Happy Birthday to my Party Animal!

Benjamin LOVES parties!  He has been talking about his birthday for MONTHS.  But when it came right down to it, he had a really hard time deciding what he wanted to do for his party.  As he said, "There are so many fun choices!"  Among the possibilities were Chuck E. Cheese, Pirate Island, and Jumpin' Jacks.  Finally, last week Benjamin decided it had to be Jumpin' Jacks.  Jumpin' Jacks is one of those places with inflatable slides and bounce houses to play on.  We took several of his friends from school (and Daniel and two cousins) with us.

Here's the biggest slide they've got:

One of the best parts (for me) was having chocolate cake there, and then being able to just walk away from all of the crumbs ground into the floor.  Also, it was a Saturday, but we had the place mostly to ourselves.  Thanks, Benjamin for choosing a great venue for the party!

Of course, being Benjamin, one party was hardly enough.  He also wanted to have some family (particularly his grandparents) over for pizza and more partying.

 

Just so you don't get the wrong idea and start thinking that we totally spoiled him, I have to mention that we gave him the choice of either a big (i.e. somewhat expensive) party or a big present (we still got him  a couple  of inexpensive presents).  He preferred to party.  He did get some nice presents from his friends and family that he was really excited about.  Also, Benjamin is just a really sweet, thankful kid who appreciates what he gets, so I think it would be difficult to actually spoil him.  And even more than the presents, Benjamin  loved being showered with attention by the people that he loves.  Thank you to everyone who helped Benjamin have such a fabulous 7th birthday!

Our Adoption Video

Our adoption profile at Parent Profiles gave us the option of adding a video to our profile.  We couldn't find very many videos on their website, so we also looked on youtube for adoption videos.  Most of them were just profile pictures made into a slide show and set to music.  Well, that was way too boring for us, so we made a totally different kind of video.  Hope you enjoy it!

P.S.  You'll want to mute the blog music before you start the video.

Back to school!

Can you guess which kid was happy that school was starting and which one wanted to go back to bed?

School has started again!  Benjamin is in first grade, and Daniel is in third.  It's weird not having them home during the day.  Right now, I'm trying to get caught up on the projects that I put off all summer because playing with my boys was more fun.  I wish I was busy getting stuff ready for a baby, but "sigh," not yet.

Happy Ten Years!

This past week we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!

This is us ten years ago.

 

 

And this is us now.

And so to celebrate we went on a fabulous getaway to Park City!  K, so maybe it wasn't all that exotic, but it was nice to have some time to ourselves.  Wayne's parents watched the boys on Friday night, and they all had a great time, too.  We rented a condo (Park City condos are much cheaper in the summer than the winter).  On Saturday, we saw some of the Park City bike racing events that were part of the Tour of Utah.  We also took one of the scenic rides up the ski lift in town and did a little hiking.    

Squeezing in more summer

We've been having so much fun that I haven't had time to blog about it all.  So, you get the shortened version of it.  First, we had a fabulous ward camp out, if I do say so myself.  We had about 150 people total who came, and about 50 of them stayed overnight.  It was up Hobble Creek Canyon, which made it close enough for the people who came only for dinner to just head home.  We had sloppy joes from BYU takeout  for dinner, and muffins and fruit for breakfast.  For our program, we had a lot of impromptu skits and songs, with Wayne as our announcer.  Daniel sang "Propel, propel, propel your craft" which is the fancy version of "Row, row, row your boat."  Benjamin told some camping jokes.

 A few days after that, we went to the Wiggly Circus!  Our friend Alyssa won some tickets and couldn't use them, so she gave them to us because she knows Benjamin is a Wiggles fan.  The tickets were amazing seats on the third row, on the floor.  We love music of all kinds, so we all enjoyed it.  For Daniel, it was a very nostalgic experience.  So, thanks again Alyssa for a fun night!  After the concert, we took the kids to Leatherby's for "the best ice cream in the world."

 And finally, this past weekend, we went to Bear Lake!  We stayed with Wayne's brother and his family.  It was a family reunion of sorts with Wayne's parents and some of his siblings.  We went swimming in the lake, made sand castles, collected shells, etc.  On Sunday, we went to church, and we came home after a yummy lunch.  Great party all around.