Matthew's 7th Birthday Interview

How old are you? 7
Who is your best friend? Conner & Sam. I have a lot, though those are my main ones.
What is your favorite thing to do? Legos
What is your favorite color? Green
What is your favorite food? Hamburgers & Fries
What do you like to do with your family? Play Games
What is your favorite toy? Legos
What do you want to be when you grow up? A lot of stuff – policeman, inventor, scientist
What makes you happy? Spencer
What makes you sad? When Spencer says “oh” when I tell him something.
What is your favorite show to watch? Phineas & Ferb & Lego movies, Harry Potter
What is your favorite book? Secret at Dolphin Bay and Lego Club magazines
What do you love to learn about? Building
What was the best part of your birthday? Classic Fun Center & Getting Harry Potter Legos
Where do you like to go? Classic Fun Center
Who is your teacher? Miss Emily
What was your favorite birthday present? Hagrid's Hut Legos

Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy in 24 Hours

Matthew had a big day on Sunday. Not only did the Easter Bunny visit, but that night he had his very first visit from the Tooth Fairy. Matthew can be a little, (um can a 6 year old be neurotic?) shall we say high strung? So Bruce and I were a little worried that losing a body part - albeit one designed to be lost - might be a little traumatic for him. (Can't imagine how Matthew ended up so high strung.) But he took it very well and was actually thrilled when it popped out while he was eating ice cream. Not a bad way to go for a tooth. Mostly he was excited that he would have another dollar to add to his Hero Factory savings fund.

It is kind of hard to see where he lost the tooth (bottom, front, left - his left). It seems he has a kind of shark tooth thing going on. The permanent tooth came in almost completely behind baby tooth. Our nephew Braxton had the same thing. We called him "Shark Boy" for about a year. I definitely see braces in our future.

Emergency Specific Food Storage

So if a picture is worth a thousand words, then does this picture give you any clue how my weekend went? Yeah, it wasn't pretty. Anyway, as soon as I was feeling better, I decided that I needed to make a little corner of our food storage to be set aside for just those special items needed when our family is going through the dreaded tummy troubles. All your favorite "B.R.A.T." diet items and a few extras. You see, while my amazing hubby was able to work from home on Monday so I could have a day of recovery, he still had to work which meant being on the phone pretty much all day. So when I requested a simple cup of applesauce around noon it slipped his mind and he brought it after a rather pathetic reminder around 1pm. Really not complaining - he was very busy and was making sure the kids were fed and where they needed to be - and I am very grateful for that. But I thought that if we put all the supplies in a specific location, then next time maybe it will be easier to locate said applesauce. So my contribution to emergency preparedness for the month is to prepare for an emergency that unfortunately is almost guaranteed to occur on a fairly regular basis.

April Fool's Day Juice

I like to trick my kids at least a little bit on April Fool's Day. Last night I made apple juice gelatin and poured it in juice glasses. With the addition of a straw, it looked exactly like regular apple juice. Spencer enjoyed it the most. He was the only one that actually picked up the juice to drink it and couldn't get anything through the straw. Matthew and Emmarsyn moved the straws first and discovered it that way. There was a lot of giggling from the boys . Not so much Em - I should have let her sleep, but made the mistake of getting her up to enjoy the prank. Newsflash to me - sleepy 4 year olds do not enjoy pranks. Overall it was very fun and easy - always a great combination.

Juice Gelatin
2 cups juice (divided)
1 packet unflavored gelatin (Knox)
1 T sugar (optional)

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold (mine was room temp) juice. Boil 1 1/2 cups juice. Add hot juice to cold juice and gelatin. Add sugar. Stir until completely dissolved - up to 5 minutes. Pour into juice glasses and add a straw. Chill until firm.

(I ended up making a second batch to fill up four glasses. So maybe just double it up front.)

Birthday Interview - Emmarsyn 4 Years Old

How old are you? 4
Who is your best friend? Paige, Cannon, Corbin
What is your favorite thing to do? Play with princesses.
What is your favorite color? Pink & purple
What is your favorite animal? Puppies
What is your favorite food? Orange cheese (Cheddar), grapes, peanut butter & jam sandwiches, cream cheese bagel
What do you like to do with your family? Play and make silly jokes and silly faces and games.
What is your favorite toy? Games
What do you want to be when you grow up? Every job that you do in the night and morning.
What makes you happy? When I ask you to play with me and you say yes.
What makes you sad? When I don't like to eat the stuff that you tell me.
What is your favorite show to watch? Dora and Barney and Strawberry Shortcake
What is your favorite book? Strawberry Shortcake Books, Pony Books, Pirate Pete Books,
What do you love to learn about? Letters
What was the best part of your birthday? My Princess Party
Where do you like to go? Preschool
Who is your teacher? Miss Nicole
What was your favorite birthday present? Rapunzel

(The image is Emmarsyn's Star Student poster that we made for her preschool class.)

Spencer's 8 Year Old Birthday Questions

How old are you? 8 years old
Who are your good friends? Eli, Matthew, Emmarsyn, Ryan, Corbin, Eric, Carson, Jack, Isaac
What is your favorite thing to do? Build with Legos
What is your favorite color? Red
What are your favorite foods? Cherries, Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy
What do you like to do with your family? Go to the beach in Pensacola
What is your favorite toy? Legos
What do you want to be when you grow up? A scientist and an inventor
What makes you happy? Seeing my family
What makes you sad? When my brother is hurt or sick
What is your favorite show to watch? Tom & Jerry
What are your favorite books? Harry Potter, Magic Tree House, Bailey School Kids, A to Z Mysteries
What do you love to learn about? Geography, American History
What was the best part of your birthday? Being baptized
Where do you like to go? Church
Who is your teacher? Ms. Kirsten
What was your favorite birthday present? My art kit from Grandma Leeann
What do you think about before you fall asleep? Stories to write.
What is your favorite treat? Chocolate cake and maraschino cherries
If you could meet someone famous who would it be? Thomas Edison, definitely
What is your favorite animal? Tiger
What are you grateful for? Legos

Best Conference Packets Ever

I was a little late in my General Conference prep this time around. The boys actually asked me for a packet about 10 minutes in to the morning session today. In my search, I came across these on the Scriptures for Kids website. There are separate packets for Nursery, Jr. Primary, Sr. Primary, and Youth. As you can tell from the post title, I think that these are the best I have ever come across. I got them printed and into packets about a half hour in and the last 90 minutes of conference have been lovely.