Christmas In July

For most of the world Christmas in July is just a marketing ploy. For me, it means that tomorrow I'm finally getting my Christmas present. New York, here I come!

We Came, We Partied, We Painted

Today my sisters and I had our annual Pre-Independence Day Toenail Decorating. Several years ago we were feeling all patriotic and decided to let it show with our toenails. A couple of days later we all sang in Relief Society in our mother’s ward (She happened to be the RS President at the time). She looked at our toes (we were all wearing sandals, of course), rolled her eyes, and said, “You guys.” And thus was a tradition born.

"And now, my beauties, something with poison in it, I think."

One of the fun things about buying a house in the winter is discovering what the yard is like when spring rolls around. I have really enjoyed finding a vast assortment of desirable plants growing in the midst of all the weeds. New things are continually coming to my attention as the growing season progresses. This week's discovery? Poppies. (Insert Wicked Witch cackle here)

And does anyone know what these little beauties are? We have them in several colors and I love them!

Giddy-up!

Today we took the boys to ride the ponies at Gardener Village. Daniel and Nathan are old pros at this, but Matthew was a first timer. He wasn't quite sure about the whole thing, but once the ride was over he was very pleased about having ridden the horsie.

Splash!

Rachael and her kiddies hosted a water party for the cousins today and we had a wet, wild time. I think Nathan summed it up very nicely when he exclaimed, "I've never been this wet!"

We arrived a few minutes late and were almost taken out by some very serious water gunning.

Matthew was a bit parched and rather than ask for his drink, he took a big swig of gun water. Yum . . . not.

The best way to get warm after taking a dip in spring run-of (aka. ice) water.

Dillon was contemplating just what he could do with the wiggly sprinkler.

Unfortunately for everyone within range, Nathan already knows exactly what to do with the wiggly sprinkler.

Matthew finally figured out how to jump and was pleased as punch every time he splashed down. Banzai! (And in case you are wondering, his granola bar accompanied him for his entire first hour of splashing and was amazingly still dry by the time lunch rolled around.)

Daniel and Josh in the midst of a very serious conversation about dinosaurs. They are the Future Paleontologists of America, after all.

I forgot to take the swim diapers. After an hour of splashing, Matthew's swim trunks could no longer contain his Pampers.

Ella and Brina having a little girl time.

Once the big kids were done in the water, Drew and Matthew had a grand old time with the Slip and Slide (or the Crawl and Lay Down if you do it like Matthew does.)

You Get What You Get And You Don't Throw A Fit!-Part 2

Remember way back in February when I promised that the first five people to comment on a particular post would get something made by me just for them? With the long anticipated end of the Carpool of Horror, I've finally had a little time to do some things that I've been wanting to do. End result? For those fortunate ladies who will be receiving a small token of my esteem, those items are in the mail (or in my purse if I know I'll be seeing you in a fairly timely fashion). Check in sometime in the not too distant future to see what Melissa J., Rachael, Tiff, Patti and Connie (yours isn't in my purse, I promise) get!

Mood Music

This post may be completely pointless for most of you, but any classical music geeks out there may enjoy it. It's raining again today and as the storm rolled in over the mountains, I just happened to be listening to Mozart's Requiem. And if there was ever a piece that was enhanced by a raucous thunder storm, this is it. The rain began and by the time I got to the Confutatis the thunder and lightning were starting. "Confutatis!"( Flash!) "Maledictis!" (Crash!) "Confutatis maledictis!" (FLASH! CRASH!) As the piece started to wind down, so did the storm. "Amen." (flicker) "Amen." (rumble) "Aaaa . . ." (drip, drop) " . . . men." I could not have timed it better if I had orchestrated it myself. I suppose it is just another example of life imitating art.

I told you non-classical music geeks you probably wouldn't care. Nevertheless, can't you just hear the high point of a thunder storm in the music?

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Name That Tune!

Matthew has always been a musically oriented child (at some point I will tell of my experiences using Gregorian chant as a cure for colic). He started humming along to the hymns in sacrament meeting when he was three months old. By the time he was one, he was bellowing out lovely tunes during our Sabbath service (some of you may have been lucky enough to be in attendance the day the Bishopric nearly burst out laughing during the closing song). At age two, he is beginning to sing songs that we can actually recognize, if only by a few keys words or actions. So here is your challenge (and it shouldn't be hard): Name That Tune!

Song #1


Any guesses? Before the camera came out, he was actually singing the beginning part but by the time I started recording he was having a broken record moment with the middle section.

Song #2


One evening last week we were sitting at the table when Matthew all of a sudden started singing and doing actions. Since I didn't even know that he knew this song, I was very surprised. After his solo version, we did the choral arrangement, but he wouldn't do the much desired encore when Kev came home.

Song #3


So that wasn't exactly a song, but he usually goes on to sing the theme song from the old (1940's) cartoons so I included it in our game.

How did you do?

Almost Free, But Not Quite

Kev wanted to have a family play day on his birthday and since National Free Fishing Day happened to coincide with his day of celebration and there just happens to be a regularly stocked fishing pond five minutes from our house, we (And by "we" I mean Kev; I just took the pictures and made sure Matthew didn't jump in the pond.) took the boys fishing. This was their maiden voyage as sportsmen and they both loved it in spite of the fact that all they caught were grass fish.


Nathan got surprisingly good at casting off in a surprisingly short amount of time. There were a few tangled lines to deal with, but nothing to put a damper on the fun.


It was an absolutely perfect day for outdoor activities: clear blue skies, not too hot, blissful weather. Our view from the pond was fabulous.


After fishing and lunch, Kev used birthday money from his mom to take us all to a movie. We saw "Up" and it was okay. Definitely not my favorite Pixar film, but at least I didn't come away feeling like I had completely wasted two hours of my life. And the boys enjoyed it, of course. Total cost for our family fun day was live bait and two cheap fishing poles. An excellent price for a day well spent.

He's A Cheap Date

Rumbi Island Grill: Free Passes
Cinemark: Free Tickets
Coldstone Creamery: Free Gift Card and Coupon
Rockin' Deal On A Date Night With My Best Guy: Priceless

Last night Kev and I went out to celebrate his birthday. We got dinner, a movie, and dessert all completely free. And the entire evening was accompanied by the blissful silence of no children. I love date night!

We Survived!

Today was the last day of school and for the first time (as a parent anyway, my feelings as a teacher were quite opposite), I am overjoyed. Today was the last day of carpooling our boys 25-30 minutes one way to school. With a kindergartener and a second grader, that was three trips to the school a day. Kev dropped them off most mornings, but I had many two-trip days or days spent hanging out at the park (which was great for Matthew but terrible for the laundry). So we survived all the travel time and even the boys are relieved that they won't be spending so much time in the car. But I'm not sorry we did it. It gave the boys a chance to finish school with teachers and friends that they know. I believe it gave them a feeling of closure so that they are ready and excited about going to a new school. And that is another great thing. Since we will be attending school according to the year-round calendar, we have six weeks to relax and play and by the time we are all going crazy (about the same time Daniel and Nathan start fighting as often as they breathe), school will be starting again.

In end of year kudos, Nathan received an award for science since he is always telling people stuff about frogs (By the way Rachael, that frog got HUGE! It was as big around as my mop bucket!) and Daniel received the Clove Award (the highest award his school gives out) for citizenship because he is so friendly. The staff at his school was always telling me how polite he is. Even when I picked him up the day he fell and needed stitches in his forehead, he still said thank you to the secretaries. This particular award came with a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble and Daniel is very excited to go pick out some books.

So now I officially have a first grader and a third grader. Ahh, just Matthew and me, five days a week!

I Laughed So Hard I Almost Cried

Today Nathan brought a portfolio of this year's work home from school. It contained drawings, art projects, his pages from the various class books they created this year, etc. Two pages made me laugh until there were tears in my eyes. Although neither was in his handwriting (they were dictated to his teacher), they are extremely fine examples of who Nathan is.

To give you a bit of background info for this first page, Nathan has a problem with scissors. He has been getting in trouble for escapades with scissors for over four years now. He has cut clothing, curtains, papers (sometimes important ones), sheet music, and more papers that did not belong to him. Sometimes all that is left are small confetti sized bits strewn all over the floor. When he was two he sneaked in one morning and took scissors to five or six of the quilt blocks I was piecing for his twin-sized quilt. I had to pick them apart and reassemble them and when I got the whole thing put together and was quilting it, I found I had missed a spot. I even caught him using his scissors on the kitchen table once. Needless to say, we have very strict scissors rules at our house. And just as a note, popcorn is one of those foods we have to be very careful with around here. Air popped is just fine, but any microwave popcorn is a lactastrophe waiting to happen so Nathan doesn't get popcorn as often as he would like.


This second page is just darn funny. I was really impressed that he actually got a couple right. He was really close with others and just freaking hilarious with several. It was a bit hard to read once scanned (his teacher wrote in pencil), so I just typed it in here. The sections in bold are the parts Nathan contributed.

Complete the Idiom
by Nathan

Actions speak louder than yelling.
A penny saved is a penny you can buy stuff with.
Birds of a feather keep each other warm.
Great minds think about dolphins.
You can't judge a book by its cover.
Two wrongs don't make a mom happy.
Stuck between a rock and a rocket.
Don't put all your eggs in one spot.
All that glitters is not stars.
The bigger they are the harder they will be to lift.
The straw that broke the camel's hump.
Put your best thing forward.
Never bite the hand that feeds you.
A book's page is thicker than water.

I hope it made you chuckle!