Today

Today I woke up 3 hours earlier than I had in two months.

Today I folded up the futon and cleaned up blankets from a 2 month long sleepover.

Today I cooked a "real" breakfast for the first time in 2 months.

Today I cleaned the house and it stayed clean.

Today I ate a grown up lunch that excluded peanut butter and noodles in any form.

Today I washed swimsuits and towels for the first time in 2 months.

Today I made up for taking a spiritual hiatus in the past 2 months and listened to conference
talks while cleaning a quiet house and was reminded that "our everydays will soon become our yesterdays" and was grateful that I made the most out of our "everydays" in the past two months.

Today my little buddies started school.

Today I was sad. I was glad I was sad, usually I can't wait for school to start but I really made an effort and put alot of planning into our summer and it made me sad that it had come to an end.

Today I missed them.

(However, as soon as they walked in the door they let 6 hours of bottled up energy go and the chaos that ensued made me realize that although I missed them today, tomorrow I think I'll appreciate the quiet house a little bit more.)

(first day of "real" kindergarten)

(our big third grader)

FHE Fun

We did a fun activity for Family Home Evening tonight that I wanted to share. We had a missionary olympics. The events included

Bike Racing

Button Sewing

Making and Eating a PB&J Sandwich

After each team completed the three events they had to look up and recite as a team, 1 Nephi 3:7. I won't point out that the girls won since it was just for fun:) I think we all had a great time though!

F is for.....

Funny faces- from Family Fun

Fudgesicles- (1 pkg chocolate pudding, 2 C milk, 1/2 C heavy cream, 1/2 C sugar- beat together, pour into plastic cups, cover with foil, push popsicle stick through foil and freeze)


Frozen yogurt- we love "Swirl It" where you can build your own froyo sundae using every single flavor and every single topping and Jayden did just that. (Notice the big scoop falling off Maddox's spoon? Yeah, it wasn't a pretty picture by the time he got finished.)

At what age do kids become aware when their face is completely smeared with food?


French tips- cause Kylie needed something to do while Jayden was at a playdate.

Finger painting- (1 1/2 Tbs cornstarch, 1 C water, food coloring- mix well and boil until thick, cool). I love Reynold's freezer paper, it comes in a huge roll (in the tinfoil aisle at Wal-mart) for like $5.50 and keeps my kids entertained for hours so I can cook, clean or waste my time on the computer.



I wised up and took this shin dig outside where it quickly turned into body painting and ended with everything and everybody getting hosed down.


Forts- games, stories and a sleepover

Fondue- I was just going to melt chocolate chips in the microwave and use skewers but I forgot about this little set a friend gave to me like 3 years ago. It's amazing how the bribe of pokey sticks and bite sized anything dipped in chocolate can get chores done in no time at all.

Fossils- I used plaster paris because I had some on hand, but here is a link for a salt dough fossil recipe

Fingerprint art- I was at the $ store and they didn't have the multi-colored ink pad so instead of buying 10 different ones I bought one then just used markers on their fingers for the other colors.

Artistic Mess

Today we had some fun doing "Toe Painting" (instead of finger painting). Parker had so much fun and made a beautiful picture with his feet. I think he had almost as much fun getting his feet washed off with the hose when he was done as he did painting his picture. We'll see how long it takes for the rain to wash the colorful little footprints off our driveway now.

I stripped Connor down to his diaper and let him paint a picture too. Now remember that this is the boy that started gagging when he touched some yogurt. He handled the painting about like I thought he would. He was all smiles and having a great time while the paint was nice and neat in the bottles. But then...

"All right mom! This will be fun! I can't wait to get started!"

I put some on his paper and he stuck his hand in it - not too sure. (That's red paint on his leg, not blood. I know, it looks terrible.)

"This is disgusting."

Curious, he poked around and squished it a little more.

"Mom, do you see the mess this is making?"

About thirty seconds into the project, he decided he'd had enough.

"This is dirty and slimy and I am so done!"

"Would somebody please clean me up?"

Cleaned off, Connor shows off his masterpiece. Deep down inside he loved the experience (or not?).

Opposites attract

He plays Barbies with her (but makes her promise not to tell his friends). She plays Batman Wii with him. You can catch him singing songs like "you change your mind like a girl changes clothes..". You can catch her humming the Star Wars theme song. He gets excited to watch her performances. She had to get a pink glove so she could play baseball with him. He rolls his eyes but will still watch "16 wishes" and other Disney channel movies with her. She grumbles that "Chuggington" is a baby show but will still watch it with him. He tells her when she looks pretty. She helps him pick out his clothes. He tells her he loves her the most out of everybody in the family. She tells him they should never fight again. Siblings. Best friends.

Tadpoles and Pickle Juice

We didn't have anything going on this evening (which is a rare thing these days). So after dinner we decided to go to a park in town that has a little stream full of tadpoles. The kids grabbed their nets and were looking for a jar to put their catch in. Kambry has recently discovered that she is a pickle lOvEr. She had the last two pickles in her lunch today so she asked if she could drink, yes drink, the pickle juice so that we could use the jar. After getting a thumbs up, she chugged it down without even a single pucker. Wow!

With an empty jar and a handful of nets, we headed out. There were so many tadpoles! The kids ended up catching a ton of them - some of them with their hands even. We told them that we would keep three of them and watch them turn into frogs. Once they are frogs (if they survive long enough to reach frog-hood) we'll take them back to the stream and let them go. Ricky and I had a fun time watching the kids with their enthusiasm and excitement as they were catching the tadpoles. Connor enjoyed being outside watching the kids too and kept clapping for them. He can't wait until he's old enough to really get in on the action. It's so great to be a mom and to be reminded of the joy that can be found in such simple things.

B is for.....

Balloon Yo-yo's

Beanbag balls

Blankets- our church is making the fleece blankets for "Project Linus". I didn't take pictures because I pretty much did it myself, but in theory it was a good idea to do it with the kids.

Bread dough art (Rhoades dough roll creations, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and dipped in powdered sugar frosting)

Beaded animal keychains (kit from Wal-mart)

Button bookmarks

Bubbles: I forgot to take pictures, but here's the recipe: 3 C water, 1 C Joy dish soap, 1/2 C corn syrup. Mix atleast 4hr ahead and put in shallow pan, make wands out of pipe cleaner or wire hangers

Blow art

Bowling

leave it to Jayden to get a gutter ball even with the bumpers :)