Cade's 11th Birthday - Was a Major Food Fight!

For Cade's 11th birthday party, we had a food fight and it was so much fun!

I had the boys all come in their swim suits.  When they first got there, I gave them all a new, clean, white t-shirt and we took a "before" picture.

BEFORE

Our first game was musical cool whip.  I had taken several containers of cool whip and put food coloring in them and passed them around the circle.  Every time the music stopped, whoever was holding a tub of cool whip could throw one dollop on someone else - wherever they wanted!

Our second game was the marshmallow drop.  I filled bowls of mini marshmallows and covered them with Hershey's chocolate syrup.  One boy had to lay on the ground while the other straddled over the top of him.  They had to drop 5 marshmallows in their mouth before they could switch partners.  This is harder than you think because the syrup makes the marshmallows drip off their fingers instead of falling where they are aiming.  So they end up with chocolate covered marshmallows in their ears, on their eyes and stuck to their forehead!

Next, we had a pie eating contest!  

I made little chocolate pudding pies in mini Keebler pie crusts.

 Then we had our FOOD FIGHT!

I had 2 tables set up out in the field.  Each of them had lots of things to fight with.  There weren't teams - it was every man for himself!  

I bought a couple large jars of apple sauce and watered them down a bit so they'd stretch further.

I had huge bowls of chocolate pudding (that I made from my big food storage packets that were way old and I made them with water)

I took my old food storage instant potatoes (that needed to be thrown out) and made up a couple big pots

I had a couple bowls of flour

I had bottles of ketchup - mustard - chocolate syrup - strawberry syrup - & silly string

(If you decide to do this crazy food fight, you may want to water down the mustard.  I've had several food fights for my kids now and it's the first time I've watered down the mustard.  It comes out lots easier, squirts further and stretches out longer.)

It turned out great!  I had several kids tell me they couldn't hear.......

AFTER

They came back to my lawn after the food fight (and had to wash up their eyes and faces a bit) and we had one last game.  I put a piece of gum in the middle of a big glob of cool whip.  They had to dig their faces down in the cool whip, find the gum, chew it up and be the first to blow a bubble.

Then we had a water fight - you know - to help wash them off!  

Most of the shirts went into the trash, but some of the boys wanted to keep them for a souvenir!

I had filled a bunch of water balloons and I had told the boys to bring a water gun if they had one.   

And lastly, we opened presents!  

Stupidly I didn't have him open them up at the VERY BEGINNING!

We didn't have cake or ice cream!  Which the boys were grateful for!  They were all "food-ed" out!  

It was a blast!

Labor Day Weekend with the Martins

Mark and Crystal's family came up to spend the long weekend with us.  We were so excited to have them come up.  It has been far too long since we last got together.  Their boys had grown up so much in the last 2 years!  

Jens had to work the morning we took these pictures so he's not in the group one.

But I got this of them when he got home.

We went to the farmers market and bought lots of good things to eat.  We made delicious BLT's with avocado and corn on the cob.  We took the kids to Payson and dropped them off at the carnival.  We We laughed and laughed as is our usual when we are together.

 Mark & Crystal are so funny!  They bought so much food to take home that the boys barley fit in the car!  They bought 120 ears of corn - a half bushel of fresh tomatoes - cantaloupe -  sour dough bread from the farmers market - bread from Hickory Kist - a pan of peanut butter bars from Hickory Kist (their favorite place) - a pan of rice crispies from Hickory Kist - and sugar cookies and homemade oreos from Sipin!  Their car was about to bottom out!  Their families back home in Vegas were excited for them to get home so they could have a feast!!!

Football Season!

School has started and that means that football season is in full swing!

Jens plays #63 on varsity and #73 on JV

Sidney made the 9th grade cheer team and she is LOVING IT!  She is simply the cutest cheerleader ever!

Cade is playing tackle football again this year and he's loving it too.  To quote him, "It's great.  I mean, I get to shove people and take them to the ground without getting in trouble!"

He is #54

This is a picture of his friend Andre Callister getting tackled down.

This is his other friend Zayne Thornton getting tackled after a long run.

Molly & Jacoby

These two little cousins are the best of friends!  

Jacoby is the most fun friend because he'll do whatever Molly wants to do.  They might ride bikes, they might play baseball in the backyard, they might play Barbies, they'll swing or jump on the tramp, they'll go swimming.... but a favorite is to play dress up!

School Starts! August 19, 2014

Big Jensy is a Junior this year.  SO SO crazy to think that I only have ONE more year of school with this kid.  Where on earth has the time gone?????

Sidney is a Freshman and she's feeling like the big man on campus!

Cade is in 5th grade.  Only one more year left in elementary school for this guy.

Miss Molly girl couldn't hardly wait for school and 2nd grade.  She was counting down the days for nearly a month!

August Rain means MUDDIN'

This is one of my favorite things!  I just love to get a big ol' rainstorm!  

And sometimes when it's super dry and there is no rain in sight, then we go down when the farmers irrigate the fields and we take advantage of the muddy roads!