My newest bit of front door signage

For a couple of years I have been looking for something cute to hang on my door for the St. Patrick's day season.  I have festive door hangers for Valentine's and for Easter but there is a pretty big gap in between so I hoped St. Patty could fill that time frame for me.

I looked and looked, but I am cheap and sometimes hard to please (I really don't like things that are overly cutesy or cheesy).  

Well, the other day I decided to get some ideas from my exceptionally creative friend, Pinterest, and see what she suggested.  She's fabulous.  She had just the thing.  

Here's the finished product.

I LOOOOVE it!

Not only is it simple and clean and just what I was looking for, but it also lets me incorporate a horse shoe that I gathered from my Grandpa's farm several years ago so it holds a bit of nostalgia for me as well (riding horses at my grandparent's house is one of my very favorite memories from childhood).

While I honestly adore this hanger, I am still planning on putting together one more.

I need (like, seriously NEED) a sign which reads:

"This house is full of shenanigans and malarkey."

I'm not sure there is a more truthful Irish tinted statement which could be said of our home.  Oh the malarkey and shenanigans housed within these walls!

Super fun, I love this kind of thing.  It is always fun to celebrate something and have fun and excitement to look forward to and add color to life.

Medieval party for the "old man"

Recently my old man became an old man (or, in other words, my dad turned 60 and my kids inform me that is when you officially become old...sorry, Dad, it had to happen sooner or later).

That dashing guy on the left is my father.

Anyway, so we opted to have a party to celebrate the event.  

And since he is so old, we decided to have a medieval themed party so he would know we appreciate how ancient he really is (or so he would still feel young because even he wasn't alive back then...either way).  A couple of my creative and quirky brothers came up with the idea and laid out the plan.

We decorated the room with "wanted" posters feature my dad's smug mug.

Brian and Paula and fam made torches and an awesome chandelier (which has since been adopted by my son Gavin and now resides in his bedroom) to light up the place.  They also managed to find a lovely musical score for the evening of period music (yeah, I would be ok to NOT listen to that particular sound track again any time soon...but it really did set the mood).

Josh and Heather made a poster (it says "Just like yon yeer of birth")

And each family designed a coat of arms to represent their clan.

This is ours.  We put each of our crests on a fabric aprons (Dad had a more official sounding name for them, but darned if I can remember what it was) so we could wear them around and be easily recognized as DeMouxs (um, yeah, that's pretty much never a problem -- we rarely go unnoticed).

And then, after everyone gathered, it was time for the fun!

We are short a few cousins here, but this is the bulk of the crew.

Josh and Joel had prepared a freshly minted madrigal to perform for Dad complete with guitar, catchy lyrics and dynamic actions.  It was pretty fabulous (and fairly hilarious) and quite well done.

Every medieval chap (and chappette) needs a sword, so we put some together using pvc bits and pieces.  Thankfully, even with all the lunging and parrying and everything in between no one ended up hurt.  I count that as a major win!

Once we had practiced sufficiently on each other, we took our new weapons outside to use them on evil fiends hiding the trees (yup, walloping balloons with pvc swords -- fun for the whole family!).

We also practiced our jousting skills.

And some archery (surprisingly, only one arrow ended up in the neighbors yard so that was pretty good...it goes without saying that one of my nutjobs was the offender who shot the arrow over the fence...sigh, that's just the way of things).

And then, of course, we ate!

This is the spread.  Turkey legs, breads, fruits and vegetables (and, naturally, we were sure to include those medieval favorites -- ranch dipping sauce and squeezable honey butter).

Yeah, those turkey legs were GIGANTIC!  It looked like we didn't eat a thing, but the leftovers will be well used.

After some present opening and hugging and remembering of the past, it was time to disperse and head for home.  A fun time was had by all.  What a wonderful evening and a great chance to honor a guy that we just love to pieces.  

Hope you had a great birthday, Dad.  I'm awfully glad we have you.

And so is the rest of my crew.

A little Provo museum fun

This weekend we decided to take advantage of time off of school (for everyone except Josh) and head out on a little adventure.

Sadly, our two oldest yea-hoos had basketball and babysitting gigs so they were not available to come with us.  

Which left us with a few empty spots in our suburban and we couldn't stand that so we invited a few friends to come on our expedition with us (namely my parents and my cutie pie nephew, Hayden).  It was a fun day.

We loaded up the car and headed south toward Provo to spend the morning at the Monte L. Bean museum. 

The museum is free to the public and still pretty cool (and has been remodeled since the last time we were there a few years ago).  It makes for the perfect way to spend family time away from the house.

Yes, we could be a 'fowl' display of our very own. 

Yikes. those puppies are tall!

Fun in Africa.

This interactive ant display was a big favorite with the kidlets.

Some people needed Grandpa's magic touch to get the hang of this activity.

Yup, that'll take off your fingers (I promise they weren't touching the thing, just
pretending to lose their digits).

Pokemon battle poses with fancy nature background.

Um, I'm not sure how often that really happens in nature
but it still looks pretty wild.

 And after spending time in the museum, nothing ends an outing more perfectly than a walk across the street to the BYU creamery for an ice-cream cone (thanks, Mom and Dad!).  Mmmmmm.  Good stuff!

I'm glad our bonus friends came with us, it was a really fun day!  If you are looking for something fun (and free) to do, this is a great idea!

Our group of kids on a slide in the little play area.

Valentine's Day

This week the kids are having Valentine's celebrations at school.

I think this is super fun!

I think it is wonderful when we all take a moment to remind the people in our lives that we love them.  Seriously, I can't think of too many better reasons to stash a holiday onto the calendar.

And so we celebrate!

Ah, love....we love you!

We did Ellie up for her party by twisting her hair into hearts all around her head.  

The boys all chose Ninja Turtle cards to share with their friends.  Kowabunga!  (I know they don't say that anymore, but that was their catch phrase back in my day.)

Aubs made personalized Valentine's for her friends.  She put a lot of
effort into them and I think they were really fun.

My clutch of party ready boys all prepped for their day of "love"ly celebrations!

Our smallest Valentine cute all done up and ready to party!

And here's a Valentine just for you, because I think you're great (I'm not even joking)!  Have a great Valentine's weekend!