Time Flies When You're Having Fun

How is it possible that so much time has gone by without me updating my blog?!  This keeps happening!  It's the story of my life really.  Oh well, this is what we've been up to the past few months, I'll try not to be too descriptive.  A picture speaks a thousand words, right?


APRIL

Archer's Birthday

My little baby turned one and is a total terror!  Ha, ha, not really.  I believe he is my smiliest baby ever.  I could squeeze and kiss him all day long, but he doesn't want to sit in my arms at all.  He wants to be on the move dumping and spreading as fast as he possibly can.  You wouldn't believe how fast he can wreck a clean house.  Such is life with a one-year-old, but we adore him.  We try to steal squeezes and kisses as often as we can.  He absolutely loves digging in dirt or sand.  We're not sure our garden will survive this year. :)

This is how a room looks moments after he arrives.

Space Race

In our history club, we read about the space race and the kids reenacted Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  We love making history movies!  My friend, Stephanie, planned the whole thing.  She wrote a script and had the kids make space helmets out of paper mache.  They wore paint suits as their uniforms.  It was another super fun activity with our history club.  Stephanie's family has moved away now and we're not sure how we're going to live without them!

Hunter, Haly, Nicholas, Kayla, Logan, Jeff 

MAY

Mother's Day
I love Mother's Day!  My hubby and children pamper me all day long.  It's the best holiday ever!  In the evening we went to Oma's house.  We don't take our visits with Oma for granted like we used to.  She is fighting lung cancer and breast cancer right now and we are more aware than usual of the value of family relationships and the importance of savoring all the time we have with each other.  Oma is a fighter and we believe she will get through this, but we treasure our time with her all the same.

Our gift to Oma--a photo of her grandchildren

Kayla's Birthday

Kayla turned 12 in May, I can hardly believe it.  She has left Primary and advanced to the Young Women's program at church, she loves it!  Jason and I used to worry about the teen years, but not anymore.  Kayla is such a joy to raise.  Jason still mourns the quick passing of her childhood, but it's not over yet.  Although she is growing up, she is still our little girl.

Kayla and I spent her 12th birthday in Fredericksburg with the LDSHE homeschooling conference.  Youth have to be twelve-years-old to attend the youth conference and she turned 12 the day it began.  Lucky her!  She had fun with the youth while I had my yearly motivational, rejuvenating three days of getting more homeschooling ideas than I can ever possibly implement!  Ha, ha, I love it!

When we returned from our trip, Oma had a birthday dinner at her house for Kayla.  Kayla also went horseback riding.  She asked to do that instead of have a birthday party and I was happy to oblige.

Olivia, Kayla, and Hunter

Montpelier
We visited Montpelier again in May.  It was a lovely family outing.  We skipped the house tour and just enjoyed walking around on the beautiful grounds.  We love that place.

JUNE

Lake Anna
Summer just wouldn't be summer without boating trips to Lake Anna.  Jason and the kids love going boating with Grandpa.  They go tubing, hang out at the Loders, and jump of the dock.  I enjoy the peace and quiet at home while they are all away. :)

Newseum
Our final history club field trip was a visit to the Newseum in D.C.  It was a cool place, but a bit pricey so we probably won't go again.  I think it's better for an older crowd anyway. All the same, we had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends, and the kids got to pretend they were news reporters.

Sometime I'll write about Mr. Carrot who has become a precious member of the family.

Happy Father's Day
I was blessed to grow up with a wonderful father, and now I'm married to one.  I think Jason should be awarded father of the year every year.  I feel thankful for him every day.  We celebrated Father's Day at Oma and Grandpa's house.

Jason & Steve with their Dad

JULY

I don't have any pictures for July yet.  It has been a super busy month with cub day camp (that I helped run), two trips to King's Dominion, Kayla's theatre camp, and Hunter going off to Utah by himself. 

Kayla is part of a 2-week-theatre camp right now, and she gets to play the role of Annie.  It has been so fun for her and I can't wait to see the final show.  It's a free show on July 27th for anyone who might be interested in going. 

Hunter went off to Utah by himself.  His best friend moved to Peru two years ago and was going to be in Utah during the month of July.  Hunter begged us to go there so he could see his friend as well as his Utah grandparents and cousins.  We love going to Utah--my family is all there--but plane tickets are super expensive right now and we couldn't afford to have the whole family go.  Hunter decided he would save up his own money so he could by himself a ticket.  Thanks to Uncle Steve paying him to mow the lawn, and Oma matching all the money he saved, he earned enough to convince us he was serious!  We let him go.  I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before he left and was a bit of a nervous wreck.  I imagined all kinds of things that could go wrong while he was travelling across the country by himself.  I'm happy to say he made it safe and sound and is having a great time.  Now I just have to make it through his plane ride home!

That's all folks!

The Lastest and Greatest

It has been awhile since I updated our blog.  Here are a few things that have been going on in the LaFroth household lately:

Archer
Baby Archer is trouble, trouble, trouble! 

I truly adore him, but I have to remember to remove the dog bowls when he is awake or I'll find him eating dog food and swimming in the water.  I have to remember to close the bathroom door or I'll find him splashing in the toilet.  I have to clear all horizontal surfaces within his reach or he'll clear them for me.  I have to be sure not to leave a glass of water sitting within his reach or it will be dumped.  Anything that can possibly be dumped will be dumped.  I have locks on most of my kitchen cupboards and drawers, but the few that aren't locked are quickly emptied.  He was sick this past week and I felt so bad for him, but I must confess I enjoyed him cuddling with me a little more than usual.  He actually laid his head my shoulder a few times which he hasn't done once since his fever broke!  He is busy, busy, busy and leaves a tornado in his wake!  In spite of the messes he makes, I love watching him explore.  He smiles all of the time and always makes me smile too.  His latest accomplishment is walking.  Here is a little video clip:

Tanner
Tanner had a birthday!

He is 5-years-old now and I can hardly believe it! For his birthday breakfast he requested crepes, bacon, and juice. As usual, we brought it to him in bed. You can see my big kids had just rolled out of bed themselves.

Love the hair!

He had corn dogs and cupcakes for lunch and we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. It was a happy day! 

Tanner is such a pleasant child and I'm so thankful for him. He is going to preschool at 4 R's right now and I can't say enough good things about that place. He will be in kindergarten next year. I asked him if he wants to go to school or do kindergarten at home like the big kids. He said he wants to do it at home. I'm so glad because I would sure miss him if he was away all day.

Valentine's Day
One year, we made a turkey for Valentine's day and it made it into a photo book.  Now my kids just assume I'm going to make a turkey every Valentine's day!  Well...going out to dinner with my husband while someone else cooks and cleans up sounds a little more appealing, but it's fun to celebrate V-day as a family too.  My friend gave me a recipe for "bacon-wrapped turkey."  What a combo!  She said she put the bacon on a plate and served it on the side of the turkey at the table.  Well...the bacon never made it to our table.  You can see my kids picking the bacon off the turkey right out of the oven! 

I remember my mom making pink mashed potatoes and pink bread one year for Valentine's day.  I was planning to do that too, but I got so caught up in the turkey that I forgot.  It was a yummy dinner even with white mashed potatoes. :)




Tubing in Manufactured Snow
We took a field trip to Massenutten to go tubing.  We did not get any significant snow this year which was such a bummer.  Luckily, they manufacture snow at Massenutten so we were able to do a little tubing anyway.

The upside: You don't have to climb up the hill after you go down. You ride up on a ramp.
The downside: It goes very slowly and takes a long time. Once you get to the top, you have to wait in a line before you get to go down.

The slow ride up.

Waiting in line to go down.

We had a lot of fun together.  I love family outings because they are a break from the norm and they take me away from all the work that surrounds me at home! :)

Gettysburg
We went to Gettysburg last November, but I am just now getting around to posting pictures. 

Our first trip to Gettysburg was a couple of years ago.  My children loved running around and climbing on the rocks, but they didn't really appreciate the historical aspect of it.  This time we prepped them for a different experience.  We studied the Civil War in our history club; we watched several movies including "Gettysburg;"  the kids picked out their favorite generals and loved "re-enacting" at home; we bought a CD to listen to in the car as we drove around that would tell all that happened at each battlefield.  It was the perfect set-up for a grand historical experience.  Did we have it?  No, not exactly.  The kids really just wanted to play with stuff at the store and get to Little Round Top so they could climb around on the giant rocks.  They didn't care about the battlefields or history, but I guess I can't blame them.  They are kids after all.  Truth be told, even I got tired of the slow pace set by the CD.  We had a great family outing anyway and still want to go back! :)

Cousin Kyle came too and the three cousins had a great time.

The Joy of Feeding My Family

For awhile now, I've been trying to increase our family's vegetable intake in major ways.  This past week, I stepped it up even more and made a bunch of vegetarian dishes.  For my carnivorous family, this hasn't gone over well.  My hubby will eat whatever I make, but the kids are another story.  Most of the time, they turn up their noses and eat bread.  A friend shared this wonderful recipe for Spaghetti Squash Lasagna, and Jason and I really liked it.  The kids wouldn't give it a chance.  Well, I made the lasagna Friday night and still had extra spaghetti squash to do something with.  Tonight I made a "Sweet Spaghetti Squash" recipe with raisins, maple syrup, and spices. My husband told the kids he would make them a cake if they tried one bite (might as well negate our healthy foods with cake, right?).  They were scared, but they really wanted that cake!  Kayla and Tanner decided to go for it.  They declared it wasn't good after one bite, but at least they could swallow it!  Hunter DID NOT want to try it, but he really wanted cake and he had a lot of peer pressure from his siblings.  He finally decided to do it.  How hard could one bite be?  I should say that he is my pickiest eater and has the hardest time with textures and mixed foods. He is a big meat eater and likes everything plain. Well...he put the bite in his mouth and immediately got a distressed look on his face. I could see him trying to swallow it, but he kept gagging and his eyes were watering. He would calm himself down and try again, but the same thing kept happening. He finally gave up and ran to the sink where he puked it up along with his entire dinner.   Zheesh! Now you know why I don't force him to try things at other people's houses. I know it won't go well and as embarrasing as it is to have my son eat nothing, it is far worse to have him take a bite and throw up!

So, I'm going to keep making veggies for Jason, baby Archer, and myself to eat.  Maybe the other kids will eventually come around.

Who wouldn't want to eat this?????