Obligatory Vacation Post 1

Greg:"You know it's a good vacation when you forget your password when you get back"
Me:"We drove through 8 states and the District of Columbia"

Our vacation started off rough, a freak storm blew through and knocked out power to most of the area, we didn't loose power at first but we did have a giant branch fall down in our back yard.  It was too big to leave while we were gone, soooo we spent a few hours the night and the morning before we left cleaning it up.  (And a few more hours chopping up the wood once we got back home, if you're curious.) 

Here's one angle, it doesn't look that bad now, but it sure freaked me out, and delayed our trip a little.

75 mph winds+patio umbrella=broken patio umbrella...


But we pushed on, packed up, and started driving...

Lots of pillows, blankies, and dollar-store-distractions. 

 First, West Virginia, I'm surprised that we drive through it too.

 Then Pennsylvania--I've always loved Pennsylvania, especially on the drive from BYU to NJ, because it means we're almost home.  It's so pretty, I still love it. 

 A week at the beach house

 Jumping in little water holes

 Throwing sand

 digging more holes when the waves wash them away

 getting wiped out over and over and over and over and loving it

 charging into the waves again and again and again and again

Just as we were leaving I remembered to get a picture, not pictured were Jill and Chris, darn!
Loads more photos to come:deep sea fishing, NYC, DC, and so much more...

Last of Mimi's Menus

This week we made:

Diego's Meatball Mountain Range (or Spaghetti and Meatballs with broccoli).  I actually made the meatballs instead of just warming up frozen meatballs from Trader Joe's.  They were quite tasty, maybe I'll make them again sometime...maybe :)

        That was followed by Fish in the Pond Tortilla Soup,  See the goldfish crackers swimming in the soup?

Mimi's Menus

I always think I'm going to teach my kiddos how to cook, but they seriously have as much interest as I do in cooking--which is very little.  Maybe Dora and Diego can help. 

We found this book at the library and they've been picking out things to make..

First we made Baked Potato Rescue Boats, a.k.a. Twice Baked Potatoes with cheese, cheese and broccoli.  Yum...

Here's Diego and his rescue boat, just in case you have no idea who Diego is or his boat, for that matter :)

And as I said last time, we made Horchata and Spanish rice. 

Most recently we made Birds' Nests

a.k.a hash browns with an egg-over-easy, topped with cheese (of course) and cherry tomato halves.

Yoda ate tomatoes ONLY. 

More to come, I know you can't wait...

What to do in NYC

While talking about things to do in NYC, I mentioned that we could go to the Bronx Zoo.
Parker asked:"What's a Bronk?"
Me, in my head:"we need to take Parker to NYC more often..."
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Mimi was pretty tired the day after visiting the local water park from open to close.  So tired that she fell asleep in the family room.  I thought it was so cute I had Parker take a picture.

 Me:"Don't take a picture of her back-side, take a picture of her face."

(photo censored)

 Me:"Ahh, don't take a picture of part of her head and mostly pillows!"

That's better

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Greg had a happy father's day (I hope).  We found a good/easy recipe for Spanish rice.  So to continue with the theme, I made him Horchata (a drink made from rice and cinnamon, he had it on his mission in a Spanish speaking part of California). 

We like the cook book so much, we've made and are going to make a few more of the recipes, we'll keep you posted...

First Day / Last Day

My sister asked if the kiddos were out of school yet and I realized that I had not yet posted their last day of school photos.


Here they are...

 Parker on the last day of 3rd grade...

 Parker on the 1st day of 3rd grade

 Mimi on the last day of Kindergarten

 Mimi on the 1st day of Kindergarten

 Mimi's darling bus driver let Yoda on the bus the last day of school.  She rode bus #86, so Yoda often asks to see this picture by yelling "86!"

The fun thing is that back in 2009, Parker rode the same bus with the same driver and she let Mimi sit for a minute too. 

 There are lots of reasons that I don't home school, and here's a couple of them, both Mimi's and Parker's teachers were so great this year.  I loved working with them.  I didn't get a picture of Parker's extra-help-teacher, but he'll have her again next year.  Also super.  I could never do the amazing job that they do.

  If you're wondering what's on Parker's face, he met up with the rough bark of a tree while playing with Nerf swords with friends.  I've been putting scare gel on it to keep it from scaring, and he's mad.  He'd like to have a scare, he hasn't told me why though. 

 I made a very low-tech surprise for them to find when they got home. 

 "Welcome to Summer"

 Water balloons

 It took them a minute to catch on, but they finally got it.

 We invited the next door neighbors and they had lots of fun. 

This Week

Most of the day I've had to remind myself that it's not the end of the week, it's only Tuesday!  It's been a long week already.  No real reason, I just worry myself ragged.

In an attempt to relax myself I was just sitting and saw this, I couldn't believe how cute it was, so I took a picture and then felt like sharing.  

Sprinkler time is all about fun, and relaxing...

bacon & Venus

Parker:"Why do I smell bacon?"
Greg:"That would be the bacon cooking."
Mimi:"Actually, bacon is my most favorite food."
Mimi is super trendy...
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 We loved watching the Transit of Venus, 2012!  

Mostly we had to watch online. 

 But now and then we the clouds would break and we could see it in person. 

lost x 2

Mimi is lop-sided in teeth she has lost, unlike Parker's very symmetrical tooth loss.   Just like most things, this girl is unpredictable :)

Suddenly I hear Parker from the family room and from behind the couch (where we keep extra pillows and blankets) :"She lost her tooth!"  And he meant it fell out and then got lost in piles of pillows and stuff.
Mimi:"I'm happy that I loozed it but I sad that I lost it."
Dad, a.k.a. the hero, found it without a moments delay!

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More Camping this time in the back yard!

 Giant Marshmallow S'mores...

And with S'mores came more graham-cracker-discussion.  I didn't know the history of the graham cracker until I started thinking about summer snacks for the kiddos.  Why does the graham cracker seem like it should be healthy but then it has bad ingredients?  I found the Wikipedia article about the origins of graham crackers very cool.  It's sole existence was to create something healthy to eat.  Hmm....

I bought a bunch of different crackers and we've been tasting them.  So far the winner is the Cinnamon Graham crackers from Trader Joe's (lower right-hand corner of the above photo).  We all independently picked it.

Back Yard

Ready for summer, not necessarily the heat.  
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Mimi:"Ahh!  A spider on me"
Parker:"Just make sure it didn't bite you or you could become like Spiderman"
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Just as Yoda is about to squirt me with a spray bottle of water, I say:"Only spray plants or rocks, not people"
As he's about to spray me again, I say:"Don't spray me, I'm a people"
Yoda:"You a queen"
 Me:"awesome"

 Trying to find the best graham cracker...