Independence Day

I love Provo on the Fourth. We quite a busy day. Starting with the balloon fest at 6 am. It's so amazing to be so close to so many hot air balloons lifting off. Claire loved it! When they all started taking off she kept waving bye. (there's a video at the end)




Mike's Mom loves the balloon fest since we introduced it to her 5 years ago. We're glad she came to enjoy it with us.



Provo has the best parade too. Claire loved the marching bands. (video at end)



Mike and I got to test drive a Segway at the freedom festival on the 3rd. It's harder than you think it is.

The highlight for Ethan was touching the huge snake!!!

post by Andrew

guess who the shadow is?see the next picture
to find out!








yep that's me (andrew)If you guessed it,
your prize is up next.





ethan skateboarding






me and my grandma spray painted my skateboard

post by Andrew

pretty cool, eh? I made it by myself
(Andrew) out of magnetix.

mohawk

My sweet Andrew thought it would be cool to have a mohawk. So we said he could have it for a day. He thought it looked awesome! Next time he will settle for a fau-hawk.

friends

Ethan and Anna

Mateo, Andrew and Ethan

It was really hard to move and leave our friends behind. It took awhile to make new ones for us. These are my boys' favorite friends. Too bad Anna is moving :0(

Ethan is 6!!!

Ethan had his birthday a few days after I got home from camp so my party planning efforts were really lame. But we did have a few friends over and got him an ice cream cake. Ethan you are my sunshine. I love you.


And for my b-day on the day after girls camp- I got my kids back. (they were at Grandma's house) I missed them so much!!!!!

Girls Camp!!!!

Wahoo! Girls camp was girl's camp. I got to go to girls camp this year as a leader. It was Monday through Friday and it was a looong week for me. But it was worth it. I had some great spiritual experiences and grew closer to some of my laurels.
The pics are all out of order- Above: Helen and I getting ready to go paddle boating. Yes we are both leaders. Commonly mistaken for YW.
The theme was Dr. Seuss- "Oh, the places you'll go" with an emphasis on the temple. The laurel with her ear to a flower is my oldest laurel.
All the stake leaders did an amazing and hilarious song and dance. Two of them even did splits at the end. But I didn't get a picture because who knew old ladies could do the splits!! and I didn't have my camera ready.
My cabin did a "America's got Talent" skit.

"Simon," "Paula" and "Randy" as the judges

The lake we had to hike to was 50 min. away! And needless to say a group of girls (with leaders) got lost on the way back. Fortunately I was not one of them. But hey, what's girls camp without someone getting lost? right?

We had the treat of having Sister Dalton (YW General President) coming to speak to us about the new value of virtue and unveiling a virtue flag at the camp. She was amazing. One of the highlights of the week.

Helen and her sister on the bus going there. She got to bring her little sis from St. Louis.

One of my laurels, Kelsie on the bus ride there. I love Kelsie. Doesn't she just make you smile.

This is my cabin group eating lunch. They had to make their own food and clean up too. They were such great girls and we hardly had any drama. hardly.... (only one of them is in my ward, they switch up the whole stake) I wish I had more pics. So much happened and I had such a memorable week.

pet snail

Who has a pet snail? we do. His name is Mr. Mc Squizzy, or Jr. It's so fascinating the kids watch it for hours. Hey, at least is easy to take care of, it was free and and we can let it go when we get board with it.

Kindergarten Graduation

Yeah! Ethan finished kindergarten with flying colors! He learned so much this year.
This is the class library. I love the kid size reading chairs.

I made this quilt for Ethan's teacher. She loves elephants and has an elephant theme in her room.


This is his wonderful, sweet, amazing teacher. We love her.

I thought it was too cute. She let me put real flowers in her hair.

Coconuts and Strawberries

We got a coconut for fun. The "milk" was gross. But I heard it's good to cook your rice in. The boys had fun cracking it open but didn't care to eat it.

After seeing the boys repulsed reaction to the milk she was no dummy and didn't want to have anything to do with this strange thing.
After 30 minutes of grating, I only got a small amount of coconut. I recommend buying it pre-shaved.

Can I just say, I love summer and strawberries!!!
I made some fresh strawberry jam with some of these!