NIFS

I thought I'd post a preschool field trip. I haven't talked about my MAPP group (Moms of Advanced Preschool Prep) rightfully named by one mom. I'm so glad my sister introduced me to a mom's preschool group when I first moved here, and so glad I've been fortunate to be involved with awesome groups for both Kynlee and Easton. My children and I have really benefited from the talents and ideas of the other moms. It's great to find parents that have the same morals and drive for their kids. This year I'm in a group with four other moms, we teach two days a week and rotate around to the different houses. We just finished our health and nutrition section and topped it off with a trip to the National Institute for Fitness and Sport.

I'd show you images of my week of teaching- but it really was a bit nerdy- I covered anatomy. All I can say though, is Easton can tell you the shape and function of the body's major organs. Ha! I love it. He walked into my room when I was cutting out felt shapes for kidney, kidney bean, bean bags and said "Why are there all these kidney's laying around?"

Pictures provided by our designated preschool mom photographer. You see what I mean by benefiting from the talents of others?

Big Trip Catch Up Post

Playdough in the toes helps pass the time.



I lost my camera cord for a while, whew, blogging is hard to keep up. Can I talk about early in July? Yes, it's been in draft status for a while. It's a good story. We crammed into our trusty 96' Camry to drive through many states to get to a sweet little spot tucked just into Montana that all my Dad's side knows and love. All my siblings, all their spouses, all their children, my parents and grandfather were able to fit into the family cabin and enjoy a little time on the lakeside.

Much of the car ride looked like this:




When we stopped for our first break on the road, my back hurt, my knees were cramped and I heard Kynlee mutter "Finally we get a break." We had been on the road an hour and forty five minutes. We had twenty fourish to go. When the kids asked if we were close, Michael said "We're going to drive all day today,

and tomorrow....

we'll still be very far away."


Painful, yes. But good moments on the way. We happened to be here on the 4th of July. Go country!



The cabin was worth all the pain of the road. (Might I quickly insert, that if you would like a hotel/motel room in South Dakota, please note that you will drive from one end of the state to the other end of the state, stopping in every town only to find no available rooms. Not only are there no rooms, they will laugh at you when you say you have no reservations. No worries though, just pull into a rest stop after crossing the border and sleep for a few hours crunched over in your seat with one eye on a thug who might rob you and one arm around a little one who needs comforting).


Here are my parents, grandpa and siblings:




We did some of this:



and this:



and this:



and the kids did this:



and this:




It was great seeing the cousins all together.




Being in that environment made me think if you surround children with beauty they can't help but be beautiful.



It turned out this was our last time with my grandpa.




Beautiful timing though. Just before the trip, he turned 90 and we all wrote him a little note. Then we got to spend a week with him all together. He returned to his home in California shortly after that, golfed a couple times the week he passed, and was visiting some good friends in his front room when the moment came. Quick and easy, and he was ready to go.

I flew out for the funeral and took freebie Ander along. It was good to see the relatives there and see a beautiful closing to my grandpa's inspiring life. It was a quick and tiring trip, but I was glad I could go.

On a material sort of note: in the future we will be taking trips in this:



Our new car! Horray! We made it to the new century!

Don't worry little Camry, Michael will still commute to work with you.



Little Protege, it looks like this is goodbye :(




And in the future if I happen to ever fly first class again, Lisa and I will now know what to do when the flight attendant offers us a steamy hot washcloth with a pair of tongs. I may even put a few in the bathroom for guests in the future.

Race Tales

Saturday was a big day. We had a lot of races. Michael competed in his second triathlon. He did great on the swim and bike. The run ...he probably does not want to talk about the run.

During the last leg he thought,
"I don't ever want to do this race again."
After he finished he thought,
"I know I can do better!"

He signed up for his next triathlon that same night. I thought he did really well though, he made two of his goals, beat his old race time and beat my race time. I'll have to catch him in August.

The Running Walkers competed again in our county's version of The Amazing Race all day Saturday. Since Michael double booked himself unknowingly, I got my sister Lisa to step in and pair with me. We did awesome! Who came home with second place and a cash prize of $250? That's right, US. The big M and L. I think it was a combination of Lisa's brain power and my endurance. A shout out to our friends the Francis' who won the first park prize and got our game going.

And now I admit by ten o'clock that night I already spent my half of the earnings on a little house item I'd been eying. (The sale was ending, I had to act!)



On another note, Ander jumped his crib for the first time ten minutes after we laid him down for bed that night. Mayday mayday mayday! We have just lost nap and bedtime control!

(I may have to resort to locked bedroom doors.)

What Do You Do In the Summer Time...

Whew, this is a dusty blog. I've been cleaning my house and the blog has been neglected. I came across this in Kynlee's school journal:



Looks nice right? I want to do a little of that this summer. For the record I thought I'd post some things. One of Kynlee's favorite time of year is garage sell day. What do you think of when you hear the words garage sell?




That's right, face masks and karaoke machines.

Exactly what I was thinking.

It turns out the night before our neighborhood garage sell Kynlee was lamenting the fact she just missed buying a karaoke machine with her own money last year. When I spotted one the next morning I knew my heart couldn't deny helping her with the money a little to get it. Twenty minutes into her singing on the front porch with the neighborhood friends I wondered if there should be a rule about outside voices as well.



All simple Easton got out of the garage deal was a freebie face mask. Turns out people are willing to give away their junk for free if kids look longingly at things with empty pockets. I thought it was a crack-up he thought this old beat up purple bedazzled mask with a yellow feather was so awesome.



I'm just hoping no one makes a comment that the mask doesn't quite scream missile shooting, mind blowing super hero power.



On another note, Michael had a week off work. We didn't leave town- trying to save those nickels and dimes for a later expense- but we had fun with things nearby. Of course it needed to include water.



It took Kynlee a little push and five feet down the slide to conquer all fears and decide she loves water slides.



Easton is not afraid to get his face wet, hooray!



And most of my shots of Ander seem to look like this, doesn't really want to turn around for the camera.



To show that I try as a mom, here's my last topic. Kynlee wanted to throw a summer party and get back together with some of her kindergarten friends. She drew up a picture and I made an invitation out of it:



I'd show you the cute water balloons hanging from the pergola, a snap shot of the kids throwing water balloons at each other, maybe a couple of them kicking a giant ball squirting water, and I would definitely include a shot of Kynlee with her friends at the picnic table eating cake with cool whip and strawberries. Alas, I forgot when you are the mom hosting the party your hands are a little too busy for snap shots. It will just have to be a memory.

Kentucky Heritage

I happened to be in Kentucky last Saturday, not for the race, but it got me thinking...

A part of Michael's family comes from a small town in Kentucky. Every three years this side gets together for Thanksgiving. Here is a shot of the originals at a Thanksgiving long ago:


Michael made an appearance in this 1933 image. He's in the back, second one in from the right. It's a little hard to tell, but he's about the spitting image of his grandfather. I never meet him, but from the photos I've seen it seems like the pair even stand the same hips-out-chin-up sort-of way. Michael's just missing the Southern drawl which he lost at 19 when he left home and people started making fun of him.

I'm not sure how many lines the reunion now days involve, but there are about a hundred people at the gatherings. Can you find us?



(I need to talk to Michael's mother's double cousin about sending slightly higher resolution images.)

Anyway, there are a lot of people walking around that look like each other and they always come prepared with great stories and photos to share. You might think they were Mormon, but no, just a group of people that love family. I think I look forward to the reunions more than Michael.

So long story wrapping up, as I was driving through Kentucky I thought, mmm, maybe I'll make Mimmie's Derby Piii (because she does not pronounce the "e") and watch the Kentucky Derby with the kids.

And so, I did.

Singing

Michael sang in a duet for an Easter program our stake had. I thought he did great. I took a bad audio recording of it with my camera, (kid voices included) but wanted to get it up for the family to hear. I'm going to try and find a better recording. The lady sings first. Don't you think he should sing more often for things?



This is a video you can actually see him singing in. Kynlee heard him practicing for a ward talent show last Fall and wanted to join with him. She only had a few days to work with him on it, but they both did great. She sings a lot with Michael. It was Kynlee's dream to sing up on a stage. She even tried throwing in a little vocal run at the end : ) I was holding wiggly Ander, I know the recording is the pits! But they were awesome.

A Different Easter

This year our Easter was quite a bit different. I've been trying to work on traditions that seem to celebrate Easter. I saw this sheep at Target and thought the design of it was so cool I had to buy it. I told Michael it's my duty to support good design (if I had any picture taking skills you would see that he actually is pretty awesome). I decided he could be our Easter sheep and only come out at Easter time. When the kids woke up Sunday, he was sitting on the couch. They asked about him and I told them that he had a story. Kynlee said very energetically, "Oh, you mean the one about the guy that cut off all the arms protecting the sheep?"

Uh, no, not quite the Easter story I was looking for...



So this year's sheep story was the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Ander and Easton played the roll of the 99 sheep, and Kynlee was the shepherd looking for the lost sheep. She affectionately carried him back home on her shoulders. They love him and have named him Sheepy.

I saw some cute wiggly wooden fish at the store a few weeks before Easter and thought they could definitely tie in with the holiday. I bought a bunch to do with the cousins, but the schedules didn't work out so we just painted as many as we wanted. I told them the story of Christ telling the fishermen, Peter and Andrew to follow him and become fishers of men.





Ander wants to do everything we do, he even seemed to stop painting and look at me so I could take his picture, kind-of made me chuckle.



Bless all the little fishies, even the red belly piranha Kynlee wanted to paint.



Because of some things going on, we had an unplanned family fast Sunday. We told the kids the night before we would be fasting. They wanted to do it too, although I knew about three hours into it they would max out. We just encouraged them not to eat any extra things like treats. I decided it would be pointless to tempt them with Easter baskets in the morning. I never said anything, and they seemed to never think about it.

This next tradition has been in the works for a few years. One year, I decided that teaching the kids to be disciples of Christ on Easter would be a good tradition. For a week we marked down all the good things they did. My younger sister was thinking about that idea during a lesson on the Parable of the Ten Virgins. She thought it would be neat if each person could add oil to their own lamp for each good deed. Last year I got the lamps, but didn't get around to the oil-- bad virgin. This year we got to burn them. The kids thought it was the coolest thing.



It was a little strange not to have big meals and tasty treats, and the day seemed to quietly go by, but it was a nice different. I'm not sure how much the kids were able to apply the stories, but maybe on down the road they'll figure it out.