Have you seen this viral video/internet sensation/total craziness? My brother (Ryan Scott of Full Court Press Radio) suggested I check this out over a month ago and I kept forgetting, but I finally got to it this week...I watched it, then I called the kids in. They LOVE it...you should too. What's better than some good clean foxy fun? Now, go get your gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding on!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Suessical Party!!!
We threw the boys a joint birthday party in August (I know, their birthdays are in July, but Punk knew he got to go to school as soon as he turned 5 and there was just no way we could throw a party in July and deal with him asking if it was time to go to school yet for 6 weeks). I'm just now getting the pictures put up...sorry. I should note that my super awesome friend Chelsea from Chelsea Heap Photography did the photography (her sweet son was one of our guests as well)...it's so awesome to have known Chelsea since she was just a little older than our boys are now and to see what an awesome talented woman she has grown into...okay, enough of that.
Knowing that this was the last year I was going to be able to pick the boys theme for their party and knowing that the rest of the parties I throw them are going to have to be super heroes and exclusively 'boy' stuff because my boys are really turning that corner into 'boys only' territory, I picked Dr. Seuss as the theme because I've been dying to throw a Dr. Seuss party for a couple of years. I made crayon rolls and I Spy Bags again for the guest take aways. We made a Lorax, decorated a bow tie (like The Cat In The Hat wears), we ate things like Oobleck Dip, Pulled Roast Beast, and Cold Who Hash.
My boys had fun and so did their guests! We love throwing parties, I'm going to have to find some more excuses to do just that!
Knowing that this was the last year I was going to be able to pick the boys theme for their party and knowing that the rest of the parties I throw them are going to have to be super heroes and exclusively 'boy' stuff because my boys are really turning that corner into 'boys only' territory, I picked Dr. Seuss as the theme because I've been dying to throw a Dr. Seuss party for a couple of years. I made crayon rolls and I Spy Bags again for the guest take aways. We made a Lorax, decorated a bow tie (like The Cat In The Hat wears), we ate things like Oobleck Dip, Pulled Roast Beast, and Cold Who Hash.
My boys had fun and so did their guests! We love throwing parties, I'm going to have to find some more excuses to do just that!
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| Punk at our "photo wall" with mommy made Truffela Trees. |
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| All the pictures in our home where taken over by Dr. Seuss wisdom! |
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| Bug concentrating very hard on making his bow tie "just so"! |
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| Some of our great guests! |
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| Punk working on his bow tie (blue OF COURSE!). |
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| My photographer's cute son modeling his work of art! |
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| These are the men of the party all cutting out pieces for our Lorax game... |
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| ...and cutting... |
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| ...and cutting! |
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| Food table. |
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| "Green Eggs and Ham" (that's green deviled eggs with a piece of crispy bacon...so good!) |
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| "Apples Up On Top Salad" (Snickers and apple salad) |
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| "Oobleck Dip" (Spinach dip and a bounty of veggies) |
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| "The Eye Salad" (That's frog eye salad, and I didn't make it, my awesome friend Autumn did and it's so good!) |
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| "Go, (Hot) Dog, Go!" (hot dogs) |
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| "Moose Juice" |
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| "Moose Juice and Goose Juice" |
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| Bug on the run! |
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| Bug on a bike! |
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| All that cutting the men did going to good use... |
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| ...the kids had a blast making a Lorax... |
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| ...well maybe not this kid ;)... |
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| But look at the concentration on this one... |
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| ...and this one. |
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| And awesome handmade work bench with tools from one of their awesome friends (and that friend's mommy and daddy who are so creative!) |
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| Presents... |
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| ...and more presents. |
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| Strawberry cupcakes with white chocolate cheesecake frosting (dyed blue) Punk told me EXACTLY what he wanted...who am I to argue?! |
Friday, May 3, 2013
What Makes You Beautiful
So, last Saturday Bobby and I did something I'm not sure I ever thought I would do...we chaperoned a church youth dance. Seriously, as someone who grew up mostly avoiding chaperons at church dances I never suspected I would be in that position. Anyway, we put on our dress clothes (did I mention it was church "Prom", seriously, who thinks up this stuff, I certainly didn't wear anything prom-y, but we did wear church clothes) and off we went. We took a few minutes at the beginning of the dance to scope out places a couple could "hide" to make out (just in case...after all, I know where I was at that age) and then we started to watch the kids come in. We didn't end up needing to have scoped out those places, either the kids we were chaperoning were much better than I was or they were just better at hiding...
I don't work in the Young Women's organization (I'm in Relief Society), but I know some of the young women in our ward pretty well because they babysit my boys for me. I was so excited to see them at the dance. They looked absolutely gorgeous, seriously, breathtaking, and they didn't have to show too much skin to look that way. Seriously how beautiful are these girls?
And that boy? He just turned 14 recently and this was his first dance. I don't know him very well, but I always thought he was the shyer type...oh how wrong I was! That kid danced pretty much every single slow dance and even got a phone number, FROM AN OLDER GIRL! He sought out girls who were alone or hadn't danced and I'm sure he made the night for several girls who may not have been asked to dance if it hadn't been for him, what an awesome kid. I hope that my boys are that sure of themselves and brave enough to dance every dance!
I have some observations from the dance, some things I thought about as we walked among those kids that night...
First was just how beautiful the girls DID look in their modest dresses and how I hope that my boys someday find girls who are confident enough in themselves to be that beautiful in their modesty.
Second, the geeky boys who dance too hard and have too little rhythm but obviously know their music (and know the best music, stuff that is older than them but timeless and amazing), they will someday soon be the cool kids even though they aren't now...I hope they know that. In their early 20s when the girls start to care more about what you know and when they have grown all the way into their too big feet and they decide to cut their hair and when they've lost their braces they really will be the ones the girls like best and they will be the kind of cool then that matters and that lasts.
Third, I was familiar with almost all of the music they played at the dance, some of the music is stuff that was played at dances when I was a kid (the Electric Slide and Cotton-Eyed Joe are apparently timeless classics) and some of the music was newer. The kids did dance, most of the kids spent most of the night dancing (there was of course a fair amount of standing around, but there was an impressive amount of dancing as well). I was really struck by the song that was OBVIOUSLY the crowd favorite that night though. I had heard the song before but didn't know it well, so I looked it up this week. It was "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. I know, I'm old. I mean, I know who One Direction is, but I couldn't have told you the name of any of their songs before this. That night I was impressed that the boys were really singing the song (shamelessly in most cases) to the girls, they were enjoying it. The girls were singing the song to each other. And they really meant it. It made me so happy to think that all of these young people were really TELLING each other that they ARE beautiful...and trust me THEY ARE!
As I was researching my third observation I found these two videos:
The quality of the dub on the first one is a little better, but I love the clips of talks from the General Authorities at the beginning of the second one (I got tears watching them both, I won't lie).
How awesome are these boys? Right now I am raising boys, not girls, but I hope that when they are teenagers my boys aren't afraid to tell the girls how beautiful they are and I hope I am raising the kind of boys that can see beauty in ALL girls/women and that they are brave enough to see and openly appreciate REAL beauty in the girls around them and I hope that I have boys who are the kind of cool that matters and that lasts...even if they are geeks in the interim.
I don't work in the Young Women's organization (I'm in Relief Society), but I know some of the young women in our ward pretty well because they babysit my boys for me. I was so excited to see them at the dance. They looked absolutely gorgeous, seriously, breathtaking, and they didn't have to show too much skin to look that way. Seriously how beautiful are these girls?
And that boy? He just turned 14 recently and this was his first dance. I don't know him very well, but I always thought he was the shyer type...oh how wrong I was! That kid danced pretty much every single slow dance and even got a phone number, FROM AN OLDER GIRL! He sought out girls who were alone or hadn't danced and I'm sure he made the night for several girls who may not have been asked to dance if it hadn't been for him, what an awesome kid. I hope that my boys are that sure of themselves and brave enough to dance every dance!
I have some observations from the dance, some things I thought about as we walked among those kids that night...
First was just how beautiful the girls DID look in their modest dresses and how I hope that my boys someday find girls who are confident enough in themselves to be that beautiful in their modesty.
Second, the geeky boys who dance too hard and have too little rhythm but obviously know their music (and know the best music, stuff that is older than them but timeless and amazing), they will someday soon be the cool kids even though they aren't now...I hope they know that. In their early 20s when the girls start to care more about what you know and when they have grown all the way into their too big feet and they decide to cut their hair and when they've lost their braces they really will be the ones the girls like best and they will be the kind of cool then that matters and that lasts.
Third, I was familiar with almost all of the music they played at the dance, some of the music is stuff that was played at dances when I was a kid (the Electric Slide and Cotton-Eyed Joe are apparently timeless classics) and some of the music was newer. The kids did dance, most of the kids spent most of the night dancing (there was of course a fair amount of standing around, but there was an impressive amount of dancing as well). I was really struck by the song that was OBVIOUSLY the crowd favorite that night though. I had heard the song before but didn't know it well, so I looked it up this week. It was "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. I know, I'm old. I mean, I know who One Direction is, but I couldn't have told you the name of any of their songs before this. That night I was impressed that the boys were really singing the song (shamelessly in most cases) to the girls, they were enjoying it. The girls were singing the song to each other. And they really meant it. It made me so happy to think that all of these young people were really TELLING each other that they ARE beautiful...and trust me THEY ARE!
As I was researching my third observation I found these two videos:
The quality of the dub on the first one is a little better, but I love the clips of talks from the General Authorities at the beginning of the second one (I got tears watching them both, I won't lie).
How awesome are these boys? Right now I am raising boys, not girls, but I hope that when they are teenagers my boys aren't afraid to tell the girls how beautiful they are and I hope I am raising the kind of boys that can see beauty in ALL girls/women and that they are brave enough to see and openly appreciate REAL beauty in the girls around them and I hope that I have boys who are the kind of cool that matters and that lasts...even if they are geeks in the interim.
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