Happy Birthday Eric!

Wow - lots of pictures this post.  Today is Eric's 8th birthday!  I can't believe he's already 8!  We had a party for him on Saturday (the only day it didn't rain last week) and it went well.  Before his party the kids had baseball games:

Aubrey's game started 20 minutes before Eric's game.  By the time Eric's game was finished, we had a 1/2 hour to run home and set up for his party.  The guests started to arrive 10 minutes early, and for a good while there, it was mainly girls.  Yep.  His teacher's right, Eric loves the girls.  When we were writing out the invites I asked Eric how many people were in his class.  He started to guess the number.  I then told him to draw out on a piece of paper where everyone sits, then I will count the desks.  It worked.  There were 31 desks.  I saw one desk all by itself in the front of the room by the wall.  I asked Eric if that is where the teacher sits.  "No.  That's MY seat.  Mrs. Bean sits right next to me."  Wonderful.

Eric wanted a "backyards olympic" birthday party.  We started out by playing belly burst with balloons.

Next is the backwards crab walk.

We did a relay race of carrying cotton on a spoon.  If you dropped the cotton, you had to go back to the starting line.

Hula hoop relay.

Pass the sand.

Clothes pin drop into a cup.

Paper plane making contest.  Tucker won for his original design.

Paper plane throwing contest.  Eric won that.  He was so excited.  He told me that out of all the games, that was the one he needed to win.

He really wanted a tank cake for his birthday.  He has been asking for this cake the past 3 years.  I finally was able to order it early enough for the store to have the tank he wanted.

Jennifer enjoying some cake.

Eric and Aubrey all dressed up.

This picture does not do it justice.  Aubrey decided she wanted Jennifer's hair to look like her cousin Madison.  If you see the longest piece of hair, ALL of her hair was that length.  Aubrey also cut in several layers into her hair.  Luckily, since Jennifer's hair is curly you can't tell how bad it was cut.

Our usual Sunday picture.  It started to rain while we were outside.

Finally, Eric's birthday.  He got a lot of very exciting presents this year- a suit, scriptures, and cub scout uniform and book.  Although it's not the "funnest" present for kids, it was still pretty pricey!

We did splurge and get Eric 2 toys.  He got a star wars lego set and a light saber.

Zac's brother lives in Misawa, Japan.  He sent us all a package today.  Perfect timing for Eric's birthday!  The kids were so excited to open up their own package.

Eric squealed, yes squealed, when he saw the uniform.

Aubrey LOVES her Hello Kitty pillow and pencil set.  I don't understand the fascination with Hello Kitty but Aubrey loves it.  She is always asking for Hello Kitty stuff.  Matt did well!

Jennifer loves her bear too.

Eric couldn't wait to put on the uniform. 

To show you how big this bear is, Lily conveniently curled up her legs for this pictures.

Okay, she caught us taking her picture.

Zac is going to kill me for posting this picture.  But I say, if you don't want me to post the picture, then don't POSE for it! :)

Matt got me some beautiful Japanese bowls and chopsticks.

He got the kids a lot of Japanese candy.  Everyone was immediately digging in trying the different flavors.

This is a Lilo and Stitch bar thing.  Aubrey loves Lilo and Stitch.  Zac wanted to document her experience with tasting it.

For the record, it smells like dehydrated fish.

It stunk up our garbage can.  So gross.  Thanks Matt for all the wonderful presents from Japan!

Father and Son Camp out

This past weekend was the Father and Sons camp out.  Zac and Eric headed up Friday night to Little Moab.  Eric had a great time and loved to play in the dirt and around the fire.

 Zac talked Eric into sleeping in the van vs. sleeping in a tent.  Zac took out the seats in the van and put in an air mattress.  They were parked on a little bit of a hill so the entire night they were playing "rollie pollie" with each other.  Eric thought it was hilarious.

Eric wanted to eat a hot dog so he put it on a wire hanger.  The wire wasn't very strong and the hot dog immediately hit the bottom of the fire.  By the time he was done cooking it the hot dog was covered in ashes.  Zac just told Eric that it is "scout pepper."  The picture below was suppose to be of Eric behind the fire.  When Zac went to take the picture this kid jumped in and posed.  So weird.

When they left the camp out Eric told Zac he had the "best time ever camping ."

Aubrey really wanted me to take a picture of her hair so she could see it.  Then she wanted me to post it.  So this is for you Aubrey:

Yesterday Zac and I went on a date up to Park City.  While we were there we spent several hours at the outlets.  They had an amazing deal at the Children's Place for clothes.  They had a lot of racks of clothes for $2.99 each or $4.99.  This rain coat was only $4.99.  We got the kids several clothes for school and summer.  Aubrey wanted to model her rain coat.  After Zac was making fun of the kid on the camp out jumping in the picture, he did it to Aubrey.

She got mad so I took another picture of her.  This time Eric jumped in last second.

Finally she got her picture.  Zac and I headed up to an Italian restaurant after our shopping spree.  It was really good food, but I had a coworker show up there while we were eating.  It would have been fine but she was sitting with her family right next to us.  Every time I would look at her she would look down at her table.  And I did the same to her, not realizing it.  It was just awkward.  When we got up to leave we finally went over to them and said hello. 

Our usual Sunday picture.  I don't know what's up with Eric and Aubrey's smile.  Jennifer was upset before the picture because her flip flops were on the wrong feet.

Lily got her first tooth last night!  She has been a little fussier than usual, but I didn't realize she was teething.  Zac told me he saw a tooth and I didn't  believe him.  Sure enough, she got her first one through.  It's on the bottom.  I tried to take a picture of it, but all she wanted was to grab the camera.  This is the best shot I got of her.

Zac's latest trip to Walgreens is below.  He purchased $135.37 worth of product for only $8.43, which equals a 94% savings.  He's going back tomorrow to get some more dish washing detergent and candy bars.  For the record, Zac is buying so many candy bars (or getting them close to free) because he wants our house to be the "cool" house on Halloween.

Latest Grocery Trip

Zac went to Walmart this morning and came home with this:

This trip before discounts, price matching, and coupons totaled: $289.43 for 107 items.  Zac paid $64.34 which is a 78% savings.  This is a really good deal for groceries.  Usually you can only get about 30-50% off for groceries.  Zac can usually get anything other than food for 90% off.  He was really excited about this grocery run.

Catch up

I am a little behind on blogging.  I have been taking the Sunday pictures though.  So enjoy:

This weekend we ran the Race for the Cure in Salt Lake.  We all met up at Dad's house to carpool together.  (Amy's taking this picture so she's not in it, but she ran it too.)

This is our entire group at the start line.  It was so loud!  We were right by the speakers where they were broadcasting.  It was so amazing to see all the people who are affected by breast cancer.  Thousands of people were here to race.  The lines to the bathroom were huge!  They marked the way to bathroom with yellow and brown balloons.  Ha!

Still at the starting line.  We waited here for about 1/2 before the race started.  It would have been nice if they broadcast that one side was for walkers, the other side for runners.  Instead us runners were mixed in with the walkers.  It made for a very frustrating start to the race!

 This is at the finish line.  It was so great!  Justin and Lisa ran it in 28 minutes, while Amy, Becky, Heidi and I ran it in 30 minutes.  Dad, Diane and Bobby walked it.  I usually take off right after the races to get back.  I had no idea about all the free swag that they give away!  I wish I would have explored ANY of my races and got all the free stuff!  We all headed out to breakfast after the race.  It was a great experience to run this race again.  It was especially fun to do it with my family.

After we got back all the boys went shooting up in the mountains.  It was the last day of the Tulip Festival, so all the girls headed to Thanksgiving Point.  It is so beautiful there.  Everyone had a great time.  They were giving away free princess t-shirts to little girls.  Perfect day to come!

When we made it to the waterfall amphitheater there was a string quartet playing.  We wanted to sit down, and the girls wanted to go dancing.  When the girls made it down to the stage, Jennifer started shaking her bum.  It was so cute. :)

They all got braver and went onto the stage and started to dance with each other.

I know this picture is blurry (I was taking it from the top of the amphitheater) but Diane got in the action dancing with all the girls.  They had such a good time!  They would have been fine just staying there all day.

This morning I woke up to breakfast in bed for Mother's Day.  The kids brought it into the room.  Zac started to prompt the kids saying, "What do you say?"  Meaning for them to say 'Happy Mother's Day' and Eric turns to me and says, "You're welcome?"  Eric and Aubrey both made me beautiful Mother's Day cards and a coupon book that I can cash in on anytime.  They include: one smile; one hug; one kiss; one movie; one dance; one read books together, etc.

We stopped by the cemetery to give Mom some flowers for her grave.  You can't tell in the picture but it was raining while we were there.  It was a little cold.