Fathers and Sons and Family

Enjoying FHE treats on the front steps. Man, now that it's so nice outside we are just not getting to bed on time. This night was no exception. I mean what parent can really say, "NO we are NOT having Family Home Evening treats?" For the fourth grade talent show Jessie did a math magic trick. Try it out on your kids; it's great fun.

1. Have them pick out any domino without showing you the numbers; and tell them that you can figure out what number are on it.
2. Tell them to multiply one of the numbers by 5, add 7, multiply by 2 and add the other number on the domino.
3. Ask for their final answer. Now you take their answer subtract 14 and you will have a 2-digit number made up of the 2 numbers on the domino.

Jessie brought a calculator just to make it easy and she had a good time. Abbie and Spencer and I got to go see her perform.

Friday was a day Mark had been waiting for ALL week. Ken's dad's ward had their Fathers and Sons outing up Spanish Fork Canyon and Mark just couldn't wait!! Scott brought the tent, Ken brought dinner and everyone had a fabulous time.It was a little chillier than they had expected and boy they were glad Grandpa had thought of adding coats to load in the back of the truck! Ken and Mark went on a little walk after the tent was up.

And when they got home I'm surprised none of you called me telling me you could smell them from your house. Some of their clothes we've had to wash twice to try and get the campfire smell out of them!!

One of our big HOORAYS as far as the yard goes is this little garden in the northwest corner of the yard. It has been a weedy, dirt pile that collects all the trash that blows through the neighborhood since we moved in. And last year my dad helped us get some cannas and nasturtiums and put the bricks around it and this year---WOW, I'm just so excited! We even had three lights left over from the front yard to put back here. YEAH it looks like someone lives here now.

Our First Swimsuit Day of the Year

Saturday marker our first official swimsuit day this year. As usual the water was a little colder than the kids had imagined it would be, but they had fun just the same.

I was having a great time too trying to capture the excitement. A few of these are of the neighbors who were drawn over by the sounds of the sprinklers.

When I showed this picture to Ken he said it looked like Spencer was using the sidewalk as a Slip 'N Slide. And he's right...check out the teeth gritting.....boy that would have hurt. Instead Spencer was just enjoying the water that collected and warmed up a bit at the end of the driveway. He's actually "playing the drums" with a lot of enthusiasm.

Here's he just jumping, but it was fun to get a picture of him in the air and then when the water splashed.

It's cold!!!

Trees, Pancake Mix, and Slugs

The most exciting thing that happened this last week according to Spencer is that he learned how to climb the tree in the front yard. We have a little rule in our house that if you can't climb a tree yourself, no one can help you up. So for two or so years Spencer has been watching everyone else climb this tree and now he finally can too. It took two tries to help him find a non-dangerous way down and boy is he enjoying a new freedom.Abbie was my awesome helper making a 6 gallons of pancake mix for the credit union's annual meeting. I'm not a huge pancake person myself but Ken and the kids have pancakes at least three times a week. Let us know if you try the recipe!

Pancake Mix
10 cups flour (We actually do 5 cups white, 4 cups wheat and 1 cup cornmeal)
2 1/2 cups instant dry milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
2 Tbsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Perfect Pancakes
1 cup water
1 egg
3 Tbsp. oil
1 1/2 cups pancake mix

Combine water, egg and oil. Add pancake mix stirring until almost smooth. Let sit 5 minutes (if you have extra time or are waiting for you griddle to heat up.) Cook on heated griddle. Makes about 10 pancakes.

A few of the family have preferences as far as toppings go. Ken likes canned pears on his; Jessie and Spencer always have just syrup; Mark has butter and whatever else he can find (syrup, jam, etc); Abbie always has applesauce or jam.
Jessie sometimes refers to herself as the bug lady. After homework one day last week she was out catching slugs from under some rocks for a friend's bug jar. For herself she caught a couple centipedes.This week Abbie asked if she could try to paint her nails herself. She did a pretty stinkin' good job for a first try. I only had to completely wipe off one finger that was covered in polish. Ken didn't notice this time, but Spencer got the polish with green sparkles in it.

I wanted to try out the remote I got for the camera on Mother's Day and since we were all decked out in our helmets ready for a ride I thought that was a great opportunity. Well, it didn't work unfortunately and so we just ended up using the timer and I had to run back to get in the picture. We had Ken kneel down this time so I didn't feel so short.
After the CU's annul meeting was over Ken took Spencer and Abbie to exchange the remote. But before they left the store Spencer took this picture of himself just to make sure teh new one really worked.

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Museums, Birds, Track Meets, etc...

After reading Jodi's blog about going to the BYU art museum I totally wanted to go. It was so fun to see how he got inspiration for some of his work. I so wanted to come home and play with blocks. After the museum the family went over for some more practice photos at the BYU bell tower -- if you missed those pictures click on the Photo Fun link in the sidebar. Last Sunday morning we were having lunch and this huge beautiful bird flew up to our humming bird feeder hanging in the kitchen window looking for some food. He flew back and forth between the feeder and the tree a couple of times. It was so neat. Ken got this picture with the telephoto lens.

Just to show you how big he was, can you find him in this picture? He's the red blob in the tree, dead center. We tried to get a picture of him on the feeder, but he was just too fast.

On Thursday Jessie had her grades' track meet. She ran the 400 meter (once around the track), the 100 meter and did the softball throw. Unfortunately we missed the 400 run. I thought it would be last, but it was first. But we saw her run the 100. Spencer and Abbie were my cheerleaders.

Then we waited in line with her for the softball throw. Well, Abbie waited in line...Spencer and I played catch over to the side.

I put sunscreen on Jessie and the other kids had hats so I was the only one to get a little extra sun. Weeks before the track meet I measured off 100 meters on the sidewalk in front of the house for Jessie to practice. Man I couldn't believe how long 100 meters was.... It was a little longer than 4 properties on our block! We practiced a few times, but not enough to make a real difference. I think Abbie and I ended up running it more than Jessie. Oh well, there's always next year. At least she had fun which is the point, I think.

Abbie and I have been practicing all the sight words when Spencer takes a nap (on the lucky days that he does take a nap). She has most of them down so we decided to practice writing them and so far it's been a fun thing. Jessie came home and circled the ones she thought were the best on each line and that made Abbie feel so special. What a great sister.

Just a funny chicken picture. You know...chickens always look grumpy in pictures.

Abbie has been so excited for Mother's Day and has picked lilacs for me on two different days just to get ready. These were so sweet on the table in the little toy cup that I couldn't pass up a picture.

Today was just wonderful. My family is so kind to me that sometimes I don't think I really deserve it. Yesterday we helped Ken's mom plant the flowers for her yard. This kids were all really great helpers, but the really funny part was that she wanted to work some compost into some the flower beds and so we came back to our house to pick up a few bags of compost out of the chicken coop. Ken teasing her said that now she can tell all her friends that for Mother's Day her son gave her a bag of chicken poop. Enjoy your week everyone!

Senior Pictures

Ken's cousin asked me to take some senior pictures for her. A little nervous I took my two faithful helpers out for some test pictures. We were driving around looking for something "rustic" and found this old barn somewhere down behind Main Street. Abbie was just laughing at me... "you want me to go in there! It's still full of cow dung!" I replied "no silly, just stand in the doorway." I didn't really think it smelled, but she was convinced it did and let go of her nose just long enough for me to take a picture while she was still holding her breath. It was so funny. She makes me laugh.

Abbie was tired of pictures and stayed in the car to listen to Scripture Scouts and Spencer was my last subject.

Here are just a few more cool Photoshop actions that I tried out on some of the pictures -- well, I thought they were cool. This is just a simple B&W, but I think it's neat because the photo actually looks B&W and not shades of grey.

I'm not sure this one has any practical use unless you're a hippy, but can you guess what it's called? Seventies!

I just loved how her white shirt stood out against the trees. This action is "soft and faded."

Here's another "soft and faded."

This one is my favorite it's called "colorize." And how lucky was I that she was wearing a purple scarf for this one. This photo just wouldn't be as cool without it.

FHE at the Temple

Some friends in the ward invited us to have FHE with them at the Provo Temple. The evening we went was beautiful. First we took a few family and individual pictures so the kids can put them in their rooms.This is around the back.
As we got up to the temple a worker had on wading boots and was changing the lights in the fountains. All the kids agreed that would be a great job to have. I think we took about 10 pictures at the fountain and in every single one of them someone isn't looking at the camera. As soon as we gave them the OK to be done with pictures all the boys immediately turned around to play in the water.This is kind of a fun picture with the reflections.Jessie's has been practicing so she can smile on demand. I think it's a cute "chipmunk" smile, but funny too.This isn't the greatest picture, but we had taco salad after pictures and then a short lesson on the temple. All in all I think only two kids spilled their drinks on the blanket and everyone had as many cookies as they wanted. What a fun night.

Friendship bracelets and more

At the Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house, Jessie and Abbie and the other girl cousins each found an egg with embroidery floss in it. Abbie was so excited to have her own floss and wanted to start on a friendship bracelet right away. We didn't get around to starting until Spencer took his nap on Monday and then we finished it up on Saturday (when Jessie joined us). I had so much fun working with Abbie on her bracelet.Ken and Mark were gone in the morning helping with a neighborhood clean-up project, but the rest of us made little newspaper pots and planted a few seeds. Here is Abbie making her pot. Spencer had to look through all the seed packets so he could pick out his favorite.

Jessie helped label some of the sticks so we'd know what was growing. We put the finished pot in a fairly deep plastic storage bin and then I watered them well and taped a piece of Saran wrap over it to make a tiny green house. Ken helped me rig up a florescent light in the basement that we hung right on over the covered bin.Guess what -- most of our plants even grew. A few of the green bean plants reached all the way up to the plastic and so I decided to take the bin outside for a little real sun. Unfortunately....well I kind of cooked the plants...only a few of them survived...I guess I can try again next year. Sigh.

On Sunday Jessie wanted a picture of her rainbow tower of cups. And a few other happy kids joined her.
The kids next door gave us a few stuffed animals... one of them is this HUGE bunny. The bunny has to take turns sleeping with all the kids and caused quite a few tears the first night it was here. When I checked on how Spencer's nap was going this picture was just too cute to pass up.

For FHE a couple Monday's ago, Mark was SO EXCITED to help Grandpa fry our hamburgers and pass off one of the requirements for his wolf badge. He rushed through his homework asking every couple of minutes if it were time to go yet. He had the best time and boy did I appreciate his tasty work.This is also a scout project that Mark did at a den meeting. Too bad the birds in our neighborhood are not smart enough to look for food in our front yard. I'm thinking were going to have to move it to the backyard to see some birds at it.