Category: Uncategorized (Page 90 of 118)

Saturday, after going to the Highland Fling Breakfast (pancakes, eggs and ham and cantelope in generous proportions for $1 each? Of course we’re going), we took the kids to see Brother Bear 2. What can I say about it, except that it’s a typical Disney Sequal. With the exception of Toy Story 2, all the sequals are not even 1/2 as good as the first one and usually go straight to video. But the kids really enjoyed it, and it was free. So, right away, I think, “Those are not the original voices for Koda and Kenai, which always bothers me. Can’t they at least get the same actors to voice the characters? ( I just looked up Brother Bear 1, and it was Joaquin Phoenix who played Kenai in the original. I didn’t know that! Maybe they couldn’t get him after he’s played Johnny Cash and all. Hmmmm) Anyway, the whole time I’m wondering who the voice of that bear is, and finally at the end, I read the credits, and it’s Dr. McDreamy! Had I known that Patrick Dempsey was playing the voice of Koda, I would have been a lot more impressed with the movie. Maybe paid a little more attention. Oh well. Your kids will really like it, if you ever decide to see it.

After the movie we came home and the kids had friend over, played outside, watched a movie we had recorded for them, and generally had a fun day NOT doing any jobs.

I made cookies, picked up the kids’ artwork from the city office building, read a book, and generally did NOT do very much productive. It was a great day.

After a dinner of leftovers, we all pitched in to clean up the kitchen (Hooray! Some help!) so we could go back to the city park and play and wait for the fireworks. Ryan bought his Kettle Corn and ice cream that he wanted. The kids played in the sand and playground, and I gabbed with the new neighbors. We had little glow sticks for all the kids. What a perfect evening.

At 10:00, we stretched out on our blanket and watched the greatest short fireworks show in Highland. It’s a whole bunch of good fireworks packed into a short show. About 20 minutes from start to finish, and no waiting around for the next fireworks. It’s a good one for kids, especially, so they don’t have to stay up really really long.

It was a great day–jam packed with fun, and there was very little grumpiness. Hooray!

Many thanks to my sister, Amy, who was willing to help me out when I called her in a somewhat frazzled state and asked, “Do you need a helper today? I’ll bring you Megan, and she can help you do whatever you want. She’ll babysit the baby, help with the kids, fold laundry….?”
She graciously accepted my child so that we could have a somewhat peaceful day without the horrible attitude. Since her return, we’ve tried to get to the bottom of the situation, find out WHY she’s acting out so much, and used several tactics to try to keep her in control (one of which was Dad charging her for each time she talked back), and had a big old talk with everyone this morning on being nice. We even did the family cheer, which was instigated on our Disney Cruise way back when and goes something like this: We can—–be nice!
We can—–be nice!
We can—-be Nice! Hooray!!
So, we’re all going to try extra hard to not annoy the 10 year old time bomb.

They are all outside playing right now. It’s perfect weather and it’s started sprinkling a little bit. I wonder how long they’ll stay outside. Hopefully long enough for me to do my hair and sweep the floor. (Yep, I’ve got big goals!)
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In other news, the kids did well in the Highland City Art Show, with each of the girls winning ribbons on all their entries, and Cole winning one for his oragami sculpture.
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I’m trying to be patient. I just returned from yoga and am trying to remain somewhat relaxed. I’m trying to enjoy the last 3 weeks of summer vacation with the kids, because I know once school starts we’ll all be so busy that we won’t have time to just “hang out”. But the grumpys and talk backs have invaded the house and I don’t know if I have the patience to kindly dispell them without losing my temper.

I wish the kids would take advantage of the free days–play outside, play with friends, do something! But instead they pick at each other, making the littler ones cry (as if that makes them happy), and want to watch tv 12 hours of the day. I do my best to encourage, but they seem to take that as nagging. Yesterday I called a friend for Jenna, and had three extra kids over here for most of the day–just to keep them from being bored. But the worst offender (I won’t mention any names here, but it starts with an M) doesn’t want to call friends, or calls one friend and then gives up. She’s also the most grumpy and downright disrespectful. I ask her to please practice the piano and she blows up in a huff about how she Hates practicing (imagine that spoiled little girl from Charlie and the Chocolate factory without the Brittish accent) and I never let her do anything, and I’m always making her practice. Well, I haven’t gotten any practicing out of her in about a week, even though I keep asking, so I don’t quite understand how that could be ruining her life. Ugh.

We have nothing on the schedule for today, but we’re out of milk, so that means a trip to the grocery store at least, a trip to Costco at the most. I wish I could drop them off at the Theater for Summer movies, like our parents did when we were kids. But taking them to a movie means actually TAKING them ALL to a movie, and I don’t know if I’m up to that.

So, off I go to change a stinky diaper, help John get dressed (his pink eyes are much better today. Did I mention he had pink eye? Oh, well, he does), take a shower myself, clean up the breakfast dishes and figure out what we can do that would be slightly fun and entertaining for the yahoos. But first, we need to get ourselves organized, cleaned up, and get some kids de-grumpified. Now where did I put that de-grumpification medicine?

Wow. We haven’t had rain in a very long time here, and we’re so sick of the hot weather, that the rain yesterday and today was a welcome relief. Except for the fact that the neighborhood bike parade that I had planned was supposed to be last night. At 7:30. So, at 6:30, when the rain started pouring down, I thought, “Oh well, it will stop shortly,” and then at 7:00, I thought, “well, I’m sure it will stop very soon,” and then at 7:25 my friend called and said, “so, what are we going to do, eat ice cream in my garage?” (It was a bike parade and ice cream social). We decided to cancel, push it back to next Monday night. Wouldn’t you know it? It stopped raining by 7:35. It would have been wet and splashy, and I’m glad we didn’t try to do it anyway, but I got to make quite a few phone calls.

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Over at “BooMama’s” Blog, she’s got a blog tour of homes going on. (I couldn’t get it to link directly to that post, but if you scroll down a couple of days, you’ll see it.) While I didn’t add myself to the tour of homes, (that would have involved getting my house all clean so I could take pictures, post the pictures, etc. And since I’m much too busy attending parties for Harry Potter and planning bike parades, I haven’t the time or the energy to get my house all that clean) I think it’s a fun idea. And I wanted to post a picture of my front door, just because it’s so dang cute right now. So, here it is: My front door!
I just love that Uncle Sam, and I especially love that I found it at a garage sale for $5. Since it’s August now, I guess I should take it down. But since I love it so much (and it’s really really heavy!) I’ll leave it up just a bit longer. Isn’t it cute? Go ahead, tell me how cute my porch looks!

I keep trying to get the bold to stop being bold for the whole rest of the post, but it keeps on doing it. Weird.

(I fixed the bold issue — Ryan)

Well, It was Harry Potter’s Birthday Party on Friday, and our local (well, Lehi) Library always puts on a big bash. It’s crowded with lots of kids dressed up like witches and wizards, and lots of fun.

I took the kids, but traded John for two of my neighbor’s children, so I had 6 for the morning. They dressed up in various costumes ranging from not at all to full blown costumes, and had a great time going to the different stations. First we got our “quills” (pencils with feathers), then went off to our classes. There was Divination, Herbology, Astrology, Potions, Quidditch, and Care of Magical Creatures. At each “class” the kids got to do a little craft, answer a question, or get a prize of some kind. They got candy at Honeydukes and there were drawings. It was lots of fun!

Here’s Cole “figuring out” how many jelly beans are in the jar. We’ll see if his figuring gets him a better guess than my just guessing.

Here’s a picture of John playing badminton.

Notice it’s getting late in the picture, as we don’t venture outside into the yard until after 8:00 pm. It’s just so dang hot! I know we have nothing to complain about compared to places like California , Arizona, and New York City (where my parents are right now, by the way), but I’m so sick of 100 degree days! I just have no energy, no desire to work in my yard, my weeds are out of control, my house is not in the best shape because my kids can’t go outside and play. What’s a mom to do? I’d just like some nice days in the 90’s if you don’t mind.

How are you dealing with the heat?

Today we’re dressing up in Harry Potter clothing to attend the Harry Potter Birthday party at the Lehi Library. That sounds like a nice cool thing to do, doesn’t it? Hundreds of kids in capes wandering through a tiny library. Hooray!

One of the great things about having a family reunion camp out is learning new songs! My nephew, Brenden, was a wealth of new camp songs that we haven’t heard around here. I’m really thankful that he took the time to teach them ALL to my children. I especially like it when they sing in the car. Loudly. Thanks again.

But there was One song that was particularly amusing. I don’t think I have it in it’s exactness, as I’ve only heard it about 17 times so far, but it goes something like this:

The Rootbeer Song

Do–I need to buy my rootbeer
Ra–The guy who pours my rootbeer, “Thanks, Ray!”
Me–The person who drinks my rootbeer
Fa– A long long way to the bathroom
So–I need another rootbeer
La–I’ll take another rootbeer
Tea–no thanks, I’ve got my rootbeer
And that brings us back to..

Do–I need to buy my rootbeer……
(repeat endlessly)

It’s kind of like the 100 bottles of rootbeer on the wall song, but more clever and less annoying.

So, again, I thank you, Brenden, for teaching us all those fun songs. Especially this one.

I heard this morning just a tiny little blurb about Destiny Norton, something about that she had been found. My heart leapt, because we’ve all been worried about the little 5 year old who’s been missing for a week. I missed the rest of the news blurb, and changed the channel to maybe catch another station’s news broadcast. This time I heard more of the story, and heard the horrific news. She was found, but not alive. My heart fell down in my chest. I am so sad for those parents. I can’t imagine living through something so tragic. I pray for the family that they can be comforted at this terrible time in their lives.

We had our family reunion camping trip this weekend, and I must say it was lots of fun.

We went up to Payson lakes, and spent the afternoon playing in the water at the lake. Although Jenna and John didn’t want to get into the water (John only wanted to go on a boat), they eventually got in and had fun time. I spent the afternoon counting to 5, and making sure none of my kids were drowning or lost.

After swimming, we went back to the camp and we did some crafts. I brought a lot of little things to paint, and after painting we frosted sugar cookies with lots of sprinkles. Always a fun thing for kids and adults as well. And they get to eat the results of their labor (the cookies, not the crafts).
We slept (if you can call it that) in my parents’ tent trailer. It was actually very comfortable and fits us just fine. I forgot my earplugs, however, so I heard every time someone woke up, cried out in their sleep, or turned over in their slippery sleeping bags. Remember the earplugs, silly girl!
Of course the most exciting thing seemed to be playing in the dirt. At least if you’re two and with your cousins, that is.

It was a fun and successful trip, right up until the end when we had to send out search parties for one missing boy. He went to the lake with Cole and another cousin, and when they were going to come back, he said he had to go to the bathroom and would meet them back at the camp. Not a good idea, and since the boys were all 11-12, I guess they didn’t realize what a bad idea that was. When Cole and Bryce came back but Sam did not, the parents began to worry, then several people went back to the last place they saw him, and his dad drove to the lake a different way. It all turned out fine, as Sam knew enough to go back to the open beach of the lake when he couldn’t find the right trail to take back to the camp. They found him there, alone and crying–but safe. His time “lost” wasn’t that long, just enough to make his parents and all family very worried, and we’re very glad he was found safe.