Weekend with Cousins

Jon has had a lot of fun with the kids this week.  We got the pool out in the backyard and took a little swim there.  We played lots with our friends and neighbors and enjoyed lunch outside with the neighbors.  We've played so much this week with the kids that tonight, Noah expected that were were going someplace for some new adventure and was so disappointed when we said we were staying home.

On Thursday night, our 4 nieces were in a dance recital of "Pinocchio" at Kingsbury Hall.  They are all so talented and so cute in their costumes and did a fabulous job in the recital.  It's so fun to watch them all dress up like princesses and each year get better and better.  Not sure how Teri does it to get all those girls ready for any event.  After the recital, I got to bring the girls home to our house for a few days while Teri went to girls camp.  Noah and Tayton were so excited to have them come that when I left on Thursday to get them, Noah said, "Hurry home really fast with my cousins Momma!"

We got home really late with the girls on Thursday night and immediately put everyone to bed in separate areas of the house.  We didn't get to bed until about 11:30 p.m., but despite the late bedtime, it didn't stop excited little people from getting up extremely early to play.  I woke up to Charlie saying, "Noah, come on!!!  Let's play!" at 5:30 in the morning.  I immediately put them both back to bed, only to have all 6 kids up hollering and playing together at 6:15 a.m.  Wow.  Don't kids get that when you go to bed late the night before, you need to sleep in the next day.  It was just like Christmas at our house with so many little kids so excited for the day with their cousins.  So much fun!

Jon had gotten home around 4:30 a.m. from work, so he really needed to sleep, but it was like 6 little jackhammers yelling, playing and jumping around the house, so I decided to get them all out of the house for breakfast.  So off to Krispy Kremes we went.  The girls had never been there before, so it was a real treat.  The lady at the counter was so fun too, she came out and gave each of the kids a hat and asked all sorts of questions to them.  they loved every minute there and loved the donuts even more.  They liked it so much that they wanted to go back on Saturday morning again, but once was enough sugar for these little ones!

Caught the spilled strawberry milk in action!

After breakfast, we drove up on base to see if we could see any airplanes taking off and to see if we could give Jon a little more time to sleep.  We saw 4 C-130s out on the tarmack, 1 with the propellers rolling, ready for takeoff, but didn't get to see any in action that day.  We also drove by the Air Force Museum to see a few jets before taking off again for home.  Upon arrival, I made a picnic lunch and told all the kids to go get Jon up.  

Then off to Cold Water Springs we went to feed the fish and have a picnic lunch.  We started out with little bathroom cups full of fish food, but quickly upgrades to the coffee can sized can of fish food.  It kept us entertained for hours watching all the fish, reaching in to pet them, catching them with our bare hands, having them slash and get us all wet and laughing and giggling the entire time!

When we got home, we somehow found the time to squeeze in 3 art projects. . . a painted sun catcher, a canvas bag they all colored with marker and a glitter picture.  I know have glitter all over my kitchen, dining room and living room.  I can't seem to get it off the kitchen and dining room floor.  But it was lots of fun.  It's fun to see the levels of coordination and artistic ability these kids have at different ages and the masterpieces they create.  Then we had dinner, filled the 2 tubs in the house with water and bathed all 6 kids in phases (there was a little arguing over who got to bath with Noah and who got to bath with Tayton, but it all worked out in the end), then we got ready for the outdoor/backyard movie party.  We did have a few moments to spare before the party where we got to play duck duck goose outside and tag with the kids!  Noah got so impatient at one point and wanted it to get dark so we could start the movie that he said, "Momma, I can't wait!!!  Jesus takes a long time to turn the lights down!"  Lots of kids, treats and fun people and a fun movie "A Monster in Paris"  By the time the movie was over at 11:00, all 6 kids were dragging in asking to be put to bed as quickly as possible!

 

Saturday morning, I woke up to the words, "we need milk, I'll pour some."  That made me shoot right out of bed to find all 6 kids awake yet again.  They were helping themselves to the treats from the night before.  We were headed to a family reunion in Riverdale, so we were hustling everyone around after breakfast trying to get there on time. . . needless to say, trying to get 6 kids ready, 5 of which require some form of fancy hairdo, and 2 adults and get us all anywhere together on time is a serious challenge that I'm not up to yet.  Wow.  We arrived an hour and 20 minutes later than planned.  Heaven help me.  We had a ton of fun with the girls while they were here, but looked forward to the much needed afternoon nap Saturday afternoon.

Jon was such a trooper that after the Saturday afternoon nap, he got both cars out and took the kids outside to help wash both cars.  It turned into quite the fun experience for our kids and the kids in the neighborhood as well.  At one point I saw 4 other kids helping Jon out that weren't ours.  Why is it that you can't hardly get your own kids to help you, but the neighbor kids think it's the most fun every.  Every time I go out to weed, the neighbor boy, just a little older than Noah, comes to help me out.  He brings his gloves and wants his own bag for the weeds and away we go, weeding and talking about life.  You can learn a lot from the little people!!

Summer Sun

We're in the full swing this summer and enjoying every moment of it!  

On Monday, June 10th, Noah graduated from preschool. . . . again.  He attended this same preschool last year and due to his September birthday, he'll have the opportunity to attend for yet another year prior to going to kindergarten.  Little Spouts Preschool with Ms. Janae is Noah's favorite thing to do.  He loves to come home and tell us what he did every day.  As I took Noah to line up for graduation, another mom caught me and told me how much her daughter, Cami, loves Noah.  She said Cami told her that she was really sad she wasn't going to get to see Noah anymore and that Noah would be sad that he couldn't see her anymore.  She told her mom that they were boyfriend/girlfriend and were going to get married.  I just smiled and laughed.  I'm not sure Noah even knows what that means.  He's just really glad that Cami is his  friend and asks him to sit by her at preschool.  Ms. Janae says Noah seems a little lost on those days when Cami isn't there and he doesn't know who to sit by and play with.  During graduation, Noah stood by his class but didn't want to have anything to do with all the songs they sang.  He just quietly stood there looking a little overwhelmed as he
looked out over the audience.  Not how Noah liked to wear his graduation cap clean down on his eyes like a super hero.  One kid jumped down at one point and took his graduation cap off and gave it back to Ms. Janae in the middle of singing which caused a ripple effect of 90% of the other children giving her back their caps as well.  It was really funny.  There was a moment when each child got to stand up and they read some special things about each child, the favorite things, etc.  Noah's were that he liked playing hide and seek with dad, that he liked taking naps with mom, his favorite color was orange and he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up.  Ms.  Janae made a cute video with pictures of the kids and caught me later to say how sorry she was that he looked so upset in his pictures.  She said Noah really doesn't like her to take his picture. . . glad we're not the only ones.  He's such a cute kid, but at some point, he has taken a disliking to the camera.  It was a fun little ceremony and so much fun to watch Noah grow each year with this class.  

On Wednesday, we had a play date at the Riverdale splash pad.  We got to meet our neighbors there and another friend to have a pizza dinner in the park, followed by fun times in the splash pad and the park.  We were lucky that Jon took a day to be with us as well, so it was a whole family affair.  Tayton got a little scared of the splash pad and wanted her dad to hold her almost the entire time.  Noah's favorite thing to do was to put his feet on the fountains and prevent the water from squirting up.  Then we played at the park.  Jon played Frisbee with the boys while I kept Tayton entertained doing her favorite thing, swinging!  She also really enjoyed going down this particularly steep slide that would shoot her off the bottom if I hadn't been there to catch her every time.  I've decided that since I'm a working mom and miss out on the
day-time play dates, I'm going to schedule my own play dates once a week in the evenings.  

Noah is still really enjoying swimming lessons.  I've never seen that kid smile so much in my entire life as he does while he's swimming.  He also asks every single day if he gets to go to swimming lessons that day.  He particularly loves is instructor, Cisco.  We're trying to arrange private lessons with Cisco, but we're not having luck finding a pool that will allow outside private lessons.  Conflict of interest. Might just have to find another pool and sign him up for lessons there since we want to keep him going and we can't seem to get into the next 2 sessions (until August) in Roy.  

On Friday, Jon went to visit his dad for an early Father's Day since he had to work on Sunday.  Had a good visit with his dad, then went for a visit to his mom's.  The kids really enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. 

On Saturday, we went to the Roy Aquatic Center and had a great time swimming for the day.  We didn't get any pictures there, but it sure was fun.  Noah really enjoyed going down the huge twisty slide with Dad.  I took Tayton down 1 time, but that was enough for me.  Jon said it went really slow, but I didn't think so and spent the entire ride groaning and I'd drag my hand along the side, trying to slow us down.  Even Tayton said she didn't like it.  Tayton's favorite thing was to jump off the side into the pool with us.  We only lasted a few hours there because the kids really got cold.  It wasn't one of those 100 degree days, so it felt pretty chilly and Tayton especially, gets very cold, very quick, so we got out a lot to wrap up in our towels, sit in the sun, have a snack and watch the seagulls steal food from the garbage cans and from the surrounding tables.  Went to dinner at Olive Garden after.  Fun Day!!

On Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day with our neighbors at Pineview Reservoir.  It was the first time we had been there, so the neighbors showed us where to go that was free, had lots of trees and had a fabulous sandy beach.  We played in the water, dug in the sand, played with friends and truly enjoyed the day.  We definitely decided we want to spend lots more time there!  We're going to invest in some life jackets for the kids and some full rafts and stuff, then we'll spend a lot more time there.  I was in total awe that we have a lake here that has such fabulously sandy beaches.  And the best part is that it's on about 30 minutes from our house.  We're learning new places to go around us all the time and loving it!  

Hanging out in the shade

Beautiful waterfall on the way back down the canyon

We've been working on potty training Tayton this past week. . . . it's been a challenge.  She's very excited about wearing her princess panties, but isn't concerned at all when she has an accident.  She just calmly announces that she peed or in her case, she says she pooped, not matter what she did, and waits for us to change her.  She doesn't seem to find the wet, yucky feeling.  Grrr.  We're staying vigilant though. Some days are better than other days.  

Jon has witnessed the kids new favorite activity. . . they like having "quiet time" together where they both go to Noah's bed to play together on their iPads.  More than anything, they just like being together.  Jon and I are having a hard time figuring out what these new favorite routines are. . . Jon's at home during the day and knows the day time routine, so then when I'm home for the day I don't know the proper way to do something like dad does.  Noah said he wanted quiet time with Tayton the other day and I said, "No way" knowing it was bedtime and knowing they wouldn't sleep in the same room together.  I thought it was just a little left over from staying in the same room with the cousins a few weeks ago, but little did I know, this has become the new routine during the day.  Same with Jon.  Jon was home helping put the kids to
bed and Noah got all upset because Jon wasn't doing something the "right" way like I do.  Obviously, while we're working opposite shifts, we need to ensure we communicate about all the little things so that we get the routine just "right"

Grandma Clark came into town on a surprise visit.  We didn't get to spend much time with her since it was such a quick trip, but we got to meet her for pie on her way out of town.  She needs to come for more visits!

After pie with Grandma, Jon took the kids to the Ogden Nature Center where they got to see lots of birds.  The turkey was huge and scared the kids.  We need to go back and spend more time there when the kids are a little more into walking.