out with a bang

As we prepared for 3 consecutive weeks of a student beginning a new school year, a few celebratory events took place.  

At least one event isn't pictured - the one and only time we got Ben to go to the free water park with us, the week we moved,.  School had already started for Cat, therefore we went in the evening.  It was chilly, but we had a great time.  The fact that we went with friends (Matt & Lindsay's family) definitely helped take the edge off.

Last Fun Family Outing Before the FIRST Person's School Year Started
We all went to the free family fun center in Orem one afternoon before Cat started school (thanks to those passes we have) and had a great time playing putt-putt.  We tried to teach Cat and Jack about the proper way to putt, etc., but they were not interested in our fancy methods.  Cat didn't seem to need them, either - she got a hole in one all by herself.  Eliza was a great ball-picker-upper.  We would putt, she would run and pick up the ball, and bring it back to us, no matter how close we'd gotten to hole.  "Here you go, Daddy."  She had no interest in actually playing.  It was comical.

Cat Begged Long Enough
Cat didn't get enough of this fun experiment during our science day, so it warranted an encore before we moved.

Oh Yeah, and Another Science Experiment

Another science experiment before we were totally done - will a flat or folded piece of paper hold more pennies??

Mom's Bucket List
Ice Cream in a Bag, which was actually my summer bucket list item.
I made mine using coconut milk instead of regular milk and it was different and tropical-y.
I also squeezed it out to go between a couple of chocolate peppermint chip cookies, which made for a yummy ice cream sandwich.  Mmmm.

Not Sure How To Describe This One
Ben was the beneficiary of a random person's kindness (or... practical joke??) toward the end of the summer.
I had no idea that there were whole fish in the freezer and was a bit startled (to say the least) when I saw them.  Jack, on the other hand, was fascinated by them.  He wanted to see them, touch them, watch Ben cut their heads off, and eat them.  I think he got to do all of the above before we moved.  Yes, I ate some too.  And they were pretty good.

We Finally Moved Back Into the Blue House
"Madagascar 3" at the dollar theater in Provo...
we still sing the Circus Afro song in our house

Daisies 2012 Round-Up

Last of the summer posts!  About time, right?

First off was the Girl Scouts of Utah's big celebration for the 100th Birthday of Girl Scouts -

a big rally at the state capitol, complete with remarks by the Governor.  The video below does a good job of giving you an idea of what it was like, I think... cause I wasn't actually there.  The thought of bringing Jack and Eliza to a crowded event geared toward older kids and adolescents wasn't very appealing to me.  But I happily watched the children of our troop leader, Joy, so that she could bring three girls from our troop.

Outside the capitol

Inside the Capitol

And outside the capitol again
Too bad that none of our girls had uniforms yet (they used cookie money to buy them soon after this).

Cookie Booth outside of a grocery store....
until the store manager had mercy on us and let us move the booth inside.

Making flowers for Mother's Day.  We cut apart cardboard egg cartons, cut and painted them with water color paints,
then hot glued each flower to a wooden skewer.

A big summer activity helped the girls learn about managing money.  First, we talked about wants versus needs, and how it's also important to find ways to help others, whether you are donating money or giving your time or something else.  Then we walked around the Riverwoods Farmer's Market and gave the girls $10 each (out of troop money) to buy dinner, then something that they want, and also donate to a charity of some kind.  The girls did a great job of keeping track of their money, and all had enough for dinner (YUMMY waffles from a waffle truck) and a fun little something (this Farmer's Market is more crafts and goods than produce), and then donate to a juvenile diabetes fundraising booth.  We also made sure they had time to play in the splash pad before we were finished.

The last big summer activity was visiting the local animal shelter.  It was a good experience for the kids, and we all learned a lot - including me.

These are just the few activities where I actually took pictures, so there were many more, but Cat enjoyed them all.  I was the assistant troop leader, reluctantly, and really enjoyed being part of one of Cat's activities. But, as I predicted, it was a stressor I would have rather avoided.

And she was adamant about continuing with Girl Scouts this year, but now she's a Brownie.  Exciting!  Someone else has volunteered to be the assistant troop leader, though, so I'm off the hook this year.  :-)

Summer Miscellany, chock full o' pictures

Hail Storm

In the living room of the Orem house, shortly before we moved to the Summer House.

We spent lots of time reading this summer.
Scenes like these made my heart happy :-)

For a good portion of the summer, Eliza even insisted on sleeping with books.
Often, she wanted a few books packed into the Elmo bag Grammy gave her.

Here is Jack reading the book that the illustrator signed for us at the Orem Library.
He was so into this book, in which all of the characters are numbers,
that after a short time he had learned all 10 numbers.  Just from the book.
He LOVED this book, Zero the Hero, and we read it over and over again.
For about 2 weeks.  Until he tore out every single page from the book during quiet time in his room.
He then calmly explained, "but it wasn't me." Ummm... you were the only one in there....

So sad.  I haven't brought myself to throw it away yet.
I keep thinking I could make it into cool wall art or something.  Any ideas?

"Stop eating the butter, Jack."
I say that more often than I want to admit...

So, apparently, Cat is taller than Rapunzel.
But she has a ways to go if she wants to compete in the hair department.

During well check-ups, Cat had to cover one eye at a time for her eye exam.
Jack was next, and he didn't have to cover any eyes.  Which he didn't.

Cat received a Hello Kitty scrapbook kit as a birthday gift from a friend.
We went through our photos (quite a feat considering the sad state of my computer at the time)
and chose enough pictures to fill the album.  We printed them out and she was happily entertained
during quiet time for several days.  Love it.

When Ben was out of town one day I was dying to go to one of the twice-weekly free outdoor concerts at the Orem City Center Stage.  It was a performance of opera scenes at the end of a summer workshop led by none other than my college voice teacher, Isaac Hurtado (who happened to be sitting in front of us, right between Cat and Jack).
I thought the kids would enjoy the music, but just to be safe, we cashed in on some free ice cream cone gift certificates from McDonalds before we went to the park.  It helped... for about 10 minutes.  Then they went out to the area where other kids were playing tag and had a grand old time while I kept one eye on them and one eye on the stage.

ice cream + opera = winning combination

Cat was having a hard time keeping a good attitude and being obedient over the summer, so in exasperation one day I came up with a desperate solution.  We had "plus points" and "minus points." There was no set system for awarding points, but if Cat was cooperative, helpful, kind, or obedient, she would get plus points.  We tried to just award plus points generously and reserved minus points for occasions that called for real punishment.  She started out with the goal of an overall score of 15, and it increased gradually to about 22.  The only reward we promised was a vague "if you reach your goal, we'll do something fun tomorrow." No promises on how big or little the fun thing would be.  Unfortunately, we did have to cancel a few of our plans because Cat didn't reach her goal some days, but overall it seemed to be helpful.  Jack and Eliza even wanted to earn plus points, though for them, there was absolutely no reward at all.  They just liked being told, "you'll get a plus point!"  In the picture above, Cat is showing that she had a perfect day with 20 plus points and no minus points.  Yeah!

The afternoon that Ben was arriving from an out of town trip and I was supposed to pick him up at the airport in Salt Lake, and the timing was very sensitive because we also had a babysitter lined up and tickets to see a play that night, I got a flat tire.  Luckily, it happened just as we arrived at the house, but still.  There were a few guys around, working in their yards and such, but none of them offered to help.  Can you believe it?  So Jack and I did it ourselves.  Because, as my nephew said when he was about Jack's age, "we are strong men!"  (Side note: our Orem land lady happened to call during the whole ordeal and actually sent her husband down to Provo to change the tire for us, but since they are here for such a short time over the summer and have so many things to do and people to see, I felt bad letting him spend any time on something I could take care of myself, so I told her that he should just go home.  It worked out fine - Jack and I got it taken care of, we picked up Ben at the airport, although it was later than we would have liked, and we even got our sitter and got to our show on time.  Wow.  Long side note.)

Earlier that day Cat had written a welcome home message for Ben on the sidewalk... in crayon.
So as Jack and I worked on changing the tire, Cat scrubbed the crayon off of the sidewalk.

At the shop, getting the tire repaired, the kids enjoyed watching the guys at work.
And Jack and I walked all over the store looking for monster truck tires.
Alas, there were none.  Sad.

Eliza let me do a (not-so-great) French braid in her hair.
So fun!  I really need more practice, though.

And speaking of hair, I curled Cat's hair before Church one Sunday.
Eliza asked me to curl her hair too, and she let me do about 4 ringlets (I was using a curling iron) before she was done.

Who says an inner tube is only fun when you're in the water?

Jack had quiet time in his room every afternoon while Eliza napped.
He usually looked at books, and came out every 5 minutes to ask me how much time was left.
One day, he decided he was done with books and put himself to bed instead.

Picnic dinner in the living room while watching a movie from the library.

Preparing for the rodeo.

Provo Happy Hour = discounted ice cream at the gas station down the street
Not kidding.

The passes we bought in the spring get us into 2 water parks, one of which was within biking distance from our Summer House.  We only went a few times - Ben was never available during the day, and it was pretty tough to take care of the 3 kids by myself and still let them do the fun things they wanted to do, such as the water slides.  These are some of the only pictures I have from our 3 or so visits to Seven Peaks Provo, since we were in the water the whole time.

I took all three kids to the dentist at the end of the summer.
This was no ordinary dentist, though, it was a super nice pediatric dentist.
Can you see what Jack's doing while in the chair, in the upper right picture?
Playing a video game on a TV that's mounted to the ceiling.
Or, trying to, since he'd never done it before.
And after their appointments they received tokens to either get a prize or ride the pony.
Cat got an extra token for some reason and shared a pony ride with Jack.
Eliza had a hard time with the dentist.   She wailed during the cleaning.
The hygienist kept saying,  "oh, you're so cute!" until she was saying it so often that I was
pretty sure it was code for "this kid is driving me crazy."

Getting ready to leave the Summer House.

Before we knew it, it was time to move again!
Cat settled right in reading as soon as we were back in the Blue House in Orem.

And... guess what?  Only one more summer post, then we are officially beginning the school year here in blogland!  Goodness gracious.  It's taking forever, isn't it?
Stick with me.  I'll be caught up eventually.
Hopefully.

More Library Summer Fun

So, to say we spent a lot of time at the library over the summer would be a serious understatement.  Some weeks we were at the library 3 times, between fun activities they had going on and trying to meet the quota of required attendance in order to earn certain prizes.  But it was great, and I loved having kids old enough that they all enjoyed themselves.  What a fun position to be in.  I know it won't last much longer, as Cat will soon become a full-blown big kid, bored with all things young.

Anyway, there were some cool things going on at the Orem Library, including the awesome author/illustrator workshop we attended with Kathryn and her kids and the Shakespeare For Kids where Jack stole the show (in my book, anyway).  The Shakespeare For Kids program continued every Monday afternoon for 7 weeks.  We didn't find out about it until week 3 for The Winter's Tale, but we attended all of the remaining sessions.  Cat and I loved it.  Jack and Eliza got more and more bored each week, but we endured anyway.  (Okay, so this is probably the major exception to what I said about all the kids enjoying themselves during our summer activities... way to start out a blog post, Brett...)

The last week of the Shakespeare program, the play was Much Ado About Nothing and Cat was finally chosen for a part.  They were originally going to give her a big part but realized that role needed to be played by someone who resembled a different role, so they gave it to another girl.  Cat was still thrilled to be involved, though, even if her role was as Ursula, Hero's servant.  I think she had one line.  But oh well.

Cat is in the purple shirt and blue floral skirt.

By the time we were attending this, the last Shakespeare activity, J & E didn't even try to act interested.

I really liked the way this activity was run.  I thought the leaders did a great job.  One thing that made it even more fun for kids was that when a character was supposed to insult another character, one of the leaders would give the child a list of Shakespearean insult combinations, similar to the one found here, and let the kid choose how to insult the poor unsuspecting mumble-news.  (If you like Shakespearean insults, click here for a fun random insult, some generated from the insult kit, and some actual quotes from his plays.  Very cool.  You better not make me mad, or I just might have to use some strong Shakespeare words... thou "idol of idiot-worshippers!")

Another thing that impressed me was that even though the majority of the play was performed in modern language, they taught the kids one actual line from each play.  They told them the line before they began the play and had the kids repeat it for them, and at the beginning of reach session they reviewed all of the previous lines that they'd memorized.  The line from Romeo and Juliet was "A plague on both your houses" and the line from The Winter's Tale was "Exit, pursued by bear." (Those may or may not be the only two I remember after hearing the lines reviewed 5 times....)  They told the kids that at the end of the 7 weeks they would have a prize for anyone who could repeat at least 2 lines for them.  I thought about trying to review a few of the lines with my kids so that they'd be able to earn the prizes, but forgot about it.  Of course, Jack and Eliza weren't behaving well enough to receive a prize anyway, so that didn't worry me.  And Cat impressed me by remembering enough lines to earn herself a prize.  With no help from me.

Cat + Skittles = LOVE

Other Fun Library Stuff:

Stories + Music + Movement = Super Fun Story Time at the Orem Library
Cat is in the pink soccer jersey and Jack is right behind her in the white shirt and plaid shorts.

Toddler Story Time at the Provo Library
(my kids are on the left side)

Outdoor Story time under a tent at the Provo Library
the thing is... you have to get there super early to get a spot under the tent

We learned our lesson for the next time.  You can see Jack and Eliza on the bottom right.

Making and proudly displaying a sun catcher from the Provo Library craft time.

We probably could have found several summer reading programs to be a part of, but I felt that two was enough.  So we did the one at the Provo Library and one sponsored by the Governor of Utah.  More on that in a minute.

The Provo Library's had two parts - First, if you read a certain amount, decided by each individual, then you earn a free book and entry into a private swimming party at a local pool with slides and everything.  Second, if you attend a certain number of the summer story times or craft activities, you could earn a ticket to attend a summer Trick or Treating party at the library.

All of the kids earned the book + entry to the pool, but the pool party was in the evening after bedtime, so just Cat and Ben went and I stayed home with Jack and Eliza.  And I love these pictures of the kids with their new books.  The selection they had there was impressive, and although I advised the kids, I did let them choose their books all by themselves.  It's fun to see what they ended up with.  Along with the book and entry into the pool party, the kids received an impressive collection of coupons for free kids' meals or free ice cream, etc., at various local restaurants.  We've been using those for months now and still have several more left in the stash.

The high school students who were handing out the prizes at the library didn't check the sticker charts very carefully, because they gave all of the kids tickets to the Trick or Treat party.  Cat actually hadn't earned enough stickers to be able to attend, since she chose to spend time with a friend one day while I took Jack and Eliza to the library.  I thought maybe I'd let her keep the ticket, since it wasn't our fault that they'd given it to her by mistake.  But I realized that this would be a good teaching moment, and we talked about what the honest thing to do was.  I also thought it might help her gain an appreciation for the importance of deciding how she spends her time, and how choosing to do something fun today might mean giving up something better tomorrow.  I'm not sure how much of it sank in, but she decided to give the ticket back, and she didn't go to the Trick or Treating party.

A dragon and a princess-ballerina-with-pink-leggings-and-shiny-shoes.
Ready for candy. 

They Trick-or-Treated at tables in the ballroom, and all of the tables had either a hands-on activity or an activity page to take home.  I love that one of the librarians dressed up as Olivia.  It's hard to see in the picture, but it was pretty cute.

After waiting for 15 minutes or so and slowly making our way to each of the tables, the kids didn't receive that much candy (see the little bag in Eliza's right hand?) but they had a great time.  A festive way to celebrate library busy-ness over the summer.

I just like these pictures of Jack going down the stairs after the party.

How cute is he?

The other reading program we participated in was Governor Herbert's Summer Reading Challenge.
This one was very specific about reading for 20 minutes a day for a certain number of days.  I thought it might be hard to keep track, but the prize was really cool - a certificate signed by the Governor and First Lady.  Neat, right?  They arrived in the mail recently, along with coupons for free kids' meals at a few restaurants, and we were pretty excited.  Now the certificates are proudly displayed in the kids' rooms.

Summer Reading?
Check.