A month's worth of stuff

For the last month I haven't posted anything, so I thought I would fill you in on what we've been doing lately. 

Brady turned four the end of September, so we had a pool party for him and Stephen since Stephen's party was at the cabin and everyone wasn't there.  It was fun.  He helped me make some cupcakes in the morning so we wouldn't run out of cake.

Dawna made a gorgous surfboard cake that was delicious!

The boys had a great time with their cousins and friends that were there.

For October break, we went up to California.  The first weekend my cousin Adrian was getting married.  We spent Saturday morning hanging out at the hotel pool with family, and the afternoon and evening at the wedding and reception.  It was so beautiful, and everything was perfect.

While the reception was going on, the kid party was in full swing nextdoor.  Jess was doing face painting, and there was a craft table outside and an ice cream bar in the kitchen.  It was kid heaven.

We spent a day at the beach (which isn't so relaxing with six kids there) and got some sun.

The last four days were spent at Disneyland!  My Dad and Dawna were there the first day with Ella.  Berkeley was so excited to have other girls there to play with.  We brought our niece Kylinn to help with the kids.  The boys loved having her around, and it was a big help to have her there to go on the rides with Blake and the two boys.

When we got home it was Berkeley's birthday!  She turned two!  She got a little kitchen and some dress-ups.

Her cousin Payton's birthday was that weekend too.  We had some cupcakes and lunch at Blake's parent's house and had a good time.

We left from there to head up to the cabin for the weekend.  It was very tiring, but a lot of fun.  I'm glad the week is finally over- now for the gigantic piles of laundry that are waiting.

Soccer Time!

It's that time of year again.  Time to load the wagon full of folding chairs, gatorade, orange slices, and if there's any more room, maybe the kids.  But usually, they just have to walk.  That's right, it soccer season! 

This is Stephen's second year playing soccer.  Since he's still in the under six division, all his practices and games are on Friday nights, which is awesome!  In the summer it's still a little hot when the games start, but then the sun goes down and it starts dipping down toward 100.  But the last few games in the winter are actually a little chilly, but nobody really minds.

The boys had to come up with a name for their team.  Some of the suggestions were blasters, lightning, bullets, bob ( I'm not sure where that one came from).  So they agreed on the Lightning Blasters!  We made a banner for them, although it was pretty windy the first game, so it didn't stay up very well.  I think I need to make a different stand for it next time.

Stephen actually payed attention to what he was doing this year and did what his coach asked him to do!  It was amazing!  They did some drills and warm-ups for practice.  Then it was game time.

Stephen got to do the opening kick off.  He was pretty excited!  He dribbled it down the field and...

made a goal! 

It was a great start for the team. All the boys got really pumped up! They ended up scoring eight goals I think. There is no score, but Stephen was keeping track. They play three on three with no goalie, so there is usually a lot of goals made.



The boys all had a great time and were really working together and cheering for eachother.  It was awesome!  What a great first game!  I can't wait for the rest.

My little Cowboy

My sweet Stephen turns six today! I can't believe he's so big already.  Although some days it seems like he's been here for soooo much longer than that.  We were going to be up north at the cabin for Labor Day, so Stephen and I thought about what kind of party would be good for in the mountains and forest.  He decided on a cowboy party, which in my mind was way better than the forest fire party he was leaning toward at first.  A lot of his cousins were going to be up there with us, and one set of grandparents.  We decided Saturday would be a good day for the party, since everyone would be there the whole day (nobody driving up or heading home yet).

Berkeley decided to wake up at four in the morning on Saturday, and after trying to entertain her quietly in our family bedroom for a couple of hours, I gave up and headed to the kitchen for bananas and cereal.  While I was there, I thought I might as well make the cake.  I started mixing, and Stephen woke up and came in just in time to help.

And in time to lick the beaters of course.

The inside of the cake turned out great!  The outside...not so much.  I was pretty dissapointed with my first attempt at marshmallow fondant.  I was going for cow spots, but couldn't get the brown dark enough, and didn't make enough to cover the cake with white fondant first.  But Stephen loved it, and everyone asked for seconds, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

Stephen looked at me kind of funny when he asked where the pinata was and I pulled out two paper bags.  I told him it was the kind of pinata cowboys liked.  It was his special plain cowboy pinata.

The day was full of fun and family.  For lunch we went to the Pinedale Fry Bread lunch.  Stephen was pretty excited about it because it's always been in a really cool old barn and he wanted to have his cowboy lunch in the barn.  This year they had it in the community center though.  But it was still really fun. 

After lunch, we walked back to the cabin and started the birthday party.  Stephen loves hunting for his presents.  Last year a pirate named Cap. Stinky Pants stole his gifts and hid them around the lot.  He left a treasure map and clues to find them.  He loved it, and wants to do that every year for his birthday.  So this year some cowboy bandits came and did the same thing.  The cousins all ran around in the pine trees searching for clues and presents.  Then they all ended up on the porch for him to open them.

Then in true Boswell fashion, I duct taped my paper bags closed, tied it onto a rope, hoisted it on a tree, and let the kids whack it with a stick.  My mini was not sure why she was doing this, but she will do anything she sees her brothers doing, so she hit it as best she could.

Brady swung too hard a few times.  He fell over once, and this time his stick went flying.  Luckily everyone else was standing behind him.

Stephen was very focused and ready for Dad to drop that pinata in his path.

But, he was too ready I guess.  He spun himself around and hit the ground rather quickly.

No matter though,  he kept at it until the candy finally started spilling out on the ground.  (Note: markers and crayons shatter when wacked repeatedly with a large stick)

After the party stuff, we let the kids just play for a few hours.  They all had a great time roaming around and making clubhouses and swinging.

Then it was time for the cowboy dinner.  All the kids scrunched in at the picnic table to chow down.

We had some BBQ beef sandwiches, cowboy beans, carrots, and corn on the cob (Brady wasn't about to let that corn out of his hand, even for a picture).  We served it in pie tins (which get very hot on the bottom from the hot beans) with some cherry limeade in small mason jars.

Stephen opted for milk in his jar.  Very manly.

I asked him to take a big cowboy bite for me.

Q wanted to show me his big bite too.  It cracked me up!

The cherry limeade was good, but too spicy for Stephen.  It did, however, look rather nice in the mason jars.

Later, it was time for cake!!!

It was a really fun day filled with lots of love and lots of smiles.  I sure love this guy!  Happy Birthday Stephen!  You're finally six!

Stencils!!!

This last week my sister has been making some awesome shirts and bags using freezer paper stenciling.  I think my favorite was a shirt she made for my dad that has three pictures of the plane my grandpa (Boz) flew in WWII as a Tiger. 

So, inspired by my sis, who was inspired by our cousin, I thought I would tackle my pile.  I had a bunch of shirts I have been wanting to do for my kiddos, but I HATE cutting out stencils.  I am horrible with an exacto knife.  But, I got a Silhouette SD machine a few months back, so I thought I would try it out with the freezer paper.  It bunches up a tiny bit sometimes, but not much.  Overall, it works great!

If you have never done freezer paper stenciling, you should try it.  It is so easy (once you get the stencil cut out anyway)!  Dana at MADE has an awesome tutorial about it here.  She explains everything so well and has great pictures.

It's pretty simply...

You get a shirt, or whatever it is you want to stencil on.  Wash it without fabric softener so the paint attaches better.  Then I like to iron it too.

Place your stencil where you want it to be (don't forget those inside pieces if you have some) with the shiny side on the fabric and iron it on slowly with no steam on a low to med heat setting.

Get your fabric paint, or mix some together to make your color.  Before you paint, make sure to put something thick like cardboard inside the shirt in case the paint bleeds through and your shirt gets stuck together.

Then start painting it on.  Don't brush too hard.  You want the stencil to stay put.  Also, make sure you don't paint outside of your stencil paper or you'll have a frame around the outside that you did not want.

When it's dry (a few hours) you can peel off the freezer paper to see your fun image.

Place a clean piece of fabric over your image and iron it again to set the paint.

That's it.  You're done!  You can enjoy your new creation now (but the paint bottle says not to wash it for a few days).

To find fun images, just look around online.  The possibilities are endless!

I hope you have as much fun with this as we have.  Just a warning- it's totally addicting!

Thanks for peeking in!