Arrow of Light

Tayson completed his webelos and arrow of light this month.  He worked hard to finish everything before turning 11.  The award ceremony was fun and typical cub scouts - he got his face painted and learned details about all the aspects of scouting.  Way to go buddy - we are so proud of you for working hard.

Eating from my garden

I love having a garden.  Our harvest is going great this year - way better than last year.  I love that I can walk outside and pick fresh veggies for dinner.  Tonight everything I ate for dinner came out of the garden.  Delish.

 

Portuguese Camp

Today she got to put on her new school clothes, new shoes, pack her Monster High lunch box and put it in her Monster High backpack and head to school for a week of Portuguese Camp.  It felt way too soon to be back at school to me but she sure did look cute and was really excited to go back.

Lizzy Lou

We are all so in love with our little Lizzy Lou.  She is getting so big and is crazy fun. 

Bronze Meet

My cute little Claire Bear had her last meet of the season.  She had such a great first year of swimming and I love how much fun she ended up having with it.  It was a rough start but she ended up loving it.  She qualified to swim in the Bronze  Invitational.  And swam the Free Relay, 25 free and 25 back.  I'm so proud of her for working hard.

Provo Beach Resort

I love summer and spending time with my kids.  It's fun having cousins here to play with and reasons to go on fun outings.  The kids have wanted to go here for a while and we had a blast playing.  I only got pictures of the kids on the ropes course - but Sophie, Ella and Ethan were playing in the playland too.

This kid

This is his 4th pair of goggles this month.  His last pair lasted a day - and these aren't the cheap goggles.  Seriously - this kid is making me crazy with his goggles.  UGH!

Sidewalk of Fire - take 2

Since we got rained out our block party was moved to the week of Pioneer Day for a second round of celebration.  There were eating contests and fireworks and a dance party.  Luke did the taffy eating contest.  As always we had a blast hanging out with friends and watching an amazing firework show.  I love my neighborhood!

Zombies

They decided to use their makeup to be zombies....scary girls!  Then when Cody went downstairs they attacked him and turned him into one too.  If only I got a picture of him with his zombie makeup on - it was priceless!

Summer Fun

For Lilly's birthday activity we went ice skating.  Talk about a fun summer activity.  The rink was empty and it was nice and cool inside.  The kids had a blast.  I wore the go-pro for a while and got some sweet video of all the kids skating and then we went to Brick Oven for dinner.  And yes I decided to wear Luke's  Star Wars shirt :)

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Swim Meet

The kids got one last chance to get faster qualifying times for the county meet coming up.  The boys were very excited to swim fast and qualify for the Silver and Gold meets.  They had Todd draw their "lucky numbers" on their backs and all 3 kids swam their hearts out.  I love watching my kids swim and I love seeing their hard work pay off.  All of them swam faster times by far.  Claire is swimming in the Bronze meet, Luke in the Silver meet and Tayson in the Gold meet.  Way to go kids!!

Family Campout

The boys couldn't go to the Fathers/Sons camp out this year because of a swim meet so they decided to have a camp out in the back yard.   We roasted hamburgers, hot dogs and s'mores over the fire and set up the tent out back.  Then I got them all settled in and went inside to my cozy bed and read a book before falling asleep (I'm not big on sleeping on the ground).  Tayson came in around 11:00 then by 3:30 am everyone but Cody was sound asleep inside.  I guess that's a bonus to camping in the back yard. 

The Veggie Stand

Luke has wanted to do a lemonade stand all summer but he and Tayson decided that with all the extra veggies we have to do a veggie stand instead.  They were very excited when their first (and only) customer came and bought stuff and gave them a $2 rip (thanks Traci).  Then Zeus got out and it started raining so they closed up shop.....but we will set the stand up again soon because they loved it and everyone loves fresh veggies!

Just Dance

I love watching my kids play Just Dance on the wii. 

No more training wheels

I offered $50 to Eric and Allen to teach Claire to ride a bike so within 2 days Eric had Claire riding like a champ.  She loves riding her bike! Way to go Claire!

Kathy = 0 Self-Tanner = 1

Nope that's not a flesh eating disease.  Just a really bad self tanner application.

Happy Birthday Sophie

I can't believe my baby is 5!!  She has been looking forward to this day for several months....probably since last July.  We spread her birthday out over 2 days.  We did a big family dinner on Sunday and then did fun b-day activities on her birthday Monday.  

 

 She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop cake - so she picked out some new toys and helped decorate a very bright pink cake.

 

 Opening presents

She got a big girl scooter and had to test drive it

And she got a house for her pet shops

Birthday pancakes

Sophie wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese so we met Kami and her kids there to play
(luckily she didn't make us eat dinner there)

Tayson photo bombed us

Then we had dinner at her favorite restaurant The Old Spaghetti Factory

I can't believe my baby is 5.  She is getting so big.  Oh how I love my sweet Sophie Bug.  This girl is so much fun and brings more energy to our little family than I ever could have imagined.  She is sweet and loving and so full of life.  Everybody loves Sophie - it's impossible not to love her when you are with her.  She is always so happy and very very silly.  She hates having her hair fixed.  She is very independent.  She hates wearing underwear and if I don't double check she usually ends up without them on.  Oops.  She loves to give kisses - especially lip kisses.  She gives great hugs and loves to cuddle with me and hold my hand at night when she's falling asleep.  Never change my sweet girl!!