Hogwarts week 5

This week we took a fun group picture, decorated picture frames, made a boat with natural materials (the avocado shell I thought was a stroke of genius), made a Disney treat, and a few others I didn't take pictures of.  We played a games called Knock Knock Your Socks Off.  You try and take everyone's socks off and the last person with a sock on wins.  Well, my boys don't know how to control themselves and we didn't even get to finish one game before most got hurt and Damon had a bloody lip, sigh.

Jenna and Kaylee update

 I thought it was time for a quick update on the girls, and I always have some cute pictures of them.

The girls seems to be growing up now.   Their hair is getting so long.  They can ask for just about anything now, though sometimes it takes some effort on our part to understand them.  We still struggle at breakfast time, they usually get a little bit of cereal in the morning while Doug and I get ready for the day and they watch Curious George.  But then they are not really hungry for breakfast when I am feeding the boys.  Sometimes I have them wait and eat later, but a lot of times when I decide to do that I forget to feed them.  Some of their favorite foods right now are: grapes, cheese, ham lunch meat, fruit loops, raisins, chocolate chips, mac and cheese, hot dogs, vanilla ice cream (they don't eat other flavors very well),  corn on the cob, chicken, juice, and popsicles.  They ask for popsicles whenever we get home from riding our bikes or running errands, it comes out as "sicle?"

k/j

The girls are full of energy.  They still don't play with toys very much, but they are slowly getting better if Doug or I play with them.  They like to play with the Perfection shape pieces or the pegs we have with our Chinese checkers game.  Kaylee is starting to do pretend play with the Little People.  I have seen her put people in the house and move them around a bit. They love the bouncy house downstairs and probably wish that I would let them bounce more.  I like to supervise their bouncing so they only get to do it when I'm down there with them. 

We have been playing outside in the water a lot and usually their girls take off their clothes at some point.  

j/k

 The girls enjoy our bike rides in the morning and will jump right in the trailer and try to do up the buckles.  They like it when we ride to a park so they can play.  Frequently there is hair pulling and slapping going on in the trailer too, sigh.

j/k

 The girls interact more now and we practice taking turns.  Jenna is more vocal in her demands and Kaylee is usually more easily persuaded to give Jenna a turn.  It is fun when they spontaneously want to give each other hugs or play together.  They are good to follow directions; if I give two crackers to one and tell her to give the other to her sister, she will.  It is fun to hear them say please and thank you, and excuse me - when appropriate.  Jenna now says "yes, mom" when I ask her questions like "do you want a cracker?"  It is pretty cute.

 They are starting to repeat prayers better now and it is funny how sometimes they take turns copying me.  One will say the prayer for awhile, then the other one will take over.

 This has been the girls' favorite game for the past few days.  My mom got them this little pitcher and dish set and the girls love playing with it.  It is definitely an outside toy until they figure out how to pour without over flowing.

Kaylee goes to sleep so well and naps well too.  Jenna must just not need as much rest.  She wakes up first (6:00-6:30), naps ok, but usually wakes up 1/2 - 1 hour before Kaylee.  Jenna also has a hard time going to bed, usually needing me to comfort her multiple times before she falls asleep and then she will cry out in the night around 11:30 or so too.  Hopefully she will grow out of this.

I love hearing their thoughts and what they have learned.  They know many letters and numbers.  They can count to 10.  They know many shapes and colors too.  They sing along to I am a Child of God and some of our more modern songs.  They can run, jump, climb, swing, slide, feed themselves, put on their shoes, put on their pants, and they have starting using a cup.

They are getting so big and I love them so much.  I am grateful they have each other for a friend.  That is one blessing of having twins last, they won't be home alone.

Hogwarts week 4

Another fun week with our Hogwarts summer school.  This week we made creations out of rice crispies, decorated flip flops, did math problems with side walk chalk and squirt guns, weeded at a cemetery, and read stories in a tent.

 As a memory for me, this may look like a group of happy children, but in a few short minutes it became quite the fiasco.  First just getting the tent up was an ordeal, then as we all gathered on our tummies to read a story Jenna kept jumping on people, Kaylee didn't want to share her pillow, and Chris started building his own mountain of pillows blocking our entrance.  So our two stories that we read were frequently interrupted with disciplining statement from me to try and keep the peace.  Sigh, you'd think that it would be easy to read a book to your kids, ha!

First Harvest

We had our first picking this week.  A few peas, beans, a zucchini and a couple of beets.  Doug and I enjoyed the veggies, the kids like the raw peas the best.  Damon and Tyler were good to help pick and then shell the peas.

Saturday July 5th

 Saturday we just had a fun day at home playing outside.  We filled up the pool and got out the water balloons and the slip 'n slide.  Tyler and Chris we getting pretty good at sliding. Damon didn't want to go down because of his hurt knees.

 Jenna liked playing in the water more than Kaylee.

 I even took a few turns.

 This was the only way that Kaylee would get in the pool.

 Our water slide is pretty fun!

Doug and I were able to go on a date in the evening for dinner.  We went to a newer BBQ place in Frederick. It was really good.  We ran into another couple from the ward and turned it into a double date.  That made it fun - we always seem to have better conversations when we are with other people.  Thanks for the date Doug, it is always nice to get away for awhile with you.

Forth of July

 Happy Forth of July!  We started out the day with our town parade.  We got a great parking spot in the shade, such a blessing.  The kids were pretty good waiting for the parade to start.  Some people next to us shared some snaps fireworks and that helped keep them busy.  The parade was pretty good, the kids got quite a bit of candy.  We ate our lunch there and then drove over to the booths in the center of town.  It was so hot!! The kids were all flushed and sweaty.  The kids took a few turns on the bouncy houses and then we called it quits.  We were just all too hot.

The girls liked waving the flags they got in the parade.  We got quite a few comments on the girls' outfits and 'twin' comments in general.  You can't be shy when you have twins.  I did their hair the night before so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning.  It stayed in pretty well, just got a bit frizzy.

j/k

We took it easy in the afternoon and then went over to a friends house for hot dogs.  She had invited her neighbors and a few other friends as well.  The kids had fun playing.  Damon took a fall and skinned up both knees and his hand.  He was very brave about it, but walked stiff legged for the rest of the day.  

A funny side story:  I took the girls for a walk around the block and Jenna walked up to a complete stranger, a girl about 15 years old and said "hug," and walked up to her and gave her a hug.  I wonder if she thought it was one of her cousins or something. It was just kind of weird, she is usually not the friendly or social one. 

j/k

We went back to our house to light our fireworks.  The boys liked these fountains and the tanks.

 The shirts we made.

 The girls trying to get out the snaps - they liked those.

 The boys liked trying to light the used up tanks on fire with their sparklers.

After our fireworks we got ready to go to the town fireworks.  We haven't taken our kids in years.  I guess we just didn't want to deal with tired kids and crying from loud noises from babies.  So I was very excited when everyone did so well.  We were on a golf course with some friends and the kids just ran around and had fun.  It was windy and cold, but they kept warm by running.  The fireworks were fun, not nearly as good as Logan's but Frederick is a pretty small town.  Kaylee loved them.  She would clap and ooh and name the colors as they went off.  Jenna wasn't as impressed, she just kept climbing over Doug.  She doesn't hold still as well as Kaylee.  We had to wait for about 10 minutes to get out of traffic, but even that long was a bit frustrating since we only had to go 1 mile to get home.

It was a great 4th of July, I am so grateful for my family and the fun things we have been able to do lately.  I am grateful for those who have served and who are serving now for our country.  I am so grateful that I live in USA.  I know I take it for granted, but it is good to be reminded of our blessings on days like this.

 We did have one incident with our fireworks this year.  Kaylee grabbed a sparkler and burned her hand pretty good.  We only let her hold one for a second, but she was too quick.  I felt really bad.  The blister has popped now and it is hard to keep it clean.  The band-aids don't stay on very well on her palm.

 This is an older owie, but I figured we could document it.  She fell and bruised her fingernail some how and the whole nail separated from her skin.  I had to scrape out a sliver from under her nail the other day.  It didn't even bother her.  I just hope it grows in ok.  You can't see it very well, but her ring fingernail is just discolored.  Poor girl, at least her knees are just about healed now.  She trips so often that she always has scabs on her knees.

Museum of Nature and Science

Monday was a free day at the Museum of Nature and Science.  We have a membership, but my friend wanted to go so it was a good time to go for her.  We knew it would be crowded so we left early to get there right as it opened.  Unfortunately I found out that one of her kids got sick so she wasn't going to make it.  I found this out when I was 10 minutes away from the museum, so we just went by ourselves.  This marked a landmark for me, this was the first time I have gone anywhere big with all 5 kids by myself.  (I've managed going to the store and the library) Also, this was the first time without a stroller for the girls.  It turned out better than I expected.  The girls wandered a lot, but Damon was a great help to keep them under control.  

They had just added a new Kids Discovery Zone, it had a lot of fun things: a big water table.

 A fish tank in a toddler area.

 A digital drawing board.

 A gear table.

 A lighted magnetic building table.

 Dinosaurs and digging for bones.

We all had a fun time.  The kids were tired after about 2 hours.  We quickly saw the mummies and walked into the Space area, but then headed for the van.  The parking lot was so crazy busy, I was glad we got there early and had a great parking spot.  I gave the kids their lunch to eat in the van and we headed for home.  The bad part about this trip was the traffic we ran into.  I-25 was a stand still - I finally decided last minute to exit and find some side streets to head north on.  I am grateful for Google Maps for some directional help.  We passed the traffic area and then got back on the freeway - it was smooth sailing after that.  I was glad that I had lunches for the kids and popcorn too; they finished watching a movie as well.  I was glad that the girls stayed awake so they could take a good nap when we got home.

It was a fun but tiring morning, but a good way to start the week.

Fort Collins Temple

 Last Sunday we drove up to the Fort Collins Temple site to check on the building process.  There wasn't much to see, but it was a nice outing for a Sunday afternoon.  It will be so nice when it is done, and much quicker and easier drive.