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!

Don't try this at home

Staten has been wowing us with his acrobatic, back-bending, neck breaking stunt. He has been doing this since he was about 6 months old and it just keeps getting better. (Although sometimes I have to close my eyes cause it makes my neck hurt just looking at him.)

He had his first injury yesterday which I always thought would have been caused by his special trick...but it was when Teagan was holding him on the swivel chair in the computer room and Staten slipped to the side and hit his face on the computer desk. He has a nice black and blue cheek now. Poor baby...anyways, on to the pics.

So this one was at the beginning when he first starting doing it. It is kinda hard to tell because his clothes are so baggy, but he is close to doing a back bend.

This picture was taken a few days ago. He has definitely improved. :)

The pictures don't really do him justice. But I mean, look at his head...the top of it is on the floor! He gets in this position almost every time he is on the ground. He just stays there and rocks back and forth. It's so funny, I have never seen a baby do this before.

What's new

It's been awhile, I know. A lot of stuff has happened since the last time I wrote. Let me summarize. (Christmas was great, New Year's was fun, our Anniversary was enjoyable, my birthday involved lots of free food, Valentine's Day was the same as every year, and that's about it.)

Moving on...

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day. Soccer practice for the kids, a BBQ at one of mom's offices, craft time at the Disney Store, dollar movie (we saw Princess and the Frog), grocery shopping, and a reception. But before all of that we woke up (not as early as we would have liked to) and headed to the mountains for a hike. It was perfect weather and it was so pretty...lots of green from all the rain. The kids were very excited and did really good while we were there. We would have stayed longer, but we had only about an hour before we had to be back to start our day.

A nice couple that was passing us while we took a break, offered to take our picture.

Teagan brought his (actually mine) binoculars. He had fun seeing things up close.

Staten did so good. He got to ride in the little hiking backpack thing. Thank goodness for that!

This was a perfect little spot to take a picture.

Sometimes I forget how big my kids are getting until I see pictures of them. Teagan looks like a big kid...well, not big, but grown-up, I guess.

Christmas is only a few weeks away! So of course my kids had to write and tell Santa what they want for Christmas. Teagan actually started his list about a month ago, so it had, I think, 17 things on it. His list included some of the following: "a real puppy, a real computer, a real knife..."(Good luck with that Teagan) Maylee asked for a "Polly Pocket" (which I don't even think she knows what it is) and Livia asked for a balloon. :)

They were excited about writing to Santa and taking their letters to the mailbox. (My sister Chris gave us a "write to Santa kit" which included stationary sheets, pre-paid envelopes addressed to the North Pole, stickers, a stamp and a December calender. Thanks Chris!!)

About 10 minutes after we got home from the mailbox, Teagan ran into me and said "mom, I forgot something on my list!" I tried to convince him that it was okay because he already had plenty on his list for Santa to choose from, but he was adamant. So, he quickly wrote another letter and ran it to the mailbox.

Om Maylee's envelope she wrote

"From Maylee
To Santa

I (Heart) you

Putting the letters in the mailbox...

Oh, and we put up our tree. Yeah! The kids favorite part of decorating for Christmas is putting up the tree. Actually, it's putting the ornaments on it. They love looking at all the ornaments with thier pictures on them...and some of me and Kevin when we were little. It's fun to compare the pictures to see who the kids look like.

Big Smile

Staten is 4 months old today and we are SO happy that he choose to come to our family! He is a sweet baby and he blesses our lives everyday. He Loves to smile and laugh. He is usually only good for one chuckle at a time, but his Uncle Bill got him to crack up for a few minutes, it was so so cute.
He is a good baby (although right now he is sitting on my lap crying). I love him so much and am so grateful for him!!