Wild Kratts party

Corbin is SIX! I can hardly believe I have a six year old! This is the first year I let him have a friend birthday party. He chose a Wild Kratts theme, because he is a little obsessed with that show. 

 The first creature power they used was Beaver power. They each used pretzels and peanut butter to make a beaver dam.

 Then they activated their cheetah power for a quick game of tag. Everybody was hot and tired after maybe five minutes.

 For butterfly power we wrapped each kid in toilet paper like a cocoon and they had to break out to become a butterfly.

 We then played an ice floe game for polar bear power. They had to walk across the ice to get to the blanket. This one was much harder than I expected it to be. We had to hold almost everyone's hands so they wouldn't fall and get hurt.

 Bat power was a butterfly hunt. They each had to find six butterflies that were scattered around the yard. The butterflies were a little small. Luckily Maggie re-hid hers so everyone would have enough.

 We had a lot of extra time because the games went much faster than I had planned. So we had a kangaroo jump race even though we didn't have creature power disks for them.

 All of Corbin's friends that he invited were able to come.

 We tried to have him blow out candles, but there was just enough of a breeze that the candles were already out by the time I actually made it to Corbin. He still pretended as we sang.

 Present time. He was super excited to get more ninjago legos.

 

We had a lot of free time for them to play. We ended up playing one more organized game and then they just played in the sand and went on a bug hunt. Overall, a very successful birthday party.

St George

Matt's family's trip this year was to St. George. We left Wednesday morning. I knew it was going to be hot, but when we got to Cedar City to play at a park I could barely stand the heat. I didn't even want to drive into St. George, knowing it would only be hotter. When we pulled up in St. George it was 108 degrees with a miserably hot wind. I didn't think I could last the whole weekend. Luckily that was the only time it was unbearable. 

We spend Wednesday night at Austin and Shawnee's. It was long over due for a visit with them. Maggie was in love with baby Ike. Corbin was kind of interested at first, but then a boy his age came over to play. We loved catching up with our favorite friends all night.

 Thursday morning we headed to Snow Canyon. The first little hike was to Jenny's Canyon. It was only a half mile and in the shade for most of it. It was perfect. 

 Then we hiked the petrified sand dunes which were really cool, but I was getting real hot. Matt and I had filled up the Camel Baks to take hiking and left them all at the house so we didn't have cold water like we thought we did. Most of the grownups sat and chilled on the rocks while all the kids went with Matt, Matt Aardema, Adam, and Malcolm to wander the rest of the sand dunes.

We went to the sand to play for a few minutes, but by this time Kent was done. He hardly walked any of the hikes he was so tired from his lack of sleep the night before. So we headed back to the house for lunch. I loved snow canyon. I wish we could have spent more time there, but it was just too hot. 

  The rest of the day was spent swimming and watching movies in the theater room. Swimming with the Jenkins' is always exciting.

 Friday we hung out at the house most of the day. Swimming and movies. Most everyone went to a ghost town about an hour away, but I stayed back with Kent napping.

 

 That night we went to Tuacahn and saw Peter Pan. I was a little disappointed in it. I had too high of expectations. It was a decent play, just not as great as I thought it would be. The kids did great though. Kent was too young to go so he got to eat dinner with us and then be a night owl at Austin and Shawnee's house.