Murder Mystery Dinner

      In a classic who-dun-it night of food and fun we entertained three other couples at our house for the Italian version of a murder mystery dinner. I had purchased this game and given it to Zach as a Valentine's present but we only recently got around to hosting the dinner. Everyone comes in costume and as the dinner progresses we read from a script and revel additional clues as to who could have done it. Roles included Pepi Roni, Tara Misu, Bo Jalis, Angel Roni, Marco Roni, Clair Voyant, Mama Rosa, and Father Alfredo. (I was the mourning widow of the deceased and Zach was the resident priest). A long day of cooking to make the meal and dessert from scratch but it was a fun evening. We have since shipped it off to the highest family bidder (hope you enjoy Jen!) so I won't spoil the fun by saying who it was that turned out to be the murderer. 
 

Borrow-a-baby Program

Here in the Fort Collins Hutchin's household we have started a program called "borrow-a-baby" where you can test drive one of our smaller versions to see how you feel about babies. We take check or cash for our baby rental program. It is similar to that service where you can rent a puppy by the hour. Rog and Christine decided to try it out two weeks ago and I think they passed with flying colors. Besides the baby test drive, they were just fun to hang around, play games with and take to the metal sculpture zoo. Thanks for visiting!

Reminded me of this picture- Mac and Zach 2011

Rog is reading him the Ensign, they were good buddies before he left

Basket Buddy

 Just because he's cute and fun to be around. He is the "star" in our house right now. Lincoln runs or hops and the other children clap. We all love him, what's not to love?

Half Monkey

This is my oldest monkey-child. When you get too old (9 yr)to play on playground then you start climbing on top of it. At least we know that if his chosen profession doesn't work out he can become a coconut harvester and shimmy up trees for a living. 

Snack Shack for Nepal

A few weeks ago we had a family home evening about helping those who are less fortunate and I suggested we have a lemonade stand and donate the profits to the church's humanitarian aid fund. (I had looked into other charitable organizations but you really just can't beat 100% of your money going to help those it is intended to help.) I spent the morning making 3 batches of giant chocolate chip cookies and with the help of many little squeezers, squeezed about 40 lemons to make homemade lemonade. (all told about $20 investment) Gabe suggested we set up at the local park so that is where we headed. We sold each for $1 to make things easy for both seller and buyers. After about 2 hours we sold 3/4 of our inventory and decided to call it a wrap. They made $42 and gathered $4 in donations. I will donate the proceeds online for the children. They did a great job, although we are going to have to practice some of their customer service etiquette . The children decided they liked it so much, they want to do it again next week. We will see if I am up to it. Perhaps just the cookies and otter-pops or something.I was very proud of them though.   

Littlest Nursery Goer

          This little one is officially in nursery, and has been for about a month. He is beginning to be more verbal and will repeat what I ask him too, "say duck.." Captain is still good to entertain himself but is a BIG distraction at Book of Mormon or Family Home Evening time when he is running around playing with the ball and all the other children just want to watch him and laugh. It is fun to watch him though, especially when he hears us sing and conducts the music. He is still the best baby hugger ever and doesn't get upset very often unless you take something away from him. He likes jumping on the trampoline, playing in the sandbox and being read to. He wakes up happy and has at least three dimples- two in the regular spots and one higher up on his cheek. This is my only blond-blue eyed child and it suites him well. Love you Lincoln!

Feel asleep looking at a book-  hard to be 1 1/2 yr old

Visit From the East Coast

Grandpa Ogarek came out for a visit last week to ring in the summer and brought along two stowaways in his suitcase. Two of my sister's children- Scarlett (5yr) and Owen (8yr)- came to enjoy some cousin time. With a house of ten people we were pretty full but also full of fun. Grandpa graced us with his magic disappearing foot trick during the talent portion of Family Home Evening and even won the trust of Dimples enough to have him sit on Grandpa's lap for books. Among other things we made trips to the children's museum, playground, library, and church gym to get out some energy but Aunt Alana also put them to work pulling rocks out of the garden. Hopefully it was worth it. Grandpa pitched in too and now at least that job is complete. We look forward to my dad joining us in Fort Collins permanently in about a year or so after he sells his house in North Carolina. 

Oh the Fun you can have with a Box!