Orion's Birthday Party

This was the summer of Orion turning 8 and Harry Potter. As I was preparing for the 6th movie I was re-watching all the previous movies. Orion became obsessed with them. He decided that he wanted to have a Harry Potter birthday party. There were a ton of great resources online for amazing Harry Potter party ideas. I also had outside help from the Maroneys and the Morrisons. Thanks guys, you saved me.

The Maroneys cut out and colored all these candles for our floating candles in the eating area. I thought they looked awesome.

Our gathering game was a tasting of the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and trying to guess the flavors. They were just jelly belly type ones, so they were safe.

We had a wand selection game. Kenneth made some great wands out of dowel. We had the kids pick a wand and then they took a party popper and pointed it at me, said an animal and "animagus transfigurus" and then pulled the string. It would go off and scare the crap out of me, and then I would act like the animal they said.

We had a sorting. This is the Morrison's cool sorting hat. I would hold the hat over the child's head and they would pick a card which would tell them what house they were in.

They then decorated their hats and made snitches. I can't believe I don't have a picture of the snitches. It was a lot of work and the kids totally did not appreciate them. Grrrrr.

We played Harry Potter charades. A child would act out something scary and the other kids would try to guess what it was and then say, "Riddikulus," after which the child acting out was supposed to do something silly. I don't have any picture of this because I had a new photographer, Ian, who liked to take artistic shots or only video.

We played "capture the snitch" outside. This was the only time that they were split into their houses.

When we came back inside we saw that the cupcakes had been stolen by Peeves, that silly poltergeist. He sent the kids on a treasure hunt to find the dessert.

The kids were able to make potions for their drinks. There was a love potion and a luck potion, pink lemonade and orange juice ice cubes and then they mixed them with lemon-lime soda.

Opened gifts, thank you very much and then out the door, b-bye. It was a lot of fun.

Staycation

We didn't go away this summer so we decided to have a "staycation." Here's what we did.

Played at the park, where I laid on a blanket in the shade and read,

Sophia was stung by a bee and

the kids played in the sprinklers.
Then we went to BYU MOA to see the Walter Wick exhibit again. "Staycation"... so far, so good.

 Next day was Orion's b-day, more about that on another post. Our big thing besides his birthday was that we went swimming. Still doing okay.

We had things that kept us around the house the next day so the kids just played their little heads off, with video games. The kids were allowed to play on their DSs all week after 2 months without.

The next day we went up to the Gateway, played in the fountain and then took Trax around downtown and

stopped at Temple Square. Trax is free in the downtown area. The kids loved riding and I loved that it was free. By that day I was not doing so well. The house was a disaster, I was so tired of driving places and I was not feeling any sort of relaxation on my "stay at home vacation."

Finally the last day of the staycation. I was exhausted. We went bowling and then to the dollar movie. Kenneth was able to play with us on the last day.

Final thoughts on our "staycation." I did not love it. I wanted it to be a fun time for the kids so I was pretty lax on the work part, but the house was such a mess that it caused me a lot of stress. Maybe next time I will hire a house cleaning service for my "staycation."

Dylan's 6th Birthday

For Dylan's birthday we decided to have a big friend/cousin party. We had 18 kids for the party. Luckily it was a water party. I also had some great helpers, Sophia and Theron. We did some fun water games,

played tag with silly string and

ate lemon cupcakes and

superman ice cream (what is up with that stuff?).

It was crazy, but so worth it. Dylan had a blast. Dylan is my bundle of energy, sunshine boy. He tries me with his youngest-child mentality sometimes, but I feel so blessed to have him as my baby. Lets be honest, youngest-child mentality also means that they are super cute and lovable as well.

Fast May-June Wrap Up

When I say fast, I mean fast.

Sophia participated in the Hope of America program at the Marriott Center in Provo in May. I was unable to attend due to the fact that I was near death or at least wishing I was dead. That's a story for another day.

Amber invited us to a lunch at a cute little shop in Highland, of which I totally don't remember the name, for her birthday. Isn't that soooo nice? She treated us for her birthday.

I went to Park City with Jenn and Amber and stayed in the super fantastic suite at Miner's Club. While there I had my only pedicure of the summer. Pretty toes, sorry if you're grossed out by toes.

Amber and I ran the Pony Express 5K together. It rocks, it's all downhill. Our fastest times, though don't ask me what they were because I don't remember.

In June Theron received his senior blue belt.

Sophia received her green belt.

Ian, Orion and Dylan started attending soccer academy in Orem which is coached by their uncle, Angel Enciso. They learned a lot and had a lot of fun. Ian also lived with the Enciso family for a few weeks over the summer. It was great for everyone.

A group of us went to Heritage Park on their free day. It was cool, in temp, and cool, interesting.

I was able to go to day camp with both Theron and Orion. How cute are they? While there we saw my nephew McKay Pelo. I thought it was so great that I could get this photo of the cousins at camp.

We attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was beautiful.

The Maroney's gave us tickets to the opening game of the Owlz. My kids loved sitting on the grass and trying to catch balls. So fun.

I loved June, I loved all the rain and the cooler temps. I thought it was the most perfect June, weather wise, of my whole life. Remind me again why I live in a desert?

June also marked the passing of Sadie Huish and the mission farewell of my nephew, Michael.

Stay tuned for too much to even start mentioning.