Evan's Art

So Evan has taken to drawing humans. That's his choice of word not mine. I call them people.

So I've been wanting to scan in his art, but that involves going upstairs, using Shawn's computer, etc. So I never have.

Today he drew our family on the whiteboard. I got some pics to share.

I have to say that in all my years of working with kids, I have never seen this type of interpretation of people. For some reason he never draws heads. He also never gives anyone any arms. Shawn is ALWAYS tall. I'm often the same size as the kids. This time I have some height advantage.

He also generally draws Shawn and himself in black, Kira and I get a range of colors.

Without further ado:

The last of the swim lesson pics...

This is Kira's dive! Hard to see what she is doing, but she did it right! We'll have to work on her entry later! ;)










And a funny little non-related story.

Yesterday Evan dropped Kira's seahorse that goes to her polly pocket mermaid set down the drain. Gone forever. So I tell Kira that it was an accident and that Ev is really sorry. She says, "That's ok, but why don't you just call a hometown hero, you know, like the one in Higgly Town hero's. They come to your house and take apart your sink and get stuff out for you!" I said "You mean a plumber?" "Yeah! That's what it's called. You can just call a plumber and he will come save my seahorse."

It sucked telling her that I would not be spending $100 for a service call from a plumber. Apparently she didn't realize that hero's cost money these days. Poor kid.

Dad. We need you here. *You* could be the hero next time! (And you would be paid in hugs and kisses from the kids!)

Last day of swim lessons!

Kira got "promoted" to the Rays from the Eels...Evan still has to be an eel, but he made big progress!
Kira even did a REAL dive today! I am so proud of her.

We also found out today that Kira will be in A.M. Kinder in Ms. Zopfi's class! She is so excited for school to start! (Though not as happy when I told her that starting Monday we were going to start waking up earlier so she could get used to it!)

Here are some pics from the pool, and I'll add some more tomorrow, I just am too lazy to go hunt down the camera tonight!

I found my favorite commercial ever on YouTube!

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This makes me crack up everytime! Enjoy.

I found my camera! So here is our big weekend update!

So Miss Kira had her very first sleepover! We planned it for weeks, and had lots of exciting things planned! We had a blast, and the party was a hit.

So I was a little excited to have a sleepover for my darling daughter, and maybe I went a little overboard....but hey, she is only 5 once right? And besides, I *like* going a little overboard for parties...anyone who knows me knows that! And everything went smooth as a baby's bottom thanks to Aunt Kim and Aunt Brie! They really helped keep it fun and easy going.

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So first I decorated pillowcases for the girls, they each got to keep it and we put them on the pillows for the party. (Lena didn't get to stay, but she got to take one home!)

I also decorated the soda up a little...but really, it wasn't *that* big of a deal. a couple of glue dots, some silk flowers, a button, and voila! And the girls LOVED it. They were super excited, and wanted to pose!







We also had a hair and makeup session (except Cassie, she let us do her hair,but she doesn't "do makeup and nails" she was quick to inform us!

Here is Miss Kira all made up!



Here is Kira with her friends, Emylea, Cassie and Lena, posing after getting pretty!




Lena didn't want to wear her pajama's, she informed Kira "This is my favorite party outfit, and I never get to wear it, so I think I will just stay dressed". ;)



For the grand finale we watched the original Annie! It was a hit, and I think I enjoyed watching it again as much as the girls! Kira loved it. Here they are all ready for bed, watching the movie. Cassie and Em didn't quite make it,but Kira kept her eyes open until it ended at 10pm! What a trooper.






Saturday a.m. we got up and had waffles with chocolate chips and whipped cream, and then the girls all made "diva" sunglasses with jewels all over them. I couldn't find my camera, so I have no pics of that. :( Sorry.

We had no fighting, and Kira must not be my daughter, because she was wonderful the next day in spite of lack of sleep! We plan on doing this again...though I'm not sure how soon!

Thanks for reading this saga!

Miwa is the better mother.

She actually remembered her camera for swim lessons today!

Mom, you can check out a pic at Miwa's blog, with Kira, Evan and Collin in it too. (Isaac of course!)

I'll try to get it together a little better tomorrow.

Hey mom,

Kim didn't know you could leave a comment on the blog, so I thought I'd let you know you can do that here! (Down at the bottom of the post it says "comments" and you click on it, and then you can leave me a note!)

Grass Salad.

So one of the funnier people camping with us was Bob's really good friend Paul, and his lovely wife Sara. Paul was just a crack up, and he adored the kids. (He is jonesin' to be a grandpa I suspect!) He spent the entire time we were there calling Evan "Buckaroo". Evan called him Cowboy Paul, and wouldn't allow anyone else to call him Buckaroo. If you tried you were met with "You can't call me that! Only Cowboy Paul. YOU can call me Evan".

Kira got a huge kick out of Paul as well, because he spent one evening playing little mermaid with her. He was King Tritan with a hot dog stick as a scepter. In fact, it turned into something of a play. It went like this:

Kira (as Ariel): Will you be King Tritan?

Paul: What is a King Tritan?

K: He is the dad to Ariel.

P: Oh, ok, I'll be the king.

K: Ok, Ariel is going to run away and you want her to come back.

P: Ok. Merman Buckaroo Evan, go tell Mermaid girl Ariel to come back, tell her I'll give her 500 clams.

Evan: Ok. 500 clams?

P: Yup. 500 Clams.

E: wanders off repeating the amount to himself. Just as he reaches Kira he turns and says "How many clams" everyone says at once "500!" he says, "OK"

E: Ariel, King Tritan says he will give you 5 clams.

K: Tell him that's not enough.

E: Ok, walks back to Paul. She says no.

P: Ok, tell her 1000 clams, and that's my final offer!

E: Ok. 100 clams.

P: Nooooo....1000.

E: Ok. 1000? Off again, repeating the number.

E: Ariel he said come on now and you will get one clam!

K: (recognizing that she is getting ripped off and that maybe the next offer is nothing, heads off with Evan).

Evan we decided is going to make a great philanthropist. Or a con artist. One or the other.

Next morning Kira decides to help Paul and Sara with breakfast. She asks me to help her make a grass salad. "It's not *real*, you know, like grass for lettuce and sticks for croutons". When we finished it looked lovely in it's presentation of a dirty pink bucket.

She offered it to Paul.

To her horror, he thanked her kindly and then ATE it.

I about fell over trying to get pics of her expression!

Here it is in color for your enjoyment!

Conversation with a Three year old.

Evan: Mommy, will you leave my door open tonight?

Me: Yep. Goodnight.

Evan: Mommy, I need to tell you something first.

Me: What? (in that hurried, impatient mommy tone, that happens after you have gone back and forth between the two kids 6 times already, and it is 30 min. past bedtime)

Evan: Well, the little monster came in here and he said "Hey, why is your door open" and I said "Because I like it like that" and he said "Well I'm leaving". Then the big monster came in and he said "Hey, Evan, why is your door open like this?" and I said "Because, Monster, I like it open" and so he left too.

Me: Ok, good night Evan.

Evan: Ok, good night mommy!

I made it to the bottom of the stairs before I busted up laughing.

Evan and his cars...

Evan loved playing with his cars while we camped. I think part of it was he was allowed free reign with the dirt. Being dirty was no object, so he got down and dirty!

These are some of the "cleaner" shots, because I took them on the first day we were up there. I am pretty sure he brought home a good amount of the campground in his ears.



Here he is contemplating which way to build the roads. He had two kinds, small roads and big roads. Makes sense when you have two sizes of cars.


Thinking some more....this is big business, building roads.

Here he has them all lined up. I'm not exactly sure why,but instead of putting them in the box when he was done, like I asked, he put them on the picnic bench. Who needs to sit to eat anyway? Silly mommy!

Bug Catching!

In an effort to keep the kids busy and entertained while camping, I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I found bug catching kits at JoAnn's and took them with us. They were a huge hit. We caught bugs all week. The best time was when we hiked out into the meadow in the morning with Bob's sister Theresa to see what we could see.

I think our best find was a blue dragon fly, but we found him on a different day, and I couldn't find my camera in time. (The kids were very worried about the bugs, and only held them captive long enough to look at them, then released them right away)






This is Miss Kira's butterfly.


Posing for mommy! (such good little scrapbook kids!)



Evan's big grasshopper! He was very proud at how big it was!

Home from KP Cienega

We took this trip on this particular weeknend, because this is when the wild Iris bloom in the meadow. Gail (Shawn's mom) loved the Iris, they were her favorite flowers. We took her ashes there to "help the flowers grow" as Kira put it. We had a really wonderful time being a family, and I think it was a nice way to honor Gail.
We really wished we hadn't been saying our final goodbye, and had been able instead, to spend the time with her.

In spite of the bittersweetness of the trip, we had lots of fun, and made good memories.

Our first night we actually stayed in Show Low in a motel. Very nice, and clean, and other than the mattress causing Shawn some trouble, it wasn't bad. Night two, we had some very unexpected weather...we actually froze! The temps dropped unexpectedly, and even the dog's water was frozen over. Ugh. We survived the night, though I don't think I fully warmed up till the sun was out fully the next afternoon. It warmed up after that, and things went fine as far as staying comfortable.









So our first family camping trip was a success! We had sooo much fun, I can't possibly cover it all in one blog. So I'll post some here now, and then through the week catch up with it all.

Um...ok.

Kira: "Mommy, look at my picture of earth!"

Me: "That is really pretty, you sure used a lot of my fancy buttons" (referring to the numerous buttons that come in small packs for exorbitant prices at the craft store)

Kira: "Well, actually, it's not alot. I only used 19. One Hundred? Now that's alot!"

One of those things...

1.)Q. Can you cook?
1.)A. yup.

2.)Q. What was your dream growing up?
2.)A. To be a mechanical engineer.

3.)Q. What talent do you wish you had?
3.)A. Playing the piano. Or being super creative like my Aunt Leora or Heidi Swapp. I just steal their cool ideas and wish I was as genius.

4.)Q. If I bought you a drink what would it be?
4.)A. Diet Dr. Pepper.

5.)Q. Favorite vegetable?
5.)A. Corn

6.)Q. What was the last book you read?
6.)A. Right now I'm reading a series, so it was book five in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I can't remember the title of it though.

7.)Q. What zodiac sign are you ?
7.)A. Virgo.

8.)Q. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
8.)A. Just my ears

9.)Q. Worst Habit?
9.)A. I bite my nails. Ewww.


11.)Q. What is your favorite sport?
11.)A. To play? Softball. I don't get much out watching anything any more. Though I do enjoy my son's soccer games.

12.)Q. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
12.)A. Optimistic.

13.)Q.What do you do for a living?
13.)A. Stay home with my kids.

14.)Q. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
14.)A. Losing loved ones. All of them I've had to say goodbye too.

15.)Q. Tell me one weird fact about you:
15.)A. I don't burp. Ever.

16.)Q. Do you have any pets?
16.)A. 4.


18.)Q. What was your first impression of me?
18.)A. Um...I have no idea. How the heck old was I for that? Elementary school.

19.)Q. Do you think clowns are scary?
19.)A. Yes.

20.)Q. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be???
20.)A. My hips would be significantly smaller.


22.)Q. What color eyes do you have?
22.)A. Bluish.

23.)Q. Ever been arrested?
23.)A. yup. Stupid Travis.

24.)Q. Bottle or Draft?
24.)A. yuck. I hate beer.

25.)Q. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?
25.)A. Pay off the rest of my debt.

26.)Q. If you could be anywhere right now where would it be?
26.)A. On a beach.

27.)Q. What 's your favorite bar to hang at?
27.)A. I hate bars. Too loud,too stinky.

28.)Q. Do you believe in ghosts?
28.)A. nope.

29.)Q. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
29.)A. Play online. Read.

30.)Q. Do you swear a lot?
30.)A. Too much I think.

31.)Q. Biggest pet peeve?
31.)A. So many...where to start?

32.)Q. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
32.)A. Tired.

33.)Q. Middle Name?
33.)A. Marie


Notice some missing questions? I deleted those to protect the innocent! ;)
And the fact remains that I am lazy, so I'm not going to go back and renumber the whole thing so you can't tell.

Tis the Season...or the end of the season at least...

Well, we wrapped up Gymnastics and Soccer over the last two weeks. Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera to capture Ev's last game, so Brie loaned me her camera, butI don't have the pics from her yet.

Kira loved gymnastics and is contemplating going another round this fall with our wonderful Parks and Rec coaches, or if she is going to join up with Springs, the nearsest full gym. She just can't decide. Which is ok with me.





This is Kira posing with her certificate of completion. Such a little ham.



The big finish following her floor routine.



Some Beam work.



A little glance at mommy before the dismount...which consisted of a rather ungraceful jump, but even with the hop, she put those hands up and finished strong! :)



Getting her certificate and stamps on her hand from her coaches!

Yeah, yeah, I know.

second post in one day. A bit full of myself I suppose.

Actually I just wanted to test out the waters and see what I could do with some pics. So for your viewing pleasure, and without further ado...

The kids!