He's gone mad!

Corbin's 8th Birthday was celebrated just his style . . .

A Mad Scientist Party!

1st Experiment: Is it a liquid or a solid?

 2nd Experiment: Magic Milk 

3rd Experiment: Jelly Rocks (sorry, no pictures, but trust me, they were cool)

4th Experiment: Sodium Bicarbonate (according to Corbin) or, to others, "the exploding volcano"

Other party fun:

Playing with Magnets

Balloon Rockets

 Corbin was the only one who blew his up all by himself!

 Thanks to Russ, the other kids got theirs done too.

 And Launch!  Those things flew around the room forever!

Playing with the Scientific Computer Mainframe:

(It's too bad we didn't get a picture of the whole thing, but it had wires stretching all over the "lab" including the ceiling.  It was cool.  Thanks, Russ!)

And we can't leave out the presents!  Corbin got just what he wanted - money, Legos, some books, and a couple other fun toys.  Thanks, everyone!

And Cody was very excited to give Corbin his present that he bought with his own money - a double pack of his favorite gum, and he had money left, so he wrapped it in a dollar!  What a great brother!

Last Experiments:  Frosting Concoction and Ice Cream Slime Drinks.

Happy 8th Birthday, Corbin!  We love you!

Phew! Does this craziness ever end?!

So I need to do a little "catching up" on my blog, even though I don't believe in that, but so much has been going on this month!  Since I don't have time to post it all right now, here's a little taste of the happenings and the postings you will soon see (hopefully).

The week Cody finished school (which was Spring Break for Corbin), we painted the big boys' room (finished pics coming soon):

After Cody finished on Wednesday, we headed out for a little trip to here:

And here (can you tell where we are?): 

We came back, had a day of rest, and then on his birthday, Corbin turned into a mad scientist:

Russ went back to work and I packed for Denver to go see this:

I got home just in time for this:

And then for all the Easter morning excitement:

Now we are sort of back to normal life.  Russ is off to Seattle for a few days, and we are getting back into the routine of school, chores, meetings, etc and hopefully soon it will be warmer than 40 degrees so we can actually play outside!

He really is a firefighter!

On our way home from Salt Lake a few weeks ago, we made a surprise stop to see Russ at the fire station . . . and right across the street we saw this:

We were really excited to get to see him in action!  They were doing training on an abandoned house, but it was interesting to watch.  We saw them pulling guys out and heard them give emergency evacuation horn.  We hardly ever get to see him really "at work", instead of just at the station hanging out, so this was really fun! 

We're proud of our firefighter!  Love you, Dad!

A Bittersweet Goodbye

Two days after his "Car Culmination", Cody had his last day of preschool at BYU.  We were very sad to say the least, but Cody is also very excited to start Kindergarten.  We will miss all of his amazing teachers, especially our good friend Miss Dorie.  This preschool has been such a good experience for Cody and for us as parents - we both learned more than we could have any where else.  I am grateful for their dedication to helping Cody become a successful learner and for helping me learn how to work with him on critical life skills.  I feel like we got a double bonus as I had the opportunity to team with them in helping Cody grow and develop and prepare for his future schooling career.  I called Dorie my "parenting therapist".  I felt good knowing that he had a teacher that cared about his development and his future as much as I did, and that we could work together on doing what was best for him. 

Thank you, Miss Dorie!  We will really miss seeing you everyday!

And thanks to all the other student teachers who made this experience so much fun!

The Car Expert

In Cody's preschool, they do project based learning (remember the spiders?).  Well, this last quarter, they have been learning all about CARS and Cody is definitely a car expert.  The parents were invited to the culminating event this week and Cody got to show us everything he had learned, and though I had been following what they were doing, I was quite impressed...

He showed us how to check the oil and the other fluids in the car.  He knew right where they were and how to tell if we needed more.

After showing us all the different car parts (headlights, taillights, runner, muffler, etc), he showed told us all about the wheels- including how to tell if we needed new ones and how to change them.  Have you ever heard of the penny test??

How to change a tire:
take off the lug nuts (sound effects included)

 take off the rim

 then pull off the tire.  Then do the whole thing in reverse to put it back on (Cody did this in fast forward, so it was harder to get a picture.)  :)

Inside, Cody showed us their "Car Shop"and took down my order of what I wanted fixed on my car.

 They even had a waiting room!

Inside the shop, showing me how to change the oil.

We are so proud of our little car expert!  Not too long and I'm sure I will be putting all that knowledge to work in our garage!

Listening to a Prophet's Voice

We feel so blessed to have a living prophet of God on the earth today!  Though our church's semi-annual conference is broadcast across the globe, Corbin and I were very grateful for the opportunity to attend and hear our prophet and apostles speak in person.  What a wonderful, peaceful atmosphere it was!

As we were walking out, Corbin asked me what my favorite part was and both of us agreed our favorite talk that morning was given by President Henry B Eyring.  It was all about serving the poor and the needy, confirmation of everything I try to do and to teach my children.  I am really grateful to see our church putting such an emphasis on serving, because that is how we can truly become more like Christ.  Corbin and I also talked about out favorite stories and anecdotes that were shared.  He was such a great companion.  And I am such a lucky mom!

The Conference Center where we were seats 21,000 people and yet it was amazing how calm the exodus was and what a great feeling pervaded the whole event.  Feeling that, hearing the Mormon Taberbacle choir, being so close to the Prophet - I don't think there is anything else like it in the world!