About Us

Andy and I met on a blind date in Dec. 2005. One of my 7th grade students was his neice, and she set us up. Go figure. We saw each other every day after that! We were engaged by June and married in September of 2006. In January, 2008, we welcomed little Ethan into our home, and in August, 2010, little Addison arrived.

Andy is a diesel mechanic at Kennecott. I taught middle school science for ten years, and am now an evidence-based learning specialist for a school district.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Free Mario Party Printables

Ethan requested a Mario themed birthday party this year.  We had a lot of fun at our party, and I had a lot of fun creating decorations, and favor bags for our guests.

All the printables that I used for our party you can find here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzv2Ix2hcPrMakFCZThQZWt3eGs/edit?usp=sharing

The printables include:  wall decorations, napkin ring wrappers, juice box wrappers, Mario favor bag face and hat, fire balls bag topper.

I decorated a wall in my house as a scene from the Mario game.  This became the backdrop for photos with friends, and I set up a bench in front of this wall so he could sit in front of it when opening his gifts.  This was by far his favorite part.  He asked if we could leave it up for a "LONG TIME, because it's so COOL."  


I love Dollar Tree, and a lot of what you see here I purchased there.  The vinyl tablecloth, the streamers, balloons, plates, napkins, and the Mario candies! The Mario centerpiece was purchased at Zurchers.  


Here is a close up of one of the table settings.  I made a the napkin ring and the wrapper for the juice boxes on my computer and printed them off.  The Mario & Luigi hats were made out of foam sheets, very thin elastic, and a glue gun.  



These are the party favor bags.  I purchased the lunch sacks at the Dollar Tree, and cut the top 2.5 inches off of them.  The Mario and Luigi hats, as well as the faces can be found in the PDF printable to print, cut and glue.


I purchased cheese balls at Target in a big container, and scooped them into gift bags.  I created the Fire power top, and then folded down the bag and stapled the tag on top.  The question boxes are filled with Chocolate coins found at the party store, and the Mario gummies I bought at Zurchers.


 Happy Party Planning!



Ethan's 6th Birthday Party

Ethan had so much fun this year on his Birthday!  We were able to invite all his friends from the neighborhood, and a few other friends too.  The boys came, had pizza, ate cake, played games, and opened presents.  They all seemed to be having a great time, and enjoyed spending time together!  It got a little loud, but I'm not sure that 10 boys in 1 house could possibly be quiet!

Ethan LOVED the presents that his wonderful friends brought:
Alex - fun interactive world map
Ayden - Nerf disk shooter
Chris Lee - Zombie Hot Wheels Track
Kaicyn - Lego Table and Lego's
Hudson - Mario Lego's
Mason - Superman Lego's
Parker - Money
Spencer - A Skyland Figuring
Tanner - Nerf Guns

Ethan's cake turned out to be a labor of love.  It's not a very big cake, but it took me about  5 hours to decorate it.  (I purchased all the fondant, and the frosting for the cake, so you wouldn't have thought it would have taken so long)  I bought blue and white fondant.  So I colored most of the fondant myself.  This took quite a bit of time.  

For Mario's face, I drew a picture of his face, and then laid the picture on top of rolled out fondant.  I then used a toothpick and poked holes around my drawing and then used a knife to cut each piece out.  This method seemed to work out well.

It's not cake boss worthy, but it turned out okay.  A class might be helpful in the future so I can learn how to get everything nice and smooth and shiny.



The boys ate pizza, breadsticks and birthday cake!

I made them each a party favor bag that included cheese puffs (fireballs) Mario shaped gummies, and little boxes with chocolate gold coins.

Here they are all together in front of the Mario all.
Top Left:  Spencer, Ethan, Addy, Kaicyn, Alex
Bottom Left:  Mason, Chris Lee, Tanner, Ayden


Blowing out his candles

I thought for sure there would be an injury with the pinata in the house, but we made it without doing any harm! :)









Then we played squash the Goomba's.  The kids each had a Goomba tied to their ankle.  Their job was to not let their Goomba get popped, but pop everyone else's Goomba.  Spencer was so cute at this game. He would grab the Goomba and bite it to pop it.  He obviously was the winner! :)

Then we played feed Boo, the Mario ghost.  The kids had to throw ping pong balls through Boo's mouth.


Then Ethan opened presents from his friends.  They all gave such wonderful gifts!  Ethan loves each and every one of them, and has played with them non-stop since the party.






Sunday, July 7, 2013

Potty Time

This little lady hasn't been the easiest to potty train.  In fact, I've been working on getting her potty trained for the last 7 months.  I think it may have something to do with her stubborn personality.  She knows when she needs to go, and will sometimes go on the potty, but I can't get her to consistently go.  I've with candy, toys, stickers, etc.  It just isn't working.  I'm hoping we can get her potty trained by her 3rd birthday.  Wish me luck.



Why I love these two twits

These two turkeys sometimes make me want to pull my hair out and hide in a corner, but they are the loves of my life, and I can't imagine life without them.

Little Miss Addy is quite the girly girl.  She loves anything pink, hello kitty, having her nails done, and doing anything with mommy, oh, and shoes, she absolutely LOVES shoes.  

Her favorite TV show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
She calls her blanket her "B" and she takes it with her EVERYWHERE
She LOVES chocolate milk and wants it first thing in the morning when she wakes up
She will do anything for ice cream
She hates brushing her teeth and her hair
Her favorite shirt is pictured below . . . "the monkey shirt" that Dad got her in Vegas
She is super picky about her clothes and doesn't like to wear things that are "too tight"
She loves to snuggle when she's tired
She copies everything her big brother does


Ethan is a character.  He's always doing something that either makes me laugh, cry, or a combination of both.  He loves anything super hero, especially superman or spiderman, playing with legos, staying at home, and playing with his friends at school.

His favorite TV show is Curious George
He calls his blanket "orangey" because it's orange.  He still has to have it at bed time
He LOVES fishing with his daddy, and gets super upset if dad goes without him
He hates having his hair combed
He hates losing at anything
His favorite shoes are his spiderman boots shown below
He enjoys torturing his baby sister
He is determined that he will marry Izzy, a girl from school, when he grows up



I sure love these two twits!

Stubborn

We should have given Ethan a different name, and that name should have been Stubborn.  Man, this kid kills me.  After a few hours of playing, I informed him that he needed to clean up his room, and that he wasn't allowed out of his room until it was clean.  You can see that he's laying on his bed rather than clean.  In fact, he laid on his bed for 2 hours!  I finally went in and let him know that in 10 minutes I'd be in to clean up, and that what I picked up would be going in the garbage can.  This motivated him and he was able to get his room clean, but we fight about this EVERY SINGLE DAY!!  Yikes.


Snow Time Fun!

This winter, the kids had a ball playing in the snow.  If a flake fell, they both wanted to get their gear on and head outside to play.  I can't even begin to count the number of times Ethan was disappointed because there wasn't enough snow to make a snow ball.  Luckily, we ended up with plenty of the white stuff this winter, and they had tons of fun playing in it.
Uncle Gary and Dad helped Ethan make this fort!  It didn't melt until April! :)

And of course you can't have winter without Ice Fishing!  Andy, Mike, Ethan, and Kaicyn had a great time ice fishing together.  

Ethan and Kaicyn living it up at the ice fishing hole.




Addy wasn't completely thrilled with the snow at first, but she got brave, and eventually began loving it!