Slip 'n Slide

We gave Ethan a Slip 'n Slide for his birthday and Courtney has been dying to try it out. She asked Ethan this morning, when it was 60 degrees outside, if we could use it. He didn't care, Courtney and I set it up in the backyard. Boy, Slip 'n Slides have come a long way since my day! I remember them as being a plastic runway that you sprayed down once-in-a-while so you would be able to slide down it and hit the grass at the other end. I always had green knees when I was finished. But now-a-days it's high-tech. Ethan's has a hose attachment which fills a tube on one side with little holes in it so the slide is continually watered. It also has "air bags" at the end of the slide so you don't hit the grass. It was impressive. Courtney wasn't sure how to play on it at first, but she warmed up once I grabbed her hands, put her on her belly and pulled her down the slide. When Ethan saw how much fun she was having, he changed into his swimming suit to join her, but thought it was too cold. That only lasted a few minutes before he was running and sliding like a pro! They had a lot of fun and our lawn got an unexpected watering. Courtney played on it for quite a while but Ethan got cold and quit after 15 minutes. Courtney started using the sprays as a drinking fountain toward the end. She wants to play on it again in the afternoon. I guess it was a success!

Vacation to Denver

We went to Denver for the Memorial Day weekend. We left early Friday morning. The kids were so excited to be going that they both woke up at 5:30 a,m. so we were able to leave earlier than expected. The drive to Arvada was pretty uneventful and the kids were really excited to be there. We all went to dinner (us, Grandma and Grandpa, Andrew, Lisa and Mike) and Courtney insisted on sitting by Grandma. Ethan kept telling the waitress that he was also a new graduate. It was cute.

Saturday the boys went golfing and had a great time. Ethan went with them and became the ball boy when someone lost a golf ball. Ethan wasn't allowed out of the golf cart which actually made it much easier to golf because Bryan didn't have to worry about him getting into something.

While the boys were golfing, Courtney, Grandma and I did karaoke on Grandma's karaoke machine. Lisa, somehow, slept in a recliner through all the noise. Courtney loved it and we had a lot of fun.

When the boys got home, Grandma, Lisa and I went to have some girl time. We had pedicures. It was awesome and so relaxing. I hadn't had one before, but we were pretty pampered.

Everyone was pretty relaxed and having a good time after the morning, so we ate lunch and went to the APEX swimming. Courtney is fearless and kept going down the kiddie slide, which went really fast. Ethan played around on the slide too. Then everyone decided to go down the big slide and Courtney couldn't get enough of it. Ethan figured out how much fun it is to go across the logs and spent most of his time showing up the big guys by carefully going across, over and over. It was fun.

Sunday was a challenge because Church was in the afternoon, but we made it through by reading stories and playing games. Ethan did a great job by going to his Primary class without a fuss. I think it helped that Andrew promised him a toy afterward if he would go peacefully. Courtney, on the other hand, freaked out and wouldn't let go of me. Grandma offered to stay with her, but had to go after the first hour. So Courtney spent Relief Society with Lisa and me. We weren't very reverent and didn't get much from the lesson, but Courtney kept us laughing.

Monday morning, we went to the Train Museum in Denver and the kids loved it. They climbed all over the engines and had so much fun watching the model train run. Ethan and Bryan did some pretty funny pictures. (Courtney kind of ruins the effect, though.)

In the afternoon we went to the Elementary School to feed the ducks. There were some geese there too and they all had babies. It was fun to watch them and feed them. It started to rain while we were there, but no one really cared. Then the kids played on the playground.

Monday night Courtney had Grandma paint her fingernails and toenails because she felt bad to have been left out when we got pedicures.

Tuesday morning we left for home. It was a long drive, but it wasn't too bad. Ethan watched an old "Hardy Boys" video twice, for about 2 1/2 hours each time. Courtney listened to it and took a bit of a nap. We were pretty happy to be back home. But we had a great time in Denver!

Kindergarten Graduation Video

Here are some videos from Ethan's Kindergarten Graduation. The first one is the song "I Like School." They did a great job.

Here's the alphabet song and Ethan's speaking part.

This is the "Hippopotomus" song.

This is "Little Red Box" and has cute hand actions.

This is a song Ethan told me was "to make all the moms cry." It was the closing song, called "I am Special." It is a beautiful song.

This is when he gets his certificate. He was so excited!

Ethan's a great kid!

Kindergarten Graduation

Ethan has his kindergarten graduation today. He was pretty excited to graduate but not to wear nice clothes to school. He wouldn't ride the bus this morning because he was "embarrassed" that he would be the only one in nice clothes. I drove him to school and then he wouldn't get out of the van because he was embarrassed. There were a lot of little girls in dresses but he didn't see any boys. After a few minutes of trying to coax him out of the van, he noticed one of his friends who was in a tie. That made him feel better and he jumped right out. The first picture is Ethan with his teacher, Mrs. Clayton. She's great.


The kindergarten did a little program and then they put on their graduation caps and had their names read one by one. It was really cute.

He is definitely the first born...he knows how to pose for a picture!
The next picture is outside his elementary school. Tomorrow is his last day of Kindergarten and he will go to meet his 1st grade teacher. All the kids are divided up into their classes and then they go to the classroom they will have next year. He's nervous and wants to stay in Kindergarten forever, but I think he'll be excited tomorrow when he sees who will be in his class next year. I just hope he gets a great teacher again!
I will try to post the videos I took of the songs they sang. They were cute!

Ethan's "Real" Birthday

Ethan woke up ready to go to church. In our Primary, the children get a CTR ring for their birthday present from the presidency. Ethan was so excited to get a CTR ring. It also comes with a free scoop at Golden Spoon, but that doesn't seem to be as cool to Ethan as the ring. He did a lot of "6 year old things" this morning. He buttoned his shirt on his own and was doing a lot of other things without help. It was great.

After Church we had Ethan's family birthday party and his chosen birthday dinner. He wanted homemade pepperoni pizza, so that's what we had. Then we had his cake. It was a bomb with sparkler candles for the wick. It turned out pretty well. It was hard. for him to blow out the candles because they kept sparking back on but he finally got them out.

He then opened all his family gifts and began playing with all his toys. He had a great day!

Ethan's Birthday Party!

Saturday was Ethan's friend birthday party. He wanted a detective party so Bryan and I went all out to invent games and a mystery for the detectives to solve. We made up an invitation asking the secret agents to come to special training at our house, complete with a password for entry. Ethan was so excited that all day long he kept asking when it was time for the party.

When the secret agents arrived, we fingerprinted them, took their mug shot and then made them an ID card to hang around their neck. Courtney wanted one too.

While I did their ID cards, Bryan showed them and trained them on what was in their detective kits. They had an invisible ink pen, decoder, flashlight, disguise kit with sunglasses and mustaches, notebook and pencil, and a bunch of other detective things. They picked up on the decoder and the invisible ink pen really quickly and had a lot of fun. Then they all went into the backyard and went through disguise training where they had to put on a disguise and run down the lawn and back in a relay. Then they had to go through an obstacle course where they attacked a punch bag at the end. It was tons of fun for them.

While they were outside doing their games, my parents and I hid Ethan's presents. I printed out certificates of completion for their detective training and Bryan handed those out when the games were finished. Then the real fun began.While the boys were getting water, I put a note (written in invisible ink) on the floor where the presents had been. Then Bryan asked the guests to go and get their presents for Ethan to open. They were shocked when the gifts were gone but saw the piece of paper and realized they were on a hunt for presents. Ethan grabbed the paper and immediately ran to his detective kit. He got out his invisible ink pen and they saw the clue. The clue was a poem and sent them to the house of one of Ethan's guests. Like a flash the boys were off on a mystery! I ran behind them and Bryan rode Ethan's scooter to catch up.

They ran to a neighbor's house where they got a clue written in tiny letters. They had to use their magnifying glasses to read it. That clue sent them to another guest's house.

The third clue told them to put on their mustaches, go to another house, knock three times, and say the code word "molasses." They looked so cute in their mustaches!They ran to the Primary President's house and she had the final clue to send them back to our house. She opened the door with her own mustache on, the boys loved it!! I'll put a video on of her clue because it's great (you may have to turn the sound up).

The boys all ran back to our house and in the backyard was a table with Ethan's cake and birthday presents on it. We lit the candles, had cake and ice cream, and then Ethan opened all his presents. The boys all had a great time.

We took Ethan out for a birthday dinner. He got to pick anywhere and he picked "Old McDonalds." He just wanted the Speed Racer toy.

Nose Splint

As an update: Bryan is doing well after his nose surgery. He said the day after surgery that his nose felt the same way it had the day after he broke it. He didn't get black eyes or anything. Early Saturday morning I clocked him in the nose with my elbow while sleeping. He wasn't too happy about that and I felt horrible, but he's fine. We had a debate about how long the nose splint had to stay on. The discharge instructions from the hospital said it should stay on "for as long as possible." Bryan replied that, "It is just not possible for me to go to Church with this on," and he took it off Saturday afternoon. But his nose looks great and he said it doesn't hurt, so it was a success.