Emily's Birthday Bash

Emily had her first friend birthday party on Saturday. She invited her sisters, three cousins, two friends from school, and six friends from church. That’s a grand total of 14 girls. Plus, one girl showed up with her stepsister who stayed for the party, bringing the total to 15. (Just a note to all the moms of the world: if one of your kids is invited to a party, don’t drop off your other kids who weren’t invited. She was a really nice girl, but we had only bought enough stuff for 14 girls. We improvised a bit and it mostly worked out fine.)

Emily is a little artist and of course wanted to have an art party. It seemed easy enough. I figured I would just find a fun art party plan online and copy it. No such luck. There wasn’t much out there, so we had to come up with our own ideas. We found some cute little projects for the girls to do and turned the playroom into a little art studio. They painted birdhouses, made a couple of sand art projects, played Win, Lose, or Draw, decorated sugar cookie suckers, and made ID bracelets. There were a couple of glitches that caused me to hyperventilate a bit, but things mostly went according to plan and the girls all seemed to have a good time. Emily loved it! Next week (after we get through a baptism and three birthdays in this house), I think I will write up a little party plan post like I did for Ben’s party. Hopefully it will help out some other mom with an artsy eight year old. Plus, the piñata turned out pretty darn cute and I want to show it off. :)





Ben went on a special date with Aunt Holly during the party. They both had a great time. Ben talked her ear off and she bought him a Slurpee and treats. They went to Smith and Edwards and she gave him a whole dollar to spend in the candy aisle. Someone had put some giant suckers in the 8/$1.00 bin and Ben was so excited that Holly didn’t have the heart to tell him that they weren’t really supposed to be there. Getting that sucker (AKA, light saber) was pretty much the highlight of his week.

Back in the Saddle Again

The kids started school this week. We met their teachers at Back to School Night on Tuesday, and I feel like we totally lucked out. I love them. The kids love them. I couldn’t be happier. Wednesday was the first day of school for Ben and Emily. Elise was very sad that she didn’t get to go too. (Ben offered to trade places with her 97 times.) I let her pout for about three minutes and then told her she was just going to have to suck it up. My sanity wasn’t up to the challenge of a whole week of five-year-old self-pity. We walked over at the end of the day to walk home with the kids. There was actually a limo there to pick up one girl. Who does that?!?!?






Thursday night the school had a swimming party at North Shore. It was their reading incentive party that got cancelled last spring because of the weather. We had a great time hanging out with friends at the pool. Emily jumped off the high dive for the first time. She is getting so brave! Ben did a flip off the high dive. It looked great until he over-rotated a bit and did a painful belly flop into the water. I don’t think he will be trying that again anytime soon. Elise played with all of her friends and Abby got to have the full attention of her mom and dad. It was a fun night.

Through Rain and Wind and Weather

We love going boating with friends. The only downside is that you have to pick a day in advance and hope for good weather. It’s been very hit and miss with having the weather cooperate with us this summer. We took Heidi and Aaron and their boys out last Thursday. We almost scratched our plans when we woke up to grey skies and rain showers. Luckily it cleared up later in the day, so we just changed our afternoon party to an evening party. It was actually kind of cool to be out on the water while the sun was setting. The big news of the trip is that Ben tried skiing again. He was not at all thrilled about doing it (to say the least), but after some persuasion and a bribe, he finally caved. Apparently three dollars is the going rate for conquering fear in that boy. He popped right up on the trainers and really loved it. I’m glad he wasn’t shown up by his cousins’ bravery. Zack and Austin were surprisingly daring about jumping in the water and riding on the tube.







On Saturday, we took the Eckardts. The weather was absolutely gorgeous . . . except for the wind. Dang wind! It made for some choppy water, which meant that every boat out there was trying to hug the south dike to take advantage of the smoother water. It was too close for comfort for my tastes, but we still had a good time. We spent most of the time tubing since the water was so rough. I wanted take a little solo ride. It ended up being a big mistake. About one minute into my ride the wind picked up the tube like a kite and flipped it over, slamming me against the water. I’m still having some pretty serious back pain as a result. Dang wind!





The big news of this trip is that Elise lost her first tooth. I had my ski gloves on and I was going to see how loose it was. Elise turned her head when I put my fingers in her mouth and her tooth came right out in my hand. She was so excited. The tooth fairy brought her a gold dollar, a littlest pet shop bear, and some grasshopper cookies.

Cousin Fun

One of the sad things about school starting is that we are done with our summertime cousin dates. We’ve had loads of fun playing this summer. Here’s a recap of what we did:

Week one: We had a movie matinee at our house and watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. The kids thought it was great. The grownups had mixed reviews. Mostly I just loved that Ben tried to master Mr. Fox’s tongue-clicking/whistling combo so it could be his trademark too.


Week two: We tie dyed t-shirts using Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. Then the kids played in Holly’s swimming pool. Some of the shirts turned out super cute, but I didn’t get a picture. I did get pictures in the pool. They had just filled it and the water was FREEZING. The girls were much braver about it than the boys.



Week three: We took the kids to Kennecott. It was fun to have an educational fieldtrip and we were glad that Grandma Reatha came along. We had planned to go to a park for lunch after our tour, but Google Maps led us to some rodeo grounds that were under construction. We went with Plan B and stopped at the nearest church. We ate lunch on the lawn under some shade trees and the kids had fun playing tag in the church parking lot.


Week four: We spent some time at Beus Pond. I got attacked by a goose three minutes after we got there. We were debating whether or not to follow the sign that said not to feed the birds. Mr. Goose could see the bag of bread in my hand and apparently got impatient. Who knew that those things had teeth?!? After the bread was safely returned to the van, we had a fun time. We walked around the pond; the boys challenged each other to see who could walk the farthest out on a tree that had fallen into the water (Ben won . . . he had a definite weight advantage); the kids hiked up a dusty trail and got filthy; and we finished off the day with lunch and a little soccer game at the park.





Week five: Emily participated in a week-long summer art workshop at the Treehouse Museum, so we decided to meet up after one of her classes and take the kids to the museum. We had lunch at the park first and watched some guy hit my car when he was parallel parking (no real damage was done). Then we headed over to the Treehouse. I was afraid that Holly’s kids would be too old to appreciate it and think it was lame, but everyone seemed to love it. Ben and Jacob looked like two funny old men playing checkers (and then chess). They apparently take these things pretty seriously.




Week six: We went to the zoo the last week of July (I wanted to go while I could take advantage of the “bring in four Cache Valley cheese/butter packages and get a free ticket” offer, and it ended on July 31st). I wouldn’t recommend going to the zoo when it is 98 degrees outside. It was HOT. And, Bryton got sick and threw up a couple of times. Other than that, it was great. :) Sarah had a doctor appointment, so Jody had to leave early and Holly ended up taking Bryton home since she was feeling so lousy. She left Rachel and Jacob with me. I was a little afraid for a second about managing six kids at the zoo all by myself, but they were great and we had a good time together. We walked every inch of Hogle Zoo (twice I think). I was pretty worn out by the end of that day.




The next day, Holly came to my house to make a slideshow for girls’ camp. The kids played together for a good six hours and had a blast. Jacob challenged the rest of the kids (all seven of them) to a soccer game and he still won. Too bad that athletic ability wasn’t spread more evenly in the family. :) I love that Abby was playing soccer in her Cinderella dress. She is a crack up.


Week seven: We spent a few hours being lazy at Holly’s house. It is fun to go on outings, but sometimes I think the kids have the most fun just hanging out and playing together. The girls got their nails painted with fancy nail polish that changes colors in the sun. It was pretty much the highlight of their summer.

Week eight: We planned a cousin boating party. It turned out to be a cousin beach party. The wind was blowing so hard that we ended up not even launching the boat. I was pretty disappointed about the lousy weather, but the kids certainly made the most of it. The strong wind made for some really big waves. The kids acted like they were at the ocean and played in the waves for hours. We’re hoping that we get a chance to take them out one more time this season so they can actually try a bit of skiing and kneeboarding.

A Dog Named Bear

Aunt Jody takes the kids to Build-A-Bear for their second birthday (sometimes we are a little slow in actually getting there). It was Abby’s turn, so Jody and I took our five kids to Salt Lake on Monday. My older kids still love their bears, but they didn’t remember making them and were very curious about the process. So, we all went in the store to watch Abby make hers. She picked a dog instead of a bear and picked out a cute dress, some flip-flops (she LOVED all of the flip-flops), and a little picnic basket. When it came time to name her dog, she wanted “Bear.” I tried to give her some other options, but she would just whisper back, “No, Bear”. Bear it is.








It may have been wiser to keep the kids in the dark about the whole Build-A-Bear scene. They all got out their bears when we got home and have been talking about the new clothes/accessories they want to buy. Hopefully they’ll be more excited about doing their chores with a fun goal in mind for the money they earn.