July 19 Week Review

Monday: Normal day of laundry and getting household things done.  I worked a lot with my calling this week.  I've been working on a Cub Scout orientation sheet and I finally got that done.  We have about half of our primary teachers out of town right now, so it's a constant chore to make sure we have subs and make sure they know what lesson they're on, room assignment, etc. 

Kaylee had a bit of a fever, but it didn't seem bad.

Tuesday is movie day up in the Woodlands.  Kaylee was well enough to go so off we went.  This week was Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.  Jenna and Kaylee were asking to go home near the end but they made it.  

In the afternoon I watched my friend's 4 boys.  It wasn't too crazy and it gave my boys some friends to play with.  Tuesday evening Doug was going with work to an Astros baseball game with Damon and Tyler then he found out that there was some miscommunication from the vendor (who was taking them to the game) and they were not given the tickets as promised.  So they will try and go another time.  So Damon and Tyler went to scouts instead. 

Wednesday we had some other friends over in the morning and then we went swimming after naps.   I also did a quick trip to the grocery store when Doug came home from work.  After we got the kids to bed I went to GNO.  We watched Mom's Night Out.  I hadn't seen it yet and it was cute and funny.  I even got a little teary eyed.  It was a great mom movie and I needed to hear some of the advice given.  I was surprised that it was a bit religious.  You don't see that very often.  

Thursday Doug left to go to Kansas City for the LifeVantage convention.  He did the trip up with a break and spent the night with one of our friends from Colorado that moved to Bentonville, Arkansas to work for Wal-mart.  We switched vehicles so that he had better gas mileage and so I could get the oil changed in the truck.  I went to take it in Thursday morning and first off couldn't find the place.  I called and they told me Google Maps was wrong - yep, that's why I couldn't find it.  Then he said they were booked for the next few days.  I'll just have Doug get it done.

Then we went to the Woodland's Children Museum.  We were meeting another family there but my friend had a crazy morning and got there an hour after we did.  But we still had a fun time.  Damon was bored at first but had fun once his friend got there.  I have a video of Damon saving Jenna from a dragon and then slaying the beast.  Pretty funny.  

Thursday evening I had a Cub Scout orientation meeting that we had set up for all the new 8 year old scouts coming in and for any families that had moved in that were new to our pack.  It was good to give them an overview of what the new program was like and how to use the new Scout Book website to keep track of everything.  It is a great program.  Someone made it awhile ago and the BSA liked it so much they acquired it earlier this year.   Damon was good to watch Chris and the girls while Tyler and I were gone.  He sent me some amusing texts from the iPad during the meeting. :)

Friday we took a breather from the previous busy days and just chilled at home and then went swimming in the afternoon.  

Saturday I wanted to do something so we went up to the mall to go to the indoor play area and visit the Lego store.  My boys are really too big for this area but we went early before it got too crowded.  We stopped by the Disney store too on our way out.  

 They had this Mixel set for half off at the Lego store, so of course I had to buy it. :)

They are doing a lot of construction at the entrance to our neighborhood, building a new major beltway.  Our main road was closed so we had to wait in a long line at the detour.  We went home a different way to avoid that intersection.  

Sick and Sweet Week

Damon and Jenna were sick this week so we didn't do a whole lot.  By the end of the week they were feeling a bit better so we went swimming on Thursday morning then on Friday and Saturday evening.  It's nice to have a swimming option when we don't have anything else to do.  Kaylee has become a little fish.  She loves having goggles on and now dives into the water and tries to swim to me under water.  

Last Sunday I tried to make fudge - but it went to sugar.  So we made smores instead for our FHE treat.  I tried to make fudge again on Monday and it turned out fine...finicky recipe.

It's nice having Damon around, he watched his siblings on Tuesday so I could go grocery shopping.

Doug had Damon and Tyler learn how to use a lawnmower and how to cut the grass on Saturday.

We missed getting together with my immediate family back in Utah last week so my mom sent us a package with some of the activities that they had done.  She had made a treasure hunt for the grand-kids, so I made one for us and these lolli-pops and $5 were the treasure.  Thanks grandma and grandpa.  The kids liked them a lot.  They will just take a while to eat. 

 

Fun hair today. :)

Rubik's Cube

So we have had an addiction to the Rubik's cube lately.  We bought one a long time ago and it's basically sat on the shelf - mixed up.  Damon and Doug wanted to figure it out so they watched a YouTube video on it a few weeks back.  This method solved it layer by layer.  Well I watched too, then wrote the steps down on a paper.  Now Damon and I can solve it by memory.  Tyler and Doug are close, but have to look at some of the steps.

The first two layers are easy but the third layer is done by memorizing algorithms so you basically just have to memorizes turning the right, left, top, or front and the sequences.  So anyway, throughout the day you can find the four of us solving and resolving the rubik's cube appeasing our inner geek-ness. :)

Park and Fishing

Friday evening we went to a park.  We haven't been in a long time since it's too hot.  We were all very sweaty by the end, but the kids had a great time and didn't want to leave.  Living in a hot and humid environment is very different and hard to appreciate unless you're in it.  I got a few fun pictures. 

 Damon was given a cool airplane slingshot shooter thing for his birthday and we hadn't been able to find a good area to fly - well we actually didn't put much effort into and kind of forgot about these planes.  Then Doug and I went on a bike ride Thursday evening and found this park and it had a good open area, so we were able to fly the planes.

 Tyler and Doug played basketball with the soccer ball. We'll take the basketball next time.

 Chris really liked flying the planes.  Any big-kid activity is always a hit with him.

 Saturday morning was a fishing activity for Cub Scouts.  There was an instructor and he brought gear for everyone.  We used cane poles so we didn't have to deal with releasing the line.  Doug and I got good at baiting the hooks with meal worms - so much fun :/  It was a good fishing experience though.  We could see the fish attacking the hook and we just had to time it right of when to pull up.  It took us a few tries but everyone was able to catch a fish.  Damon caught 2, Chris caught 3, and Tyler and Kaylee caught 1 each.  Jenna tried only a couple of times and just wanted to eat her fruit snacks :).  They were a type of blue gill fish.

It was so stinking hot.  We wore pants because we were told the mosquitoes were going to be bad.  There were some, but it wasn't terrible.  We were all dripping with sweat - love this Texas heat!

We went swimming successfully in the evening with the whole family.  Doug hasn't been able to go as often as the rest of us, so the kids think it is more fun when he is there.  He is a pretty fun guy :)

4th of July

 We had a fun family 4th of July.  I miss doing things with extended family, but a lot of times it is less stressful and easier doing our own thing.  I had time to do Jenna's hair in the morning, she was willing.  Kaylee had no interest and I ran out of time.

I had asked a friend what their family did for the 4th and she told us where a good spot was to watch the Woodlands parade.  We also followed her suggestion to stop at a Shipley's Donut store and pick up some donuts and kolaches.  This was my first exposure to this popular Texan food.  It is similar to a 'pig-in-a-blanket' but the sausage or ham is completely baked inside a roll.  They were good.  The kids enjoyed their donuts since that is a special treat for us.  

 It was crazy hot at the parade, but we had some shade and they were passing out hand fans that we all used.  We had water and I brought otter pops too which were nice to have.

 There was a clown making balloon animals.  Kaylee got a pig, Jenna a frog (these match their stuffed animals at home), and the boys each got a sword.

 The parade was really long.  They had a few fun things.  This mini train was pretty cool.  They had a number of bands, scouting groups, and business floats.  They also had some people dressed up as the various Disney princesses with their male counter-parts.  I felt bad for most of the people in the parade - it was so hot.

We just took it easy in the afternoon and I think I played a game with Damon and Tyler.  We tried to go swimming in the evening, but the pool ended up being closed because of some thunder.  We actually had tried to go swimming the day before as well, but right as we got there everyone had to get out of the water, again due to thunder.  We were having bad luck at the pool I guess.  For dinner we grilled hamburgers and had corn on the cob, yum.  

At night we got out our fireworks.  A family across the street had some too so it was nice to 'share' each others fireworks.  They had bought some of the big ones that go up in the sky.  They were pretty cool and pretty loud.  

 The girls liked the snaps and Doug had bought some new TNT snaps that were crazy loud and powerful.  We were all surprised when we threw the first ones.

We did some of the normal fountains, smoke bombs, snakes, and sparklers.  The sparklers we had this year were different and weren't as much fun.  We'll have to look for some other ones next year.  As we were finishing up other neighbors were starting theirs.  You could tell a bunch of people have fun buying the bigger types of fireworks.  We were able to see quite a few around the block over the housetops.  After baths we watched out the girls' window and had a pretty good show.  We could hear the booms for about 2 hours straight nearby, it was a lot of fireworks.  It was a fun day.  

Summer stuff and a few random pictures

I went on a walk around the block with the girls and we ran into some trouble. :)  There is still construction nearby and there was a big pile of sand blocking the sidewalk so we had to step down to the street.  Well, the 'dirt' looked pretty solid to me, but it wasn't.  Kaylee's shoe got stuck in the mud and came off and my feet were both totally buried.  It was a pretty funny squishy walk home.  

Doug caught the girls playing with their dolls in their matching dresses.

 We still like doing puzzles and the kids like the ones that their Uncle Richard made for the family.

 Every once in awhile I let the girls have quiet time together.  Sometimes they sleep and other times they play.  This time they fell asleep, ahh :).

 We have been painting a bit over the summer, Damon did this one of Pikachu from Pokeman.

 The girls painted old Christmas ornaments I had and Chris did these two plates, the first is an alligator with a second alligator eating a snack.  The second is a black jaguar with sun and tree.  Tyler painted a fire truck kit that I had on hand, then he glued it together the next day.

The summer has slowed down with our main events over.  Our normal week consists of going to the movies on Tuesdays, swimming a lot at our neighborhood pool, having screen time, and trying not to fight too much.  One thing that we added this year is having "centers".  I have 5 stations and have the kids rotate every 7-10 minutes.  I have a handwriting/coloring station (Damon and Tyler write in their journals), a typing station on the computer, a learning station on the iPad, a reading station, and a variable station that is something fun like puzzles.  They all do pretty well.  The girls have a hard time doing some of them on their own so I have to help them. Overall I think it has worked well.  

We didn't do our Harry Potter summer school like last year, and I miss the fun activities that we did for it.  I should find the website and just do some on our own.  I just am having a hard time getting motivated to do things.  I have been playing with the kids when I can and we go to the pool almost every afternoon after snack.  Everyone does very well at the pool and it is nice to get outside and play in the water.  It is so hot, you don't want to be outside for long unless you are in the water.