B BASH

We celebrated Bridger's half birthday and Ben's birthday with our friends and neighbors with a "B Bash," staring the letter B. All of our food started with the B and we had "B"activities planned, but now that I am thinking about it, we never did. Oh well. We had lots of fun eating: burgers, baked beans, berries, BBQ chips, Bugles, and berry salad. We had cone cupcakes ( My creativity was draining by the end of the week and Cupcakes would have to do despite not following the B rule) Here are lots of pictures to share with you all. Happy Birthday Bridger and Ben!!

Present opening, always fun chaos



Bridger received: puzzles, paint, tools, doctor kit, books,

markers..lots of things to keep him well entertained.

These are the cupcakes. To my surprise and delight, they were a HUGE hit.

The frosting was flavored with Strawberry- Lemonade Koolade.

Yes, PINK is Bridger's favorite color these days. I had to use some red for MY sake.

Blowing out candles! Hooray!

Family photo.

Yummy!

Carter seriously DEVOURED his and any other cone or cone remnant that

was momentarily sat down/dropped/misplaced.

Mmmmm..... Delicious sugar

Theo, Chris and Bridger

This was the popular place to hang out,

the bucket with ice and drinks. The other place was the sand box.

Icy water + sand = bad, messy combination. But OH, SO, so Fun.

Chase and Carter, relatively clean still

No party with Ben Tippets is ever complete until the

LASSO has been busted out. Run, children, run!

They love it, by the way, and it is a sad time when the lasso

has to be put away.

Gotcha!

My Faves

• Celebrating Father Day! Ben is a totally fantastic father. I could have not asked for better for my boys. Even if they turn out to be just like him, I could not complain one bit. And, I have a wonderful Father, and Father-in-law! We love you all!
• After months of planning, buying and calculating, I finally can say I have A LOT of food storage, not quite a year supply, but we have a lot. And, a wheat grinder too! It feels good to be prepared for the future.
• Bridger and Carter are starting to spend lots of time, like many, many minutes at a time, entertaining each other. Can you say Heaven?! It is a wonderful feeling to see your kiddoes laugh, play and enjoy each other. Love it!
• Our house is painted. It looks great.

Bridger phrases:

"Mommy Tippets, DON'T!"

"Mom, where are my shoes? I am going to Utah today."

"Mom, I just kicked Carter and he is sad"

"Hey, look! It's raining and all that stuff!"

Bridger: "I am moving to Boise." (our dear friends just moved today to Boise.) Mona: "Oh, you are moving to live by Simon?" Bridger: " NO, Simon moved to Idaho."

My Favorites

My favorites for the week:

• Bridger DID swim by himself! He did great! Our swim teacher was watching him and said to me, "I think he could do it on his own..should we try?" So she put a float belt on him and he just started swimming. I moved away from him to show him that he really was doing it by himself, which I thought might make him nervous. It didn't. As he swam around the pool, I swam a few yards next to him. He said to me, "Mommy!! You're swimming all by yourself!"
• We finally got our gardens planted. Yes, we are attempting to do 2 again this year. We'll see how it goes.
• We got to go to the Temple . For those of you who live in Mormon Mecca, this may not sound like a big deal. When was the last time a temple trip for you took 12 hours? For us, it was a big deal, and it was great. Thanks to the Harts for volunteering to watch our boys so we could go!
• Bridger's Best: Yelling the song "Reverently, Quietly" into a megaphone. Phrases: "Carter! What is the dealio?" "Bridger loves Daddy AND Mommy!" and our conversation about planting: ( I told him we could only plant when it is sunny)

Bridger: "Look, Mommy! The Sun! Can we go plant?"

Mona: "Sure, what would you like to go plant?"

Bridger: "I want to plant some weeds."

Mona:" We all ready have plenty of weeds."

Bridger: " NO, we need more. More big, GIANT weeds!"

• Carter: He is Learning to defend himself and is sick of being bullied. He screams at the top of his lungs when something gets taken away from him and the second he has it back he smiles. He is also starting to be a picky eater. When he doesn't want something, he sticks his tongue out in between pursed lips so NOTHING will get into his mouth. It is really hilarious.