Happy Pioneer Day!!!

Pancake Breakfast and Children's' Parade.

Followed by an air-soft war with 13 boys that lasted over 3 hours!!!

And ending with Toy Story 3.

In-N-Out

If you haven't heard, In-N-Out has moved to Utah.  In the last year, they have opened several restaurants in the state.  Whenever they open a new shop, they have an invitation only party the night before.  They invite the mayor, the police and fire departments, the families of the employees,etc.  You have to have a wristband to attend but you can order whatever you want - and as much as you want . . . for free.  Our neighbor is in charge of all the In-N-Outs here in Utah.  She has kindly invited us to several of these parties.  They are so Awesome!!!

We've been to enough of these that we have learned how to optimize our experience.  We always get there at the very start of the party.  That way, we get a seat and the food comes quickly.  Today was no exception and we were one of the first to arrive.  When I walked in, with 6 kids in tow, ALL the employees started cheering for us.  It was a little overwhelming and none of us were sure how to respond, but we got a good laugh out of it on the way home.  All of the employees were super friendly and helpful, adding to the very great evening.

Here are the kids in their very cool hats.  (Adam is out of town so we used his wristband for one of Isaac's good friends.)  Everyone ordered meals with fries, drinks and shakes.  Something we never get.  Thank you to my AWESOME neighbor for another YUMMY meal . . . on the house.

Slumber Party

I love it when my Aunt Barbara is in town.  Not only do we get to enjoy her energetic, fun and loving personality,  we also get to see my cousins!  Even though many of my cousins don't live very far away, it seems we rarely get together without my Aunt here to orchestrate things.  I really love my cousins, their kids and my Aunt.  I am so glad we were able to get together several times in the last two weeks.

On one of those days, we had played and had dinner at our house.  The kids had so much fun, they wanted a sleepover.  We only do sleepovers with family so it's been a long time since we've had one.  All three older boys share a room and Ruby has a room of her own.  While most girls would be thrilled to have a room of her own,  Ruby thinks she has been jipped.  She thinks she's missing out on a party while she is in her room ALL ALONE!!  She was so happy to have more girls in the house.  Tonight, she was not alone.

Family Birthday

It's our Family's Birthday. Since we have just came back from our big trip (post to come) we decided to keep things simple. We wanted to go camping at one of the many campgrounds within 20-30 minutes from our home. I tried to make a reservation.  However, the lady on the phone (who is actually in New York) told me we have to stay for at least two days to make a reservation and have to make the reservation at least 3 days in advance. Since I was calling 2 days in advance and we were only staying for one day, I did not get a reservation. So we decided to try our luck with the "first come, first serve" sites. Needless to say,we drove around for four hours stopping at SEVERAL campgrounds only to find they were all FULL. On the bright side, we did find some really cool places we would like to come back to - with a reservation of course.

So we fell back to our back up plan - camping in the back yard. We were all really disappointed and decided to stop at one of the picnic spots in the canyon to roast our hot dogs for lunch. It was a good break. It gave the kids a chance to run around, cook over a fire, play in water, and get dirty.  Really, that's all of the highlights of a good camp out, right?

Our back yard camping turned out to be really fun. We didn't answer the door or phone and kept going inside to a bare minimum. Plus, we had clean bathrooms! We all slept outside, except Benjamin who got to sleep in his crib - which translates into a really great nap and nights sleep. And camping on grass is always nicer than camping on dirt. We cooked our foil dinners and roasted s'mores. We played games and made projects. Isaac insisted on putting up his own tent, but when night came, he decided he would rather sleep with everyone else. (Good move, since we had a lightening storm that night.)  I think we'd all say it was a great family birthday!

Moving on . . .

Today, Ruby graduated from preschool . . .

 . . . and Isaac received his Bear!

Ballet

Today was Ruby's second ballet recital.  She danced to "A Whole New World" from Alladin.   She did a great job!  It is so fun when you find something your kids REALLY love - for Ruby, it is ballet.

She had a great group of girls in her class including two of her best friends.   She also had a great group of supporters including Grammy, Christy, and of course,  all of us.

Because there were so few specific choreographed poses/positions.  I had her pose at home and take a few pictures before the recital.  Ruby darling, you look FABULOUS!

Oh Happy Day!

It's been  . . . rewarding, challenging, immensely time consuming, bonding, gratifying, fun, trying, stressful, exciting, exhausting, character building, thrilling, stretching, rigorous, fascinating, and hopefully very educational.  But today, it's DONE!!!   

I pulled Isaac out of school for the year to homeschool him through the K12 program. He'll return next year to public school, but I will always be grateful for the one on one time we had together.  And I am so proud of how hard he has worked and all he has accomplished.   Way to go Isaac! 

Our Subject buckets.  He had science, math (two years worth - 3rd and 4th), literature, state history, spelling and language skills (vocab, grammar, composition and test readiness).





One of the greatest things about this year is that Isaac had his good friend Ethan.  (Ethan we LOVE you!!) We did Science together on Fridays and it was so awesome to have a good friend at all of the field trips. 

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So here's to a year of HARD WORK and to being DONE!  (When we finished his last assignment, we screamed, we cheered, we jumped up and down, we hugged.  A few minutes later I went to change the laundry. . . and I cried.  Then I went and told Adam, and cried again.  We made it...)

Hitting Double Digits

Isaac just turned 10.   

This year was a "friend party."  This was our first party with no real theme.  Isaac just had things he wanted to do.  He wanted to see Percy Jackson at the movie theater.  He wanted to make swords.  He wanted to eat pizza.  And most importantly, he wanted to have a war.  So that's what we did.  He invited four of his closest friends and they kicked the party off by going to see "Percy Jackson"  at the dollar theater.  Then the boys came back to the house and built swords.  Adam had them pre-cut and glued.  The boys  sanded them down and added electrical tape to accessorize the handle and blade.  Once the swords were done, we gave them pipe insulation to wrap around the blade.  The swords were pretty big and heavy and I can only imagine the damage they could do to each other. They were only allowed to "fight" if the pipe insulation was on.


I think they turned out great!  The boys were thrilled with them.




After the swords were built, the boys came inside for dinner - pizza, grapes, carrots, salad, and of course, cake.  While the boys ate, Isaac opened his presents.  Adam's family has a tradition that has become our family tradition called "heavy heavy hang over."  The giver of the gift recites a funny little poem and hits the receiver on the head with the present.  The receiver then has to make a wish for the giver, something they think the giver would want (like trips to Hawaii, all the Legos you could want, season football tickets, etc.).  It's fun.
 

After all of that, they finally got to have their war.  The party was already running late so they only got a 15 minute war.  But they all live in the neighborhood and they will have all summer to play war with their swords.   It was funny to watch them play.  They have rules to their game.  I couldn't figure them out, but they were running up and down the street and sometimes lying dead.  They had a GREAT time.


Isaac has AWESOME friends.  I love each one.  I am so glad they could come and contribute to making his party such a success.  And a special thank you to a SUPER AWESOME Dad who doesn't have time to tie his shoes let alone make a bunch of swords, but did anyway!

Happy Birthday Isaac!  We love you!

Lost First Tooth

72 hour kits

This weekend we have been updating our 72 hour kits.  It was time to replace all of the food.  We decided it would be nice to switch from cans of tuna to the new Tuna creations in a sealed bag.  We had never tried them before, so I bought 5 different kinds and we had a taste test for dinner.  Honestly, I am not a big fan of tuna but I thought all of the varieties we got were pretty good.

Then for FHE, we ventured to the grocery store to replenish our 72 hour kits.  I though it would be a good idea to let the kids pick out some of the things in their pack. I told them that once we had finished getting all the things we needed, they could pick something out for treat. Instead of looking for things to go in their kit, they spent their time begging for misc junk that they hoped would qualify as their "treat".  What was I thinking?  In addition, our noise level was out of control.  I don't know who was happier to have us out of the store, the employees or Adam and I.

When we got back home Ruby said, "We haven't had the lesson yet."  Adam replied,  "Yes we have.  We've had a lesson I will never forget.  NEVER go to the grocery store for family night."



Today's "Rubyisms"

Ruby was at school and the kids found a bird feather on the ground.  Ruby told everyone to stay away from it because it could have diseases.  A friend asked her what diseases were.  She replied "Things that make your mom freak out."

Adam was putting Ruby to bed.  When they had finished with her nightly routine, Ruby asked Adam to get me.  Adam told her I was busy and asked what she needed.  She replied, "I need Mom.  It's something you can't handle."
(She needed her pigtails out.  Adam can't get his big hands into those little hair-bands.)

Sharing Clothes

Ruby was helping me fold laundry and kindly folded one of my running shirts. I noticed a few minutes later that she was wearing it. I asked her what she was doing. She said that the shirt was hers now because it fit her. I told her it didn't fit.  I also told her that it was a shirt I use a lot so she could not have it. Later, she came back with it tucked in - trying to convince me of it's "perfect fit." I asked her to please put it back in the laundry room. She replied, "Please mom! Can't we just share it? Can you at least let me wear it to school once?!"


     I know I am really new to the girl thing. But isn't it a little early to be starting this?!

Broken Noses

Last Saturday, I bent down to pick up Ruby.  As I picked her up, she flung the other direction and since I didn't have a good hold on her, she fell face first onto the wood floor.  Her arms were stuck behind her so she didn't even have her hands to brace her.  As she fell, it was one of those split seconds where a million things run through your mind and you fear the worst.  I picked her up and she had blood all over face.  It was her nose.  We cleaned her up, gave her ibuprofen, and layed her down.  I was worried that she had broken her nose, but she said the bridge didn't hurt at all, just the front.  Within 30 minutes, she was up and running around.  I was shocked at how lucky we were that she wasn't more hurt.

Later that night we went to my friend Marie's.  Her and her husband had thrown a party for kids from our ward in Boston that were now out here going to college.  We went to see these kids that we LOVE and Adam was running the karaoke for the end of the party.  It was so great to see these kids.  Some of them I had in primary. It really was indescribleable to sit back and watch them interacting.  As I sat in grateful of awe of being in a house full of people I love half way across the country from where we all knew each other, Marie came over and told me that her daughter K, had gotten her nose hit.   She had been at a Birthday party and someone had accidentally hit her in the nose.   It was swollen but didn't show any obvious signs of being broken so they decided to wait and see how she was doing in the morning.

The next morning Ruby's nose was very swollen and we decided we better make sure everything was OK.  As I was getting ready to go to the hospital, Marie called and said that K's nose was more swollen and they were on their way to get it checked out.

So we sat together in Primary Children's Hospital with two cute girls with swollen noses.  Really.  What are the chances of that?!!

(After seven hours in the ER and a cat-scan, the doctors finally determined that Ruby's nose and face are fracture free.  They also said K's nose was not broken.  Yipee!!)

(Here is a picture of them in the waiting room.  I took the pic with my phone so it is not very clear -  but really their noses were very swollen).

Here is Ruby a couple days later.  The swelling had gone down but her face was more discolored.  Because of the swelling and blue color of her nose, we called her "Rubytar"