sleep. they did this and we were able to make it to Greeley at about 2:00pm the next day. 

 We went to a little beach in a neighboring  town that was really cute and fun.

I got a lot of good pictures of the kids. 

we all had fun building in the sand

My dad and Knoxx chose to sit in the shade most of the time. 

Another day we went to Chuck-e-cheese.   Rocklond, Asher and Bridger had worked hard over the last few weeks to fill up their achievement cards to earn free tokens. 

 the boys had a great time. 

Asher and Rocklond got along Super well. Here they are building a train they put the blankets on there all by themselves. 

My dad had learned several songs to sing for his grandchildren just for this trip here he is entertaining them all one night. 

On Saturday we got to go to Bridgers 2nd birthday. no birthday would be complete without my parachute making an appearance. 

the kids also played other games as well

Then the kids made little boats and raced them down a stream. 

next was the pinata. Emily had filled it so full of candy. I don't think Bridger was too happy about his fire truck getting smashed to pieces by hungry children. 

then opening presents

and finally the CAKE.  I made this one very simple with just regular frosting and a cake mix cake. it turned out really good and almost all of it was eaten at the party.  

I probably have about ten pictures of this cake. sorry I downloaded the one that is sideways. 

the boys all had so much fun doing everything together

It was so much fun to get to see how the cousins all interacted with each other.   our heavenly care free trip came to a frustrating end when Knoxx was inconsolable at church on Sunday.   we let him sleep off some of his pains once church was over but it soon became quite clear that we needed to get home.  with the help of some Tylenol he slept most of the way home and then went to the Dr. the next morning to discover that he had two bad ear infections.  

The drive home was really long.  I didn't have my dad's help to keep me awake all night but I did ok and we made it home.   

the boys had been fairly good travelers the whole time.  and we made it home just in time to pick up Viktoriia from the Airport.  

Viktoriia is our foreign Exchange student form Ukraine. she will be living with us this school year. more to come about her later. 

Henna Birthday

I have always loved henna. then I learned that I can draw the designs that i have always loved. So I threw myself a henna themed birthday party.  First I designed this cute phone cover for my new iphone. I drew the design with black pen on purple paper and then scanned it it and made some changes with photo shop. then I uploaded the picture to Shutter fly.

it arrived about a week after my birthday but it was worth the wait. 

I love how the design continues on the sides

and it has my name on it.

then on the day of my brithday I made my cake. I had wanted it to be a nice lilac color but Somehow it turned out in the same color as my phone. 

 I used a Ziploc bag to pipe on the design. it was SO hard!   I was happy that i had made a small 6in cake.

Yes I did turn 6 this year.    +20years

the cake tasted a little strange I wont use the recipe again, but it didn't crumble as bad as my cakes usually do. 

since I hadn't been satisfied with my piping bag before I made an actual henna cone. and filled it with icing. 

then it was super easy to make any design I wanted and as small and detailed as I wanted. 

We were tending a little girl this day and she was happy to let me decorate her hands with "henna."  

Rocky liked it too. I had to hurry fast to get this picture before he licked it all off. 

then henna began spilling onto my walls. 

this is my bedroom wall.  I painted it here  last year and I have lived with it's crazy pattern ever since. once I had painted it all the solid light brown color the whole roomed seemed tranquil for the first time ever. 

then I started free handing this design. 

 I haven't finished this all the way yet. I think I still might add some accents to the other walls in the room also.

 anyways that was my henna Birthday.
and no post would be complete without these silly boys.

this is the Kefir mustache. 

Both boys enjoying Kefir

and Knoxx getting into Rockys Yogurt. 

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Blue Soup

 When My sisters and I were growing up my mom would let us play in the kitchen and make what would be called "blue soup." We would start with something that looked like pancake batter only it was probably only flour and water. Then we began with the basics as we added sugar, cinnamon, salt. Then the real fun began as we added garlic powder, paprika, seasoning salt, cloves, ginger,  then it got a little crazy with Food coloring and the finale was always baking powder and vinegar.  One time we even baked it. It looked like a nice blue cake although it reeked of vinegar and garlic.    I think this is what makes me unafraid to try to cook new things. because I know what to add and what not to add.

Well Rocklond has found my spice cupboard and it has been his favorite play place this week. At first I was upset at the mess he made. But then I remembered all the times that I made blue soup and got to experiment in the kitchen.

In stead of blue soup we got a accidental blue tongue when rocky tried to taste food coloring. 

He likes to open all the spices and smell then and usually he asks before he can taste them.

The benefit is I got to organize my spice cupboard. 

It also kept Rocklond busy while I baked my birthday cake. 

More pics on that to come. 

No, I didn't eat the cookie/My Spies

Knoxx loves to shake his head "No". even when he should probably say yes.    Rocklond Wrote a little song which is a parody to the song "My Flag, My Flag."  

Messy Boys

Knoxx and I have been having a competition every day. I try to clean the house and he  tries to mess it up. He wins Everytime. 

 He has also learned the art of smearing food on his face.

Rocky and his talent. We had him show this off at a recent  Primary talent show

 

Knoxx loves to put things on his head. he always gets into our costumes and finds something funny to put on his head. 

and my third boy went kayaking the other day. It was supposed to be a fun kayaking trip for his day off. it ended up being a 5 hr long 14 mile marathon of kayaking.  there was no current and so he had to paddle the whole way. Of course he did come away with this 3ft Gar. 

Here they are on the river.   John said it was full of alligator gar. 

Rocklond is learning how to swim. he jumps into the pool and can swim back to the side.  In the video he has a floaty on. He did it about 5 times with out it and then when I pulled out the camera he insisted on wearing it. But even him floating in water that is deeper than 1  1/2 ft is amazing enough. 

And here I am in-case you forgot what I look like.     I had to get a new phone this last week when my dinosaur phone went swimming with us.    So I upgraded to an Iphone :)  but i lost all of my contacts :(  so Please TX me your number if you want me to call you.