fun 4th weekend

We stayed home this year for the 4th. Camping just seemed like too much work. It was still fun, just different. The kids got to attend their first parade and seemed to enjoy it. Especially the candy that was thrown, every float or car that went by Ben would wave his arms and say "over here, over here" I think he got the hang of it. Although I think Kendall ended up with just as much candy sitting on the sidelines. People would see her with out any and they would walk over and hand her a handful. Maybe she really had it figured out, she didn't even have to work for hers..
Ben's ultimate favorite was seeing all the different cars that drove by. He loved, loved, loved the line of corvettes because they all had the same round tail lights (that is how he decides if he likes a car, by its tail lights). Kendall would only stand up to wave to the "princesses" on the floats or to dance when the cheerleaders would come by. If we stay home next year I think we will go back again. We were all pretty lazy the rest of the day, it was nice. Burgers on the bar-b-q for dinner, fireworks on the driveway (Kendall was a little scared of the sparklers), popping snaps on Scott's bare back (ouch) laying on a blanket in the backyard watching the kids play with uncle Scott and a bunch of glow sticks waiting for the big show at the park across the street to start was the way we spent our evening


We were lucky enought to have Scott and Anita stay with us for the week. Scott is working here in Utah now and Anita is still finishing up with school and will be moving out here in August. The kids love them to death... if I cannot find them anywhere in the house all I need to do is find Scott. We played with Anita when Scott was working mostly shopping and catching up ya know girl stuff but we did take a few breaks to have fun with the kids.

Dropping Anita off at the airport was heartbreaking for Kendall she cried almost the whole way home until she fell asleep. I didn't cry because I knew she would be back.

going camping

I am off to girls camp. see ya'll in a week.

to all the blog watchers

I am dusting off the keyboard, get ready to see some posts.

Ben's last day of Pre-School

today was Ben's last day of pre-school and last night we wrote thank you notes for all of his teachers. There are five that I know of so I pulled out five sheets of paper and let him draw a picture then he told me his favorite thing about each one and I wrote it down. When we were done he said "Mom, we are not done. You forgot Miss Penny!" Okay! I guess but I don't know who Miss Penny is. I have never met her and her name is not on the weekly newsletter but if he says there is a Miss Penny and we need to write her a letter too who am I to say no?!... Well we got to school and I handed the letters to Miss Emily, she looked and them and then asked me "who is Miss Penny?" I don't know, Ben's favorite teacher I guess. Oh dear! my son's imaginary friend is a pre-school teacher. It could be worse at least she is teaching him something right. As for the other five he loved them too. This school has been great at improving his social skills and all the teachers were really great to work with. I wish we could keep him there for next year but I really feel like he will learn more at a normal pre-school. This pre-school was for challenged kids both mental and physical. Ben and his little friend Madeline have been a few of the "peers" attending the school to help teach interaction with different individuals. It has been great but he is ready to move on and be more challenged academically. When he got in the car after pre-school I asked him if he was sad to leave. He said no because he was excited to start his new school next week. Man this summer really flew by fast.

Tink's party

Thanks to my DH Kendall's birthday party was off to a great start. we started out with some face painting. I was surprised the girls held still and let me paint so much I was sure they would all end up with a little heart or something on their cheeks because they would not be that in to it, but like always three and four years olds are surprising. The girls made some bugs out of pompoms as they were waiting their turn. we then decorated fairy wands using large pretzel sticks, pink candy melts and lots of sprinkles. There was a small glitch just, a little mid-party melt down. I am still unsure what it was about but I guess it was her party, she can cry if she wants to. I tried to keep the party small so it would not be to overwhelming but I guess that is something that cannot be helped with a three year old. Next, we had lunch pb&j cut into stars, pink go-gurt, pink cookies and pink punch. Someone likes pink I think. Then the girls had a fairy coronation. Each girl got a new fairy name and a certificate welcoming them as fairy by the Never Council. they got sprinkled with pixie dust and got to make a wish as they chanted "WE BELIEVE IN FAIRIES!"

Then we opened up gifts and had cupcakes.

Ben had a baseball game after pictures but he told Tyler that he really did not want to miss Kendall's party. I really just wanted him out of the house because when Kendall was asking for friends she named Anna and Madeline both of them are Ben's age and I was worried he would take over the party because his friends were there. But by the time they came home it was time for cupcakes and gifts. Ben didn't miss the whole thing and Kendall got her "girls only" party. Ben didn't want to be left out so as we were waiting for the parents to come pick the girls up the girls watched the Tinkerbell movie and I tried to paint a tiger on his face. I am no professional that is for sure.


Kendall has been talking about a Tinker Bell party for months now. I tried to talk her into princesses, fancy Nancy, or pinkalishious because I simply could not think of anything for Tinkerbell but then I was looking at this great blog for YW ideas and she had a tink party posted for her daughter that I just had to copy.http://angbrimwil.blogspot.com/2009/05/hannahs-birthday-party.html

from the mouth of Kendall

Yesterday Kendall and I were playing dress-up. She came out with an outrageous outfit!!!

Me: Wow! Kendall don't you look SO pretty?!!?

Kendall: I know, that's my job!

OH Dear!!

Pitty party!!

*This post was origianlly titled Tink's party but when I started going off I decided to make them seperate posts so if you are not interested in complaining and just wanted to see what the party was like, look up*
What a day. I really hurt my back yesterday just in time for Tyler to take Ben camping and leave me to make the finall preparations for Kendalls party. I can stand and sit just fine so baking cupcakes and hanging decorations was not a problem I just couldn't clean up anything that invoved walking or bending over. So pretty much any mess the kids had made!! All I will say about that is earlier in the day both kids "helped" me sort and fold the laundry :>. I thought I was going to lose my mind. I couldn't sleep last night because my back hurt I didn't want to take anything because I didn't want to sleep-in and not be ready for the party. Then my sister called to say she was going to be late (I really needed her help) at least she had a good excuse, her daughter had gotten gum stuck in her hair. With the rush I was in I was tempted to tell her to just cut it out but this is the same daughter that has cut her own hair like 5 times so she doesn't have much hair left. Then to my surprise my DH came home early just to help me because he felt so bad about leaving. I was glad he took Ben camping he had been looking forward to it and he has not been able to spend much time with him lately. I was much happier to see him walk through the door because I knew everything would be okay. He made lunch (pb&j cut into stars), cleaned up the floor, and got Ben ready for baseball pictures that had been rescheduled (thank goodness he was home for that I might have really lost it if we had not gotten his first ever team photo, it is just the scrapbooker in me:)). Tyler was out the door with Ben by the time the party started and the same time my sister showed up BTW. The day started out pretty crappy but everything turned out alright thanks to my superhero hubby.

Time Out

together!!


Holding hands because they were being mean to each other.
Before breakfast even, what a way to start the day!