What Would You Do with an Extra $50?

My parents are cleaning out their cupboards in preparation for a kitchen remodel. While cleaning out they found a white envelope that obviously had some cash inside with "For Kate" written on the outside in my mom's handwriting. I opened it up today and found a lovely $50 in cash. My mom didn't include a note, so we don't know why she was giving it to me or how long it had been in hiding, but it is mine :).

So I am curious to know, what would you do with an extra $50? I am thinking of spending mine on some new shorts for summer....

Colors and Powers

One of Jason's latest interests is colors. He loves learning the names of colors and identifying items with their colors, such as "red car" and "purple flower." Now when we read stories, he is more interested in having me point to the pictures and say what color everything is. It is so cute to watch him try so hard to learn colors, but the concept is still not completely formed in his mind. He doesn't have all the colors straight, but luckily he is young enough that he doesn't mind constant correction.

Along with his fascination for colors has come a fascination for flowers, or "powers" as Jason calls them. Talk about stopping to smell the roses. Jason wants to look at everybody's flowers and figure out what colors they are. We don't get very far on walks because has to walk into every yard to check out all the neighbors' flowers. We are trying to be very good about only touching flowers, not picking them. He was doing really great with that until I started letting him pick dandelions, which every child assumes is like a normal flower, and now he can't understand why I won't let him pick the others. Life can be so confusing.

Watch Cars

Yesterday I had a proud parenting moment when I realized that something I'd been teaching Jason had sunk into his brain. Before crossing the street together, we have this routine where I point one way and ask him if he sees any cars coming. If the answer is no, we check the other way, and when we find that all is clear, I say "OK, let's go." However, yesterday when we were crossing the street to swing at the neighbor's, I did my own mental check and skipped our routine. I just grabbed his hand and started crossing the street. We got about 1/3 across the road when Jason stopped, turned, and ran back to our driveway. When he got the driveway he turned to me and said "Watch cars," meaning, we forgot to watch for cars before crossing. I was so happy he remembered how important that step is. I am really amazed at how smart he is getting.

Like Father, Like Son

We invited Kyle's parents over for Family Home Evening, and Kyle's dad showed up with a beard. Guess who else had a beard? Kyle did! No, they did not plan growing beards together, they just have this magical gene that triggers them both to start growing beards at the same time. I'm sure if Jason had been old enough to grow facial hair, he would have had one too.

Although I do think Kyle looks ruggedly handsome with a beard, I am always happy when the smooth face comes back, which it has.

On this same night Grandma Linda introduced Jason to the wonderful game of hide-and-seek. He loves it, especially when he is the seeker. The day after their first round of games, Jason said "one, two, three, four, five, six!" I was impressed! My 21 month-old can count to six correctly.

Jason is great at saying a loud "Amen" at the end of prayers, whether he is at home or at church. When we had Kyle's parents over, however, Kyle was praying over dinner and Jason said "Amen" in the middle of the prayer-- three times. We took it as a good sign that Kyle's prayer was too long (which it really wasn't that long). Short and sweet is how Jason likes it.

Little Women

We had girl's night out with my mom and sisters and cousin Kelli. I am SO lucky to have an amazing mom and so many fun sisters. We started with shopping and a pot-luck dinner. Then we went to the Opera to see "Little Women." The style was quite contemporary and not our favorite, but it was still fun to hear what contemporary Opera sounds like. And of course the plot was perfect for a group of sisters.

Jason's First Snowman

We woke up to an April snow storm. Normally, this isn't something that makes our day in April, but we had fun building Jason's first snowman.

Jason turned this bowl into a hat. I thought he looked so cute that I decided to snap a picture, but the only way I could get him to look was to be in the picture with him.


Jason's rediscovered love is our neighbor's swing set. This past week we've had to go over to the neighbor's house several times each day. He has started to call it "Jason's do-wing". So if you come visit us and nobody answers, chances are we are across the street swinging.

Kyle and our neighbor finished fixing the fence while listening to Conference on the radio on Saturday. They did a great job. We only had to pay $25.00 for supplies (half of $50.00). I am glad it's done so now we can move onto other Saturday projects, not to mention having dog-free backyard again.

Murder Mystery Night

No, I was not the murderer, and neither was Kyle. But we still had a blast hosting a murder mystery night-- Roman style. We invited our new friends from the ward (Cluffs, Mayers, and McFarlands). Our child-free evening started off with pulled-pork salads, and ended with us finding a murderer amongst us. I won't give away who it was because we are happy to lend the game to anyone adventurous.

Thanks to my college friend Noelle who introduced me to murder mystery games and who gave us two of her games.