4th of July

We had a fun and pretty busy fourth of July this year.  We started out by going to the summer dollar movies.  The kids love this and I think we are going to try to go most weeks this summer.  We saw "Chipwrecked."  Bob and I didn't think it was that great, but the kids were pretty entertained.

Once we got home and ate Bob and I got to work.  We spend hours painting both the boys and girls rooms white.  I hate painting!

When 6:30 rolled around we went to a friends house for a potluck and fireworks.

It was pretty fun!  We didn't get home until pretty late and the kids were excited about that.

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Mother's Day

I love my kids and feel truly blessed to have four amazing children!  Yes they make my life hard and messy and busy but they are also so sweet and fun and bring so much joy.  They have changed me in so many ways and I just couldn't be happier to be their mom!

In the morning they made cinnamon rolls and brought me breakfast in bread along with all their cards.

 I could tell they worked really hard on them and Bob even said that he was going to take them to the store to get stuff once they finished but they just kept working they ran out of time.  It is nice to think about them making these for me and how hard they worked.  Scarlett hers is a picture of me when I was a baby.  Penelope lost her picture and was so upset she worked really hard to quickly make me a new one.  Leon couldn't wait until mothers day and he gave it to me with a big smile on Saturday after he finished making it.

 Tucker made me several cards including a few pop ups.  And he wrote me a letter.  It says,

Dear Mom,

you are very special to me.  You tought me how to walk.  You took me to Lago Land.  You read me the belly book,  You comforted me when I was scard.  You showed me how to ride my bike.  Thank you for lating me to go birthday partes.  Thank you for playing with me.  I love you so much.  You are the bast.  you look buootuf when you stad up tall and smill. you are really good mom I love you.

Love tucker

Bob was really sweet too and special ordered me 8 bags of mint m&ms, they usually only make them at Christmas time.  He also took care of the kids and cleaned the house all day giving me a nice break.  

And that was pretty much my day.

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May Day

I'm not sure how common it is to celebrate May Day but it is something I enjoyed growing up so now I do it with my kids.  Every year on the first of May we make little May Day baskets and give them to each other and the neighbors.  You can fill them with candy or flowers and then leave them on someone's porch and ring the door bell and run away.  My mom used to tell me that you leave it on the porch of someone you like and if they catch you then you have to kiss them... or something like that.  I didn't tell my kids about that part of it.

We made our baskets this year out of construction paper.  I know we are so fancy ;)

Bob was gone with the flex so I let the kids all pile into the honda while we drove to the neighbors house.  Leon though tit was great to not be in a "seat".

Below you can see Tucker putting one on our door.  My kids really like getting the baskets so they give one to a sibling too making sure everyone gets one.  They ring the door bell and then run around and come in the back door.  It is cute because everyone usually knows what is going on.

This year Penelope was gone while we were making them so Tucker got to actually surprise her with a basket.  She thought it was pretty neat.

When the kids dropped them off at a neighbor I let Tucker and Scarlett go alone.  Usually Bob or I will go with but they are growing up and I thought they could handle it.  It was cute to see because Tucker sent Scarlett to start running and hiding before he rang the bell so she could have enough time.  Then the people actually opened the door while the kids hid behind their car.  They were so quiet and loved it!

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Egg Hunt

This year we did two Easter Egg hunts in Puyallup.  There are several churches that put on community hunts in my area, but this year we visited my parents.  I could only find one church that was doing one so we checked it out.  We have done a few before and I've found that they vary from huge crowded ones to almost awkward they are so small.  This one was just perfect, it wasn't crowed but there were enough people I didn't feel like we stood out and they had tons of candy!  Our kids baskets weren't big enough, we had to dump the candy into the white bags but those even broke through.  I think they got more candy then then did on Halloween!  Not that they need that much.  I still like to go to those hunts because the kids love them, and it gives them just another experience and memory.  Plus they had free bouncy houses and donuts!

After that we went to my parents house, watched conference, took naps and did an entirely different kind of hunt.  My family hid eggs in the back yard and the kids got to go out and find their set amount starting youngest to oldest.  I like this kind too because they don't have to worry so much about being fast, and they actually have to look for the eggs because they were hidden instead of just thrown in a grassy field.

My sister brought the biggest plastic eggs I've ever seen.

My parents have a nice backyard with plenty of hiding spots.

Unfortunately something happened to Leon because he woke up from his nap throwing up!  It was so sad.  He threw up several times an was feeling horrible.  He just sat on the couch and didn't even want to pick up any eggs or look or talk to anyone.  At least he had fun at the morning egg hunt.  And I'm saving his stuff for when he feels better.  I  might even hide it around the living room for him.

More about Leon tomorrow.

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Happy St Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day to me is just a fun holiday that doesn't really hold much significance.  The kids love it, so we celebrate it.  But the holiday doesn't have any meaning to me... except maybe remember all the fun I had as a kid pinching people.  I don't know maybe I need to research how the day got started.

Anyway, the night before St. Patricks day the kids made Leprechaun traps.  Here is Penelope's the morning after the Leprechaun came.  She didn't catch him, but he did leave her some fake gold for effort.  Actually I forgot about it and woke up five minutes before the kids.  Since I had five extra minutes I turned on the news, that is when I realized it was St. Patricks day.  I quickly jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to get the "gold" then back up to put them in the traps before the kids got up.  They know it was me but no one saw me, so it was a success.

And here is Tucker's trap.  He asked me why the leprechaun didn't leave a  not like last year... he did?  whoops.

We also did a couple crafts.

Tucker and Penelope were careful to wear green to bed so they wouldn't get pinched in the morning, but Scarlett is a little too young to think of that.  So when she came in my room and I pinched her she thought it was pretty funny.  She kept laughing and saying that it didn't even hurt her.  Of course it didn't hurt, how sad would that be if I pinched my 3-year-old daughter hard.  I also pinched and tickled Leon a lot, he had no idea what was going on but thought it was fun to run away.

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Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-treating went really well this year.  Just as we were ready to take the kids around the neighborhood it started raining a bit harder and Bob started feeling not well.  So I told him to sit down and rest and the kids and I went out alone for just about 15 minutes.  It was about 5:30, so a little early, but I really wanted to get some pictures of the kids.  It was perfect.  We went to a few houses then got in the car and drove to our wards trunk-or-treat.

Bob started feeling better right when we got there.  So he sat and passed out candy while I herded the zoo animals around.  They did really good at saying "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you."  Except every once in a while Scarlett would get excited and shout "candy."  Leon even started saying the magic words.  After that we drove back to our neighborhood and did a few more houses.

Going to houses is harder then the cars but it feels more authentic to me so I still like it.  Leon was slow up and down all the steps and there were a few houses the kids were just too scared to go to.   We set out a bowl of candy on our porch because we were gone most of the night and I don't think we got too many trick-or-treaters because when we got back most of the candy was still there.  Maybe one day when the kids are older we can decorate the house really scary and try to actually scare the kids who come around. 

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Halloween Costumes

Happy Halloween!

This year we got most of the kids costumes from Good Will.     We are a Zoo Family.  Bob and I are zoo keepers and all the kids are animals.  I borrowed mine, Bob's, and Penelope's costumes so it was really easy.  I didn't put nearly as much effort into it as last year, but I still love how it turned out.  So If you need a fun and easy family theme halloween costume idea you could always do zoo animals.  I even joked about Bob also being an animal and me being the lone zoo keeper, but I'm pretty sure I would be a bad zoo keeper on my own and the animals would all escape.

Tucker loves his costume.  He found this monkey costume that he really wanted and because it wasn't bloody and it looked warm I went ahead and let him get it.

Penelope doesn't love her costume because it falls over her face and she really just wanted to be a princess.  I think it is cute though and it will keep her warm.  Sometimes you just have to go with the family theme.  I try to make sure next year she gets to be something she really wants. And I'm going to let her wear her princess dress earlier in the day to her dance class and to the library trick-or-treat.

Scarlett also loves her Lady Bug costume but she keeps taking the wings off.  She is the only one I will have to worry about getting cold.  She found it at good will the same time Tucker got his.

Leon thinks his horse costume is fun.  Whenever I try to take it off he keeps trying to put it back on.  Part of me thinks he just loves everyone's reactions to him when he wears it.  We all just smile at him and so he smiles back and thinks it is fun. 

His works out well because sometimes he gets down on the floor and then the costume just looks that much funnier.

I love Halloween and am excited to take the kids trick-or-treating.

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Road Trip

Over 4th of July weekend we drove to Spokane and visited my sister's family.  Actually Bob's brother met us there from Rexburg so we got to hang out with him as well.  I picked up Bob from work on Thursday and we headed straight over.  The sky was beautiful.

It was pretty late by the time everyone arrived so we just went to bed.  On friday we went to a friends party and it was a lot of fun.  She had a bounce house, pool, and a slip and slide.  Everyone had a blast.  I even did the slip and slide and it went a lot faster then I thought it would.

Waterside videos.



Here is Scarlett and my sister.

 I was so proud of Penelope for going into the pool.  I thought she would be so scared because it went up to her chin when she was on her tippy toes.  I actually didn't think she would get in at all.  But she did.  At first she would only hold onto the edge and she had a noodle.  But before long she didn't need that at all.

 Scarlett and Leon were happy with the kitty pool.

I didn't get any pictures but after the BBQ we had s'mores on a fire. mmm... my favorite!  Then we headed home.  The kids didn't get a nap and there was no way they were going to stay up for fireworks.  Maybe next year.

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