It's Raining, It's Pouring

Today we had a fabulous rain storm. It has been months since we have had a real thunderstorm. It is my favorite weather of all time, especially on days when we have nothing planned and can just stay home and enjoy it. We made the most of the cool, wet weather. We watched a movie. I tried out a fun new hairdo on Elise. Nate set up the ping pong table (our favorite freebee of all time . . . who even cares about all the random paint splatters on it?) and the kids took turns playing with him. Nate and I played for a little while too. The kids where so impressed with our skill. Ben told us that we were “better than the Olympics.” Then the kids got boots and jackets on and went out to play in the rain. They were “freezing” when they came in, so we had hot chocolate with dinner. We spent some more time playing ping pong and taking turns walking on the treadmill . . . the kids think it is a cool “ride”. I wish I could see the fun in it. We finished off the night with ice cream cones before bed.

A little dog pile on Dad/tickle party

I knew that Elise’s hair wouldn’t last through a movie and playing, so I had to take a picture . . .

. . . or two.

Abby has been pretty reluctant to talk. Tonight when Nate asked the kids what kind of ice cream they wanted they all said “peach.” Then Abby said “peach, peach, peach” just as clear as anything. I’m starting to think that she could really talk if she wanted to. She’s just holding out on us

Parenting Is Not For Wimps

Some days, it stinks to be a grown-up! Nate and I had made big plans for this weekend. Since my birthday falls on Labor Day, we thought we would have a combo Labor Day/birthday/end of summer fun family weekend. Ben apparently had different plans. He had a mini-meltdown after bowling yesterday, so instead of going out to dinner like we had planned, we came home and had some delicious ramen noodles. We figured we had nipped his grumpiness in the bud and the rest of the weekend would be smooth sailing. WRONG. This morning we decided to take a trip to the Brigham City Walmart so we could stop in Perry and get some of the world’s best corn on the cob. We let the kids take the money that they’ve been saving so they could pick out a toy at Walmart. Everything was fine until Ben saw that Emily had found two things to buy and he only had enough money for one. He had a royal, turn-the-heads-of-everyone-within-a-hundred-yards, fit. We tried to reason with him, but he was beyond reasoning. Nate had the fun parental task of carrying a seven year old kicking and screaming out to the car. Then, Ben screamed the whole way home because we didn’t let him get the toy that he had picked out. Honestly, I would think that after seven years of never giving into a tantrum, he would have us figured out, but he keeps thinking that he can beat the system. Anyway, it kind of put a kink in the rest of the day’s plans. We were supposed to have our last family trip to the pool and then go out to the dinner that we had skipped last night. Instead, Nate took the girls to the pool and I stayed home with Ben while he screamed for another couple of hours in his bedroom. He is certainly one determined kid! On the bright side, we had scrummy Papa Murphy pizza for dinner, and Ben assures us that he learned his lesson and he will “never have a fit again.” I wish I believed that.

Fat Cats

We took the kids bowling at Fat Cats yesterday. The highlight of the trip was when Elise’s ball stopped before making it to the pins and started rolling back towards us. The bowling alley girl had to come over and retrieve it from halfway down the lane. Sweet! The kids did really well (with the help of the bumpers), but Nate schooled us all with his “amazing” 122. Abby had fun pushing buttons and messing up the scoreboard three or seven times.

Can You Play With Me?

Yesterday, we were sitting outside with the kids after Ben got home from school. Nate and I were on the bench on the front porch when Kellen (a five year old from two doors down the street) rode up on his bike and said "Can you play with me?" He was talking to Nate. Nate said, "What do you want to play?" Kellen: "Star Wars." Nate (to the kids): "Hey guys, do you want to go get the lightsabers and guns and play Star Wars with Kellen?" Kellen: "No, I want to play with you. Are you going to play? I need someone really tough to play with."

It is easy to see why our kids (and the neighbors) love it when Nate is home. I didn’t get a picture while they were playing Star Wars, but here is the soccer game that followed. I’m glad that my kids have a fun dad who will play with them.

The quote of the day comes from that soccer game. Nate kicked the ball right into Ben's pants and it bounced off. I said, "Nice block, Ben." Then he said, "Yeah, I blocked it with my privacy."

Girl Time

Today was a milestone day for Abby. It was the first time I was able to successfully bunch together enough hair to make a tiny little ponytail on top of her head, AND she didn’t pull it out 5 seconds later. She is funny. Whenever I am doing the girls’ hair, she will back up to me and just stand there until I squirt her hair a couple of times and brush through it. She sat very patiently today while I was trying out her new hairdo. She also wanted her nails painted when I did the girls’. She thinks she is a grown up. She sat perfectly still while I painted her toes and even for the drying time.

Ben's First Day of School

Ben started the second grade today. He has pretty much been dreading going back to school for most of the summer. Luckily, last week he started saying that he was excited about it and after meeting his teacher and seeing his classroom at back to school night, his excitement became more genuine. This morning went wonderfully. He came into my room at 6:45, dressed and ready to go. I managed to keep him busy for the next hour and a half until he really needed to leave for school. It was a cute scene outside as he was leaving to go to the bus stop. Emily and Elise went out to watch him. He gave them each a big hug and a kiss and then headed down the street. Both girls called after him “Have a good day, Ben. I love you!” Then Emily turned to me and said “I hope none of the kids are mean to him.” (Me too!) It was a sweet thing for her to say.

When he got home, I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. His answer, “lunch and recess.” No big surprises there.

We gave Ben a new watch for his back to school present. It was the best $8 I’ve ever spent! He is so in love with it. He announces the time every hour on the hour. The best feature is that it has a stopwatch. Ben thinks it is great that he can time himself doing all kinds of random things (i.e. carrying his laundry hamper upstairs). We love that we can set a "lights out" alarm so he will put away his books and actually go to sleep at night.

Garden Woes

The prophet said to plant a garden . . . but I think if he would have seen ours, he might have reconsidered. This has been a rough gardening year. We managed to do the “impossible” – kill a zucchini plant. The trouble began with squash bugs. They were having a party in our garden boxes and taking their toll on our plants. We read up online to find a quick fix pesticide to wipe them out. No luck. Apparently they are pretty pesticide resistant. So, we had nightly search and destroy missions to crush the bugs and find their eggs before they could hatch. Our vigilance seemed to be paying off and it got to the point where we couldn’t find any bugs or egg clusters. Then we had a little sprinkling system disaster. The soaker hose to water our peach tree is on the same valve as the hoses in the garden. Little did we know that the peach tree hose had a huge leak. By the time we noticed that the water wasn’t getting to the garden, it was too late.

The zucchini wasn’t the only victim of our poor gardening skills this year. Our broccoli plants flowered and then got a serious aphid infestation; there are aspen sprouts growing up among our carrots; our pumpkin and watermelon plants never recovered from the squash bug/drought combo; and our cucumber plant is still only a foot and a half tall. On the bright side, we have managed to grow some fabulous tomatoes and just harvested our first cantaloupe last night. Mostly, we’ve decided that we should just grow fruit. Our strawberry plants are still green and beautiful, our grape vines are loaded with grapes that are starting to sweeten up, and our peach tree is doing wonderfully (probably thanks to all of the extra water).

One of these years we will be master gardeners. Right now, we are just looking forward to spring for a fresh start.

The good . . .

the bad . . .

and the ugly.

Cousin Summertime Playdate - Party at Holly's House

This was officially the last cousin playdate of the summer. Holly and Jody are back in school and the kids start next week, but my mom and I decided that we could both use one more get-together. Nathan was feeling pretty moted that we had never played at their house, so that’s what we did. I think he might have had second thoughts when Ben went bounding into his room at 9:30 a.m. to wake him up . . . my kids are not even close to understanding the desirability of sleeping-in.

The kids had a great time. It was a full day that included PlayStation, princesses, bike riding, water-balloons, jumping on the trampoline, pizza, and homemade snowcones. I think it is the first time ever that one or all of my kids didn’t have a fit when it was time to leave Holly’s house. I guess the secret is to stay for 4 or 5 hours so they can get their fill.

Riley

Justin and Jen had their baby on Monday. (What I wouldn’t give to have a birthday like 08-18-08!) Yesterday morning I took the kids and met my mom at the hospital. The kids stayed (surprisingly quietly) in the waiting area with their cousins while Grandma Reatha and I went in to see the baby. She is a cutie. It was fun to hold a brand new baby again for a few minutes. Justin wheeled her out into the hall so the kids could get a quick peek. On the way home, I asked them what they thought of the baby. Emily and Elise said (in unison), "She's pretty!" Ben said, "She doesn't even have teeth. That's just like horses. They don't have teeth when they are born." He is a random boy.

Kiddie Kandids

We took the kids to get their pictures done today. Taking pictures with small kids is always an adventure. Between Ben cheesing, Emily doing ultra fake smiles, Elise stubbornly refusing to do anything close to a smile, and Abby just wanting to be held by her mom, it is AMAZING that we got some decent pictures. We are happy to have the fun over with for another year.

Cousin Summertime Playdate - Fort Buenaventura

This was the last week of summer before Holly and Jody head back to school. I’m a little sad to have our weekly get-togethers come to an end. Today we took the kids to Fort Buenaventura. We had lunch and let the kids run and play. Then we took a couple of canoes out on the pond. Abby didn’t love it, but the rest of the kids seemed to think it was great. Holly mocked my rowing skills. We decided that we would not make a great Amazing Race team.

We couldn’t convince Grandma Reatha to join us on the canoes, so she was our official onshore photographer. She did a pretty good job considering that it was the first time she had ever used a digital camera.

Dinosaur Park

The kids wanted to go to the dinosaur park one more time this summer so that Nate could go with us. They had fun seeing all the dinosaurs again and playing at the park. Nate and I decided that visiting the dinosaur park once a summer (or once a lifetime) is plenty for adults.

Abby loved playing in the sand. We don’t have a sandbox anymore and all of the local parks have replaced their sand with wood chips, so this was really her first chance to test it out. She was a fan.

Party with the Kinneys

The Kinney family came to visit this weekend. We felt honored that we made it onto their busy vacation schedule. They got here in time to have Sunday dinner with us and stayed until Monday afternoon. It was great to hang out with them again after two years. We managed to fit a lot into their short visit. We ate lots of yummy food, watched some scenes from a couple of movies, and stayed up late (1:30!) talking. The kids hit it off and had a great time playing together. We let the boys bunk together in Ben’s room and the girls in Emily and Elise’s room. On Monday, Gwyn schooled us in a fun new card game and then we went to the pool. They are quality friends and it was great to spend some time with them. Ben is pretty sure that we should move to New Hampshire so we can play together more often. I think he’ll have to settle for a New England vacation in a few years.

Will and Ben are definitely kindred spirits. It was hilarious to hear them talking in Ben’s room. It was a great exchange of science facts and movie reviews.

The girls stayed up REALLY late talking and playing. They certainly enjoyed the rare exception to our no slumber party rule.

Ready to start our pool party.

Elise's Diving Debut

We went swimming at the Clapp’s house last night. They are a nice older couple who were nursery leaders long enough to get to know each of our three oldest kids. They are cool about letting friends use their pool. It is fun to go swimming without all of the rules or all of the people that come with the city pool.

Ben got lots of practice diving for his dive sticks. It was eight feet deep where he was practicing and he still managed to get them. I was impressed.

Emily practiced swimming all the way across the pool in the deep end. She is getting to be a good little swimmer.

Elise did some amazing flips and belly flops off the diving board. She was doing some little summersault flips off the edge of the pool last week until the lifeguard told her to stop. She was excited to show off her new skills on a diving board. The quote of the night was when she said out of the blue (in her megaphone voice), “Attention North Shore swimmers, the pool will be reopening in 5 minutes.”

The water was warmer than most pools. That seemed to make Abby happy. She liked floating around in her baby tube and then in her lifejacket. After a while she just wanted to play with the buckles on her lifejacket. It kept her entertained for a really long time.

It is easy to see where the kids get it from.