A Crazy, Busy, Fun Week

I have so many pictures from so many different things we did this week, but I just haven't had a chance to post them. We stayed extremely busy and the week just flew by. So, here is my megapost from this week...

Tuesday, Jon, Emma, and I went to a pre-screening of Dreamworks latest movie, Monsters vs Aliens. We really enjoyed our time with just Emma and we all enjoyed the movie. It really was a good movie. We watched it in 3D, which Emma thought was pretty cool. The movie didn't start till 8 pm but she stayed awake and on the edge of her seat the whole time.

We didn't get any pictures while we were there because we weren't supposed to have cameras, so these are on the way home. This is the face Emma makes when we tell her to smile.

The man who made the evening possible

And one of me to show that I really was there
We didn't leave the theater in San Francisco until about 10 pm, so Emma crashed on the way home.
Wednesday, we ran some errands and tried to clean up the house. In the afternoon we went and got a membership at the YMCA. Several people had recommended it to me so we decided to give it a shot. An hour and a half of free babysitting everyday is enough motivation to get me to the gym. :) Really though, they have a nice, clean facility, great child care service, and an awesome swimming pool that Emma can't wait to try out. AND since I'm still a young adult (according to them) I get a reduced rate.

Thursday was busy! We got up bright and early to go with some friends to the de Young Museum in San Francisco. We were crazy enough to take four kids age 2 and under to an art museum, but they all did well and we had a good time. We did the speed through tour and took a break to let the kids run around outside, but I still enjoyed it.

This was from the observation tower 9 stories up
Emma admiring the fruit

and the shinies
Playing with Ella in front of the...statue...thing???After the museum we went to the botanical gardens across the street and had a little picnic. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful park, just an all around perfect morning.
Emma and Ella "fishing" in the mud

Friday we had lunch with Jon at Dreamworks like we usually do, but this time we brought some friends. Monsters vs Aliens came out on Friday so they had lots of fun props and decorations.

The movie takes place in San Francisco so they had the Golden Gate Bridge in the lobby.

This is Bob, Emma's favorite monster. This is actually a cake. Cool, huh? And for those of you who are fans of the cakewrecks blog, this is the same one that she posted yesterday.
This is the giant robot that the monsters have to fight. (Notice the cheese smile again)
And this is insectasaurus, another friendly monster.
They have this arcade game in the cafeteria and Emma likes to play it when we go. This is Emma and her friend Samuel.
Saturday was another busy busy day. We started the day by going to get pictures-family pictures, pictures of the kids, pictures of each of us with the kids...basically a whole lot of pictures. We got some really good ones and should hopefully have the proofs soon to post.

In the afternoon we went to a birthday party for Samuel (above) and his sister, Juliet. It was a prince/princess party and they requested that the royal guests come in their best prince/princess attire. Emma is not usually very girly or princessy, but she was so excited to wear her princess dress and the crown that Jon made for her.

The guests blew bubbles with their special wands

and enjoyed the spoils of not one, but two pinatas.

Matthew hung out and was happy as long as he had his apple slice.

We went to the playground after the party and played for awhile to wear the kids out and then headed home.

And that brings us to today. We had a great day today. Our church meetings were really good and were just what we needed. Our bishop has challenged our ward to read the Book of Mormon in 4 months (from May to August) so we are excited to start that. And just an interesting fact...he said he's read the Book of Mormon out loud 5 times just to see how long it takes. The consistent result was 33 hours, which figures out to 2 1/2 hours a week in order to finish in 4 months. Totally doable, right?

After church we let the kids take naps and just enjoyed our afternoon. For dinner we tried a new recipe, Zucchini Soup with Oatmeal, which describes pretty well what was in it. It was really good. Jon also made some rolls which were delicious. We realized after starting them that we were out of eggs. After a little online searching we found out that you can substitute a mixture of oil, water, and baking powder for eggs. It worked surprisingly well.

Anyway, this has gotten really long so I'll finish up with a few random pictures of our handsome little guy.


This is what happens when we leave our bedroom door open.