Tyler's Dr. Suess Day at Preschool

Tyler got to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday at preschool by dressing as crazy as he could. This is what we came up with.

 He thought it was the coolest thing to wear 2 different shoes, turn his clothes inside out, and spike his hair up. He had these fun glasses on too, but decided that he didn't want to wear them when it got closer preschool time.

They also got to make these fun Cat in the Hat masks. He kept his crazy garb on all day and we enjoyed the comments from people.

Daddy/Daughter Sock Hop

Our Stake had a Daddy/Daughter Sock Hop for all Activity Days Girls and their dads. Ashley was super excited for the one on one time with Danny. I thought that we had a poodle skirt, but an hour before they were going to leave, I went to search for it and couldn't find it anywhere. So this is the costume we came up with for her. I think she still looked super cute and 50's.

Danny...not so much. He didn't have anything in his wardrobe that went with the theme and we didn't plan far enough ahead to get him something(I don't think he minded not dressing up, though).

Before the dance, he took her to dinner at Black Bear Diner(Ashley's choice). Then they had a lot of fun dancing together at the dance.

Alyssa was a little jealous that she didn't get to go, but she forgets that she got to go to a murder mystery dinner with her dad last month, and all of the other combined youth activities.

Some of Alyssa's Baking Creations

 Alyssa hopes to open a bakery one day. Part of her plan to achieve that goal is to apply to be on the show"Kids Baking Championship." In order to prepare herself for that, she wants to bake almost every day. I limit her to one thing at a time. Meaning, if we have leftovers from the day before, then she doesn't get to make anything new. Here are some of her most recent baking creations.

Brazilian Brigadeiro

Homemade Oreos

 Pumpkin Spice donuts(for Valentines Day)

 French Macaroons

 Donuts-She made 3 kinds:S'mores, maple bacon, and glazed

 Homemade marshmallows turned into homemade peeps

 And my favorite, Lemon Cheesecake for my birthday.

She also makes treats for our neighbors almost every Sunday. She is getting pretty good at it and loves to share with people. The downside is that her goodies do not mesh well with my diet plans.

Tyler's Grocery Store Field Trip

Tyler had another preschool field trip last month to the grocery store. There were a lot of kids and parents there and I'm sure the tour guides were a little overwhelmed, but they did well with the large group. At the beginning, they gave each of the kids a little shopping list so that they could mark off the food items as they found them during the tour. It had things like bread, eggs, milk, and cheese on it. Camden even got one to mark off. The tour started off in the bakery.

They got to each have a cookie from the bakery at the end of the tour. Next they visited the deli counter.

 They got to walk into the large refrigerator and visit the dairy section all the way around the store to the bank and customer service counter. At the end, they each got a little prize with a granola bar, fruit snacks, a sticker, and a pack of smarties. I took this picture of Tyler with his best friend(from preschool), Tayber, at the end of the tour.

Ashley's Devotional

Ashley had her 4th Grade devotional last month. They are learning Utah history this year and shared a lot about pioneers in the devotional. They sang some really fun/beautiful songs and all did really well on their speaking parts. I wonder if pioneers wore pearl necklaces. :)

School Spelling Bee

Alyssa was in her school spelling bee again this year. She knew the list pretty well, but got out in about the 5th round on a word that we hadn't reviewed a lot with her. I think she was a little disappointed with her finish, but we still think it is amazing that she has qualified for the spelling bee every year. We keep telling her 2 more years to make it to the national level(not that we really ever expect her to go that far).

Danny

We also celebrated Danny's birthday last month. Alyssa is super into baking lately and wanted to make him the treat of his choice. He chose cookie ice cream sandwiches. We decided to make our own ice cream for them. So it ended up being 2 chocolate chip cookies with a cookie dough vanilla ice cream in the middle. They were really, really good and we enjoyed eating them for the next couple of weeks because she made like 24 sandwiches.

Danny was also sustained as the 2nd counselor in our bishopric yesterday. We have so many mixed emotions with the calling, but most of all, we are just grateful for the opportunity he has to serve and learn from the experience.

Dinosaur Event

The Convention Center had a dinosaur event last week which we were able to get tickets for(we felt fortunate since they sold for like $25 each). We had a lot of fun, but we were so happy that we had the free tickets because we didn't think it was worth the price of the ticket. They had this area full of dinosaur models. They roared and moved a bit.

Then there was a more interactive section where they had bounce houses, games, and different activities that you could pay money for. Things like face painting, riding on top of a moving dinosaur, and a virtual reality ride.

The rides were way overpriced, so we didn't do any of those things, but they had fun going in the bounce houses and playing the games.

Youth Murder Mystery Party

Danny put together a murder mystery dinner for the young men and young women for Valentine's Day this year. It was a Totally 80's Prom Night and both of them got to dress up. Alyssa's part was one of the lunch ladies. Danny just dressed up 80's style.

They had a lot of fun with it. The youth made comments afterwards how they hoped he would do it again soon. I think that means it was a success.

Alyssa's Basketball Season

Alyssa participated in her first basketball season this year. She did really well considering it is the first time she has ever played. Her team didn't do so well, but they had fun. They lost every game but one.

She knew 3 of the girls on the team before the season started, but enjoyed getting to know the other girls, too.

This was the final score of the 1 game that they won. Alyssa scored 10 of the 26 points that game. She really had a good game, as did most of the other players on her team.

She is already making plans to play again next year. She really enjoyed playing and was sad when the season ended.