Eight is great

 this kid lucked out this year as his birthday fell on a friday.

which we all know means weekend-long birthday!

woot woot!

his one request was to go to "Bullwinkles."

so we let him invite two friends to go with him on his actual birthday.

yeeeah, i know.

spence had a friend show up too!

 this place is a mini version of heaven for these boys.

 i would rather gouge my eyes out with a red hot poker

 with his baptism on saturday, we did a mini photo shoot beforehand...

aaaand the big day!

the theme was "come unto christ"...

if you can have a baptism theme, that is.

some family that came up for the special day...

then we fed them because baptisms make you hungry.

i don't know if flowers are too girly for a boy baptism,

but i don't care. i do what i want.

they were white.

after all the food prep, i realized i could never be a caterer...

that, and i had no steam left to make a cake.

enter costco.

he requested chocolate, and this is what they had.

(note to self: never get a costco cake again unless feeding 500 people.)

those balloon blobs of frosting were seriously as big as his head.

sugar comas are awesome.

a Thompson/Godard tradition is to gift the baptized child an embossed set of scriptures.

he was so thrilled to get these.

(he has been using my old seminary ones for over a year)

sunday, he impressed me by putting them to use with grandpa.

he was asking all kinds of questions about them and the stories inside.

such a special memory.

thanks for trekking out here for the baptism grandma and grandpa!

and thanks to all the family and friends that came

to be a part of this special memory for this eight year-old!

it was such a magical day!

 

 oh, and here is the video i put together and we shared at the baptism!
Come Unto Christ!

Amber's Birnday Fiesta

so....let's talk about May.

it is a great month.

not just because it is my birthday month,

but also because we 'mericans celebrate cinco de mayo this time of year.

in case you haven't met me, i kind of like mexican...everything.

growing up in florida kinda endeared me to hispanic culture...and food. 

i was also always secretly jealous of my hispanic friends and

 their quinceañera dresses back in highschool.

 eating tacos in poofy ruffles is a legit way to celebrate turning 15.

(or anything for that matter) let's be honest.

so although i did not don a poofy dress o' ruffles, i did eat some tacos, had a pedicure date with spence, and consumed some ice-cream cake, which is almost as good...maybe.

funny story.

ben decided to pick up an ice-cream cake for me this year and told the highschool kid behind the counter what to write on it.

let's just say he was not happy with the cake when he got home.

"happy birnday" to me guys!

 another little nugget of fun for you...

i did a little post-birthday shopping with my mad money and

 found an adorable children's store called Peek.

 it's pretty much my new favorite place...uh...for the kids.

sometimes baby gap just makes me want to cry, but this place was in a word,

amazeballs.

they have a section just for children's books. enough said.

that is where i found this little gem.

luchoadores + children's book = amazingness

(see previous easter post lest you be confused)

 here's a little peek...

haha Peek!...like the store?...oh nevermind.

 since cinco de mayo fell on a monday night this year (aka family night),

 we decided to make some festive lucha libre cupcakes.

the boys were all over this one.

 cutting out the faces...

they were totes adorbs, but too much work for my liking. 

(call me crazy, but rainbow hands and sticky counters for days is just not my thing)

on a side note, ben claims these hats and mustaches are semi-racist.

i disagree.

and yes, i am also a nerd because i bought them.

they are mini sombreros...come on!

 yay for birnday fiestas!



Happy Easters!

first things firstly,
i must say happy "Easters" instead of "Easter" ever since Nacho Libre.

i can't help it.

now on to the nitty gritty (also nacho libre's fault)...second:04

Easters at the godard compound started off with some good old fashioned egg dying!

and waxification.

it's a real word. look it up.

i let spence pick an egg kit this year.

so of course he went for the one labeled "Volcano!" eggs.

basically, you hard boil the eggs and then let some wax crayon shavings melt

over the egg...well...like lava.

don't get me wrong, it makes some pretty sweet designs,

but because the eggs need to be hot as blazes for this to work,

there were a few too many choice words mumbled under unnamed person's breath as their hands were scalded to stumps.

j/k (there were still 10 digits).

the masterpieces...

last easter i was a slacker mom and did not do a "big" egg hunt with the boys,

 even though they begged.

so this year, i made up for it and took them to the annual Lake Wilderness Egg Hunt on saturday.

i don't think we will do it again,

but at least now we can cross it off our bucket lists!

it was quite crowded, but somehow we managed to run into our good friends, the stevens!

they have boys the same ages as ours.

 they moved into a different neighborhood last year,

so we see them a little less often now.

h-man wanted so badly to be like the big kids that he stayed right in that spot behind spencer without moving a little toe.

which if you know him, is a huge deal!

once the fire engine horn sounded, the frenzy began...

the two youngest boys made out well,

but poor nate only got 3 eggs in his age group.

there were just too many kids.

on our way home to gorge on the candy,

we ran into old mr. hippity hoppity.

 later that day spence came up to me and said

 "mom, that was not the real easter bunny."

so i of course asked him to explain and he said,

 "i saw some skin...bunnies don't have skin."

dangit.

 nate couldn't wait to start eating the candy to take a picture apparently.

 

another first this year was the fantabulous cascarones egg game.

i had heard about cascarones (a.k.a. Mexican confetti eggs)

 and a way to use them in a game.

to say that the boys had a blast would be a serious understatement.

i mean who wouldn't want to chase their sibling around and smack an egg over his head?

ben and I didn't participate this year,
 but i definitely want to get everyone involved next time.
we are totally going to have to turn this into a new godard family tradition!

then easters sunday!
i love doing all the secular stuff the saturday before.
it makes it so much easier for our family to focus on the savior...
and we need that.

 happy easters everyone!

i am so grateful for my knowledge of our savior.

i know he lives.

i know that because of him,

change is possible.

we can start again.

we are worth enough to God that he sent his son to atone for us individually.

no matter how unfair life seems, there is one who understands.