Week #30:Games, Games, and More Games

This week we...

...have been on a game playing kick. We have been playing memory, go fish, sorry, monopoly, Thomas' birthday celebration game, uno, phase ten, Mexican train dominoes, 52 card pick up (this one gets old fast), and on and on. I feel like we are constantly picking up cards and game pieces and putting them away.

 Monopoly took us a good 3-4 hours to get through.

They loved every single bargaining, rent paying minute.

Sorry is actually one of my favorites.

I don't mind playing this one over and over with the kids.

Here's a look at Emma's latest card tricks

...had some fresh sweet corn. My dad sent some courtesy of the farm, complete with handy all purpose bucket. Yum! Yum! All of my kids love corn on the cob, except Paul. He won't touch it.

...were grossed out by Claire's dried out fingernail. Yes, her fingernail finally fell off. She decided to put it under her pillow to see what the tooth fairy could do for her. She got $.25 out of it. She loved to thrust her upturned nail, and now the uncovered nail bed, into people's faces to gross them out, especially Emma.

...wrapped another car for Adams County. Initially, it's stressful to think of wrapping a car in vinyl. But as we do each one, it is just so darn fun to see how it goes on and turns out. We wrap the doors and top of the car in white (because they no longer paint the car that way for the agencies that want a black and white) and then put the Sheriffs decals on.

...had some birds check into the birdhouse hotel. I don't think we really believed that we would get birds over here to eat out of our birdhouse. But plenty of bird seed later, sprinkled everywhere imaginable, and there are birds in our yard. There was even one sitting on the birdhouse eating out of the seed box, but we scared him away.

...had a puppet show, featuring all of the kids. We had a break down shortly after this. It was great!

 

Week # 29: Casting Call

This week...

...we enjoyed the flowers in Grandma Zirker's garden.

...Emma has been discovering a new talent in crocheting. Her latest fun is to make crocheted flowers and then turn them into hair clips. It is so fun to watch her get ideas and help her develop them.

...Paul received a casting call, but it wasn't for any drama related to a theatrical performance, though we did have a bit of drama involved. On Tuesday he fell off the bar stools he was playing on walking across and broke his wrist. This is our first broken limb in the family. It's not a bad break, it's as if the bone was compressed and just pushed out a little creating a crinkly bump. You can see it on the x-ray below. We had a couple of long waits at the radiologist and the orthopedic office, but he helped up really well. I think the fact that he got to play angry birds while we waited helped a lot - he killed my phone battery though.

Getting ready for the x-rays

 The x-rays

 Paul's cool blue cast

...Jason surprised me with an early birthday present. We are going to Arizona! Jason put the flight itinerary in the mailbox and asked me to go check for mail. I saw the envelope with my name on it and puzzled as to how it got in our box without an address. Then I knew it was from Jason and I laughed, thinking he had written a sweet, little love note. Then I opened the letter and saw Happy Birthday next to the Allegiant logo, and I really laughed. I couldn't believe it.

Jason was taking pictures of me through the blinds as I checked the box and walked back. Then he caught some at the door as well. I was so excited that he had actually booked the flights and made plans. Raleigh and Jordan just moved to Arizona and we had talked about getting cheap flights to go visit them. I wasn't sure if it would actually happen, but it was fun to think about it. I'm so excited that we're going!

...Jason captured some good pictures of the lightning during one of our many storms of late. I love lightning. I remember going out with blankets and chairs to watch the storms when I was younger. This is definitely one of those things that takes me back. The memories of years past make it all the better.

...we discovered that the shaving cream bandit was not Lainey after all. It was Benjamin...and he struck again.

Week #28: Vacation Time

This week...

...we went on vacation. Ok, we didn't really go anywhere. We just saved up some money and used it to do things around home, things we don't normally do. The ward camp out started it last week and then we went to the movie Brave on Saturday when we got back. We thought it was so funny and cute.

First, We went on a bike ride to Vierra's bakery down the street. Notice Ben's bear on the front of his bike and Claire speeding along without a care in the world.







Then we sat and ate donuts for our morning treat. They're huge, I know...and delicious!





 



Next, we went swimming down at the river. The kids love getting in the river water off the grass bank at Howard Amon park. The water is Fah-reezing, but they like it.

Paul and Lainey sneaking up on a squirrel.

That didn't last long.

Last, we went to Chuck E Cheese!!!! It truly is the place where a kid can be a kid.

 

Paul and his 50 tickets from one game.

...Claire smashed her finger in the front door. Ouch! You can tell that she got it pretty good too. It is pretty swollen and purple.

...we can't seem to keep the door closed. The kids are constantly in and out, in and out. And Jason and I are constantly saying "Shut the door! Shut the door!" We're cooling the outdoors, I tell you. We have been loving these fun filled summer days...they're passing oh so quickly.

...we found a candy machine to go with my kitchen candy shop theme. A friend saw one at a garage sale and I went to check it out. I'm going to paint it and find some fun candy to put in it.