A super fun thing on our vacation itenerary was a day at the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.
I don't even know how to describe it, to even start to convey how much of a fun-filled wonderland it is for kids. It's not like anything I've ever seen and the girls had a blast just running wild throughout it and trying to soak up all the fun it had to offer.
First we tried our hand at various Utah-trivia questions with the help of this giant map.
The girls were pretty happy when they got the answer right:
A quick (and cute) sidenote about Utah trivia....
Arissa is pretty stellar when it comes to that (I'm talking withOUT the help of google....like just off the top of her head).
Take my word for it, or find out for yourself.....
...ask her what Utah's state flower is.
If that's not impressive enough, ask about the state bird.
And if you still aren't impressed (although you probably will be, she's all-around impressive like that) try the state ROCK or state GRASS, or state COOKWARE (do all 50 states have their own State Cookware, or is that just a Utah thing?? I dunno).....she will spout them all off like it's standard knowledge for a 10 year old (who's NOT from that state!).
I guess she must get that from Jesse who, after our very short stay in Utah, can explain to you how to find any address in any city in that state. Even though all the addresses are just a jumble of numbers that make my eyes glaze over (no good old "Main Street" or "Cornelius Place" in the Beehive state).
Not only that but we tested his knowledge on our way home, when we made a stop in one Utah city we've never been to (to deliver those knitted dolls that I made) and Jesse drove us right to the house we were searching for, without the help of a GPS....
...or a map
...or any general "how-to-get-theres" whatsoever.
Amazing to me!
But I digress. (a lot. Sorry!)
M&M loved the larger-than-life chess game:
Jesse asserted his authority (and managed the "Howard-family-communications center") from his throne:
Mallory, as an electic superhero:
My little ladies in the Oval Office:
Jesse too:
SO much fun!
The Treehouse
Celebrating Mallory Mae Chanel Hungry Howard, Part 1: Games and Crafts
Mallory's party was so fun to plan! I happen to love the movie Tangled, which was our theme, and I had a lot of fun collaborating with Jesse to come up with games & crafts & decorations.
The invitations were simple enough, but I put them off until the night before Mallory would be handing them out, so it took 4 of us to put them together and get them all done. (Mallory was not one of the 4....she falls asleep early as I've said before)
I got the idea for it online, and I took a chance that people would understand what it was:
(It's Rapunzel's hair hanging the window of her tower)
Then all the party details were inside:
I don't mind at all that some of the little boys ripped the hair right off and that no one rsvp'd. Not at all. :)
I did my tissue paper poms like last year....we hung criss-crossed twine above the yard and hung streamers and poms from it.
One of the lines of twine hung a bit too low and the kids thought it was fun to try and grab the poms:
Our first "craft" was to graffiti my Nana's walkway with sweet little drawings by Mallory and her party guests:
One of my lovely "assistants" helped me sweep and rake that walkway and I appreciated her so much.
My other lovely assistant helped me with some vital pieces for one of our games:
This year's variation on "pin the tail on the donkey" was "pin the nose on Flynn Rider". It's a running joke in the movie that they "never get his nose right" on the "wanted" posters:
So the party guests set about to pin his nose on:
In the end he looked like this:
Also in the movie, a big thing is the paper lanterns that appear in the sky every year on Rapunzel's birthday:
So for our craft we made pretty paper lanterns:
We hung them all from one of the pieces of twine until the party was over. They were very pretty and festive:
Then eventually all the guests took theirs home:
In the movie, when Rapunzel's hair gets cut, it turns brown and loses it's magical powers. So for "hot potato", we used a braid of brown hair for the kids to toss around:
They seemed to have a lot of fun with that......it was cute.
cake!
We had a big day for Mallory's birthday. We went to Sea World at her request, we went to Fuddruckers for dinner at her request, I gave her a pass in cleaning her room for the day (at her very fervent request).
It was a really nice day and I was happy about it.
Until I woke up the next morning and realized....I hadn't gotten her a cake! I literally shed some tears at the guilt over how stupid I'd been.
I think I over-looked it because I did order her a cake that weekend, for her birthday party the following weekend. But a girl just NEEDS to blow out some candles and make a wish ON her birthday. It's necessary.
So I went out and found this most darling cake, fit for a little lady just like my little baby:
love love love
Every time I start to post about something from our vacation, I always type "one of my favorite parts of our trip....". Then I realize I can't call EVERY part my favorite part. But I can't recall any moments out of the whole week that weren't my favorite! And I mean it.
BUT, one of my seriously favorite parts happened on day two, and only lasted less than 10 minutes.
We came out of Zion canyon, still amazed at all the beauty we saw there, and drove in to a pocket of light rain. Then we saw the biggest rainbow I've ever seen in my life....full & complete and stretching across our whole view of the sky (my camera couldn't even capture the whole thing).
We pulled to the side of the road, and it was just the 5 of us on this long road, in the middle of all this beautiful scenery and a perfect rainbow in the sky. 
The rain let up, so we got out and took a couple pictures. We were already running late so we had to get back in the car and get back on the road. I realize I might be a little too excitable by rain and pretty views and rainbows...
it's birthday season!
We're halfway through "Howard Family Birthday Season", as I call it. Two parties down, two to go!
I bet the mailman can tell when Birthday Season is:
Also making an appearance in that photo is a souvenir I brought back from our trip. A new welcome mat.
I ❤ it so.
Two! Two! Two holidays in one!
Mallory's 7th birthday fell on Mother's Day this year. Which was nice because we all spent the day together, which is what I would have asked for, for Mother's Day anyways.
She requested Sea World, so we went.
Arissa & Mariah chickened out and opted for the non-motion version of Wild Arctic. As you can see, Mallory thought it was no biggie:
Arissa & Mallory went on Shipwreck Rapids together:
Mariah found out she meets the height requirment (if you look at it from the right angle):
So then, she was off! And Arissa went with her on the ride, again:
Mallory was none too happy about getting soaked:
These two were accidental twins. (And one of them is sopping wet in this picture):
Happy happy day. Can't believe she's 7!!!
It was so cute how all day long, random people kept wishing her a happy birthday. We'd all pause for a moment and wonder how they knew, then we'd realize she was wearing her birthday crown. Lol!)
P.S.: It was super cute because all day long, random strangers kept wishing Mallory a happy birthday. We'd all pause for a minute, kinda creeped out and wondering how they knew. Then we'd remember she was wearing her birthday crown pictured above and it all made sense. :)
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