Joey's Birthday Party

Joey wanted a Tacodile Supreme cake and Peter with his amazing cake decorating skills made it happen.

I did bake the cake but the rest was the magic of Peter.

 Saturday we took Joey, Jon, Arabella, and some of Joey's friends to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 for his birthday. We did cake and presents beforehand.

The movie was really clever and had some good themes to it. The kids enjoyed some treats (thanks giant mom bag) and popcorn-they had kettlecorn at this theater and it was really good!
The kids were really well behaved.
Most importantly, Joey felt special and liked.
Happy Birthday Buddy! I wish you were not growing up so fast.

Bribery vs. Reward

Two weeks ago Peter decided he needed a way to get his deacons to be more active in reading their scriptures and reading the lesson materials.

So he made cinnamon rolls as an incentive.

It is bribery to stop bad behavior but reward for good behavior- right?

 It is his class rule that the boys need to bring their paper scriptures to class.

This week he had sent out reminders as to what the lesson would be about and what talk to read beforehand.  

The boys could earn a whole cinnamon roll if they had their scriptures and had read the lesson or half if they had only done one or the other and none for doing neither. 

The cinnamon rolls were soooo good. We all loved them and each of his boys earned at least half a roll. 

Joey is 10!

Yesterday was this great boys 10th birthday!

He wanted bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Dad also made famous pancakes which Joey was more than happy about.

Dad also surprised him at lunch and brought him a cheeseburger and milkshake and ate lunch with him.

He wanted healthy treats for his class so I took apple slices and carrots. He was really happy about it!

 

 He is an obedient and kind kid. He is working so hard to learn all he can and to make others happy.

He is getting close to his 2nd degree black belt and is now a Weblos in Cub Scouts.   He is becoming a pretty good piano player.  I can count on Joey to do what I ask him to do.  

I am thankful for him each day.

 We had his favorite dinner of sloppy joes and went for ice cream at Braum's for dessert.

We are doing birthday cake on Saturday for his birthday party. It will be a Peter creation for sure!

 His presents consisted of lots of books which makes him so happy.  He also got new socks that are not tight around his foot and new pants and shorts.

 The highlight and what Peter says made us cool parents was the Bullzord from Power Rangers. 

He now has everything to make the gigazord which he made this morning- intense! 

But this fun maze ball made us all happy.

The tender moment of the day for me came when we gave him some money my parents had sent.  Peter told him he could put it all in his fun money and he said that he wanted to put it all in his mission fund since it costs a lot of money and he really wants to go.  Peter reassured him that he would be able to go no matter what and that he could use it as fun money. I pray all the time that Joey will be able to work through some of his challenges and that he will be able to become the missionary he longs to become.

I love you Joey!

Saturday

We had beautiful weather on Saturday, in fact the kids said it was cold outside in the morning. 

I pushed them out the door, once I had made them clean the whole playroom, and sent them to play.

 The sand still had a fair amount of moisture from the rain the day before and Joey dug deep enough to find a lot of water. 

 Busy little workers!

Peter did not need coaxing to work outside with his tools. 

He finished my quilting frames. I am so happy!

I have quilts ready to go on and be tied. 

School Blues

When we are in the midst of our morning routine and making lunches for the other 3 kids and they are getting their backpacks ready, this little one feels the need to be in on the action too.

 I have on more than one occasion just packed her a lunch too in her lunchbox.

She then snacks on it and eats it for lunch while Arabella is at school.

This morning was particularly funny because she put her shoes on and when the door opened she was heading off, without looking back.

Oh, Lily your day will come and it will likely be before my heart is ready for it.

Soccer Season Again

It is soccer season again.

Only Jon is playing this time.

He is having a great time with it.

He thinks that being goalie is great.

He has had one game (one was cancelled due to rain).

He had a few saves and one really great one!

The weather is cooling off and we are looking forward to cheering him on.

Sandbox or Sandpit

It has been along time in the making and planning but it has finally arrived, the sand for the sandbox.

We did a great deal of debating since we moved here as to where to put the sandbox. We finally decided to shrink the garden and use a section of that for the sandbox.

 The kids and mostly Peter dug a two foot deep hole. 

Peter collected samples from several places so we could pick the perfect sand.

 I believe the kids were as excited about the dump truck as they were about the sand finally being here.

Lily was not so sure about the giant truck.

Thank heavens Peter is so strong and shoveled so much sand to get it all spread out and filled in. The kids were energetic and helpful but their energy waned as the temperature was probably 98. 

They loved it though and I will remember their joy as I will forever be cleaning up sand in my house.

Now we need to finish constructing the shade cover (that is what the tall metal poles are for).

Lily and the Potty Treats

I decided Monday was the day to potty train Lily.

She has been able to go in the potty for awhile but I wanted to wait until summer was over.

Last week, most days she would maybe go once in  her diaper and then want to go in the potty and so we were going through a ton of diapers. And I was done.

 Monday morning we headed to Walmart and Target to find the right character dundies (that is what they are called at our house).  We washed them and put them on.

She had a few accidents that day- including pooping (diarrhea-no more apple juice for a few days) on the carpet. I had told her not to get Elmo wet and so she had taken the dundies off and took care of business. 

 She has had moments all 3 days where she has been in just dundies but she used to take all of her clothes off and run around in just a diaper so not too much has changed. 

 Notice she has filled one sticker chart.  After 5 stickers she gets to choose a treat out of the jar.

Arabella has tried really hard to convince her that she should eat the Almond Joys but every time she has gone for the Smarties. I am happy with the progress we are making. I am sure there will be some rough patches ahead but here is to 3 pretty good days!

Lily's First Dance Class

My talented friend Emily decided to teach some dance classes from her home this year.

I was not going to do dance for Arabella this year since she is in preschool.

But this was a perfect opportunity and she was offering classes for 2 year olds so Lily gets to join the fun!

 She was apprehensive at first but then she got into the dancing with scarves.

I think week 2, today, will go even better!

And by the way, Arabella loved her ballet class.

Giant Grasshopper

 The other night I made the kids go outside and play in the evening.

They did not want to because it was still warm but they were rewarded with this massive grasshopper.

 I loved watching them work together to catch it.

I let them keep it until later that night when they could show Peter. 

Lily just looked like a perfect little rag-a-muffin! She loved being outside and was interested in the grasshopper too but more so in doing whatever the big kids were doing.

Rainbow Cake

Last Sunday Arabella wanted to make a rainbow cake.

I have a magazine with a bunch of fun cake ideas and so we gave it a whirl!

 The magazine of course did the sprinkles on top in an amazing pattern that made it look like a pinwheel. I just shook those sprinkles on!

Peter made the batter from scratch and then dyed it in different colors. 

Arabella loved the way it turned out.

Dallas Museum of Art

Last Saturday, (I am playing a bit of catch up) we took the kids to the Dallas Museum of Art.

I wanted to go because they have some Ancient Greek art on display that is on loan from a British Museum.  It was amazing to see some of those statues, vases, and figurines. They were a very talented people. 

You could not take pictures in the Greek exhibit and so I did not think to take pictures for a long time.  

This halographic light bulb was Jon's favorite piece.  They also enjoyed the chair made from stuffed panda bears.

Peter enjoyed the many different pieces of furniture.  There was a chair by someone famous that I don't remember but he was amazed. The brown chair behind him is made from cardboard.

Lily is posing with the Chihuly blown glass in the background.

I really enjoyed seeing the silver pieces but this bed was pretty impressive.

There was a section dedicated to china ware and even a few pieces of tupperware. I took a picture of the teapots because they made me think of Peter's mom- she loves teapots. 

They built a platform over a freeway by the museum and put a park on it.  We played for a bit but it was really hot even in the shade. 

It was probably not the most fun thing we did this summer.  But, I reminded the kids that Dad and I had wanted to see it and we were nice enough to bring them along, that and they were all free so it made sense. 

Arabella's First Day of Preschool

 Last  Friday, Arabella had her Meet the Teacher Day at CCDC.

She has been so excited. She wanted to look so pretty for the day.

 She is sitting on her teacher's lap- Mrs. Hammond and the aide is Mrs. Carley.

 She has been so excited about going to preschool all summer long. 

 Yesterday was her first day.

She said she was a bit nervous the day before but woke up anxious to get there.

She wanted to wear her new shiny silver/gray bows and so she picked this dress to match.

Lily wanted to pose to. 

Here she is ready to go in.

She had a great first day and said the only bad part was she did not get to eat all of her lunch.

I hope she is able to make some friends.

You are a smart little girl Arabella and we are happy for you and your learning adventure!