My Mothering Dilemma

About a year ago I tried feeding the kids some fish sticks. They rejected the food as soon as the word fish was mentioned. A few days ago I told them I had a surprise for lunch. I cooked the fish sticks and said they were nuggets, like chicken nuggets. They ate every morsel.

I felt a little sneaky and did a little self-evaluating. I'm realizing I use this trick/method a lot to get the kids to eat things I think they wouldn't otherwise. For instance, Quiche is Egg Pie and I slip some spinach in there. Smoothies frozen then partially thawed are slushies, and always have veggies in there too. Zucchini muffins are zucchini cup cakes.

Should I feel bad about this? Down the road are the kids going to refuse to try anything that doesn't fall under the cake or pie or nugget category? This is my mothering dilemma of the moment- there are so many.

Family Fun

We've been living in Utah for 3 and a half years now and every time

a holiday comes along I still instinctively picture packing up food

and the family and spending

the day at the beach. This labor day we got as

close to that as you can in

Utah. We packed up and went to the lake,

and you know there was surf! Ha. It was a great day ending with the night at Zermatt. We ate at the best Mexican restaurant "Tarahumara", we've found in Utah-suggestions welcome. The kids LOVE room service and the pool, and don't forget the merry-go-round. If it weren't for the money thing, I'd do this every holiday.

Notice Micah's handywork on what used to be our poopy brown surf board. I love it and want to use it much much more.

Totally Worth It

My little boy turned 4 years old yesterday. I'm still in shock. After all those moments of daydreaming of having older kids and how nice that would be, I have a four year old.
We had a transformers themed birthday party where the kids had to find clues to find the Decepticon (bad guy) and destroy him to save the party. The kids were great. They totally played along while we sharpened our warrior skills doing obstacle courses and target practice.

Bumble bee guarded the Decepticon pinata that we destroyed.They had to complete the obstacle coarse to receive part of the Allspark.

The cake was the hardest part of the party- most time consuming anyway. Once we knew the kind of cake we wanted to make there was no turning back. Micah found some recipes for the fondant and cake, then we went for it. After a few nights, and even one staying up until 3am we made it, and it was totally worth it.

The huge Micah sized Bumble bee was Micah's baby and awesome! I have the most talented husband, and I'm amazed at the determination he has to completing projects well. While I'm ready to say things are good enough, he's coming up with ways to improve it. I hope Taj gets that from his Dad.

We are so proud of Taj. He's always trying to make us laugh and always willing to help us out. He's very obedient and smart. He approaches things very thoughtfully. Lately he's been riding his bike while I run with Eden in the stroller. He's loving the new freedom and Woohoo-ing on his way down every hill. I love it! He's also stepped into his role as big brother more lately. He talks with Eden and "reads" to her. They've been coming up with new Taj and Eden games. He's a sweet heart too, always telling me he loves me. Eden has had her first time outs this last week and Taj snuck over to her to try to help her calm down and feel better. He's amazing. I love being his Mommy.

Captain Planet!

I've noticed a lot of talk about recycling on my kids favorite TV shows: "Little Bill", "Curious George", and "Caillou". I let them watch one after our morning walk early this summer and it instantly became routine. I enjoy it too. Back to the recycling- I noticed it, but until a week ago I didn't think the kids did. Taj started asking me if we could recycle certain items, and always asked when he was throwing things away. I sank a little feeling badly that we don't pay extra for the special recycling bin. Instead of making excuses Taj and I took a couple of boxes and turned them into our recycling center. I am really impressed by his interest in this. He points out the recycling symbol on everything and still asks if he can recycle items going into the trash. Now I can say "Yes" and let him take it to the right spot. I'm so proud. Taj can be such a good influence on our family.

My Worst Nightmare

Maybe "worst nightmare" is a bit of an exaggeration. It was a snake- YUCK!, but it wasn't much bigger than a worm, and I'm alright with worms. And it was just a garden snake. Besides giving me the creeps, they're harmless.

Taj ran in with eyes as big as golf balls and said he saw a snake. I ran for the camera and Micah ran to protect his young. Sure enough, this was the little guy Taj found. It's small and I DO NOT want to see it's Mother. I've seen a few snakes this summer and I never wanted to see one at my house. They've crossed the line this time.

Back in School

It's that time of year again. It's still warm and beautiful still, but the first sign of change has come- School. Taj is back at Sunshine Preschool, twice a week for two hours. It's great, but us girls miss him. He's turning four in two weeks- aaaaahhhh! He's ready for it, but I'm not.
On Thursdays Eden will be going to a dance class. I found a class for 2-3 year old girls while Taj is in preschool. I asked Eden what she thought and it was all she could talk about. She was so excited. When it was finally dance day she picked out her clothes and smiled for her first day of school picture like her brother. Can you tell she liked her class? It was pretty cute.

To kick off the school year we went to a fountain and stream place we just discovered right behind our grocery store. It's new and free and I wish I knew about it sooner. I'm bad with changes, but the smiles on the kids make it easier.

Lake Powell

We just got back from Lake Powell and are still bursting with good feelings about the trip.

The kids were amazing for the 5 hour car ride. Seriously. At the lake we were surrounded by happy, hardworking, thoughtful people and some of the most beautiful views. I can't describe the feeling of waking up on the water any other way than heavenly. The kids were happy and entertained the whole trip, as were we.

Thanks for the invite Burgesses/Chamberlains!

"This is a good day!"

Thanksgiving Point is doing a month long thing where all the venues are two dollars every Tuesday. I was motivated by the prices to go to the Children's Garden on Tuesday, not thinking at all that the rest of the state heard about the promotion. It was packed. I'm not one for crowds or traffic, but the kids didn't seem to notice or mind at all.
After playing where's waldo with them by Noah's Arc we explored the gardens. Taj and Bennett could've played in the bear tunnel all day, but there was so much more to see like the huge caterpillar, the stage, the climbing area, and the waterfall. I would have taken more pictures but I thought my sweat level was too high for my camera-ha ha. Taj told me, "this is a good day." The crowd didn't seem so bad after that.

That evening we had our first backyard camp out. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in the oven and bathed in the lake and waterfall, then hiked to our campgrounds. It was a fun game of pretend. The boys stayed out there all night. We found out that Taj is a snorer, and also that he is a great little camper.