Mad Scientist Party

We came up with an amazing birthday party for Jack this year. We had a Mad Scientist Party!

The invitations were simple but awesome (I sure wish I had taken a picture of them)! I printed a page with some of the info on them, like "Date:" and "Time:" and a little paragraph explaining that in order to view the invitation, the kids had to use science. They were instructed to hold the piece of paper over a light bulb, stove, or match and that the missing information would appear. I had used and invisible ink (mixture of baking soda and water) and written the information in. And it seemed to have worked... all of the kids showed up at at the right place and at the right time :)

The kids came dressed in their lab coats (or dad's white dress shirt). They looked great! We started off with a home made Lava Lamp, using just water, oil, food coloring, and Alka Seltzer tablets.

Did you know that you can make metal scream if you press it on dry ice? Neither did we, until we did this experiment! The kids experimented with all sorts of things. I think that quarters and spoons were the favorites.

Next we experimented with sound waves. By simply flattening one end of a drinking straw and then trimming it to a point, you can make a duck call. This was certainly the noisiest thing we did all day!

Next up: Sucking and egg into a bottle. You need a hard-boiled egg, a glass bottle, a piece of paper, and a lighter for this experiment. After lighting the paper on fire with the lighter, you drop it into the bottle. Immediately set the egg on top of the bottle. It would not normally fit inside, but it gets sucked right into it! This was certainly the stinkiest of the experiments :)

How do you make slime? It's actually quite simple. White glue, water, Borax, and food coloring. Wah-La!

The Fantastic Foamy Fountain was next. A yeasty mixture is added to a peroxide mixture to create this crazy foam. The boys loved it!

Mmmm... Dessert. Reeses Cupcakes to be exact!

Next Jack opened his presents. His friends were so generous! He was a happy boy, that's for sure!

We finished off with my very favorite of the experiments, the Flying Orb. How did I not take any pictures of that one? I'm going to make my kids do it again ASAP so that I can show you how cool it is.

Like I said, amazing party. The boys had a blast and most importantly, Jack really enjoyed himself. It was another great day :)

Catching Up

I've been a blog slacker! Time is flying, and I'm not quite sure where it is going!

August 1st I celebrated my 30th birthday. To my request, we had a semi-lazy morning and then went out to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. I LOVE breakfast there. I had French toast stuffed with a cream cheese and orange marmalade mixture, topped with fruit and served with eggs and bacon. Yum!
We came home in just enough time for me to leave for a pedicure, arranged by Chad. How nice to have someone touch my feet! I can't exactly bend down there to do it myself, so it truly was a treat.
My day was really nice. Chad and the boys made it extra special and I am so thankful to them. They even bought me Dunford donuts for my birthday cake :) Thank you to all of my wonderful family members and friends for their birthday wishes as well. I am blessed to have you all in my life.

My brother Luke, knowing how desperate I have been for a haircut, called and told me that he had made arrangements to trade roofing work with his friend in exchange for me to get a free haircut. I talked Luke's girlfriend Lindsey to driving with me down to the Gateway to visit this famous Umi (no clue how to really spell his name!) this past week. I have NEVER had a haircut like this before (sorry girls who have cut my hair before). He seriously spent about and hour and 20 minutes just cutting my hair. It is thinner and laying better than it ever has. I LOVE it! It feels so good to have a really great haircut. Now if I can figure out how to afford having him cut my hair every couple of months...Thank you Luke! Here is a pic of the new do:


Today was my 36 week prenatal appointment with Dr. Langer. I definitely believed her when she said that things were progressing. I was measuring right on at 36 cm, the baby has officially dropped right into position, I was 90% effaced and dilated to a 3 1/2! This past week has been a little harder for me. I am feeling extreme pressure down there and my pelvis bone- WOW! It KILLS. We don't have very much longer to go though. Dr. Langer said that she guesses within 2 to 2 1/2 weeks we will be holding our little Cohen in our arms. I am so excited for that! We seem to have everything ready for him. His dresser arrived safely, we have the nursery all set up and we ordered and received our new infant car seat and stroller system. Did you know that car seats expire? We didn't. But thankfully we figured it out before he arrives and the one we got is a really cool one, the Combi Helio:


Hopefully our next blog post will be pictures of our new baby :) Okay, wishful thinking, I know. Soon enough :)

Bittersweet Birthday

I celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday and was so fortunate to be surrounded by many of my family members and friends. My birthdays are not as cheerful and happy as they once were. In fact, the past three years my birthday has been surrounded by sadness and tears. No, not because I am getting older. But because we lost our dear Coral, my grandmother and one of my very best friends in 2005. My first 26 birthdays were shared with my grandmother. I miss her greatly and especially on our special day. Despite the tears, which have gotten to be less and less over the years, my birthday was perfect.

My day started with a visit to the Jordan School District where I had to get a birth certificate extension for Jack. I spent hours going through boxes and never could find his birth certificate, thus the extension. Anyways, the office was right by my brother Luke's house so we decided to drop in on him. He is always working so hard on his house and has done some amazing things. It is fun to see. We went outside and jumped on his trampoline. Jack hopped on that thing, said "Watch me!" and pretty much did a flip. And then he did it over and over. It was cool, I don't know why but he sure was braver than usual in that moment. Luke and I had a good old fashioned "butt war" on the tramp and even though I was certain that I could win him, I didn't, but had fun anyways. It was fun acting like a kid again and laughing as I was playing with my brother.

Chad's dad married the most wonderful woman and we are so thankful to have her in our family. Her name is Becky and she came down from Bountiful to take me to lunch. Becky is so cute. She showed up with balloons (embarrassing a little) and we ate at Kneaders. I love kneaders, especially the little key lime tarts they have for dessert! It was so good. Then she followed us home for a few minutes, checked out a picture of Ken's old girlfriend (is that supposed to be a secret?) and played a game with the boys. Oh, and she brought me a cute little cake. She made such an effort to make my birthday special, and she did a good job. Thank you Becky!

Just after Becky left, my dad and his great wife, Debbie showed up with a bag of goodies. They live in Hyrum, Utah and are farther away than we'd like them to be so I don't get to see them too often. They were so nice to come down. I love them and was so happy to see them that day.

Next was a trip to the cemetery. I wanted my grandma's grave to look nice on her special day, so we took flowers and balloons. This is the bittersweet birthday part. I did good and got all of my tears out at the cemetery and that allowed for me to go about the rest of my day happily. I miss her so much.

My grandpa and his new wife, Patsy live very close to the cemetery, so I just couldn't help but stop by and say hello. It was a quick visit, but a nice one as well. The boys played in the back yard and they had fun. They always love it there. Want to know the funny part? Grandpa didn't even remember that it was my birthday.

The boys and I met Chad at home. He had stopped and picked up a BBQ chicken pizza from The Pie. It was delicious! Just as we were about to start eating, my grandpa called and apologized for forgetting that it was my birthday. Hey, he finally remembered! We ate pizza, laid around for a few, and then we went outside in the back yard and set up our tent.

All summer I have wanted to have a camp out with the boys in the back yard. Something always comes up and we had not yet made it happen. Well, for my birthday, that is just what I wanted to do. Chad had to work the next morning, so he was not up for a camp out, but the boys were thrilled. We pumped up our comfy air mattress and made it up like a bed. We told scary stories with our flashlights. Jack was coming up with some awesome ones. One of them was about a Higglysquatch and hot lava. We were so sleepy that we quickly dozed off. Aside from the occasional noises outside that woke me up, and the kids literally sleeping on top of me, I slept pretty good and the boys did not have a problem sleeping out there at all.

My birthday was so nice. I am thankful for the family and friends who went out of their way to make this day special for me. Thanks to all of you. Thanks for the visits, phone calls, and messages. I love you all and am so grateful for you. Happy 29th birthday to me!

Happy Birthday Chad!

Today my honey is 32! I want to wish him a very special and happy birthday. In celebration of this day, I have decided to list 32 of the reasons that I love Chad. Here they go:

1. He is my best friend
2. He is a wonderful father
3. He is a great provider for our family
4. He lets me drive the nicer car
5. He is funny
6. He is smart with computers
7. He helps me a lot with computers
8. He makes me smile
9. He takes good care of our yard
10. He gives the kids elevator rides to bed every night
11. He is clean
12. He does great puppet shows
13. He dresses nice
14. He is the spiritual strength in our home
15. He is a hard worker
16. He likes to have fun
17. He brings me home wonderful Stampin' Up products
18. He is a good lover
19. He has great eyes
20. He takes me on dates
21. He is supportive of Bunko and Girl's Nights
22. He loves his kids
23. He loves Murphy and I think it's cute
24. He has become pretty handy
25. He is reliable
26. He makes nice cards
27. He looks hot on his skateboard
28. He has many talents
29. He smells good
30. He has a sweet smile
31. He likes my cooking
32. And even though he is really old now, he is still good looking!

Happy Birthday Chad, I love you!