Summer Vacation Week #7

Another fun week of summer has slipped by. We started out the week with an art class. We painted some plastic "stained glass" flowers and butterflies. I was going to take a picture of them, but the battery on my camera was dead. I think it is time for a new re-chargeable battery. It just doesn't seem to be holding a charge for very long anymore.

The real fun of our week started Wednesday when we headed off to visit Grandpa and Grandma R for the weekend. We always head to their house to celebrate Pioneer day. They have fun stuff going on down there. ;)

We were excited to try out DH's father's day gift. DH is really good at skeet shooting. He actually took 4th out of all the leaders up at scout camp this year.

I, however, am not nearly as good. I only hit about 1/6 of the ones I aimed at. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
We went up the mountains for a little hike and a picnic one day. We found a little stream that the girls had fun playing in.

See those cute little pink shoes on my little H??? Before we left she fell asleep, so I just put her straight into the car. We were about 3 hours into our trip when we realized that I had forgotten her shoes. We stopped in a little town to try to find her some. The only store was a dollar store. These were the only shoes they had that would fit her. She LOVED them, so that was good. I always seem to forget something when we go somewhere, but I have never forgotten something that important before!

I captured this pretty picture of a butterfly on a flower while we were by the stream.Grandpa R broke out his Rocket launcher one day to try to cool the kids down.
There was a fun parade for the 24th. I took a couple pictures and then I handed DH the camera thinking he would take some pictures.....I guess he was only interested in taking pictures of me!
Can I just tell you how talented my hubby is!!!! Not only can he build and fix just about anything, he can also make dolls. He took all my girls and my niece and made these cute little flower dolls for all of them. (No wonder he has girls!)

We had such a great weekend. It went by so fast! The whole summer is just flying by. The principal of my kids' school called today and said there was only one more month until school starts. YIKES! We still have a lot of fun things to pack into the next couple of weeks.

7 down 4 more to go!!!!

Summer Vacation Week #6

I think this was the busiest week of our summer vacation so far! We started out the week with our cooking class. We made homemade bread and homemade butter. It was so much fun. The girls had fun kneading their dough and shaking the butter. I had not made homemade butter since I was in Kindergarten. It was super fun and easy. If I thought it it might be cost efficient I might do it all the time!

Didn't their loaves turn out nice? They were super yummy too. That night for dinner we had our homemade bread and butter and fruit....and that was it! DELICIOUS!

Dad has been busy trying to get the basement done. He has finished most of the mudding and is starting to sand. It is a super messy business! It seems to be pre-maturely turning him into an old man with gray hair!

Dad also had to go to scout camp for three nights this week. We sure missed him while he was gone, especially me. It was awfully lonely climbing into bed every night with out him.

The girls got to play at the park while I had a RS presidency meeting. In my plan for the summer I was going to take the girls to a different park every week. I think we have only made it to two different parks, but we have still gone to the park.

While Dad was gone I took the girls to a local carnival. I had told the girls that they could each go on two rides. So we went and scoped everything out and they picked the rides they wanted to go on and I went to buy the tickets. Tickets were a dollar a piece. Each of the rides required 3 tickets.....so that meant $3.00 for ONE 30 second ride. For all my girls to go on the carousel it would have cost $12. For them to go on both of the rides they wanted to it would have cost $24 and we would have been done in less than 15 minutes. I totally could not justify the cost. I had a good chat with the girls about it and told them that we could go to the dollar store instead and they could each get a treat and a new toy. So that is what we did instead. We spent over an hour at the dollar store, and spent $8.00. The girls had so much more fun playing with all the toys and things there than they would have had at the carnival. I can't believe how much things are costing these days!

Thursday we got to go to Dad's work party. Poor Dad didn't even get to go. He was off eating tuna sandwiches in the woods and being poked by 12 year old boys (trust me, I don't think they will try that again!). We had a little BBQ dinner and then headed over to a pool that they had reserved for the night. The girls had a blast! They are getting so much more comfortable in the water. I hope they will do really well with their swim lessons this summer.

Friday night we had the cousins come over for a sleep over. We had dinner, played outside, and watched a movie. They actually went to bed really good too. I think my kids were exhausted. They stayed up 4 nights in a row. Sunday was not a happy day with all those grouchy kids though!

Saturday we got to go to a parade and see some fireworks. Summer, parade, and fireworks are just words that go together.

6 weeks down 5 more to go....we are on the down hill slide now. The next few weeks are going to zip by. I need to start school shopping!

Summer Vacation Week #5

We had another busy week of summer vacation. We started out the week bottling some cherries. Nothing is prettier than bottled fruit! I had a bottle break in processing. The whole bottom completely fell off. I have never had that happen before. The girls had fun helping remove the pits so we could freeze some as well.

Grandma and Grandpa R made a suprise visit and took us all to the Planetarium to see a 3-D movie about black holes. It made me a little nauseous, but it was interesting.

We also got to go to sewing group this week and spend some time playing at the park with the girls little friends.

On Friday we had Steph and her girls over for a Polly Pocket Pool Party (say that 3 times very fast!). We enjoyed some lunch and the girls had a blast playing in the pool. My poor girls got fried, but they had so much fun.

5 weeks down 6 more to go.....

Summer Vacation Week # 4

I am way behind in posting about our summer vacation. We have been having some computer problems so it has been difficult to do what I have wanted to do. We will jump back to week #4.

We have been making humanitarian baby dolls with our ward. The girls helped me get them dressed. They had so much fun. Little K remarked, "These dolls are for little girls that don't have dolls of their own." She is getting it!

We set up the swimming pool for the first time this summer. The girls spent HOURS playing in it. I spent hours reading by the pool. It was fun, but I got FRIED!!!! I never learn my lesson. I always get a nasty sunburn every summer.

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. My hubby had the Friday before off so we headed off to the lake to do a little paddle boating and have a picnic. I forgot to take the camera, but we had a great time anyway.

We started out the 4th with a yummy red, white, and blue breakfast.

On the 4th we went and saw the movie UP. We have had a gift card for about 2 years now and thought it was time we used it. We ended up paying $1.25 for us to watch the movie.....sweet! It was a fun flick. The kids had fun going to the big theater since we NEVER do that, and I know why. We figured that we could get a Redbox movie every other week for an entire year for the same price as it cost for our whole family to see ONE movie in the theater. I think we will stick with Redbox.

My handsome hardworking honey got our sitting area done just in time for a little hot dog roast for the 4th. It turned out so great.

We had a yummy dinner. My little M was so cute. About a week before the 4th she made up a menu and posted it on the fridge. She decorated it with flags, stars, and fireworks. We had hot dogs, chips, frog eye salad, red punch, and watermelon.

And you can't forget the SMORES!

We also did a few fireworks. We have never been ones to spend a lot of money on fireworks. We do sparklers every year and a few other little cheap ones (like glow snakes, poppers, and flowers).I think Dad has the most fun doing fireworks. There is just something that boys love about lighting something on fire.

Summer Vacation Week #3

I am a little late posting for last week since we are already half way through this week! We had another fun week last week. I got the girls busy cleaning in the kitchen. We have most of the cupboards cleaned out now and we got the fridge cleaned out too. Little K had so much fun helping clean out the fridge.

The other girls got to clean the bathrooms....not their favorite thing to do, but they need to learn responsibility. M is so particular after she cleans the bathroom. She won't let anyone make a mess in there!

For our cooking class we were going to make homemade bread and butter, but I had too much bread already, so we turned the cream into ice cream instead! (I don't think anyone minded!) We used the Ziploc bag method. I was surprised that it froze so fast. We might just do it like that every time! The girls had a lot of fun shaking it, but it sure was COLD. We went for two nights camping with my brother and his family. It was a lot of fun. We stayed at a nice camp ground. We were right by the river and the kids had fun playing in it. We had yummy food, the kids had fun playing together, and the adults had fun playing games after the kids were all in bed. The only thing that would have made it better is if the kids had slept better at night! Oh and if it hadn't rained on us.

My in-laws just bought a fun new camp trailer. We got to take it with us. It was a fun experience. We might just want to get one of our own someday!

This was little H's first time camping. Unfortunately she didn't have a very good time. She got into something she was allergic to. We couldn't figure out what it might have been. Her little face got all red and splotchy. She was very miserable....poor thing.

We decided to go to the lake one day. We took our paddle boat with us. My brother's family took it for a little spin on the lake. You can never go water skiing behind it, but it is still fun. I think the kids enjoyed it the very most.

We thought the water would be too cold to play in so we didn't take our swim suit. The water was pretty nice though. The kids had fun getting in. What started out as wading turned into swimming until all the kids were soaked....but they were sure happy.

We saw a few little critters while we were camping. The kids loved the caterpillars. My husband wasn't too fond of all the ants he stepped in. I should have got the "get these ants off me" dance on tape!We made a mad dash home on Saturday so that we could go to our family reunion. It is always at the same park. We had fun eating, visiting, and playing.

Well another fun week is gone. 3 down 8 more to go.