Destination Dallas

Matt was able to go to Panama for 2 weeks for a military humanitarian eye surgery mission.  Hanging out at home by myself with the four kids for two weeks during the summer did not seem too appealing.  Even though I am kind of a wimp about driving by myself, I decided to make the drive up to Dallas to visit the Kenitzers for a week.  I was pretty proud of myself that I did it alone and the drive wasn't even too painful.  We had a great time with all the activities Camille kept us busy with.

We did lots of playing at their neighborhood park.

We went to the mall to hang out at the Lego Store.  They were having a competition of who could make the most mini figures in a minute.  The winner of each round got a set of 3 mini figures, all the rest got to keep one of the figures they made.  The kids had fun and we didn't have to buy them anything because they each got a free mini figure and Paloma got a set of 3.

We went to McKinney to tour older homes.  

We celebrated cousin Dallin's 9th Birthday with... 

bowling, 

laser tag,

 homemade personal pizzas,

and the older kids went to the six flags water park with Uncle Eric.

Under the bed

I have mentioned before that Blake has kicked Brayden out of the room they share.  Blake sleeps better in the room alone with the door closed.  So, Brayden has been sleeping that last couple of months in the office in the extra queen bed.  When we recently had family visiting Brayden was kicked out of his back-up bed.  Not really having his own sleeping location he decided to find his own.  When I was checking on all the children before I went to bed, I couldn't find where Brayden was sleeping.  I searched everywhere and I finally found him under Kylee's bed.  He discovered this cozy location and slept there all week.  He would take a flashlight, have his lego magazines in a bin next to him, his pillow off his bed and a blanket from Kylee.  Under the bed continued to be Brayden's choice of sleeping location after the family left.

Princesses

When I take Blake and Julia with me to the store I usually like to bring some kind of treat or snack to entertain them with.  Today I had some left over fruit snacks from our recent trip.  I brought a Princess one and a Nemo one.  Of course I gave the princess one to our princess fanatic Julia and the Nemo to Blake.  Julia was excited, but Blake was not happy.  He kept saying princess over and over again.  He set the Nemo snacks aside and kept asking for princess until Julia shared with him.  Should I be concerned that Blake prefers Princess fruit snacks over Nemo?

Blake gets excited every time Julia takes out her princess barbies to play with.  He likes to go and join her.  One day they came into our room screaming both holding on to a Sleeping Beauty barbie.  Neither one would let go so it resulted in a decapitated Barbie.

I think Julia's obsession with princesses might be rubbing off on Blake.

Summer Activities

I realize that I am not very good about going out and doing activities with my kids alone.  I like to have Matt's help to brave places like Sea World.  Here are some of the activities the kids have been up to, usually at home.

There has been lots of Wii playing.  Brayden and Kylee are trying to beat Super Mario Bros... a great productive goal for the summer.  It inspired Brayden to make his Toad hat.

                                    

Otter pops, popsicles, and ice cream treats

Puzzles, Painting, and Play-doh

Water guns and squiggly sprinklers to try and keep cool. 

Julia's first heart break

Julia lives in a world of princesses and fairytales.  During this past year she has talked about Haydn, a little boy in her preschool group who she apparently saw as her prince.  Talking to her, she clearly had the whole fairy tale worked out in her mind.  The two have been good friends and play well together.  When Julia very matter-of-factly told Haydn that she was going to marry him, he simply told her that was dumb.  Poor little Julia was crushed.

Julia Ballerina

This past school year Julia was in a ballet and tap class at Chrissy's Dance Academy.  She loved the class and did a lot of "practicing" at home.  The schedule, every Friday at noon, was a little tough because it was during Blakes nap time.  Early release days were especially hectic with a crazy dash from picking the kids up from school at 11:45 and then driving to her class 15 minutes away.  We usually ended up a few minutes late.  

All the ballerinas in their Halloween costumes

Julia with her teacher Miss Katie

Julia's dance class

At the end of the year we ended up not doing the final performance because of their crazy scheduling.  They had 50 dance performances set and Julia was number 45 and the recital started at about 6:30.  That meant that she would be performing really late at night around 9:30 and would have to stay in the back behind the stage for the full 4 hours while everyone performed.  It sounded pretty miserable for a 4 year old and we decided that it would not be a good situation for the whole family.  We didn't really tell Julia that she wouldn't do the performance.  Well into the summer she did keep asking me when she was going to do her performance.  I video taped a run through of her performance dance during her class.

Rotating Preschool

This past school year Julia was in a little preschool group with other kids from our ward.  They met 1 day a week for 2 1/2 hours and rotated between the 6 houses of each child in the group in the first half of the year, and then went down to 5 houses after one of the boys moved.  We had a theme for the month and a new letter each week.  Julia loved it and I enjoyed preparing lessons and activities for the kids.  

October 14, 2009 

Sheering a sheep and milking a cow during the farm unit. 

October 28, 2009 - Visiting Fiesta Farms

Showing off the monkey masks they made at Parker's house.

March 29, 2010

Zoo visit with the preschool

Julia, Kate, Hayden, Nora, Parker

Practicing their letters in shaving cream at Parker's house.

May 11, 2010 Last day of Preschool

Haydn, Parker, Kate, Julia, Nora