An argument to smile about.

While I was still disappointed that the boys were fighting and not using nice words towards each other.... I didn't quite mind the object of discussion.

Getting ready for church this morning:

Kai: "Mom you look...... not beautiful."

Griffin: "Yes she does!"

Kai: "Mom, you look ....... not beautiful. You look awesome!"

Griffin: "No, she looks beautiful."

Kai: "Awesome!"

Griffin: "Beautiful!"

Kai: "Awesome!"

Griffin: "Beautiful!"

Keep it comin' boys. Keep it comin'.

(taken by one of the two BEST 'arguers' on the planet)

Griffin's Lesson

Monday night for Family Home Evening, Griffin informed me he was in charge of the lesson.

He worked for about half an hour drawing out his assignments/maps. It was too cute!
Then each person was put in a team:

On the back of their team assignment was a "map".
The map told each member where to find their key.

Jeff and Allan had to:

Fight the Scorpion

Other quests included:

Africa for Grammy and Grandpa (who came back from their expedition in full African attire)

Mine and Shannon's quest was not so spectacular. We cleaned the kitchen.

In each place, we were to find "keys" to bring back to Griffin.

I should mention..... the "keys" were spoons.

Shannon found her key here:

...the tiny crack between mop and fridge.
Where there is also a blue M&M we probably should have picked up.

Thank goodness Griff was there, happy to help with the hard ones.

After all the keys were returned, our trek took us downstairs where we piled all the big pillows high on the couch.
For some reason, Shannon was chosen (by Griffin) to leave the room while our treasures were hid.


Yes, the hiding spot was in the center of the room...... for ALL the spoons.
Griffin then asked us all to bury the keys under the pillows.


Shannon was then called back to the group to find the keys. It didn't take her long!
I think she cheated. :)
Griffin was SO happy and thrilled that his activity turned out exactly as planned.
Good job Griff!!

Pat's Run 2010

I signed up with my Lightning Bolt team to run the 4.2 mile race to benifit the Pat Tillman Foundation.

Our coach had SOMEHOW kept track of all the races he's run and Pat's ended up being his 1000th.

Chrissie and I went down REALLY early to decorate the tent.

We had brought cream puffs for everyone on our team and all the friends of Coach Chris.

Teams weren't supposed to be set up where we were so random people kept coming up to our tent asking what we were about and taking our treats!!

One guy was a total mooch and thought all the sharpies we had sitting out were freebies. He took one!! All of us were just so stunned and didn't know what to say. The guy (who wasn't all there in the head) ended up walking away with one of those really cool clicky sharpies.

Because I hadn't really kept up with my distance training after Ragnar, I wasn't sure how I'd do.

It was a fun race. I'd never run that distance timed before, so I didn't really know what goal to go for.

Here were my results:

Carolyn Gardner #4225
Mesa, AZAge: 29 Gender: F
Distance
4.2M
Clock Time
27:27
Chip Time
27:27
Overall Place
200 / 20640
Gender Place
8 / 10344
Division Place
3 / 3098
Pace
6:33

Surprised? So was I.

The rest of our team did really well also. The Lightning Bolts took 6th place out of 303 teams.

GO BOLTS!!

(We've never acually yell that, just to be clear.)

Easter 2010

Easter morning. Buckets filled with Ironman characters and bubble guns.

On Saturday before Easter, Michaels had a free craft activity. Kids could go decorate their own Easter bucket. Griffin and Kai loved it. I didn't take Treyson because...... that would just be crazy.

Here's Griff's (with an Ironman bunny, of course):

Kai's:

Treyson's:

Our egg hunt was the next night for Family Hour.

Also the DeWitt Egg Bash has yet to happen this year so there will be more Easter pictures to come. We like to spread out holidays as long as possible.

Krafty Kai

Kai was given a Play-Doh kit for his birthday.

It seemed to entertain him for hours.

I was happy he enjoyed playing with it so much.

I was NOT so happy when I found out the only piece he was playing with was the Play-Doh press that "made poop".

Gross.

Cute Trey

Treyson has been such a fun addition to our family. I just wanted to document some recent pictures of him and brag a little bit.

A few nights ago, we were saying prayers before bed. Both Griffin and Kai had said theirs already. Jeff and I sat by Treyson and told him it was his turn.

As he got in ready position, Jeff and I both closed our eyes (each assuming the other would help Trey say his prayer).

All of a sudden we hear, "Heh Fah. Day. Men!" Jeff and I couldn't believe it! We were so proud of him!! Treyson's first prayer said all by himself at 23 months old.

Awesome.

The cutest little Chocolate Hitler I'VE ever seen.

Happy, Happy Birthday Kai Dear.....

Kai's birthday was March 19th.

He turned 4!!!

The morning of, he was pulled out of the RV early so we could give him..... not breakfast in bed, but breakfast in the living room. Same thing, right? If breakfast is Hostess Chocolate covered donuts -- he doesn't care where he eats them. Of course, being who I am, I cut up some banana rings and arranged them around the donuts, hoping to get something healthy in him as well.

I ended up throwing all those banana slices away. Big surprise.

Kai opened a few gifts that morning, but we saved a few for the party we had a few days later.

Monday night, was Kai's party. I had asked him a few times, "What kind of party do you want?" Some of the responses I got were: Lion, Lizard, Ninja Turtle, Dragon.

So I went with ROBOT.

Ha ha!!

Robots had been mentioned once or twice and with all the suggestions he was giving me, I knew Kai wouldn't be able to make up his mind.

Robot was fun and the ideas came easy.

The cake.

I found SO MANY different options for robot cakes!! The cutest little cupcakes too.

I went with this cake:

I'd never worked with fondant before, but have always wanted to.

I made some homemade marshmallow fondant the night before then a big part of Monday afternoon was used for assembly.

Katie helped me A TON and I think it turned out pretty good for our first fondant experience.

Definitely not professional quality, but I wasn't getting paid for it anyway!!

Okay, scratch that. I DID get paid.......with smiles. Aww!

I love Kai and I have the same expression in this next photo.

I didn't get very detailed shots of the decor, but here's one image I found. You can't really see it in the picture, but I had a Slinky for each guest hanging all around the room. I thought they looked like robot parts and I needed some more decor ideas... so there you go.

I like to have something for the kids to make and take home with them.

Robot Party -- make robots!!

Katie helped me again with this task. We had made the above examples the night before as well and I forgot to take a picture before Treyson defaced Katie's robot. Sorry Katie.

Each guest was given a mini cereal box wrapped in foil then sent to the craft table:

Then of course, everyone's favorite part....(whether it's their birthday or not)....PRESENTS.

I love how Griffin hand is ready for the second Kai drops the gift to move on and open the next one.

I wish we could have had time for my musical robot game. I had downloaded three robotic sounding dance songs and was planning on playing them while kids walked in a circle. Three metalic hula hoops were going to be placed in random spots around the circle. When the music stopped, whoever remained in the hoop would have to show us their best robot dance once I turned the music back on. Don't you think that would have been sooo cute!?
Next time.


Kai, Kai, Kai.
What to say about Kai. He's definitely a character.
I love how he plays with Trey.
I love how he will let me do "shark hair" (fauhawk)
Kai will do almost anything to make you laugh.
I love his singing voice.
I DO NOT love his screaming voice -- which we are working on.
I love his laugh.
I love how he will read books to Treyson.
I love how-- the day before his party, he made us push "buttons" on his chest and back before he completed any task we gave him.
Cute, cute Kai.