Library trips

We go to the library every 2 weeks to check out new books. We have a really big city library with a huge children's section that my kids love. When we first started going, William was so excited with all the room in the library that he'd run around like a crazy boy. So I would put him in our toddler hiking back pack. That made it alot easier, except for the back pain. :/ Anyway, William the conquerer has finally learned that the library is not to be conquered, and he stays with me when we go-mostly.

Watermelon seed spitting contest

Our friends the Holloways came over yesterday to play and have lunch. They have 8 children in their family, so it's always a party when they come.

We're starring in a new "Star Wars!"

A little too big too see it all, but I posted it on Alan's blog and facebook too.

The Fantastic Fourth

We had a two day 4th of July celebration. Since the fourth was on a Sunday we did our big barbecue on Saturday. We had our good friends the Ence's come over and enjoy the day with us. Then on Sunday we went to their house and spent the afternoon after church with their family of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa, grandma etc. It was nice since we're never with family on the fourth, they were kind of our surrogate family. In the evening we went downtown with them to watch the fireworks.
Here's some of the kids enjoying the fire works. Although Sarah looks like she didn't expect to get her picture taken.

I've always wanted to make one of those flag desserts, but I've been soooo busy these days, I didn't want to work too much on the holiday. So I just made some jello with fruit in it, then covered it with whipcream and made it look like a flag with blueberries and strawberries. It was yummy, and not much work. Here's a video of the "pop-it's" festivities.

And this next video is my favorite. When we went to the fireworks down town, William immediately began to climb the wall that was in front of us. He would run across the wall and yell as if he were doing some sort of warrior cry, then jump off into the grass. I wasn't able to capture him yelling as he ran, because he was focused on going to see the ants at the end of the wall, but he does jump at the end with his little warrior yell. It's so funny because we've never heard him do that before.

Sarah Rose, runway model

Sarah had Activity Day Camp last week. On the last day they had a "modest" fashion show. It was very cute to see the girls model modest outfits. Some modeled dresses, while some like Sarah, chose to model casual wear. He she is a "blur"on the runway. She was a little embarrassed and so she was walking really fast. My cell-phone camera was all I remembered to bring. :( Here she is standing in front of her outline that she colored at the camp.

And here is the classic "Sarah being annoyed by her little sister" look. This is a look that we see often between the two of them. Most often when we are in public. Sarah gets really embarrassed by her little sister. (Sigh) She acts like a teenager more and more every day. And yet she's only 9!

Alan's Major Award

Alan is now a featured artist at the Columbus Museum for his drawing of....The Columbus Museum. He said he only had one day to draw it, and he would've colored it if he'd been given more time. He thinks he might've won 1st place if he'd colored it. He won 2nd place in the "ARTiculate" contest. He competed with children from schools around the city. He's very excited, especially because he won a $15 gift card with it.

Alan's first business venture

Alan designed these puzzles. He drew out these little dinosaurs and then I copied them onto the wood and cut them out for him. He wants to see if they will sell. He's so excited about it. So I listed them on etsy. If you click on my shop to the left, you will see them up for sale.

Leveling the ground

So last week we saw that our pool was a bit unlevel. Knowing that it could fall over if we left it, we had to drain it and level the ground underneath it. For two days the kids and I worked in the heat and humidity digging up the grass and moving it.They're smiling here, but it was really hard work. We finally got all the grass up, so then it was time to time to level it. Tom leaves for work too early in the morning to do it, and by the time he's home in the afternoon it's close to 100 degrees. So, knowing that we were anxious to have our pool back, he asked the missionaries to come and help. They did a really good job, but they were so tired and hot from all the work, they needed a little break. They hung out and played with the kids on the trampoline, then had lunch on the deck with them, and read them stories. And now we have a nice level ground for our pool. Yay! Just in time because it's reeeaaally hot these days.

The city of Roseville

I like to save old cracker boxes, oatmeal canisters, capri sun boxes, juice cartons, etc. because they're great imagination tools. This morning we decided to make the city of Roseville. We took the old boxes and covered them with Butcher paper that I get at Sam's club just for coloring. Then I took an old sheet that doesn't fit any of our beds anymore and we colored a city on it with crayons.

Don't mind diaper boy. He got himself all wet playing outside in the water filled sandbox earlier this morning, hence no clothing.

The cookie lady

Using cookie dough that we colored in various vibrant shades, I let the kids create whatever kind of cookie shapes they want. This is what Kaitlyn created. She says it's a cheer leader.

This is one of our favorite activities. Just make up some sugar cookie dough, divide it into sections and color it. I did a post about this before; called "playdough cookies", but you don't really need a fancy recipe. Just a good sugar cookie recipe!

Nature Hike in the park

With the kids home for the summer, we have more time to do big activities. Each day I try to do something that they will enjoy. On Tuesday we went on a Nature Hike at the park. The park has a fitness trail that's about 1 1/2 miles. We took a bucket and collected things along our hike. Here's Sarah collecting some blossoms from a dogwood tree. (We got home and looked up all the things we collected and found out what they were) Along the fitness trail were different "fitness" activities to do. Here they are doing chin ups at a stop along the trail.
We also took a break along the trail and played on some swings.

William the Conquerer strikes again! Literally. He struck the table and it was conquered!. :) (Actually, we think a tree fell on it in a recent storm.)

We also had fun looking at the ducks. Or rather, chasing them down in William's case.

A pool for Memorial Day

Big Lots had pools on sale, so we bought one the Friday before Memorial Day. We're so excited. Now we have something to cool off in every day! William is too little go in the pool without a grown up, so he helped me in the kitchen. We had barbecued ribs, potato salad, watermelon, corn on the cob, chips, etc. William helped with most of if. He loved helping me wash the corn.

Welcome cousin Nathan!

My brother Johnny and his wife Jenette just had their second baby boy last week. We're so happy for them!

Sarah's 9th Birthday Luau

We had lots of fun on Saturday celebrating Sarah's 9th Birthday! She wanted to have a Luau, which was very convenient since there are tons of Luau stuff in the stores right now. Here is a picture of Sarah and Kaitlyn coloring a long box to make it look like a tiki pole. They colored two of these, and then we weighted them down with bags of sand inside. (They stood really well until William the conquerer got to them.)We had Leis and grass skirts for the girls, and straw hats for the boys.
Here's our sofa table decorated with some extra grass skirts and an inflatable palm tree.Here are the coconut glasses and palmtree straws we used for the drinks. The gathering activity we had was for the kids to decorate their own hula hoops with ribbon and stickers. I got the hula hoops from the dollar store.

Then the kids got to make Candy Kabobs.
We played alot of games, a hula hoop contest, the limbo, pass the hot coconut, but Tom and I were so busy orchestrating the games, that we didn't get any pictures of them.

Here's Sarah opening her gifts:
Here's Kaitlyn looking cute in the Luau stuff:

After the party, the kids went out side to play.

And I accidentally deleted the video of the birthday cake :( She wanted an icecream cake in the shape of a beach ball. It didn't look so great, but it was yummy. I baked the cake in a bowl, cut it in half, put ice cream inbetween the layers, and then frosted it. I put cinnamon and sugar around the outside of the cake which made it look just like a beach ball in the sand!

Sarah had a great time, and she was very happy. Her favorite gifts are an MP3 player from mom and Dad and a pottery wheel.

Sarah the artist

Sarah had an end of the year assignment to write a paper and create a poster depicting something that she is great at. The assignment was called, "I am great at...."

She decided to write about how she is great at art. She called it, "I am a great artist". Instead of just a poster, she made a giant painter's pallette with a paint brush. She put her essay on the end of the paint brush, and she drew pictures on the pallette. She also needed to include photos of herself doing art. We put those on the pallette too. She's very excited to present it because she's thinking that everyone else will just have a big poster, while she has her unique shape. She's usually is very scared to talk in front of people, but because of her excitement about the project, she can't wait! She took it to school today, and I'm sure she'll do well presenting it.