Cinco de Mayo Party

Yesterday we hosted a Cinco de Mayo party.  We don't have any Mexican friends in the area yet, but we still wanted to celebrate the day with bright colors and festive food.  We invited 2 families to join us and it was a lot of fun.  I made festive food...some dishes more authentic than others, but it tasted good.  I fully intended to take pictures of the food, but I forgot once it was all out.

The weather was perfect...about 75.  In the sun it was almost "hot", but I don't want to use that word to describe the weather when summer still looms in the future and there wasn't any humidity yesterday. 

Here you can see some of the decorations I made and the view from our deck.

 

Closer view of the decor.

We all had fun with the pinata and it was fun to see the two girls hit the pinata delicately and then to see the boys go at it with such vigor.  There were some great facial expressions.

We started with the smallest in the group (18 mos) and worked  up the age ranks to 6.  The 6 year old didn't get it completely broken so I tried my hand at it along with another mom. 

Rebecah hit it so ladylike.  I tried to get her to really whack it, but she wouldn't.

A very determined expression.

Kimball sizing it up.

It was fun socializing with people from church and getting to know them better.  My kids loved running around with other kids and we are all excited to host another party.

Homemade Pinatas

Yesterday we hosted a Cinco de Mayo party and we knew we wanted a pinata for the kids to break but they were more expensive than I was willing to pay for 5 minutes of beating fun.  So we decided to make two of them out of balloons.  I have never used paper mache to make anything so it was nice having Joseph around to help.  He didn't mind getting his hands all messy since the idea is similar to putting on a cast. 

Ready to begin the process.

Joseph hard at work.

All smiles despite the mess.

The pinatas took forever to dry...hanging them in the basement to dry may have had something to do with it...so we weren't ready to decorate them until the day before the party.  I knew the kids would want to help with this part and I wanted them to be able to help so we ended up with two designs:  Design #1 was the fast "Rebecah Friendly" version.  I spread glue on the pinata and she put the squares of tissue paper wherever she wanted without care for color or design.  It ended up being cuter than I first thought.

Design #1.  This took maybe 15 minutes and it was the way to go!

Design #2 was supposed to look more authentic and fun, but it took FOREVER!  I also thought Kimball would be able and willing to help with this one.  He patiently did about half of one of the cones and then declared himself done.  I then spent almost 3 hours applying each little tissue paper square with a pencil or my finger.  It was VERY tedious and if I ever do a pinata again I would use a different method.   As I got more and more burnt out on the project I kept asking myself why I was finishing the project when it would be smashed in 5 minutes, but I just couldn't leave the project half finished OR do a different design for half of the pinata so I just muddled through. It turned out pretty well though and it was colorful.  I LOVED the bright colors.

I originally planned to have tassels coming out of the cones on the sides,  but
after about an hour I didn't care to do anything extra on it.

Purple Princesses

Rebecah LOVES the color purple.  I think the movie Tangled might have something to do with it since Rapunzel's dress is purple.  The good thing about the color purple is that it looks really good on Rebecah.  I recently bought her a new dress to wear on Sunday and she loves it because it is purple.  I wonder if she will still wear the magenta and blue dresses I have for her.  I really like the tiered look of Rebecah's dress and I was so glad we had a purple shirt to make the dress modest so she can wear it.

I recently bought new clothes and mine happen to be purple too.  I told Rebecah I was going to wear my new purple clothes and she said she was too so she could be Rapunzel.  I told her maybe we could both be Rapunzel but she told me I could be Rapunzel's mom...I opted for the Queen and NOT Mother Gothel!

We ended up getting a lot of comments at church about our matching outfits, but I think that is part of the fun of having a daughter.  Too bad we can't share clothes yet, but I did share my necklace for a few minutes.

Trip to the Dentist

Last week we had our annual trip to the dentist.  I don't enjoy going to the dentist because I'm always afraid of bad news, but we go yearly and I just pushed aside my stomach ache of nervousness.  The kids were SO excited to go to the dentist this year.  It was Rebecah's first visit and she did great.  At first she was a little hesitant and didn't want to sit in the seat, but after I showed her it was fun she hopped up and talked animatedly to the hygienist.  She and Kimball both had good reports and they were fast.  They were both excited about their special toothbrushes...Monster's Inc for Kimball and Princess for Rebecah.  My turn in the seat was a little longer than the kids, but with the same results...I'm cavity free for another year!

Rebecah all smiles from the hot seat. 

We are carrying on the Johnson tradition of having ice cream after visiting the dentist, but we added a twist this year. I decided that I wanted to try my new ice cream bowl that came with my KitchenAid mixer that I got last year so we did homemade ice cream.  It was the first time making ice cream and it was fun.  The ice cream bowl was amazing.  It was SO easy.  If you are contemplating buying one, I say "Go for it!"  The hardest part of the ice cream making process was keeping Rebecah's tongue back from the ice cream paddle as it rotated.  I was afraid her hair would get stuck in the paddle or that she would hurt her tongue.  Thankfully, there weren't any mishaps.

Our homemade ice cream...cookies 'n cream.

Showing off her pearly whites! 

No pictures of Kimball.  I don't remember why he wasn't around when the camera was out, but he missed the photo shoot. 

Let's Go to the Circus

Last weekend the circus was in town so we decided to go.  Joseph and I each went to the circus when we were children, but I don't remember much of my visit.  Joseph said he just remembered the "ball of death" from his visit.

The kids were excited about the circus.  It probably helped that they had just watched a Dora episode and a Hello Kitty episode about the circus. 

So excited to be at the circus!  We were in a covered stadium area that is used for
the annual state fair, but I was very glad I had my coat and gloves with me.
My feet were freezing by the end of the night.  

There was a lot to see and do before the show started and during the 45 minute intermission.  There were pony rides and you could have your picture taken with Minnie and Mickey or the Siberian Tiger for a large fee.   

It's about 8:30 here, passed bedtime so the smiles aren't
as bright as they were at the beginning of the night.  

 We didn't get great pictures but here are a few of the better ones.  The light was just hard to work with since we were using the iPhone camera.

The horse act.  There was a llama in there too.  I guess they are
considered horses when they are in the circus?

The large cats.  I loved watching the lion tamer and his cats.  I'm just amazed that
the animals are so well behaved.  They were probably fed pretty well ahead of time too.  

The show was much longer than we were expecting.  It wouldn't have been too bad if there wasn't a 45 minute intermission.  Rebecah held out until 9:30 and then she fell asleep on me.  She was so tired she didn't even stir when the motorcycles revved their engines for the last act...the ball of death.  That is the cage where multiple bikes are zipping around. We didn't realize the ball of death was the last act, but we decided to leave just before it ended because Rebecah was getting heavy.  I"m glad we could beat the rush out of the building and parking lot.

This is a picture from a few months ago, but Kimball looks pretty scary.
Maybe he could have an act in the circus.

Easter 2013

Joseph was on call Easter weekend so that was a little disappointing.  The good news was that he was home by 10:30 Saturday morning so we could do our egg hunt with the kids.  We originally planned to do all Easter activities when Joseph was off Monday, but the weather was too nice to wait.  It was a good thing we didn't wait because it was raining on Monday and the ground was pretty squishy.

Anyway, Joseph and I hid the eggs in our yard and then the kids went out to look for them.  There was a little snow on the ground, but I couldn't convince Rebecah to put pants on until we went to the park.

Digging an egg out of the snow.

Kimball smiling with his egg.

That's another one!

It's in there somewhere.

Doesn't she look cold?  She would have said:  "It's not cold, it's warm!"

Kimball looking across the yard for hidden color.

After our egg hunt and lunch we took the kids to a park that is about 3 miles from our house.  This is the view from the park bench.  The park was right on the beach of Oneida lake.  The day was beautiful...sunny with temperatures in the 50s.  The kids had fun playing on the playground, but sand is enough like dirt that they spend most of their time digging in the sand.

The sea gulls were pretty noisy so here Rebecah is waving
her arms and shouting to scare the sea gulls away. 

I love it when my kids play together nicely!

On Sunday, we took Joseph to work about 5:45 am and we picked up up about 4:00 in the afternoon.  We weren't sure how long he would be with us so I didn't plan a special Easter dinner for Sunday.  It is too unpredictable to try to plan hot meals when Joseph is on call.  We were lucky and even though Joseph spent a fair amount of time answering pages he didn't have to go back to the hospital.

Without Joseph, the kids and I had bunny rolls for breakfast and we watched some church video clips on the Resurrection.  We attended church and had a quiet day.

On Monday, Joseph was off after working all weekend.  We had our Easter dinner Monday and it was tasty.  We had ham, potatoes, kale and pineapple.  I also made a s'mores pie for dessert that was good too.

The best part about Easter was reflecting on the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I'm so grateful for this knowledge that I have.  Life would be so much harder if I didn't have the Atonement and knowledge of the Resurrection in my life.  

April Snow Shower

This morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow.  I decided to shovel the driveway for Joseph before he left for work.  He tried to talk me out of it knowing it will be 50 degrees in a few days, but I didn't want him to get stuck.  Before long all of the neighbors were joining me so it wasn't as if I were the only person clearing my driveway.  I got the driveway cleared and went in to get the kids breakfast and ready for the snow.  When we went out again, less than an hour and a half later, at least 2 more inches had fallen.  The kids got to work shoveling the driveway...they had shovel paths all over the driveway with no rhyme or reason.

The beginning of the shovel paths.

Smiling for the camera.

If you look closely, you can see the snow angel I made
after I finished shoveling the first time.

Rebecah said "Take a picture of this!" so I did.

As you can see, it was still coming down.

We probably ended up with at least 8 inches of snow, but we are still below our winter average of 120 inches. This snow won't stick around long, but it was fun to enjoy the snow.  I haven't gone out in the snow much this winter because the cold makes my damaged nerve very sensitive and sometimes cramp.  Because I haven't been out much Kimball was surprised when I told him that I liked snow.  I guess I need to put my comfort aside more often and make sure I make memories with my kids.  We didn't make a snowman because it wasn't the right type of snow, but I did teach Kimball how to make a snow angel.