Disneyland

After a year of saving money in our Disneyland jar, we were off! We left early morning and headed straight to SeaWorld. Grandma and Grandpa Lichlyter meet us there. It was a super fun day!

Livia, after the Shamu Show...

 Staten, by the tide pool...

 Teagan, riding on a turtle...

Tuesday morning was spent at the beach. It was perfect. We had the whole beach to ourselves, besides one surfer, and it wasn't too cold. The kids loved jumping and playing in the waves. Teagan had a great time digging for animals, Maylee loved looking for seashells with Grandma, Livia enjoyed just playing and Staten was having fun doing cartwheels and playing baseball with Grandpa. Kevin was out attempting to surf most of the time and I just enjoyed listening to the ocean waves crashing against the shore and watching my kids have a great time playing....BUT, I just couldn't handle it. Disneyland was just a few hours away. "Is it time to go yet?"

So, we headed back to the beach house and got showered and ready...with our costumes or course! Halloween Party at Disneyland?!? What could be better? How about meeting some family there...the Packers! It was awesome! Way too crowded for my taste, but most of the crowded-ness was people waiting in line for trick or treating. That meant less people in lines for the rides. Yay! We really did have a great time and it ended perfect. 4 times in a row on Thunder Mountain Railroad. The best part? The 80 year old lady that sat in front of us, waving her arms, clapping her hands and throwing a few punches in the air because she was having so much fun. :)

See, the little old lady... right next to Maylee's right hand. This was at the beginning of the ride. I put my camera away right after this. If I would have known how entertaining this ride would be, I would have kept my camera out to record her. :)

We walked out the gates at 11:03pm. Long day, but GREAT!!! 

A Camping we will go

Livia just had her 6th birthday! My babies are growing up! She decided on a camping party and boy, did it turn out fun!

Here she is, my little birthday angel

We got her a camping backpack for her birthday which included a sleeping bag, water bottle and flashlight.

Her party started with nature wreaths. The kids were able to choose from rocks, sticks and other nature stuff to glue onto their wreaths.

They also enjoyed digging for bugs in our playdough mud.

 Pigs in a blanket. A must at a campout.

The kids also went fishing for prizes. Actually they fished for numbers and then they came up in order to pick out a prize.

My Room

Yes, almost 9 years I have lived in this house and have not done my bedroom. So, after MUCH deliberation this is what I decided to do. (Kevin gave very little input, he didn't seem to care)


BEFORE:

AFTER:

I still have a few things to do like add some new material to my lamp shade, finish caulking and painting the crown molding, add a border around the bathroom mirror and oh ya, buy a curtain rod. :) I am even thinking about painting the dressers black, not sure yet though. But I am loving the blue ceiling!

USA, USA!!!

We Lunts love the Olympics! So much in fact that we threw a little "opening ceremony" Olympic party. It was a lot of fun. We ate Olympic snacks, played Olympic games and even had a medal ceremony.

Here are our Olympic rings pretzels.

And next: red, white and blue strawberries!

Now, you can't have an opening ceremony without the lighting of the torch. So, we made some! We even took turns running holding the torch and then "lighting" the next persons. Although, these torches were made out of a toilet paper roll, foil and tissue paper.

The kids loved having a race to see who could put the right color M&M's on the Olympic rings.

'O' is for Olympics! The girls really liked gluing fruit loops on the letter O and Staten just enjoyed eating them.

We also did a little face coloring. USA on one side and a star on the other.

Livia won the Gold Medal for our Gymnastics competition.

And Staten won the Gold for the Hurdles race. (or as we like to call it: the Pool Noodle race)



It was a pretty fun night. Teagan was gone at a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's so he missed the whole thing. But, I did promise to repeat some of the fun we had for the Closing Ceremony.

Harry Potter Party

We just had our annual family "Harry Potter" Party. Last year was our first party and I only had about an hour to plan it, (long story) so I was very much looking forward to this year's party because I have been thinking about it for the last few months.

The kids first received their invitation from Hedwig a few weeks ago. They were super excited!

The kids arrived at Diagon Alley and headed to Gringott's to get all their Galleons to buy their school supplies.

Then they went shopping. They bought a wand- from Ollivandor's of course, a pet, a robe for school and a spell book.

Kevin even joined in...

After the kids had all the supplies they needed, they headed to platform 9 3/4. (I think this was Maylee's favorite part.)

Once everyone arrived at Hogwarts, we went straight to Potions class. Professor Snape was out getting more wartcap powder, so he asked if I would teach his potions lesson. The kids had a great time mixing up their potions. They added whomping willow leaves, frog brains, rat claws and gillyweed. They loved watching their potions bubble up after adding the very magical unicorn horn dust. (aka: baking soda)

They also practiced their potion making skills on drinking water. They each had a turn to wave their wand at the pitcher of water while saying the magic words, and watching the water change color as it was poured into their cups. This was great!

Then it was off to Hogsmead. The kids used the rest of their galleons to buy licorice wands, Bertie Botts every flavor beans, Hagrids rock cakes, golden snitch truffles and even homemade butterbeer. They had a good time coloring and reading The Daily Prophet while enjoying their treats.

We of course had to have a wand lesson. I taught them the correct way to hold their wands and how to "swish and flick."

We ended our Hogwarts adventure by playing a beginner's version of Quidditch. Everyone played as seeker and had to search for the hidden golden snitch. Next year we will play a more advanced version. Maybe even add a few bludgers.  :)

Oh, and Hedwig brought a gift to us before he headed back. The kids were SUPER excited about this. We have played it 3 times already. :)

We had a great time at our Harry Potter party! I can't wait until next year! ( I already have most of it planned) hee hee  :)

Easter

Okay, I am having technical difficulties...I am not at this time able to move any pictures or anything else for that matter...so this will have to do.

Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny left his usual trail of grass and goodies to follow. All of the kids found these awesome bunny glasses.

Staten's first Easter! And he loved it! :)

Staten did a good job at following his trail. He wasn't so sure about the grass, though.

Livia was so excited to find some candy in her trail!

Cute little Maylee. At the end of her trail she found the movie "A Bug's Life."

Easter, spring time, general conference...what a great time. We took a few different trips over to Grandma Lichlyter's to color eggs, but unfortunately I forgot my camera both times. Amanda was in town with the kids so I took Staten and Livia over to my mom's. We ended up going to the park and coloring the eggs there. There were eggs dropped and dye knocked over. Needless to say, the park was very colorful when we left. My favorite part was when Amanda received a text from her friend that said, "are you dying, or hunting, or what?" We were kinda laughing for a little while, thinking maybe she had sent it to the wrong person or something. Amanda asked "what?" And a few minutes later, her friend responded, "eggs, Easter eggs." AHHH...we were laughing so hard.

I ended up taking Maylee and Teagan to my mom's the next day so they could color eggs. Fun times...Thanks mom!

Easter Sunday was pretty busy. Listening to conference was great...well, what I heard of it. It's a little difficult with 4 little ones and a computer that was not working. After conference, we headed over to the Lunt's for the egg hunt. It's weird how grown-up the kids are getting, I don't need to follow them around and tell them where the eggs are hidden. They just take off running and when I catch up to them 10 minutes later, their baskets are full. Their prizes this year consisted of: a cute, stuffed, brown bunny, another stuffed bunny, (you can never have too many of those) some easter stickers, and a huge ball/bunny, that you can bounce on, and about 7 dollars.

Then it was off to the Lichlyter's. We had a yummy ham dinner followed by another egg hunt. This time our prizes were: read along stories, spinning tops, a wick diffuser, and a book.

Good Times!