Flowers and other plants

I have this thing for tiny vases. I collect them.
I love to put them in the kitchen window.
On the left are the 10 raspberry starters my dad sent this week waiting to be planted.

I hit some yard sales for the first time in a long time this weekend and picked up these teeny vases from Japan. They are about an inch and a half tall so these flowers are very small.

So cute!

We had a freeze the other night and Peter brought the tomato & squash plants in--which are looking a little frost burnt but are recovering in the living room.

And I had to put a better picture of these flowers we got for Sarah.
They are gorgeous!!
I think I have enjoyed them more than she has! Bonus for me:)

Nature's wonders

Snakes in my kitchen sink
(or as the kids said, daddy snake, momma snake, and baby snake)

A couple of our favorite warm weather pastimes? Catching things like bugs, snakes, and lizards. And rocks--looking for cool rocks.
I let Rebecca take two snakes in a jar for show and tell. I got a call from her later that morning asking me to pick them up because after the teacher let her share them she wanted them to go. I'll call that "show and go." Hee hee.

We let them free later that day because I have no desire to keep a stinky snake for a pet but at least one those snakes will have an adventure story to tell his friends--like how John smuggled it into the car in his barrel of monkeys and so it got to go for a car ride around town and then after we put John to bed he took it back out of the jar and tried to drive it around in the dollhouse car and it crawled down into the car and we couldn't get it out and so Peter put it outside on the porch to crawl out in the night and then John cried himself to sleep.

Yesterday we took John to Bicentennial Park in Provo with our new water nets and caught minnows for over an hour. He could have been there all day--never has an interest in the playground there because of the pond. Most of the minnows died before we got home and then the rest of them were thoroughly examined by John and his friend Courtney. And had they lived, would have some stories to tell too.

Aladdin

There is Sarah--waaay in the back!

Isn't this the prettiest bunch of flowers? She did great!

Most memorable part? Wherein the boy who played Diago the parrot completely readjusted himself throughout the play. I was silently pleading for him to stop. Maybe no one had the heart to go backstage and tell him. Oh--it was painful to watch!! My grandpa thought it was hilarious.
Then there is Peter who can hardly sit through the half hour performance and plays on his itouch during all the scenes Sarah is not in. Really? Is that absolutely necessary? He is visibly cringing and uncomfortable when Aladdin and Jasmine sing together.
Never in his life, for any amount of money would he have ever, ever played a part where he had to do that. Nathaniel doesn't look any more impressed than his dad. If I didn't laugh I would just get mad. Boys. What can you do?

Peter's last year of 30's

Today is Peter's 39th birthday and as I looked for a photo I found these recent ones of him and Daniel. I think Peter is smitten by his nephew considering all the pictures he takes of him. Of course, we are all smitten with Daniel!

For his birthday I got him an IPod touch and the book "60 places to hike within 60 miles of Salt Lake." We went out for Mexican at our favorite place, Diego's Taco Shop, and then we went bowling over at Fat Cats. Nathaniel killed us in both games with a 161 in the first one, though really didn't need a whole lot more ammo for his inflated teenage ego right now.

While we were bowling I was trying to be goofy and I told him I was thinking about giving him a 39 birthday spanks and he said he might fall asleep before I was done. I thought that was downright funny.

Some of my favorite things about Peter:
1) His laugh is the best--ask anyone who really knows him.
2) He is a hard worker
3) He loves his family
4) He is a cute kind of nerdy, which means he loves his IPod Touch even more:)
5) Contrary to popular belief, he can be kind of sentimental
6) He supports me in whatever I want to do

John's game

John concocted this game tonight with miscellaneous things he found around the house and outside (pretty sure the matches came out of a camping box in the garage.)


He kept explaining the rules to his dad but Peter apparently wasn't getting it because John kept winning. Note the rusty bolt in his left hand. I know I'm going to look back at this stuff and it will melt my heart. So cute!

Disneyland!!

Yea--it was crowded. Peter would have lost it.
(Note to self: Do NOT go to Disneyland on spring break)

John wanted to wear a gray shirt and I absolutely refused and Sarah openly questioned me as to why I was insisting he wear a bright green shirt. There were about 500 times that question was answered that day.

John fell asleep the second he hit his seat on the shuttle to our hotel at 12:30 am--which by the way, have I mentioned how absolutely filthy and disgusting our hotel was? It was a Ramada and there was mold in the bathroom, the floors were peeling, there was huge holes in the wallpaper, and the carpet was almost black.
I freaked out and called Peter who was in the very thick of the end of the tax season. He told me he couldn't deal with anymore problems on that day and so I needed to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

I slept with my clothes on to make sure I didn't touch the blankets and I forced the kids to wear their shoes every second we were there.
Never, ever, ever, EVER again.


This is how John spent the day until about 1 or 2 o'clock. He followed Mickey until he stopped and all these kids lined up for a picture. We were at the front and Rebecca was standing with Mickey and-- uhhh...where the heck is John? Mickey is pantomiming looking concerned and I am freaking out because he was right there 3 seconds ago. I spot him bolting down main street some distance away and take off after him with the whole crowd looking on.
"I don't want my picture with Mickey!! I'm scared! I want to go back to the hotel! Take me back!"
Oh. My. Gosh. John.

This was a safari ride where John screamed the whole time that he was scared and we were going to sink. This was a another example of the first half of the day.
Once he relaxed he finally perked up and then did great the rest of the day.

My personal favorite ride. I wish we could have gone a second time.

Poor Rebecca wanted to be running around free like Nathaniel and Sarah (who struck out together) but was stuck with me for a good portion of the day because I just didn't think she was old enough to be supervised by a 14 and 11 yr old in Disneyland. (What kind of a crazy mom am I anyway?)
She still got to go on lots of things and I sent her on rides with them in the latter half of the day--but I probably spent a total of 2 hours or more waiting at the end of rides for them to get off to be safe.

John did this on almost every ride--so funny.
Rebecca's face is pretty self-explanatory as well.

All in all I think Disneyland was a success. We all had a blast.
I would totally do this again--only during a slower time of the year!

John and BFF Buzz Light Year

We celebrated John's 6th birthday today with a homemade Buzz Light Year ice cream cake made by yours truly. The picture doesn't do it justice--it was huge!
If you know John you know he and and Buzz are the very best of friends.
I have the cutest pictures of him when he was only 1 and 2 sleeping with his Buzz and Woody. He carried them every single day when I walked over to pick up Rebecca from kindergarten. The crossing guard would always talk to him about them and he would tell her all about their latest adventures. One time I was chasing him because I was trying to get him to put on his shoes. He turned his head and shouted, "Not today Zurg!"
He is out of his mind in anticipation of Toy Story III--I really wish they wouldn't advertise these things so early--they've been promoting it for at least a year!!

Here he is today getting his first video game.
He also got Lego Zurg and Buzz, a Toy Story Blanket, a Jessie doll,
and a Toy Story dinosaur Pez from Aunt Sally and family.

John's Toy Story toys are everywhere and he collects anything having to do with the movies. Monkeys in Barrel, Mr. Potato head, etc.

He has a collection of Buzz and guess what he wanted for Christmas? Another Buzz of course!
So when we went to Disneyland last week the first ride we had to go on was the Buzz ride. He was beside himself with anticipation and couldn't decide whether he was excited or terrified. I got this little video of him with Peter's tiny camera I took with us. So cute!!

He absolutely loved it of and we went on it again.