El Coco Loco

Call me crazy, but I love to create fun memories for the kids through learning interesting things about our world and our environment.......so.......this weekend, I bought a coconut.  It was $1.29 at the farmer's market - and a cheap fun activity.  We had never brought a whole one home, so the kids were totally excited.  We told them their was "milk" inside, and we held it up to their ears and shook it so they could hear it.  They thought that was sooo sweet!  

Brandon took one of his construction pin drivers (which I'm sure he didn't wash....) and a hammer and went to town poking some holes in the top.  He then poured the milk into some cups, and had the kids try it.  They were all excited to have some coconut milk, only to find out that it was nasty!  After breaking the coconut into pieces, we all had a hayday eating it.  (except daddy, of course, the picky one who doesn't like it!)  All in all, I ate the majority of the coconut!  

So, grab a coconut for a great family activity!

The Big Party!

Saturday was Porter's big birthday celebration.  He had a bunch of friends over and we all headed to Fire Station #303 here in Surprise.  The kids got a big tour of the station and all walked away with fire hats and some cool fire safety coloring books.  Brandon carried on his tradition of making a fun cake....thus the fire truck cake!  Brandon, you are the best dad ever! (and husband too! ;)  Everyone came back here for games, pizza, cake and ice cream.  It was a blast!  We thank all of Porter's friends for coming!

Are you for scuba?!

I thought everyone would enjoy seeing some pictures of Brandon's first go at scuba diving last weekend!  He had a ball trying it out and is now determined to get me into it.  Watch for details on that!

Happy Birthday Porter!

AWE!!!  Our very first baby is 6 years old today!  No way!  I can't believe it!  In honor of his special day, I thought I'd post some pictures of him through the years!  One of my favorites is the picture of Porter all covered in baby powder after him and Britten got into a bottle of it!  But.....my very favorite is the one of Porter and my dad.  I have always loved that picture.

I just want to take this time to tell Porter how much I love him, and how much I desire for him and his future.  He is such a special boy, who, more than anything, wants to make me happy -  - - and that is priceless.  We have high hopes for him and know he will succeed in anything he does.  He has a WONDERFUL example in his daddy to follow, and make good choices in his life.  

WE LOVE YOU PORTER!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to all the special men in our lives!  You all deserve a day to rest and be pampered - and to grill!  Brandon was out of town all week, so he's tired and thrilled to have a day of pampering from us.  It's just our luck - all three kids are sick!  So, we're all just taking it easy today.  Tess and Owen have double ear infections and Porter has a bronchial viral infection.  We're just crossing our fingers that Brandon and I miss the little bugs in the house.  I'm doing my usual constant cleaning to help kill the sick bugs!  

As you can see from the above picture, Brandon is making the most of today wisely!  He's got jetlag from his trip!  He went to Kansas City, MO, Baltimore, MD, Safford, VA - and a little sight seeing in Washington D.C.  I'll post some pictures from his trip in my next post.  The kids were so excited to see him after he was gone for 6 whole days.  I'll admit, I was pretty darn excited to see him too!  He got the kids T-shirts from his stay and they have both informed me they want to wear them all week long!  Porter and Owen's swimming lessons start this week.  That should be a fun experience.  We'll take lots of pictures and video clips to post on the blog.  

The highlight of my week has been tracking down some friends from my mission.  I had the opportunity to talk to a gal yesterday for almost an hour.  She was one of the young women in one of my wards, and is now all grown up!  She spent several years in London for schooling, so it totally threw me for a loop when talking - she sounded British!  I love you Diana!!

Well, I think we finally have a child whose attached to a blanket!  Baby Owen has been carrying his favorite soft blanket around the house all week.  It's kinda cute and kinda dirty at the same time.  I'm gonna have to steal it from him when he's sleeping to wash it!  It reminds me of Adam when he was little.  He had this yellow blanket that he took EVERYWHERE.  It got all ratty, and my mother just had to cut strings off as it unraveled (it was knit).  I'll never forget one day my mom decided to wash his blanket when he was up, and he was literally hanging on the washer screaming for the whole cycle.  He simply couldn't live without his blanky!  Boy, how he's grown! 

Porter and Tess had fun this week making a Father's day gift for Brandon.  They made a coat of arms type of thing.  I'll attach a picture.  They picked out stickers of all the

 fun things Brandon likes to do and put them on it.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a hayday with the glitter glue.  I'm still finding "sparkles" on my skin!  For those of you who don't know, we have a family tradition that Brandon started last year, where just before Mother's day and Father's day - we take the kids to the store and let them pick out whatever they want to give their parent for a gift.  It's funny to see what they buy.  Tess is still picking out things that she wants, Owen gets help, and Porter is getting better about thinking about what his parent would want!  So, this year, Tess got Brandon a pink Disney princess playground ball - Porter picked out a cool mesh bag with racket balls in it for when Brandon plays racket ball.  Owen picked out a T-shirt and hat that said #1 Dad!  All in all, Brandon loved his gifts.  

Well, we hope everyone has a great week!

Summer is Here!

Well, it's official - it's Phoenix - it's in the hundreds - and summer has began!  It's time to brace ourselves, cuz 100 degrees is low!  Although, I've found that once it hits like 107 - it all feels the same.  After living in up North for most of my life, I'll take the heat anyday!  I hate rain and I hate snow.  It's pretty - but that's about it!  My tan has never looked better than since we moved here!

We've just been up to the usual summer activities here at the Mitchell home.  We spend lots of time at the sprinkler pad and swimming out back in the big kiddie pool.  Every morning, after breakfast, I take the kids on a walk before it gets too warm so they can practice riding on their bikes, and Owen can cruise in his new stroller!  Our goal is to get Porter off his training wheels this summer.  Tess has been dying for some roller skates, so I think we'll buckle and buy her some this week and get her started on that!  That should be fun.  

Just one more week until swimming lessons start, and we're all getting anxious.  I'm curious to see how Owen does.  He loves getting in the pool in his floatation device.....so, we'll see how he does when he attempts to put his head under the water!  The kids are doing well and loving playing together and making messes faster than I can clean.  We're having a ball and hope everyone has a fantastic week!  Happy Birthday, Uncle Kevin!  We love you and miss you.

Kindergarten Graduation

Well, I finally pulled the pictures off the camera of Porter's Kindergarten celebration.  Here's Porter with his teacher - who we adore!  We had a great time, and Porter was really excited to participate in the program with his classmates.  They sang and had a slide show.  The evening was finished off with treats.  In the slide show Porter said his favorite part about Kindergarten was Science!  He is having fun at home, and is already asking when school starts again!