Four Years Old

It's official...Hyrum is now 4 years old. I asked him this morning if he felt bigger now that he was 4 and with a big grin he said, "yes."

We had a fun time day yesterday (and saturday) making Hyrum feel special. We started saturday morning by taking the boys down to the park at the end of our street for a community easter egg hunt. Hyrum came home with quite the loot. When we got home we attempted to make a race car cake but it stuck to the pan and didn't look anything like a car once we got it all out. Hyrum had been so excited all week about his "race car" cake, I felt awful and was ready to start over again, when Hyrum, said, "It's ok Mom, let's just do cupcakes like we did last year." What a sweet boy he his. I assured him that if he really wanted the race car I'd make it again, but he thought that decorating the cupcakes all by himself sounded like fun, so that's what he did. I think more frosting ended up in his mouth than on the cupcakes. Later that night Dave let the boys play bowling on the Wii and they had a blast. On sunday (his actual birthday) we let him open his presents before church. He loved them all! Then at church the primary sang "happy brithday" to him and gave him a pencil. His smile couldn't have been any bigger. That evening we had dinner at a friend's home. Hyrum had fun going on a birthday scavenger hunt and then eating cupcakes and soy ice cream.

Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

"This is what I always wanted!" (referring to the tape)

Happy Birthday Hyrum

Today Hyrum turned 4 years old. It has been so rewarding to watch him grow and develop over the past year. This kid amazes me. He is eager to learn and has a great love for discovering and exploring new things. He is one of the most inquisitive people I know, always asking "who, what, when where, why and how" questions.

Here are just a few fun things about our Hyrum:

• He is learning to read and write. About a month ago after drawing at the table for a few minutes Hyrum came up to me with his paper in hand and said, "look mom, I wrote 'pet'." He sounded it out all by himself and wrote it down. After that he sat back down and wrote down several more words. He absolutely loves to learn! (notice how he spelled the word "dollar")
• He is a scooter riding maniac. After several crashes he still gets back on his scooter everytime. He even does little tricks now (good thing he got a new helmet for his birthday)!
• He is a little inventor/creator, always wanting to build or make something. Usually a cardboard box, some tape, a few pipe cleaners and a little bit of paint (if we're going all out) can turn into a masterpiece.
• He LOVES to pretend to be different people (ie fireman, rocketman, fisherman, ice cream man, worker man, boy scout, santa claus and robot man, just to name a few).
• He continues to play every sport involving a ball.
• Black is his favorite color. When asked why, he says, "because my church pants are black, my church socks are black and my church shoes are black." He recently got some new tan pants for church so now he says that brown is his favorite color.
• He has grown to love his baby brother Thomas. He does silly and crazy things just to make Thomas laugh. He often says, "Thomas is so cute."
• William is his best little buddy and partner in crime. They bring each other their greatest joys as well as their greatest sorrows (its a love/hate relationship). People always ask me if Hyrum and William are twins, to which I reply, "No, but they are inseparable."

That is just a tiny bit of the boy that Hyrum is. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

Here's a little video to show you more about him over the past year. Hope you enjoy!

Stay tuned for pictures of his birthday celebration.

Homemade Volcano Recipe

Here's the recipe for making the volcano and lava, for all of you who asked.

Baker's Clay

Mix together:

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water

Knead until smooth. Add food coloring if desired (we left our dough white and then painted it with acrylic paints once it was cooked and cooled). Make shapes (we shaped our volcano around an empty spice container then removed it to bake) then bake on cookie tray at 300 degrees until set and golden (1/2 to 1 hour; it depends on how thick the walls of your volcano are).

Once your volcano is ready to go here's what to do next:

• place volcano on cookie tray
• place spice container (or other container) back in volcano, if it still fits (it will work just fine without anything in the middle; however, the lava shoots out more with a narrow passage way- we do it both ways)
• fill center of volcano with baking soda (I didn't measure I just dumped some in- probably about 2-3 Tbs depending on the size of your volcano)
• pour in vinegar (once again I didn't measure I just dumped it in- probably about 1/4 to 1/2 cup) colored with red or orange food coloring (I've also heard that you can use water and dish soap, but we haven't tried that yet)
• Enjoy the pure delight on your children's faces!!!

Note: after several eruptions, we rinse off our volcano, let it dry and then store it for another day (it's a great distraction on those days when you've just "had it")

Happy Volcano Making!

Volcano Fun

One of our latest little projects was making a volcano that we could watch erupt. Hyrum and William had a great time making and shaping the dough, an even better time painting the cooked dough and they just couldn't get enough of watching the volcano erupt. Yea for simple science projects that amaze young minds!