4th of July!

Ever year, some members of our ward throw a 4th of July block party called "Sidewalk of Fire" (get it, Provonians?). This year was bigger and badder than ever thanks to some additional fundraising and legal arial fire works! Even though it was muggy and we got rained on, it was still a super-fun night.

"Look Mama- SnoCones and they are FREE!" I think she ate 4 or 5.
This guy didn't want to stay in his stroller for very long so we let him get out and crawl...

...Which meant he scraped up the tops of his feet and we didn't realize it until the next day. Parent Fail. Behind DMP is our game station- a kind of homade lawn darts. It was fun but hard to compete with the fishing pond next door :)

Sidewalk of Fire also features a pot-luck dessert. The girls were thrilled to be able to eat their fill of all the yumminess. Someone brought berries with whipped cream in little paper cups. Genius- so easy and it was my favorite thing there because it was light and fresh-tasting.

Everyone boogied to the DJ.

I taught EJ some serious white-girl boogie moves.

Just before the firework display the kids got to have a parade. Birdy was obsessed with throwning candy (because what's a parade without it?) and didn't care when we said that the kids would all be IN the parade and there wouldn't be anyone to throw it to. They still had fun :)

Bear didn't know what to think of the fireworks. He alternated between being very interested and smiling and this. Suprisingly (or maybe not) it was Birdy who spent most of the show hiding behind my legs with her hands over her ears. Overstimulation, I guess.

P.S. I'd like everyone to take a moment and admire our unique tie-dyed "Sidewalk of Fire" T-shirts. We decided to spice them up a bit for our last hurrah! You can see them all better here in this post.

Funny Stuff!

I bought a big U.S. Map and put it on the wall in our living room with stickers to show where we live, where Grandma & Grandpa and Papper live, and etc. We also have a movable "Daddy" sticker to show where he is at when he travels so we can learn a little about the states he goes to. EJ was looking at the map as she was getting ready for school. Suddenly she says "Texas isn't lonesome. Look at this state and this state and this one all around it."

I said, "Why would you think Texas is lonesome?"
She replied, "You said it was the "lonesome" state..." (get it, lonesome/lone star?)

Birdy has her own special language sometimes. Here are a few Birdy-words:
Guitar = Buh-guitar
Magnet = Mag-a-nig-it

We were driving one day and I was explaining to Birdy that she and I were going to do "Mommy and Birdy" preschool. She asked why she couldn't go to preschool like in Utah. I replied "Honey, I'm sorry, but preschool here in Texas is more expensive than we thought and we can't do it." EJ pipes up and says "Everything is bigger in Texas."

Speaking of everything being bigger in Texas- For the first couple of days as we were driving around, Birdy kept saying "The houses aren't bigger here" or "The trees aren't bigger here." I think she took us seriously when we said everything was bigger and was pretty disappointed!

EJ in a Play

This is old, I know, but I'm still catching up on the bunch of pics I have for blogging :) At the beginning of July, EJ starred in a play with her BFF Emmie (that's them above in the orange). It was a play based on the Chinese story "The Empty Pot". The music and play were written by Emmie's grandma and Emmies Aunt directed it. They do this every summer and it was quite a show!

EJ was part of the ensemble of children and she took her acting and part very seriously. (See the first pic of the "fan dance". She practiced all her songs and dances so well and had a lot of fun performing and being on stage.

No real reason for this pic except to show her in her "family" and the kid next to her picking his nose :)

I was so glad she got to have this experience and share it with Emmie! She did a fantastic job and still asks to watch the DVD of her play almost daily, ensuring that none of us will ever forget it (or the songs!).

First day of School!

Thanks to everyone who voted for EJ's first day of school outfit. It was a fun project for her to tally the votes each day last week. As you can see, Option C narrowly beat out the second Option D as the outfit of the day!

In our family, you can pick whatever you want to eat for breakfast on the first day of school. Growing up, that meant some of my siblings had steak or shrimp. I usually picked a nice everything bagel with veggie cream cheese. EJ picked Pop Tarts, a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, OJ, and a brownie. I did tell her she could have anything, so I think I got of easy- this year at least!

Her first day went well. It got off to a rocky start when I couldn't find a parking spot to walk her to her class, but she rocked by finding it herself! (Her new school is big and there are lots of similar-looking halls- very confusing!). I also forgot to pack the knife and fork she needed, but was able to drop them off.

She had a rough lunch and we all learned something about "bringing lunch"- She had trouble opening her fruit cup and spilled the juice everywhere and between cleaning that up and going to the bathroom, she didn't have much time left to eat. We're going to simplify things tomorrow and she knows to hurry and eat!

She reported that she loves her science book and that PE was AWESOME. She didn't like recess, because "It was SOOO hot and they made us stay outside FOREVER". It probably didn't help that they didn't get to play- they just had a session to learn the playground rules and practice lining up and whatnot. She is super-excited to go back tomorrow and it was a great start to what should be a great year!

Help EJ Pick her First Day of School Outfit!

EJ can't decide what to wear to her first day of first grade. We had the idea to have her model some outfits for you and let YOU vote on what she should wear :). School starts a week from tomorrow, so please get your votes in soon! Just leave the letter (or description) of your pick in the comments- she's so excited to see what y'all pick! (BTW- We will do her hair and probably get a special hair accessory and she'll be wearing her new shoes :>)

Option A- Yellow sparkly kitty shirt/jeans shorts
Option B- Sparkly headphones shirt, black leggings.

Option C- Red Shirt and Ribbon Skirt (Look Familiar Bek/Lu? :>)

Option D- Blue Naartjie shirt/pants (another Lu hand-me down!)

Option D- Teal peasant top, white bottoms

Option E- Blue Top/Pattern Pants (This and the next are also credited to Lu!)

Option F- Black/White studded dress, white leggings.

BONUS!!!

Here is Birdy modelling her new "school clothes" (she was feeling left out, and there is a great Kid-to-Kid here!)

Quick- vote for your favorite EJ outfit now and help pick her first-day-of-school outfit (please do and if you have kiddos (cousins?) have them vote, too, if you want. She is super-excited about this!)

One of the reasons we all miss carpet...

This is a fun game for everyone until the Sisters get bored and leave poor Bear stuck in the basket!

How to catch Crab Daddies

We're goin' crab daddy huntin'

All Grandpa wanted for his 105th birthday was to have a backyard campout and take the grandkids crab daddy fishing (or crawdads, to the rest of you) so that's what we did. How can you argue with a 105 year old man who is so obviously delighted at the prospect of a raw chicken leg and catching bugs to eat?

This was my first time fishing for crab daddies (dubbed Crab Daddies by my nephew Jacob, BTW) so I thought I'd chronicle it step-by-step. Step one involves tying the raw chicken to some twine (see birthday boy with raw chicken in photo 1). Next, all of the mighty crab daddy hunters gather to watch the raw chicken sink to the bottom where the good bugs live.

Then there is much playing with nets at the top of the water. This shouldn't disturb our prey any more than the divers who were cleaning out water junk from around the dock.

After a bit, you pull the string up. This must be done in a steady, medium pace so the dumb bugs don't realize they are on a raw chicken elevator to their death. You must also have your "net kid" handy for this part.

The net kid must carefully and gently put the net under the bugs at just the right moment. Too soon and you scare them off and if you wait too long, they realize they are on the elevator of death and jump off...

Scoop!

Pretty soon, you get yerself a bucket full of bottom-dwelling, garbage eating bugs. Yum!

If you get tired of being a "net kid" you can always play with the catch. Junior was the only kid brave enough to hold one this time.

No clever caption here- just a cute pic of two adorable cousins!

Any good crab daddy boil utilizes child labor to shuck the corn. (Look at Will in this picture- that kid kills me!)

Pretty soon, you have yourself a plate full of boiled up crab daddies. I think there were steps in between, but I don't' really remember what they were other than keeping Cyndi's Sis from playing in/drinking the disgusting crab daddy water while they waited to be boiled....

Bonus! Crab Daddy heads make adorable finger puppets!

Last step involves a swarm of children fighting over the hard-won morsels of crab daddy meat. Seriously- these kids go NUTS for it- especially mine. *Sigh*

Lila Doll

This is one of my treasures- Lila doll. She is the fake Cabbage Patch doll that I got for my 5th birthday (I think). I seem to remember having my birthday party in a park while en route to moving to Utah from Oregon (anyone? help my bad memory?). Anyway, I remember being so excited to get a coveted cabbage patch doll, and Mom helped me name her.

Now Lila doll has a second life as the occasional "baby" for the girls- especially Birdy. She remembers to take extra-special care of Mom's special doll and will dress her carefully in Build-a-Bear dresses and tuck her in to sleep at night.

Salmon, ID - June

OK- I know this is really old, but I wanted to write about our trip to Salmon. It was so fun and I'm glad we got to do it before everything went nuts with moving and everything.

EJ, Daddy and Papper planted some roses and petunias in front of the house. They have to have a fence around them to keep the deer out, but they look lovely.
Birdy was taking a nap, and Bear alternated between supervising and licking the hose.

The happy gardeners with the finished product. I should post the pictures Papper sent of how it is thriving! It looks great!

EJ was the official photographer of the trip and we have a ton of great shots I'll put in another post. She really wanted to photograph wildlife and we went on a couple of "Deer Hunting" trips to find some.

In spite of our deer hunts, the best view we got of them was in Papper's front yard!

Daddy and Birdy with the beautiful (and still snow-covered) Bitterroots in the background.

This was our first time visiting the Sacajawea center during the "Season" (Papper and I walked around outside once in the late fall/early spring one visit). It was really neat and the girls really loved learning all about her. She was from the Lemhi valley in Salmon and was kidnapped and taken East where she met up with Lewis and Clark.

The girls really loved looking in the teepee and walking around the interpretive trails. We learned all about how Sacajawea and her people, the Shoshoni lived and moved around hunting and gathering.

We also got to see Grandma's grave marker. It is lovely and The girls really loved the beautiful flowers nearby!

We had dinner at Aunt Kathy's and the girls got to "meet" Carola- our nephew Danny's then-fiance. Just to give you an idea of what old news this post is, he is now married and living in Argentina! They loved talking to her on the computer and she taught Lily some Spanish. Our favorite thing was seeing how much Charlie loved talking to her- he would shove everyone out of the way so he could talk to her as soon as he heard her voice!

One of the bet parts about this trip was hanging out with this guy before he left for Argentina- what a treat!

Playing with Aunt Kathy and Charlie. The girls were fascinated by Uncle Mark's mountain lion skin and were super-impressed to hear that he shot it himself! I got to hear the story about how he got it and it was very exciting. Uncle Mark rocks!

As always, our visit was too short. I'm so glad that we got to do it before we moved a million miles away. I can't wait until we can go back!