Tents and Tennis

Last Saturday Chan was out of town and Carter was with friends most of the day so Will and Brianne got Bored rather quickly. So I reverted back to my days as a kid and decided to go down to Will's room and make a tent! I grabbed sheets/blankets and other cool stuff to make it fun. I made the bulk of the tent first and then Will helped me with the rest. He made the Star Wars Club sign (which was of course the name- and you had to know the "sign" to get in) and then we added all the extras...

Here is Will standing by the entrance...

Here is Will inside the tent and you can see we added a TV/VHS combo, a hanging lantern and we also added a small cooler with drinks and treats which you can't see. Can't have a way good time without a treat right?...

Here are Will and Brianne getting ready to watch a movie in the new tent/clubhouse. It was sure fun and they got quite a kick out of it! I need to be a kid again more often!!

Well after Brianne's haircut on Monday afternoon (doesn't she look so cute!!) Brianne had her very first tennis lesson! She has talked about doing this since last fall and even asked for a tennis racket for Christmas- which is what she got!! She was very exited!!

This is Brianne and her fellow class member doing their warm up- running around the court!

Here is Brianne going a little crazy with her swing- but it was a way cool picture!

This was the perfect picture!! It was right before she hit a great ball- look at that form!! Right about this same time is when the video below was shot. It is her hitting some balls and the reason everyone says WHOA when she hits the last one is because the ball she hits landed right on the face of another kid!! He was practicing right along side her and ran for his ball and got smacked with hers- oops!! I guess that's the danger of teaching small kids! :) But this being her first day I think she did pretty darn good!

Are we there yet?.......

So today I have a fun story to share!! Kathy called this week and was curious if the boys wanted to join her and Dakota in running a 5K fun run on Saturday morning. She thought it would be a fun activity for her to do with them throughout the summer on Saturdays- so I asked the boys and they were ON IT! They really wanted to give it a shot! So we made plans, had everything ready to go and jumped in our cars to go to the race!! We get to the address that we had, which Kathy had gotten off of google maps, and it was not a park!! We were expecting to get to a park!! so we tried again, circling several times in the area, and to no avail! So I decide to pull over to the friendly yard sale and ask someone there- they say it must be.....blah blah blah.... so off we go to look there. Guess what..... NOPE! So we stop into a Maverick to ask someone there- she gives us directions and I am feeling hopeful, but...... you guessed it.......NOPE!! So after the last attempt and seeing what time it was and the race is to start in 15 minutes- we give up!! But we didn't want to ruin the whole morning so we went to IHOP and celebrated our first "non" race!! We had fun eating and talking and looking at Kathy's marathon pictures from last Saturday's Salt lake City Marathon. There was even a lady there doing amazing balloon sculptures for the kids!!We all had a great time together! We will try it again soon and hopefully this time we'll find it!! :D

Will has a Yoda with a lightsaber, Carter has a gun, Brianne has a skeleton and Dakota has a gun too. :D

The longest blog entry ever!!!!

On Tuesday the 7th my Mom arrived from Chicago to visit us! We had planned a fun trip while she was here- and that was a trip to St George for Easter! So on Thursday afternoon we were off to St George! Here is Chan- our fearless driver!




Here is a shot of the kids and Grandma all comfy in their seats! Between ipods, nintendo ds, a DVD entertainment system and playstation PSP's I can't imagine they were ever BORED! Don't you just wish they had all that when WE were kids?

Shortly after arriving in St George and meeting up with Tammy at her house we gave my Mom a quick tour of her house and waited for my aunt Kay to arrive. Once she did my Mom went with her to spend some "sister time" and we were off to eat! We were starving and of course our first pick was Pizza factory! We LOVE it there! We went upstairs and purchased some PF wear and then waited for a bit before eating VERY yummy food! Can't go to George without eating there!

The weekend of Easter in St George is always the Arts festival and we LOVE to go! It's so fun to see what people can create- and me being an artist myself- I could be there all day! Here is a picture of the "boys" hanging out- they tell me this was their "tough" face. We all had fun there and Chan even found us an awesome picture to go above our fireplace! Nice job babe!!




Here is Brianne in the kids area there. They always have a table there where kids can come and do a craft. She made some funny glasses that had her name on them. She could have stayed there all day but we pulled her away to look at the booths with us.

We love staying at Tammy's house!! It's always a blast! The kids love hanging around Tammy and I know she loves to be around them and give them a hard time! Here is a candid shot of them all being rather silly!

Here is a shot of me and Tammy that she took herself- not bad for not being able to see what your doing!! :) I love her!! Best friends forever!! Hee hee!

Here is a shot of Brianne and two of her dogs- they are part of the fun of staying there. We love her "kids"! They are so fun to be around! Coco and Nina are the ones who LOVE to have people pet them. So Brianne was always willing to help them out!

On Saturday before Easter the girls decided it would be a great day to go shopping! Of course the guys were not very interested in doing THAT so they went to Target and bought some new Star wars Lego sets! They spent the day putting them together so they could have a battle! They barely got done before we arrived!



Us girls on the other hand had a fabulous time! We went to Tai Pan
because my Mom had not been to one before- and then we were off to a couple other places like TJ Maxx and more. We spent 2 hours in there! That's just crazy!! But hey- it was FUN!! I could do that again in a heartbeat!!

Happy Easter from St George!! The kids woke to find their treats and trinkets from the Easter bunny on the counter in the kitchen, but there's nothing more fun than an Easter egg hunt for Easter! So that's what we did! The kids had a blast searching for them in Tammy's yard. I tried to get very creative this year and stump them, but I was only able to stump them on ONE of them! Oh well- I'll try again next year!

The kids also hid some eggs for me, Chan and Tammy. We got to find ours out there too! They were so exited to do that- it was Tammy's idea and they LOVED it! We spent most of the day hanging out, playing Uno and having a yummy dinner with my Mom and Kay and Tammy's family. It was a perfect day!

Also on Easter Sunday I talked Tammy into taking us up to Sugarloaf to take some pictures of our family. It is a beautiful area and a perfect day and I loved the way this family photo turned out!! I like it so much I already have it hanging in our family room at home! Thanks Tam!!





I also snapped a couple of shots of the kids before we took off. Here is Carter's picture- handsome isn't he?









Here is Will's shot- I think he looks very grown up in this shot, but you can still see his spazzy personality!!






Here is our darling Brianne- isn't she a doll! She wants to cut her hair really bad but I am trying to talk her out of it-it's so pretty!!

A great weekend in St George- can't wait to do it again soon!

The morning after we got back from St George it was Carter's Birthday!! The big 13- hard to believe! And I was bad and had forgotten to get the donuts he wanted, so I offered to take him to Starbucks instead!

Of course he didn't argue- so we went and got our favorite Chai Tea frappacino!! And of course a donut!

Earlier that morning he opened his presents, which were waiting for him on the kitchen counter- as usual for our family tradition!

Chan also made him a three layer cake, but his was chocolate cake with strawberry frosting! I was surprised at that combination, but I have to say it was delicious!! Happy birthday Bubba- we love you!!

This was another milestone in our week once we got back from our trip! Will received the Principal's pride award for Respect! So we went to that assembly the morning of Carter's Birthday. We are so proud of Will! Nice job!





It was so exiting and neat that Grandma Panko was here to be at the assembly! She has never been to one before! :) Will was proud to have her there!

After a few days of shopping and hanging out with me and the kids my Mom and I decided to take the kids to a movie on Friday- it seemed like a fun way to end my Mom's trip with us.

Here is Grandma Panko and the kids inside the movie theater on our way to see Seventeen again. It was such an awesome show!! Would totally see it again!! :)

Here is a shot of the kids and Grandma again- hard to believe her visit was almost over- but it sure was a fun one!

Here is the kids and Grandma Panko at Rumbi grill. We went there after the movie to get some grub! It was good- as usual- and it was the perfect end to our visit with her. We are soooo glad she came and spent some fun time with us! :) We LOVE you!!

family shots...

Okay is it just me or does my son look like a boy version of ME!! I about died when I saw this photo- I didn't realize we looked so much alike!! I guess that is because people are always saying how much he and Chan look alike. But it doesn't really matter WHO he looks more like cuz he is just plain handsome!!
These pictures were taken at the cheesecake factory where we went to celebrate Will's birthday. I thought they were too good to not share them. Our kids are all getting so big- and I must say Chan is getting more handsome all the time! Don't you think? :)

Window Art

As a kid I was a drawing fanatic, and I believe that my kids have gotten that gene from me- especially Brianne! She could draw all day and all night! One of her favorite places is on the sliding glass door. There's nothing better than some dry erase markers from office depot and a huge canvas!
This is a picture she did of our family! She even included the dog and cat. (I am not positive but I am pretty sure I have more hair than that! Hee hee!)
This the the family broken down into first, the parents.....
and then the kids...... apparently she forgot to add the pets this time, but it's all good! She's as amazing artist! She has done some amazing things, but I just thought this was pretty darn cute! :)

P.S.- yes that is SNOW in the background!! Hard to believe it is spring when we are still getting lots of the white stuff!

You did what with your veggies?

So here at our house we have really been trying hard to eat healthy meals that include lots of fresh veggies. Well the other day we had a yummy dinner that included some fresh asparagus. Well, Will and Brianne decided that they didn't want to eat all their asparagus and before asking if they could be done had thrown away their veggies in the trash. Shortly after that I announced that we could all finish off my birthday cake and I asked if they had eaten all their dinner. Will and Brianne looked at me with very guilty faces and said that they had not eaten all their veggies, but had already thrown them out. So I told them if they really wanted their dessert they would have to run for it! I told them they had to do 30 laps around the driveway for a piece of cake and guess what?.......... they DID IT!! I guess they REALLY wanted cake! :)