Summer Preschool Graduation

Lily's summer preschool graduation. It was so adorable to watch this program. The young ladies (the teachers) really thought of everything. Each graduate had a nice paper cap to wear during their program.

The kids all took turns going up to the microphone and telling the audience something they did or learned while at school. For example learned about giraffe's, played with a soccer ball, learned about the color red.

 Miss Lily was so happy to see her friends and teachers once more. She was slightly bummed when she finished her last class.

 And I was so proud of her. I was impressed on how much she really learned during her school hours.

 After the class sang a few songs like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or Row Your Boat the teachers handed out diploma's.

 You can tell that she's so happy and proud of herself. I love it!

After a quick class photo her teachers handed out Popsicle to everyone.

Ducati wanted to join in on the class photo. So we compromised  on the class ice cream photo since next summer she'll be joining the Summer Fun Preschool.

 And Hailey and Mason...they were great at supposing Lily in her preschool program. (Hailey actually left a play date early so she wouldn't miss it)

Hailey became an honorary preschool graduate.  She's too funny.

Kids say the greatest things

 Mason: "My food is happy to be eaten."

 Hailey: " I'm only 6 so I'm not autistic yet." 

Ducati: "I'm too strong" which is something that she'll say about everything. For example, why she can't put on pants or why she can't flush the toliet. She's too strong.

Lily: " Oh Troy. I can't come with you". Troy is the male lead in High School Musical which is a favorite movie of all our girls.

Drive "In"

Last night we have ourselves a Drive- "In" night with our kiddos.
Instead of going to the Drive-In we planned a family movie night in but with a ticket twist.

We rented Big Miracle from Redbox.

photo source

The goal of the day was to earn tickets. To enter the movie theater (family room) they needed 5 tickets. Then to buy treats they needed to earn more tickets. So all day long the kids were so nice and helpful. Mason picked up Lily from preschool. Hailey helped her sisters find clothes. Lily listened the first time ( a great accomplishment for her) Ducati took her nap without arguing for 10 minutes.

So after dinner Mike was ticket taker for movie entry.

After each kid paid entry into the movie they got to pick whatever they wanted from the concession table.

Everything was marked. 1 ticket snack size candy, 2 tickets for a bag of cotton candy or a huge lollipop, 3 tickets of a bag of popcorn, 4 tickets for a regular size candy bar, 5 tickets for an ice cream, and drinks were free since we're encouraging our kids to drink more water.

Side Note: After dinner Mike still had a pocket full of tickets so he started handing them out for stuff like sitting nicely, drinking your water, chewing with your mouth closed, etc. It was fun to see the kids get so excited! But it was more fun watching the kids go crazy picking whatever they wanted from the concession table.

Some kids only had a few treats and others....you can see Hailey's line of treats- hit the jackpot! 

The movie was great. A great inspirational movie for the whole family. And best of all Mason could join us since their wasn't an ounce of violence. During the movie the kids dug into their treats and by the end of the movie they were covered in chocolate fingers and ice cream tinted tongues. But it was a great evening. One the kids asked for us to repeat...very soon :-)

Bucket List this week

 From last week to this week we've done a lot of things off our summer bucket list...

Fun Friday- we went to a new park. The kids loved it. 

game night. An early night of Twister, Leapster, and Connect 4.

Make something Monday- remember the "I'll try again tomorrow" post

 Time to Read Tuesday-
We've read a few things off our bucket list. We're in the middle of a ghost story. Who doesn't love a good Goosebumps book?

And we read 2 church books.
1- a book about Mary of Nazareth. It was long but still great.
2- Sister Eternal is a story about President Uchtdorf.  His grandmother who was in line for food ( I think...I can't recall right now) was talking to a kind woman while they waited. The kind stranger invited his grandmother to come to her church. His grandmother liked to learn about different religions so she agreed to come. Once his grandmother went the following week her daughter and 2 grandchildren (which included President Uchtdorf) went to church with her. The story talks about how they were all later were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And that kind stranger was was named, (?) but translated her name is Sister Eternal. The kids liked the story.

What's cooking Wednesday?-

A cake. I seen this recipe on....Pinterest! I really dislike baking with my kids. Egg shells get into the batter almost ALWAYS! Oil gets spilled or even once drunk. (Gross) So this recipe involves a can of sprite and a box of cake mix. Very simple, easy, and mess free.

 I didn't have a can of sprite and I was too lazy to measure out 12 oz so I just grabbed an empty Mt. Dew can and filled it with soda.

 We made 2 cakes, 1 for each set of partners, and after it was all baked we topped the cake with whipped cream. Very yummy!

Thoughtful Thursday- dropped a baby gift off to a neighbor. 

Wrote Thank you notes to Primary teachers. The kids wanted to go the extra mile and made goodie bags for their teachers. They are so sweet!

And some other things we've crossed off our list-

-write a solider. We sent a card to a sister in our ward son who is in basic training for the Army.

- mail a gift. We've sent off a few gifts but we are planning on sending off much more.

- write a relative. 

-Picnic in the park

- Date night. Remember the kids and their movie dates with friends.

-go for a long walk. Our car broke down 2 miles from our house so I counted it.

-secret act of service. It's a secret so I can't post about it. :-)

We're almost done with our bucket list.My goal is to be done by next week so I can start homeschooling the kids. Mason needs to learn the school material before school starts so he doesn't fall behind. Hailey- she needs a refresher course on some things. I've tried to make sure the kids are reading everyday. They have been practicing spelling, handwriting, and grammar with all the letters that we've written. But now to buckle down and really get school ready.

Demonstrating Our Discipleship through Love and Service

Since I've been home I got to looking at this months  visiting teaching message.  I know it's my partners turn to teach the lesson BUT visiting teaching is an individual calling so I studied, prayed and am trying to apply this lesson to my life now.. 

The message is about loving your sister. And not just to feel it but show it. Here's a few examples that the message stated:

• • 
  Remember their names and the names of their family members and become acquainted with them.
• • 
  Love them without judging them.
• • 
  Watch over them and strengthen their faith “one by one,” as the Savior did .
• • 
  Establish sincere friendships with them and visit them in their homes and elsewhere.
• • 
  Care about each sister. Remember birthdays, graduations, weddings, baptisms, or other times that are meaningful to her.
• • 
  Reach out to new and less-active members.
• • 
  Reach out to the lonely or those in need of comfort.

 A simple message but still something profound for me in my little corner of the world. I have let miles be my excuse for so many things. I've lost touch with family and friends because we live so far apart from 10 miles to 10 states. So with the wonders of Pinterest I'm now dedicated to start showing my love for all those amazing people in our families lives. 

* and because Pinterest is the most amazing website ever to form to date most things are cost effective for our family budget.

 My brother turns 25 and is an average American (outside of Utah) adult. So this gift is completely homemade but still very funny.  Front of card is from Pinterest. (not realizing that I'm only 3 years old he makes fun of me for being so OLD) and inside I made this origami shirt and pants out of $1 bills. He'll think it's funny.

Neighbor kid is turning 15 or 16...something like that. So I made him a stache cup. The latest rage..why? I have no clue but I admit I like it. And just stuffed the cup with some treats. 

 And another neighbor kid. She's turning 9 in a few days so after looking on Pinterest I seen this and LOVED IT!!!! Secret Agent kit where she has to do 7 secret missions of service.

 To to sweeten the deal I added a package that will self destruct if she cheats but if she's faithful to her mission she can open the reward. I really hope she likes it...because I'll be honest- I do!

These measures might be small and simple  but they make for greater things. So after sending out these things and following my prompting I feel so much better.

Pioneer Day

We usually try to make holidays special in our house. All holidays....something about ignoring the importance  of a special day just doesn't sit well with me. But this holiday really just passed by me. I didn't realize it was Pioneer day until around 10am. So today I just winged it.

We read the church books today from our bucket list.
Then we had Pioneer Floats. I'm not sure if Pioneer's drank root beer floats but put anything in a jar and it adds a feel of Pioneer ways.

 I know...not my best but the kids loved it.

In the evening we had our Home Teachers come over. It was really nice to have them visit on this amazing day. 

Afterwards we watched 17 miracles.

photo source

This movie really brings the spirit of those early saints and touches everyone's heart.

Everyone was in tears by the end of the movie. Our home teachers told Mason before they left that real men do cry so it's OK if he cries. Especially when the spirit touches him. So during the movie he cried when the people started dying.

For winging it today I think i did pretty well. I seen the appreciation grow in my children's spirits today for Pioneer day. So now for me- plan for next year. :-)

I'll try again tomorrow

With everyone feeling better today we got back on track with our summer bucket list. So this morning we went to the park and did some sidewalk chalk art.

But then Ducati went head first down the slide and.... she got a nice shiner.

So we came home to take care of this injury. After the tears and cuddles were done we tried again. This time with some frozen water balls.

 I seen this on Pinterest and wanted to try it. You fill a balloon up with water. Freeze it. Then peel off the balloon. And then you have this cool water ball. But since I didn't want them to freeze all the way it was more of a bowl. The girls liked them.

Until......

 Lily found a camping stake in the grass and tried to lift it and 

it slipped out of her wet hands and it landed on her toe. Ouch!

So after I got her all comfortable on the chair 

I called in the kids. Which meant Ducati didn't listen to me so she went into her room for a timeout. Which lead to this...

 Ducati ripped open Lily's feathered pillow and made this huge mess.

 So this took about an hour to clean this up. And she didn't even empty the entire pillow. I fear what that might have looked like if she did.

And after dinner I was sewing Mike a wristband cuff. 

Something that he can carry a few $ or whatever and he can use to wipe his sweat off when he runs (he's training for a marathon). So I cut up a towel and sewed it to a wrist support cuff that we got from Wal-Mart. I was pretty proud of myself since this was the 1st zipper I ever sewed in. But not without an injury

So I told Mike that I give up. I'm throwing in the towel for today. After 4 out of the 6 of us getting hurt in some sort of way we vegged out in front of the TV the rest of the night. So I'll try again tomorrow.