Friday Fun!

Shawn and Rhoda were so great to take my kids for a sleepover on Monday night so we decided to have theirs over last night! (Can't let them have all the fun!) :D

We started the fun by meeting at the Herriman Rec Center to swim. I forgot my camera (Seriously? Is it possible maybe to have one implanted somewhere so I can't forget it?) so I took these few fabulous shots with my phone...There were cute ones of everyone, but some of them didn't transfer over too well. sigh.

(Here are Megan and Rusty, enjoying the little kids section! They have slides, and some fun "squirt the grown-ups" stuff...Very cool!)

(And, to our surprise and delight, we discovered that Rhoda and I share twins! We've always laughed at Spencer and Wesley, our two little fair-skinned, fair-haired boys that look similar, so we thought it was funny that they even had the same swimsuit!)

(In addition to the really great kids area, they have the lily pads. All the kids loved it...the line was long, but it must have been worth the wait...They all got right back in line when they were done! The older kids tried to run across them, and would generally fall "Wipe Out!" style (so, fun for the grown-ups, too!) but the little ones hopped across, like Michael is here!)

(Here he is after completing his leapfrogging! This fella sure loves the water!)

I took a lot of pictures...A fun one of Megan and Mily going around in the lazy river; one of Josh and Tory playing in the diving pool side of the pool after diving...but they didn't turn out. Blah.

I did, however, get a couple of Sydney in full flirt mode! :D (She's going to be kind of ticked at me for posting this...but hey, I'm the mom...It's my job to tease her, right?)

The twins from across the street came to the pool with us, but then Beau went home (his older brother came and picked him up...I guess he didn't really want to come after all?) leaving just Clay and my kids. Then another boy from our ward, who was there with his sister, joined Sydney and Clay. Here they are at one of the "squirt the grown-ups" features they have in the little kids area...See the "Nemo" slide? Cute, right?

After swimming, we couldn't seem to rid ourselves of this "pesky" neighbor. Good thing he's a nice kid! Really...I was finishing mowing while the kids played, and he came up and offered to finish it for me so I could go do something else. I like to give him a bad time, though...Again, that's my job, right? (These are pictures Clay took of himself and Sydney with her phone in our driveway later that evening.)

(There was another one of him with a pretty white flower in his hair...!)

(I sure think this girl is cute...It's no wonder all the boys she knows have crushes on her!)

After it started to get dark, they played some night games. Lee and I sat in the back of our Yukon with the door open and watched the fun...while munching some popcorn...It was so fun to see everyone running around and enjoying themselves. We even were treated to some fireworks by somebody a few streets over. They played "No Bears Are Out Tonight" and "Ghost in the Graveyard", and ate some popsicles. Then it was off to bed!

Thanks, Shawn and Rhoda, for letting us borrow your kids! We had a blast!

Beatboxing, by Tory M.

"Beatboxing is so great

I can do it while I debait.

Beatboxing is just so fun,

I can even do it while I run.

All you have to do is spit and make noises

I got to get there before the place closes.

And now you know how to do this

Now go sho this to your friends...

Wikiwikiwiki...Werd!"

Courtesy of my almost 10-year-old, Tory. The next Eminem...Werd.

Michael the Brave...

My son is growing shark teeth. No really. Instead of pushing the baby teeth out and coming up in their place, Michael's teeth have just decided to co-exist, with the adult teeth pushing through right behind the baby teeth.

However, I became concerned that although the baby teeth were beginning to get a little wiggly, they weren't getting loose enough to completely dislodge themselves from the gums. Enter: The Dentist.

(I should add by way of disclaimer that all five of my kids think the Dentist is awesome. It may be due in part to the fact that Grandma works there, and nothing truly scary can happen while you are with Grandma, right? They've had teeth cleaned, cavities filled, teeth pulled...and still when I mention the Dentist they are delighted and happy to go. (Oh...and did I mention that Grandma ALWAYS has a treat? A Capri Sun, or a sucker, or a granola bar...But surely THAT has nothing to do with it...!))

Anyway...As I was saying: The Dentist. He and I headed up there, and the only way I could tell Michael was nervous was that he kept asking if he was going to get sleepy medicine. Grandma told him HE wouldn't get sleepy medicine, but his TEETH would. The assistant plays a really cute game with the kids called the blinking game. She holds the kids hands in hers, then she tells the kiddos to blink as fast as they can, and she'll try to count them as fast as they blink. Then, stealthily, while the child is frantically blinking, they sneak in the "sleepy medicine" and no one is the wiser. They are totally focused on the blinking and the squeezing of hands they have no idea the is even a shot involved. Brilliant. And it works...So far on 3 of my kids!

A few minutes of wiggling later, and this is what Michael's mouth looks like now:

(I know, I know...A good mom would have documented the "before" when there were actually shark teeth in rows...But at least I remembered to take a picture of the holes, right?)

He was great! His biggest complaint was waiting for his lip to "stop being so fat". He didn't like the numb feeling! But the best news of all? The dentist put his two little teeth inside a larger, plastic tooth on a necklace...which he placed under his pillow...And in the morning???

A $5 bill! (Tooth Fairy must feel extra generous with teeth that have to be pulled out by dentists...!)

I asked what he was going to do with his money. He just looked at me, grinned, and said, "Claw Machine!"...His grocery store favorite!

Lee's new toy...Part Two

The second part of this story is that all five of our VERY active, VERY energetic kids now want to go on bike rides with dad. The flaw to that plan is that he can't quite ride the way he'd like while watching behind him for his little row of ducklings.

I have a bike, but (and this is just a side note...) if you let a small child use the tire as a trampoline, it might bend your brakes and cause your bike wheel not to spin anymore. I'm just sayin'...

I decided that for the greater good I'd better get my bike fixed. If I ride with everyone and bring up the rear, Dad can ride AND so can everyone else. Everybody wins! (Except me...Seriously? Exercise? sigh. (I'm kidding...family bike rides are fun, even for me!))

Today I took my bike into Taylor's Bike Shop in Riverton. I (sort of!) wheeled it inside and told the nice man that my brake seemed to be bent and wouldn't work. He popped it right up on a stand and went to work. Five minutes later, he handed me my bike, rolling on its own now. He asked, "Anything else we can do for you today?" And I said, "Nope. That was it."

He said, "Have a nice day, then." and turned back to work. So I took my bike in...and got it fixed for FREE!!! (Fist Pump!) Yay...Free is my favorite price!!!

Thanks, Taylor's Bike Shop!

Lee's new toy...Part One!

Lee has been talking for months about getting back into bike riding. He lived in Holladay when he was going to Skyline High School, and he loved riding up and down the actual mountain. We'd been talking about taking his really nice mountain bike in for a tune up...but it is pretty old.

As we got looking, I just decided that for all the times he spoils me, it was his turn! We went all out (Luckily, the bike is last year's model, so that saved us some money!) and got him all geared up:

Complete with fancy shoes that clip onto his silly pedals. (Think of ski boots clipping into bindings...)

It's been really fun to watch him enjoy something. It gives him time to unwind from work, and just go cruise for a while after he gets home. Tory likes to tag along...they rode 4 miles the first time they ventured out!

Hooray for hobbies that remind us of our childhood! I love this fella, and I'm glad he let me spoil him this time...Although, I gotta admit...he didn't put up TOO much of a fight! :D

One month down,

Only 23 more to go! :D

Really, it's a bit early to be counting down, but we wanted to send some things to Cody to celebrate his first month away. So we decided to send a group package. Mom, Heather, and Jen found his backpack (which he asked for) and then jammed it full of tasty treats, like chips and meat sticks. Rhoda made really cute paper fireworks, and filled them with little notes. We sent some letters.

Then we put all that in a box with these:

What?! You mean you don't immediately recognize them as sombreros?!

Yeah...Me either. It's a little better from the side:

But that's what they are. Is it a bad thing when you have to include a note telling someone what the cookies are supposed to look like? Because I did. Include a note, I mean.