Scavenger Hunt & Fourth Craft

Joseph decided to put together an Animal Scavenger Hunt today for us. He said he "used good context clues to help Andrew get ready for Kindergarten." He hid the clues with the next animal to find. Like, "I live in Africa where lions prowl. I also have lots of spots. What am I?" And "Eliza really likes me, I am very fast. One type of me is an Appaloosa. What am I?" He also tried to hide them in places that were kind of in the clues.

The last clue was "I look like a hedgehog, but that I am not. Watch out for my quills. What am I?" And in the porcupine he put suckers for all of us. It was really cute & the kids had a blast looking around for the different stuffed animals.

While Lexie made lunch for the kiddos, I decided to try & make 4th of July shirts for the girls. I couldn't find the type of ribbon I saw on pinterest where I got the idea, but we made this blue ribbon work. It was a hard choice more blue or navy for the bow.

We used puffy paint to put 50 dots on Lexie's bow for the 50 states (Eliza's ended up with more but Lexie was adamant about just having 50). The girls love their shirts & I'm grateful my good neighbor had some red thread I could use. The girls are definitely ready to celebrate the 4th!

Sillies Reading the Sillies

 I found Eliza & Andrew reading the comics this morning. She was pointing & laughing at them as she "read".

Lexie & Joseph decided they needed to join in the fun.

Randomness

Joseph has had a lot of fun being creative. He made a jet fighter out of tinker toys.

And he made a log cabin out of pretzels.

Eliza LOVES the swimming pool & wearing her swimsuit all day long.

 And I love finding my kids reading together. It happens a lot & it's always a good thing.

 Especially if they take turns with books. Otherwise it gets a little loud.

Sprinkler Fun

My children love to go swimming & play in the water. Yesterday I promised them that they could play in the sprinklers when they go off in the morning. Since my children are such early risers, not a hard thing for them to do. By 6:30 they all had their swimsuits on & were waiting for the fun. And it surely was fun!

Once the sprinklers were done I told them they'd be on again in about 2 hours & they wanted to stay out & play. They decided to lay out their towels with umbrellas, books, sunglasses & relax in the nice morning sun. It was all fun & games until I heard this ear shrieking scream, Lexie got stung by a wasp what looked like 3 times. One big sting & 2 smaller ones & she said she felt it hit a few times. But who knows. All I know is she was screaming & it hurt a lot! Her finger got pretty swollen (more than it shows here). I've never been stung & wasn't too sure what to do but to make sure there wasn't a stinger & ice. Lexie claims she's never going outside again as long as she lives because it hurt so much, but I have a feeling she won't keep good on that claim for too long. Gratefully she's doing  much better & she had a good talk with Grandma to help calm her down. Stings are no fun & hopefully we don't have any more around here!

Please, Help Yourself.

This little girl is very independent. She likes to help herself whenever she wants to whatever she wants. (Gum doesn't stand a chance in this house.) I guess she got too hungry & impatient to wait for me to finish dinner because she decided to help herself to some oatmeal. I love how she got some on her feet & got a napkin out to clean up the mess from her foot.

And she did a great job filling up her bowl.

She certainly doesn't eat too much, but when she finds something she likes, she will find a way to get it.

Happy Birthday/Father's Day!

Every six or so years, Rick's birthday & Father's Day happen to be on the same day. Today was one of those days! The kids have been so excited trying to make things & plan for this special day. We sortof declared that the morning would be more Father's Day celebration & afternoon would be more Birthday. Thanks to pinterest, we made a fun candy gram for him.

We also filled out some fun questionnaires for him. Some of the answers were really pretty good. Some of our favorites:
From Andrew: My dad is 37 feet tall & weighs 3 pounds. Favorite food is Rice Chex. When he was my age, he liked to do what I do, bad things & good things. My favorite thing we do together is playing Transformers Prime, Transformers Save the day & Transformers Meets the eye. I love  my dad because he can run slow and not THIS fast & because he can't fly & land on chairs or beds but I can.
From Joseph: Favorite sport to play is bowling. My dad is the best in the family at surpising me when I go out of doors. When my dad was my age, he liked to set goals. I love it when you tell me crazy stories about when you were a kid like when you tried to keep you swimsuit on all summer.
From Lexie: At his job, my dad gets paid a lot of money on his payday. When my dad was  my age, he liked to read and be very silly. My favorite memory with my dad is when we did the "Swiss Roll." He rolled me up in a blanket and held the end, stood up and unrolled it quickly. I was very, very dizzy.
Joseph made these really great decorations for Rick. Not sure if you can see, but he made the straws in to people wearing candy ties & put a tie on the cup. Pretty creative!

Here's the father with his cute children.

After church while Rick's requested dinner, tater tot casserole, was cooking, the kids put together a great talent show for him.

There was much hula hooping, singing, cartwheeling, joke telling, & fun to be had!

After dinner we opened presents.

And then it was time for Birthday Brownies. We had so much fun blowing out the candles, we had to do it twice.

We are so grateful for Rick & the awesome Dad that he is! We're so glad that he's in our family! Happy Birthday! And Happy Father's Day!

More Signs of Summer

Joseph's teacher gave the kids a little end of school gift.

He was super excited to learn how to make Kool-Aid & have it with dinner.

And I noticed today how this little one already has a pretty good tan line going on her feet. Gotta love summer time (well, spring time).

Last Day of School/Poetry Cafe

Somehow the calendar always keeps chugging along & the school year that seems like it just started is over.

These kiddos have sure grown a lot this year & have loved school!

In Lexie's class they had a Poetry Cafe with an open mic. The kids all performed a poem that they wrote. Lexie shared her "sick poem". You can't see it too well but they could use props & Lexie made pink eyes for herself.

And here she is with her teacher, Ms. Pal. Lexie is really going to miss her next year & continually tells me she's staying in 3rd grade (sounds a lot like last year). We have truly been blessed with awesome teachers for our children & are so grateful that our kids love their teachers as much as we do.

And here is Joseph with his teacher, Mrs. Novickas. We adore her & are so grateful we've had her as both Lexie's teacher in Kindergarten & Joseph's for 1st grade. He's really going to miss her as well.

And lastly, here's Joseph with his best friend, Logan. They sure have a lot of fun together. We met them at the park after school & had lunch & played. We're hoping that they'll be in the same class again next year. If not, we're glad they'll be working in Destination Imagination together next year.

Now we need to go celebrate & have a super fun-filled summer!

Kansas for Dad's 70th

This weekend I got to go to Kansas by myself (& all of my siblings) to celebrate what would have been my Dad's 70th birthday. It was a lot of fun. We don't all get to be together very often & this was only the 4th time we've all  made it to Kansas to my parent's house ever. And the first time was in 1999. That's what happens when you have a big family & the oldest is married before the youngest is born.

We had a lot of fun chatting, playing games, cooking, & got to tour the new School of Pharmacy Building up at KU. It was really awesome. It  made me want to go back to school. They can do some pretty awesome things-even have comfortable chairs, who knew? It's a really cool building!

For FHE, my sister Janae, put together a fun quiz about Dad & we had pie & cake to celebrate his birthday since some of us were leaving on Tuesday, his real birthday. 

On Tuesday morning we went to the Kansas City Temple & all went through a session together. It was really nice and awesome! The session was super crowded (needed extra folding chairs) & we had many things happen that slowed things down, but it was still a really great experience. After the session, Sister Hardy, the temple matron, was kind enough to let us see the Bride's room which wasn't on the Open House tour. It was the prettiest one I've ever been in & she had neat stories & insight about it to tell. I wish Lexie could have been there for it, too.

After the temple we went out to eat & then I got to hang out at the airport with Barbara & Heather. Unfortunately my plane was delayed 45 minutes, but I made it home & it was great to see my kids & Rick. He did a great job holding down the fort-especially for the last week of school & all of the craziness which comes with that. 

I loved getting to be with all of my siblings & mom this weekend. We don't get together enough like this but I'm grateful that we were able to get everyone's busy schedules in a row so we could get together & celebrate. I've got such an awesome family!

The sisters:

The brothers:

FHE:

Jayhawk at Pharmacy Building:

 

Soda fountain at Pharmacy Building:

12 kids + Mom at the KC Temple:

 Siblings in order at the house: 

Siblings at the Temple:

 

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad! We sure miss & love you lots!

A Little Road Rash

Poor Little Liza got a little road rash today. (See what happens when Mom goes out of town. :) ) Her feet just couldn't keep up with her face while she was running home from picking up the kiddos from school. She's tough & only cried for a few seconds & has acted like nothing happened ever since.

She still is adorable!