Anthony's 6th Birthday / Suz's Marathon

 Lately I have felt too overwhelmed to blog, especially since it has been almost a year since my last post. I got some inspiration from two of my sisters - Mary & Bina, who started up again recently without having to recount everything that they hadn't blogged, so thanks!


Anthony's birthday was lots of fun, especially since we had Suz's family staying with us.  We went to the Marathon Expo with the little kids on Friday and bought lots of running junk.  Who would have thought that a sport that only involves moving one foot in front of the other could have so much junk and accessories for sale.  We didn't sleep very well the night before Suz's race because both Scott (from AZ) and Paul (from Provo) were on the road and did not get to our house until 3:30 and 4:00.  At 4:00 (just before Scott arrived), I dropped Suz off with her friends to go to the marathon.  I went back to bed, fed the kids, cleaned up a little, went on a 3 mile run, showered, etc, etc. - the whole time I was thinking "Suz is still running!"  We arrived at the finish and were able to see her at the last 100 meters - it was so inspiring to watch all of those runners finish that race.  We spent the rest of Sat watching conference and getting ready for the party.  Sunday was a fun, lazy day with lots of good food and watching conference.  We went to a cool site on the border of AZ & UT called the glitter hole - lots of sparkly white rocks that look like crystals.  The kids were in heaven there and brought back their share of the rocks.  (Suz will have to share those pics with me later.)

Here are some pictures of this weekend:

Anthony on his 6th birthday.  Anthony is such a happy sweet boy.  We love having him in our family.  He is so kind to everyone and all of his friends and cousins love playing with him.  He was so excited to get a bunch of new lego sets and is pretty good at building them all by himself.

The dinosaur cake. - this was my first attempt using fondant, and it was really a fun project.  Suz helped me make the fondant.  We used this recipe from about.com.  It is pretty easy as long as you keep lots of powdered sugar, or butter on your hands and counter to keep things from sticking.  I also used this site for the original idea of the 3D dino, and I used Cathy's buttercream recipe for under the fondant. 

 Here are some of the kids digging for Dinosaurs.  It is nice to have a natural sandbox in the backyard - endless hours of fun. 

Cleaning the boys after a day of sand, cake, candy, and playing at the park.

Here is Suz finishing her marathon and right after.  I love how the girls' signs match her outfit.