This is the Place

As we were leaving the zoo, everyone wanted to ride on the train, but we told the girls that they could ride on a big train, little train, and horses if they would come with us. None of us had ever been to This is the Place since they turned it into a "Heritage Park" and it was a lot of fun for the girls.
The most memorable part of the trip (for Becca at least) was the fact that she got a bloody nose and a very nice man helped her, and gave her a Deseret Dollar that she got to spend on Pixie Stix at ZCMI.
The rest of the girls also got a bunch of pixie stix which helped to mollify them despite the increasing heat of the day. All in all it was most enjoyable.

Hogle Zoo

We started our adventure at Hogle Zoo. We focused our visit on Greg's favorite blog "Zoo-Borns" (I know, can you believe he claims Zoo-borns as his favorite & not this blog?). There were four babies born at the zoo recently, and we saw three of the four. There was a baby giraffe, elephant, snow leopard, and tamarin monkeys. We saw everything other than the elephant who is not out on display yet :( but the other babies were all very cute. The girls had the most fun climbing on the bronze statues, getting sprayed by the misting fans and riding on the carousel, however.

Too Smart

I was reading jokes with Ellie just now & asked her "What is a liquid that never freezes?" The answer was "warm water" but I thought Ellie's answer was pretty amazing.
She said, "THE SUN! Because the sun is liquid and it never freezes!" I know that the sun is "a mass of incandescent gas"* but when you look at plasma it looks a lot like a liquid and I just have to ask, What 6 year old thinks like that?

*They Might Be Giants

Oh Deer...

We had visitor at our door this morning to tell us that ANOTHER deer was stuck in the corner of our fence. Fortunately, Greg and some neighbors were able to save this one. They hooked up a Suburban to the fence post and pulled it enough that Greg could lift the deer by its back legs and get it out. My theory...the deer have been using the little gap between our fence & the church all summer and they are now too big. So, we need to do something to cover the gap between the two fences. I'm not sure what, but I REALLY don't want to spend another Saturday playing "Animal Planet" in our back yard. (I SHOULD have taken a picture of the little deer...now that it is safely out it seems pretty funny)

Hot Dogs, Saltines and Maple Syrup

And the answer to what these things have in common is...I just found all three in my bed. Argh! I was downstairs working on a chore chart of sorts for my girls and when I came up all four girls were in my room watching TV and eating cold hot dogs and saltines and Rachel was pouring maple syrup on my carpet/blankets etc. I'm not sure my bedroom will ever be the same. The girls were supposed to be cleaning their rooms, but obviously they didn't have time to do that, so Becca is currently moping in her room because a friend just called to see if she could play & I told her that she couldn't since she hadn't done what I asked.
OH, BABY! I am a MEAN MOM!
I am just hoping that this new chore system will give the girls a little more pride in housework & prevent them from making this kind of mess. If it doesn't work I have threatened that I will eat saltines with syrup in their beds to see how they like sleeping on sticky crumbs. Moooaahh Ha Ha!

Hanu Montanu

Ellie knows that her friends are fans of Hannah Montana; however, she has never watched the show herself.
Well, Greg was teasing my sister Haylee about how much she enjoys the show & Ellie went to Google on my computer, typed in "Hanu Montanu" (sounded out it's a pretty good phonetic spelling) found "Hannah Montana" on YouTube, and watched her very first clip.
I have informed Greg that thanks to that episode, we now REALLY need to password protect any computer that has Internet access.
Ellie is officially too smart for her own good.

Brownie Catastrophe

I would consider myself to be a pretty good cook. Things usually work out when I am cooking, and I can often come up with my own ideas & have them work, too.
However, there are occasional exceptions. One of those exceptions happened yesterday. I was in charge of making dessert for Sunday dinner and thought that brownies and ice cream would be a nice, easy way to go. I just picked up a boxed mix and a couple things of ice cream, thinking I would take the "easy" way out. As I was mixing them, I was tempted to substitute applesauce for the oil, but decided that as long as I was having brownies I would go ahead and make them the decadent way.
Well, I think I should have used the applesauce because when I pulled the brownies out of the oven, they were SWIMMING in oil. I literally POURED 1/4 cup of oil from the top of the pan (and the recipe only called for 1/2 cup of oil. I don't have any idea what happened, but it left me with 40 minutes to figure out a new dessert and get it made before we needed to leave. Happily, I came up with something that seemed to be acceptable. I have a recipe for a fresh peach dessert that is yummy, and although I didn't have any peaches, I did have a whole bunch of strawberries, so we had fresh strawberry dessert instead.
It was a fun change, but I am still wondering what on earth would have made my brownies separate the way they did. Oh well!

World's Greatest Mom

Yesterday we were at my mom's house and Ellie came up to me and said, "Mom, I love you. You are the nicest mom in the whole universe...when you're nice."

So for everyone who has mistakenly assumed that I am always kind, here is the proof that I am not always the most patient--I was just glad that Ellie thinks that I am at least SOMETIMES a nice mom :)

Ellie's New Smile

I realize that she is six and a half years old, but for some reason when Ellie came to me this morning to tell me that she had a loose tooth I was hopeful that it would stick around for a little while because I wasn't quite ready for her to turn into a "big girl" with missing teeth yet.
But, like everything Ellie does, it was on her own time, and she wiggled that thing all day until she finally convinced Greg it was loose enough to come out, and come out it did...along with a good sized root. I'll be interested to see if she lets Greg pull any more of her teeth because it was pretty bloody when it first came out, but she is now a happy camper & she can't wait to see what the tooth fairy will bring tonight (I guess that means I'm going back to the store for the second time today)...but at least it didn't come out tomorrow...I don't think she would have been to keen to learn that the tooth fairy doesn't work on Sunday.

Thank you!

Greg just changed Rachel's diaper, and I said "Rachel, tell Daddy 'Thank you for changing my diaper!'"
And just like any good minder would, she yelled, "Daddy, thank you for changing Mommy's diaper."
Yes, that was just what I meant.

Won't You Be my Neighbor

I have always been grateful for my neighbors, but today my gratitude increased greatly. We were supposed to go up to the Uintahs this morning, but Greg had to help someone move, so I stayed home with the kids, and while he was gone, a neighbor came over to tell me that a deer was stuck in my fence & I probably shouldn't let my kids outside because it was pretty gruesome (guess what my girls wanted to do as soon as they heard the news). So I hurried the girls upstairs and called Greg. He told me that he had seen the deer on his way to help with the move & called Animal Control, was told that they would be out of the office until Monday, called the Sheriff, who said we should just "take care of it" as well as we could, and told me he would deal with it as soon as he got home.
Well, a police officer came to the house, shot the deer (but according to sources didn't actually kill it) and took off. Fortunately, a neighbor who lives just up the street (they are in another ward & sadly I don't know his name) came over, along with another ward member who was helping my neighbor with some yard construction, and took care of the deer for me. They came to the door and asked me if I would just hose down the sidewalk before the mess dried...which, although not the most appealing idea sat a lot better than letting it dry on my sidewalk. So, I hosed everything down (REALLY WELL) and while I was spraying the sidewalk, my "nameless" neighbor came over and said that he also tried calling everyone he could think of concerning the poor deer, and was told that someone from Wildlife Services would be over on Tuesday to take care of it.
He said, "Perfect, we'll just tell all the little kids to step over the carcass on their way to church tomorrow" and then claimed that since he took care of the problem a lot faster than the city could that he would just send them a bill and write it off his taxes. I thought that was a pretty good idea.
All I can say, though, is that I am so grateful that I didn't have to deal with the deer on my own with my four little girls peeking out the window to watch what I was doing.
I am SO grateful for good neighbors who saw a need and took care of it.

Another Ellie-ism

I just found out about another Ellie-ism from a friend of mine who was in Primary on Sunday with Ellie. She said that one of the members of the Primary Presidency was giving a sharing time about prayer, and started her lesson by saying something like, "Isn't it frustrating when you try to call someone on the phone and the line is busy, or they don't answer? Well, we are very lucky because Heavenly Father will always answer when we call."
And Ellie, without missing a beat, said, "But I don't even know His phone number."

Winner!

After Becca's birthday party was such a success I decided to enter the Ladybug Picnic idea at BirthdayPartyIdeas.Com and guess what?! I just got an e-mail telling me that my idea was one of the winners. Woo Hoo! How fun for me. They are sending me a gift card & my idea is listed with the "new entries" but I just have to say that seeing that email (especially after having such a frustrating time cleaning up after mess after mess) really made my day.
So, now I am off to put a diaper back on Nakey-Rachey (who can't seem to stay clothed for more than five minutes at a time), clean up my kitchen, and do a load of laundry all with a smile (where I can guarantee I would not have been smiling a few minutes ago).
Yay, Me!

Inventory

Here is an incomplete inventory of the contents of my vacuum today (and yes, this was empty before I started vacuuming the first of the messes) :


Item....................... Quantity
Potting Soil.................. 2 plants worth
Rice Crispy Dust......... 1 uneaten box
Granola........................ 5 cups
Styrofoam.................... seemingly infinite
Dirt and Grime............ too much to quantify

Yes, Rachel has had a very productive day. I, on the other hand, not so much (but my carpets are nice and clean now. :)

An Ellie Quote

"Mom, I like to eat almost everything. . . .It's just that my taste buds don't like hardly anything."

Canyonero

In lieu of a trip up to Pine View (due to threatening inclement weather) we went as a family up to the canyon today for lunch. The girls had a great time playing with the cousins and we ran into our friends the Farrers/Barkers. The water in the river has slowed enough that we let the kiddos play in the river & they spent the better part of the time in the water. Here are a few pics of the day's events:
Sarah and Lindsey "skipping" rocks across the river
Lauren and Sarah floating the hollowed out "zucchini boat" downstream.
Rachel enjoying the "refreshing" feeling of cold water on her toes.
A picture from the bridge of everyone in the water.

It's Always fun at Grandma's House

Here are some pictures (courtesy of Haylee's blog) from the summer party my mom did for the grandkids...I have to say grandkids now instead of granddaughters because "Baby Maffew" as Rachel calls him was also invited :)


The girls enjoying a crayon popsicle (I can say girls this time because poor Matthew didn't get one...and he looks sad about it, huh?).
Becca drawing herself as a mermaid with sidewalk chalk.
The girls playing Ring Around the Rosie in the kiddie pool.
Rachel's sidewalk chalk masterpiece.
Mom's blue Jell-O masterpiece.

Summer Equals Popsicles

Sarah has taken it upon herself lately to be the experimental chef...and not just any chef, the Popsicle chef. In the past week or so I have found grape popsicles (water and grapes stuck in a paper cup), carrot-sicles and PBJ-sicles, but by far the most disturbing concoction was the hot dog-sicle. Oh, yeah, Sarah broke chunks of hot dog off, crammed them into a water bottle, filled it to the top with water and stuck it in the freezer.
Then, when I threw it away, she freaked out because she couldn't find her "special invention."
What she planned to do with it (other than freaking out every child in the neighborhood) I have no idea, but fortunately the 'thing' was gone long before she came looking for it (and fortunately for you, I did NOT take a picture).

High On A Mountain Top

Saturday we decided to take the girls for a hike. Since the weather looked clear we decided to head up to Bountiful Peak. When we got there I was sad that I didn't pack any Handi-Snack cheese and crackers because the first time I ever hiked the ridge I was about 5 or 6 and Grandpa Hodgkinson packed Handi-Snacks...it might have been the first time in my life I had ever eaten them and I thought they were AMAZING! But, even without the cheese and crackers we had a great time.
Come to think of it, that was probably one of the first "hikes" I had ever been on . . . . . . .No wonder I like hiking...I associate it with "special" food :)
Here I am with my grandpa looking out over the valley. I remember he held me on his lap because I didn't want to sit on the rocks. I love this picture.
Here is a picture of me, Rick, Ben and my grandpa. (and some random person in the background).
But back to our trip on Saturday...The drive up the mountain was beautiful. The girls were a little worried that we were going to drive off the edge of a cliff when we first started out, (and as we looked down at the Bountiful Temple the girls looked once but told me not to ask them to look again because they were too scared) but once they got over their fear of the cliff they enjoyed the drive up. About half way up the mountain we started seeing wildflowers like crazy. We saw huge patches of bluebells (which happen to be Greg's favorite flower) interspersed with wild roses and other gorgeous flowers.




When we got to the first overlook, Greg pulled off to a small turnabout, and Ellie panicked thinking momentarily that he was going to drive us down the mountain the quick way, but when the girls got out of the car they were thrilled with the view.


After our short hike to the top of the peak we stopped to watch some scouts with mirrors trying to signal across the valley. We saw the flash from one group that was stationed at Bountiful Pond. The fact that it came from Bountiful Pond was fun for us, too because on Wednesday night we took the girls on a picnic/hike through the swamp around the pond and it was fun to see the pond from such a height.

When we told my dad today about the scouts with mirrors he said that the reason we went up to the peak with my grandpa so many years ago was to participate in the same event. What are the odds?

Some Pictures from the Baptism

COUSINS!
Sarah in front of the house. Can you see the short part of her bangs (the reason she even has bangs is to cover it up).

Here is a picture of Becca just after the baptism up at the Stake Center.

Eight is Great

Yesterday was Becca's big day--although I find it a little hard to believe my little girl is old enough to be baptized!
Becca was very involved with the planning of the festivities. Instead of having the usual "Great to be Eight" theme for the baptism preview, the Primary Presidency had a "Black-White Choose the Right" theme, and Becca thought that it would only be fitting to incorporate the theme into her baptism party. So, my kind sisters-in-law brought various black and white cookies, we decorated the house with all things black and white and had French Dip Sandwiches for dinner.
I had planned on taking pictures during the party but totally forgot, so the only pictures I have are from before everyone came...Greg has some pictures of Becca on his phone & his dad took some of her up at the Stake Center, but here are a couple from before we went up to the church.

Little kids picnic table
Cookie jars filled with various black and white cookies

Black and white in the dining room

Black and white in the kitchen (I added more daisies just before we left to the church and filled the little bowls with black and white jelly beans and chocolate covered/yogurt covered raisins and pretzels)

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I have been wanting to make these for a while & since Greg's best friend brought us some fresh raspberries for his birthday, I decided it was the perfect excuse (since I don't have anything else to do today...what with Becca's baptism two days away and all). But, they sure turned out cute!

I made a dozen cupcakes, but by the time I got the camera there were only three (very nearly two) left on the plate.

Zoo

Here are some pictures of the girls on our trip to the zoo a few weeks ago. I got them from Greg's phone (along with the pictures from the previous post). We went on Meadow Gold's Mother's day & got the girls' faces painted, rode the carousel and train, and got to see the elephants playing/eating. The girls had a great time.

Go Sun Devils!

I was at the grocery store checkout today and saw three Mylar balloons with the letters A S U (the "S" was even the right direction) and, although I realized immediately that it was meant to be read from the other direction, I found it kind of funny that everyone leaving the store got to see a tribute to Arizona State...so, as a lead in on my post about this patriotic weekend, I thought I would also give a shout out to ASU since my local grocer did, too.

Since it was a nice long weekend, I am just going to give the quick low-down. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures, so I'll have to swipe some from Greg's dad to post here, but for now, here is the low-down of our weekend.

Friday we left as soon as the girls were up and ready for Pine View Reservoir. We went up the weekend before and there was NO beach, and although it was still pretty sparse, we found a little sand for the kids to dig around in & they loved it. They also enjoyed riding on Grandpa Steve's 3 man tube, swimming in the lake & playing with COUSINS!

That night, we went to see fireworks in Centerville, and as we were driving home we watched the North Salt Lake fireworks which happened to be directly in our line of sight the whole way home. It was really fun.

Saturday morning we woke our poor, exhausted girls up for a family breakfast at my aunt's house, then loaded them up for a trip to Mirror Lake. The drive took a little bit longer than usual because as I looked back at Becca I noticed a slightly green hue to her face, so we pulled into WalMart & got Becca some Dramamine... We were riding with Greg's parents, who have a brand new car, and I was very grateful Becca didn't single-handedly eliminate the "new car" smell.


We had a great picnic lunch, walked around the lake, fished, and only got a little bit of rain.

In fact, considering the ominous weather forecast for the weekend, we really lucked out. I think that both Pine View and Mirror Lake were both a lot less crowded than they normally would be on the 4th of July weekend because of the prediction of rain, but we didn't have any trouble with the weather, and we definitely were successful at wearing out our girls.

I am very sad that I didn't get a picture of it, but when we got back from Mirror Lake we were unloading the Suburban and all three of the oldest girls just lay down on the grass and crashed (Rachel was asleep in her car seat).

On the night of the fourth, after dinner and a short nap for the girls, we went to Greg's sister's house for the "Avenue of Fire" celebration. We had root beer floats, cotton candy, glow sticks, music and, of course, a great firework display.

This picture isn't from the "Avenue of Fire" it's from Greg's work party, which was also fun, and didn't get blogged about, but at least it gives an idea of what the evening entailed.

The only downside to the entire weekend was trying to wake up the girls for 9:00 church the next day. OK, so I had a hard time waking up, too. But I think it was worth it.

Happy Birthday

Today is Greg's birthday & I just had to start the morning by wishing him a good one. He is such a great man I feel very lucky to have him for my sweetheart. So here is hoping 32 really is as wonderful as Mariannne said it would be!
Happy Birthday Greg!
I love you!

A Ladybug Birthday

Becca requested a ladybug party for the big number 8, and I obliged without realizing how few resources would be available for a big girl ladybug party, but after a little creative thinking and a trip to Dollar Tree we came up with a very fun day.

We started the morning with ladybug pancakes per Becca's request. All I did was make slightly oval pancakes & let the girls decorate them with strawberry syrup and raisins.

For the party, I decided to call it a ladybug picnic and included lunch in the party. Here is a picture of the invitation...It looked much brighter in person, but my lighting was bad. For lunch I made ladybug PBJ's (I made open-faced sandwiches cut in ovals basically like the pancakes but with mini M&Ms for eyes, peanut butter, strawberry jam, and raisins or chocolate chips for the spots (I let the girls decorate their own)). I also served cherries, BugBite Graham Crackers, carrot sticks, string cheese & oyster crackers (Becca's choice) for lunch in cute little trays.

Here is a picture of the girls at lunch--they are wearing ladybug aprons I found at Dollar Tree :)

The reason we got the aprons was that Becca wanted to let the girls decorate their own cupcakes, so when I saw the aprons I thought it was the perfect accessory. Here is a picture of the cupcakes we made (I made the two on the middle tier that are tipped on their sides and the girls made almost all the rest. They did a good job)

Once we finished our lunch and dessert, the girls had a ladybug toss (I found a garden flag at Dollar Tree that had 3 flowers on it, so I cut out the centers of the flowers & had the girls toss little rubber "BlingBug"(sparkly) ladybugs through the centers. The prize? More BlingBugs. I separated the girls & had some tossing ladybugs while others had their toenails painted to look like ladybugs. I got each of them a pair of red or black flip-flops to wear so they wouldn't ruin their pedicure & they were all thrilled with their bright red toes.

Do you like Sarah's toes (sans flip-flops on the bottom left)? She wouldn't let me remove the paint from her toes & she has had three different ladybug pedicures (first from me to practice then from Becca when they were supposed to be cleaning their rooms) so her toes just look like a blob of black and red, but she was thrilled with the look.

After the pedicures we played ladybug bingo, opened presents, and went on a ladybug hunt (a treasure hunt where each of the clues had a ladybug sticker on the outside...so they were looking for the bugs). The rest of the party favors included bug-shaped bubble wands (butterflies and ladybugs), ladybug sidewalk chalk, stuffed ladybug picture frames (I took the girls' pictures at the beginning of the party and printed them while they ate lunch) wall crawler giant ladybugs, pinwheels and other ladybug goodies. I had the girls decorate treat bags with ladybug stickers, markers, glitter etc. as they arrived and then handed them back when they reached the end of the treasure hunt.

Becca was thrilled with her party. She got some darling gifts including this cute ladybug notebook
If you don't know how to make these notebooks tell me...they are a fun, fast, cheap and easy project (we have made several with our young women...at a class activity and again at girls' camp).