Update

Here is an update of some of our July happenings. Summer is ending way too fast and I wish we could have a couple more months of fun, summer days. We have loved having Kelsie home all day. She does a marvelous job of keeping Emily entertained and we really enjoy our lazy mornings lounging around the house and having time for craft projects and outings.

We went to the Dinosaur Museum's birthday party with two of my sisters. It was lots of fun and lots of craziness with 9.5 kids between the three of us. The kids loved playing in the sand pit and water/sand area and there were dinosaur games, crafts, and face painting.

Kelsie has been taking gymnastics and enjoys it. She like the vault and tumbling, but hates the bars. It's been fun to watch her and there has been a lot of gymnastic class role play going on around here lately! Carter even gets in on the action when Kelsie and Emily start practicing cartwheels. Totally cracks me up. He puts his arms up and starts doing his fancy moves. He mastered his forward roll today. It's pretty cute coming from a one year old.

The girls started their first swim lessons ever and they absolutely loved it. Swimming has been the highlight of their whole summer. They are like little fish and love every minute of it. We're doing a second session this week. Hopefully Carter will survive another five hours of staring at "wa wa" without being allowed to dive on in. He also LOVES water and has no fear!

We went with our friends the Blomquists to the BYU Bean Museum. I had never been and it was SO cool and the kids liked it as much as the zoo and its FREE. I love free! I don't know how I never managed to go there in my four years at BYU, but I'm pretty sure it's because I was too busy studying and stressing out.
The kids were a tad rambunctious but had a great time together. The older kids were crawling around the upstairs after Carter and Emi B. The babies were thrilled with the attention but I'm pretty sure the museum personnel breathed a sigh of relief when they saw my wild boy Carter head out the door. We also hit the BYU Creamery for ice cream and then headed home to have a pizza picnic and games in our backyard. Kelsie was particularly thrilled to get to spend time with Aubrey, who she looks up to so much. The impromptu picnic is the part my girls are still talking about. It made me realize that I must not be spontaneous very often. I might try to work on it. We sure are glad to have these guys for neighbors!

This is the Place

I don't know how we lived here this long and had never been to This is the Place, but we hadn't. We planned to check it out briefly and then head to the zoo for the rest of the day. But, we loved this place and ended up being there for 7 hours--surprising even the workers who saw us at closing and couldn't believe we'd been there the WHOLE day. We like to get our money's worth, I guess. The girls loved it. There were little houses with people reenacting pioneer life and telling us about the people who lived in each home. It was heaven for my Emily who loves that kind of stuff. We got to experience pioneer life by doing chores, playing games, dancing, making crafts, and getting really, really hot in the 100 degree weather. In the afternoon I found a stream running off the mountain with ice cold water and we waded in it to cool off. The workers looked at us a little strange...but seriously...don't you think that's what the pioneers would have been doing too?

Favorite parts:

Kelsie: washing clothes on a washboard and hanging them to dry.

Emily: learning a square dance with our family.

Carter: Ice Cream!

Moon Lake

We went to Moon Lake for my family reunion. It was beautiful there. The weather was perfect, there were no bugs in the evenings (how cool is that), and there was endless water and sand for the kids. We stayed in little cabins that were rustic but had a bathroom, kitchen, and running water, which is as close to camping as I like to get. Our cabin windows looked out onto the lake and we could walk down our own private little path right to the lake.

Carter loved the water and dirt and spent most of his time throwing handfuls of sand into the lake. Must be a boy thing, I don't understand the fun in that at all.

Grandpa was a good sport to play in the sand with all the kids.

Sand--the activity that brings all ages together.

Emily's sand art.

Emily was covered in sand from head to toe, and couldn't have been happier. She loves dirt. She looked like she had make up on for a couple days because I couldn't get the dirt out of her eyebrows until we got home to a real bathtub.

Kelsie loved being in the rafts and boats with John and spent most of her time on the lake.

Kelsie and her cousins made a crossing path to keep people off of our property. You had to dance to get through or they threw sticks at you. Lots of fun! But it entertained the kids most of the evening.

Me, the girls, Michelle, and Kandace around the campfire.Moon Lake 2009

Sidewalk Paint Recipe

Here's a recipe for homemade sidewalk paint. This is one of my girls very favorite activities.

Sidewalk Paint

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup water

food coloring (the more the better!)

Mix together ingredients and use big paintbrushes to paint the driveway. The paint is kind of chalky and has a cool texture when it dries. It washes right off when your done.

WARNING: This painting activity is a lot messier when a one year old wants to get in on the action.

Thinking Outside the Box

I signed Emily up to be part of a pilot program for a computer based preschool program. I thought it would be really fun for her, but she finds it quite boring. The other day she was purposely marking the wrong answers. I asked her why and she explained, "it takes too long and this will make it end quicker."

Today I sat down with her to encourage her to work on it. It named a letter and she was to click on the correct letter. She seemed to be giving it some thought but she marked the first two wrong. I started to wonder if she really didn't know some of her letters. I tried asking her but she just looked annoyed at me. But, then she marked the next two correctly. When she marked the next one wrong I was kind of baffled and asked "why did you mark that"?

She looked very serious at me and said, "I'm making a pattern: "two wrong, two right, two wrong."

Of course! Why didn't I think of that?

High School Musical

My girls and a friend have been practicing for their own "High School Musical" show all week. They had been learning the songs, choreographing their dance moves, picking out costumes, and setting up the stage in the basement. It has been all Kelsie will talk about. She loves this stuff. Today (with a little coaxing from me) was the much anticipated performance. (I think Kelsie would have been content to continue practicing the entire summer). Belle's mom and I came to watch the show. Kelsie and Belle gave us tickets and stamped our hands as we entered. Emily passed out popcorn at the concession stand. Emily's big moment was shooting baskets (as Troy) while the girls danced in the background. She did a fine job, despite some technical difficulties with the hoop falling off the chairs mid performance. Kelsie had assigned herself the main role of Gabriella (go figure) and sang the songs and had practiced all her dance moves. Kelsie loved singing for us and being in the spotlight, which really surprised me coming from her. It was really cute and they had so much fun. However, I do think my 7 year old may have seen that movie a few too many times. She has way too many lines memorized.

Horsey

Carter loves "horseys". His obsession with dogs has quickly moved to horses and he can spot a horse from a mile away and a picture of a horse no matter how tiny it is. He knows which of his books have horses in them and brings those to us and carries a plastic horse around. John took him to the equestrian park by our house and Carter was in heaven watching the horses. He came home and told John, "I wa horsey!" Translated: I want a horsey. (He's just started talking in little sentences and it's so cute). So, we took him to Farm Country. He yelled and pointed at horses to his hearts content and rode a pony. He was scared for a minute but as soon as the horse started moving he was grinning. Later that day we saw lots of family and he greeted each new person as they arrived and told them "sa horsey" and then he gives a nice horsey sound "eeeeee". Just mention the word "horsey" and his face lights up and he can't stop babbling about them. They make him so happy!