April Fools!

Tonight we had a special April Fool's dinner. I was too excited about this all day, I actually set up a curtain partition in the kitchen so the kids couldn't see what was being prepared for dinner to keep it a surprise. Grandma and Grandpa Livingstone graciously came over and were good sports, Grandma Livingstone did this a lot when her kids were little too :) Also Aunt Jessica came over after she sent off her hubby who chose to flee the state rather than be subjected to yet another strange meal at our house. . . We did the menu thing with a few little tricks thrown, in - there were 6 things they could order on the menu so we had three courses and they ordered two items per course, here's what they chose from and what they really were:

Nectar of Life (a cup of water)
Cow's Blood (a glass with jello - it looked like a cup of juice until they tried to drink it! Ha-ha!)
Fish Blob Nuggets and Squashed Spuds with Peace and Wabbit's Delight (this one looked like chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes with gravy and peas and carrots BUT it was in fact oatmeal cookies, ice cream with carmel sauce and green and orange jellybeans - it wasn't super convincing looking but it got some laughs.)
Mini Sweet Cup (this one looked like a cupcake with pink frosting but it was actually meatloaf baked in a cupcake cup and topped with pink colored mashed potatoes, it was awesome and totally tricked the diners.)
Poseidon's Trident (a fork)
Mini Bowl (a spoon)

So there were some fun ordering mishaps, Jeffy got the ice cream dish and the jello for the first course but no utensils to eat with and he was the first to discover the jello trick (tee-hee). Alana got the "Mini Sweet Cup" for her first course and was licking the mashed potatoes off the top and all the other diners asked her how the frosting was (they still didn't know it wasn't a cupcake) and Alana said, "It's not frosting, it's mashed potatoes." And they didn't believe her, they thought she was joking. Ha-ha! It still makes me laugh. I had Ryan helping me put the dishes together behind the curtain and it took him a long time to figure out that they weren't really cupcakes, he was kind of like, "So, what's for dinner?" Hee-hee! I giggled a lot while listening to them discovering my trickery.


The "cupcakes" were actually really tasty even with the strange colored potatoes, it was a fun way to make meatloaf, I stuffed red peppers and corn and onion in them because I couldn't figure out another way to get veggies into the dish as a side and make them look desserty. . . I'll work on it for next year. Note in the picture above how Alana put her "peas and carrots" on top of her jello. I'm not sure how much the kids actually ate, but whatever - we had fun so I guess it doesn't matter.

It was a good day and it turned out well, maybe I'll grow up to be one of those fun, cool moms. . .

Today's Project

I think it's because it is so nice outside lately. But I'd rather be out there than inside doing dishes, laundry, vacuuming, yuck. So today I played in the flowers. We have beautiful wildflowers in our front yard thanks to neighbors across the street and next door who have lovely flowers, all I do gardening-wise is not pick them. However, I have noticed some problems with them. The kids (Peter) like to tromp in them and in a few weeks when it gets really hot out they will die and I will get to pull them all out and dispose of them. So I here's my brilliant plan.

I'm making a path thru them. I filled up the garbage can with flowers and the path only goes about half-way across the yard but it is getting there. I think it looks cool. As I was pulling them I was imagining how excited the kids would be to walk down the little path, I think it would even be nifty if some of the high schoolers who walk down our street on their way to and from school would take a trip down our garden path. I know I felt happy kneeling amongst the flowers and bees, I hope others will enjoy it too.

I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow, although I don't know where I'll put all the pulled flowers. . . Maybe I'll make enormous bouquets for everyone I know.

What I did today

Here's what I did today:

I actually started today about three rows down from there but didn't take pictures until a while after I started. I grabbed the camera from the house when I put Peter down for a nap. Up until then he was playing in the backyard with the chickens. He would call out to me, "MaMa" and I would say, "Peter" and we would reassure ourselves that each other were all right. He seemed more pleased with playing while I worked that way than when I try to do work in the house and he can't get my attention. Maybe I'll just go on the roof more often, I wonder if I could get wi-fi up there. . .

Anyways, here's how much I got done. Now all we have to do is the ridge shingles and that should be easy, right? I'm just sooooo happy that it is almost done.

P.S. I can not even imagine what kind of torture roofing would be in the summertime or when it is even a little hotter than it was today, and it was 77 at the hottest. I would die. I had to come in the house and lay on the kitchen floor for a few minutes when I finished to recover a bit.

Father Son Conversation

Jeff: Why are Tessa's legs so long?
Ryan: Her feet wouldn't reach the ground if they weren't. It would look sort of awkward for her to be just floating around, eh?
Jeff: You're weird Dad.

Tessa's Song

Here is some video our our Tessa singing the song she sang in RS yesterday for Machelle Zufelt's lesson. She did a lovely job. Arnon [aka Grandma Livingstone] accompanied her and Aunt Jessie sat in the front row grinning like a monkey. I stood at the back to watch so that I could go away quickly to get to Young Women's to teach the Mia Maids. Tess gave me a big hug when she was done and wasn't at all surprised that I was crying, but in my defense, the Relief Society room was filled with lots of misty eyed ladies.



She is singing for Aunt Katie in Utah on the phone. Thank you for asking her Machelle, she loves to sing.

Great Day for Roofing

We are finally putting new shingles on our roof. Our roof has been leaking for about forever. I used to love rainstorms here in the desert but now I'm trained to dash outside when it's raining and climb up on the roof to adjust the tarps.

So we bought shingles with tax refund money, woo-hoo. Now we're roofers. Ryan's Dad came over and helped like a super trooper. And we had all the kids helping in shifts. Tessa was the most helpfullest, then Leah, then Jeff, then Alana. Well, actually Alana might have been more helpful than Jeff. . . Oliver helped too and got much more helpful as the day progressed.

We finished the front part of the house, now we just have the long back section to do and the caps. Ryan and Terry are so handy and talented. It is fun to get to do these projects and get our hands dirty and backs sore.

Boys

Jeff had Field Day at school yesterday and Peter and I went to watch. There sure were a lot of fourth graders running around. They ran a 4 x 100 meter relay and had a tug of war. Jeff seemed to enjoy the competition and was thrilled that Peter and I were there to watch.

Last night Ryan and Jeff went to a Coyotes Hockey game, they had lots of fun even though the Coyotes did not win. They were a bit late getting home especially considering that Jeff is a historically "early to bed, early to rise" type of guy. He collapsed right into bed when they got home at nine. However the little darling got up sometime in the middle of the night because when I came out at 5am he was sprawled on the couch with the PS3 controller clutched in his little hand, unconscious. I turned off the TV and left the little monster laying there. If he is going to wake up in the night to play video games he can sleep on the couch and see how good he feels when he wakes up. He woke up as grumpy as a bear and was none too happy to find out that yes he would be going to school no matter how much his eyes hurt. Poor dear. I called his teacher to warn her about the beast. I hope he learns his lesson. He looked exhausted.

And here is our other little man. We recently got a new toilet for the hall bathroom - Can I get a Hallelujah? And for a couple of hours the new toilet sat on the floor in the family room. Peter decided he liked sitting in the bowl. He hasn't sat in it since its been installed though, which is nice.