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.

William the conquerer at nap time

Here's William's bedroom before he takes a nap: Here's William's bedroom after he takes a nap:
In case you can't see all of the conquests, here they are in detail:
All of the wipes are pulled out of the container.
A peice of his old cradle has been pulled out from under the bed... among other things...
The bookshelf is knocked over. The diapers are pulled out of the drawer we're they're kept:
The mattress is completeley flipped upside down: And when I flip the mattress over, this is what I find:
Marker on the rug... Marker on the back of the door..

And somehow, Sarah's chapstick was in his room, so he had fun with that too:

So... there you have it. William the conquerer strikes again.

I often find him asleep on the floor amidst the mess he makes.

I guess he feels he needs to tire himself out before he settles down for a nap.

I know what your thinking, "Can't she hear him doing all of this?" the answer is,

"No, he's a very stealth conquerer. "

I do go in and check on him, and he's usually in mid conquest. I make him get back in his bed, but often when I leave, he's back at again.

Mother's Day Video

Last year we started the tradition of making a Mother's Day video for my mom. They call her "Grammie", hence the title. And no, Alan is not playing the piano, but he wants you to think he is. I prerecorded the song on the piano so that I could record them.

Summer in the spring

Happy with the hose... Kaitlyn has learned how to fly!
Alan and Sarah defend themselves from William.

These pictures were taken on April Fools Day, but I'm not fooling. It was hot enough for the kids to play in the water on April 1st. I didn't post them because that was Easter week and I was doing the Easter week posts. But this week they've been playing in the water too, and it's been in the 90's! Yuck.

I went to California to decorate an arbor...

Last week I went to Sacramento to see family and help with my cousin's wedding. It was beautiful and great to see family again-most of whom I hadn't seen in 9 years, and some in over 20 years. It was a little awkward because I felt like I didn't know anyone, but I kept busy helping with everything. I decorated this arbor with organza and ivy. They were sealed in the Sacramento temple. That was really special and it was a beautiful perfect day. Her colors were blue and yellow. Very nice.

Rainbow beans

The other day I got the idea to color some of our white beans different colors. William helped me color the beans, and had so much fun playing with them! I also got out the muffin tins and my canning funnel which is always handy when playing with colored beans :) He loved dropping them through his fingers.

And in case you wondering about the giant box lid he's sitting in,

that's my attempt to contain the mess from the beans.

Flowers for mommy

William likes to pick flowers for me.


Yesterday he saw all the weeds in the yard, and decided he had to pick every dandelion he could see and give it to me. He also found some leaves on the ground that he gave me too.
I put them all in a cup of water and set them on the kitchen table.

He had to go to the other crops of dandelions after he was done picking these in the video. My hands were pretty full. And then in the afternoon during his nap I mowed the lawn, because those weeds were pretty high. :)

Frisbeeeeeeeee!

Alan throws the frisbee.Kaitlyn throws the frisbee
Sarah throws it too....


Sarah watches the frisbee land on the roof.

Sarah decides to climb over the fence to get to the frisbee.
William likes the climbing idea.

The frisbee stays on the roof until Dad can get it down.

Strawberry season!!

We had fun making strawberry jam this week. It's a good project for the whole family. William and I bought the strawberries-it was cheaper to buy them than to drive way out and pick them this year. Alan and Sarah washed the jars and lids to prepare them for the jam. Everyone took a turn at crushing the strawberries with the potato masher. Alan got to stir the crushed berries in the pot while it was cooking into jam. Then Tom and I did the last step of filling the jars with the hot jam and actually canning them in our canner.