Sugar Cookies @ the 4th

What kid doesn't like to decorate sugar cookies? Brenda watching the kids decorate, or eat while decorating, their cookies.

Nayvie and Bracken were so particular about their frosting, versus Adi, Grace and Max who shall we say, slopped it on.

I think this one was Ty's-

This was Grace's - it actually dried pretty well and we were able to lift the cookie off the plate to eat it. I was surprised the frosting hardened and dried so well.

Nayvie's

Grace- not looking at the camera and Adi being a total cheese.

Just a little messy - what a good idea Aunt Veronica had... glad the mess was at Grandma's house!

For the record, I won't buy the sugar cookie add on through Bountiful Baskets again, the cookies had very little flavor and the frosting was just too runny. It was nice not to have the baking mess and the kids really enjoyed the activity.

Fireman's Waterfight

We take our water fights seriously. Seriously. And, we are ALWAYS up for a seriously good one.

Each year we go to the Hyrum Fireman's water fight the Saturday before the 4th of July. My family fills 500 water balloons, brings water guns, swords, buckets, bins and cups - we do it for the kids....because they enjoy it so much...seriously. My family getting ready at the park (we'd already filled balloons for 2 hours at this point, 1/2 of us were already wet.)

Our friend Brenda from California spent the 4th of July week with my family - she didn't have intentions of getting wet - but once things got going she was a great team member! (Pic is Brenda and my nieces Nayvie and Adi)

My niece Maggie and Max going after Grandpa Guy, he's a fireman so he's fair game!

Love this picture - Grace had so much fun, plus Max is getting it in the background.

Last year my kids had a hard time with the water guns, they were too hard to fill up, and they couldn't spray the good ones very well and the small ones didn't work so well so this year I found water swords - they loved them.

My niece Adi and nephew Tytan-

Grandpa Guy just waiting-

Sister Cassie in the background with her boyfriend Josh- I'm pretty sure it was at this point they started attacking me with those very water balloons. But I got them back! (It's for the kids, like I said.)

Yes, that's me in the green shirt- only a little wet.

The fill up station-

The water fight lasted about an hour. 45 minutes in I lost Max - it was crazy and there were so many little kids and adults and fireman and fire hoses and I just couldn't see him. I made two circles around the park and couldn't find him - cars were starting to leave and I got Mike and we headed to the parking lot. I couldn't find him anywhere- we went through the lot got my brother and sister's and circled the park again, by now I'm a nervous wreck! My sister's oldest son went to the ball diamonds so I started heading over there when I found Max. He had been up on the firetruck spraying the big hose and the look on his face was pure joy. I'm sure the look on my face was a look of serious relief.

I love little towns, love that they do fun things and that the fireman let us get them wet every year.

(Just for the record, the fireman who has it out for me each year got it good, somehow I got a hold of the fire hose and I'm pretty sure he was at least as wet as I was!)

Swimming Lessons

The kids started swimming lessons in June at Layton Surf N Swim. The very first day they have all the parents and children sit on the bleachers and the Swimming Manager comes up and talks to the parents. He instructed us to not interrupt the class, not try and teach over the teacher, not to come up to the side of the pool, not to signal our kids and if there was any problems to address them before or after class. Then the teachers come up and call their class, the class in turn follows the teacher to their spot at one of the pools. There were two preschool classes and Grace and Max were in the 2nd class with teacher Kayla and Kristine. In my head I thought do I follow them? But then I thought they will be fine, they will be with their teachers and will do better without me sitting right there.

However, as they were walking to their classes somehow they started following the other preschool class and ended up in the wrong pool. The other preschool class thought Grace was with the older class so she starts walking out into the middle of the big pool all by herself, she's getting deeper and deeper and deeper and I was like I know I'm not suppose to say anything but hello there's a 4 year old, my 4 year old, almost neck deep by now! So I start yelling at the preschool teacher and they said she's not in our class - at this point I was like I don't care if she's not in your class she needs help!

Grace was so brave she was just trying to get to the other class like they told her, but it gave her mamma a little panic attack. Eventually we got her to the right class, in the right pool and the rest of the classes went smoothly. Everyday the kids started out sitting on the edge of the pool playing Motor Boat Motor Boat and would kick and splash.

Splashing as it turned out was what Max did best. After the first day I sat right by the small pool, and watching Grace and Max was a little snippet of what schools going to be like. Grace was always asking to be first to try something, asking if she did it right, good enough and if they wanted her to try again. She loved every minute of it. Max was always distracted, splashing when he wasn't suppose to be, teasing the girls, making the boys laugh and I can't tell you how many times I heard "Max, come back over with the class," or "Max, if you can't stop splashing we'll have to get your mom." Grace is my little brown noser and Max is my little class clown.

The kids played Speckled Frog on a log and jumped into the pool some days. Grace really liked jumping in, but Max went all the way under one day and was so mad at the teacher he refused to get back in the water. He kept saying "teacher threw me in the water". It made me laugh.

The kids would practice assisted front floats and back floats and then they'd put their face in the water and blow bubbles.

Here they are playing Alligator alligator what time is it? They would have one kid stand on the other side of the pool and the kids were suppose to only go one step for what ever time it was. It didn't work so well as all the kids just raced from one end to the other no matter what time it was.

One other thing about the first day, when we got to the car Grace asked why they didn't teach her how to swim that day. She had really high expectations!

The whole point of the preschool class is to get the kids comfortable in water and not afraid of getting their faces wet - they both passed the class but I'm not sure I'm ready to move them to level 1- they all looked so old! Overall I liked their teachers and the facilities. Sitting in the shade at 9 am wasn't my favorite and some days the kids were cold but overall I would go back.

Dinosaur Park

Mike's mom went to New York for a week in June, I had planned on doing several things with the kids that week but then we ended up finishing our bathroom downstairs, so we tried to do a bunch of fun things in one afternoon.

After we got Grace's ears done we headed to Dinosaur Park in Ogden. We walked around and I decided that even with all the trees that place is stinking hot! The sun was shining at we were baking! Not very flattering of the kids, but I like Mike in this picture, could Grace's smile be more painful?

Good thing that dino's not real!

The kids have started watching the Land Before Times so everything is a long neck, 3 horn, flyer or sharp tooth, which makes me smile. I remember watching the first movie when I was little and crying when Little Foots mother dies. I was very fond of that movie.

The kids played in the excavation sand pile for a long time. They could have stayed there all day, it was covered (for the diggers) and got excited when they discovered a fossil.

They love these picture ops- notice Max is the girl and Grace is the boy -Mike wanted them to switch and I said no...I think it's funny~

I loved the Flinstones too~

After Dinosaur Park we took the kids to Cherry Hill and went miniature golfing and then for ice cream, it was a jammed packed fun day! Love my crazies!

Holy Ears!

Grace has been asking to have her ears pierced for about a year now. I never had an age I wanted her to be, just old enough to ask and it be her decision. But, when she started asking I wasn't ready! Grace's cousin Adi had a rough experience getting hers pierced (the gun got stuck) and I just really didn't want to do it yet. So we've been buying stickers and she's been good with it for several months.

On June 10th we were cleaning her room and she said she wanted her ears pierced, she then reminded me how brave she was when she got her shots a few months earlier and that she was ready. I said okay and told her they hold little guns up to your ears and shoot the ear ring through, it hurts for a minute and then it feels better. She said she was ready. When Mike got home from work we headed to the mall and Grace climbed in the chair and picked her earrings, she wanted all black but I convinced her to pick silver flowers with black centers (what 4 year old's favorite color is black?).

She was so silly and goofy while the girl was getting the earrings ready. They explained what they were going to do. Up until this point I really thought she would chicken out. I work in mall and often see little girls change their minds at this point-but not Grace.

She held my hand while they were doing the actual piercing, once they were done she looked at me and said "Is it over?" I said it yep it was and she said, "It only hurt a little."

She didn't shed a single tear! She's been so good to keep them clean every day and twist them. She can't wait for her 6 weeks to be up to pick out a new pair ;)

Sometimes my little surprises me at how brave she's becoming!

Grace's Dance Recital

Grace's Dance recital was the first week in June, they danced to "I could've danced all night". The girls were really cute and fun to watch!

Grace had fun -but was glad it was over! Grace's group was 34th to go, it made for one really long night! Each girl got a certificate when the dance was over.

I had Mike run and get Grace some flowers, he did a good job and they were beautiful for several days. You can tell by the look on her face she loved them! But what girl doesn't like flowers?

Thanks to Aunt Cassie for coming down and doing Grace's hair, it turned out really cute! Well, I will probably never sign Grace up for dance again. It was a fight every single week. She says the other girls were rude and she didn't like her boss (aka Miss Jenna the dance teacher), I really didn't like her teacher either. Truth be told I think a 3-4 year old dance teacher should be sweet and overly nice- and Miss Jenna was the opposite! Grace is so glad "to be free and do what ever I want!"

Pictures and Cords

I can not find my cord for camera anywhere! I thus I can not pull pictures out of my camera, and I have SO many things to blog about. You know that commercial where the pictures are just frozen in time because Mom never does anything with them, yep that's me.
Remember when we had to buy film to have pictures and then we had to pay to develop them and we didn't know if the pictures were even good? Remember when you couldn't remember what was on your film and it was a fun surprise to see what you got back a week later. Remember when Wal-Mart got one hour photo and that was the best thing in the world because you didn't have to wait a week?
Ok, right now I have over 500 pictures on my camera. Every "event" we have I have to go through and delete some because I keep getting the message that my card is full. I HAVE to find my cord!