Conversation

There are a lot of other things I need to be blogging about, but I decided this can't wait. Today we (the kids and I) were over at my parents' house enjoying a doughnut with the cousins. Audrey and her cousin had the following conversation:
Audrey: "Popular kids don't get messy when they eat doughnuts."
Cousin: "Yeah, they don't. Evan is obviously not popular."
Audrey: "No he is not popular. I'm popular."
Cousin: "Yeah, me too. Oh, you've got chocolate on your nose."
Audrey: "Um yeah, I know."

I wrote their conversation down word for word. I think kid conversations are SO SO funny.

Last of the Park Posts

Wow, I have really been slacking when it comes to blogging lately. I have some really good excuses though and I shall be posting about those excuses later. I thought I really better wrap up this whole visiting new parks thing. One of our favorite finds over the summer was the Bountiful City Park. I really liked this park because it seemed like one of the safer ones for Alivia to play at. She is still too little to play by herself of course and sometimes it is hard to watch and reach them on the equipment, but for some reason it seemed a lot easier at this park. I just don't like how close it is to a busy road. And all three kids could slide at the same time. It took several attempts to get this picture and it still isn't all that great. I just can't resist taking the staticy hair pictures.
We also tried out a park in West Bountiful and will not be going there again. It seemed pretty old and dingy. Also it was right next to the train tracks and when the train went by Alivia got extremely scared.
Next stop was the new park in North Salt Lake with the splash pad. I don't know what it is called, but the kids LOVED it. Every time we drove on Legacy, the kids would talk about going to that park. We didn't know that it had a splash pad too. Of course I forgot to take my camera when we went, but here is a picture I got on my phone. We will definitely be going again next summer.

Last, but not least, is the park we went to in Illinois while staying with Grandma. It was great fun and had a splash pad too. More to come on the visit with Grandma and Grandpa.
So this is the end of the park posts, but in reality we have more park news to share. We also went to an amusement park and a few ball parks this summer, but they all deserve their own posts.

Freedom Hills

We also went to this park at some point during the summer. We actually go there quite often and so it wasn't anything new. The goal wasn't to go to a new park every week, just a different one.

Community Park

So it has been a while since I have posted. We actually did really well with our goal of going to a new park every week over the summer. Problem is I have forgotten when we went to what park. I know I could look at the dates on the pictures, but apparently I am too lazy to do that. We went to this park at some point during the summer and it was a last minute decision to go. My kids have really been wanting to go to this park because of the dinosaurish things, but I kept avoiding it because there is absolutely NO SHADE at this park. One night it was quite cloudy and so I decided if we were going to ever go, it had to be then. I would say this park was just okay, I'm really not going to make much of an effort to again.

 

Next Up

We have been doing very well with our goal of a new park every week this summer. In fact this week we have already been to two new parks. But, first things first. After we hit the two parks closest to the library, we ventured to Smoot Park. I've really been wanting to go to this park because every time we drive by it looks very well shaded. And it was. I think we will be adding it to our list of favorites. Audrey loved it because it had slides, swings and sand. Evan liked it too. And Alivia is just always willing to be doing anything as long as it is outside.

 

She Turned 31!

Now that my birthday has come and gone, it will be about five and a half months before there is another birthday in this house. We seriously should have spread these things out better.

Happy Fourth

Only a week late, but don't we all look nice and festive. Hooray for the red, white, and blue!

 

What a Girl Wants

For months Audrey has been saying that she really wants to be in a parade. When I saw she could be in a summer dance camp and participate in two parades, I jumped on the chance since I really didn't know how else I could get her in a parade. Well, you can now cross that off of her bucket list and add it to the list of things she never wants to do again. After the first parade I asked her how it was and she said boring. She would have rather been on the sidelines picking up candy. She said she really didn't want to be in a parade ever again because it was too hot. She seemed to enjoy the second parade a bit more and she was even able to get some candy too. She actually seems to be enjoying herself in the pictures, but that is because we had all started yelling her name and she was excited to see us. I wish I would have thought to take one before we started shouting.

Story Time

I had two goals this summer: go to story time at the library every week and go to a new park every week. I am happy to report we have only missed story time once since Alivia had a fever and we have made it to a new park every week. I don't have any pictures of the kids at story time because I thought it would be disruptive to start taking pictures during story time. But, I do have a video of a great storyteller that lives in our house. Lately one of our favorite things to do is ask Evan to tell us a story. It is very entertaining and we love all of his sound effects and page turns with his hands. If you can't understand what he is saying, you are not alone. We really don't know what he is saying half the time when he is telling his stories.

As to our second goal of the summer, our first park visit was to Porter Walton park. It is right next to the library so we just stopped by for a bit after story time. No pictures. Of course I forgot my camera. The second park we visited was Founders Park. No pictures from that visit either. Unfortunately we weren't there very long since Evan had a bit of an accident. Don't worry there are park pictures coming from some of our other visits.

Mango Anyone?

Well, too bad. Evan has eaten all the mangoes at our house. I always tell people that Evan will eat a whole mango all by himself, but the other night he outdid himself and ate two whole mangoes.

Vote Now!

Before it got too hot and as long as it wasn't raining, the kiddos were playing outside a LOT. Which kid do you think enjoyed their time outside the most? Would you say it was child A that wore these clothes?
Or child B that wore these?Or perhaps you are going to go with child C that wore these.The pictures really don't do justice to their level of filthiness. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the children in the clothes so you could really see just how dirty they were. They were obviously in the tub.

She Turned 1!

Well we finally got around to celebrating Alivia's birthday. I saw the idea for this cake on one of the many crafty blogs I follow and I loved it. I just had to make it for Alivia's birthday. Luckily she is not old enough to tell me she wanted something else. I think she liked it!


She was a little slow at opening her presents. If only there had been someone around that was willing to help her. She did not like the hat in her bag of crap. It's too bad really, I think it would look better on her.
I spent almost an hour making the party hats, so it was a must that every child at the party wear one long enough for me to get their picture. Colton really couldn't be bothered too much though, so the back of his head had to do.

He Turned 3!

He's quite the statue builder. Ta-da!If you ask Evan how he is doing, his answer is three. If you ask him when his birthday is, he will say Spiderman. For dinner he of course wanted pizza. I was trying to think how I could relate it to Spiderman and I came up with the idea to use olives to make a spider. I thought it turned out pretty well.
He of course enjoyed opening his presents.

A Spiderman/Tangled birthday party isn't complete without a Spiderman cake. I really didn't think I could make a good Spiderman cake, so we bought one from Sam's Club. There is something about making black frosting that really scares me.

First to Last

The school year really just flew by. I can't believe Audrey has finished Kindergarten. People always comment to me how much she is growing up, but I don't really notice it because I see her every day. I have to look at pictures and compare them in order to see the changes and remember what she used to look like. Here she is on her first and last day of Kindergarten. She is growing up and I couldn't stop her from turning six.

She Turned 6!

Well today is actually Alivia's birthday, but I figured I better post about Audrey's birthday party first. I am behind as always. This year Audrey wanted a Tangled party and that is what she got. There was also a Spiderman party happening at the same time, but for this post we shall focus on Tangled. I started getting ideas and planning things in February and I didn't end up getting half of them done. I guess I need to start organizing things in November. For dinner Audrey wanted spaghetti with butter and parmesan cheese since it reminded her of Rapunzel's hair. We also made a tower for her cake and it turned out better than I thought it would. She really liked it or at least said she did.
We watched her open presents and she has been thrilled with what she got. She of course is now talking about what kind of party she wants next year. Only 355 days to go!

Raining on a Monday

Really, where did May go? I can't believe it is almost over and there are only two weeks left of school. I also can't believe it has been a month and a half since my last post. So here is a quick recap of what we have been up to:
1. Going to Audrey's soccer games and practices when the weather permits. It has been fun to watch her try something new and athletic, but I don't know if she'll want to play in the fall. She just keeps saying she wants to do gymnastics. So the plan for now is gymnastics in the fall.

2. Finding Easter baskets, candy, and eggs. Evan was determined not to let anyone look for the baskets; he was upset that he had to ride home from church in dad's car. He eventually got over it and was excited to find his basket and candy. What baby doesn't love Easter basket grass?

3. Easting donuts. The only thing surprising about this is that I bought the donuts. Normally Colby is the donut purchaser around here.
4. Sleeping in unusual places. They only slept here once. I guess they haven't wanted to sleep on a hard bench that they fell off of half a dozen times again.
5. Curling hair for dance and soccer pictures that ended up not being taken. Got the dates mixed up on the dance pictures and didn't get the e-mail saying the team wasn't going to do the soccer pictures. Her hair looked really cute though. LOVE the new curlers.
6. Going to a baseball game with Grandpa. I actually forgot to take the camera to the game which is really surprising even for me considering I had it in my hands right before we left.
7. Trying to get this cute girl to smile for a picture. Unsuccessful.

8. Sitting in a dump truck.
9. Kissing the television. I fear we have another climber on our hands.
10. Going to the zoo with Audrey's Kindergarten class. What an ordeal this turned out to be thanks to Alivia puking right as we got there.
11. Potty training Evan. No picture. I don't know if I dare say this, but it has been pretty easy. He is doing AWESOME! We started a week ago and have been accident free for 5 days now (knock on wood). I really thought this was a stupid endeavor and that he wasn't ready and I would end up giving up and waiting until the end of summer to try again, but that has not been the case. So far so good!
12. Crashing at the end of a hard day.

He's at it Again

This time he gave her licorice and she is thrilled.

A Very Merry Unbirthday

Well I kind of feel like Alivia's birthday has been spoiled a bit already. Evan really does love his baby sister. I just wish he would show his affection in a way other than by giving her food. I had given Audrey and Evan a cupcake after dinner the other day and I thought they were sitting at the table eating them while I was cooking myself some dinner. Right now our table is in our living room so I couldn't see them. When I went in there a few minutes later to eat, I found Alivia like this.

Here's a closer look.
It looks like the girl will enjoy her birthday cake in three months. She was really enjoying eating it and was quite upset when I took it away. The cupcake left a nice green stain on the carpet, but I have been able to get most of it out. If our kitchen floor doesn't get done soon, I may need to get a new floor in my living room too.