On TV

We were only in the audience, but it was really fun to go to the local King5 New Day Northwest and see what a live TV show is really like, behind the scenes.  

There are 7 different segments. The show started off with Dan Marino and Damon Huard, both NFL football legends.  They talked about their glory days for a bit and then introduced a new wine.  During the commercial break they stayed for pictures and autographs.

This group was on the show to promote the Bellevue Jazz Music Festival this weekend.  

Indoor Kite Flyer Connor Duran performs.  He was on America's Got Talent.

This lady was there to promote Victoria BC and even gave away a trip to a lucky member of the audience, too bad we weren't the lucky winner, but she talked for several minutes which gave Linsey a lot of screen time.

The other segments were about diabetes awareness and cosmetic surgery which were not as exciting for the kids, but they were thrilled with some freebies.

After the show we got some pictures with the host Margaret Larson.

The studio itself is quite small.

I was surprised that this is where the audience sat.  There is room for more rows of chairs, but with all of the construction in the area, they don't fill much more than this.  The cameras have a way of making the audience look much larger.

Because the audience wasn't huge, every time the cameras scanned to the audience, which was mostly before and after each segment, we were on TV.

Lucky for us (and I give the credit to Caleb who wore his BYU shirt which gave us special treatment from an LDS employee at K5) we were invited to check out the news room.  

How cool is that?  Pretty great looking news crew.

 This is where they do the weather.

 Looks like a pretty intense interview.  

We went home and watched the show, fast forwarding to the clips where they showed the audience.  Everyone's favorite part is at the end where Austin is clapping his hands high over his head.  

Happy Birthday Austin

Austin is 5 years old! 

Birthdays are the BEST!  We love birthday parties in our house (who doesn't), and we spend days and weeks planning out the details of the anticipated event.  Austin has been telling me for weeks that he wanted a lego birthday party and his big idea was to invite LOTS of friends and spread legos out ALL OVER the entire house so everyone could play.  

We did something like that.

I've thrown a lot of birthday parties over the years.  With 4 kids 13, 11, 9 and now 5, I figured out that I've planned and put on 28 kid birthday parties.  I'm no expert, but I've learned a few tricks.  Things like scooping out the ice cream before the party and storing it in the the freezer like this.

There always needs to be a little activity or something for kids to do once they arrive, this coloring page was perfect for this group of 4 and 5 year olds.

Jared decorates amazing cakes and has done some really cool ones over the years, but lately I just use my cup cake stand and do something simple like this.  

Hunter made this super cool for dispenser for the party.  I love the creativity.

Here's another trick I learned this year while working at the preschool.  I had a stool in front of the sink which was filled with soapy water all ready for the kids to easily wash their hands after playing with play dough or when they got sticky from their ice cream and cupcakes.  

We played some fun games. 

And here they are playing legos.  It may not be quite what Austin had in mind, but he looks pretty happy.

When you have a lego party, everyone knows you like legos and that seemed to be the theme of the gifts.  Good thing Austin really likes legos.  He was thrilled!

Austin spent hours after the party putting together each lego set.  This was the first time he had a chance to follow the instructions step by step and make cool cars and ships and lots of other cool stuff.  He was in heaven.

A few fun Favorites:

Favorite dinner:  Homemade Macaroni & Cheese (That would be yours Tara!)

Favorite treat:  Spittle Babies (Sugar Babies)

Favorite thing to do:  ride bike around the block and ride on the teeter-totter at preschool.

Favorite movie:  Frozen, Olaf is so funny!

Favorite toy:  Legos and Hot Wheel cars and tracks

Favorite day:   Thursdays - He loves preschool and skittles math.

When I grow up:  "I want to be a taxi driver, til I'm tired of that and then I will be a train driver."

Austin predicts that someday he will have 6 kids, I kitten, and a pug. 

He also wanted me to write down that he thinks Emma is nice.

Girls Trip

Good friends are the best!  I was so lucky to take a girls trip with these super neat gals.

We all met in Utah so we could go to Women's Conference at BYU, but really.. the reason we all went was to visit our good friend Stephanie who just moved to Mapleton.  We miss her so much.

It was really fun to be back on BYU campus, my old college stomping grounds.  I even ran into one of my dearest college friends.  

We walked down to the old duck pond that I used to walk by every single day going to and from classes.  It's got a fancy walkway around the whole thing now, much nicer than it was then but still brought back a flood of memories.  They came pouring in all weekend being on that campus, I loved going to school there.

There are certain things you have to do when you visit Provo, like hike the Y, eat at Brick Oven, and buy chocolate covered cinnamon bears and souvenirs at the BYU bookstore.  We did all of those things plus much, much more.  We really packed a lot into our weekend.

We went to a concert on a rooftop with the beautiful mountains behind as scenery.  It was mostly college kids, but there were also a few families and then us... we thought we fit right in though. :)  It's only been a couple years since we were in college.

Stephanie recognized Jeremy from Studio C, a comedy show on BYUTV that all our kids have become obsessed with.  We had to ask him for a picture.  

We saw a play at the local theater, it was really good - the talent in Utah is impressive.

We had to try Waffle Love... I keep hearing about it.  The reviews were right, it's pretty darn delicious.

Swig is a drink shop that my husband and boys would stop at WAY too often if we had one in WA.  They also sell cookies but mainly it's soda with different flavor or fruit mix-ins.  We had to try it.  It was very refreshing to sit and sip a cold drink while relaxing out front sitting in a lawn chair, all for just over a buck.  That's a deal.

Nothing beats a girls getaway.  The conference was wonderful and uplifting, we had all sorts of fun shopping, getting pedicures, staying up late and visiting, but really good friends are what it's all about.