CRYSTAL TURNS 7 YEARS OLD

CRYSTAL

Crystal wanted a Pocahontas birthday party this year! She was born in the wrong era for such a party, but I did the best I could! Haha. Finding Pocahontas party decor/ideas/games was not an easy task!!!! But I think they all still had a good time! I made her a Pocahontas cake with teepee cupcakes! We started off with her opening a present from us! A Pocahontas costume! We made feather hats, wooden bead necklaces, and popped popcorn the 'kinda-sorta' old fashioned way. lol. We didn't have an open fire to pop it, so we used the stove but we can pretend. lol. Once we were dressing the part, we made up an indian dance. I'm sure none of it was historically accurate ;-), but the kids had a lot of fun!

Crystal wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner so she could sit on the saddle for her birthday! She of course ordered the mac and cheese... oy! Haha! After dinner we went to see Grandma and Papa Cook and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Cook at a Stake Harvest Festival. There was a fire truck and sheriff's vehicle for the kids to explore! They also had cotton candy and a ton of harvest/storage booths with samples. There was even a booth about harvesting your own honey!

Crystal opened one last present from us right before bed. She got a Frozen Action Cam to use while riding her bike. She loves taking pictures and videos, so hopefully she has a lot of fun with it! 

Sunday evening we had a little celebration with grandparents and her aunt, uncle, and cousins who live nearby! She's had a pretty great birthday weekend, and topped it off by losing another tooth just before bed tonight! Let's just hope the tooth fairy remembers to come tonight! That tooth fairy is pretty unreliable in our house! lol.

 The kids were so sweet and saved me from the tickle monster even though they suffered dearly for it! lol.

 Jay jumped in just before the end of the song and blew out the candle. Crystal was so sweet! Instead of getting upset, she said, "Oh, thank you Jay for helping me!" 

JAY
We were getting ready to head out the door and Jay goes, "I got my bag! I got my purse! Let's Go!" At least his bag is full of cars and trucks ... lol

CANNING
I THINK I'm almost done ... I THINK! My kitchen has been a complete disaster for weeks now. I have canners and a dehydrator sitting on the counter taking up space. Veges and fruit rotting in boxes because I can't get to it fast enough! And all the finished products in between it all. Not to mention all the regular kitchen functions added to it! Lol. Lets just say I'm looking forward to having my kitchen back some time soon!
This week I canned tomatoes, made and canned salsa, dehydrated fruit leather, and a lot of apples! I still have 2 boxes of apples left (dehydrating is slow going), and just yesterday I picked another 50 tomatoes out of my garden and I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all. Haha. I see just a little more canning in my future!

Preschool and Fair Week

PRESCHOOL

Our first day of preschool was Tuesday! I have 5 students - that's including Jay... he only makes it through half of it, but I have to count him for legal purposes so I figured I might as well try teaching him something while I'm at it. Haha. 

Lily is the only girl in the class this year, but she doesn't mind. Her personality and interests include a healthy range of princesses and ponies to spiderman and superheroes. I think she'll fit right in! 

THE FAIR

We went to the Eastern Idaho State Fair this week! We LOVE going to the fair. We love looking through all the booths and buildings, seeing and sometimes petting the animals, and last but not least eating really great fair food! We went on Tuesday night after work so we didn't waste anytime finding a turkey leg and indian taco to share! After walking around the rest of the evening, we had to have funnel cake, scone nuggets, and ice cream! 

The kids picked out a prize as we were on our way out. Jay chose a light saber, and Crystal chose an ice princess/sorcerer wand both of which light up like crazy. Lily insisted she didn't want a light up toy but fairy wings. Not 30 seconds after we bought the wings did she regret her decision. She immediately wanted to take it back to get a light up toy. Oy. She was pretty sad when we left, but the next day she was feeling better about her decision. She loves her sparkly fairy wings!

LIBRARY
We ran into cousins at the library when we went for story time on Wednesday! Love cousin time!!!

SUNDAY
My mom's birthday was today! My older brother and his family came from Twin Falls to help celebrate. He put number candles on the ice cream cake, and my mom was worried about it, but he wouldn't let her see until he had them lit. Haha. She didn't mind it so much when he turned the cake around. lol. He was also a genius when it came time to cut the cake and asked where the watermelon cutter was. It fit over the cake perfectly! He cut 12 pieces all at once, and Ty had the privilege of licking the cutter when all was done (it was covered in frosting which is Ty's favorite part)!

McKensie and Jay were really sweet tonight. Running around holding hands, sitting next to each other playing... that is of course until a toy is involved then they live to torment each other! lol! They will fight over any toy whether they really want it or not. Then whoever wins and walks away with the toy will come back 2 minutes later and give it to the other one. They did it 3 times tonight. I thought it was pretty funny. They just like to see who will win and then go ahead and give it up. Haha.