Not Really Carnival Food

For my grandma's birthday party, my sister came up with the idea that we would have a carnival party. I think the carnival theme might have only gone as far as the stuff my sister actually did, but still...

Here's a look at the food from the party:

The Sweet Shoppe (with candy for the kids after they played the Midway games) and the pies

M&M cookies and caramel popcorn

More cookies, pretzel sticks, rice krispie pops, brownie bites and cupcakes

The oh-so-beautiful cake that was technically edible, but trust me, you didn't want to eat this (the cake layers themselves are made out of rice krispies and other cereal mixed with marshmallows, then frosted, then covered in fondant -- maybe twice -- then decorated with paper cutouts).

There was also strawberry shortcake that I didn't get a picture of, but it was the only thing I ate. We ended up with a ton of leftover goodies even though the party was very well attended.

Silly Kids

The main reason we came to Utah was for my grandma's 80th birthday party. My sister planned this photobooth area with fun little props where guests could get their picture taken. I don't know that many of my grandma's friends appreciated the props, but these kiddos sure did!

(Caleb's cousins: Sara, Nora, and Agnes)

(Caleb's cousin Olive)

Meet Olive

Caleb and I are currently vacationing in Utah at my mom's. The best part is that my sister is here vacationing right now too, which means that I finally got to meet my newest niece, Olive. Here's a photo of her that I took the other day (yesterday was it? the days all blend together):


I'm so excited that we both get to stay for a while so that my camera can love on this cute baby a whole lot more!

Knights and Sort of Pirates

My mom was in serious need of some big kid toys. We went to several different stores looking for something the kids would absolutely love. It seems so often that kids don't maintain interest in toys after the first few days, so we wanted to really be sure that we were buying something they would really love and play with. I think by the last store, we were all so done shopping that we didn't care anymore what we bought. But we did end up with some great dress up stuff for the boys.

Sir Caleb:



A quick costume change


Pirate-esque Caleb:



Sir Eliot:

Bubble Wrap

My mom ordered this super fancy cake stand thing with holes drilled in it so you could put pops in it if you wanted. It came wrapped in some serious amounts of bubble wrap. Needless to say, three small children were happy as could be.





And here's my cute sister and her kiddos:




Two of the pieces were damaged, so I definitely see more bubble wrap fun in our future!

Pillow Fight

Nothing says good morning quite like a pillow fight.

Driving to Utah

Sunday, May 29th, Caleb and I drove up to Utah and met my mom in St. George before continuing on the next day to her other house in West Jordan. The drive went really fast, despite the fact that I drove within 5 miles of the speed limit the whole time. I decided to drive up through Las Vegas instead of going around the Grand Canyon the other way and I think it helped to have definite milestones along the way.

Caleb, of course, was a total trooper. The kid loves to pee on the side of the road. Prefers it to stopping at a gas station and using an actual toilet. Which makes our stops really fast. We did stop in Vegas to get gas and while we were there, Caleb decided the car needed a little cleaning before we continued on our way.





All in all, the drive to my mom's house in Santa Clara (a suburb of St. George) from our house in Queen Creek took only seven hours, including the time we were stopped in Vegas. Not too bad, I say.