Allie's Rock Star Family Party

In lieu of having a friends birthday, we invited the extended family over to enjoy some yummy cake.  Allie wanted a rock star party so here is our attempt at making a guitar for the rock star.  The cake was vanilla with a strawberry filling and frosting

The final product

Birthday Pics of the birthday girl before the family arrived

Blowing out the candles and making a wish

Had to get a few little "rock star" party favors for the birthday girl and cousins.  I think they make great future Rock Stars or maybe Halloween costumes (Allie is wanting to be a rock star for Halloween)

Dirty Dash

Blake, me and some friends in our ward were part of a team for a race called the Dirty Dash.  I was very excited about it up until the day before.  I got a little nervous about doing a team race where you are supposed to finish together and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I had heard a few things here and there about the race, but wanted to know the low down.  

Well we got up there and started out by running a short distance before we were stuck in a traffic jam waiting for the first obstacle; jumping hay bails.  We jumped probably 1/2 dozen hay bails which seemed to get taller and taller as the course went on. We jogged for a bit and then we were met by cement tunnels whose bottoms were caked in mud; can't go around it, can't go on top of it....have to go through it:)  This began our muddy adventure.  Some of the obstacles that followed were jumping through lines of tires in the mud,  scaling ladders, jumping over hurdles and then there was the final hill up to the water slide.  After the water slide we were met by a large pool of mud that we swam through before crossing the finish line.

Due to the course being in the mountains, we only had a photographer at the end.  I was so touched that my husband put up with me through the entire race.  He pushed me when I needed to be pushed, he encouraged me when I needed it and we finished together.   This was us going up the final hill which led to a giant water slide.....so much fun!

Blake in the blue....swimming through the pool of MUD

You can't see Blake here, only a piece of his head poking up,  but he literally swam the last piece with his head in and all

Just crossed the finish line

Such a fun race....so glad that we were able to do it together

Check out Blake's side photo-he looks like Frankenstein 

Team photo

Allie Turns 5!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!   I can't believe that you are turning 5, but we have had lots of fun packed into those 5 years.  Your big day had arrived and we had planned to just lay low and do have a family day instead of throwing you a party

For breakfast you wanted to go and get a bagel with cream cheese, so we decided to have the cousins meet us along with our neighbor Macy

For dinner we wanted to celebrate as a family and go somewhere fun.  We had heard about Donny Mac's but  had never been so we decided to try it out



We were lucky enough to get there as another family was leaving the car, so we took there place.  There is one car in the middle of the restaurant that they remodeled and put a table inside of so that people can eat in it.

Allie and daddy

Me and Soph....it was a little tricky eating in the car without a high chair and having to hold onto the wiggle worm, but we did it

After dinner we took Allie to Wahooz where she got to do anything FREE for her birthday

She first wanted to go into Kiddie Cove

Swinging around

Next, she went and rode the go-karts with dad

Sophie has been standing all by herself lately.  She loved watching the cars go round and round until she found some rocks to eat.

The final activity of the night was a round of mini golf

It had been quite a long time since Allie had golfed and now she is at the age where she actually gets it and had such a fun time playing

Happy Birthday sweet girl.  It was so fun to spend such a great day with you and celebrate having you in our family!  We love you!!!

I Looked Out The Window

I looked out the window and what did I see?  NO, not popcorn popping, but kids scaling the fence!  Really???  Who does this; I guess my daughter and the neighbor girls and they are GIRLS, not boys.  I had to just sit and watch and listen on my porch unnoticed for a little bit to see what the heck these kids were doing and saying to each other. 

They had a plan to go around all 4 sides of the yard like this

I watched and giggled for awhile as I listened to them trying to figure out how to get down, how their bums were starting to hurt; and then for the sake of me not wanting to buy a new fence nor pay a hospital bill for my child coming down with the fence, I had the girls get down.

One last photo of the girls before exiting off the fence.   Oh girls...time to go and play house:)

Western Idaho Fair

It's that time again, time for the annual Idaho State Fair!!!  I love the fair and get so excited when it comes around every year.  I guess I grew up going to the fair when I was little so it only seems natural to keep going.  Blake on the other hand can't handle the fair so after dragging him year after year with us, he  kindly suggested we go during the day with other friends whose husbands don't want to go.  Easy enough at this stage in our life that's just what we did; Allie and I even picked up Natalie to join us.  We ended up meeting the Johnson's down there and between her and I we had 9 kids.  We fit right in as the circus act at the fair :)    

Allie loves feeding the animals.  Guess she's an all natural compared to the Johnson's; they were petrified of feeding the animals and were cracking me up

Allie and Natalie loved and enjoyed the goats

Brushing the cows.  The petting zoo is always fun because it's so interactive for the kids.  Loved how it was 

not very crowded the day that we went

Sophie got up close and personal with some goats; even got a few kisses from them

My friend and I fell in love with some cow girl hats and wanted to buy them for all the girls.  The sad part was the hats cost $20 a piece, so we decided to grab pictures of the girls to remember how cute they were

There was a butterfly house at the fair this year and it was so much fun.   They had little q-tips that you could dip in nectar to feed the butterflies.   Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet?  Learned something new at the Idaho Fair this year:)

One butterfly landed right on Allie's dress and Allie became a butterfly rescue hero by getting one picked up off the floor

We took a lunch break mid-day and the girls enjoyed getting cooled off from the ginormous fan

As tradition stands, Allie got to pick one ride to go on.  She ended up picking out these boats that went around in the water....really not to exciting kid but heck you had fun!  Another great year, great food, and great friends enjoyed at the fair.

Soccer

We've got a soccer player in the house.  Blake is very excited to have Allie in soccer.  He loves working with her in the backyard and is so excited to watch her play.  Me and Sophie on the other hand, enjoy being a sideline cheerleader learning the rules of soccer.  I enjoy having Allie in soccer because then I can actually learn the rules of the game and start to understand Blake's soccer games a little more.

Allie ready to head to her first practice

Coach Del telling them the drill

Learning to run and kick the ball

A fun game the team played at the end was "crab and mermaid."  The coach was the crab and all the kids were the mermaids trying to run by him and kick their ball into the goal.  Then the next round all the kids wanted to be crabs with Coach Del; so fun!  I guess learning to play soccer at this age is just a bunch of games.  

Movie In The Park

Dad was gone for the night so we decided to meet some friends at the park for Friday night movie in the park.  It was on our list to do for the summer and it was a great girly movie-Ramona and Beezus.  Allie and I both enjoy making caramel popcorn and watching the movie on the big screen.  We've started a great tradition!

Lounging on the blanket.  We got there early to get some good seats and have a pizza party with our friends

Sophie thought this was all fun and games until she was ready for bed 1/2 way into the movie.  She finally gave up the fight and snuggled into me to fall asleep.

Two girls ready for the show-Lights-Camera-Action