Happy Mother's Day/Anniversary

If we can't be in the Pacific Northwest right now, it's nice that we're only a 5-minute drive away from an easy hiking spot. Yesterday we headed up to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove. With a 2 year old, a 4 year old, and two adults, it took us about an hour to hike up to the waterfall. Nichole made a game where every big rock she stepped on, she would lift her arms and her leg in the air and call out, "YES!" Whether she was holding our hand or not.

The mist from the waterfall felt so good. It reminded us of home.

I thought it would be fun to get some cute pictures of the kids while we were there. Nichole of course was the little model. Jr. of course decided that his poses must include his tongue sticking out.

It really is fun to get out and do family activities like this.

Happy Anniversary, Jeremy!

Hats

Just how many hats can a 4 year old wear on her head at the same time?

Cinco de Mayo

Yesterday, looking through the ads for the grocery store, I saw that a lot of good things were on sale- a lot of good things to be used for Mexican food. So to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we had food. Yum. And we had our friend, Nessa, over to eat with us. Yum.
Fortunately, I was able to get good ingredients for making good food yesterday. Unfortunately, I was up with Jr. late last night because he said his ear hurt. Poor little guy. Fortunately, Jeremy got up earlier than me and started making the food this morning so I could sleep in. Unfortunately, the kids weren't being so easy on Daddy so I got up anyway.

All in all we had good food and fun. While I was still making the food, Nessa went through some Spanish vocabulary words with the kids. Nessa also brought over a Wii game- Samba de Amigo, where you shake maracas. We had some fun shaking maracas for Cinco de Mayo.

Jr. didn't quite get the rhythm thing, but he was sure cute.

Nessa and I had some fun playing at the same time.

Nichole wasn't interested in playing the Wii game, but she loved dancing to the music. She can see her reflection in the glass doors of our entertainment center and loves dancing while looking at herself.

In case you're wondering, this is what we made- taco salad, salsa, cilantro lime dressing, refried beans, and spanish rice. Yum.

May the 4th Be With You

May 4th is International Star Wars Day. How are you celebrating?

Extra Fancy?

Last night we were enjoying a nice dinner of squid dogs

when Jeremy looked at the bottle of ketchup and asked the question,

"What makes it extra fancy tomato ketchup? It's not just fancy, but it's extra fancy."

So, I would like to pass along the question to you. Does anyone know what makes it not regular, not fancy, but extra fancy ketchup? Please, I'd love to know.

I wouldn't mind hearing some creative, if not entirely accurate, ideas as well. It might provide us with some fun laughs the next time we have ketchup with our dinner.

Jr.'s Turn

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May Day

When I was younger, on May 1, I used to pick flowers on my way home from school to give to my mom. "Happy May Day," I would say. Since today is May Day and since it has been too long since the kids and I have done a craft together, I thought it would be really good if we did some sort of flower craft together. The kids liked that idea, too. So I went to familyfun.com and found a Mother's Day flower craft (I figured it would work for May Day, and we can keep it around for a week for me to enjoy on Mother's Day as well), and we did it together. And it was an easy one. The flowers were printable, Nichole colored the vase (Jr. colored one, too, but we haven't turned it into a vase yet), and both kids helped put the straws through the flowers.

And that is our other project in the background. Jr. and I made no bake cookies this afternoon.

So I hope you are all having a wonderful May Day, enjoying whatever flowers are around your area (even if they are made of paper).