Gingerbread houses

I don't know about anyone else, but this Christmas season seems to be going by WAY too quickly! We normally do lots of Christmas activities with the kids but just haven't done as much this year. Well last night we decided sort of last minute to make some gingerbread houses. Landon and I headed to winco for all our supplies and then we all got to work. We had such a great time together and it was so nice to put our busy lives on pause and just enjoy the moment and make some memories. 

Owen was very artistic with his house. Everything was symmetrical and most everything was done in patterns. He just kept saying over and over again "I'm so excited!" And he was the bounciest of all the kids, too!

Jacob ate the most candy while working on his house (is that really any surprise?!). While working on the roof, he would put a handful of mini M&Ms in his mouth, then one on the house, then some in his mouth, and one on the house. :)

I gave Cailyn her graham crackers and a bag of icing and she went to town! She knocked out her house all by herself so quickly and added all kinds of creative touches -- icicles, pathways, snowmen, people, sleds, etc.

Landon was the SLOWEST! He was too busy talking or goofing off and couldn't sit still long enough. But he worked on his the longest and he was sooooo happy with his house. :)

And of course our elf, Kevin, had to get in on the action, too!

Santa!

Saturday night was our ward christmas party. The kids were so excited to see Santa! He came into the cultural hall after dinner and a few kids ran up and hugged him and Jacob asked if he could go hug Santa. I told him no, we'd get to see him and take a picture with him in a bit. So we waited in line for like, forever, and then finally it was our turn to go into the room he was in. The first thing Jacob shouts is "Look, there's a mommy santa!" referring to Mrs. Clause. So we're waiting for the family in front of us to finish and the kids are getting excited. When it's our turn, we start walking towards the Clause's and I have Jacob's hand. About 5 feet from them, Jacob hits this invisible brick wall and is rooted to the spot -- won't come one step closer to the couple in red. So the other kids are talking with Santa, sitting with him, telling him what they want for Christmas while Mrs. Clause and I try to bribe Jacob closer with a candy cane. No way, no how. That kid is not moving. Ok, so I take a quick pic of the other kids and as they start to get off Santa's lap, Jacob suddenly wants to see Santa! No problem, I sit him on Santa's lap. But the kid will not look at me as a try to take a pic. His gaze is fixed on the ground in front of him. He tells me "No, I just can't look up." Okay, whatever, I snap a pic anyway. Meanwhile, Santa is trying to engage him, asking him what he wants for Christmas and suddenly Jacob is a mute child. Won't make a peep! So I pull him off Santa's lap and as we are walking towards the door he turns around and shouts "A dinosaur for Christmas!" Oh my word, what a funny little kid!  These kids never fail to entertain me! 

A Tree For Sister Phelps!

I sent out Emilee's tree tonight!  I am so excited for her to get it.  Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for all of your photos & love notes! I am so glad that it came together.  There were so many photos to send her!  I left some whole and sent those along too.  I also sent her some tape (to put the ornaments on the tree), some snacks, a nail polish (I don't know if she can use it - oh well), some lotion & hand sanitizer and some other things.  I hope she loves it!  I can't wait for Christmas when we can talk to that girl! Love you all!

I love the photo of Dad in the very middle of the tree. Lol In all seriousness, we have one good looking family!

We're off to Thailand!

Cailyn Turns 10

Holy cow, how is it possible that this girl is 10 years old already?!

Well, I guess after 10 years, it was finally time for her to have a friend birthday party. (And it may just be the last one she gets! :P) Her theme was an un-slumber party. All the fun of a slumber party WITHOUT actually sleeping over. Pajamas, breakfast foods, etc. We also went with a zebra theme which we didn't realize is so popular right now!

One of the activities they got to do was make their own pillowcases. We got some white pillowcases, fabric markers and some stencils. They turned out really cute! 

We also played "spin the bottle" with nail polish. We had 8 bottles of nail polish and each had a number. Then they spun to find out which number they'd get to paint. They ended up with a rainbow set of nails. :)

 

The biggest splurge for the party was her ice cream cake from Cold Stone. It was soooo good!

 

I was pretty exhausted after the party was over. Who knew 8 girls could be so LOUD?! They all had a really fun time, though, and I'm so glad that has so many great friends.

Haircut!

Well, Cailyn's been begging FOREVER to have her hair cut and she really wanted it cut before her birthday. So, of course Grandma just had to make it happen. :) Cailyn hasn't been able to stop touching her hair or looking at herself in the mirror since!

Here's a before:

And after:

The mighty Thor and Skelly Belly

ISo I guess it's about time I posted about Halloween haha. I literally remembered about our trunk or treat that was on Saturday morning at about 7 o'clock the Thursday night before. So Friday I picked up some cheap red cloth that I sewed into a cape and a super cheap wig from Walmart. The wig was super long, when we put it on Mckay it went down to his knees (I neglected to get a pic of that), so we gave Thor a haircut, put some foil around a tissue box and paper towel holder and mighty Thor was born.

While at trunk or treat an old lady came up to Mckay and said "oh she is such a cute little red riding hood!" Hahaha. At least most people understood who he was and enjoyed his costume. He was hilarious and had fun at trunk or treat and at the "trick or treat on mainstreet" festival our little town of Parker holds every year. 

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Hey everybody!  I LOVE that there was an explosion of posts when I got on to the blog page!  So many cute and fun things going on!  :) yay!  I love this time of year. 

Here are some of the photos from the pumpkin patch & Halloween.  We had a blast!  It looks like every one else did too! 

"Excuse me Dad, I'm driving."

Connor was a parrot for Halloween!

Though, we got a lot of people thinking he was a dragon, or a phoenix or whatever.  

Pirates & their Parrot

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," Mrs. Frizzle & a parrot... how can you not looooove Halloween with this bunch?!?! 

 

 

I was also thinking that it would be fun to do Christmas Eve at our house.  We can do dinner,  play Wii, read the Christmas Story with baby Jesus, have hot cocoa, and whatever else we want to do!  Let me know what you guys think!

Griffiths Family Halloween 2013

Okay, get ready for a picture OVERLOAD! We had so much fun for Halloween this year. I just love my kiddos and creating fun memories with them.

First up was our Halloween Dinner. We had an assortment of spooky foods which the kids DEVOURED! Seriously, I couldn't believe how much the ate. Owen and Jacob kept going back for more worms and spiders. It was awesome. :)  This was the first year I got dry ice, too. We all got a kick out of our smoking cauldron. The boys kept calling it "Halloween Tea" from a song they learned in preschool. Overall, the whole dinner was quite a hit and the kids are already begging to do the same thing again next year.

On Wednesday the boys had their Halloween carnival at preschool. They ate cotton candy, sno cones, popcorn and played all sorts of games and jumped in a bouncer. To say they loved it is an understatement. :)

Wednesday night was our Trunk or Treat at church. The boys traded costumes and the big kids were so exited to dress up!

And yes, I totally made the kids hogwarts robes (with soooo much help from mom!!). They didn't turn out half bad. :) We also made their wands which ended up being really cool, especially considering they were made with a piece of paper and hot glue. I hope the kids will get a lot of use out of their costumes as they love to play dress up!

Halloween afternoon we did our pumpkins. I decided to let the boys paint theirs because I really didn't feel like gutting 4 pumpkins. And they absolutely LOVED painting them! I made a monogram with painters tape but totally didn't take any after photos! :( Same with the big kids. Cailyn made a Minion and Landon made up his own face, but had to add a Harry Potter scar to it. :)

Thursday night was trick or treating. Mom and Grandma & Grandpa Petersen came over for dinner and Mom and I took the kids out trick or treating. Oh man, they were soooo entertaining! What a fun night!!!

Coolest Teacher Costume...At Least I Think So

Halloween is such a fun, big, exciting thing for elementary students. And of course being a cool teacher and all I have to keep up by having a totally awesome costume. My students loved it and called me Ms. Frizzle all day. I probably had the coolest costume (out of the teachers).

For those of you who don't know who Ms. Frizzle is...you
should! We watch the educational movie, The Magic
School Bus (staring Ms. Frizzle) all the time at school. She
has a fun way of taking her students on crazy field trips that
teach them about all types of science concepts. My students
and most students LOVE it.

Nap-time banana cookies

The weather outside today is especially gloomy. When we went on a trip to do my visiting teaching, me and kids almost froze our patooties off so I thought it must be a cookie-makin kind of day :).  Lyla was nice and has been taking a long nap so Mckay and I decided to make some cookies together. My sister in law who is like mostly vegan had been raving about these 2-ingredient cookies so I thought I would give em a shot. 

Here are the ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1 cup quick oats (we only had old fashioned so we just chopped them a bit)

Handful of chocolate chips (ok so that's 3 ingredients but whatever)

Mckay had an absolute blast helping me smash bananas and mixing in the oats. But the ingredients should say several handfuls of chocolate chips because Mckay can only grab about 3 at a time haha.

Of course, many of the chocolate chips never made it to the cookies....

Into the oven they go at 350° for 15 minutes...

Yummy!

Then, you stuff!

They were actually pretty tasty little things and it makes me feel like I'm being healthy or something :). The best part was Mckay loved being able to help out because they were so simple. Yay for nap time! :)