A Police Party

What a fun party we had yesterday.  Whitney turned seven years old and she decided that she wanted to have a police themed birthday party.  So I got on Pinterest to get some ideas.

We had a couple of small activities while we waited for all the guests.  Here the kids are decorating their goody bags.

They also got to color a police picture.

A cool thing about the party was that I had Will record 'police dispatch' messages on my cell phone.  So before any police case the kids would listen to the message to see what had happened.  Here the police dogs had been stolen.  The only clue was the letter 'K'.

The clue led them outside where they found a '9'.  Get it, K-9.  I don't know if the kids got it but I thought it was funny.  This clue led them all the way down the yard to the getaway truck that was carry little cute plastic dogs - one for each kid.

Another phone dispatch told the policemen to find the missing robbers who had stolen gold from the bank.  Will and I had hidden them around right before the party began.

Here the kids had to find the suspect fingerprint out of a paper of look alike fingerprints.

Another call came in and the kids had to do target practice.  We did a relay with nerf guns and some little targets painted onto boxes.

It was time for the pin the badge on the police man game.

And then the donuts were stolen and we had to find the suspect.  I used Apples to Apples pictures of people and gave out clues until the kids had narrowed it down to just one suspect.

After solving all the mysteries and stopping the bad guys, the kids got to make honorary police badges.

Then it was time for Whitney to open presents.  She got a lot of really great things.  So far she has opened quite a few things and has loved them all.

My mom was nice and made French bread pizza during the present opening.  The kids got to eat pizza and 'cop'corn  and soda'cop' and donuts.

And my dad was nice and watched this little guy during the party since Will and I were quite busy and Adam wanted to get into everything.

It was a fun party.  I am glad Whitney liked it but now I am happy that it is done.  I have until August before I have to plan another big party.

The Sage Center

We have been in the area for almost four years and we had never gone to the Sage Center in Boardman.  So on Presidents Day we decided to fix that.  I didn't know much about the center besides that it was about agriculture and was kid friendly.

There were lots of fun things for the kids to do.  Here Rachel spins the wheel to see the impact of water on the community.

Practicing being a farmer and driving a tractor along a path.  I didn't know that tractors were automatically driven by machines.

This is getting the feel of aged cheese.

Whitney practices milking a cow.

Here the kids got to push a button for different crops that are grown in the area and then see how those are exported around the world.

This was our "hot air balloon ride".  You get on and go on a eight minute ride where the balloon goes up and down about a foot and you watch a video that is suppose to look like you are flying over Boardman.  

The girls loved this and kept going back.  Here you play a little game where you try to flick off the bad French fries and just let the good fries fall into the basket.  It was really tricky since the fries traveled quickly.

Upstairs was a huge traveling display of how potatoes get made into French fries.  I thought this was really cool.

And we decided to treat ourselves to some Tillamook ice cream.  The ice cream was delicious.

Then we went outside and got to touch the huge farm machines.

The day was warm enough to spend a little time at the park outside of the center.

Adam loved his little rocking cow ride.  He was very good at the Sage Center and was looking awfully cute.

It was a fun center and now we know somewhere else we can bring people when they come visit us.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day here.

Here we are doing a craft.  The girls cut some paper hearts and we made a necklace.

For a treat we decided to make rice krispy treats.

We used cookie cutter hearts to shape them and then the girls got to decorate their hearts.

Here the girls show off some Valentine presents.  They each got some stickers and a lego set and some little candies.  Look how happy they look.

Another church in our community had a Valentine's Day dinner.  It was a free event for the community so Will and I decided to go.  The dinner was extra yummy since I didn't have to cook it.  And there was child care provided.

Will's boss at Lifeways ended up being the man in charge of the whole activity.  Here a few couples participate in a newlyweds game.

The library had a party a couple of days after Valentine's.  The girls getting some tattoos.

Rachel playing a tossing game.

Whitney tries to throw a little arrow into a heart.

Megan plays some bingo.  Each of the carnival games had little candies and prizes.

Finally we spent some time doing a heart magnet craft.  So it was a really fun party.

I hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day with lots of love.

A Sad Passing

Will's grandpa died a few weeks ago.  He was in his mid-nineties and getting sicker, so it wasn't totally unexpected.  But it was still sad because Grant Reeve was a wonderful man.  Will was able to fly to Utah to go to the funeral.

There was a nice funeral service for Grant.

A lot of people loved him.  Will said it was nice seeing some of his cousins and aunts and uncles that he hadn't seen for a long time.

A light lunch for the funeral attendees.

Will got to spend some time with his brothers.  I think he hasn't seen John since our wedding.

Hanging out with Dave at Will's parents' house.

On the Saturday the group decided to go on a hike.

Will said it was really cold, but the frozen waterfall was beautiful.

It was sad to hear that Grant Reeve had passed away.  He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him.  But I am glad that Will was able to go to Utah and spend that time with his family.

New Years!

I promise this is the last blog about the holidays. then we will finally be caught up.  We had a fun New Years at First Night in Kennewick.

Because we were some of the first people there, the kids all got 2017 glasses - complete with little flashing lights.

We played some little carnival games and the kids got little candies.

More carnival games.  We decided to skip the really long line for laser tag.

Here we meet Elsa.  Cinderella also made an appearance in the night.  But Elsa is Rachel's favorite.

Riding on the merry-go-round was a hit.  Whitney was the only one brave enough to go on a horse that goes up and down.

I wanted to see the juggler so we stopped and watched his show.  I thought it was cool.

Stopping and taking a little coloring break.  They were suppose to decorate a pizza to try to win a free pizza.  But we didn't win.  I guess we will just have to buy our pizza.

And we were at the bounce houses for a long time.  So it was a fun night.  Thankfully my parents watched Adam for us so we wouldn't have to hold him the whole time.  There were thousands of people there, but it was good.  And no one got lost.