Perfect Weather (Finally)

Now that school is out and the weather is so nice the kids have been spending a lot and I mean a lot of time outdoors.  They mostly just ride their bikes and play in the backyard but they will be out there for hours entertaining themselves.  I really love that the kids like to play and be outside so much.  I spent so much of my childhood running around and playing outside.  I have great memories of the home made slip and slide and water slides that my dad used to help us set up.  Rock and I would tie a rope to a tree and take turns jump roping (we never could get another person to swing the other end of the rope for us so it was the trees job to do that for us).  We would ride our bikes and spend countless hours playing at the elementary school.  I loved the summer time but, warm or not it didn't stop Rock and I from playing outside.  We would have snow fights and build forts outside all winter long too.  I love watching Tyler and Ella go playing outside because it reminds me so much of Rocky and I playing our hearts out all day long.

Tyler and Ella found a perfect climbing tree.  They will climb it over and over all day long. 

Nate and Tyler playing catch.  I used to play catch with my dad too.  I loved that. 

Tyler also received some pins and belt loops at scouts this week.  He has been working really hard.  He only has 2 more months of cub scouts and then he is off to boy scouts. 

 The activty for den meeting was racing the boats they made at scouts.  Everyone met at the creek and they fed us a fine dinner of sloppy joes.  Nate and Bishop Spackman decided it would be funny to throw Natalie into the creek. Lucky for her they didn't actually do it.  She just giggled the whole time and when they were done she proudly proclaimed that she knew that they weren't actually going to do it.  If I was them at that and I was within arms reach I would of picked her up and thrown her in right then just to prove a point.  She got off pretty lucky I think.

Field Day

I am going to start off this post by saying it was NOT a perfect day for field day.  It was overcast and cold.  But, the kids had fun and that is all that matters.  I miss the old school field days that I used to have when I was a kid.  You know the ones with the 3 legged race and the wheel barrow.  Now they have a whole bunch of games that I do not think of when I think of field day.  For example.  Lets see how many marbles we can pull out of a swimming pool using only our toes.  Sure it's fun for the kids to do but, how is that a field day game?   Enough of that. Let's talk field day.  Tyler and Ella both got slotted for the morning time field day which was ideal for me because then I only had to stay out in the cold for the first part of the day and did not have to go back for the second half.  The kids all had a partner that they were required to stay with.  The kids we brought outside and that is when all *ahem* broke loose.  The kids were allowed to go anywhere they wanted, stay at any station that they wanted to, for as long as they wanted too.  It was chaos.  But once again the kids had fun.  Ella started at the marble station first.  She picked up 20 marbles with her toes.

 Tyler went and played capture the pig which is really a version of capture the flag.

Then Ella went to a water game where she got soaking wet and it was very cold outside.

 And Tyler you ask well, he played capture the pig.

 Ella then went onto playing a game to see who could blow the biggest bubble.  Which was kinda painful to watch because it was so cold outside the kids had to chew the very cold gum forever before they could get it soft enough to blow.

In the mean time Tyler decided to switch it up and play capture the pig! 

Ella moved onto playing with the parachute! 

 And Tyler moved on to playing capture the pig.

 Ella then did the potato sack race (now that is a field day game).

 And Tyler continued playing capture the pig.  Oink!

 Ella played the ball toss game.  Let's check in on Tyler!

As I suspected he played capture the pig! 

After all of the kids got to run around in the cold they gave the kids some Popsicles to warm themselves up!  It was a great field day.  The kids really did like it!

Girls wear pearls and guys wear ties

Natalie went to her first school dance right before school got out.  She did not think that she was allowed to go to the dances so she didn't even bother asking.  But, I found out there was one and asked her if she was going to go she got excited and found some friends to go with.  Nichole refused to go which I am ok with too.  The theme of it was Girls wear pearls and guys wear ties.  Natalie didn't know that she was going to be one of about 10 people that would actually dress up for the dance.  She said that it was only the new people that hadn't gone to a school dance before that ended up dressing up for it.  She did not end up dancing with any guys but enjoyed herself none the less.

School projects

We have successfully finished off the school year and I wanted to post some more of the projects that my kids have worked so hard on.  This is a mask that Nichole had to make for art class.  They plastered her face to it.  She said it was fun minus all of the vaseline that got everywhere.

Ella made a hat in school out of paper scraps.   

And Tyler made this mask in art class.

 Nichole and Natalie had to do a project that got graded in all of their core classes.  The project was coming up with their own planet and culture that lived on it.  They had to name it, invent a language, make food, video's and many more things.  Nichole made an artifact from her planet.  It was a wedding mask that one of the men would wear.

 Ella sculpted this in her art class. She originally made it for me but after it was finished she just couldn't bear to part with it.  In case you can't tell it is a lion.  I know what you are thinking it is a seal.  Wrong. I made that mistake and got chewed out for it.  Oops.



My Sweet Home

I have been planning on making this photo collage for months and months.  I got all of the pictures taken for it before I left from Mtn. Home.  and found the perfect vinyl saying for the wall.  The only problem is that Nate didn't want me to hang the vinyl on the wall so I had to plan differently for that.  I had an idea to put it on fabric and then mount the saying in a frame.  But, I couldn't find the perfect fabric.  Until I looked through the bedding section at walmart and found this really cute pillow case.  I decided that it would be perfect for the wall hanging.  Next dilemma when I went to put the vinyl on it was bigger then the frame was.  So I cute it down and patched it together.  I think I like it better then the original vinyl.  After I got it all ready I had Nate assist me in hanging it up.  I love, love, love how it turned out.  The next day the frame with the words in it fell off the wall and we have yet to rehang it.  Someone has misplaced the hardware.  The best part is... I now have a great idea for a new project that I will be doing for wall art.  It will only take 1 year to do.  Wish me luck.  It is going to be awesome but, not as sweet as this one was.

Campers: Nature's way of feeding mosquitoes. ~Author Unknown

After Ella's zoo trip and after feeding the missionaries (you know the ones I said in the previous post that didn't show up)  Tyler and Nate headed out the door to go on an overnight camping trip with other members of the stake.  The campsite was only 5 minutes away from the house which was nice for them when they got up in the morning and packed up their stuff and headed home because it was too stinking cold outside to stay any longer.  I really like it when the kids have some alone time with their dad.  The girls and I did not have any big plans at all.  We played some games and went to bed early.  See not too exciting at all. 

Ella's field trip to the zoo

Nate and I went as chaperone's to the zoo with Ella's class the week before school got out.  We decided to meet them there instead of ride the bus which turned out in our favor because of the other stuff that we had to do in Anchorage.  Nate and I were assigned 4 little girls and oh boy were they full of energy.  They would run way ahead of us and when we would ask them to stay close to the group within 3 minutes they were running off again.  Ella said her favorite thing to see at the zoo was the seals.  She liked to watch them swim in the water.   The zoo trip was the perfect amount of time.  We got to walk around the zoo for about an hour and a half.  The zoo was small enough that we were able to see all of the animals and a couple of them twice in that amount of time. 

After the zoo we took Ella with us and ran some errands in Anchorage but as a bonus we stopped at Moose's Tooth and ate a real lunch.  Ella loved to tell the other kids that she went there without them because they all remember going the first time and have wanted to go back we just never take them and only go ourselves.  She felt loved having us to herself too.  After Moose's Tooth we went to the bookstore and then to two different grocery stores to get what I needed for feeding the missionaries that night (which by the way didn't show up).  It was a fun outing with Ella and now I can say that I have been to the Anchorage Zoo!