It's Summer Time 2013!

The big kids officially got out of school on Friday, May 24th. While the little boys and I waited at home for the big kids to have their last day of school, Gavin decided to put a lego up his nose.  I was able to remove it  with some tweezers thankfully but I thought what a great way to begin summer!  My parents came down for a visit and to watch our kids overnight while Spencer and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.  The kids had fun with their grandparents like they always do.  Makenzi and Gramy went shopping and Papa and the boys went to Pirate's Cove, a local restaurant with a fun atmosphere and arcade games. 
   Last summer I put together a summer schedule.  Probably because I was feeling overwhelmed with the idea that I would have all of the kids home to entertain for a full 3 months!  In Tucson, the summer break was only 6 weeks.  Last summer I came up with a weekly theme and we scheduled activities based around that theme for each day of the week.  The kids also did some schoolwork to help keep their brains in "thinking" mode.
    This summer we're doing pretty much the same idea.  I put together a schedule and gave each weekday a theme that I found on Pinterest.  Masterpiece Monday, Take a Trip Tuesday, Wet Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, Fun Friday.  The schedule has suggested activities to help us be productive and not spend the day in front of the computer or TV and to help me make some fun memories with my kids.  I ordered some workbooks from Amazon that are called Summer Bridge Workbooks that the kids are working in each day.  We also have time set aside for multiplication review for the big kids and number recognition for Gavin.  These first few days of summer Eli and Gavin are taking swimming lessons and Makenzi did a volleyball camp.  We would all load up in the car and take Makenzi to camp each morning then I would take the boys and head to nearby park for them to play until the water at the tabernacle downtown turned on.  Then we would go over there for the boys to play and get wet until it was time to take them to swimming lessons.  I would have to leave them at the pool during their lesson while I went to pick up Makenzi from camp.  It was a busy morning but I think that we all had fun.
    

Makenzi turns 11!

 For Makenzi's party this year she had some friends come over for pizza, cake, and ice cream.  Then the girls and I went and saw the movie, The Life Of Pie.

Sabrina, Makenzi, Sammie, and Melissa 

My cousin Renae, former Miss Rodeo Utah, was so generous and gave Makenzi a pair of real cowgirl boots. Makenzi loves them!
Makenzi's favorite food right now is tostadas (Navajo Tacos).  She loves anything that has to do with horses. Her favorite color is torquoise and she is a very considerate person.  We are so glad that she is our girl!

A Christmas Presant

This year Santa brought the kids a mini schnauzer.  He left the kids a note explaining why he had to bring him early.  Live animals don't do too well on the sleigh with all of those toys!  We had a family meeting and decided to name him Nick because he came from Santa.  I wanted to name him Mitt, Makenzi wanted to name him Sport, Eli wanted to name him one of the kid's names from his school class, and Gavin was just coming up with all sorts of crazy names.  In the end everyone compromised and we call him Nick, sometimes Nicholas when he is in trouble!

Halloween 2012

 For Halloween this year Makenzi was a Greek Goddess, Eli was an army man, Gavin a wizard and Garet made a cute pilot!

2 years old

4 years old

8 years old

10 years old

Daddy Shot All The Bears

 One of the things that Spencer remembers growing up is that his family would play this game where his dad would get down in fetal position and the kids would skip around him singing, "Daddy shot all the bears last night so we could go out and play".  After Spencer and the kids raked up the leaves from the front yard they had a great time playing that game and playing in the leaves.

On another note, Makenzi broke her ring finger on her right hand while riding a horse.  This makes cast #5 for her.  Silly girl!

Conference Weekend-Pine Valley

I have faund memories growing up of going on long drives while we listened to General Conference.  One of my favorite memories is when we drove up to Park City to watch the skiers come down the slopes while we ate tuna fish sandwiches from the cooler in the trunk.

I want my kids to have these types of good family memories so I wanted to continue the tradition.  This time we headed to Pine Valley Utah.  We were able to find an old church that is still in use today that has a ceiling built like an up side down boat.

 

It was closed that day but, we had a fun time playing in the large field along the side of the neat old church.

 Next, we headed to a nice  place to have a picnic.  It had a cute little stream for the kids to play around in after we had our lunch.

 I really enjoy listening to the talks of the leaders of the church and I find that I get to hear more of their words when kids are buckled!