Soccer, Emmett's Birthday, Power Company Open House

Last Saturday Jim was on his own for soccer as I attended a Beth Moore simulcast.  Emmett had 5 goals in his game!

 Ezra's team had pictures and he was in charge of treats.  I hear he played some great defense.

 On Friday Emmett turned 8.  I made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast and packed some of his favorite foods in his lunch (currently loving a "pizza sandwich").  We delivered doughnuts to his school in the afternoon for his class treat.  Originally we had wanted to take the boys to a new indoor Nerf gun arena on Emmett's birthday.  Because Jim had to work and Emmett had soccer practice we decided there just wasn't time and we gave him a gift certificate to do it next week.  So after school I had planned to take them to an indoor play area at a restaurant.  Ezra wanted to trick his brother and tell him that we were going to the grocery store.  Emmett was pretty bummed about it, but went along and was really excited to see where we actually were going.  Ezra felt like a pretty tricky guy.  Emmett and Ezra played for about an hour before Jim got there and Elliott didn't really want anything to do with the playground but ran around looking at the train stuff and wanted to get on all the "ride-on" toys and see the arcade.  When Jim arrived we ordered pizza.  Right after I ordered, Emmett's soccer coach let us know that practice was cancelled due to the crazy rain we have been having (2 record setting days in a row).  We were a little disappointed because we would have rather eaten Emmett's birthday dinner somewhere else but didn't feel like we had time.  The pizza ended up being pretty good, and most importantly Emmett thought it was an awesome way to spend his birthday.  It also meant we had more time for presents and cake at home.

Emmett loved all his presents and was especially excited about the knife and high powered flashlight that Jim gave him.  He's growing up and getting the tools to prove it.  He requested an orange cream cake and it turned out pretty well.  I combined lots of different recipes for the parts I liked and ended up making a white "wedding" cake recipe that I have and adding orange and vanilla extract.  I colored half the mix orange and swirled the orange and white cake batter.  The filling and frosting was a vanilla pudding/whipped cream concoction with a little orange extract as well, and then gummy orange slices on top.  

 Saturday, Emmett's game was cancelled due to a muddy field (it really shouldn't have been cancelled) so Jim took him to the field to practice anyway.  Ezra had his game and the weather had gotten quite a bit nicer.  Afterwards we went to our power company's open house.  Our city makes a good portion of the power we use using hydroelectric power from the Snake river (which runs right through the middle of town).  It was a really neat event that we have never attended before.

Linemen demonstrating the dangers of electricity

Power pole climbing

Bucket truck rides

Elliott and I are off to the side watching

what a view!

Base of the water tower, a landmark we can see from all over town

Inside the power plant

 We had a free lunch there and went on a tour of one of the city's 4 power plants.

I think Emmett could have really disrupted the power supply!

 Elliott took a nap when we got home, Jim went for a bike ride, and Emmett, Ezra and I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which we just finished reading.