Corbyn's Birthday: Friend Party

We celebrated Corbyn's birthday for a solid week. We started with his friend party the Saturday before his birthday and ended with his family party the Saturday after his birthday.

The invitation.

The decorations.

The party favors. Batman stickers, blue candy, and a Batman action figure - I found the Batman action figures at the dollar store months before his birthday and I'm so glad I bought them because Batman stuff was a lot harder to find than I thought it would be!

I also made Batman masks using this tutorial.

The food. Snow cones...

And cupcakes. I made the Batman symbol using this ice cube tray.

Present time. All his friends were so excited to see what he got!

We watched a Batman show...

Stockton Goodrich, Hazel Howard, Johnny Kramer, Maddox Copeland, Rhys Howard, Corbyn, and Peyton.

And then Batman (aka Uncle Jared) made a surprise appearance!

He was a hit! Big hugs for Batman as he was leaving!

It was a fun party!

Last Week

I finished my 6th book of the year - The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. It is a novel (based on actual people) who live in a waste dump in Cambodia. But it is much more than just the story of daily survival in the dump; it is the story of hope, understanding, and redemption. (That sounds weird, but if you read it, you'll know what I mean!) I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. And I gained a lot from talking about it with my book club after I finished reading it.

We discovered that we can make snow cones using my Blendtec. All you have to do is put in some ice and press Ice Crush. We got a bunch of flavors of snow cone syrup from Macey's and have been enjoying our homemade snow cones!



Another week, another visit to Seven Peaks...

Corbyn was absolutely fearless in the kiddy area as soon as he discovered he can go down the slides all by himself now.

We went to Springville's Art City Days Balloon Festival Friday morning. The weather wasn't ideal for balloons to take off, so they only blew two balloons up and they didn't take off. But we had a good time with Grandma, Grandpa, Mariah, Charlotte, Kelli, Alleah, and Elsie.

Peyton thought she was hot stuff driving around our neighbor's car. Not too long after this picture was taken, she fell out of the back. Luckily she didn't hit her head and was just fine. 

Our young women had girl's camp, so we went up Friday night for Bishopric night. I was supposed to make rolls to bring, but messed them up and ended up having Rog pick up a bag of rolls from Costco instead.

We got to celebrate our favorite daddy on Father's Day. We filled a basket with his favorite treats and an iTrip. (Printables here.) 

Bill and Mariah had us over for Waffle Love style waffles for breakfast. For dinner I made him French Dip Sandwiches, Stuffed Potatoes, and Malt Shoppe Memories Ice Cream Cake. I think it's safe to say his Father's Day was about a thousand times better than my Mother's Day!

Six on Saturday

1. With Corbyn's insane obsession with water balloons we've tried just about every kind of water balloon filler on the market. We never were able to find one that worked well and lasted. On a whim, Rog picked up this sprayer from the garden department at Walmart for less than $3. It isn't made for water balloons, so you kind of have to hold them on with your thumb while filling them, but it works like a charm, doesn't squirt all over the place, and has made my life 100% easier.

2. After a lot of insisting from Rog, I tried Peyton's hair in pigtails again this week. I wasn't sure it would work, but gave it a try and was very pleased with the results! She looks so grown up!

3. The kids and I went to Seven Peaks with Grandma and Grandpa for the first time this summer. We went Tuesday morning and it was so perfect - not crowded at all! It was so nice to have extra help with the kids. It's going to be a fun summer!

4. Corbyn had his first experience being stung by a bee this week. It was quite the ordeal for our little dude (mostly because he has a tendency to overreact when he's sick or hurt). Thankfully I had bought new bandaids earlier that day and a dragon bandaid made everything better!

5. Diana and Jason welcomed little Miss Skyler Avery Hobbs into their family yesterday at 6:55 am. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. We can't wait to meet her!

6. Yesterday Rog was at youth conference. It was our date night week, so Kelli and I took the opportunity to have a girl's night. (Her husband is in the bishopric with Rog and was also at youth conference.) We both worked on crafts and had a great time talking. I finished this rain boot/umbrella that will be an April/May decoration. 

And also made this lemonade sign that will be a June decoration.

Birthday Pictures

I decided to do Peyton's 2 year pictures and Corbyn's 4 year pictures at the same time, so I'd only have to deal with the stress once. We did them right in between their birthdays at Cheapshots Photography and it worked out great! I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Peyton, our little sweetheart, has always been good about taking pictures. Much different than when we tried to take Corbyn's 2 year pictures and he kept running away!

And for good measure, a classic nose-picking shot!

Corbyn was kind of being a stinker and kept raising his eyebrows/opening his eyes really big, but I'm so in love with these 3 pictures we got of him.

At the end I had him change into his Batman shirt. This boy loves his Batman! I can't believe he's going to be 4!

I was hoping to get a few good ones of them together, but we couldn't get them smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. But they are oh so sweet when they give each other hugs!

What Alice Forgot

My 5th book of the year was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. It came highly recommended by Rachel and it definitely did not disappoint! It took me awhile to get to it because now it seems I am always reading a book for my book club. (Which is good because I have been loving the books we read for book club and I end up discovering books I probably wouldn't have read otherwise, but also bad because I don't get a chance to read books of my own choosing.) 

We ended up not having book club in May, so I jumped at the opportunity to read it. I finished while we were at Disneyland and loved nearly every minute of it. I only say nearly because for a few minutes there I thought it wasn't going to end how I wanted - but then it did end like I was hoping and all was forgiven! (I hope that doesn't give anything away to those who haven't read it yet!)

Alice bumps her head and wakes up thinking she is pregnant with her first child when in reality it is 10 years later and she has 3 children! Such a crazy (and sad) idea to think of losing 10 years worth of memories (makes me glad I blog like I do!).

Read it, you won't be sorry!

Disney Pin Trading

This trip to Disneyland I decided to try something new - pin trading. The Woods let us in on the secret that you can buy pins on eBay for like $.50 each. Then you take them to Disneyland and trade with any cast member you see with a lanyard (or many stores/guest information have boards with pins on them). They are given the pins by Disney and have to trade with you.

I had so much fun trading pins this trip - it is definitely something I will continue to do every trip we take in the future! I was pretty timid about it at first, but by the end of our trip I had no fear! My favorite place to trade was at the guest information booth because they always have their board out. Lots of people trade there, so the pins are constantly changing. I would just quickly stop there every time we were going in or out of the park - something we did pretty regularly because we pretty much always eat our meals outside the park.

I'm very happy with all the pins I ended up with (my favorites are the two abominable snowman pins in the very bottom left corner because the Matterhorn has always been one of my favorite rides) and wanted to somehow display my pins rather than just stick them in a drawer never to be looked at again! I looked on Pinterest and found quite a few ideas for displaying pins, but none of them had a very good tutorial, so I just kind of had to figure it out for myself.

I'm super happy with how it turned out and even more happy that I tackled this project so quickly!

Rest of May

Time to get serious about getting caught up! Here's a look at the rest of May in pictures.

Rog started his internship. He's liking it a lot, but the commute not so much - he is really missing being able to ride Frontrunner and TRAX. We're hoping this summer's internship is a stepping stone to getting a paid internship next summer somewhere a little closer to home. (Like at UVRMC - that would be ideal!) His hours aren't too bad, but our weekends are now seeming a lot shorter as he no longer has Fridays off!

We've been adjusting to our "summer schedule" which includes blowing up millions of water balloons, getting out the water table and pool, picnics, and playing at nearby parks/splash pads.

I planted some flowers. I did one pot with flowers I bought pre-grown and my other 4 pots with seeds I got from my friend, Kelli. They are all coming in quite nicely!

Our Arby's had a grand reopening after doing some remodeling. They had a bounce house (that Peyton could not get enough of!)...

A clown who did tricks and a guy making balloon creations for the kids (Corbyn got a hot dog and Peyton got a bear)...

As well as free sandwiches and samples of their new summer shake. 

We visited our Spanish Fork splash pad for the first time this summer.

The kids played so well together and Rog and I just sat back and watched them for awhile. Then we joined them (in our street clothes) and got a little wet.

Rog taught them how to lay on the concrete to dry off.

That night our ward had a mother-son superhero activity. Rog made a guest appearance as Spiritual Superhero at the end. He talked to the boys about fighting Satan by reading their scriptures.  

After a lot of the boys wanted to take their picture with him - our very own celebrity!

I decided to be brave and take the kids to IKEA by myself to get some furniture for Corbyn's room. We went on a Tuesday, so the kids could eat free.

I didn't take into consideration how big and heavy the boxes would be. I managed to get them to the car by myself, but had a little help (from a kind passing stranger) getting the bookcase box loaded in the car!

Rog happened to have the next day off, so we got them put together with a little help from our cute neighbor Brynn who I was watching for a few hours.

I still have some work to do on these, but here's the bookcase...

And the dresser.

A few days later I got these alphabet zoo stickers put up all the way around the room. (I'm doing an alphabet zoo theme for his room.)

And Rog helped me get the curtains hung.

Mike, Dixie, and Marti were in town for a very quick visit. We had dinner with them at Cafe Rio. Grandma Dixie came with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for Corbyn and a doll in a cute little bag for Peyton. She also gave Corbyn some money to spend for his birthday. He picked out a pack of superheroes and he's going to use the rest to get the Lego Movie when it comes out on his actual birthday.

We had a very packed Memorial Day. We started with the Ririe pancake breakfast up Millcreek Canyon. The kids had a great time exploring with Corbyn as the leader.

After visiting my Grandpa Ford's grave and having lunch with my Grandma Ford, we drove home (stopping at the Carter's outlet on the way). The kids got in a nap and were just too cute not to document!

We visited my Grandma Joan's grave and then finished off the day with a barbecue to kick off summer with Bill, Mariah, my parents, and the Jar.

We've started going to the Springville splash pad with friends about once a week. Corbyn and Rhys have a great time playing together there.

And Peyton kind of loves having my undivided attention while the boys play.

We had a little graduation party with our joy school group. I made graduation cupcakes with graduation hats made out of Reese's Cups, mini Ghirardelli squares, pull 'n' peel licorice, and M&M's minis. They weren't too difficult, but turned out pretty darn cute. 

Some of the other moms had put together graduation hats for them to wear and little diplomas.

Corbyn has been working on earning a scooter by doing chores around the house. Our door knobs have never been so clean!

One morning Corbyn found some stickers that were left over from joy school and wanted to make me something with them. 

Even though we already had our joy school graduation, we had one more field trip scheduled at a farm here in Spanish Fork. Peyton got to tag along and enjoyed holding some baby kitties. She looks a little unsure here, but she really did love it!

Saturday morning we cleaned out our garage. Peyton thought it was funny to sit in her old car seat and dolly got to try out the Bumbo!

We got it organized, so all the summer stuff is easily accessible.

The Woods were jumping on their tramp with the sprinkle under and invited us over. I think Peyton's favorite part was drinking out of the sprinkler.

We hadn't gotten in our date night for the month, so we had my parents watch the kids while we got a snow cone and then we watched Captain Phillips after putting the kids to bed.

And that's what we've been up to since getting home from Disneyland!