Weekend Kickoff!

 Last night I finished a pillowcase dress I've been meaning to finish for quite some time.  It was one I'm doing for a friend of mine that is trading me some stuff.  I think the dress turned out super cute and it makes me a bit more excited to finish the one I have cut out that is for Brooke that matches Sam & the one for my niece Sunny that matches her sister Jade.  Guess I'll be back to sewing more often now!

And since I got the dress done, I didn't feel so guilty about picking up my trade items!  I got this new adorable yard stake (Land that I Love) and the cute black picture frame stand.  I found the two ceramic flowers at JoAnn's (on sale).  The birdhouse & the cute sunflowers almost cropped out of the picture came from her too!  You can find her blog here: http://www.ontheavenuelogan.blogspot.com/ - Mandy is amazing & has tons & tons of adorable stuff!  Check out her blog if you haven't looked at it before!

Tonight the kids & I, along with my girlfriend Laura & her kids went down to my parent's house to let the kids swim in the pool.  At the last minute I decided to take hot dog & s'more stuff too.  Glad I did because I found out her kids had never tried a hot dog roasted over a fire!  They tried them tonight & seemed to like them!  We got out the little pool for Brooke & Berkley.  Brooke loved it because it was like the tub but better because she could get in and out all she wanted.  Now she'll probably try & do that in the tub!

The big kids got in the big pool & had a blast!  They stayed in until they had blue lips & were shivering!  I think if the sun hadn't gone down they would have gotten back in!

This little swim suit was one she got for her birthday from my mom.  It's absolutely adorable on her!  It shows all her chubbiness and I love it!

Caleb intentionally jumped into the pool to do a cannonball tonight & went all the way to the bottom of the pool before coming back up!  He never would have done that intentionally before swim lessons!  He always kept his head above water!

Little sister didn't think much about getting in the big pool with the big kids.  I thought she'd like it but I think they were probably a bit too wild for her.

Notice where Brooke's foot is?  That's where she always puts it when she sits in this high chair.  I don't think that's normal & it doesn't look comfortable at all but apparently she likes it.

Last night Brooke was sitting in her high chair being so cute.  She was playing peek a boo with me and blowing kisses to me.

Today after swim lessons the kids each got a mid session report to take home.  Nash & Sam's just says what they have learned and what they are going to learn next week.  I figured I'd better get out the goggles because it says they're going to learn to open their eyes under water.  I am really impressed with how well Samantha has done.  She is so scared of water if what she's doing isn't on her own terms.  I really worried that she wouldn't even try half of what they wanted her to do.  She has amazed me though and she has been putting her face in the water every single day!  Nash, well, I think we have found Nash's niche in life.  This kid takes to the water like a fish.  He was a good swimmer before I signed him up (probably better than me and I took lessons my entire childhood).  He has caught on to what they have taught him so quickly and has been fearless to try the things they ask.  He already knew how to do just about everything they've already taught him.  The one skill he hadn't mastered he had down pretty dang quick by the next day.  I've told Travis we need to put him in at least 1 if not 2 more sessions this summer.  

Caleb's report amazed me.  It says that he is good at participating & following instructions!  It also said that he is a positive child and is one of her top students!  Now, don't get me wrong, I love my Caleb.  But, I will also be the first to admit that child is his mother's child & unfortunately that means he has inherited a stubborn streak a mile wide & 10 feet tall. He has an attitude that tops all others as well!  I seriously debated about whether to even enroll him in lessons because I worried he'd be a total stinker & I didn't want to throw $40 out the window.  Last year at Lake Powell it took Caleb 3 days to go any deeper in the water than his ankles.  For lessons he has been doing jumps into the pool and going under water.  He's putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles and I haven't even seen him give his teachers any attitude (and I've watched all 5 of their 30 minute lessons they've had).  Watching my kids has made me wish I had signed them up for lessons sooner.  At least now I know for when Brooke is a bit older!

Tonight I'm going to try & finish sewing Nash's bear quilt together so I can snip it tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will get our cleaning done & then do some baking!  We'll be making chocolate peanut butter hi hat cupcakes (again)!  I'm also planning to make pulled pork sandwiches for dinner.  Who knows what else we'll create.  I'm sure it will be yummy though!  

Swim lessons day 2 & 3 & a baseball game

We haven't slowed down yet this week!  We have gone to swimming lessons two more times.  I was watching Nash today & realized I think we might have found his niche.  He's good..really good...and fearless.  I probably should have started him in level 2 but figured they'd move him up if they felt he was ready.  He's quite a bit ahead of the rest of his class but they haven't said anything about moving him up yet.  I kinda think it might have to do with his extremely limited attention span. :)  I am impressed at how well Samantha has been doing as well.  I put a note on her registration card telling them she's afraid of water.  I haven't been able to get her to stick her head under water unless it's in her own time frame & on her own terms.  Much to my surprise, she's been doing it during lessons!  Way to go Sam!  Caleb has surprised me as well.  I debated about whether he was too young and listened well enough to even bother signing him up. I figured we'd give it a go & see how he did.  He's listening to his teachers very well (much to my surprise) and even sticking his head under water too!  I'm really glad we decided to do swim lessons and that they have gone so well!  The kids are still super excited to go every single day - which is good because they still have a whole week left! 

Waiting for lessons to start

Caleb's class learning to kick their legs

Caleb's class learning to blow bubbles

"Rocket Arms"

Sam & Nash's class learning to kick

Tonight we ventured out (despite the frigid temperature) to our friend's baseball game.  My girlfriend that watches the kids, Laura, has three boys.  Her two oldest are playing baseball this summer.  She told me his team was doing pretty good so we went to watch.  The kids had a lot of fun.  After the game was over we walked over to the nearby park & let the kids play a bit longer.  I keep wondering if these kids will ever get sick of each other but I think they see each other as much as they see their own siblings!

Our B & B

This kid's smile melts me every time

Carter in his uniform (Laura & I decided he needs some blue baseball socks with his white pants hiked up like the big guys & he'd be even more adorable!)

Nash & Zeke - these two are some crazy kids!  They were totally wrestling on the ground like WWF.  Not even joking - I saw Nash give Caleb an elbow to the gut!  Nobody ended up in tears though - much to all our surprises!

The great thing about not slowing down yet is that at least 1 if not more of my kids is out cold by about 8 pm and they sleep until I wake up them at 8 to get ready for swim lessons!  Last night I had 3 of the 4 asleep before 9 pm!  Tomorrow we are venturing to the river walk with our friends Amanda, Nolan & Isabelle.

Summer. Has. Arrived!

The last week or two of May we had quite a bit of rainy weather.  We did good to entertain ourselves though.  As you can see, Caleb enjoyed himself immensely in the mud puddles.

A friend of mine posted on her blog that she had made crayons with her kids.  I checked out the directions & decided it might be a fun thing to do.  So, one very rainy day, we gave it a whirl.  I learned a few things that I'd for sure do the next time.  For example; if you soak your crayons in hot water, the wrappers slide right off.

#2 It makes it a lot easier for the kids to see how many crayons of each color they have if you sort them out after they take off the wrappers.  Once we got going & the kids knew what they were doing, I started chopping up the crayons into pea sized pieces & putting them back in the correct tin.

#3 The directions I read said to bake them at 250 degrees for 10-20 minutes.  Mine only took 10 minutes.  However, I made sure we only put in chunks of crayon to the half way mark of the tin.  I was worried they might overflow & I didn't want to clean that mess up!  You could easily fill the tins up more than half way but I'd suggest keeping a baking sheet underneath it (just in case).

#4 This project kept Caleb entertained for way, way longer than I had anticipated (which was great).  Little sister even liked watching them bake!

#5 The directions I read said to let the crayons cool overnight after they come out of the oven.  I only let my cool about 15 minutes (long enough to harden up).  The directions I read also said you could either put them in cupcake wrappers or just spray your muffin tin with cooking spray.  I lined my cupcake tins with wrappers & then sprayed them with cooking spray.  The wax still leaked through the wrapper though so both tins are now dedicated to crafts.  However, I think that of all the crayons we did only 1 had a little paper stick to it.  The rest slide right off easy as could be!

#6 By using wrappers in your tins, your crayons will look like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or bottle caps.  I was ok with that.  The long pieces just brush off really easy & you can still color with them even though they have ridges.

Since I used a mini muffin tin, each kid got to do 8 (Brooke didn't do any).  We still had quite a few crayon pieces left over so I just put what was left into the regular size muffin tins & got a few more.

While Travis was home he ended up changing out the sensor for his oil (or something like that).  Yep.  He's sitting on the engine with a flashlight & a makeup mirror to do it.

The kids got to have their cousin Clayton sleep over this weekend.  They played in the water all day long on Sunday.  In fact, all 4 kids got sunburned!  I'm generally the sunblock queen.  However, first thing that morning we went down to my parent's house to pick up a fridge & drop it off.  While we did that the kids stayed with my mom & ended up getting in the pool.  I didn't think they were going to be doing that so I didn't sunscreen them before we left home.  They've been whining about their shoulders hurting all day (their sunburns aren't that bad, but I'm fairly certain this is the first sunburn in their life for all of them!)

Today the kids started swimming lessons at the Logan Aquatic Center.  We are taking my girlfriend's boys with us as well.  Turns out Sam, Nash & my friend's boys are in the same class with only one other girl (her name is Samantha too).  Caleb is in the 3 year old class.  Their classes are only 30 minutes for 9 days.  They were so excited about going they talked non stop all the way there!  Then I couldn't get them to quit all the way home either!  I told Laura we might have to sign them up for another session after summer school gets out!

After we got home from swimming lessons today I made the kids help clean the basement while Brooke took a nap.  After she woke up we went up to my "other mother's" house to play with her grandkids (same kiddos that went to Disney Land with Sam & I).  There is a couple across the street from Cindy that owns a bunch of miniature & fainting (yep, fainting) goats.  The kids love going to see them - especially when there are babies.  So, we loaded up & went to Cindy's house to play with the kids & feed the goats.  Cindy was awesome & prepared a bag of goat food for all of us (animal crackers - who knew?!).  

This was Brooke's view.

Little sister was so good.  She just sat in her stroller and watched all the goats clamor around us for their animal crackers.  There were a ton of little babies that were so cute!  She just sat & held onto her bag of animal crackers as tight as she could (until Sam got them away from her & shared her goat food!).

Since the big kids have dead flip flops & dead water shoes I decided we'd better make a trip to Walmart tonight to pick some up.  Now Sam & Nash are ready for summer with their flip flops:

And, I was lucky enough to find some adorable sandals for Brooke that actually fit on her chubby feet!

I was even able to get Sam to do the first day of her math challenge from her new fourth grade teacher.  We'll see how long that lasts!  She's also trying to do the governor's summer reading challenge.  Actually, we'll all try to do that.  At the end of this week we'll go sign up for the city library summer reading too!

I made a Hello Kitty cake for a girlfriend last week & she showed it to all the people she works with.  I now have an order for a character cake!  In the words of my mom "It sounds like you might be entering the cake business!"  I guess I might!  Tonight I'm making Elmo!  I'll take an extra $30 any time!  Bring on the cake!