The Celebration Is On Its A Day For Play.........

‎Nine years ago a funny, enthusiastic, clever, energetic, witty, smarty pants, kindhearted, persistent, sensitive and comical lil boy came to join our family.......thank you Carter for the daily doses of laughter you provide to us and helping us to learn patience.......sorry we are slow learners!!
We love you Happy Birthday Carter!!
On Carter's birthday we took him some lunch at school and ate in the cafeteria with him. He still is at the age he likes us to eat at school with him. After eating we all went shopping at the Book Fair since it happened to be going on that week at his school....or as Kennedy calls it the Book Fairy!! He loves reading so he was happy that he got more books for his birthday and to get them from the book fair was extra special!
Then that weekend we went as a family to the Children's Museum of Phx. for his birthday. I'm including with each picture info from their website to explain the different areas that I got pictures at. CLIMBER STATS
Located in the center of the Museum's Atrium floor, the Climber rises 37 feet to the 3rd floor ceiling. It is made of standard building materials and found objects. Constructed of 50 tons of structural steel, the Climber weighs more than all of the structural steel in the rest of the building! The steel framework contains 981 individual pieces.
UNIQUE FEATURES
The Climber is not just a series of tubes and stairs, it includes the following unique features that kids, and adults, can climb into, onto and out to:
Flying Bathtub
Dream Boat
Roof Top
Fish Walk
Recycled Rocket
Whoosh!
This wonderful contraption is a freestanding jumble of connected tubes where children feed scarves in a rainbow of colors into the transparent, air-powered structure. The colorful scarves shoot up through the pipes at high speeds, to heights of 20' or more, and are released in a burst of energy from high above. In contrast they gently float down slowly to land on or be caught by children. Art Studio:
In this creative workshop visitors find an ever-changing array of hands-on art activities. In the Art Studio you will find group activities, like Painting the Castle, and individual activities for your child to share with you like a puppet theatre, puzzles, games and crafts.
Market: Role Play
Opportunities for role play abound as children restock the shelves, ring up the items as cashier, or fill the shopping cart as customer.
Texture Café: Silk and Velvet
In the lively, child-sized Café, customers of all ages order up food for the imagination. First, choose your role: Maitre d', chef, or maybe 'regular' customer. Then, use an amazing array of fabrics and materials to create the meal of your dreams. Whether choosing green velvet for a spinach salad or scraps of silk for spaghetti, children actively engage all of their senses, garnished with creativity, to delight their customers. Tables and booths, counters and stools and a full-service kitchen with ovens, stoves, storage and utensils provide the framework for culinary escapades. Enjoy and bon appetit! Noodle Forest
Oodles of noodles suspend from above. Making a thick forest of textural delight as you navigate this unfamiliar fun terrain guaranteed to activate the senses and inspire the giggles. Pit Stop
Pit Stop invites visitors to "race to the finish" on three levels of racetracks. Children launch innovative race cars from the upper deck and cheer as they zoom overhead and down the vertical drop to the finish line. The child's imagination takes over as he or she climbs into the modified racecar, revs the engine and takes off with tires screeching. A real motorcycle provides another means of "transportation" or just a cool spot to sit and watch the action Book Loft:
Reading together is one of the most important activities a parent can do with their child. This space is more low-key than most - comfy and cozy to encourage children to snuggle in and read a good book. Story times are presented every day in the Book Loft. Outside they had a hay maze for the children to play around and some picnic tables to eat lunch at. There was many other activities that we did but I didn't get any pictures of them.
We spent 2 1/2 hours playing, exploring and laughing. Everyone had such a good time that we used the money that my Father in law sent the kids for Christmas to buy a 1 Year Family Membership that we can't wait to use again! Afterwards we met my parents at Flancers for a delicious birthday lunch for my Dad and Carter. What a great family day.

Feast Your Eyes On This.......

My friend Candace is pretty much a Pie Queen!! She had been talking about making pies for Thanksgiving and I mentioned I didn't know how to make a pie crust from scratch that tasted good and she said come over she was showing a few girls how to do it...and so I did. We...Candace, Marcie, Lorilyn and Brittnie...started out on Tuesday night making the pie crusts so they could get cold over night in the fridge. Then Candace, Marcie, Lorilyn and I wrapped up on Wednesday by actually making the pies. All in all we made the crust for 17 pies and rolled out and baked 12 pies! I made a pecan, pumpkin, coconut cream and banana cream pie!! Candace makes the BEST Pecan Pies ever so we used her recipe and it was heavenly!!
Thanksgiving Day was really great because my Grandma Rachel came over to spend it with my Dad since it was his birthday that day and we were all soo happy to see her since we don't get to very often any more. We had a really nice time visiting and eating the wonderful dinner and finally it was the moment of truth....pie time! My fingers were crossed and breath held......and......everyone loved the pies!! YEA!! I hope Candace does Pie Class again next Thanksgiving because I need a refresher already and mostly because it was fun!!

Food & Friends... Life is Good.....

The Activities Committee put on an adult Italian dinner. They had it catered from a local restaurant called Baci's Italian Bistro. They served Cheese Raviolis, Pasta with Alfredo sauce, Marinara sauce with meatballs, sausages sautèed with peppers,
and onions, bread and salad. Dessert was cheescake that you could choose what kind of fruit to put on top! It was a very enjoyable evening with our friends and especially nice to be with out my sweetheart!

Oh What A Wonderful Life.............

We finally had family pictures taken! The last family photo we had taken was when Carter was a toddler, so we were LONG over due!! We had a wonderful photographer in our ward take our pictures.....thanks Marcie!!