Badges of Fun: Badge 4, Family Fun Night

Friday Night we got our 4th Badge of Fun! We had a family fun night that was definitely one for the books. First we had dinner, then we made some "spooky cookies" (Brandon bought some special cookie dough that had pictures in them. I had never seen them before, so it was different for us). I love this first picture because you can tell how excited Noelle was.... so excited her little foot made it onto the table.
While the cookies were baking, we started a family art project. Each member of the family got a picture to decorate and a lot of different decorating supplies (markers, google eyes, yarn, stickers, paper, etc.)

And here they are! Mom decorated a picture of Melanie and Noelle that turned out extra silly.

Melanie's self portrait was spooky. Just look at those eyes!

Noelle was proud of her family picture... we are a family of red monsters!

And... well, dad, all I can say about this one is "wow!"

After the art project, we ate cookies and played games. Then it was off to bed. Fun night for sure!

Flowers

I was going through my pictures to print some out for a family activity tonight, and found these pictures, taken on Saturday. They were so cute, I couldn't believe I missed them before.

Saturday was General Conference... but between sessions, it was a family gardening day. This time, we planted flowers (something we haven't done in quite some time). The girls were so excited, and such great helpers.

It's nice to have something pretty growing in our backyard again (though I am sad that we had to get rid of a few of my favorite plants... but they were getting old and starting to die, so I understand).
I love this picture of Melanie and Noelle working as a team to water the flowers.

Eventually, daddy started watering the daughters.

It was definitely fun. In case you are wondering, I did help with this project... there is just a lack of proof. Actually, sometimes I think there is a lack of proof of my existence because there just isn't any pictures of me at any of these activities... I'm working on my husband with this. We'll see. :)

A Little Change...

We've had a little change around here... Beautiful weather! And it's definitely a welcome change. I love when it finally cools down and we can go outside to play! The Smithson clan definitely knows how to have fun outside, so we have taken full advantage of it.

Yesterday we met cousins Liz, Morgan, and Ethan at the park. (Can you believe that? The park!!! We haven't been able to play at a park since Early May without burning ourselves. Can you tell I'm excited!?!) The park was beautiful... and ironically, very empty. I don't know why the whole world wasn't enjoying the park.

Noelle was in heaven exploring the park. I love the Falcon Field Park (aka the "airplane park") because it's away from the main road and any traffic, so the kids really can explore.
Melanie and Morgan enjoyed being the "big kids on the play ground" and doing all sorts of big kid things.

It was just the ideal park day. Perfect!

If yesterday wasn't perfect enough, this morning is was... RAINING!!! After breakfast, my girls put on some warmer clothing and headed out back! (Noelle doesn't have any long sleeve shirts or a jacket, so I put one of Melanie's long sleeved shirts on over her shirt to act as a jacket. I think it worked).

It didn't rain for long, but it was still perfectly wet enough for all Melanie and Noelle's playing needs.

I love this. Melanie was trying to make foot prints from the water puddles. She was so busy looking at the camera, she ended up walking into a chair (but no worries, she wasn't hurt). We had a good laugh.

Artistic Noelle was enjoying some water painting fun on daddy's gate.

And some sidewalk chalk art.

Noelle and Melanie together were torturing the poor garden gnome. He WAS clean, prior to the torturing... Melanie insisted that he needed a mud bath.

Eventually we decided it was a good time for an art project, but it was beautiful outback that we couldn't pull ourselves away. So we brought the craft outback.

Now there are monsters (and ironically, princesses) in our closets. Melanie is really looking forward to scaring daddy when he goes to get dressed for church on Sunday. She says he will say "AAH!!! there's a monster in my closet". But, since there is only princesses in her closet, she will say "oh, look, a Beautiful princess in my closet".

Unfortunately for Noelle, a monster did, however, sneak into her closet.

Look out dad!

But don't worry... there is a beautiful princess in dad's closet too.

It's so beautiful outside, I think I'm in love. I hope everyone else is enjoying the weather as much as we are.

Random bits of Pleasure

I love just the little things that make our family so much fun. I found these random pictures in the things I recently uploaded and wanted to share them. This is a picture of Noelle getting ready for bed. Apparently putting on her pajamas, she thought she also needed to put on a tutu and a purse. :) So silly.

On Sunday, during conference, I wanted to try out rag curls in their hair. They looked so stinkin' cute with the rags tied in their hair, I couldn't resist a picture. (or two... or three).
It worked much better in Melanie's hair than Noelle's. But I still loved seeing Noelle with the rags in her hair. That was adorable.

The following pictures are a little harder to see, and take a little back ground story. My dad (Rodney) is a truck driver. He recently purchased a new truck that is (no joke) fuscha with a sparkling metallic finish. My dad was telling us at a family breakfast on Sunday that it's "Disney Pink". Brandon is my dad's mechanic and was asked to work on dad's truck Monday night. Well, we got the funny idea to "improve" the truck. Sunday night, I used my cricut to cut out "Princess Rodney" and "cupcake" out of black and pink vinyl. Monday night, Brandon added these to the truck (and took the following pictures).

Dad didn't notice this... which makes it funnier (he was actually there after Brandon did it on Monday, seriously had no clue). But when he showed up to the yard on Tuesday to get his truck... all the other men there were calling him "princess" and "cupcake". He said "yes, I know it's pink, get over it"... until he looked at the truck and saw it... I immediately received a phone call from him. He said something about not being able to carry his "man card" around the yard. I have to say, I thought it was pretty funny. :)

Night with the Stars

Why does this girl look so happy you ask? Well, she is waiting for the special night at the Arizona Museum of Natural History (called "Night with the Stars") to start. But that isn't what has her giggling like a little school girl...
It's her daddy! He looks like a regular Hannah Montana, but really, he was more of an inspirational speaker. Saying things like "Noelle.... I'm going to tickle you". We got to the museum a little early, so daddy entertained us. Eventually the museum opened and we were able to tour the new Hubble exhibit at the museum and enjoy many different activities they had going on.
In the following picture, Melanie and Noelle are using play dough to make the 9 planets (because they were still considering Plato a planet) and compare the different sizes. It was definitely a fun activity.
At the Exploration Station we got to make solar systems using scratch paper, color solar systems and assemble a puzzle.

Eventually we made it to the new exhibit. It was really neat. There are a lot of amazing space pictures, just beautiful. ASU students were there to answer questions and help people learn more about space.

After checking out the new exhibit, we went to the top level of the next door parking structure to look at the moon and stars through some special telescopes. The moon was quite impressive. The stars... well, I was underwhelmed. The guy was so excited to tell me all about the star I was about to see... but looking through the scope, all I saw was a tiny dot.

At any rate, it was a really fun night at the museum. A side story... Brandon jokingly told Melanie that he was going to feed her to the dinosaurs when the sun goes down, because that's when everything comes to life. She worried about that literally the rest of the night (even after I told and re-told her that it was just a joke and that the dinosaurs wouldn't be coming to life.) oops!

Also... on the way home from the museum my husband got himself in a little trouble... I share this jokingly. He actually started a sentence with "The strangest people, besides engineers, are..." Now, it doesn't really matter WHAT he finished the sentence with. He could have said "carnies" for all it mattered... it's the "besides engineers" that got his goose cooked. It's a good thing I love that boy! :)