Fashion Fabulous Friday-Royal Edition

Jason told me I wasn't allowed to buy a new hat for Wills and Kate's wedding.

(Which I guess is okay since I wasn't technically invited.)

So, I started looking to The Royals to see which of my hats would be best for the 4 AM ceremony this morning.

Choice A: Hot Pink Hat

Royal version: Autumn Phillips (married to Peter Phillips, son of Princess Anne)

My version:

Choice B: Butterfly Hat

Royal Version: Princess Beatrice of York

My version:

Choice C: Orange and Yellow Flower Hat

Royal Version: Princess Anne

My Version: Modeled by Kyle

And Finally, the dark horse...

Choice D: Green Hat

Royal Version: Princess Eugenia of York

My Version: Modeled by both Anita and me

You'll have to check back tomorrow to see what I picked. 

I'll be celebrating tonight.  Yeah for DVR!

Boogie Down Productions

And I'm not talking about me!

With a house full of boys, I certainly never thought I'd be attending a dance recital.

But as I've learned, never say never with this bunch.

JR's been taking breakdancing all year, and the recital is this weekend.

They had their class (and individual) pictures taken in their costumes this week, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy one.

If his costume actually looked liked a costume, then sure.  But since it just looks like something he could wear to school, I wasn't really sure what I'd do with the pictures.

I told JR I'd take the pictures, and he got right to work giving me his best gang-sta poses.

Meet John(s)

When we were on our cruise, Reed picked out a stuffed animal shark for his souvenir.

While riding the elevator a lady said, "What's your shark's name?"

Without skipping a beat Reed said, "John."

And since that moment, every stuffed animal in our house is named 'John.'

 

Kyle usually refers to his stuffed animals as his "babies". 

But, of course, the babies are now named John.

 

So I wasn't really surprised when Kyle asked if he could bring Cow John to his soccer game.

He really wanted to play while holding John, but we were able to convince him that John could sit on the sidelines with me and watch.

 

But don't feel sorry for John. 

He had his moment.

They had team pictures after their game Saturday.

Just look who snuck in the picture.

We'd Rather Smash 'Em Than Find 'Em

It's become quite obvious that the Easter egg hunt is not the most exciting tradition around here.

Their favorite?

Cascarones.

Just check out Kyle's cascarones game face.

Ready, Set, Go!

Of course the aftermath is quite ugly.

Well, really, the aftermath is kinda pretty...it's the actual clean-up that's the ugly part.

Peeps and More

I'm still trying to storyboard my Easter post.

(Don't worry, I don't really storyboard my posts.  I do write them in my head...and that just hasn't happened yet.)

So until I can get it together, here's a picture that

A. Will make my mom happy to see everybody.

and

B. Has our entire family looking at the camera. (Which so rarely happens.)

I also have this picture of my now famous Peeps Swimming in Blue Jello.

With my cooking issues, I have very few dishes I'm known for.

Saturday afternoon JR asked me if I'd "make the Peeps swimming in blue jello like last year."

Um yeah.  Pretty sure I can handle that one!

Glorious Day

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

1 Peter 1:3.

Fashion Fabulous Friday on Saturday

In my Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it,

I'll be the grandest fellow in the Easter Parade.

As We All Know...

But maybe not so 'awesome' at spelling.

A Whole Pack of Scouts in my Kitchen

As I mentioned yesterday, tonight is our scout Blue and Gold Banquet.

I'm in charge of the centerpieces.

(Actually, let's just be honest. I'm in charge of everything. 

Today will be a very busy and stressful day.)

After searching the Internet for ideas, I combined about five different things to come up with these.

I'm super proud of them since they double as a centerpiece and a place card.

Here's JR's

I wasn't able to make a trip to Farmington for a Hobby Lobby run, so I had to create these entirely from Walmart supplies!

Our Walmart isn't always well stocked, so after I cleaned them out of bud vases, I had to use the other small fishbowl looking vases.

I was able to decoupage the Cub Scout Promise to the bud vases, but it wouldn't work on the fishbowls.  So those have the promise on the sticks.

I didn't plan for it to be that way, but I actually think the differences will look nice in the room.

But most importantly, JR thinks they're great. (As in, he fell in the floor laughing saying "Such-and-Such looks ridiculous!"  I think that's the highest compliment a 7 year-old boy can give.)

So, I'm hoping the other kids (and parents) will like them too.

Consider Yourself Celebrated, Earth Day

Soooo, as you can imagine, I was just thrilled when I learned JR's homework would be an Earth Day project instead of his standard math sheet. 

Oh yippee! 

My favorite fake holiday, Earth Day.

He was supposed to make a craft or sculpture out of trash/recycling. 

To be honest, I wasn't that upset about the assignment (I was upset it was in lieu of math, but hey, it's Durango...recycling and Earth Day are of the utmost importance.)

In fact, my mom used to assign "trash art" to her classes.

But here's where I got set off:

1. As a former teacher and daughter of school teacher parents, I'm well aware of a hard and fast rule:
 If a project is sent home, it's for the parents.  Not the kid.

As my mom always says, "If the teacher wanted a kid project, they'd do it at school."

2. This is only a 4 day week, and since the teacher wants it back on Thursday, that means she's expecting us to whip this out in 3 nights.

3. I also don't approve of giving projects that can't be finished over the weekend. 

I've got Jason out of town this week, I'm expecting 85 people at The Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet on Wednesday, and we've got activities every night. 
When am I (because remember, that's who she wants it done by) supposed to do this project?

So as I read over the information sheet I thought to myself...

"We're" doing this tonight.

I am not going to the store.

I am not buying supplies to make this. 

"We're" going to make this with what we have in this house!

I went and got 2 empty toilet paper rolls out of the trash, told JR to sit down beside me, and started Googling.

(And on a side note, Thank you Mama and Daddy for all my amazingly, creative projects. Y'all had to do all those with no Internet. I have it way too easy!)

But as JR sat there, staying busy helping, we came up with this.

We used two toilet paper rolls and a cardboard box. 

(And hot glue, of course.)

Done. And Done. 

I'm still not sure if JR's calling it an alligator, a crocodile, or a dragon. 

 And I don't really care.

The important part is JR's really proud of our project.

Way too much green going on in this picture!

The Saddest Little Spring Flowers

Kyle and Reed are taking an art class, and they really love it.

They were super proud and excited about the flowers they made last week.

Not that you'd know it.

Although they do look happier than the spring flowers in my yard....which isn't hard to do since I have no spring flowers in my yard.

What I Learned Today

I didn't really learn a lot back in the days that JR "played" soccer.

(Except that JR doesn't want to play soccer.)

But I found Kyle and Reed's first soccer game highly educational!

They're in pre-school soccer and supposed to play other 3 and 4 year olds.

Really? Cause I'm pretty sure there was a pre-teen out there.

I also learned that Reed has a variety of game faces.

Don't You Get Near My Ball, Bro!

I Told You....Back Off My Ball, Man!

The Michael Jordan Tounge-Wag

And the Four Car Pile-Up.

(That's Reed with his legs in the air.)

Ever the fashionista, Kyle had his game day jersey on at 6:00 AM.

But couldn't quite understand why somebody would be so mean as to take his ball.

And it's nice to learn that some things haven't changed at all.

JR is still just as interested in soccer.

Fashion Fabulous Friday

The little guys got new tennis shoes since they start soccer this weekend.

Kyle loved his new shoes so much he asked to sleep in them.

 And since Jason was out of town, and I totally pick my battles with these two, I told him that was fine.

After I snapped this picture, I started taking off his shoes.

Which woke him up...

Shoeless sleeping was not okay.

So we compromised

This Is What You Look Like

when you're standing entirely too close to a 1,100-foot drop straight down to the bottom of Horseshoe Bend Overlook.

Where are the guardrails?!

And look at my feet...I'm wearing flip-flops!

Obviously, we had no idea what was in store when we made this little road trip stop in Page, Arizona.

Physically Fit

At least they've got exercise equipment with them.

That counts, right?

Vegas Checklist

What all can you do with 31 hours in Vegas? 

Well, Let's see.

Check Out The Strip? Check.

We left Mesquite at 8:00 AM, so we were driving down The Strip by 9:00.

Gambling? Check.

Cassidy put $4 in a slot machine.

Celebrity Sighting? Check.

We saw Pete Rose,

 Dick Butkus, (we only knew it was them since they were promoting sports memorabilia and signing autographs)
and these two guys who are serious A-listers in my house.

Shopping? Check.

How do two Houstonians living in a town of 15,000 people and no Target spend their day in Vegas? 

 Shopping, of course!  

Our new BFF is named "Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace".

Ate at a Trendy Restaurant? Check.

We are so cool that we had 10:45 PM dinner reservations at Tao. 

 Tao is so cool that they didn't seat us until 11:30.

I'm guessing light isn't really cool these days since it was so dark we couldn't see anything. 

 I'm not even exaggerating. 

The staff carry flashlights so those of us who aren't vampires can actually read the menus.

Went to a Trendy Club? Check.

So, in full disclosure, we were given VIP bracelets to Pure nightclub while we were out shopping. 

We really wanted to go to Pure (since we've read about it in US Weekly), but since it was way after midnight when we finished dinner (and we're not 21, a Kardashian, or a Real Housewife) getting a cab and going over there just seemed like too much work. 

Standing in the 250+ person line to get into the nightclub part of Tao also seemed like too much work, but since we had eaten dinner there, we were given a line pass, which meant we got to go right in. 

Wow.

 Let's just say there's some crazy stuff going on in there. 

This Chinese girl swinging from the ceiling was the only blog appropriate thing I saw.

Can't say we stayed long (or wanted to), but we can say we've been there.

Stayed Out Late and Slept In? Check.

It was about 2:00 in the morning when we got back to our room. 

We stayed at the Venetian and didn't wake up til 10:00 AM!

We each had our own queen-size bed, and I used all 4 of my pillows...just because I could.