Bear Lake--Clayton Week

Clayton Week was pretty small this year, but we still had lots of fun!!  We made it up in time for the demolition derby in Lake Town.  Sam was an only child the last time we did this (we had tons of fun!), but I'm not gonna lie.  One kid is so much easier.  The action was pretty slow in between rounds and the kids got really bored so we ended up leaving early.  But still, there's nothing quite like a demolition derby!  I still had fun, even if the kids weren't into it!

Molly and Jane are buddies.  Molly was trying to blend in with the locals (notice the adorable cowgirl boots).

We had some cousin time with Osie and Claire on the beach!  Jake was having a nap, and Steve & Beth's boys hadn't come yet.  There are so many Clayton cousins, but this wasn't the year to see them all.    We were about 75 family members short!

We also played in the pool lots.  Will decided to become a fish!  He has loved swimming since his lessons earlier in the summer.

All 5 & 2/3 of us!  I couldn't get in the hot tub with everyone else, but sticking my legs in was about all the heat I could handle anyway.  Mike tells me all the time that I just radiate heat.  Thank goodness this has been a mild summer...perfect for pregnancy!

The kids LOVED playing tennis with Nelson and Seth.  And I loved sitting on the bench and watching all the fun.  :)

Molly got into my liquid lipstick, which only comes off with eye makeup remover.  Luckily Jane had some!  I kind of love her Gene Simmons look.

We had so much fun playing with the Vances and Steve & Beth's family!  It's always so great to see our cousins, even if they were few in number this year!  We always have fun at Bear Lake!

First Day of School!

Sam started FIRST GRADE this year!  He is totally loving school and his teacher Mrs. DiPietro.  He's easy to wake up in the morning and is always excited to go.  It's so great!  He heads to the bus at 8:30 and gets home at 3:50 every day.  School has been wonderful for both of us!  :)

Will started his second year of preschool with Miss Chris!  He LOVES preschool and even gets to go with three of his buddies from the neighborhood.

We are lucky to carpool with such great friends!  Lexi, Payton, Gemma & Will.  :)

Pioneer Day Parade

On July 16th our Stake got to participate in the Days of '47 youth parade downtown.  We drove down with our buddies the Nielsens.  Our ward was pretty hard to miss in our bright lime green shirts!

We waited forever.  And ever.

Will's first balloon popped, so he was VERY careful with his second one!  He sat in the stroller to wait the rest of the time.

The closest I could get to lime green for Molly was her binky and hair clip.  Good enough.

It was hot so I brought a spray bottle to cool off with.  The idea was to mist the water, but Sam drank some too!

We walked about 4 blocks, and we even made it on the news that night and the next week, and we graced the cover of the LDS Church News!  We were also in this online article about the parade.

 This was the picture on the Church News cover, only they cropped it so we're a lot more visible.  :)  I'm on the right side pushing the red stroller.

I'm blocked by a balloon in this one, but you can see Sam, my stroller, Ava, & Jami.  Fun!

Will and Molly stayed in the stroller for the entire walk.  It made my life so much easier!

When we got to the carnival at the end of the parade, I lost all of the kids at least once.  The boys I lost 2 or 3 times each.  It was really stressful, but fortunately we didn't stay long!

We hung out with the Nielsens and Risers during the carnival (aka Where's My Kid? Fest).  We're lucky to have such great friends!  (Those are the Sanders girls in the pic, but we really spent our time with the others.  Pictures are minimal since I spent so much time looking for kids!)

The parade was a little crazy, but it was fun to participate and remember our pioneer ancestors!

Sam's Awesome Ninja Birthday!!

Sam turned 7 this year!!  I still can't believe he's that old.  He's been asking for weeks to have a ninja party, so we had a ninja party!  It was so fun, I was glad he thought of it!

This had to be easy since I'm 33 weeks pregnant.  So I bought some fortune cookies, some Panda cookies (found in the dollar section at Target), and I made the cutest sushi ever!  I cut a rice krispie treat in half (from the box I bought on coupon at Costco), put a swedish fish on it, and wrapped it in a fruit by the foot.  The whole thing took about 3 minutes.  Love.

For our little Thank You boxes to send home with Sam's friends, I put in some random Chinese candy, a Chinese drum, and a little Chinese notebook.  I realize that ninjas have more of a Japanese theme, but guess what?  These kids didn't know and I didn't tell them.

I made a ninja face cake (super easy, and I actually think it turned out really cute!!), and I found foam swords in the dollar section at Target.  I made the headbands out of a free t-shirt, all I had to do was personalize them with a little embroidery (that I finished 5 minutes before the kids showed up).

We played "Protect the Magical Orb" (keeping a balloon in the air using their ninja swords).  They loved it.

When the kids first arrived I had them draw a bad guy on a piece of paper.  I taped all the bad guys to a lifted cooler lid, and put them in our obstacle course.  They totally loved hitting the bad guys with their swords!

When we came in from the obstacle course I couldn't find my plate of sushi anywhere.  One of the kids found Molly behind a chair in the living room frantically eating all the swedish fish off the rice krispie treats.  She was furious when I took the plate away!  They were fine after I stuck some new fish on, and then I trained my ninjas how to eat with chopsticks.

After a rousing game of "Sensei Says" we moved on to the really important part of the afternoon...

Ninja cake and ice cream!  I didn't realize that I bought sparkler candles, which actually double as trick candles.  It took a few tries, but we finally got them blown out!

I seriously think this is really cute.  And it was really yummy too.  :)  I just used my Nothing Bundt Cake recipe, some canned frosting, a little bit of homemade fondant, and a couple of big chocolate chips.  Bam!  Ninja cake!  It's not like the design is complicated, or even original, but I came up with it myself (as in I didn't copy it from something I found online), so I totally felt like a hero.  Or a ninja.  :)

We finished off the afternoon with presents from Sam's awesome friends!  He really has great friends, we're pretty lucky to have such a wonderful neighborhood!

Sam is so fun, he's such an important part of our family!  He pays close attention to detail, and is always sure to let us know when something isn't right.  He's still an avid reader, and he loves to tell us about the books he's reading.  He loves the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, Cam Jansen, The Magic Treehouse, and Droon.  He just started first grade two weeks ago, and he absolutely loves it!  His favorite thing is recess, but he loves school so much that he's actually waking up BY HIMSELF before school!  That was the hardest thing about Kindergarten...getting him out of bed.  We love first grade, and Mrs. DiPietro seems like a great teacher!
Sam can be very stubborn, but we can't imagine life without him!  He's a great big brother, and he really watches out for Will and Molly.  We're so happy he's in our family, we love him so much!  Happy birthday to our favorite 7 year old!!