Hot! Summer! FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

We don't mess around with Summer, you guys.

Within an hour of bidding the BEST TEACHER EVER adieu, we were at the hotel, ready to rock.  (Just in case it wasn't obvious, I didn't take this picture of the pool.  Totally stolen off the hotel website.)

And let me tell you, it was NOT that serene once we got there.  We met 5 other school friends there for a family sleepover.

Despite the fact that they went to school that day, we were still able to fit in 8 hours of swim time and a 2 hour break for dinner.  How tired were they?  SO TIRED.  I kept waiting for GG's meltdown.  It came.  The next morning.  While again in the pool.  Nothing like a temper tantrum in the pool, my friends.  But, like always, we got through it.

On Monday I rallied enough to help Ella and friends put on a Lemonade Stand in front of our house.  Our house has the best location for selling lemonade!  When the district school down the block gets out, we get some good foot traffic.  They sold $16 in lemonade at $.50/cup, which was just about perfect.  Please note the "Happy Lemon" balloons, decorated with faces, and awesome sign that Ella made ALL BY HERSELF! Hooray for happy brownies and lemons!

And I also rallied enough to take the girls to Lake Tahoe on Tuesday.  I was going to invite friends, but I didn't quite rally enough to organize that, so we went solo.  But, as I've said before, RENO IS CRAZY.  Practically everywhere we go, we will run into someone we know.  GG saw her old friend from preschool last year & they spent the afternoon playing together.  Good times had by all.  Except maybe the crawdad that I caught for the girls in the rocks with our handy dandy new fishing net.  He might have been a little freaked out.  I ended up gifting him to the little boy down the beach with the promise he'd return him to the water when he left.  Also, crawdads are GROSS.  How can people eat those things?  They're like gigantic insects.  No literally, they are GIGANTIC INSECTS THAT LIVE IN THE WATER.  Just like lobsters and shrimp.  I know insects might be the wave of the future for providing protein to a growing population, but I think I'd rather go vegan.  Is there a name for an insect free diet?  That's what I am.  And I'm starting now with a boycott of crawdad, shrimp and lobster.

Anywho, here's more pics of my cute kids in the sun.

GG art directed this one.  "Mom, take a picture of me slowly pouring sand out of this bucket!!!!"

Ella had a playdate on Friday.  They hadn't decided where they'd be going when they left, but as I got about 6 emails with a similar theme, I realized they'd gone to the Discovery Museum downtown.  Woot!!!

GG had her VERY LAST FAIRYTALE BALLET recital yesterday.  Uncle Ian, Auntie Amber and Baby Lucy joined us to watch.  It was awesome.  As always.  Their little peach dance costumes were ridiculously cute.  I think I'm going to take her to a studio & get her portrait taken.  In hopes that she can one day send it to Awkward Family Photos.  (Aren't 1/2 their pics of dance costumes?)

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Hello Friends!

May Day was my birthday.  How did you celebrate?  We celebrated by having a mis-communication which ended up in us going to Claim Jumpers for dinner.  PERFECT!  I took the day off of work and chores!  EVEN MORE PERFECT!  I tried to take a nap in the hammock in the afternoon, but GG needed a snack, to ask a question, another snack, and a fudgesicle, and another question every time I sat down.  ALMOST PERFECT!

Gretchen surprised us all with this lovely drawing.  At first I was all, "Oh, mmhmmm, nice sweetie.  That's a nice guy."

 But then she said, "No, momma, it's the tomato from Veggie tales!"  And then I was all "!!!!!My baby's a GENIUS!!!!!!!!"

So Tuesday night we went with the Relief Society to the Ronald McDonald house in town to do some cleaning and make dinner.  When the Disney Store in town closed (sniff!!!) they gave all their props to the Ronald McDonald house to decorate the sibling play room.  The girls were super impressed!  And in the backyard there was a playhouse shaped as a gigantic gumball machine!  WOW!  The girls kept asking, "Can WE go there some time?"
 "Sure, we can go help there again."
"No, can we STAY THERE!"
"Honey, it's only for kids who have a brother or sister in the hospital!"
 "Well, maybe one day can one of US be in the hospital and we can play?"
SIGH.

Any good karma we may have had from that experience was quickly cleared out when I ran over a dove on the way home.  Yes, I killed a dove.  A DOVE.  It was sitting there, hangin' out on the street.  Of course birds always fly away when you get close, right?  It's dangerous to swerve when you're driving down a busy street at 40 mph, they always move, right?  RIGHT?  No.  Dove.  Thud.  Cloud of feathers behind our car.  No more dove.  And Gretchen crying, "Why did you hit that bird, momma?  Why did you have to KILL IT????"

 Ella had Crazy Hair Day at school this week.  Put in your bets now to guess how long her hair stayed this way.

 (Her scalp is still red, and no it's NOT a sunburn.  I'm not sure how we're going to get it off!)

It was also her school's EVENING OF THE ARTS this week!  Her awesome music and art teachers have been working so hard to put this together.  Months of preparation.  The 3rd and 4th grade students were required by mandatory attendance to sing and play the recorder.  I asked Ella if she was worried about performing in front of everyone.  She said, "No, not really."
I said, "Do you feel like you know it pretty well then?"
"No, I only know about the first 10 notes, then I just pretend for the rest of the song."
"Honey!!!  Are you kidding me?  Do you want me to help you practice?"  (A completely impractical offer as we were leaving for the EVENING OF THE ARTS in about 15 minutes)
"Nah, I'm good."
"Why didn't you bring home the music, I could have helped you!"  (Turns out she did.  Multiple times.  I found 2 copies of "An Olde English Tune" when I was cleaning up papers yesterday.  FAIL.  Ah well....)

Her friend C, on the other hand, had a SOLO.  (Though her moms said the way you get the recorder solo at THE EVENING OF THE ARTS is you show up for the solo tryouts.  Then only one other kid shows up.  So you both get a solo.)

 Girl Scouts had the COOLEST OUTING this Friday.  We had a half day at school, so afterwards we met for a quick potluck Cinco de Mayo picnic at the park, then went TO THE INDOOR ARCHERY RANGE!!!!  Gretchen was really excited about it, but she was NOT really excited to have her hair pulled back.  She likes her hair around her face.  And she's COOL, not CUTE, BTW...  Please don't call her cute. For all our sakes.

 Ella was told by a leader she had to keep her uniform on, but she snuck some purple shorts on in the car.  Because she's a rebel, Dottie.

 Check out that determination!!!

 The kind people at Wasting Arrows Indoor Archery Range set up an alternative bullseye once they realized that all the arrows were indeed being wasted...

And, finally, THANK YOU AUNTIE AMBER!!!  She threw a lovely BBQ last night to celebrate my birthday.  We were super excited about not having to cook (ok, maybe that was just me), the homemade cake with cool-whip frosting (it's calling my name right nooooooow!!!) and the CABLE!!!  Man, I could watch HGTV for hours.  As we did.  Last night.  Do you know what this house needs?  A walk in craft closet.  And a murphey bed.  And a place for my fish-tanking.

Have a great week!!!!!!

Sprouts

 My goodness, the weather here has been FABULOUS.  Yesterday it was 88°!!!  It's so nice that every time I see gardening seeds on sale, I have to buy them.  I'm pretty sure we've got about $20 worth of seeds hanging out in various stashes throughout the house.  But guess what, SOME OF THEM HAVE SPROUTED!!!  I am easily impressed, I know, but MAN that's cool!  We're going to have cosmos all over our front beds.  I think cosmos are my most favorite summertime flower.  Even the foliage is light and pretty.  But we'll see what happens with our white pumpkins, 3 types of sunflowers, pickling cucumbers, yellow and red tomatos.  And dill.  And rosemary.  And lavender...  And spinach.  Oh yeah, and carrots...  Ok, maybe we have $30 in seeds...

My friends, our house STINKS right now.  I don't know what it is, but I just wanted to let you know.  Lest you read our little family blog and think everything is wonderful in our lives.....  I think it's a combination of GG's new mattress (which we did air out, according to their instructions) and our stinky dog and maybe the skinky kitchen trash.  I can do something about the trash.  But instead I'm sitting here.

On Wednesday we met a friend at Legends, the outdoor mall down the road.  The have a cool rock water feature that I'm pretty sure is not supposed to be a splash park, but that's what we made it into. Because we're resourceful and we like to walk the line.  On our way there, we were talking about the baby we were going to meet up with, and how we just need to give him space because we don't want to give him any germs.  (She was healthy, just as a precaution). 
She said, "Is he a cute baby?  I love babies.  I love ALL babies.  Except for the ugly ones who cry and have snot." 
I think 70% of airplane passengers would agree with you on that one.  (Public Service Announcement:  BE NICE TO MOTHERS OF CRYING BABIES!!!  Airplanes are PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!  If you cannot handle crying babies, MAKE PREPARATIONS.  Seriously, there's a huge chance that a baby will be crying on your flight.  NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES.  Invest in some.  And realize the world does not revolve around you.  The end.)

 Red Bighorn sculptures.  I want to touch them too, but I'm not five, so I don't think Security would be as forgiving.

 Adrianne send me the picture of the saddest baby in the world.  BABY VERONICA, it's like you know that you're going to get shots in 8.3 minutes!  How did you know?

 And we are all SUPER DUPER excited about Auntie Autumn's new book!  SUPER DUPER DUPER EXCITED.  Just in case you can't tell, it's about girls who fight with swords.  But we can't decide which pose we like the best!  What's your vote? (And before you judge my design skillz too harshly, this is just the rough layout.  I know, I know...)

#1 - HeYAAAAH Pose

#2 - Oh No You Didn't Pose

#3 - In Yo FACE Pose

#4 - Low Down Fighting Ladies Pose

#5 - My Sword Is Bigger Than Your Sword Pose

We anxiously await your opinion!

Pickled

 Oh my heck, some exciting things happened this week. Mostly this:


WE GOT A NEW BUNKBED!!!  Unfortunately, we haven't gotten the new full-size lower bunk mattress.  So we threw GG's toddler-bed mattress on the floor in what-will-be her bed space and she's been happy as a clam.  Except for when she jumped up from bed too fast and totally smacked her head on the top bunk.  Sorry babe.  That sucked. 

She's going to upgrade from her crib/toddler bed mattress this week when our friend Amazon delivers the new memory foam full size mattress ($208, tax free, free shipping, since I must overshare about all my shopping adventures...)  That's right, she's going from her hand-me-down-from Ella cracked plastic 4" crib mattress that we bought at the Dreaded Walmart EIGHT YEARS AGO.  The sad little mattress that Hannah now sneaks on to as soon as Gretchen vacates her bed.  (Hannah is too fat to jump onto Ella's bed.  And no WAY is she jumping on me & Colby's bed.  It's kidproofed to keep small sneaking children out.  You practically need a stepstool to get into our bed.)  The point is, our dog is gross.  She stinks.  Even right after the groomer she stinks.  She's a fat stinkey bulldog that NO ONE wants to share a bed with.  And now GG won't have to!!!  Woo hoo!!!!!!

I will never have to hear "Hannah, GET OFF!!!  GET OFF MY BED!!!!  HANNAH, ARE YOU DEAF?  GET OFF MY BED!!!!" again. 

(For the record, yes, Hannah is deaf.  And stubborn.  So we suspect that even if she could hear and understand your 5 year old tirade, she would just look you in the eye, blink, fart, and go right back to sleep.)



Most of you probably already know, but we have a less-than-slight pickle obsession at our house (note the toy kitchen pickle in GG's mouth above.  That's not her tongue.  That's a plastic pickle).  I think I've mentioned before that Ella's been restricted to one pickle a day, not till after 10am.  (Because yes, she wants one as soon as she wakes up).  Gretchen has been ho-hum about it.  Pickles are fine, but not a daily staple.  Except for this week at the grocery store when she saw BABY DILL PICKLES.  OMG, seriously?  BABY PICKLES?  Yes.  It rocked her world.  She was delighted.  And because I am nice, and also worn down, I bought it for her.  She called them "Sweetish Pickles" (though they were dill) and held them in the crook of her arm through the store crooning, "Oh, my little sweetish pickles!  Are you ready to come home with me?"  And, because I didn't place any restrictions on her pickle consumption, she ate the whole jar that afternoon.  THE WHOLE JAR.  This is what happens when you try to unload groceries while helping with homework while getting dinner going while cleaning the bathroom. 

And in the soap-opera world of preschool, Gretchen has found a new best friend. 
GG:  Can we go somewhere?
Me:  Where?
GG: Some place fun.
Me:  Um, maybe... (sense my level of commitment and excitement)
GG:  Can I invite my Best Friend?
Me:  Uh, which best friend?  (She has about 4 options)
GG:  Ummmm...I forgot her name.
Me:  You sound really close.
GG:  HAILEY!  Her name is Hailey.
Me: We'll see.

We'll see is my answer to everything.  Can we get this song on the radio so we can listen to it ALL THE TIME?  Sure, we'll see.  Can we go to Old McDonalds and get ice cream?  Sure, we'll see. 

But can we spend the afternoon in the hammock and set my pastels out (only to be knocked over, "But that's ok, they still work," I say with gritted teeth because that's what happens when you share your precious things with small people.)  YES WE CAN.

 Ella wanted me to show you that she can jump through the hula-hoop like a jump rope.  She's really good at it. 

Ella also wants to share NOTHING.  When asked, she said, "NOTHING."  Then giggled. 

And More Spring Breakin'

HEY GUYS!!!  I had to break this post up into deux so that I could keep your attention.  ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?  Good.

I know you're super most favorite thing in the world is to look at what my kids draw.  So here's some more for you!  You're welcome!  The top is Ella.  She said she stylized it on purpose.  I think that's a flying narwhal in the sky.

And here's Gretchen's.  I'm guessing Ella helped fill in the names.  GG sure loves her friends.  Awww, for cute.  This is how we stay busy during General Conference.

And this is how Baby Veronica grows up and makes us laugh and cringe at the same time!  SO CUTE!  AND GROSS!!!

Oh Baby Veronica, we can't believe you're 6 months old!  And french kissing dogs!  Awwww!!!!

My friend Katherine had the sweetest idea for her anniversary.  They had a family picnic at the park to celebrate their family.  Awwwww!  Here we are celebrating that and Subway Sandwiches (mmmmm, sandwiches...)  Ella, you're so pretty!

 The Girl Scouts went to the state capitol on Wednesday.  I love Sweet Home Nevada.  Seriously.  Only in Nevada will the State Treasurer stop what she's doing to talk to 7 girls about their plans for the future and saving for college.  She invited us all into her office and one by one and asked what they wanted to be when they grow up (Ella wants to be an Illustrator, GG wants to be a babysitter ;)

A super nice law clerk took us around the State Supreme Court and explained some stuff that mostly went over all our heads.

 We learned about the history of the capitol building.  That desk belonged to a governor!  That giant press on the left was for putting seals on official documents!  (We didn't get a governor with a college degree for a while.  And he wasn't even from the US, he was an immigrant from...Prussia?  Poland?  I don't know.  Wikipedia it.  The point is, that's crazy. Geesh.)

Good times.

To round out Spring Break, I found an awesome deal on expedia & we booked a room at the Peppermill Resort for a night!  Woo hoo!!!  And even better, we had some friends join us for our stay-cation.  We spent all night and all day swimming at the fabulous pool.  I want to go there EVERY MONTH!  It's cheaper than swim lessons, and Gretchen figured out how to doggy-paddle in just a few hours.

But things aren't all rosy and wonderful, we can't get Gretchen to stop picking her nose and eating it.  Even when we cry out with gross-ness, it does no good.  Last week, Ella asked, "WHY?  WHY DO YOU PICK YOUR NOSE WITH YOUR FINGERS AND EAT IT?"  And Gretchen replied, as if it's so obvious, "Because!  My tongue can't reach!"

BLECH.

Kids are funny, but man, they're super gross.

Pre Spring Breakin'

We had the most fantastic thing happen over Spring Break.  LISMARIE AND FAMILY CAME TO VISIT!!!  We love love LOVE when people come to visit, especially Lismarie.  They stayed at a hotel literally 5 minutes from our house, so we got to go swim with them too!  Woo hoo!!!

Not just swimming in the tub you guys, swimming in a REAL pool too. (Though Lismarie & I were super excited that we got to re-create the infamous BYU Freshman Year Vegas Tub Incident with the next generation. Stupid 90's Circus Circus hot tub hours + Stupid 19 year olds = hilarity.  Still waiting for photographic evidence to show up on Facebook.)

How much fun can you squeeze into 2 days?  Oh, let me tell you.  SERIOUS FUN.  It wasn't actually our Spring Break, so I let Ella pick a day to stay home from school.  She opted for Monday, which was Virginia City Day.  The gigantic old-timey candy shop may have been the deciding factor.

We spent many minutes trying to talk GG into getting a bubblegum cigar.  Because this picture NEEDED to happen.

The Virginia City graveyard!  Pretty AND creepy!  My favorite combination!

The churches are almost as plentiful as the bars & whorehouses!

The next day Lismarie & I popped some tags at Savers.  OMG you guys, I spent $56 at Savers.  Do you know how much awesome junk you can get at a thrift store for $56?  Let me tell you:

-2 fabulous t-shirts

-1 super lovely black top that I'm wearing RIGHT NOW and will wear to church today

-2 AMAZING (no seriously!  AMAZING) sweaters.  One bright red vintage one with big white buttons, one grey angora.  Both FABULOUS

-COWBOY BOOTS!!!  My 4 year search for cowboy boots is over!!!

-A blue tin for storing treasures (immediately confiscated by Ella.  Followed by Gretchen's displeasure.)

-2 crystal lamps (which made the Macklemore Video Extra we ran into on our way out SUPER jealous).  They'll look amazing flanking our fireplace.

Lismarie & I have some serious Thrift Store luck when we're together.  

To follow up that shopping high we stopped by the pawn shop where Colby & I found my beloved wedding ring.  (I love my wedding ring.  It's the most perfect ring in the world.)  Lismarie was specifically looking for turquoise jewelry, but alas, we didn't have $400 to spend on a cuff bracelet.  But she DID find a new wedding ring for herself!!!  FOR $200!!!!  We're now wedding ring twins!!!  Of course they're not the same ring, but her's is really really lovely.  She & Mike had talked about replacing their wedding rings.  Little did they know they'd be able to do it for that cheap!  Dude!  HOORAY FOR RENO PAWN SHOPS!!!

And then, like the day couldn't get any better, we drove up to Lake Tahoe.  It was heavenly.  The kids climbed on the rocks and played on the beach.  And then we got T's Rotisserie, the best food in Tahoe.  OMG SIGH.  Awesome.

 

I was so sad when they left on Wednesday morning.  I almost cried, but I pulled it together.  Sniff.  Then I got to go make lunch for 40 missionaries for a zone conference.  With a super tired Gretchen in tow.  Hooray.  (Note sarcasm).

SO YOU SHOULD ALL COME VISIT.  We'll make it worth your while.  ;)