Big Boy Lessons

William likes to color... everything.... paper, rugs, beds, walls... I realized that just telling him "no" or having him go to the corner when he did it was not working. So when he recently colored on the wall in the family room I gave him a sponge with soap on it to scrub it off. I think he understood why he was doing it, and if he does it again, he'll have to clean it up. And in other news... William started wearing underwear this week. He loves it and he has been going to the bathroom everyday since Monday. He even stays dry at naptime! We're still having a little trouble getting to the bathroom on time with "number 2", but he at least tries to get there. Having only underwear on and no pullups really helps because he doesn't like to be wet. YAY!! We're a diaper free home!!

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1st Day of School!!

Today was the 1st Day of School. Kaitlyn was so excited that she's been counting down the days for weeks!! As per our tradition, yesterday evening they all recieved a "Daddy blessing". When the blessings were done for the big kids, William got on the chair and said, "my turn" so he got a special blessing from Daddy too.

Here they all are in their uniforms ready to go. (William had to be in the picture too of course) Kaitlyn starts Kindergarten today!
Sarah starts 4th grade!!

Alan is the big man on campus this year in the 5th grade. He prides himself in the fact that he could be the oldest kid at the school since technically he could be in the 6th grade.

(his birthday is one day before the cut-off, so I kept him back in kindergarten so that he wouldn't be the youngest).

Breakfast with Sister Parks

Our friend Christie parks likes to come over to visit and play with our kids. She's the Primary Chorister in our ward and loves children, but can't have any of her own. This morning she came over and had breakfast with us. She brought her own special batter for waffles. She had the kids help her make it. They had lots of fun. She also brought some fruit to put on the waffles.

It was a delicious breakfast. Thanks Sister Parks!!!I love William's morning hair.

Fruit pizza and homemade ice cream

One of our new favorite desserts!! We put sugar cookie dough on a pizza pan and cooked it. Then covered it with frosting, then covered it with fruit. We did the ice cream the old fashioned way-without an ice cream maker. We placed the ingredients inside a plastic jar, made sure the lid was tight, then placed that jar into an even bigger jar. We put ice and rock salt around it, then closed the lid on the bigger jar. Then we rolled it back and forth to each other in the kitchen. It took about 30 minutes of rolling back and forth. We sang songs as we did it. It was fun and yummy!!

Alan's letter to the tooth fairy

Alan has been losing alot of teeth lately. He has 3 teeth with stainless steel crowns. When he got them put on it cost over $200. I guess he heard me talk about it before, and so this was the letter that went under his pillow with his tooth. The tooth fairy gave him .50 cents. :)

UPDATE: Alan just corrected me, he said the tooth fairy gave him $1.

Pioneer Day

Last week much of my time was spent getting ready for the Pioneer Day Ward Activity that the primary was in charge of. We haven't had a pioneer day acivity for our ward or even stake in years, so I thought it would be nice to do something this year. You can see what we did on the primary blog I write by going here: http://www.edgewoodprimary.blogspot.com/

I made bonnets for Kaitlyn and Sarah and myself. Sarah is wearing hers with the front flipped up.

Normally you might think that we'd have a pioneer activity outside, but it was sooooo hot! It was over 105 degrees outside and the humidity was so much that not even the air conditioning could get rid of the "stickiness" in the air. Anyway, we had fun-about 80 people came a very good turn out for our tiny ward. The activities were making butter, hoop racing, and making a ward quilt. I also made a giant map of the pioneer trail and put it up on the wall. We all had a good time, but even today, a day later, I'm exhausted.

Museum Mayhem

We went to the museum yesterday to play in the children's section.Kaitlyn dressed up.One of their favorite places is the light blocks area. They all have fun building with the clear colored blocks on a light table. One room is covered in chalk boards. Kaitlyn-who doesn't know the order of the rainbow, decided that she wanted to put the colored chalk in "order". I didn't notice what she was doing until she was done. I asked her if any one helped her with it. She said "no". She's such a little artist that she saw how the colors would naturally change from one to another. She's been drawing people with faces, hands and legs since she was two,

but I've kind of forgotten how artistic she was until I saw this.

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.