Mini Goals Week 15

Last week went great. I didn't end up making any new recipes, just some yummy ones I hadn't made for a while. There were a few cold wet days so I made Tortilla soup! YUMMY! There was only one day that I didn't complete my mini goal. You know the day, it was FREE Jack in the Box AND pancakes at IHOP! I could not resist FREE food! And it turned out to be a lot of fun. So, THANK YOU Jack in the Box and IHOP for a yummy day!

Back to more important things, like my mini goal! This week's mini goal is short and sweet....drum roll please....NO FRIED FOOD of any kind! Honestly, it'll be easy. I never fry anything at my house, we're not planning on heading to a restaurant this week for dinner, but we usually go to the cafeteria here on campus for lunch. I usually get a sandwich or pizza, but I do order a side of fries. So, I guess the real mini goal is no french fries :) Oh, man just re-reading this is making my mouth water for fries! I CAN DO THIS!!! I CAN DO THIS!!!
What are the mini goals YOU have been working on? What is this weeks mini goal for YOU?
GOOD LUCK! And, if you see me at the cafeteria don't bother coming over to chat if you have fries! :)

Ahoy There Matey!!

Gavin celebrated his 4th Birthday and he wanted to have a Handy Manny party. Well, I looked everywhere for anything Handy Manny and nothing was available except to order it on-line through Nick Jr. dot com. So I talked Gavin into choosing another theme. After rattling off several cool kinds he chose a Pirate Party! We dug out Will's old Pirate costume Nana bought him from Disneyland when he was in Kindergarten! Look how cool his cupcake cake turned out! The small island says, "Gavin's Island"!As the guests arrived they were seated at the table and had time to color pirate's and pirate ships while we waited for the remaining guests. After they all arrived we had then sit on the couch while Captain Scott talked to them about what they needed to do to become Pirates. He had theme take the Pirate Oath by covering one eye, using the other hand and making a hook out of it and standing on one leg...It was cute to see the children so into what the Captain was saying. They had to learn a Pirate song so we taught them, "Yo ho, yo ho, a Pirate's life for me..." We continues to sing that periodically throughout the party.

Next all the pirates in training had to learn to walk the plank. Frontwards and backwards, just in case! They took turns looking for berried treasure by playing pin the treasure on the "X".

They also had to learn how to withstand a terrible storm at sea. Each of the kids hopped on to Captain's back and Scott flung them around for a few seconds. (It was like a bull ride). All the kids loved that! The children ate cupcakes, and Gavin opened all the awesome gifts he received. We saved the BEST for last, the pinata! We were suppose to have this and other activities outside, but it was surprisingly raining that afternoon here in Mesa. So, Captain Scott stood there holding the rope that held the pinata. The kids used a wooded sword to brake open the treasure chest pinata!

It was a very FUN party! Thanks Gain for having another wonderful birthday!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY big guy!!

Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Thank you The Creative Homemaker for another cleaver idea! (Super easy and cute!!) This is a wee bit late, but better late than never, right?! We were at our cabin in the snow....(we don't have a cabin, it just sounded good!)....during V-day, but I brought some activities up there on our little vacation to do with the kiddos. We "painted" over an invisible message. (I forgot to bring clean paint brushes, so the boys used their fingers) I had written each of the boys, including Scott, a message with a white crayon on the paper. Using Kool-Aid they "painted" over the message to see what it said. Then, they could drink the "paint" afterwards. We also played a guessing game about each other and I bought some of those valentine lottery tickets for each of the boys. We also went sledding that day. It was so beautiful outside and the boys all had a blast zooming down the hills. We had a delicious Chinese food dinner with great fortunes in our cookies! It was another fun packed day!

Craft Night..take 2

It has been a ton of fun and laughs at craft night. A few girls and I meet and work on random crafts that we've started and need to finish, or brand spankin' new ones obce a week. Sometimes ladies are correcting papers for school, and sometimes we all get too busy chit chatin' to complete anything. There are always drinks, snacks and lots of fun!

We usually bring our own crafts to work on, but last night we did a group craft. Everyone brought part of the craft and we all worked on it together. They turned out cute and we all had a ton of fun. We got this adorable idea from The Creative Homemaker.

Cut your wood ( can either cut 6x6.5" or 6x9") sand it and either paint or spray paint it.

Alicia made a heat template that we borrowed. It was easy to use and helped us line-up the nails just right. Some of the gals used all 40 holes and others used every other.

Drill holes before you nail the nails into the board, it makes it easier this way.

You can paint a cute design, add vinyl lettering, buttons, or iron-on material to the middle of the heart if you want. The possibilities are endless. You may want to add the embellishments in the middle of the board BEFORE you nail the nails into it.Choose whatever fabric you like and cut them into 1"x5" strips. You can fray the ends if you want. We ended up using tulle, some material, a bandanna, t-shirt, and other random scraps of fabric.

Tie them on the pegs and wal-ah! You have an adorable, easy and inexpensive craft. You can do with with any holiday. Make an egg shape out of nails, a Christmas tree, a four leaf clover, a flag...We also sanded the sides to make it have an antiqued look.

Another craft we all worked on where these adorable fabric flowers that Stephanie taught us! Super easy and cute. The one below was a cut of an old shirt she used! Too Cute!

Here is one that I made. Super easy and cute! (Tutorial will be coming soon!) Thanks to Aaron for the red t-shirt I was able to cut up and use for mine! :)This was the other craft I made. Thank you Chez Beeper Bebe for this CUTE idea! It has bells in it and is real soft. Nathan already LOVES it!!

IHOP for dinner!

Yesterday IHOP was offering a FREE short stack (3 large) pancakes to each person! My good friend, Britney, and I met there and ate dinner with our 9 children! ALL BOYS! We were seated in the back, thank goodness! We were loud, messy and full by the time we left. I am not a fan of pancakes, or I ordered french toast instead. But, my 3 were eaten by some of the boys. It was fun!

THANK YOU IHOP!!!

Randomness

I just downloaded pictures from my small camera...So here is a bunch of random things that was happening around the Thompson household...

My two sweet babies had on matching outfits. They looked so cute, and it wasn't even planned!

On Saturday, after Gavin's Pirate party we went out to dinner at Islands restaurant. He went sporting his fo beard with no hesitation. It was so cute.

Sweet Briggy's was sick a little while back and had to go to the ER for a couple breathing treatments. One of our neighbors has a machine and we used it a couple times and he recovered quickly.

When I lay Brig's down for a nap or bedtime he has socks on. When I come back into his room this is what I find. How funny is that. They're always in the exact same spot. When we're ready to go I'll ask him to get his socks and shoes on and he know where to go!

On Valentine's day one of the brothers made this cute little Valentine for Nathan. He wore it well!

I'm sitting at my computer and it goes quiet in the living room. Too quiet. You that sound. You're little one is into something he/she shouldn't be. Well, it was true. Brigham was doing something he shouldn't be doing, but sure was having a fun time.

I made some YUMMY chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries a while back. Man, were they delicious!

You've seen these dumb rides in front of grocery stores and inside of Wal-mart's. I never fork out money for these lame-o rides. But, I had just Gavin with me and I had 50 cents. So what the heck, right? He loved every second of it. But the real reason why I added this picture was to ask you if you can even see Gavin? With his camo hat, shorts and rain boots he's almost invisible. What was I thinking allowing him to go outside wearing that! Holy moly, what a goofball!

I help at my boys school quite a bit and we happen to be there around lunch time. Brig's and Jackson enjoyed eating together, even though Brigham ate most of Jackson's food. Jackson didn't complain once, and was very happy to share!

Hungry?

FREE grilled sandwich at Jack in the Box with purchase of large drink!!

FREE short stack (3 pancakes) at IHOP!!

TODAY only!

Where in the world is Papa Bill??

Ha, ha, ha! This is so dang funny. I totally forgot I took this picture. We went to Sea World in December and haven't downloaded my pictures from the pink camera since before Christmas!

Do you see him? Do you see Papa Bill hiding in the sea of tourists?

We went to Sea World with our good friends the Udall family. It was freezing there, but we had a lot of fun. At the Shamu show I promised everyone if we sat in this certain section, we'd not only be super close to the center to see Shamu, but we would NOT get wet. Not one drop! We've sat in those exact seats 3 other shows and didn't get wet at all. Thank goodness Jori and my mom were prepared because we all got wasted! We were dripping wet! Well, Papa never wants to go on any rides and get wet when it's cool outside, let alone freezing. So he sat WAY up in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed the show dry as a whistle!