Spinach Ice Cream/Smoothie

Our new favorite thing: 

Spinach Ice Cream

about 1/3 container of apple juice concentrate (thawed)

1/2 banana (or 2 big spoonfuls of greek yogurt)

small sliver of lime

1-3 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves

2 cups ice

Courtesy of: the VitaMix chic at Costco

I've seen a few "green" smoothies around the web and Pinterest but this is the one we like best. The tiny bit of lime seems to give the green color some purpose. My baby comes running any time he hears the blender going. He LOVES this stuff. 

**warning: this doesn't smell very good after a few hours on the counter. Wash out blender and cups soon after finishing**

First Apple Hill Shoot

This was my first photo shoot at Apple Hill. It's pretty barren this time of year

but with the color scheme Jena had picked out, it just worked. 

I can't wait to go back in the spring, if we ever have one.

 Carmel

The lighting was a bit more harsh than I thought it would be so I wasn't completely thrilled with the way these turned out, but they're not that bad.

  This one's too cute. Look at Sawyer's little grin. Precious!

Cute little Sawyer. I think he's about 2 months in these pictures. 

 We went to 2 different spots at AH. The first was just a park we've taken our kids to before and the other was a vineyard I'd heard about. I've seen some other photogs work there and it always looks great. There are these old vintage trucks parked around the compound and they're available for props.

 Anyone else want some family pictures up there? I want to go back when everything starts to bloom.

So, like, next week......

Baby Keoni

I actually took these little pics of Keoni about 3 months ago (before I got bronchitis for 2 months) and just now got around to editing them. He may look kinda chunky in some pictures but don't be fooled. He was less than 6 lbs. at birth. I think he was about 6 wks old in these pictures. Teeny!!!

 This Squirt box was my $1 garage sale SCORE! I found a Coke box earlier last summer and the guy wanted over $40 for it.  I was so excited to use my box. I think its perfect for little boys.

Keoni was very alert for most of the shoot. He only slept for a few minutes, which is why there's only 3 sleeping pictures. I need to find some more ideas for positions with infants that don't sleep during photo shoots.

 I was really nervous that these pictures weren't going to turn out because they were so dark, but its amazing what black and white can do to a picture. I love the contrast.

This one is kinda different but I actually like it.

I'm afraid our little baby is going to be the subject of my photo shoots quite often. My goal when we started having kids was to make sure the last child had as many pictures as the first. I was the 7th kid and there's some pictures of me the day I was born and a few more before I went to Kindergarten. Not much in between. Fortunately I've been able to keep up on my goal, and even more fortunate, the photos keep getting better and better.

I am nothing if not traditional

Growing up my mom always made just about every holiday a big thing. 

Valentine's Day was not the least of them.

Every year the table was set nicely for breakfast, with each place setting having their own box of See's candies. We would each give our siblings a little valentine treat and Mom always made pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.

I stayed up until midnight the night before as Tanner was gone all week--again -- getting the table ready, setting out their mailboxes and filling them with treats, making donuts, etc. 

The kids woke up in the morning and sat at the table without saying a word. 

I said "What do you think of the table?" 

In unison: "Cool."

Awesome. All that work for 'cool'. That's okay, I know they'll appreciate it when they get older. 

 The baked donuts I found on Pinterest. Good, but when you live next to Heavenly Donuts, nothing really compares.

This is his "I'm not doing anything" look. As he's coloring all over my white tablecloth.

Tanner was gone all week, including VD--which is the 3rd year in a row--so

this little peach was my Valentine all day. 

Tanner's so lucky he has such a low maintenance wife!

For dinner we had heart shaped pizza, garlic cheesy breadsticks, strawberries, and Cosmopolitan Jello Cups.

It took me an entire day to convince the kids to bring some sort of Valentine for each of their classmates. Finally around 9 pm they decided to take something. Luckily my little friend Pinterest had some good ideas that I was able to print off. I'm glad I'm not the only one who relies on that site for everything. I must have seen at least a dozen different ideas on there and the kids came home with every single one of them, given to them by other kids at school.

Sometimes I feel like I go overboard with the fun things I plan for the kids--especially when they're response is 'cool'. But the one year I didn't do something for St. Patrick's day the kids were all disappointed in me. So I know they love it. When we got married Tanner thought it was bizarre that all the women in my family had decorations for EVERY holiday. I think my sisters and I are all pretty similar that way. We like to celebrate things. Now I think Tanner just expects it. It does wipe me out sometimes though. I had to take a long nap the next day:)

Another Party Time

Huddy Buddy turned 5 the beginning of the month. We had a party on Sunday with Grandpa (he turned 70!) and then we had to open presents for Hudson a day early because his real birthday day was crazy busy. He was pretty stoked about everything. 

The biggest hit (in case there are any boys as crazy about Star Wars and Squinkies as my kids) is the new Star Wars Pods. They're like Squinkies, only they're Star Wars, and they come with accessories. Too cool. They go everywhere with him. He, my child who won't play with toys. 

 Transformers Walkie Talkies. I hid these about two days later. 

 The Pods! He got two sets so he has lots of twins and triplets:)

 This is the gumball machine cake I made. Not my best efforts. In my own defense I was burnt out on desserts. In the last month these were the the desserts I made:

*a cake for Bryson's family party

*two dozen (or more) sugar cookies for Bryson's class (with homemade frosting)

*about 6 dozen cupcakes for the cub scout Blue and Gold dinner (with LOTS of homemade frosting)

*cake for Bryson's friends party (with homemade frosting)

*a chocolate trifle for dinner with the family on Grandpa's birthday

*cake for Hudson on his birthday

Add that on top of all the other meals and treats and crap I make all the time and I want to banned from my kitchen. 

Hudson's preschool class got marshmallows for treats.

NOT homemade.

My goal over the next ten years or so is to not ever pay to have a party anywhere. 

I've priced them out at lots of places and they usually range from $150 on up to have a party at just about any cool establishment. 

Enter the cheap (mother of 5) mom's way of doing parties:

Go to fun places without making a reservation (f.y.i - this requires a back-up plan in case they are all booked up and can't squeeze you in. We found this out the hard way last year)

Bring your own food (if allowed) and cake. 

Two hours later, send a bunch of hot sweaty kids home with their parents.

Walla. Done. 

We've done Monster Golf this way - which is actually the one that was booked. It was $150 for a minimum of 10 kids. Or......you can take 5 kids and pay $7 per kid on a Saturday afternoon. You just don't get the room. Because they were all booked Tanner took what money he had planned for their golf pass, handed out a bunch of tokens and spent two hours in the arcade instead. Genius! they loved it.

Brynn's is easy because she's summer, so we can go on any day of the week and we have a lot more options. The boys are winter birthdays so we might end up spending more money on their parties because we are limited to outdoor activities. 

 I grabbed a car full  of boys after preschool and went to open bounce at the bounce place. $5 a kid for a couple hours and no clean-up? Not too shabby.

 Cheeseball likes to swing his head side to side and never hold still

 By the way.... I hate flash. I'd rather have blurry pictures than weird glowing eyes and strange colors.

The kids all liked to line up at the top and come down together.

Yes, they all got major burns on their arms.

And yes, they were a bunch of sweaty little piggies about 10 minutes into it. Hud's little friend Mason was almost in tears that his mom wouldn't let him get naked. He was dying to shed something...ANYthing!

After 3 days of celebrating Hudson was a little disappointed that I didn't keep it going on Wednesday. Sorry babe, this momma's tired.

Party Time!!!

For Bryson's party this year we decided on a "Manly Man" theme. Over Christmas break Gr. Clint took them down to Uncle Shane's house where he had just rigged up a zip line in the back yard. 

Sold! 

One trip down the line and B wanted his party there.

So, luckily, Shane and Janet are cool like that and they let us bring down a bunch of ruffians for the day. 

Too much fun for these kids. We were there for about 3 hours and it wasn't nearly enough time for them.

 Carter was a bit nervous. It took him a long time to step off the platform and he 

was pretty funny while he was up there. Once he went he was hooked. 

He's hoping to have his party there in October:)

 Huddy had no fear of anything and practically jumped off the platform before he was hooked up properly

 Brynn's pretty fearless too and enjoyed her time on the line

 Cole obviously has done this before and felt comfortable enough to go upside down most of the way

 Spencer takin' it easy the first run

 B feels comfortable upside down too

 Tyler - Look Ma! No hands!

 Oooh, you can just imagine what he thinks about being stuck in the swing!

After the zip line we had some hotdogs and then it was over to the archery range to see what good little marksmen we had with us.

 Wait for it ..... wait for it ......

 If this was a real bear it'd be super dead!

 Shane is UBER creative and made this track that shoots out rolling targets. Once the kids killed the bear he brought out the rolling targets and they were thrilled!  I'm pretty sure each kid got a target on the move. B was front and center so he got a near Bullseye almost every time!

 Brynn's super good at archery too. She must get that from her Mom!

 Cake and Ice Cream - super good cake too if I say so myself. 

 And last but not least my little poopsie had to have a turn too. Actually it was the men's idea but he was happy to comply. 

He was nothing but smiles. Apparently we'll have another daredevil on our hands.

Awesome!