A smorgasbord of fun!

Below are just a bunch of random pictures I took during the month of January {okay, a couple are  from February too}... 

If you'll recall, at the beginning of the year I wrote and said I was looking forward to a very uneventful, lazy January... well, we didn't get to experience much of that. Sure, we didn't have doctor appointments or many celebrations BUT we did have a couple evenings of parent teacher conferences and Scouts... lots of Cub Scouts activities... none for my boys though- I have another year and a half before Noah begins Cub Scouts... These were all events I had to plan and carryout with my partner.  It's been fun being in Cub Scouts {I absolutely LOVE the store at the Scouts headquarters!!!  It has all kinds of fun things I can purchase for my own boys to build and experiment with}... There have been a time or two after an event is over that I'm left feeling like my head is spinning, but overall, I have a great group of boys I'm over and it's been fun helping them reach their achievements.  The first Wednesday in February was our Blue and Gold Banquet--- it went REALLY well (of course I have nothing to compare it too, but I still feel like everyone enjoyed it- the women I work with in Cub Scouts did an amazing job putting it together) and then on Saturday, February 11TH, my partner and I threw a waffle breakfast, with fun and games, at my home for our Wolf Pack because they'd earned a party.

The party only lasted for an hour, so half of the time, the boys ate waffles...  they had a whole smorgasbord of toppings for their waffles to choose from... below, Ian is sampling his waffle he ate... complete with pink whipped cream... 

I put together a simple trivia game for the Cub Scouts to play, which led to them popping balloons with darts and punching through this punch box, to find a number which led them all to their prizes on the mantel...

I found the idea for the balloon throw AND the punch boxes (constructed from tissue paper) off of Pinterest... of course next time I make the punch boxes, I think I'll spray paint the box first to cover up any writing like the Amazon logo on this box.

We've been experiencing a really mild winter, so my boys and I visited a lot of places (outside for that matter) we wouldn't usually be caught dead exploring during the month of January.

The animals at Thanksgiving Point's farm were unusually excited to have so many visitors... this llama above made a bee line from his little shed straight over to Ian and gave him a kiss on top of his head. Hah!  Ian wanted to give it a kiss back, but I warned him he'd likely get spat at instead... this friendly llama ALWAYS makes me nervous anytime we visit the farm.  I always envision him spitting on me or my kids when I'm least expecting it.  That's what llamas do, right??? Or is it just a tale???

My boys LOVE this indoor play area where they can plant, pick and sort produce...

Speaking of growing things...  Spencer came home with a book about gardening produce on Valentine's Day {What a romantic gift, huh?!}--- since then, we've added another 6 or 7 books about gardening to the collection (all borrowed from my father in law)... it looks like we're finally going to start getting serious and plant a real garden this Spring/Summer.  I don't have a green thumb {actually, forget I said that, I'm not really sure whether I do or not, cause I've never given gardening much of a try before}--- I can't wait to see how our garden looks and grows!  If what our garden produces actually manages to spare us some money from our grocery bill, I'll be elated!  Shoot, I may even want to pack up and move to a farm... these boys of ours are beginning to eat like grown men now--- I'll feed them a whole bowl of oatmeal with fruit for breakfast in the morning, they'll gobble it all up and then ask for more!!!  The same thing happens during lunch AND dinner, then they'll complain they're.still.hungry!!!  We're beginning to feel just how expensive it's going to be caring for these 5 boys of ours!!! I think I may need a cow to milk, a chicken coop for meat and eggs and a cotton plantation (so I can mass produce clothing they're quickly outgrowing). 

This was the first visit to the farm where Noah actually wanted to ride the ponies... he's NEVER been willing to ride one before.

Ian on the other hand... he LOVES riding the ponies!!!  Always has.

I took the boys one afternoon, after school let out, up to The Hogle Zoo with grandpa...

Note: The waterfall behind the boys was frozen solid! And the giraffes were eating left over Christmas trees!!!

Funny note:  Bentley calls giraffes spiders.  I think it's their long legs that have him mistaken.

I spotted signs all over the zoo advertising that they need volunteer zoo keepers... Not gonna lie, I've been considering it.  How much different can the work be than what I do to take care of my 5 boys?!

Spence and the boys put in a bird feeder out back... we haven't had many birds come by to snack just yet, but I'm not sure if that's because they're afraid of the neighbor's dumb cats who wander around in OUR yard, or if it's because it's just too cold outside, perhaps they're hibernating (do birds hibernate?) or maybe it's due to the fact that maybe we have a bird shortage in our neighborhood due to a lack of trees.... hmm, could be all three factors I suppose.   Nevertheless, if there's a hungry bird, it's welcome to stop by for some Campbell grub!

If you walk into my house and look to your left, into my front living room, you'll notice it's empty, with the exception of a piano, a treasure chest, an Indian teepee and a lemonade stand that converts into a little grocery stand... {in case you're wondering, no, we have no plans anytime soon to put any more furniture into the room until we can afford to replace the carpet with wood floors and build wall to ceiling library bookshelves, along with a reading loft}...  I'll probably relocate the Indian teepee just as soon as I figure out WHERE in our house it will look and fit best- the same goes for the lemonade stand--- because OF COURSE we're NOT selling lemonade from it, inside our house.  Matter of fact, it's inside for now, because our boys have also been using as a puppet theater {which reminds me, I still need to take its measurements so my mother in law can sew some black curtains for it}...  Noah's pretty artsy and he loves to create, read and write, so I thought it would be good to encourage him to create story lines and direct a weekly puppet play, enforcing help from his younger brothers. 

Here's the first story line that Noah came up with all on his own and illustrated...

Have any clue from the pictures what the play might be about???
Let me help you... the following is the story he wrote, with a little bit of help from his brother Ian.

"Once upon a time, there was an elephant named Katie.  He was a magician.  One day people came to see his magic tricks.  He had an audience member (the mouse) come up and what he did was he put the mouse in the box and he tried to make the mouse disappear. After he disappeared he returned.  Then after the magician juggled balls and put fire in his mouth.  When he was done, he walked on a rope way up high holding a stick with pokey balls on fire and he came down and said "Bye, bye!" to the audience.  They cheered and left. 

The End!"

The 3 older boys preformed the play for myself, Spencer, Atticus and Bentley... it was quite entertaining I tell you!

I suppose the puppet shows probably explain why Bentley's been a little obsessed recently with wearing his socks over his hands instead of on his feet.  The kid won't keep them on his feet!!!

Like I said before, we've been pretty lucky with a mild winter so far--- of course that doesn't mean we haven't had freezing temperatures every now and then... which means, my little ones can't go outside to play and instead, must stay and play inside...  this may sound like fun, but eventually the fun wears off after only a couple of days of being cooped up inside, especially when EVERYONE is sick and we can't even venture out to explore museums, SO... we've converted our empty basement into a speedway for bikes, scooters, skateboards, the boys Jeep and the Easy Roller.  Below are a few pictures of Bentley on the Easy Roller with his brothers.  His legs are too short to ride the thing on his own, so after getting creative, his brothers came up with this solution so Bentley can still enjoy the thrill of the ride.

Oops! I nearly forgot to add that we also visited the Bean Museum on BYU's Campus in January with Grandpa and the aquarium in Sandy... we just renewed our passes there so we look forward to visiting there a little more often during the long winter months.  My older boys are even trying to save their money so that they can pay to go into the penguin encounter there and interact with the penguins. Bentley's been enjoying the freedom I've given him to wander away from and out of the stroller on his own... I really can't believe that in another 6 months he'll be beginning preschool!!!

We've baked quite a bit since the beginning of the New Year, which obviously means I haven't really stuck to my plan of working out and loosing baby weight... who am I kidding, I never even started!

Yep, that's Ian's tongue... he was trying to lick the beater--- only problem is that while he was trying, the thing was still moving.  Luckily for him, he didn't succeed AND he still has his tongue.

Spencer put together the K'Nex roller coaster our boys bought him for Christmas... it only took him, oh say, 6 hours to do it!!!

I'm not sure where our two older boys took these pictures with grandma, but they're pretty cute.  They sure do LOVE their grandparents... possibly because they spoil them rotten!!!  Les and Linda (my in laws) returned from their two week trip to The Gilbert Islands and Fiji.  They brought back some pretty amazing sea shells and lots and lots of shark teeth.  What's really impressive is that they didn't even have to pay a thing for any of the shells or shark teeth--- their friends they visited there on the islands gathered the shells for them and saved the shark teeth for them after catching a shark to eat (yuck!).

I took these following pictures a couple of weeks ago... it was a Thursday morning, our 3 youngest were all napping and Noah was school, which meant Ian was left to play by himself in the toy room.  It was unusually quiet and he'd been up there alone for quite some time without bothering to ask me for anything, so I went up to do some investigating...  He was busy at work creating a battle scene.  Of course he insisted that I take a picture of it so I could show Spencer later that evening when he returned home from work...  What I particularly LOVED about Ian's war creation was the fine detail he added to the mock battle... please take note of the knight using "the john".  ROFL!  I suppose even in the heat of war, some men probably do have to take care of business.

Anyone recall this post I made last month, in which I was feeling particularly nostalgic???  Well, look at what showed up on my front doorstep the very next day after I made that post...  a box of Rose scented Dove soap from Amazon.com, courtesy of my sweet sister, Tricia.  Isn't she the best?!

Not only is Tricia the best because she sent me some Pink Dove soap, but earlier, the week before that package arrived, she mailed me this...

My own megaphone!!!  She told me she thought I could use it with all of my boys since I don't yet have an intercom system installed in my house... how'd she know I was part mom, part drill sergeant?!  Oh wait, she has 9 kids and she's teeny tiny... she knows what it's like to be drastically outnumbered by children!