May Day 2011

Bryson Turns Nine

Bryson was very excited for his birthday. He is growing up so fast! With a Monster load of Fun in his personality, we threw a Monster Birthday Party complete with Monster giant sugar cookie (just the sugar--no chocolate of course!) and Krispy Kreme doughnuts! Here are some of the highlights:


Bryson and his pile of fun! He had been asking if he was getting anything for his birthday and I kept telling him no. It's fun to play with their minds sometimes!


Will Bryson's new watch help him get up on time for school in the morning? We'll have to wait and see!


New Harry Potter Legos Spells Lots of FUN!


Star Wars Brickmaster Book. This is so cool because it shows you how to build like 8 Million different things with the legos included. It will keep Bryson busy for hours and the rest of us amazed by his lego abilities!


It must have been by the power of the Force that Bryson was so lucky to get the new Lego Star Wars--The Clone Wars Wii game. Go Yoda!

It's hard to say what Bryson's favorite gift was but certainly the Fablehaven Books from Grandma-ma and Grandpa Ed were up at the top. Unfortunately, the flash on the camera did not cooperate so the photographic evidence of his excitement has been compromised.


We do have a cool picture of his Cookie Cake.


And the rest of the table set up. Let's hear it for the sugar coma that's about to come on!


Happy Birthday!


Why is there another picture of Bryson and birthday paraphernalia you might ask? Because we celebrated his birthday on Saturday, April 30th. So this is his Birthday Breakfast of Champions: Krispy Kremes and Orange Julius!

The Original Grover May Day
Oh, and Happy Anniversary to Scott and I. 14 years of Crazy and loving every minute of it!

Still waiting for Baby Rockstar to come. . . .

Easter Sunday

Just a quick look at our cute boys on Easter Sunday.


Bradley--Handsome and hugely tall!


Bryson--Also handsome and a great babysitter for Brock!


Blake--aka Blakers the Man of Mystery or Mischievousness (the eyes give it away!)


and Brock--Cute as a bug which he fortunately didn't try to play with today during our brief photo shoot!

Happy Easter!

An Egg-cellent Saturday!

Our Easter Weekend started with the Fathers and Sons Camp Out of which I think I am grateful there is no photographic evidence. So after gathering in the troops and legions of dirty laundry we headed to Mom and Dad's for a family BBQ and Easter Egg Hunt.

The food was delicious as always! (Thanks to contributions by Mom, Dad, Grandma-ma & Grandpa, Cassi and Kaley. They took pity on the size of my belly and impression of John Wayne after riding the range wayyy too long and gave me a pass on a food assignment).

Adam and Brock had their own area to hunt for eggs--which they did over and over and over so we kept hiding them over and over and over!

Here's Double Trouble at the beginning of their hunt!

Cute pix of Adam. Brock was too busy looking for eggs to stop and smile for very long.

Katelyn, Bryson and Bradley had a separate area to find their eggs after which they had to solve word puzzles that were inside them. Since we're taking a family trip to Maui after school is out all the words had to do with our vacation. They sorted like eggs and then had to unscramble the letters to make the word. Yeah, we make our kids work for their Easter Candy!

Cute Katelyn.

Determined Bradley.

Energetic and Entertaining Bryson!

Blake and Megan had the same task as the older 3 just simpler words.

It wasn't really that sunny outside but Megan and her purse are always prepared for anything!

Meanwhile we hid eggs for Brock and Adam . . . . again.

Here the older 3 are counting their eggs only to find that they are missing one! Where is the egg map when you need it? Fortunately, Grandma-ma found the egg!

After this I stopped taking pictures because I was on duty to hide the eggs yet again for Brock and Adam. It was more like feeding chickens though. I'd just throw the eggs out onto the grass and they'd race to pick them up. They could have done that for hours! We missed not having our whole family there to participate in our Eggs-tra Out of this World Egg Hunt. But there's always next year!

Ducks in the Pond--or Pool that is. . .

So, Mom calls this morning after the 3 older boys had left for school and says "There's ducks in the pool. You have to bring Brock over to see them." So Brock and I load up in the car to see not just ducks but a whole flock of ducks--12 ducklings and a Mamma duck to be exact--swimming around in the pool!


We parked near the gate and went in the backyard. I told Brock he had to be quiet or it would scare the ducks. He was actually really quiet most of the hour we were there on our Zoology Field Trip. Here he is peering through the pool fence.


Soon Mom and Dad came outside and we all went in the pool area. There were a few moments when I'm sure Brock had lost interest in watching the ducks and was really trying to figure out the best way to make his escape into the pool with them.


At one point Dad was trying to help shew the ducks out of the pool but as soon as he would wander around near them they would follow the Mamma and swim to the other side. Brock observed this phenomenon and said "Grandpa, go over there!" I was more concerned with the ducklings being sucked into the gutters on the sides of the pool so I started chanting "Swim Away, swim away!" (Ode to Finding Nemo--Nemo really is never there when you need him!)


In the end Dad got all the ducks out of the pool with the use of pool rafts, flat pool net scooper thing, and shewing them through the yard to the canal. We'd gone home by that time. I really wished I'd stayed and gotten pictures of all that! The next day Brock wanted to know if we could go to Grandma's house and see the ducks. First I told him they flew away. That reason didn't really satisfy him so I switched to "They went to the Zoo." That seemed to be a good enough answer. This all just goes to show you never know what is going to show up at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Disclaimer

Now, some comments have been made on the status of my blog. Well, you can think I'm a slacker or lazy. I don't claim to be a blogging queen. Anyone who knows me, knows all too well I'm a Dancing Queen--thanks to the ABBA and the musical Mamma Mia. I could write an entire blog entry on all the reasons why I have postponed my updating. But it's more fun to keep everyone guessing and wondering daily, "Should I check Amy's Blog? Has she dared to try to catch up?" Well my friends, the time has come. Grab some peanut butter M&M's and settle into your computer chair because Spring Break 2011 is bringing you up to date on the Grover Hacienda and the new adventures we are having during our Spring Break week here in sunny and warm AZ. That's right, I'm double blogging--Ha! Each day will bring you a little closer to bridging the gap in our story. So hang on--because this ride could get a little bumpy!

Spring Break 2011--The Adventure Continues

Friday--Water Day and Luau


We had the perfect day for playing with water outside! I bought a Lightening McQueen blow up pool for little-er people and a Hockey Game slip-n-slide for the older kids. They all played in both of course.


Bryson and Brock get into a serious game of hockey!


Brock is practicing his corner shot.


Bryadley and Bryson take a turn "on the ice."


Blake just chillin'--literally. The hose water was a touch on the icy side. I'm convinced Blake's body temperature runs a few degrees cooler than everyone else so he was really into the cool water!


Riding a scooter is fun. Riding a scooter through water is REALLY fun!


Hellooooo!



Brock has never had an interest in goggles until today when he got a hold of Bryson's and in his 3 year old independent way wouldn't accept help in getting them on. Eventually, he ditched them--apparently not worth the effort.


A nice game of catch that won't break a window.


Kaley snapped this of Brock. He's trying to grab the yellow water frisbee out of the water table with his mouth. A sort of "Bobbing for Water Toys" game he started. A little on the gross side if you ask us!


Got It!


After lunch everyone got a second wind of energy--and the water was a little warmer so they weren't quite as cautious about the little pool. Leave it to boys to think it a good idea to climb into a Rubbermaid container in a pool.


They changed its use to a jumping platform for a few minutes until I caught Brock on it jumping into the pool. Then I pulled the mother card and took it into the garage.


Back to hockey!


Many Mahalos to Kaley and Mom for all their help getting the table and seving stuff ready for our Luau.


Another round of Mahalos to Chase for cutting pineapple and shredding the pork. Scott and I got the pork ready the the night before and by the afternoon the house was smelling soooo good! (Same recipe as last year but turned out even better. We would never have thought that possible but it was!) To change it up a little we kept the menu simple with fried rice from Panda's (too tired to make the authentic variety) pineapple-strawberry-grape fruit kabobs as well as that same fruit variety all seperated out.


We also had one more round of Green Apple Jones Slush punch. This time we used the Diet 7-up and added one can of Diet Gingerale. Even yummier than yesterday!


The best part was that Cassi, Katelyn, Megan and Adam came back in town from their Spring Break trip to Nevada just in time for the Luau. The boys were so excited to see their cousins. We all agreed Water Day was just not the same without them! And a Luau just isn't a Luau without the whole Ohana (we missed all our family in Utah!). Happy Spring Break and Aloha!