Last Week of Summer

Knowing it was our last week of Summer I wanted to enjoy it with some fun activities with the kids. Tuesday morning we had to stop at the school for Savanna's kindergarten assessment test. She did very well while Miles and Avery tore apart the class room. After the test we headed up to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country. We had never been before I wanted to take advantage of the 2 buck Tuesday deal. It would have been well worth it to me to go on another day, pay full price and not have to deal with the crowds! It was nuts, but the kids had fun anyway. They got to see and smell various farm life and go for a tractor ride. We had lunch at the restaurant there then stopped to get new shoes for the girls on the way home. I wanted Savanna to get velcro shoes for school so she could easily get them on and off by herself. She picked out her own shoes so Dora the Explorer will be going to kindergarten with her. A couple of days later she brought me some older shoes she has and showed me that she can now tie her own shoes, no problem. I hope I haven't stunted her shoe tying ability by making her wear those velcro ones anyway, oh well!
Later in the week we spent some time at the splash pad and playing in our backyard. We ate popsicles and ice cream cones too. On Saturday we went up Provo Canyon and had a picnic with my family and went to Bridal Veil Falls. The kids loved sitting at the bottom off the falls fishing rocks out of the water and throwing them back in. We also happened to have Backpack (we like Dora ok?) with us and filled him (her?) up with river rocks. While we were at the park having our lunch, there were a couple of guys going around with metal detectors. My dad filled his pockets with change and casually walked around the field where the metal detector guys were. My dad started dropping change at random spots in the field, just to give the guys something to find you know? That's just the kind of guy my dad is, kindhearted and helpful. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time!

Manual Labor

The joys of being a land lord are in full abundance lately! James and I get to trade off either telling adults to clean up their messes or just cleaning it up for them! It's awesome! I'm being sarcastic of course. The Orem house is giving us grief again (as per usual), so we have had to put more work into it. We have gotten discouraged, but right now we are being positive about the whole thing and just getting it done. This post is mostly being written as a shout out to my husband. He has been working himself to the bone this summer. Work with his business has been extremely busy and when he is not doing that he is working on the apartment. I wanted to help out and take some of the pressure off him, so I offered to do some of the apartment work myself. Monday I spent an entire FOUR hours cleaning and prepping the place for paint. At the end of the day I was exhausted! My eyes, nose, and throat hurt, I was so dirty and tired. Today I was there for just over FIVE hours doing some more grunt work because I have no skills. I am also very tired today. The whole time I am working I am thinking, how does James do this? I have been here for two hours and it sucks and James works like this for 12, 15, 20 hours a day! He is Super Man and I am a huge wuss. For all my hard work this week I get to have a break and go to dinner with a friend tomorrow while James does a backyard camp out with the kids. Things seem a little unbalanced, don't you think? I can make myself feel a little better by remembering that James has never used the dishwasher since we moved here five years ago.

Things I Don't Want To Forget

This post is for random, completely unrelated events that don't deserve their very own post but are things I don't want to forget. Most of life is like that actually, random events that somehow merge together to form an existence. And because it's my existence, I better not forget! I will start with "I am grateful for the splash pad." Last year a new park opened up about 5 minutes from our house. The best part of the new park is the splash pad. The kids love it, and it has given us something new to do this summer, it's free and safe and a great way to cool off!




Next: Funny posing and playing with camera. Savanna and Miles like when I get the camera out, especially Savanna. She is always posing in weird ways and making funny faces. They also like to take pictures themselves. One day we were playing in Miles' room and Savanna and Miles started playing "freeze pose", a game Savanna made up. I got out the camera and we took a bunch of silly pics, it was fun.
Finally: Paint Stick Swords. As I was preparing for Miles' pirate party I came across a crafty blog that had the idea of making swords out of paint stirrer sticks. I went to Home Depot and got a bunch, the sign said FREE! Take as many as you need! Sweet! My mom came over and helped us make them. We cut, painted, glued, and wrapped leather around the handles. I think they turned out pretty cool.
The End!