a few more

Here is a picture of Brayton's water color painting. I had each of the kids do an outdoor scene. Orion did mountains, Meri did a forest, Jessi- a rainbow, Ethan - the desert, and Brayton - beach sunset. I was so happy with how they all turned out we framed them and hung them up. I need to get pictures of the others. (Brayton took a pic of his for a Webelos thing). I love the next picture because it's just how I think summer should be- swinging and popsicles. The last picture is of these little monkeys the kids decorated last week. This week is our no electricity week - "The Old Days". I have to admit, I chickened out and we decided to do no electricity for 2 days (thurs and fri) instead of all week. My sister Krystal does this with her kids and they do no electricity ALL week! wow! But we are still doing some activities that have to do with what it was like to live back then. Today we learned about the first 49ers and how they came to California looking for gold. We went on a gold hunt and found some gold! (Well, dollar store gold anyway). We also harvested radishes from our garden. Tomorrow we will wash our clothes by hand and hang them out to dry and bake bread. I really want to make soap and candles at some point too so we'll see if we can figure that out. Tomorrow those who are brave enough are going to sleep in teh backyard under the stars like the cowboys. And Friday we will go on our family camp out. I'm really enjoying this summer. I love not having to be too many places at a certain time and just doing our thing.

more summer weeks

Here are the sugar crystals we grew. Last week, after science week was "Artsy Fartsy". We did lots of art projects. Here are the kids with the salt dough temples we sculpted with our friends. Then we have some fingerpainting and Ethan with his pastel chalk drawing.

rocket scientists

Our Summer Weeks

When I was a kid my mom often would do theme weeks during the summer and my sister Krystal and I have kind of continued that tradition in our own ways. The kids and I came up with 10 weeks we wanted to do- Our first week was in San Ramon with our family. Our 2nd week was called "Food Fair". We made lots of different things that week - the kids mostly decided on what to make (as you can see by their choices of foods loaded with sugar). Our favorites were treat pizza and sweet spaghetti. We also learned how to make freezer jam and made some fruit roll ups with our food dehydrater. Our 3rd week was "Science Center". We did a bunch of science experiments and at the end we launched rockets. The boys LOVED this!

Here are a few more photos of Meri's birthday: Ethan learned "America the Beautiful" on the piano and played it for her to start her party. The next one is her reaction when she opened her monkey webkinz. The last one is of her being blind folded while we brought her bike in. It was a really fun day.

more 4th of July photos!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a ball this past 4th of July. It was so nice to be together this year - last year Shawn was with family in San Ramon and the kids and I were up in Oregon with family waiting for our house to be done. We went to the parade and a carnival at a park in town. The kids loved the petting zoo and having a look inside a fire truck. They also enjoyed a bunch of rides there and getting a popsicle from the ice cream truck. Later we went over to the church for a ward social which turned out to be a lot of fun. The kids rode their bikes all over the church parking lot with friends and had a great time. And Shawn was in the ice cream eating contest. We stayed and watched fireworks on the church lawn and had a great view there. We even made it through the fireworks without any of our kids freaking out and screaming for the noise to stop. Although Jessi hid in a blanket the whole time. It was so nice to enjoy the fireworks! I love this country and I'm so so grateful to live here.

Happy Birthday America!

Our America turned 6 years old on July 3rd. For her birthday we went to see Kung Fu Panda and had a lot of laughs and even spilled half the bag of popcorn like we always do when we go to the movies. She got her 2 wishes come true for her birthday. One, she has been dying to have the monkey Webkinz because it's "pet of the month" for July. And two, she has been wanting a bike for months. She had a small one someone had given us that she's been riding but it is just way too small for her now so she would always be bugging Orion to let her ride his. So now she has her very own bike and can't get enough of riding it. We love our Meri!

Playground Complete

Well our back yard is coming along. After much hauling of sand from our driveway out front - many calories were burned in that activity by all of us, and Shawn using his engineer skills to put together our Costco playground, it is now complete! Hooray! The kids are loving it. And I am loving that I can send them out back to play. It is so fun. Our next project is to get the sprinklers and grass in around it.

Trip to San Ramon

As soon as school let out we headed to San Ramon for Tiffany's wedding. She looked beautiful and happy and we had a great time at the reception. The girls loved having matching dresses with their cousins and the boys tolerated putting on a tie. We had a great time hanging out with all our family there. We spent a week there swimming, making root beer with Grandpa, playing with him and all his Legos, eating his homemade donuts, going to one of the Redwood Forests, going to the Monterrey Aquarium, and getting in plenty of play time with cousins - oh, and we can't forget getting sick with the cousins too, yes, the barfing kind. Ugh! But it didn't last too long so it wasn't too bad. Shawn and I had a wonderful night out going to the Oakland Temple, then to Olive Garden, and then to see Prince Caspian. It was such a treat! So much fun! Thanks so much to Matthew and Amanda and Alicia for watching the kids that night. I have more pictures, but they are on a disposable camera because our battery died right after the wedding so I will try to post more later. It was a great trip. The kids were upset to leave. It's just so much fun there! Thank you so much Dad and Cheryl and Matthew and Amanda for having us! It was so nice to relax and unwind. I was feeling very pleased that I got Ethan's baby book finished and I finally got to read New Moon and Eclipse while I was there too and LOVED them both! It was such a fun way to start our summer!
kids with the happy couple, boys with cousin Chance, Jess with cousin Andy, Meri with cousin Mady

Last day of School

Here are the kids on their last day of school. Yes, I made them all wear their school t-shirts to show school spirit. It has been a great year. The kids have all done really well this year and worked hard. We were blessed with wonderful teachers for each of them and it's just been a really good year. Even though it was an adjustment with the move last summer and making new friends and missing old friends, it has been good and a good growing year for all of us. This fall Brayton will be a 5th grader - his last year in Elementary school - I just can't even believe it! Ethan will be in 4th and Orion in 2nd. Meri will be in 1st grade which she is thrilled about. She can't wait to see her brothers at recess she says.

Spring Recital

We had our Spring Piano Recital a couple weeks ago. The kids did so well and it was a lot of fun to hear them play. Even Jessi played something!

T-ball fun

Orion and Meri recently played on the "Knights" team for T-ball. This was our first time doing baseball and they just loved it! Orion's favorite was playing 1st base and Meri's was catcher. They really had a ball!