Memorial Week

I love this picture of the older kids!  They are so cute.  On Memorial Day we had fun running through the new sprinkler.  After two years of enjoying brown grass we thought we'd try for a green shade-we'll see if it works.  I just don't want a 300 dollar water bill to get it.

In the morning we drug all our bikes to Hyrum's school & rode them around the track.

We ran into Mrs. Fisher in the school's garden & she invited us to help her water the plants & we even cut some lettuce to take home for a salad for dinner.  Yum!

Best of friends.  I love the picture on the right.

 

Some other things we've been up to this week.  A good book is good wherever you may be.

Jeremy says that Hunter's obsession with all things cars will die down but there's no sign of it yet.  I like his obsession.  It wouldn't quite be the same around here without it.

Hyrum drew this picture & then cut it up into 27 very un-puzzle-like puzzle pieces for me to put together.  That was one of the trickiest puzzles ever.

We made 30 containers of strawberry freezer jam one day.  I want to try raspberry & blackberry soon too. And someday we'll have our own strawberry plants hopefully.

There was never such a loved baby around here!  He makes the perfect 5th kid because he is so chill.  It takes a lot for Dallen to get tired of all the love & noise.

 

  

We have been waiting for that perfect Saturday morning in the 60's to go to the zoo & we got it last Saturday.  It was a beautiful day.

Justin is obsessed with bugs.  He was more interested in the fly's buzzing around the garbage than in the exotic African animals although he liked those as well.  So I had to get his picture with those giant, nasty cockroaches.  I'm so glad they were behind glass or he would've had them crawling all over his arms & loving every minute of it.

 

I have been loving the summertime so far.  We are in a great groove.  I am loving Hyrum being home.  He is such a great kid.  I am already getting sad at the thought of him going back to school in like 10 weeks.  I briefly thought about home school just so he could be home with us but then I quickly came to my senses :)

School's Out for the Summa'!

This past Wednesday was Hyrum's last & final day of kindergarten!  He has done so well & learned so much.  My favorites I think are how creative he has become in his artwork & his love of reading.  I find him frequently reading by himself.  Love it!

Mrs. Fisher is fabulous.  She had the kids plant a garden & they worked out there a lot this spring.

                                                                           

After school one of Hyrum's BFFs had a water fight party in her backyard & our whole crew joined them.  Great way to kick off the (HOT) summer.

To celebrate as a family the next day we went down to one of our favorite parks to have a bonfire.  I really wasn't thinking about it much because it's not the most pleasant thing to sit by a roasting fire in 90 degree weather.  So we spent most of our time down in the almost dry river bed.  We had foil dinners & 'smores for dinner.  And today we celebrated by going to Andy's Custard.  What's a celebration of any kind without a bit of Andy's anyway         

              

              

We've also done some much anticipated fishin' lately,

 

We decided Hunter should graduate to a big boy bike since his knees were up by his ears pedaling around with his tricycle.  The first time he got on he was zipping around the driveway pretending he was a race car of course,

 

Mother's Day was great,

 

Trip to visit the Tolmanitudes in the metropolis of Kansas City was terrific,

And when life gets hard there's nothing better than my 4 & 6 year old taping up a mural above my pillow.  It makes everything better.

 

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Man I'm getting old!!

Well my birthday is tomorrow & we celebrated it this weekend with Indian food & this amazing cake again. 

Last time we made it I was so stuffy I couldn't taste it very well.  Mousse is so delicious & easy to make.

We also celebrated by having a very productive weekend.  We got all sorts of things done around the house.  We went through all the kids clothes (which takes forever!) to get everyone ready for summertime.  And we have 3 big ol' boxes full of toys & clothes to give away to Goodwill.   I LOVE getting rid of things!

This kid is huge!  That outfit he's wearing on the left is a 9 month suit.  He had his 2 month check up this past week.  He's 14 1/2 pounds (95th percentile) & 25ish inches long (97th percentile) so he's definitely following in his siblings footsteps with the chub.  He really doesn't look too chubby to me yet but he's sure a long one.

 

I love to see the Temple

(I did not take this picture, just wish I had)

Last Saturday we went up to the Kansas City Missouri temple open house.  Before an LDS temple is dedicated they hold an open house for anyone to go inside & see what it looks like & to learn a bit of what we do there.  I went to the Portland Oregon temple house when I was 9 I think & still remember how impressed I was with its beauty.

I am so glad we were able to go up as a family & to let our children see the inside of the temple for themselves.  Of course the twins were chanting 'Mommy, see tempo?!' the whole 3 hour drive up there-they were very excited.  Hyrum's favorite part was the celestial room & Hunter's favorite part were the chandeliers & the fountain in the front.  The twins favorite part I think was trying to lose Mom & Dad inside the temple :)  But at least they were pretty quiet.  I hope we can do this again when our kids are older.

The drive up & back went smooth!  No complaining, whining, crying, screaming or any other pleasant things that normally occur during long car trips.  The kids did so well.  Sigh, makes me feel a bit better about our enormous road trip this summer.  (Well Dallen did get a little upset on the way home but he's excused.)  And I had the very best by FAR experience eating at a restaurant with the twins.  I caught a glimpse of public normalcy in my life for the future.  We went to Pizza Hut for lunch & they sat in normal chairs without getting down & running around & grabbing everything in sight.  They (meaning Justin) ate everything on his plate without throwing food on the floor or crying or being force fed etc.  Jeremy & I were able to to sit & eat & enjoy our food at the same time without interruption.  Amazing feeling!  Of course things were back to the way they normally are at Culver's for dinner but I did catch that glimpse.  

Oh man twins are hard but that is a whole other conversation.

 

I know the picture is dark but what do you all think of Jeremy's goatee??  I like it!  But he shaved it off for church.  I think I've got him convinced to let it grow for a bit longer than a week next time.

 

We had a family home evening lesson on the temple last week & had the big boys use their creativity to create a temple for their own.  Good job guys!

 

In other exciting Shakespear news this cute little man is 2 months old today -hooray!!!

But don't grow up too fast now.