Don-Mikel's Reception

Grant and I decided that we needed to go to Idaho for Don-Mikel's wedding reception.  I didn't get any pictures of the bride or groom, but we did get some of  the kids and us with Grandma Detta.

Grandma Detta, Noah, Ben & Isabel.  Isabel is wearing her new Easter outfit.  She is really into skirts that go all the way to the floor.  I think she looks adorable in them, but then again I am her mother :) 

Isabel took this picture with my phone.  She did good.  It's a little blurry, but not bad.

I have no idea what faces the kids are making in this picture!

This is the new background for my phone.  Ben looks like he is flaring his nostrils, but I still think its a cute picture!  (Once again, I am their mother)

This is the best one I got of all 3 of them.  Ben is smiling, just not looking up :)  Can you see Isabel lost another tooth?  Yep, it got bumped by one of Ben's friends and made it so Isabel could just pull it out!  The tooth fairy was pretty busy that night, but she managed to leave Isabel a note and 2 quarters before Isabel went to school!

It was a kind of a long trip for the kids.  Luckily they took stickers and decorated themselves and uncle Grant's back.  Ben did this (above) and wanted to know if I could see him. :)  Funny kid!  We stopped at Caspers Ice Cream store and got some Fat Boy's.  It filled up the bottom tray of the freezer!  Good thing Noah prayed that they wouldn't melt on the way home!  It was good to see RaNae and family!  Congrats to Don-Mike and his new bride!

Preschool at the Farm

Melissa Lythgoe in our ward called to let us know that they were having schools come to her parents farm and told us we could come too!  The kids were super excited to go to a farm to see animals!  As soon as we opened the car door, Ben made sure to tell me cows smell disgusting!

It was muddy cause it rained most of the morning.  It was fun anyways!  They had cows, baby cows, pigs (that were so cold they were shivering) goats, a pregnant horse, rabbits, a turkey,  and hamsters.  (the neighbor raises them for petsmart and brings them over so the kids can hold them.  Ben loved petting the bunnies.

He also loved the hamsters!  He was really good to hold them.  Some of the older kids kept taking them from him, but he would go right back and get himself another one.

Zoey on the other hand loved holding them too.  Well, she loved squishing their heads.  Can you see the poor hamsters head?

Then she liked to play peek-a-boo with it!

Here is Zoey petting the rabbits!

And here they are feeding the cows. 

It was a fun field trip.  Thanks for the invite Melissa!

Happy Spring!

I've love having the kids make things for the grandma's for each new season. I saw this idea awhile ago, to make a wreath out of egg cartons.  I was actually surprised that I didn't end up with more brown/gray flowers cause the kids like to use lots of paints.... and mix them.... Grandma Tracie has it hanging on the front door now!  The kids are very proud of their masterpiece!

I had extra candy melts, and decided to try and make chicks for an easy Easter treat.  I just filled in pretzels with yellow candy melts and made the faces out of brown and orange candy melts!  The kids loved them.  Almost too cute to eat! 

Ok, I am lacking patience to figure out how to turn these pictures the right way.... so we'll just have to look at them sideways.....  Here is great grandma's door for Easter.  The 3 chicks represent Ben (sunglasses) Isabel with the red bow and Zoey inside the basket.  At first Great grandma kept trying to figure out why the rabbit was bleeding (pink stomach), now she has resorted to thinking he is Peter Rabbit.  I'm glad she loves the doors and glad it gives her something to think about.

Ben's party was on Saturday, and since Easter was on Sunday, we decided that after the birthday party we would have a cousin easter egg hunt.  Here are Parker, Ben, Isabel and Adrienne all waiting patiently for the egg hunt to start...... 

Here is Isabel climbing the tree while she was waiting!

                                     

I didn't have to go to the ER this year, so we all got to decorate eggs as a family!  

My camera is broken :(  So, the next pictures were taken on different settings to see if we could still get it to work..... not too much luck.  I have some silly kiddos for sure!

Isabel's smile cracks me up in these ones!

Yep, still haven't cleaned up from the party the day before.  Coloring eggs was more important. :)

Brady colored one that almost turned black,  It was pretty cool looking.

They love coloring eggs, just like their dad!

The bunny holders worked really well.  We only had a few casualties.

Happy Easter and Spring everyone!

Bens 4th birthday!

Can you believe that this little guy is 4 now??? I can't.  Kids just grow up way too fast.  One of Ben's favorite things is Kung Fu Panda II, so I wasn't too surprised when he asked for a ninja birthday party.

We had all the cousins come over, Grandma and Grandpa Yamashita, Addison (Ben's friend that we do joy school with) and luckily we had Jenny (my cousin) and her family come!  It was a houseful, but tons of fun!

The kids posing as ninjas!  Notice Noah in the back left, anytime I would ask him something, he would bow to me.... made me laugh!

When I asked Ben what exactly ninjas did, he told me fight stuff, so I decided to get balloons and draw ninja faces on them so they could fight their own ninja!  ( Got the idea off of pinterest!)

These are the bean bags Tamina and Michelle helped me make.  They held down the balloons.  There were pink with bows and bling for the girls, and red for the boys.  FYI;  fleece and hot glue don't work well, we should have just sewed them :)

The next few pictures are of Ben being a ninja!

HI-YA!

Ben practices these kicks on the love sac down-stairs.  

Whenever he is concentrating, his tongue comes out!  Wonder where he gets that from???

We had a few casualties.  Unfortunately I didn't think to check how tight the mylar balloons were tied onto their strings, so a few balloons flew away.  Luckily I had a few back-ups.

My ninja after a hard ninja fight :)  

I thought it would be fun to have a ninja training course.  So although the fighting balloons was pictured first, that really happened last.  First off were 3 stations.  Picking up marshmallows with chopsticks and running them to a ninja bowl.  (above:  Erik and Noah)

The little kids had a hard time with this one, so they just stabbed and ate marshmallows :)

(From left to right, then front;  Addison, Parker, Ben, (Tamina in back) Nara, and Sarah in front)

 

Then I had a laser light course set up.  I had initially planned for the kids to be inside, but the weather cooperated, so I used lawn chairs to hook this one up.  They had to go under, around over, etc without touching the red lasers.  Cause ninjas have to be stealthy... (Parker)

Then there were tricky ninjas hiding in the trees.  I made cardboard ninja stars for them and they had to try and throw their stars to get the ninjas!

Ben and Isabel painted and glittered the stars for the game!  They loved helping make stuff!

After we had completed the training course, we played ninja duck duck goose.  The kids had to put their star behind their back, and the person who was 'it' had to try and steal the star.  The kids had so much fun!

The game was a hit until Nara and Parker ran into each other!  Crying at birthday parties is never fun :(

Then we went inside to do the Wii Just dance for kids, Kung Fu Fighting.  There were some awesome dancers there!  (this is one of Bens favorite things to do at Taminas house)

Then it was cake and ice cream time!  The Japanese writing says, "Ninja Ben, Happy birthday, 4"  I made the cake out of a bundt pan.  The wings and spikes and eyes and teeth are made from candy melts.  The ninja heads on the cupcakes are replicas of the invitations we sent out.  (Thanks grandma Tracie for helping me with the cake and for doing my dishes while I was decorating it!)

Looks like he had some helpers blowing out the candles!

My 2 cute kiddos!

Ben insisted that we had ninja water.  It actually worked out well, cause we could write the kids names on the bottles and I didn't have to do dishes :)  If you look close you can see little colored ninjas in front of the water bottles.  After the training camp, they each earned one of those to take home with them!

I couldn't have a party without rice crispy treat something or other, so I made Kid sushi.  The wasabi and ginger are just colored frosting.    Outsides were fruit leather and insides were rice crispies.  Sweedish fish and cut blue peeps on top!  I think they look pretty real!

Then it was present time! Ben was SO excited for his own leap pad from grandma and grandpa!

Chris got him a 70lb punching bag!  We now have it hooked up outside on the swing set.  The kids love to swing on top of it, and hand from the monkey bars and kick it!

Hooray!  An angry bird pillow!

Parker was a very good helper! 

So was Addison!  He got stuff for his bike!  The only thing still on it is the mirror, everything else takes turns, cause they are all connected to the bike with screws, so he can take them on and off by himself :)

Jenny to the rescue, helping him open the tape so he can see his new clothes!  He was SPOILED!  Thanks everyone for the presents! 

I thought I should put pictures on there of  the decorations I made.  Here is the dragon door with japanese lanterns....  The words say, "happy birthday"

And with extra paper, I had to make ninja head and "ninja Ben" words for the fireplace.  There were ninja head balloons everywhere too.  Ben was in heaven! 

And the rest are just random fun pictures from the day!  Ben was walking on cloud 9 all day!  He still likes to wear his headband around everywhere! 

Jen and new baby ninja Zach!

Jon and Chris entertaining themselves on the Wii while the kids are eating cake!

Nara smiling with cake in her mouth!

Sarah LOVED the balloons! 

Chris, Jon holding Sam, Sarah (in front) and Kelli Ann watching the kids Kung Fu dance!

Ari striking a ninja pose!  Isabel sporting a feminie flower on her headband :)

Cute ninja Sam!  He is walking everywhere now!  Hooray!

And Adrienne showing us her balloon and ninja doll!  Thanks everyone for coming to help celebrate my little guys birthday!  And thanks Ben for having a birthday I could have fun planning!  I love you little guy!