Thanksgiving Break...

I don't know how many times I've said that I just love it when my kids are home from school. We never have time during a school week to do all of the fun things that we want to, so when we're on break, we like to take full advantage of the time at home together.

Q-Tip Painting. An idea I saw on Pinterest, and that all my kids LOVED. And, not to mention, super easy to do because all you need is paint and Q-tips. We did fall-colored trees...


Sophie, mad because her tree didn't look like Hayden and Ana's. (That happens sometimes when the only color you will use is pink)...



Roll a Turkey. Fun for kids (and for the kids at heart)...



Candy Acorns. Hayden especially liked this craft, and made sure that every nut went through quality control to make sure it was fit for a squirrel...



Sophie, on the other hand, made sure that each nut was fit for her little mouth...



Owl watching. There is an old abandoned barn near our neighborhood where two big, white barn owls live. Rob and I took the kids out to see the owls as part of one of Hayden's cub scout badge requirements. Hayden got out of the car with this on his hand...

He claimed that he needed my oven mitt for protection, just in case one of the owls wanted to perch on his arm. (I love that kid!) Ana thought that it was as funny as we did...


Relaxing. I think that this is the best part of "breaks", just lounging around and being together. I'm so thankful for my little family, and that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with such dear, sweet kids and a wonderful husband, whom they love to pieces...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Castling...

If there were a verb to describe what our family did for several days to help Hayden with his latest third grade project, castling would have to be it. To conclude their study of the Middle Ages, each student had to build a castle that had all of the "real life" features of medieval castles. It was quite the undertaking, a lot more work than I expected (thus the reason we waited till the last week to do it and ended up burning the midnight oil to get it done). But in the end, Hayden did an awesome job and had really great ideas on how to make it cool (ie. the flag labels and the rocks around the outside)...


Sophie and I got to go to his class to listen to his oral report about the Middle Ages, it was so fun to hear him explain all of his ideas and how he implemented them into the castle. When I was helping him type his report, he kept wanting to add information that he didn't learn in school, but learned from a book. I kept trying to persuade him to just stick to the stuff from school, but he wouldn't be deterred, so we added it at the end. I'm so glad he was determined, his teacher was really impressed that he added things that he learned on his own. Way to go Hayden, I'm proud of you for always being true to yourself and never afraid to take risks (you get that from your dad:).

Cheap Entertainment...

Marshmallows and toothpicks. Hours of fun (and you can snack along the way)...

 

Debut of the Flash Moms...

Every year my friends and I get together and go the premiere of the newest Twilight movie that is always played at midnight, the morning of the opening day. Well, this year was also the premiere of something else... My friend Annie decided that all of us Moms should do a flash mob dance in the courtyard of the theater. And so we did! It was so hilarious!! After we danced outside of the theater where all the Twi-hards were waiting in line, the manager of the theater let us mob each of the individual theaters before the movie started. What a riot!! People were clapping and cheering and we even had the movie theater staff running down to the front of the theater to join us. It was such a great time. Definitely one of the highlights of my year!!

Thanks Annie for being so awesome! I'm so glad that I have friends that are so fun!

Here is a link to a video of the Flash Mom premiere, I couldn't get it to upload straight to my blog for some reason.

Crazy Craft Day...

Last year, when Ana was in kindergarten, I was fortunate to get to know some of the moms of the kids in her class, and we have all become quite good friends. They are some of the nicest people that I know. This year all of our kids are in different classes and we don't run into each other as often, so we decided to plan days just to get together. We had our first Crazy Craft Day last week and it was so fun to hang out and talk with all of them again. I seriously love these girls...

 

Happy Halloween!!

 

 

 

Love, The Clarks

The Death of a Pumpkin...

Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but there is one quintessential Halloween activity that I just don't enjoy... carving those darn pumpkins. There is something about the smell of the pumpkin guts that just gets me, and the fact that the pumpkin just rots and crumples after two days of being skewered. I prefer round, untouched, pretty pumpkins... but I had to finally admit to myself that I was depriving my kids of a classic Halloween pastime, and that I should just suck it up and do it. The kids were thrilled, and Ana exclaimed, "Woohoo, our first time carving pumpkins!", while running circles around the kitchen. It was then that I decided that it was a must-do for Halloween from now on. We even tried our hands at "fancy" pumpkin carving. Hayden and Ana were the tracers, I was the pattern poker, and Rob was the carver and guts-digger-outer. Sophie basically just ran around causing havoc and having a happy Halloween time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to admit that they turned out pretty cute... even though they did rot and crumple the next day;)

Author's Celebration...

Ana had her first turn at public speaking in her first grade Author's Celebration. The kids got to read the stories they had written to their class and all their parents, using the smart-board to display their illustrations. She thought it was pretty awesome to use the smart-board like her teacher does, and she did an amazing job telling about a car that started on fire in our neighborhood (I love the things that kids choose to write about:)...

 

 

Ana's Concert...

Ana had been regaling us with the songs for her fall school concert for weeks, and we finally got to see and hear the real renditions. She did a fabulous job, and was super cute to boot...

 

Cornbelly's...

We took a trip out to Utah the week before Halloween to spend some fun fall time with family. Nona and Becca took the kids to this huge fall festival, called Cornbelly's, at Thanksgiving Point. The kids loved it! And I'm fairly sure that Nona did too:)...

 

 

 

 

 

Nona, thanks for always taking us to do super fun things!!
Love, Hayden, Ana and Sophie

Cub Scouts...

Hayden has definitely found his niche, an activity that he loves... Cub Scouts has been so fun for him this year. At Pack Meeting last month they had a Responsibility Relay Race, where the kids raced to do all things that they are generally responsible for each day. The cub scout leaders do such an awesome job making it fun for the boys (and their families)...

 

 

 

 

Tiny Dancer...

Out little Sophster started her first dance class this year. She just loves it, and refuses to take off her "ballerina dress" after her class. I can't get enough of it, watching her "tapping", its fairly adorable...

 

This is Why I Love Colorado...