Pirate day continued

Stinky.  Julia told me Jane was stinky.

Between Jane and Julia I changed 4 poopy and who knows how many pee peed diapers today.

When the kids got home we had a pirate adventure.  First on the list was eating the pirate boat ship and little pepper boats (see previous post).  Anna ate 3 or four pirate boats, pepper and all.  But no cheese, she doesn't like cheese lately for some odd reason.  She is a good eater.  Anyways, Evan also had a few boats.  Amber ate the cheese and pretzels and the 3 bites of pepper i made her take.  and Jane would eat nothing.  Gavin ate watermelon white parts.  Julia piddle paddled around.

After snacks Gavin and amber were to scrub the decks.  Gavin wouldn't even do his chore for the bribe of playing the iPad and lost his screen time.  Amber quickly did her job, scrubbing the entry and we moved on.

We played a few games (walk the deck, bail the sinking ship, pirate pirate where's your gold) and we made pirate hats.  Only the preschoolers would wear them.

Anna is saying arrrr.......which really sounds like uuuuuulllllrrrr or something.  She has a hard time with r's.

Julia wanted an eye patch too.  She was adorable all day today.  My girls love the whirlwind created by the older kids.

Gavin made a boat instead.  Amber made a hat rack.

After making them eat dinner and clean up and play some pirate piano songs, I gave the the map bits at a time.  They figured it our quick.  I buried it deep and it took them a long time to uncover it.

Five of the 8 kids (maddie and Ashton were helping find e treasure).  I love this picture.

I am horrible.  After they got the treasure, I gave Anna one little bag of pirates gold (corn pops) and then put all the little kids in the bath.  I sent the big kids to watch a movie and lied to the little kids saying the big kids were in bed.  (They have a hard time gong to bed with the big kids still awake).  It worked.   All the wee ones are asleep.  Hopefully i can get the big ones to bed now.....

The preschoolers

Everyone has been pretty happy today.  We've been busy playing pirates!

This is what 4 kids 5 ad under playing happily looks like.  It's a rarity, so well worth a picture!

lots of kids

Haven't posted because I've been watching my sister's kids since Tuesday.  7 kids under 8 today.  gavin 8, amber 7,. evan 5, ashton (neighbor boy who pretty much lives here) 4, Anna 3, Jane 2, Julia 1.

I haven't taken any pictures because Julia and her cousin Jane are at each other's throats all day.  I turned my back for one second and bam - julia was pushed off the top of the slide.  Then about 10 minutes later Jane was crying because Anna hurt her feelings somehow.  Jane doesn't talk good enough to tell me and Anna is too stubborn to tell me.  Anyways, bedtime is very important to me, especially with so many people wanting things, whining and crying.

So tonight I got really grouchy when I could still here evan and gavin fighting 2 hours after I put them to bed.  Girls might be emotional (Jane and Julia) but Boys are a whole different story.

Tomorrow I have some fun things planned, hopefully the kids cooperate.  If so maybe I can get some pictures of our pirate day.

natural history museum with grandpa heiner

 Anna and Julia did their "summer reading"  Its a progam the library does where you get prizes for reading to your kid every day.  We READ to our kids with a capitol R, so we won this prize to the natural history museum (everyone who participates wins this prize too).  When anna learned we were going to the museum she immediately insisted we invite Grandpa Heiner, so we brought him along.  We are on the roof here looking out over the salt lake valley.  The clouds were fantastic.

 Here is our reflection looking back at the windows of the museum.

 Julia likes the animals because they were not living.

 We thought this picture made it look like you were really outside.

 but this one didn't turn out as well.

 I dont' know whats going on here.  I think she is pointing to the dinosaurs and trying to take my dad to them through the railing.

 We played some mind games.

 Grandpa showed Anna all the details of, well, everything.

 At the volcano exhibit.  She was nervous about the volcano we are watching explode.  This is the same exhibit that was at OMSI a year ago - Anna remembered.

 Scared of the cindercone volcano.

 This is a typical scene from the museum visit: Grandpa, really interested in something and showing it to Anna, who is interested too.  Julia wandering around.  At one point a museum lady told me I needed to keep my kid closer to me because she worries when the little one's parents aren't right there.  That's next to impossible with little miss doddly doo.

 The highlight, dinosaurs.

 julia in the left hand corner - she WOULD NOT cross this exhibit.  She was terrified.  We let her cry for a little while to see if she ever got brave enough.

 Then grandpa rescued her.  holding his hand was all she needed to get across.  my dad is chuckling.

 This is the stinky exhibit anna remembered from last time.  you push this button and a nasty smell comes out of that black dot by my dad's hand.  It is the smell of a bird eating a dead dinosaur.  notice anna covering her nose.  the smell didn't phase julia.  i guess walking around with a stinky diaper makes you insensitive to those types of things.

 At the tend we made some dinosaur hats.  Julia was so cute and such a monster.  she wanted to color (eat) the markers.  So grandpa ended up following her around while anna made a dinosaur masterpiece.

 We came home and had pesto turkey sandwiches with homemade bread, homemade pesto, homegrown tomatoes and (not homemade) turkey.  they were good.  Then grandpa read some books to the girls and we called it a night.  Thank you grandpa we love you!

quote

i get a daily message from the church every day.  i liked today's in light of recent events in our neighbor's lives.

""Obey the laws of God. They are given to us by a loving Heavenly Father. When they are obeyed, our lives will be more fulfilling, less complicated. Our challenges and problems will be easier to bear. We will receive the Lord's promised blessings.""

Tuesdays

So we over scheduled ourselves for Tuesdays this fall.   That's okay, it's turning out to be one of my favorite days of the week.  We start the day at Aunt Amy's music class 9 am (if we can get there in time).  I didn't get any pictures but anna is really loving it and loving being part of a class.  This girl is going to love school.  Julia on the other hand is a bit of a terror.  She runs around, won't sit and listen and will not do anything if encouraged to do it.  She might not like school, but it also might be her age.  When Evan came home from kindergarten he read anna some books.  she loved that.

Today after class Amy watched the kids while I did an hour of work.  But after that we went to visit Amber at Mountain Green Elementary.  She is in the 2nd grade.  We went and had lunch with her.  She was so cute and excited to see us.  She wanted us to sit by her and her friends.  She sat and chatted with us, then took us to see her desk and then out to recess.   She wanted us to stay and play all afternoon.  What a cutie.  I'll never forget her outfit: black skater shoes, primary colored skirt, pink glittery shirt, pink headband with bows.  She looked goofy.  I love that girl.

After school lunch, we went for a hike up snowbasin.  The leaves are starting to change.  Evan and anna have a lot of fun playing together.  They played following the leader and a version of red light green light.  We hiked for maybe a half hour and saw a Bull, cow and baby moose.  Julia and Jane we diddle doddlers and made it a bit painful so we turned around.

When we got home we had a quick snack and headed straight to soccer.  Anna loves listening to the teacher and doing what he says. She is a good little stretcher.  I wish she would still do yoga with me.  She was "it" in tag and it was funny to see her try to chase all the kids around.  Our soccer class is basically just a excercise and motor skill development class - there are no official games.  Grandma heiner was around so she stopped by.  Julia was a pain, running around gathering the cones.

 what a pretty early fall day!

 i can't see it, but the moose are in this picture somwhere.

look at anna and evan hiking along merrily.

When we got home we had squash from Pauls garden (so yummy, thanks!) and mac and cheese.  Then we washed A LOT of dishes because our dishwasher is leaking and broken and our landlord can't be here to fix it until thursday.  Anna was a cute little dishwasher.  I sure love this girl!

 julia climbed up here and played for a good 5 minutes.

 anna is the blue bum with blue stripes.  look at her daddy

 the teacher asked who was a kid.  anna was the only one to raise her hand for a minute.

look'n like a pro!

 the girls stop to play in these acorns almost everytime we get out of the car.

my little dishwasher.  what a cutie.  if only she would go to bed without bribery.

great grandma heiner and the intermittent springs

Rich volunteered for logan-to-jackson bike race on saturday.  His station was in Afton WY so we decided to visit my grandma heiner for the weekend.  It was wonderful to see her.  She is an amazing cook and always so kind and wise with her words.  I learn something new from her every time I go.  This time I learned some things about her life.  I knew her husband Clayton died when she was about 30 and pregnant with their 7th child.  I did not know that her sisters husband died one year later almost to the day!  She was a strong woman.  She also told me she got married when she was 17 and 1/2.  She had "been going with" Clayton for 2 years.  She said "figure that one out..."  "I was very young!"  Anyways I didn't get a picture of her with the girls but Anna loves her 'new' grandma heiner (as she calls her) and we love spending time in the beautiful star valley mountains.  Our favorite part is the coooool air.....and grandmas cookies.  We went for a hike Saturday morning up past the Suters and got some excellent picutres.

 This is a view of my grandpa's farm taken from the east.

 We are walking to the north of the field just east of the house here.

loooong shadows!  Grandpa's house is on the left.  When we got back richard started looking for jobs in Afton.  He found an RD job for me at the hospital, but nothing for him.  hmmm maybe someday.

My cousin Holly lives up there with her parents.  She's a single mom with 4 kids.  She is a wild thing and she took me on a little hike up in Afton.  It was such a fun time.  I think anna looks a lot alike these cousins.  the spring we hiked to is "intermitting" - which means it turns on and off.  Its crazy, about every 5 minutes it turns off, just like a fake waterfall.  Its a fun hike if you are ever in Afton.