Frogs and "Scientific Stuff"

A couple weeks ago, the pre-school theme was "Reptiles and Amphibians" and the letter "C". The kids LOVED it. We made froggy faces, had turtle races (with turtles that we made from styrafoam bowls and played a lilly-pad cakewalk (which helped with numbers). We made a a display of all things that start with 'C', and did a couple of 'C' worksheets as well. Here are some pics. BTW: if you ever want any of these ideas, let me know and I can send them to you.

This past weeks' theme was "Science Experiments" and the letter "E". Lizzy loved doing "Scientific Stuff" as she calls it. We did tons of fun experiments. I even wore a lab coat and my glasses (...that I never wear. They make me look like a geek) to make the experiance memorable. The biggest one (this was getting them ready to do a real science experiment in elementry school) was "Which salt grows the largest crystals??? Epsome, Kosher or table salt. Kosher salt won. We even did a crude version of a Science experiment display on a poster-board that I had left over. The kids got a huge kick out of it. They loved coming to school the next day and finding the crystals that grew.

We also learned about: Static electricity (balloons rubbed on their hair and then stuck to the wall), How plants drink water (we placed celery stalks and carnations in colored water and watched them change color), How germs "run away" from anti-bactierial soap (a pie tin, filled with water, sprinkled with pepper and you drop a drop of dish soap in and watch the germs (pepper) run away from the soap.) We finished off the week by making an "Invention". The kids loved this the best. Lizzy's invention was a hat that sheilded her mini pine cone from the sun (she put a mini unbrella on top of it) and it also tickled people because she put feathers in it. Ryans was a spaceship that taught you the alphabet because he put foam letters on it.

I love spending this time with my kids and getting to watch them learn. I will look back on these days and remember what fun we had.

Just two

This is for Veronica...love you sis!

Two Names You Go By:

1. Betheny
2. Mommy
( I do NOT go by Beth! I hate that name)

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:

1. plaid pink & green flannel p.j. bottoms
2. green t-shirt
(If I'm home, I'm always in p.j. s. Poor Jacob)

Two things you want out of a relationship:

1. Trust
2. humor

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:

1. Decorate Cakes...(Shocker, I know).
2. Go out to breakfast on a Saturday morning.

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:

1. To move back to Cali
2. Some chocolate because I wont be moving back for a long time...:(

Two Things you did Last Night:

1. watched cake competitions
2. Went to a frustrating HOA meeting to break away from my current HOA.

Two things you ate today:

1. Strawberry Frosted mini-wheats
2. Haven't decided on lunch yet.

Two people you Last Talked To:

1.My sister, Heather. I love talking to her.
2. My little Ry-guy

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:

1. My new calling as Primary Chorister
2. cleaning my house...as always

Two longest car rides:

1. Cali to Utah...Done it a million times!
2. To the hospital while I was in labor with Trevor

Two Favorite Holidays:

1. Halloween
2. Christmas

Favorite Beverages:

1. Sangria
2. Peach Fresca

Two Things About Me you may not have known:

1.I'm a bit of a "spit-fire" when I don't get my way.
2. I hate the smell of Baby oil.

Two jobs I have had in my life:

1. Mom
2. Dental Assistant

Two Movies I would watch over and over:

1. The Notebook
2. The Best Two Years

Two places I have lived:

1. Orem, UT
2. Temecula, CA - The best town ever. "It's always a great day in Temecula". No kidding!

Two of my Favorite Foods:

1. My hubby's Thai cooking
2. Chicken Scampi

Two places I'd rather be right now:

1. Um....Cali hanging out with my sisters and friends
2. On the beach in Thailand

Four people I think will respond:

1. Eh...whatever...
2.
3.
4.

Heber Valley Camp

My brother Doug and sister-in-law Lizzy flew in from TX and her parents invited us to spend a weekend at the Heber Valley Camp where they are currently serving their mission. My mom, sister Ashley, and brother Quinn came along too. We had so much fun. The road up the mountain was closed off so we got to sled down a 4 mile road that we had all to ourselves. We had great food, games and fun. It was so good to see Doug and Lizzy again.

Ryan turns 4!!

It was my little Ryan's Birthday today but we went out to celebrate yesterday. I made his transformer cake the night before so that we would have the whole day to celebrate. It was a lemon-berry cake with rasberry filling and lemon buttercream underneath a layer of fondant.

We started off the day with the traditional "Blueberry-Banana-Birthday-Pancakes" and many

various versions of "Happy Birthday" were sung in celebration.

We then bundled up to go sleading at the local high school where they have a sweet hill to ride

on. Ryan LOVES sleding.

After that, we took the traditional trip to McDonalds for happy meals.

Then he got to go to Wal-Mart to pick out a toy from his "Grandma and Papa" birthday money. He picked out a transformer...of course. We came home and took a nap, read all the birthday cards that he got in the mail (thanks everyone!) and ordered pizza for dinner.

We sang him "Happy Birthday as a family and of course, he had to "Bite the Cake".

He got a huge walking (and very noisy) robot that he can't get enough of.

We stuffed ourselfs full of ice cream and cake and slept well that night. Happy Birthday Ry-Man! We love you!

P.S. Here's a little dance for you, Grandma! Thanks for the musical birthday card!

Husband of the year...

I think my hubby wins the prize for "Husband of the Year". He, along with 5 other hubbies got babysitters and secretly planned a fun scavenger hunt for me and 5 of my closest friends. None of us had a clue of what was going on. I was only told that we were doing something on Saturday. That was it. We ended up having a blast! Us girls were sent just about everywhere in the city, met lots of interesting people, stopped for ice cream, made a trip to the liquor store, delivered some groceries to a needy family and at the end of it all, ended up in a beautiful home where our husbands had prepared a FANTASTIC dinner of chicken scampi, french baguettes, cesar salad and asparagus. How great are they? And they paid a pretty penny too. They are the best. Here's how the day went:

I was driven to my friends house by my hubby and told to "get out of the car". Kinda rude, but okay. I watched from the driveway as he drove away, kinda baffled. A couple of my friends started showing up and we all just looked at eachother and then started to try and figure out what was going on. We went inside the house and 3 other girls showed up, kicked out of their cars as well, completely baffled just like the rest of us.

About 10 minutes later, the second counselor in the ward pulls into the driveway with his huge van. His 17 year old daughter was sitting in the front seat. He told us to get in and buckle up. We all piled in the van and started drilling him for answers. He was very good at staying tight-liped about the whole thing...dang it. He drove us to the mall parking lot, handed us an envelope and sped off, leaving his daughter there with us holding a video camera. Inside the envelope was a key to a Chevy. All the clue said was something about holding the keys to their hearts and finding a car to go along with the key to find our next clue. WHAT THE HEAK! We figured out that it must belong to one of the girls Saburbans. We started walking around to find it and decided to split up because it was absolutly FREEZING. We found it alright....on the OTHER side of the mall! ...Stinkers... The boys tried to spy on us but didn't do a very good job. We saw them in their very inconspicuous Hummer (insert sarcasm here) many times. It was pretty amusing watching them all duck down when we passed.

Inside the car was clue #2...along with props... Inside the envelope was a disposable camera and instructions to take at least 10 different pics with 10 different strangers...we had to use the costumes...uggg... But this could be fun...right?... To throw them off (because we knew they were following us) we didn't go inside the mall like they assumed we would. We drove to the photo shop where we were to develop the film instead to take pictures there. We had a LOT of fun taking pictures...maybe a little too much fun. Here are some of them...

We went to the beauty school to have some fun and I got this hillarious shot sitting next to an old lady that was totally snoozing while under the dryer...SO funny.

Just down the street was the state liquor store...that should make for some interesting photos... Here are those... I do have to explain the Vodka... I actually did have to go in to make a purchase. I needed Vodka for my cakes. Really! You mix it with this edible dust called "Luster Dust" and it makes kind of a paint to spray on the cake or paint what you need to. That's how you get the chrome-looking details or the sparkly, shiney finish on some of the fancy cakes. The alcohol evaporates quickly and that is why it's ideal. If you mix the dust with water, it just clumps up. Don't worry, you don't eat alcohol...it all evaporates. Anyway...we had fun taking pics with my Vodka bottle:

We took the pictures to be developed and again, spotted the boys in their very inconspicuous White Hummer...

We had a little fun with the guys at the photo place...

We got our next clue to go to a specific park and use the GPS system that was given to us to find the next five clues that were scattered around the park grounds. We had an hour to kill while the pictures got developed so we went to go get some ice cream and chat.

We then headed to the park, tried to use the GPS, gave up and ended up just walking around the park and found them. We put all the clues together and came up with an address to pick up the next clue...Now the objective was to find our hubbies...

We went to the address, picked up the envelope and it had a puzzle piece in it along with another address. This continued until we had five puzzle pieces that showed a map to the city with a big "X" over the local grocery store. On the back were instructions to price very random and yet specific items. After we had completed this task, we were to ask the store manager to check it and obtain another clue. It was a lot of fun doing this... When we were done, we located the manager who presented each of us with a boquet of beautiful roses and a personal card from each of our husbands. Then, she gave us an entire basket full of groceries that was purchased by our husbands. After some smiles, tears, ooohs and ahhs (from reading the cards) we were instructed to take the groceries to a specific address in a neighboring city.

When we got to the location, we recieved another clue and informed the lady at the residence that we were instructed to deliver these groceries to her. She was very appreciative and we realized that our husbands had given us the gift of service and the wonderful feeling that brings. (How awesome are these guys?!)

In the clue envelope, we were told to follow our noses to a wonderful dinner that was being prepared for us at a close by location. We realized that one of our friend's parent's beautiful home was just around the corner.

We arrived at the home to find our husbands cooking away in the kitchen and setting the table. The food was absolutely fantastic! We spent the rest of the evening eating and laughing at the video that our friend shot for us. They even went as far as to go to the Cheesecake Factory and buy us the most AMAZING white chocolate rasberry cheescake on a oreo crust. (I've never tasted a better cheesecake.)

It was quite a night to remember. Our hats are off to you, boys. I can't believe that none of us knew what they were planning! We usually always figure it out. They even had these envelopes that each husband was given. Inside were their tasks that they had to do throughout the day to keep the scavenger hunt going. Now us girls have to top it next year!

It's about time!

After a very long sabatical (pretty much, the entire holiday season) I've started up my pre-school again. Lizzy was just DYING to get it started again. This time, I've actually partnered with my neighbor who was a 1st grade teacher until she had her first baby. She is so awesome and I'm so excited about it. We will each swich off teaching a week. We do it on Tues, Wed, and Thursday for about 2 hours a day. So, the week that I don't teach, I get a 2 hour break 3 days a week! I taught this first week and the weekly theme was "Shapes and Colors". We also learned the letter "A". - By the way, I purcased a Leap-Frog DVD from Target called "The Letter Factory" (Thanks to suggestions from Memory and Violet) and it has done WONDERS for Lizzy and Ryan. It teaches them phonics in a fun way that they can remember. I was having a hard time teaching them why letters make sounds and they were having a hard time remembering the sounds that the letters make. I let them watch this video one time and they just "got it". It was amazing. Now, everytime I introduce a new letter, they remember the sound that it is supposed to make. Lizzy and Ryan can now read two and three letter words. Seriously...I have never been so happy that I spent $9.99. Here are some pictures from my little pre-school that my hubby built me downstairs. I went a little crazy at the school supply store and have all these amazing posters that the kids can learn from. I think it's my favorite area in the house. :)

This is us playing the Color/ Shape cakewalk. They had a blast. When the music stopped, I pulled out a shape from a bag and whoever was on that particular shape, got a sticker. And, yes, our little friend IS picking his nose...

They lLOVED learning that they could mix the primary colors to make other colors. Finger painting is so much fun!

Standing in front of the color graph that we did from magazing clippings. All their work from the day is displayed on these cute, colorful magnet clips that I got from the dollar store and glue-gunned to the chair railing.
They made "creatures" out of various sizes and shapes. Lizzy's was "kicking" the wall - as in the letter "K". (She got that idea from the Leap Frog video)

Thank You...

My neighbors are the best! (Excluding the neighbors across the street, of course) While Jacob is gone, they treat me so good! They always ask me if I need anything from the store, they shovel my driveway and steps, they offer to watch my kids and they even take my trash out for trash day. They are the best neighbors a girl could ask for. I guess they all know that Jacob spoils me and I'm not used to doing those kinds of things. :) I appreciate them so much so I made them these cupcakes (vanilla with bavarian creme filling and bavarian creme buttercream). As much as I appreciate them, I'm glad that Jacob is back home. :)