Yellowstone

This post is pretty picture heavy, so I won't bore you with too much text up front. We road tripped up to Yellowstone last week and had a great time. We drove up through Idaho so we could see my Grandma in Preston (hope you're reading this now Grandma). We were going to have dinner with her, but I guess 6:30 is a little late for a meal once you're old enough to be my Grandma. Anyway, we saw her for a bit then drove on and stopped for the night at Montpelier. We thought about staying at this place:


(yes, it's an empty lot with a motel sign) but then we decided we should probably upgrade to a place with walls. On our way out of town, we saw a pretty cool tribute to the original settlers of the area:

And another one to the current residents of the area:

A couple hours through twisty mountain roads took us to Jackson. We would have been there sooner but we had to detour when half a mountain fell on the road on the path we were planning to take. Silly landslides. Anyway, got to Jackson and played around at the park in the old town square. The kids loved the antler arches.

We checked out the shops, which have gone from old school to trendy to cash in on the high end tourism that seems to be Jackson's new thing (they don't even call it Jackson Hole anymore, sellouts), had some lunch, then headed to the cabin in Teton Village where we lived for the rest of the trip. The next morning we took a quick stop in Jackson to see the antler auction:

Then we headed up to Yellowstone where we saw all sorts of good things

like Old Faithful, where we had a picnic lunch near the old store.

We saw bubbling paint pots.


And the mud volcano.

Eve loved the way that one smelled. We saw some really cool waterfalls.

And some hot springs.

And some more geysers.

And a couple of frozen lakes.

And lots of great outdoors scenery.

We took some walks.

And played with cousins.

We saw some cool wildlife, a fox, a coyote, loads of buffalo, a moose with her baby mosling, elk, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, and we even saw a bear.

In case you wanted to know what people looking at a bear look like:

The kids just had a ball playing together

Even the stubby ones.

All in all it was a super fun trip.

I started a new house and it's called AWESOME!!!

In the Bradley family you get a big birthday party when you turn 8, 12, and 16. This past weekend we had our first big birthday party - Laine’s 8th; after much deliberation Laine decided that she wanted a Harry Potter themed birthday party. Now, if you know Laine this isn’t a big surprise. She has read all seven books, organizes the kids on the play ground and Kung Fu into playing Harry Potter, and plays Hogwarts when she is home with Eve and James. Needless to say, she LOVES Harry Potter. With the theme in mind and a date we started planning.

I asked friends, neighbors, and the internet for ideas. I meshed them all together. I added my own ideas. The outcome? The epic Harry Potter birthday party.

I must admit I was rather proud of this little adventure so I have documented it for you and I now share it all with you- via picture!!!!

It started with the invitation. I wrote this baby up and even downloaded the Harry Potter font, thank heavens for the-leaky-cauldron.org. Then I played around with putting a watermark on the back of the paper. I must admit I was rather proud of these invitations. The kids seemed to love them too. We topped them off with a Hogwarts seal and then mailed them to the invited witches and wizards.

Our children's, of course, were delivered via owl to the front door.

James was particularly excited to get a Hogwarts acceptance letter. He decided it was one of the best things ever and laughed. I wish I had thought to switch the camera over to video rather than camera so you could all see it, but he thought it was awesome.
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Then the rest of the family went to Virginia for the week and I was left alone to get the rest of the party going. Thank heavens for my mom, dad, and sister-in-law who all pitched in to help. While they were gone we made-
Chocolate Frogs
Gift bags from Honey Dukes
Wizard Hats
Wands

And Amy made these Awesome Potter Puppet Pals cupcakes!

Finally it was Friday and time for the kids to arrive. Paul and Grammy came over to help. As any student attending Hogwarts for the first time knows the first thing that has to be done is the sorting! We'd contacted Hogwarts and they delivered a special birthday sorting hat to us. This special hat had a direct connection to the sorting hat in Scotland. The kids spoke to hat and the hat, via many questions, sorted them into their houses. The kids thought it was a riot. Eve however thought that I had simply placed my phone under the hat and someone was speaking to them—Thanks Dad, your accent was awesome!

The sorting. No one was sorted into Slytherin. Just Griffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws at our party.
After everyone was sorted and were enjoying their party potion (I liked the slush the party potion left) and then it was time to infuse their wands with magic. Using magic glitter pens from Olivander's the kids painted their way to magic glory.


We then went outside for Divination Class. The kids got to pop their magic orbs to discover what the future held for them. I think they had way too much fun.
During potions class we got an owl from Gringotts informing us a band of Death Eaters had just dropped stolen Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts on our back yard. The kids all rushed to collect their wizard loot, which the Goblins were nice enough to let us keep.

When potions class was cleaned up we ate the Harry Potter cupcakes, opened presents, and then the kids went outside and had wizard duels. I had to remind them a few times that they were all part of Dumbledore’s Army and should not use the Unforgiveable Curses, they favorite was the killing curse. All in all it was an awesome party and at the end of the day everyone left their Hogwarts adventure happy.

Walkers for Knockers

Time for my favorite race of the year, the one where there is more pink than a pepto bismal bottle--Komen's Race for the Cure.

For those of you who don't know this is a race that is near and dear to my heart. My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor, I have had friends, colleagues, and neighbors who have had breast cancer. A few years ago I decided to do what I could to put an end to this horrible disease. Since then I have participated (twice) in a 3-day 60 mile walk, participated in the Race for the Cure for five years now, and buy anything pink (if you don't believe me I can show you pictures of my pink broom, pink measuring cups, pink measuring spoons, pink water bottles, pink everything really--I own too much of it yet if it says that part of the proceeds go to breast cancer I am a sucker. I've got the bumper stickers on my car and the pink ribbon hanging in the front window.)

I have dragged my family into all this as well, at first it was the Bellamys and then when I became a Bradley my new little family followed me and we added to the Tutus for Tatas team. Laine has seemed particularly gung-ho about it all. She loves talking about the race to who ever she meets as the race time grows near it is fun to hear her talk about it.

So today we all got up early, got all decked out in our t-shirts and other pink gear, and headed out. We waded in the sea of pink and fun t-shirts waiting for the rest of the family and the race to begin. Many people stopped to snap our pictures, I guess it is an oddity to see nine people, including grown men wearing tutus with smiles on their faces. Christian and the girls were troopers and did the whole 5K. For the first time in...well ever, I took the shorter route and James and I did the one miler. James actually made it half a mile before he was too tired to go any further. He ended up riding on my dad's shoulders the rest of the way and then took delight in yogurt at the end. We had a lot of fun and the sun was shining and it was just a fun day all around.

The kids with their new sun glasses waiting for the race to start.
James too tired to walk anymore, also too tired to hold himself up on Poppa's shoulders.

Ezzie completes his first 5K- tutu and all.

Some nice lady stopped and snapped this one for us, James was too tired and hungry at this point to smile for the camera.

The whole Tutus for Tatas team, see James is happy now as he got a chocolate yogurt.

He also got a foam hat which he spent the day in a love/hate relationship with.
Then baby Voldemort decided to move and every one had to get in on the action.
Boston thought it would be fun to swing from a tree while we were waiting to go.
Birdie thought the same thing and had to have her turn as well.

After we all had a delightful BBQ at the parents, our traditional post race meal. All in all it was a great Saturday morning where we walked together for an awesome cause.

Pride and Prejudice is like a Tootsie Pop

I am currently teaching my last units of the year. While the juniors muddle through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn my seniors are reading Pride and Prejudice. The students fight me every year but most end up enjoying it. That might be that I bribe them with popcorn, movies, pancakes, and candy throughout--whatever works.

This week we did my favorite activity with the unit- The Tootsie Pop comparison. I wish I could say I came up with this idea, but it was the idea of my mentor Amy Cowin. It is a favorite and I wanted to share some of the responses with you-

This Tootsie Pop is like Pride and Prejudice:

--because there are so many versions like flavors, unfortunately Tootsie Pops don't have Kiera Knightly.

--It is hard when you begin, but gets easier as you finish.

--Some of the characters are covered up and reserved, but when you take the wrapper off everyone has their own personalities.

--You want to bite it and get it over with.

--You're excited to start eating it and then you get bored so you take a big bite of your sucker and you're sad it is over.

--The wrapper is like people's first judgment about you. The flavor is like the hard shell people have to protect them from hurt. The Tootsie inside is the real person underneath all the layers.

-- On the outside it is colorful and sweet. You can't see through the outer core until you crack through it and find the real truth and substance in the center.

--It has a hard press cover and soft flexible inside pages.

--Jane and Mr. Bingley are "tootsies". Elizabeth is on a "roll." Mrs Bennet always acts like she's going to "pop".

--It's been opened once and I really don't want to open it again.

--Mrs. Bennet because if you put a little pressure on her she cracks. (her nerves)

--It is hard to understand but after a while of licking and trying to understand Mrs Bradley tell us and it's nice and soft and easy.

--When I was really little at first I didn't think I would like Tootsie Pops but then I tried it and it turned out that I really like them a lot. The same is true for this book at first I thought I wouldn't like it but now I do.

--You lick a Tootsie Pop thousands of times but like the characters of Pride and Prejudice you can't ever seem to get past that hard shell of manners and propriety and self-righteousness.

Spring has sprung!!!

April has always been my favorite month, I think that is because Spring finally shows up and I love the nine months that follow.

To start out the month we had our semi-annual craft night for moms and kids. We generally hold this when the men folk go off for Priesthood meeting. This time we worked on Easter crafts. We decorated foam eggs, made necklaces and bracelets, and the boys favorite part- decorated cookies. The kids always have a lot of fun during this time and then they get to play. They favorite game is to strip James' bed and jump on it. Then the dump out all his toys and play bucket heads, a game where they run around all wearing one of the buckets James' toys once lived in.

Bridie loved the sprinkles on her cookie and the yellow ducks on her new necklace.

Laine got very crafty with her cookie decorating and produced the best looking cookie of the night.
For Bost it was more about the frosting then anything else, James felt the same way.

When the boys got back from their meeting we all sat down to some yummy ice cream sundaes with Poppa.
Bridie playing Bucket Heads

Laine, James, and Boston also get in on the bucket head action.


The next weekend was James' fourth birthday. He decided that he wanted a huge party with all his cousins and his friend Patrick. We had a birthday bash. Christian BBQed up a storm and made a six layer blueberry cake...one of his finest creations. We had ice cream and snacks galore and everyone came to celebrate our sweet boys birthday.

Vi did not take off the fireman's hat until she had to leave. She also loved that ice cream cone.

James and his monster blue berry cake! Did I mention my husband made it from scratch???

A happy boy on his happy birthday!


The blueberry spider!

Five days after James' birthday, I had my birthday. Christian once again pulled out all the stops and made a delicious lemon cake and some awesome BBQ chicken breasts. We had a smaller affair with just a bit of family over and my friend Darlene. It was fun to just sit and chat...and eat more cake.
Happy birthday to me!!! My SBOs at school surprised me with cake and ice cream too! They are a good bunch of kids.

Uncle Zach and Ezzie.

All in all April has treated us well so far. Here is to making the last week even better!!! And maybe, if I play my cards right it might stop snowing.