Erica Turns 10

This was my grocery cart in preparation for Erica's birthday. I surely hope no one was judging me.

My kids can invite as many friends as they want to their 7th, 10th and 13th birthdays. Erica broke the record by inviting 17. Unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) only 11 came so we had an even dozen counting Erica. The first thing we did was serve pancakes with all the fun toppings. This was a last minute idea and it was a hit.

Other games included a candy bar game, musical chairs then she opened presents

Then they played cookie face

and then back downstairs for Pictionary.

The last activity was animal face stickers.

They were a fun albeit noisy bunch.

Four of her friends gave her stuffed sloths. "Does everyone know you love sloths?" I asked after she opened the second one. "Yes!" the group replied. Erica grabbed more from her room for the photo.

Her party was Saturday but her real birthday was Monday. We woke everyone up early to open presents and have birthday breakfast before school.

She got Telestrations, a new watch, some clothes, origami paper. Henry got her a pink sloth, some treats and a stuffed snail.

James was sick so they gathered where he was sitting.

For breakfast she chose French toast with buttermilk syrup, strawberries, whipped cream and sausage.

After school her friend Truman brought over a gift. He was sick the day of her party. He gave her two more sloths and she couldn't have been more excited. That brings the tally to 24. Afterwards she "made" Henry and Sarah ride bikes with her to the gas station so she could spend her birthday money on overpriced candy.

Getting ready for birthday dinner. She chose macaroni and cheese and fruit salad. I added a green salad but didn't make her eat it since it was her birthday.

It took some brainstorming to come up with her birthday dessert. She doesn't like cake but she usually chooses cake because she likes the look of one. She really likes brownies and Oreos so I made this up.

Oreo stuffed brownie base then I whipped up some cream and Oreo pudding and added more Oreos. I had to thin it out with a bit of milk because it got so thick. It turned out delicious and just what she likes.

Justin's parents were on a cruise and since James may or may not have the flu my parents opted to stay home. So it was just us which a couple of Erica's birthdays have been when my parents were on their mission and Justin's parents lived out of state.

While we ate dessert we played the birthday game which means we go around the table taking turns asking her a question.

After that we played Telestrations and sent them to bed!

Her birthday interview

Her birthday pictures and some fun facts.

Her hair is so long and she loves it. She thinks she just wants to keep it growing but I think she'll get annoyed with it any longer.

She's into Legos and dolls and watching TV. And making messes with art supplies.

She thought she wanted to go back to piano lessons so I told her I'd call her piano teacher after she practiced without complaining for an entire week. She lasted one day and said nevermind.

Her room is always a disaster. She cleans it regularly but she just pulls so much stuff out to play. It's good that she plays so much but man it drives me crazy.

She loves fourth grade with all her heart. Her teacher's personality is lot like hers: super fun and big ideas, warm and loves everybody. I am worried how sad she will be when this school year is over.

She really does hate chores. She complains and is super slow no matter what it is.

She's still my most thoughtful kid. She's observant of what people need and just does it.

I can't believe she's 10!

January Out!

Just a few things. I am trying really hard to even find photos to share. We have just been doing the school/church/basketball thing so there's not many interesting things going on.

Does this rain chain look like it's working? We put this up to prevent water damage in the basement and stop the death trap that is a row of icicles that form on this stretch of gutter.

I guess it's a mega long icicle instead.

I'm really hoping we're done with the crazy cold weather.

It is Erica's dream to get into the Friend magazine. Keep checking the magazine every month along with her to see if her submission made it.

Justin took the priests snow camping. It was a short trip and everyone stayed warm so I think it was a success.

Henry went to work for Justin for the day as required by his career awareness class. Justin had to be at work super early so I took Henry later that morning on my way to Ikea to return some dishes that arrived broken in November. He spent several hours playing games on an extra laptop and giving Justin a play-by-play of what he was playing while Justin was trying hard to make a deadline (Justin also had a couple of meetings and phone calls so it wasn't the best day for him to come along but it's the day all the 7th graders were released to go). They went to Panda Express for lunch so Henry thought it was a great day.

After Ikea I made by bi-annual trip to Winco to get the mangos I like and Golden Griddle syrup because they are the only place that sells Golden Griddle in the entire state. They didn't have any mangos and they no longer sell Golden Griddle. I don't know if I have reason to ever go back there. Juanita's chips are a good price so maybe for that. And I got irritated by their signs that compare their price to that at other grocery stores. As someone who has a working knowledge of the price of things at all the stores, I KNOW they were wrong on several of them.

February is more fun, right? Erica's birthday, more basketball, Valentine's day.

January activities and the time I inadvertently caused inflation

We finished the Book of Mormon again! We were really diligent the last few weeks so that we could finish it in time to start it again in the new year. The kids got a little tired of reading more than one chapter per night (gasp!) but I kind of liked picking up the pace. Makes the narrative flow a bit better. 

In true Dye fashion we celebrated by going out for ice cream. We went to a newly opened Iceberg in Spanish Fork.

Justin and I went to Iceberg a lot in Orem when we were dating so it was fun to relive those times.

Sometimes your 7 year old gets ahold of your phone and thinks he's funny.

One of Sarah's Christmas presents was tickets to the Utah Symphony. She was so excited! We picked a night they were performing at UVU so we didn't have to go all the way to SLC (although I'd love to take her to Abravenal Hall to see them).

She wasn't the youngest person there but she was the third youngest person there.

They had a wonderful violin soloist that she loved. She was pretty much just enjoying every second. They played Beethoven's 7th which I wasn't familiar with but really liked.

Saturday we went shooting for a little while. The littles were the only ones that wanted to come with us. I came along just to get out of the house so I didn't make them. 

Erica and James both took a turn. Erica got hurt by the butt of the gun not being in exactly the right spot and bless her heart she was brave enough to try it again. We made it home after dark and Justin cooked us burgers on the charcoal grill. Yum.

Most days this week it's been about basketball. Mondays and Wednesdays James plays and Justin is his coach. Henry has practice Tuesdays and Thursdays.  James is almost done, Henry is just getting started. Luckily basketball is my favorite sport to watch (which isn't saying much) and at least it's inside and what else is there to do on a dark January evening.

One Tuesday night I got a weather alert about a snow squall. I had to google snow squall. Basically it's when it looks like you're zooming through outer space while driving your son to basketball practice but really should not be out driving at all.

Literally no snow 10 minutes ago.

James's basketball season wrapped up last night. He had his best friend on the team and Justin as coach so he had a great attitude about going each time.

Of course he exaggerated how much his team won each game (they don't keep score) and complained about the other team always being in his way.

I think Justin had fun as well. These boys are pretty funny and their little personalities on the court are hilarious to watch. One little boy would stand with the ball looking at his teammates jumping up and down calling to him to pass it and he would look back and forth and take forever to choose which kid to throw the ball to. 

I asked him if he wants to play next year and he said he wants to play football. No soccer (phew!) or baseball (fine with me). I don't think he can think farther than summer.

This afternoon I helped during the 4th grade Mountain Man Rendezvous. The fourth graders have been earning beaver pelts (fake currency) since November to spend at the rendezvous today. All the fourth grade classrooms were emptied out and filled with games, crafts and activities and a trading post where they could buy candy and toys. I was handed masking tape and two gallons of wood beads, a fat stack of beaver pelt currency and told to make a target game on the floor with the bullseye worth 20 beaver pelts. Like skeeball, methinks. Alrighty. Circles with masking tape is tricky but I did it and the 4 rings made up 5, 10, 15 and 20. The kids paid 5 beaver pelts to play and depending on how good they rolled their 3 wood beads they won beaver pelts back. Every kid at least rolled a bead into the 5 pelt zone, one made it into the 20 and the record payout was 45 but the average was probably 25. Word quickly spread that my game was paying out and I had a constant stream of kids. Ever seen signs of gambling compulsion in a ten year old? I have. The two dads in the room at the arm wrestling and stick pull stations were never as busy as me and I had to borrow beaver pelts from them to pay out the winnings. I asked the kids how many beaver pelts they had earned for the rendezvous. 250 said one. 250 for like 9 weeks of good behavior and schoolwork and I was handing out 45 beaver pelts for rolling beads on a target?! 

The 90 minutes flew by, I didn't have a moment to take any pictures and I ran out of money just as the time was up. Did I do it wrong? Maybe. Were the kids having a blast and was my rotation the most popular? Yes. Did I flood the beaver pelt market and cause a run on goods in the trading post? I didn't stick around long enough to ask.

Justin Turns 40

 Justin turned 40 on the 31st. We were lucky to have him home with us since it was a fifth Sunday and had no meetings. So that meant we got to give him presents and make him breakfast. The kids each picked out something from the store they thought he'd like. Some kids (James) picked something (sour cream and onion potato chips) they wanted to eat with him.

I got him a hydrological map of Utah to hang in his office at work.

Then we ate biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Justin likes his birthday but he doesn't really like everyone to know it's his birthday. He doesn't want attention, just good food and play games. So Sarah and I sneaked into the church the day before to subtly decorate his bishop's office door. It's the only time he'll have a Sunday birthday as bishop so why not. He was mildly amused but the kids loved it. I also arranged with the music director to sing his favorite hymn in sacrament meeting. I don't know if he noticed that, now that I think about it.

During the second hour we met with all the youth and he made asked me to take a few minutes and talk to the youth which I did but only after making it very clear I only agreed to since it was his birthday. So then everyone in that room knew. He got off easy really. I was considering making him hand out cookies to the whole ward as they left the building.

That night we had all the family that wanted to over for dinner. The theme: Tacos. Justin's favorite food. His parents gave him a charcoal grill so that's where the magic happened.

We had chicken, pork, steak and elk with all the fixings.

Some of the crowd. I think we had 35 people total.

Forty cupcakes for 40 years! (Flan for him, cupcakes for non flan lovers). Then we played games and hung out until midnight. We saved the cleanup for the morning.

Henry wants to wish everyone a happy new year.