Bowling again!

The kids didn't have school on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, and they were having the $1 shoes and $1 per game at the bowling alley again, so we decided to go do that.  Dan and Shar and family were also able to join us, along with Uncle Johnny.  Unfortunately, when we got there, all the lanes were taken.  We had to wait about 45 minutes until some lanes opened up.  We did a children lane, for all the little ones except Tink, who we let bowl with the adults.  We had two adult lanes and the adults were able to bowl two games to the kids' one.  Everyone had a blast though. Shar's dad helped the little ones so that was perfect. I was able to just sit and enjoy watching everyone and holding little Mallory.  She slept most of the time, but when she woke up, I let Tink hold her.  She had just started smiling and we all got some good smiles out of her.  I was able to catch a few with Tink's camera.  So sweet!
PC surprised us all by getting in the 160's, I believe it was, for his second game.  He has never bowled so well. The guys kept asking him what he was doing and he would reply along the lines of just not caring how well we did.  Apparently, it was working for him!  We had a great time.

Papa and Nana's Birthdays

We celebrated Papa's birthday at our house.  It landed on a Monday, so we had dinner and Family Home Evening along with the celebration.  We had yummy lasagna and ceasar salad.  I made the Oreo cookies 'n cream cake we love.  PC usually has it for his birthday, but since he wasn't here, this was a great excuse to make it!  Dan and Shar also came over with their kids, and we all had a nice time. 
Then the following Sunday was Nana's birthday which we celebrated at Dan and Shar's.  They made Cafe Rio salads (YUM!) and got a super chocolate cake from Costco.  Unfortunately, my camera died after I got the one picture from Papa's birthday. I thought I just needed to charge the battery, which I did.  Unfortunately, when the battery had died, my lens was out and even with a fully charged battery, it wouldn't go back in.  It kept saying "System Error: Focus."  I was so bummed. I borrowed Tink's camera for Nana's birthday, but they just didn't turn out very well.  Luckily, a couple days ago I tried again and it works fine now!  So glad!

Basement

I know I shared our main floor pictures with you, but as I was cleaning up the house for PC's return, I took some pictures of our basement. I didn't get all of it. (Forgot to take a picture of my craft room, but I'll get to that some day!)  Here is the main room in the basement.  This is where we have movie night and play the Wii.

It's a pretty large room, so on the other side we keep all the toys.

We have an unfinished part of the basement that we hope to finish someday.  We would like to at least put in a bathroom down there!  For now, though, it has scraps of carpet and we've made a craft/art area for the kids on one side.  It has been perfect for when I do preschool with Goofy and his three buddies in our Busy Boys Preschool. 

The other side of this area has shelves and buckets of storage stuff. We just bought a treadmill, so that will go in the middle of this area (to the right of what is pictured).  My craft room is off to the left. 

See Ya Later

Uncle Mike had to go back to BYU on the 3rd.  The kids were so sad to say goodbye.  We went over the night before for dinner and to say bye.  I wanted to get a picture of the kids with him, but of course Goofy didn't want to cooperate, so Uncle Mike tried tickling him to get him to stay.  Minnie and Bucko helped out a bit.  After I got a picture of them all smiling, Uncle Mike mentioned that he was probably the most ticklish person they will ever meet.  Well, you know what happened then....they went after him! After tickling him on the couch, they chased him around the house.  They had fun until Tink came down the stairs too fast and tried to take the turn. She slipped and hit her shoulder on a table.  We stopped their fun then, but I'm glad they enjoyed their uncle while he was here.  Minnie cried so much and still does some nights.  She can get so attached to her aunts and uncles, but I'm so glad she has that bond with them.