Andrew's 5th Birthday

Today was Andrew's 5th birthday. We did the usual where we put balloons on his floor and put this awesome sign up! He's really into Star Wars and it was a lot of fun decorating and buying things for him.

I wanted Andrew to have fun today but because I had to work still, I decided to have some of his friends meet him at the park. I made these cupcakes for the kids that could come. The topper is a Darth Vader whistle that came with the party favors at Walmart. I got some black icing spray but it turned out more purple than black so put on your sunglasses before you look at them.Here are the party favors, bag and napkins that we got for the park. They have napkins in 3D now but you have to buy the glasses separately. I did NOT want to do that so no glasses, no 3D.Andrew got a Darth Maul action figure and a Darth Vader transformer Tie Fighter from his parents. I haven't taken a picture of what he got from the kids at the park but some other Star Wars toys, coloring books, punching bag balloons, water gun, just to name a few. He loved it all!Of course we had our pull aparts for breakfast, such a great meal!Julie found a balloon in her room this morning (she shares with Andrew)This was our walk to get the mail. Yes, Julie is wearing an "Apple Jacks" t-shirt. $4 at Walmart. I LOVE IT!I couldn't get them to both look at me at the same time.So this is what I got...Take it or leave it.Julie's starting to walk more...Not the best in the grass though but it's a start.She LOVES the outdoors!While outside we found this bumblebee. It was HUGE!So for Andrew's cake I decided to make the Death Star...I started with a cake mold borrowed from a good friend here. It's really an icecream cake mold. After I baked it, this is what I got...I figured, I could work with that since the Death Star has a hole in it too. So, instead of patching it, I went with it. Here is the dirty icing...I had some black gel die and added that to the frosting. I didn't have as much as I thought so I got a light color of gray. I had some black spray left from the cupcakes so I was going to use that...I didn't have much though.So after that didn't work I went to Smiths and found black frosting, no canned spray. I thought I could figure something out. I also found this silver sprinkles thing and thought that would work since the Death Star had all those sparkles on it and this is what I got...I thought it was pretty good, my first "theme" cake, was very proud of myself. Showed it to Andrew, had to tell him what it was and his reaction was "but the Death Star has a real hole through it". But, it's cake so who could be too disappointed right?Made a wish (wished for ALL of the Star Wars action figures) and blew out the candle. You can still see the smoke if you look close enough.Andrew wanted Cookies 'n Cream icecream, so that's what we used.A little messy but a LOT of fun!Afterward I asked Mark what he thought of the cake. He liked the taste but said it didn't really look like the Death Star. The real one had lines, not scattered like the sprinkles, but that's a lot of detail and so this looked great. I was crushed! I thought I was doing so well and I was so super excited! I know he didn't mean to hurt me by saying that but after all that work and my quick thinking, I thought it turned out AMAZING! I guess not being a Star Wars fan really hurt me in this one, I didn't know it was lines. Anyway, Julie LOVED it! She didn't get the black frosting like the rest of us but she did get icecream and some cake.She picked up her plate and licked it even!Such a messy girl but I'm glad everyone had fun and it's over. Until next year!

Camping?!?!?!

There will be a LOT of pictures so I'm just warning you before hand. This is our first real camping trip all as a family. We did have a ward campout a few weeks ago for just one night so we wanted to go again. It was Mark's birthday and this is what he wanted to do. We found a tent/stove/2 lanterns on craig's list for $75. The lanterns didn't work but it was still a good deal. We went to Buckeye, about 20 minutes away from Twin Lakes, California. For those who might not know, it was on the other side of the mountain as Yosemite. We got there, gave the kids some food and they were dirty. Didn't even have time to set up our tent.I just LOVE Julie's face in this shot! Kinda got the "I know what you are doing" or "I'm going to get so dirty!" look on her face.

Whenever we attempt to clean her face, out comes the tongue!

Here is half of our tent...And the other half. As you can see we had PLENTY of room!

Julie matched, I couldn't help but take a picture. I didn't mean for it to happen but it did so I had to capture it!

Andrew had so much fun helping with the firewood.

And Julie tried her hardest to try and help!

Mark was very proud with how big the fire was the first night. He did a great job at starting and keeping the fires going.

Julie had her own chair, we got it a while back for Andrew but never used it. Glad we could get some use out of it finally.

The first night we had this family of deer run around our campsite. It was the strangest, coolest thing. It took us a minute to realize it and grab the camera but there were two dear and a bambi. This is what we were able to caputre.

This was the first day at the first lake. We were trying to get our fishing licenses and bait and get settled. We decided to drive over to the second lake. I didn't realize there were two lakes, the end of the first was covered in trees and unless you were paying attention you didn't realize the trees went all the way across the lake to the other side and made two lakes, hence the name "Twin Lakes".Driving to the second lake we saw these mountains, the top kinda formed a circle, so cool!

This is the end of the first lake, notice the trees going across?

This was the second lake. Oh my goodness! We laughed for a while at the CAR in the WATER! It's a real boat, but it gets better...

It's a BOAT in the WATER with a KANOE! Oh, good times. I'd LOVE to own a boat like this one day!

The boys had to have a "potty break" so Julie and I were just lounging in the car, waiting...

Andrew's first time fishing, so exciting! Julie had her towel and some toys but that didn't last.

This is Andrew casting, looks like he's catching a fish but he just threw it out there.Julie found her way off the towel, to the rocks and working her way down to the water.

I love that you can see both Andrew and Dad fishing together!

Mark snuck on to this pier, there were no signs but there was a cabin/house behind it a little ways. No one came out, not sure anyone was even home to be honest.

Julie had to copy Andrew, throwing rocks in the water, he got bored fishing after a little bit.

This backpack was a LIFESAVER! We borrowed it from the Bishop and his wife (my visiting teacher). I'd love to get one but they are so expensive! Julie had a great time in it though.

Stopping for lunch at the second lake.

I wanted Julie to stand up and look at me so it would look photoshopped...It looked shopped when I was there in person without the camera. It was such a nice and beautiful place to stop. Every time there was a dog you'd hear "puppy" from her. She just LOVED the dogs!

She was getting SO MAD that she couldn't fish so we let her have my pole for a little while.

I'm actually holding the hook so nothing is in the water but she sure thought she was fishing and it kept her quiet.

The pinecones were HUGE! And they burnt really well too, not noisy at all.

Who loves to eat dirt???

Andrew wanted his turn with the camera, he got some good shots...

And some typical Andrew shots...

This "little" tree was in our campsite. I liked that it was so tiny and cute.

Just past the firepit of our campsite was a trail leading to the river, we went there every day.

Saw the same deer family again, they were just too fast and got outta there once I got the camera out.

The hill was a little steep but it wasn't a bad hike at all. Just up by Mark is our firepit about 5 feet away.

She LOVES brushing her teeth! The water was contaminated but we did bring some of our own.

Just before breakfast, or even waking up, we heard this "thump" outside our tent. When we got out, nothing out of the ordinary was going on. We started making breakfast and things started to fall from the trees. These pine needle clusters, some branches (small one's) and then the "thump" of a pinecone. There was a squirrel up the tree nearest our firepit. Thankfully no one was hurt by one of these falling but it sure was irritating with things falling all over our chairs. It got about 4 or 5 pinecones before it climbed down and went to find another tree. Everytime one fell Mark threw it in the fire to "show the squirrel". Andrew stood the needle clusters up and put them in a line like this...

By the end of the trip, this was my car.

We found a small pool of baby fish. We figured since we hadn't caught a fish that we would try here for Andrew just so he knew what it was like to catch a fish.

No luck...

But what's this??? We went to a river the last day, heard they had just stocked the stream so Andrew and I went out while Mark and Julie were taking a nap and got this picture!

Notice how I said picture and not "caught this fish"? When we were walking back to the car after not catching anything, I saw an older male who had a fish that was still moving on his string and asked if I could get a picture of my son with it since it was his first time and he hadn't caught anything. He was happy to let us.

While we were packing up camp, Julie sat infront of us while taking down the tent and decided she needed a shower....a shower of DIRT!She was having so much fun, and how could you be mad at that face? We had a great time. We learned that next time we need an air mattress and to make sure the water is good to drink, oh and have the kids all walking. It was a great experience and long overdue. Sorry for the long post, we had to cover a lot of things. Thanks for reading, or at least looking at the pictures.