While DH was away

Thursday, May 17 - Sunday, May 20

While DH was gone for the Reach the Beach the kids and I watched the new muppets movie, The Muppets (loved it).  I also took the kids (minus M&M who was at a friend's house) to the Dollar Store to pick out a toy or treat for themselves.  We got Ring Pops for MJ and Kay and they both loved them.  Kay also picked out some bubbles and had fun playing with them at Luke's soccer game on Saturday.  There was a dog there that went crazy trying to catch the bubbles whenever she blew them and the kids all loved that!  It was Luke's last soccer game and his coach (& his wife) gave the kids some homemade brownies and a small cake that was decorated like a soccer ball.  Even though it was a rocky season, they ended with a win and the coach was a pretty nice guy overall.

The Avengers!

Saturday, May 6, 2012

After DH and Luke got back from the Father & Son campout on Saturday, my parents came over to watch the younger kids and M&M, Luke, DH and I all went to the movie theater to see The Avengers. Luke has been talking about this movie for MONTHS and he was really excited to be going the day after it opened. We kept it a secret from him until that day. We all thought that the movie was really well done and it had quite a bit of humor in it. There was a little bit of violence and a couple of scenes where they didn't show what was happening exactly, but you could imagine it and it made you cringe.  I don't remember much gore at all though. There was also a little bit of language, but not too bad. I would definitely recommend seeing Captain America, Iron Man 1 & 2 and Thor before seeing this one. It will make more sense. Also, make sure to stick around until the END of the credits. We saw the scene partway through the credits and then left. Well, apparently there was another added scene all the way at the end of the credits that we missed.


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Little things

* Finally having everyone healthy!

* Watching MegaMind as a family (loved the movie - definitely my kind of humor).

* Helping Kitty learn to read.

* The weather being warm enough to go for a walk with the kids Sunday evening.

* MJ almost has her first tooth.

* Kitty has almost lost her first tooth.

* M&M helping me make dinner for the last two weeks (one of her requirements for YW). I think it's been an eye opener for her to see how much work is involved in feeding a family.

* M&M learning to play The Pink Panther on the piano (mostly on her own).

* Kay actually allowing me to put jeans on her one day last week.

* Blondie reading books to her sisters at night.

* Kay becoming an expert at twirling the hair in her ponytail. She'll suck on her thumb on one hand and use the other hand to twirl her hair.

A Tale of Two Movies

Last Friday, DH and I had the same great idea: rent a movie for the family from RedBox. Unfortunately we also both ended up getting the same movie (and it wasn't the first pick for either one of us). Luckily the rental fee is only $1.07/night (and I had a free coupon for mine). When DH came home with his and we realized what had happened, we both just had to chuckle!

And in case you were wondering, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole was a pretty good movie that the family all enjoyed. DH, M&M, Luke and I had all read the first book that this movie is based on and they could have made it much more gruesome from the details in the book - which they for the most part wisely chose to leave out. The movie is based on the first three books in a series by Kathryn Lasky.

Movie time

I forgot to post that while DH's mom was here Memorial weekend, we took the kids to a couple of movies at the nearby dollar theatre. Friday evening we took M&M and Luke to see "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" (we left the younger kids with my parents) and then Saturday afternoon we took everyone to see the new "Alice in Wonderland". They were both enjoyable movies and I was surprised that Kay even reacted to parts of the Alice movie. We went in the early afternoon, hoping that Kay would take her nap during it, but unfortunately she didn't. She sat on my lap the majority of the time and surprisingly enough watched a good chunk of the movie.

Family vacation part 7 - Pottermania

We headed back to Vancouver, WA Tuesday evening after our brief trip to Seattle. DH wanted to get back early enough that we could get the younger kids to bed and then head off to see the new Harry Potter movie. Luke started reading the books earlier this year and then once he got hooked, M&M decided to read them as well (she had tried reading them a couple of years earlier and just wasn't interested at the time). When we left for this vacation M&M was just starting book 7 and Luke was finishing up book 6. So we got back to DH's parents' house and set up our tent in the backyard for the 4 oldest kids to sleep in. We put Blondie and Kitty to sleep in the tent and it definitely took them a while to go to sleep. Our kids just think it's so much fun to sleep in a tent and they don't get the chance very often so it usually turns into a big play time. Our big unknown was whether I would be able to get Baby K to sleep and if she would stay asleep while we were gone. She had been having a rough time on the trip and wasn't sleeping too well unless she was in bed with me. While we were at the rental house in Oregon I noticed that she was cutting some new teeth so I think that was contributing to her poor nights. There were 3 late night showings of the movie that night so we decided to try and go as soon as I got Baby K to sleep.

After a bit of struggling and some threats to Blondie and Kitty, we finally got the kids to sleep and headed out to make the 10:45 showing of Harry Potter 6 (actually I'm not entirely sure that Blondie and Kitty were asleep before we left). We were trying to keep it a secret from M&M and Luke that they were going to be going to see the new Harry Potter movie and they were so excited when we pulled up to the movie theater. DH's mom, brother Tan and his wife went with us as well. Grandpa stayed back home to keep an eye on the younger kids.

We all really enjoyed the movie and it was fun watching M&M and Luke watch the movie. It was also neat to hear them critique it afterwards and compare it to the book since they had both recently finished reading it. Luckily when we made it back home around 1:30 in the morning, the kids were all asleep still.

The next day was Wednesday and we decided to just take things easy and relax at the house before we left for home the next day. The kids played in the pool and bounce house with their cousins and watched a few movies. Grandma N came over for dinner that evening and it was great to see and talk to her.

Movie fun

Back in June we took the kids to a matinee movie of Up one Saturday afternoon. We timed things perfectly because we went during Baby K's nap time and she fell asleep and slept for most of the movie. The rest of the kids enjoyed the movie but Kitty and Blondie thought that it was too long and didn't like wearing the 3-D glass very much. Then on the last day of school (a Thursday), DH and I took M&M and Luke to see the movie Monsters vs. Aliens at our local dollar movie theater. The rest of the kids we left with my parents because they weren't interested in sitting through another long movie - plus I wasn't sure if it would be too scary for the younger kids.

Off-track

The kids were off-track for two weeks from April 20 - May 1. While they were off-track we were thinking about going down to the St. George area to visit some of the national parks around there, but DH wasn't able to take the time off work with some deadlines he had coming up. The majority of the time off-track we just stuck close to home - did some much needed clothes and shoes shopping for a couple of the kids and spent a lot of time working out in our garden.

On the Friday before they had to go back to school I decided to try something new with the kids and I attempted to take them to the see new Disneynature movie, Earth, at the theater. I had heard good things about it and figured that it was a movie that wouldn't be too scary and that all of the kids would enjoy. I was also hoping that Baby K would take a nap during it. Luke had won a gift card to a local movie theater from his orthodontist's office and we had some money on another gift card that we have had for a while so in the end I only had to pay about $3 out of pocket for me plus 4 kids. The kids had a lot of fun going to the theater to see a movie and Kitty couldn't quit talking through the whole thing asking me questions. Luckily the theater was pretty empty, but I ended up having to spend about half of the movie out in the hall with Baby K. Thankfully M&M moved over next to Kitty when she got scared in one part and overall the kids enjoyed it. I think next time though I will leave Baby K at home!!