Vroom!

For Preschool Storytime this week, the theme was Wheels.  We read Duck on a Bike, The Seals on the Bus, and The Big Road Race.  We sang The Wheels on the Bus, and we raced cars!  These race tracks were fence posts in another life, then barley grass trays, but I think that race tracks are what they were truly destined to become.  The kids had tons of fun and didn't want to stop. 

It makes me smile inside when moms have to drag their kids kicking and screaming away from the library.  That means I'm doing a good job, right?

Annie and the Dentist

When we went to the dentist for checkups last week, he told us that the only child with cavities was Annie.  :(

So this week I had to take her back in to have them fixed.  She did awesome!  Our dentist is great, and she just laid back and watched the movie, and never had any problems.

The problems started after she was home again.  I had told her that her lip would be numb and she should be careful not to bite it, but when you're four it's hard to remember.  I've also noticed that the mouth tends to do things on its own, independent of your brain.
A couple of hours later I noticed that one side of her lip was all swollen and red.  I asked her if I could look at it, and found that she had done some major chewing on her numb lip.  Chris described it as "gory."  So I waited a couple of days before I took a picture.  The outside of her lip was red and swollen, and the inside turned that greenish color that all mouth wounds adopt. She claims that it doesn't hurt at all, but today when big chunks of skin started coming off, she was bothered. 
It's been a pretty ugly affair, but it hasn't really seemed to bother Annie.  She's one tough girl.

Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day!  Didn't we just have this holiday?  Oh, wait.  That was the 4th of July, which we celebrate in almost exactly the same way.  Right.

So first on today's To Do list is the parade in Monroe.  Far from being a repeat of the parade on the 4th, this parade was a lot better.  There more interesting floats (more floats and more floats that were interesting), it seemed to move a little faster, and they threw more candy!  That, of course, is what was important to my kids.

Cannon especially was rushing to gather as much candy as he could, and I guess it paid off because he had the most candy of anyone.  And then, of course, there are those floats that don't throw candy, but shoot water instead.  I tend to cower and hide my camera when those floats go by, but my kids rush to the front and spread their arms wide so as to be a better target.

But the best part of the parade was when the RHS band went past.  Ben was playing his trumpet, and received lots of cheers.  First from Jerrele and family on the other side of the street, and then from us.  How do you play a trumpet while grinning?  Ben must have figured it out, because he played and grinned for a whole block.

We have always struggled with what to do in between the parade and the fireworks on these holidays.  Many years we have just sat around and read books or watched movies, but I've been trying to be a little more creative this year and get us out to do something during the day.

Stacia and Julie were in town, so after sorting all the candy, we decided that we should all go to the Salina Park for a picnic.  My kids love the Salina Park, mostly for its dangerous playground equipment. 

They all ran for the Merry-Go-Round as soon as the car stopped, and didn't get off until they were all properly sick.  

The next stop was the swings.  Now, these are not regular swings.  These are super cool, fly through the air swings.  They tell me that you can go higher if there's someone heavier in the other swing, so Stacia, Julie, and Ben were very popular swinging partners.  All you have to do is talk someone into getting you started, and then you fly around and around. 

I think we did actually have some lunch somewhere in there, along with dancing lessons from Ben.


Then it was home for a nap, off to my parents' for a barbecue, and then back to Monroe for fireworks.  Everyone was exhausted by the time we were done, so that makes the day a win, right?

Palisades

Time again for Friday fun!  This week after I went to the temple, we went to Palisades.  We rented a canoe, and even though it rained a little while we were there, we still had lots of fun.

Ben was our super-rower.  The rest of us took turns with the other paddles, but Ben was always in the back doing the real work as we took laps around the lake.

I was pretty proud of myself that I helped row us clear to the other side, and Ben said we were keeping up a pretty good pace.  See?  I'm not too old and feeble yet.   I have to admit that my arms did feel a little rubbery by the time we got to the other side, so I decided to be nice and let Cannon have a turn rowing back. ;)

About half way across the lake on our way back, I started to hear a wailing noise.  As we got closer, I realized that wailing noise was coming from Lydia.  I was pretty sure her life wasn't in danger, but she did sound pretty seriously hurt.

As the shore got closer, I could pick her out, and realized that she
had quite a crowd around her.  Emily was there next to her, offering comfort, but there were lots of concerned citizens gathered around.

Sure that I was going to need to rush her to the hospital, I jumped out of the canoe as soon as I could to see just how severe her injuries were.

Turns out that she had stepped on a fish hook, which had stuck in one of her toes.  Now, before you start getting all worried, you should know that only the very tip of the hook went into her toe.  It didn't go in as far as the barb.  Emily pulled the hook out, and it left a tiny little hole in the bottom of Lydia's toe.  This was the reason for the loud wailing that could be heard half way across the lake.

We eventually got her calmed down and distracted, but the day was pretty much done for us.  The only person still interested in staying was Cannon.  He had found this old log floating in the lake, and made friends with the other boys playing on it.  He could have stayed all day, I think, but we pulled him, got everyone changed into dry clothes, and headed for home.

Everyone said they had fun, including Lydia, so I guess it was a win. 

Food Fotos

Remember that post where I said Annie wanted to take a picture of her Cheerios? I'm still not sure why her Cheerios were cool enough to merit a picture, but the theme has continued.




When we went on our picnic to Maple Grove, she insisted that I needed to take a picture of one of her Cheetos.  And, I have to admit, it was a cool looking Cheeto.






The other day she had me take a picture of this creation.  I think that's chicken on a piece of bread.







The Family Home Evening treat on Monday was Creamies, and Annie was dying for me to take a picture of her Creamie.  So I did, but a couple of minutes later she wanted me to take another picture. (Because now it looks different!)  In all, I think I took about 10 pictures of her Creamie.  I did try to sneak her into the pictures a couple of times, even though she didn't want to be in the picture.

I won't make you look at all ten, but you get the idea.  Why is it so cool to take pictures of food?  She can't really tell me right now, so I'm preserving this for the future so that maybe when she's older she can explain why she wanted to save the image of her food to look back on later. 

 

Short Sunday

Whew! Yesterday's post was waaaayy too long! So today we'll keep it short and sweet.

On Sunday I had a visitor in Relief Society comment that she remembered me having more kids? But they must be getting old enough now that some of them are moving away, huh?
What?!?!  NO!!!!
I looked like I only had four kids on Sunday because Robyn, Ben and Emily all went to Kellon's farewell instead of to our Sacrament Meeting.  Kellon has been such a great friend to all three of them, and we wish him the best in Virginia.

 I was kind of sad that I couldn't attend Kellon's farewell myself, but I had two lessons to teach that day, and I didn't want to be rushing in late to Sunday School.  So I just charged the kids with telling him we love him and having fun at his luncheon.  I think they did it quite well.

Sunday at our house was pretty normal.  The kids walked home from church, which gave Annie lots of opportunities to collect "treasures," and bring them home to show me.
She found "a reeeeally long bungee cord, and this leaf, and this leaf, and this leaf, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one..."

Friday Adventures

This summer we've designated Friday as "Adventure Day."  It's usually the day I go to the temple, and I bring the kids with me to Manti to hang out at Grandma Jordan's until I'm done.  After I get back from the temple, we go on some sort of adventure, such as swimming or playing at a park.
This week Jef and I went to the temple on Thursday night, so I didn't feel like I needed to go again on Friday morning.  That left us open to other options for our Friday Adventure, and we decided to head to Maple Grove for a picnic. 

Miraculously, we actually got all seven kids to come with us!
Of course, the picnicking part didn't last long before the younger kids headed for the creek.  There were people in the spot that's next to the rope swing, but that didn't bother my kids.  They just walked right in and made themselves at home.

Cannon was a real sweetie about helping his sisters on the swing, and they all had a fantastic time.  The big kids, of course, just sat at the picnic table talking, reading, and sleeping.  What is it about getting big that makes us so boring?

The younger kids could have played all day, but Ben was supposed to be at his swim meet at 4:30, so we had to cut the fun short and head out.  The only thing was that I had forgotten to check the fuel before we left Richfield, and I wasn't sure that we had enough to make it back.  I wasn't sure which was closer, Scipio or Richfield, but I finally decided that Scipio might be a tiny bit closer.  Looking back, I'm not sure that that's true, but we headed for Scipio, anyway, to get more fuel before heading home.  And, of course, if you're going to stop at a place with a Dairy Queen, you have to get ice cream!
The kids also couldn't leave without visiting the petting zoo, but they were taking forever to come back, so I went to check on them.  Turns out, they couldn't figure out how to get out of the goat/sheep pen because whenever they opened the gate, all the goats and sheep would follow them out!

We finally got the kids out of the pen, and all the goats and sheep back in, but by then we were going to be way late for Ben's swim meet.  It was his last one of the summer, and he did an awesome job.

 He beat Jaden at the butterfly but I guess he had false started, so they disqualified him and gave Jaden the first place medal.  :(
But he got lots of other first place medals, so he was ok, and he and Jaden are still good friends.

It was a little more adventurous than our Friday usually are, but in the end it was just a lot of fun.

Boxes of Fun

For Storytime this week, I was reading the book Not a Box, and decided that I wanted some big boxes for the kids to play with while they were waiting for Storytime to start.  I went to the furniture store on the morning of Storytime (why do I never learn to think ahead?), and they had a dryer box that they said I could have.  I drove around back and tried to fit it in Max, but no luck.  The box was just too big.  I thought about breaking it down to make it fit, but I wasn't sure that would do the trick, and it wasn't going to be easy to break it down.  So what to do?  I did consider just walking it to the library.  It had a small opening between the flaps on one end that my head might have fit through.  I could just wear the box, and walk the 5 blocks to the library!  But I wasn't actually very excited about that plan.
My second idea was to go and borrow a truck.  I have friends with an old truck that spends most of its time sitting under a tree, so I texted and asked if I could borrow it.  (Storytime starts at 11:00, and it is now about 10:15.)  They said sure, and I headed over there.  The husband had to do a bit of tinkering to get it to start, but it started alright, and I jumped in.
When I was 15 and begging my parents to teach me how to drive, the only car we owned was a Dodge Caravan that was a standard or, in other words, a stick shift.  That's how I learned to drive, and when I got in the Driver's Ed car for my driving test, and it was an Automatic, I had to ask directions.  So I know how to drive a stick shift, but it's been about twenty years or so since I've actually driven one.  That, combined with the fact that the seat absolutely refused to move in order to accommodate my short legs, made for an interesting drive.  I am a little overly proud to say that I did drive that truck to the furniture store and then to the library without killing it once or crashing into anything.  Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
So I finally got my big, beautiful box to the library, and...  it wouldn't fit through the door.  So I was going to have to break it down, after all.  I had good reasons for not wanting to break it down in the first place.  One end was cut off already, so it was just open, but the end with flaps still intact was glued shut. And they didn't use just a little glue, either.  I imagine them using great puddles of super glue on those flaps.  I guess if it had to hold a dryer in, then it needed lots of glue, but I think they went a tad overboard.
After using scissors, rulers, and brute force, I finally got that box taken apart and through the door.  Luckily there was a youngster hanging around outside the library whom I recruited to crawl inside the box and tape it back up for me.
It was now about 10:50, and all I had to do was drive the truck back to my friend's house and drive Max back to the library.
I am happy to say that I slid into home (er, the library) at 10:59, and pulled off a storytime that all the kids loved!
Even happier were the kids at my house when I brought the boxes home to them two days later.  (Turns out the box does fit in the back of Max when it's flat)

A Stupor of Thought

I had a kind of cool thing happen to me yesterday.  Well, I guess the cool thing was really the day before that.  My bread recipe that I make every week makes four loaves of bread, but we can only eat three before it goes bad, so each week I give a loaf away.  This week, though, when I was trying to think of someone to take the extra loaf to, I could not think of a single person.  There are lots of people I could have taken the bread to.  I have neighbors all around me, and a whole ward of people who eat bread.  There are several people who have volunteered to take my bread any time I want to give it to them, but on that day I could not think of a single person.  It was like we were the last people on earth, and everyone else had disappeared.  I guess the best description I can give is that I had a stupor of thought.  It was kind of weird, but since there was no one to give the bread to, I just put a loaf in the freezer and went on with the day.

The next day I was at the library when a family came in to return their books and get their Summer Reading prizes.  Their books were quite late, and they owed quite a bit in fines.  Like I usually do for loyal patrons, I asked the mom how much she had with her that she could pay towards fines.  She looked a little doubtful, but finally brought me the $5 out of her truck that she had been saving to buy bread, a $2 bill from one of her kids, and a $1 bill.  I told her I thought it would be wrong to use a $2 bill for library fines, but I took the six dollars and cleared all their fines.  She told me how she thought this month had been good for her kids, to teach them that money doesn't grow on trees, and you can't just go to the grocery store whenever you want and buy everything.  She also said that they were going to be paid in a week, and they would go grocery shopping then.

Did you hear my cue in there?  As soon as my shift was over at the library, I wrapped up a loaf of bread and set out to find their house.  It wasn't easy to find, but when I finally found it I realized that I drive past it all the time on the way to "the Ranch," which is where my parents keep their animals.

I was so grateful for the stupor of thought that had stopped me from giving a loaf of bread the day before, and the family seemed grateful for the loaf of bread.  I also took them one of those reusable grocery bags because the one they had been using for their library books was literally in shreds.

I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging here, because what I really wanted to show with this post was how amazing the Spirit is and to share another way in which he directs our paths.  Sometimes he doesn't need to give instructions.  He just needs to keep us stumped until we see the right path for ourselves. 

Missing Children

On Monday we had a hectic morning, and I had to be gone from about 10:00 to 1:00.  I asked Cannon to take Annie to lunch, and since they pretty much do that every day, I didn't worry about it.  When I got home at 1:00, there was no sign of Cannon and Annie.  The only thing Robyn could tell me was that they had left for lunch at about 11:15.  I walked over to Ashman to look for them on the playground, but they weren't there.  I checked at Whitmore's, and even Anna Snedeger's house, but they weren't around.  I called Jef to see if he knew where they were, and my next call would have been to the police, but Jennie and Lydia suggested I check the the library.  Sure enough, my missing children had been hanging out at the library while I searched the town for them.

My children often come and hang out at the library while I'm working there.  I always thought that it was because that's where I was and they like to hang out with me.  But I guess that I'm not the main attraction at the library, after all, since Cannon and Annie had no problem with spending a couple hours there without me.  I guess it's a good thing that I've given them a love for the library, I just wish they would tell me when they were going.  Maybe I would've wanted to come, too!

Cheerios and Growing Up

I know that my kids are getting bigger, of course.  That's what kids do, after all.  But I think I lose track of how much they're growing and how fast they're doing it.
Yesterday I watched some kids for a friend, and there was a little girl who was two and a half.  She found a stool that she could carry, and used it to follow me around the kitchen, watching everything I did and being right in the way if possible.  Between me and the bread I was kneading would be a perfect spot, for example.  All of my kids have done this, but when that little girl did it, I suddenly realized that Annie hadn't done that in a while.  In fact, it's probably been more than a year since she did that.  How did I not notice?
What Annie does now is to steal my phone and take pictures.  Selfies are best, of course, but anything that she considers noteworthy should also be caught on camera. 

 Sunday morning, after she had finished taking selfies while I did her hair, she decided that the shape her Cheerios made on the spoon was the coolest thing ever, and deserved a picture. 

 

That went so well, that she included a picture of the Cheerios in her bowl.  I'm not sure what it was that made the Cheerios in her bowl significant - something about them being on the side instead of in the milk. Whatever it was, it is now recorded for posterity.

 

It makes me sad to realize that my kids are getting bigger, and even more sad to think that I'm missing it, somehow.  I imagine every mother has these moments, though, and I wouldn't really want them to stay babies forever.  It's fun to see the new things that they're learning and the people that they're becoming.  But it's also important to stop and enjoy the moments that I have with them.  And maybe it's also important to marvel over the small things, like the Cheerios in my bowl.