Mosaics and Duct Tape

Today we had craft class again. I wanted to make Mosaics with the kids. So I ripped up a billion pieces of brightly colored paper, made an Elmer's Glue and water mixture and let the kids have at it. I love what they came up with. I had a lot of fun and I think they did too.

This is Andrew's mosaic. He has titled it, "A Hobo's Head."

This is Riley's. It is a portrait of Genella the Evil Sea Witch. Notice the seaweed hair.

This is Danae's. It is a picture of Genella with her foot in her mouth. She gave it to her to keep. Isn't she nice? (BTW, Genella has an issue with feet. She detests them.)

This is Maleah's. It is abstract art. I enjoyed explaining what abstract art is.

This is Adria's. It is a smiley face. I lightly drew in the parameters and she filled it in expertly. Then wrote her name and lots of other letters on the bottom.

This is Carissa's. I was just informed that it is upside down. It is a swing. She drew the picture herself and then filled it in. I think the green part is the swing, the purple is the rope and the red is rain (if I understood right.)

This is Genella's fish. Another example of abstract. :o)

This is my flower. I made half of it last night to show an example.

After craft class we went swimming, as is becoming the usual. There have been only three weeks since school has gotten out and I've gone through three bottles of sunblock already. So I went to Sam's Club and stocked up. Sunblock is expensive.

And the explanation of the duct tape. . . My mom's pool is 30-35 years old. The edges are really rough (and were when I was little too, to be fair). Well, Adria isn't being too adventurous with the water yet and just scoots around the sides. This has given her little sores on the tips of all her fingers. So in an effort to let her continue to swim and not make the sores any bigger I put band aids on all her fingers and then duct taped the band aid to her skin. I figured that when the duct tape soaked in the water it would make it less harsh to remove the duct tape. So she had silver fingertips all afternoon. It worked pretty well. Three eventually fell off and they all came right off when she was finished. Success. Sores no bigger. They still hurt her a lot, it is pretty sad, really. But isn't she cute with her sparkly fingers?

And last, but not least. Carissa has no fear. I love this picture. So confident. So daring. SO much fun. Yay, Carissa!!

For Jeff's Eyes Only

I took a long nap after church today. Some Sundays are just more stressful than others. This was one of those days. I spoke in Sacrament Meeting. It went really well. But, as always, I'm glad to be done. Then during Relief Society I played the piano without having had the hymns before hand. Which is a really bad thing for me. I'm not good enough of a pianist to be able to wing it. But that went pretty well too. Someone happened to pick pretty easy songs. Then the sister giving the lesson asked me and my kids to sing 'A Child's Prayer' as a part of her lesson. So in the middle of class I went and got the kids, came back and sang. That went well too. I got a little choked up, which really stinks, it's hard to sing and cry at the same time. But we finished strong and it turned out well too. I was even able to video it for Jeff. So, no one else needs to watch it. Just Jeff. No, really. You don't need to watch it. :o)

Cooking Class and The Lion King

Last week was a very fun and busy week. The cooking class went really well, Genella did a great job. We made yummy pretzels and Muddy Buddies. If you haven't tried Muddy Buddies, go buy a box of Chex cereal with the recipe on the side. They are a chocolate, peanut butter and powdered sugar covered Chex cereal treat. SO yummy and really only take about 15 minutes to make. . . Even less to eat. :o) (I can email you the recipe if you would rather. :o) We had lots of fun cooking, eating and hanging out.


Then on Thursday we went to see the Lion King in Sacramento. It was very well done and the kids loved it. Adria asked if we could "go home now" as soon as the animal gathering was finished at the beginning. But they all did wonderfully well and we all enjoyed ourselves.


After the show we walked down K Street to Hard Rock Cafe. It is always fun to go to Hard Rock. They have yummy food and it is fun to read about all the memorabilia they have on their walls. I will probably always remember this trip because it is where I found out that Michael Jackson had passed away. I think it was a pretty appropriate location and made it so I will probably never forget "where I was when I heard." Sad to hear, in my opinion, especially because he was planning a comeback tour.

It was a really fun day, and a really fun week. Although some mornings this summer I have asked myself why I have scheduled myself so thin this summer, I'm having a wonderful time with my kids and I think all the fun activities will be worth the effort. Best of all, when the classes and trips all run out it will be time for Jeff to visit. Yippee. Only 33 days left! Yay!

First Summer Craft Class

Genella and I were looking for crafty classes and cooking classes for our kids to attend this summer. They really wanted to do them but with all the other expensive things they are doing those classes were being pushed aside. So we decided to do them ourselves. Six kids are enough to plan a class. I'm doing a craft class once a week and Genella is doing a cooking class once a week. Today we made T-shirts for the 4th of July. I found these shirts on the Family Fun Website. I embellished their idea a little by making a 2009 stencil and gluing red, white and blue jewel stars on them to add a little glitter. The kids had a lot of fun and I think they turned out really well. I'm sure I spent at least as much as the Old Navy Ts, but these are custom made. :o)

After they were done decorating the shirts it was into the pool for everyone. I have to tell you I'm loving having a pool in my backyard again. The only drawback is chlorine and Danae's impending green hair.

Tomorrow we are going to make Pretzels at Genella's house. Yum!

Folsom Lake

Yesterday we went to the lake and it was tons of fun. It was a beautiful day and the kids are finally old enough to give them a little more leash. The kids played in the sand a lot and Danae practically never left the water. She really is my little fish. I should find a swim team for her.

Genella took the four older ones out to the buoys.

Getting ready to leave. We made them dry out for 20 minutes before dusting them off and putting them in the van.

Happy Father's Day

For Father's Day this year we made a four minute movie all about Jeff. It was lots of fun to make and to hear the answers the kids came up with. I also asked them questions similar to the "notes" that were going around Facebook a few months ago. Enjoy.

I asked the children these questions separately so they couldn't share answers.

1. What is something Dad always says to you?
Andrew: He calls me Kiddo
Danae: I love you.
Adria: Don't hurt somebody.

2. What makes Dad happy?
Andrew: When we hug him, kiss him, love him and are together as a family.
Danae: Kisses from me.
Adria: Hugging

3. What makes Dad sad?
Andrew: When we are away from him.
Danae: When the kids aren't doing what we're supposed to.
Adria: No hugs.

4. How does your Dad make you laugh?
Andrew: He's very good at making jokes.
Danae: He tickles me.
Adria: tickles

5. What was your Dad like as a child?
Andrew: Smart
Danae: A nice boy
Adria: He was small.

6. How old is your Dad?
Andrew: 34 or 35
Danae: 33
Adria: 8

7. How tall is your Dad?
Andrew: about 5'6"
Danae: Like 55 feet or so
Adria: Up

8. What is his favorite thing to do?
Andrew: Family cuddle time
Danae: Family cuddle time
Adria: Work

9. What does your Dad do when you're not around?
Andrew: He watches football.
Danae: Work
Adria: goes to work

10. If your Dad becomes famous, what will it be for?
Andrew: Being a wonderful father and a really good psychologist.
Danae: Being the nicest guy on earth.

11. What is your Dad really good at?
Andrew: Making our family happy.
Danae: Being Nice
Adria: Hugging his kids

12. What is your Dad not very good at?
Andrew: Playing the DS (handheld video games)
Danae: Riding a unicycle
Adria: Not liking kids

13. What does your Dad do for his job?
Andrew: He's a psychologist.
Danae: He's an Army psychologist.
Adria: He does work.

14. What is your Dad's favorite food?
Andrew: Ice Cream
Danae: Ice Cream
Adria: Chicken

15. What makes you proud of your Dad?
Andrew: He's in the Army.
Danae: When he smiles

16. If your Dad were a cartoon character, who would he be?
Andrew: Superman
Danae: A clown, because he's so funny.
Adria: Spongebob or Patrick

17. What do you and your Dad do together?
Andrew: Talk, cuddle, have fun, go to Disneyland
Danae: Play board games
Adria: Talk on the computer

18. How are you and your Dad the same?
Andrew: We are both short for our age and both have blond hair and blue eyes.
Danae: Eye color and when he was little he was blond.

19. How do you know your Dad loves you?
Andrew: He helps us and spends as much time as possible with us.
Danae: He tells me that.
Adria: Kisses

20. Where is your Dad's favorite place to go?
Andrew: Home
Danae: To a restaurant.
Adria: Work

Jeff we all love you so much and are so proud of the work you are doing in Iraq. You are the best Dad anyone could ask for. Like Danae said, you're loving, kind, considerate, hard working, generous, and full of love for us. Thanks for working so hard for our family and know that we appreciate what a good man you are. We hope you like our little movie. :o)

Engineering FUNdamentals

Really, that's the title of the class. Andrew had so much fun this week hanging out with the boys (and one girl) creating lego machines and bridges and pyramids. Apparently, they made the pyramid a mobile one and he said they made a house, but also gave it a motor, making it a motor home. He wants to take another class where they build a robot and then fight them. The classes are pretty pricey, so I don't think he's going to get to do it. But I do think I'm going to buy him a set or two of Legos. I think he finally has an interest in them.


This is the huge bridge they all assembled together and then drove their cars on top.

So You Think You Can Hip Hop

Danae took a Hip Hop class this week from a real dance school. They did a little performance everyday for the parents. She loved it. Danae just thrives in that kind of environment. The kind where she gets to perform, dance and show off. :o)

Twilight Camp

Last week Andrew got to go to Cub Scout Twilight Camp. I went as a parent on Monday. He had a lot of fun and was excited to get away from the abundance of girls at his house to go do boy stuff. They did so many fun things. They learned about flags, played water games, did archery, shot b-b guns, made a stool, shot rockets, made ice cream, made what Andrew called his 'man purse,' and probably learned some things too. I <3 that Andrew's birthday is in May and then shortly after he goes to scout camp. He has an empty book when he starts camp and a half filled book when he finishes. Gotta love it. :o)

The stool the Webelos made is held together by a bungee chord so you can unhook it and store it flat for camping and such. . . Adria doesn't help out with the manliness factor of his project. Poor kid. Too many girls around. Even the cat is a girl.

Spamalot

My mom and I went to see Spamalot at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco last week. That was a funny play and I'm not even the biggest Monty Python fan. It was also nice to get out and do something fun without kids. . . We had great seats, smack dab in the center of the orchestra section. It was a lot of fun. I even brought home an attack rabbit for the kids. . . Now I just need to go back and see Wicked. I'm really looking forward to that one. :o)