Summertime

I don't have the problem most moms have with their kids when school lets out for the summer. I have yet to hear, "Mom, I'm BORED!" from any of them. However, they keep pretty busy destroying the house, and silence is a rare occurrence.

I decided between the hours of Disney garbage, swimming in the pool and fart noise contests (yes, all three of them participate...sigh), I should try to throw in at least one educational activity per week of summer vacation. Since we have like ZERO dinero for fun stuff, let alone a family vacation I thought this would ease my oldest daughters' fear of having "the worst summer E.V.E.R.!!!!".

So far we have gone to the Science Center (we have still have a month left of membership), Grown Marigolds in a pot (still in progress of course), visited PetSmart to check out the rats, guinea pigs, snakes, frogs, fish, snails, grasshoppers, birds, cats and dogs. My kids especially love watching the dogs being groomed and saying "awww! she's so cuuuute!" to every cat in every cage. Yesterday I took them to IKEA. Not gonna try and stretch that into an educational experience. The best thing about IKEA this time was that Samantha was tall enough and potty-trained (enough for an hour) so she and Hayden were able to go to the play center they have there and Amanda and I were able to shop together without having to chase down any Gove's Gone Rogue. 
It was nice to get in there and get what I needed to get without having to yell at anyone not to jump on the beds or play 'catch me if you can' among the glassware.  

Today the kids are hounding me to take them to Menchies for yogurt. I'm making them work for it though. Clean rooms and bathroom or NO FRO-YO! So there! 

I have a feeling the van will be staying in the driveway all day.

Summer Reading

So I've been reading a lot this spring/summer in an effort to spend less time in front of the tv. So far I have read Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, Or Give Me Death, by Ann Rinaldi, An Ocean Apart; a World Away, by Lensey Namioka, and The Yearling, by Marjorie Rawlings. I realize most of these are Young Adult books but I'm okay with that. I still consider myself to be young-ish.

I'm also at the beginning of re-reading the Book of Mormon and hope to have it finished by the end of the summer. I've got a stack of books next to my bed that I hope to get through as well. Funny thing is, I found some of these books in a box that I got at the Scholastic Book warehouse down the street and had forgotten about... and one of the books is about organizing your home - which is what I was in the middle of doing to our bedroom - organizing. But you see what that led me to: blogging. Sigh... I'm so flighty lately. One day our bedroom will be clean and the books will be read and everything will be blogged - then what will I do?

12 of the 10th... say wha?

I went to Girls Camp on the 10th and for those of you who know anything about Girl Camp you KNOW that I barely slept, and had a heck of a lot more fun and photo opportunities on the 10th than I did on the 12th. The 12th was definitely my "day of rest" and my camera was far, far away from my thoughts. So this month, I am cheating for the sake of content. :)


I present to you my 12 on the 10th!



1-3. On my way to camp I couldn't help but stop and take a few pictures. The view, the sounds, even the smells out on the ranch were like a great big hug from God. 4. My first time shooting a gun. 5. I love 1st year girls! 6. Tiki torch + Wind = Burned Torch, 7-8. Pre-Testimony Meeting 9. The famous Holy Griddle 10-11. Testimony Meeting with our girls! 12. Happy camp leader!

Watch out... here they come...

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted anything. My 12 of 12 never got posted because quite frankly it was a pretty boring day. I took pictures, but they all look the same. So I sort of lost the incentive to grid them and post them. I'm sure I'll get around to it some day. But in the meantime, here are some pictures I took tonight with the kiddos. Michael was at Scouts and the kids were begging to go to a particular park that has awesome climbing trees. It's a particularly awesome place to take photos so I brought my camera along just for fun.















Holy Thug-face, Hayden!