Camping at Valley of Fire

After we took those fun photos of Ella in her birthday tutu, we packed up and headed to Valley of Fire for a fun camping trip with our best friends.  Ella was a great sport to spend her birthday out in the dirt.

Luckily we had the walker to keep Ella from crawling through the red sand.

  

Minutes after we arrived, the kids started decorating Easter eggs for our big Easter egg roll the following day.  This year the kids missed out on the ward egg hunt because they had soccer games, so I was excited to make up for it in a different and fun way.  

 We purchased an 8 man tent for the event.  It was my first time camping in a tent with kiddos.  What an adventure, that's all I can say.

I thought the tent would keep Ella corralled a little bit.  Nope.  She's an escape artist.  

The Birthday Girls!  Ella and Amber have the same birthday, just one year apart.

 Luke and Brock are great friends.  It was so fun to watch them play.

 After all the egg decorating was done, it was time for 4 wheels of fun.

 And after dinner we sat around the camp fire playing mafia and chatting.  So fun!

 It was a crazy night.  A little too windy for my taste.  Especially in a tent.  Ella didn't sleep well, so I had a squirrely baby climbing all over me from 4 am until sunrise.  Not fun.  But we survived and the next day went to Easter Egg hill to roll our eggs to see which one would go the farthest.  I rode in Kory's truck and this was our following entourage.

 It was a climb!

But the views made it worth the climb.  

 Then we went back to camp, had lunch, cleaned up, and headed home.  It was so fun.  I love my friends so much.  They feel like family and every time we get together, we have so much fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!!!

Hard to believe that Ella is already a year old!  She has been the most amazing addition to our family.  Happy birthday sweet girl!

Did I mention that she doesn't really like to get her picture taken?  I can't help it.  She's so sweet! 

Foolishness

We went all out for April Fools Day this year.   It took a little preparation, but was well worth it.  I love to trick my kiddos.  The night before I made this "apple juice".  It's really lemon jello with a drop of red food coloring and a tiny bit of green food coloring.  Looks like the real thing, until you try to take a drink.

Also the night before, I put a few drops of blue food coloring in the bottom of the cereal bowl and left them to dry.  The next morning when I poured their cereal, the milk slowly turned blue.  The boys were so confused.

 Unfortunately I was up late the night before (1:30 am- partying at a baby shower) and had a hard time dragging myself out of bed the next morning, so my tricks didn't work on the one person I wanted to get... Mia!  She saw the juice and the food coloring (thinking I just didn't do a good job washing the dishes) so she avoided the tricks.  But the day wasn't over yet.

Give a boy a straw with his breakfast, and this is what you get.  

I wanted to help the kids get in on the fun.  We printed these seed packets off the internet and filled them with chocolate and multigrain Cheereos.  So cute.  They gave them out to their friends at school and tried to trick them into believing you can actually plant doughnuts.

 I was able to get Mia after all.  I made this pretend spill about 4 days before April 1st and left it on her UNMADE bed.  When she came home she thought it was real.

 In fact she thought it was so real, she took it to the Stuart's house later that night and left it on my friend Kristen's bed.  Like Mother like daughter, I guess.

 My last trick was their after-school snack.  I got this idea off Family Fun.  I took a frozen pound cake and sliced it.  Then I grilled one side of the cake on a griddle until golden brown.

I mixed up some frosting to look like cheese.  (Again with the food coloring... haven't they been saying on the news that food dyes cause hyperactivity.  I'm such a great mom)

 Then I cut the bottom crusts off and put the frosting between two slices.  Tricky Tricky.  Looks just like grilled cheese.

 They all fell for this one.  Luke took the first bite and said "I don't like this." and pushed his sandwich away.  He knows what grilled cheese tastes like, and that wasn't it.  Cole took a bite and said that he loved it, but said nothing about it tasting like cake. In fact he ate almost the whole thing and didn't say a word.  I think he was confused but knew it was good.  Mia just kept staring at it, and I finally started laughing.  Then she clued in.

After Luke learned it was cake, he suddenly loved it.  Funny how that works.  

Until next year...