The Splash Pad

Summer is in full swing and we've been swimming, playing outside a lot and having fun.  Last week I let each kid pick what we had for dinner one night of the week.  

On Monday Matthew picked chicken sandwiches. 

Anna picked homemade eggrolls and fruit salad on Tuesday.

Wednesday Grant chose spaghetti and watermelon and 

Thursday John picked hot dogs and potato chips.

And on Grant's day we also went to the splash pad 'cause he'd REALLY been wanting to go there instead of the pool.  When we got there they had just turned off the water for an hour.  There was a small sign telling about the new off times, but nothing online.  Soooo, to kill the time we went and got shaved ice.  I ordered the smallest size they had: kiddie size.  Still so huge.

Emma didn't want any.  And she was mad when we tried to give her some.  

She was probably just hot.

So we ate our shaved ice in the hot sun for a while until the splash pad water came back on...

When we got back the splash pad was already packed with kids.  Everyone but Emma had fun squirting each other with water guns.  I've been to this splash pad before and knew to bring the water guns.  Tons of kids had them and were squirting people indiscriminately.  I got squirted a lot.  My phone and my watch survived the trip though.  Hooray!

Emma was very nervous and cried when she got squirted or when things got too loud or other kids got too close.  She held a water gun just to look tough.  She didn't use it.

A very wet John...

...and Anna

Emma warmed up to the splash pad a little and climbed a favorite rock over and over.

They turned the water off for 10 minutes or so while we were there.

John was trying to preserve the water.

Everyone was sad (and or angry) when we had to leave.  Here are Grant and John running around.  It's all fun and games till I tell them we have to leave.  Then the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  But we still had fun while we were there.  Maybe we'll go again.  

And here are a few bonus photos from our week:

Trying to fit my three littles into one shopping cart while my two bigs were at sports camp.

It did not go well.

Matthew, still in spy mode, and his new fedora.

It's what all the spies are wearing these days.

Grant has been spending hours quietly playing in his room so far this summer.  It's great!

He's been drawing page after page of drawings (and illustrated a few books that he dictated to Anna to write for him) and, as always, building things with Legos.  He made the numbers 0 through 10 with Legos and wanted to show me.  He did it all on his own and was very proud of himself.

Can you spot the numbers here?  I like tiny number 5.

More summer adventures to come!

That Time Anna Washed the Car

We're doing the summer reading program at the local library and the kids got a bingo card of activities to fill out.  If they do all of them they get a prize (and also get intermediate prizes for bingo along the way).  One of the activities was "help wash the car."  Anna honed in on that one and really REALLY wanted to wash the car.   Scott and I usually take the car to a car wash place to wash it.  It's been a long time since we washed the car at our house.  Here was one time I remember washing the car at home in Okinawa.  And I think we only washed it at home because there was a bunch of weird dust everywhere and all the car washes were always full.   Anyway, Anna kept asking if she could wash the car and I kept telling her I'd think about it.  Finally today I let her wash the car.   She was very determined to do it all herself.  Here she is rinsing the car.

John helped scrub for a short time.

Anna hosing off the top of the car.

And squeegeeing.  That word looks weird.

She worked hard.

After the car was washed the kids wanted to have a "squirt each other with water" fight.

I moved the clean car back into the safety of the garage.

Unfortunately I didn't escape the water squirting.

At least they had the sprayer on "mist" instead of "soak" at the time.

At the end of it all Anna was gloriously soaked and very happy about it.

And the car was clean.  Mission accomplished.

And here are some bonus pictures of our new garage (attached to our new house)

The exterior of the house is nearly done.

Here it is from another angle.  This was late in the day so the front of the house is in shadow.  Like our Illinois house, this one faces east so we get full sun in the back yard in the afternoon.  I know that can make for some very hot evening BBQs.  But maybe the houses being so close together will cut down on that.    :)  We sign papers to close in about 2 weeks.

Summer is HERE!!

School is out!  Summer is IN!  We're one week into summer already.  And now within four weeks of moving into our house.  Exciting!!

Scott was here on Memorial Day weekend so we did a few fun things.  We went to Boondocks in Draper and played mini-golf.  Then Matthew and Anna played Laser Tag and the younger kids played on the play structure.  Here's Grant swinging on the swing there.

We went during Emma's nap time.  She was tired.

Anna was sorry she opted for Laser Tag.  There were actually a lot of tears and hot tempers on our trip.  So not sure we will be going back.

After our disastrous trip we came back to Grandma's house for burgers, hot dogs and s'mores.

Anna and I with our s'mores.

Scott helped keep the fire going strong.

John, my shadow.  You can see Scott back there working his fire magic.

We also cooked doughboys, which is a small amount of biscuit dough cooked over the fire on the end of a special shaped stick.  Dough boys were a tradition in our ward in SoCal.  Beach bonfire?  Pool party?  Ward cookout?  Doughboys.  One of our close family friends made Scott and I some dough boys sticks for our wedding.    These sticks were made by my mom.  

Our dough boys were turning out too doughy.  I think we used too much dough.  I haven't made them in a while.

Matthew got a little burn from some metal on the fire pit.

He was ok...and also stole my sunglasses. Sunglasses are good by a fire.

Emma wants to be big like John. And play on the tablet while she's sitting there.

Matthew is reading Harriet the Spy and has been doing some spying of his own.  I told him not to look into people's houses so he's just been people watching a little.  He's also been taking pictures of people in our family and recording notes in his notebook, like Harriet the Spy.

Matthew took some funny videos of himself while "spying"

He entertained everyone with his videos

He also managed to get his leg stuck in the railing and had to be rescued by mom.  

It's those long legs.

Emma and John always have fun chasing bubbles.

We've gone to the library and swimming several times (no pictures of that).  And Matthew and Anna have had sports camp...and they'll have more of it next week. Here we are getting ice cream after a successful trip to the library.  I wanted to take a before picture of Emma with her ice cream.  She kept closing her eyes for the picture.

And here she is with her ice cream in the middle of eating it.

She actually did pretty well with it...after a face wipe up here and there.

A hot day at the park.  Grant hiding under the play structure.

John on his favorite swing.

Grant tried the big climbing pyramid that day.  

He got about to this point and then wanted to get down.

Emma was most interested in this bike rack.  Forget the toys.

She also wanted to investigate the big pyramid.

Grant has a new and surprising hobby: drawing.  He hasn't shown much interest in the past, but has been making lots and lots of stick drawings as gifts for people.  See one of his latest gifts to me HERE.  Usually when he disappears in his room for hours its to build Lego things.  But lately he's been throwing some drawing in there too.

Another surprising Grant activity: cleaning his room and making a valiant bed making attempt.  He even tucked his favorite snow leopard (named Fike) into his sort of made bed.  A for effort.

We've been playing in the yard a lot and having general summer fun.  One week down, many to go.  But only four or so more in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa.  It's been fun to spend time with them this year.  Their peace and quiet will be returning soon.

Compliments That Don't Sound Like Compliments

Grant (age 5):  Mom, I drew this picture of you and me because I love you.
Me:  Oh!  That's so nice, Grant!  Thank you!  Which one is me?
Grant:  The one with the big head.

Me and Grant...and my big head.  ;)

BONUS GRANT DRAWING!!

He drew this in August of our family and just got it back (at the end of the year).  I like how Scott has super long legs in Grant's depiction.  :)