Kids Don't Get To Have All The Fun!

I am looking forward to General Conference.  I sure have been seeing a lot of fun things for kids to do related to Conference.  Wow!  Back in the day, we had to go to the church for each session.  Various combinations of kids and parents would attend.  They got a tablet, a pencil and some gum.   And they were allowed to go out for unlimited drinks of water.  That was about as exciting as it got. 

But now there are General Conference workbooks, bingo games, activity stations, fun buckets and on and on.  One cute idea I saw was to attach the picture of one of the 15 members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve to a snack or activity.  Then when that person speaks, you get to partake.  Why should kids get to have all that fun?

So Dan and I are going to share in the fun.  I have randomly attached pictures to 15 snacks.  Let 's get this show on the road!

President Packer and chips and salsa, Elder Scott and M&M's, Elder Andersen and some nice juicy grapes and when Elder Nelson gets up to speak, I'm making us each a smoothie!   

Thankful For Photos!

I didn't take any of these photos but I am thankful for them!

Love the grandkids close by!

And love seeing what the ones far away are doing!

MaryAnn Celebrates!

It was fun taking MaryAnn out to lunch for her birthday!

I have never seen anyone enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich as much as Joshua.  That is not a look of pain--it's sheer joy.  After every bite he would comment how good it tasted.

And David had fun with ice and all the other interesting things at our table.

Hope it's a great year ahead!

Happy Birthday, One Year Old!

It was fun celebrating Michael's first birthday!

They have a tradition they learned in Ukraine.  On a child's first birthday, you make a circle of items representing different occupations/interests.  You set the child in the middle of the circle and see which item they go to first.  It could possibly mean a future occupation/interest/or talent!   Michael is checking out the things in the circle.

 With very little thought he goes straight for the plastic hammer!

 Kathryn is showing him the mobile and pop-up card she made for him:

 But he is more interested in the container she put them in.  Hmmmm, plastic again!

I wonder what that means for his future?

 On to more presents!

 Fun with Daddy!

 And finally some yummy cake.  

Michael has a cold and a runny nose, poor little guy, on his birthday.

 But with Grandpa helping we got a smile and some clapping!

Other highlights of the celebration:  Pancake dinner, decorations by the Melanchicks (aka Kathryn and Amelia), and movie made by Amanda showing all of the other kids on their first birthdays and then showing photos and videos of Michael over this past year!

He Knows Me Well!

The other day Dan came home from work and said he saw a book on a co-worker's desk.  He told the co-worker: My wife would love that book!  

The co-worker said: Go ahead and borrow it.    

I still did not know what book he might be talking about, 

but I reacted to the story by saying: Oh, no, now I will feel obligated 

to read this book, whatever it is!   

It's probably one of those "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books 

or something along those lines.  Ugh! 

I was getting more agitated by the minute.

Then he whipped out the book.

I took one look at the title

and  couldn't wait to start reading it!

I really enjoyed reading it.  Mostly people do

very dumb things and do not obey signs or follow common sense.
I was disappointed, I mean surprised, to find out that no people have ever been killed by
 bears in Yosemite (see this for explanation), but a few have been killed by deer.