St. Patrick's Day, 2011.

We added a new level of fun-ness to St. Patrick's Day this year with rainbows. We had rainbow shaped pancakes for breakfast. The girls decorated them with all the colored sprinkles we could find and we colored coconut yellow for our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It kind of looked like cheese. In the afternoon we made rainbow colored cupcakes. It was just one cakemix separated into 6 bowls and dyed red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The girls dyed the batter and layered it into the cupcake liners. The result was a very fun cupcake and they were so proud to show Rusty. For dinner we had green-green chili rellenos with beans and sopapillas. Green chili rellenos count for St. Patrick's Day, they ARE green. Thats what we wanted to eat, anyway. At night we left out our green pots to see if the leprachauns would find them on the windowsill. They did find the pots and left each of the kids a dollar. Wow, those are really nice leprachauns. All of these things were fun, but my very favorite part of St. Patrick's Day this year was the outfit Kyleigh came down the stairs in. A green belt wrapped around a golden shirt and some very green hand me down tights that she adores. My very own leprachaun.

Bird feeders with Katelyn.

The kids came to cub scouts with me one night. We were making peanut butter pinecone bird feeders and Katelyn hung out with me and the scouts and made one for herself. We hung it up outside, but it was on a corner where you couldn't really see if the birds were coming. We did see some evidence of birds so we had Daddy put two hooks right in line with the windows. We made two more bird feeders and hung them on the hooks where we would be sure to see the birds if they came. Lucky for us they came and they keep coming every day. We especially love the two birds that we think are a cute old bird couple. They come every day and they often share with each other. One will fly up and get some seeds then land on the rail to give it to the other. Ridge is especially fond of the birds. He now says Mama, Dada, and Bird.

Another Creature Friend

Kyleigh loves creatures. She was especially fond of this little guy. He kept running around to her back and she said he was playing hide and seek with her. About a week after this she was playing with a lizard and it bit her hand. It tore the skin. She told us, "it took me two shakes to get him off." In the last little while she has also been stung by two bees on the bottom of the same foot in one week. Both times could have been avoided with shoes, but it is still "the bee's fault." She has been telling us how she prefers mosquitoes over bees now, despite the honey.

Daddy and Ridge and Sunglasses.

Muffin Madness Morning

Another fun idea from...you guessed it, family fun magazine. I took the idea and gave it a more exciting name. When I read this idea I liked it so much I grabbed my calender and scheduled it in. If it's not on the calender it never happens. So, on muffin madness morning I filled all of our little bowls with random possibilities for muffin guts. The options included cheese, ham, mixed berries, strawberries, chocolate chips, bananas, green onion, chopped nuts, mandarin oranges, raisins, and craisins. The girls put combinations in the mini muffin cups. Then they mixed the a scoop of batter into each muffin cup with a toothpick. We baked them up and had ourselves a muffin feast. The girls started asking if we could "do this again tomorrow" before we were done eating. This was a definite do-over.

We're so glad when Daddy comes home

Sometimes the tickle monster. Sometimes the horsey. Always happy to have him home.

President's Day Party

I love family fun magazine. In the last issue they had some ideas for a President's Day party. It sounded fun to me so I invited the Petersons and Mike and Holly over for a raging fun President's Day.

When everyone arrived we worked together to open "the safe." The safe was a piece of cardboard painted green with a paper plate on the front. I had cut the cardboard the same size as the opening in our entertainment center. I listed the names of 10 former U.S. Presidents on the plate and attached it with a tack. I had some random presidential trivia and we worked together to answer the questions and get the correct combination to the "safe lock." When we cracked the code and opened the safe everyone got a pile of money to pay for their dinner and games.

Before dinner we made birthday year badges. I got five rolls of pennies and we all worked together to find a penny with the year of each persons birth. Five rolls did the trick. We got a penny for each birth year, ranging between 1974 and 2010. We glued the pennies onto a round piece of felt and put them on with a safety pin.

Our dinner had a presidential theme. Well, kind of. The signs read...

Dinner: Compliments of Grover Cleveland=Cleveland Reds=Indians=Navajo tacos.
Cost-1 Alexander Hamilton.

Drinks: The James Bu"can"an. Free with purchase of meal. (Can of juice)

Dessert: The John Adams=Adams Apple=Apple Crisp! Cost- 1 Abe Lincoln

After dinner we had a few games. The names of our games were the Lincoln toss and the Herbert Hoover. We set up the Lincoln toss with a big tub full of water. I had a few small tupperware containers floating in the water. Each person got 6 pennies to toss. The person with the most pennies in the containers won. Jeff P. won that one, but I was a close second. The Herbert Hoover was the best game of all. We dished up equal portions of jello and everyone had a straw to suck up their jello. You know, Hoover=vaccum=suck up jello with a straw. The Peterson boys were especially fond of this game, but Jeff was the winner.

Who knew that President's Day could be so fun.