Summer Goals

Well the kids finally got out of school on June 21st. Ahh, the lazy days of summer. It's great for about 2 days and then I start going crazy. Well I decided this year to have the kids set some summer goals for themselves in our FHE. I had them imagine what they wanted to be like and what they want to be doing in five years. Then I had them write/draw a picture of themselves in five years. It was too funny. Kaitie even went so far as to list who she was going to be dating. Ummmm, in five years you'll be twelve. Dad's not letting you date till your twenty-five....give or take a year. I'm going to keep them to show them in five years. We talked about how you won't accidentally become that person, you'll have to set goals and make choices to become that person. I found a cool quote by Dale Carnegie that said something like, If you aren't actively becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically becoming the person you don't want to be. Then I gave each kid a paper with the following:

This summer I want to

read....

learn how to....

make....

etc.

They did a great job setting some goals for the summer, and they've already achieved quite a few of them. Kaitie's goal was to learn to make cookies by herself. I asked her to decide which cookies she wanted to learn to make. It was a hard choice and she couldn't decide, so she decided to combine her two favorites. Chocolate Chip and Snickerdoodles. She decided to call her recipe...

drum roll please...........

"Snicker Chip Cookies"

I learned that Kaitie is really pretty good with fractions. I didn't know. The recipe called for half of the 1 1/2 cups of flour to be creamed with the butter. I was trying to talk Kaitie through how to calculate it.
Me "So what's half of 1 cup?"
Kaitie "one-half."
Me "What's half of the 1/2 cup?"
Kaitie "one- fourth of a cup."
Me "Good job Kaitie! So you'll need 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup of flour."
Kaitie (without hesitation while rolling her eyes) "Which is 3/4 cup."
Okay, so I guess you don't really need help. Sorry.

Kaitie carefully rolled all her cookies in cinnamon and sugar while Ian quietly admired her. While I took her picture, Ian took advantage of her distraction to get what he had been waiting for..... a bite of her cookie dough. Shhhh.

Fresh from the oven!

The sweet smell of success!

Kaitie appointed a taste test panel of Rachel and Ian who both gave her "Snicker Chip Cookies" a big thumbs up. She wrote down her recipe in her best 7 year-old handwriting so she'll always have it. Way to go Kaitie.

Crazy Hair Day!!!

Who has school spirit???

Rachel has school spirit!

Rachel loves to participate in school spirit days. "Pajama day" rocked. "Twin day" required an early wake-up call so she could hurry down the street to her friend's house to coordinate. So it was no surprise that Rachel wanted to participate in "Crazy hair day". She actually had this hair-do planned out about a month in advance.

Kaitie on the other hand is not so thrilled about these days. I tried to get her to go for it on crazy hair day. She was pretty certain that she did not want to participate. I went in later that morning to volunteer in Kaitie's classroom. When I got there her hair was dripping wet. I asked her what happened. I guess she had a change of heart when she got to school so she went to the bathroom to try to make her hair "crazy". Silly Kaitie.

Green Mountain Hike

We took the kids hiking up Green Mountain. It's a nice hike for kids. Not too far from home, not too steep (at least the first half), and it has great views. It's about a 4.5 mile hike up the mountain. I was hoping to get the the top, but the kids were starting to get tired about 2.5 miles up the mountain. Ian had walked almost the whole way up. We decided it wouldn't be wise to push on to the summit so we headed back down. About a half a mile down Ian wanted me to carry him and he fell asleep. I had to carry him the last two miles down the mountain. My arms were so sore for days.

Ralph The Hairdresser Strikes Again!

Not happy with Ralph's work

Ralph the Hairdresser sneaks around at night (just like the tooth fairy) giving unsuspecting people fabulous new hairstyles while they sleep. Ian was not impressed with Ralph's work recently and was quite distressed that I wanted to take his picture. Ian does not like to have his hair messed up and has strong fashion ideas. The other day he even tucked his t-shirt into his elastic waistband shorts. That took some effort on his part and he was quite impressed with himself. Thankfully Ralph usually leaves Ian alone and he wakes up handsome as ever.

Good morning handsome

Braces

smile

Rachel got braces in April. She was really excited to get them. How cool are braces!!! She got them first thing in the morning and then I took her back to school. She was flashing her smile to everyone we passed. The secretaries in the school office asked her if she liked them. Of course she does, what's not to love. Three hours later I went back to school to pick her up. What a difference three hours makes. Poor Rachel, she was in so much pain. She also had to get an expander in the roof of her mouth a week later. We had to turn the screw in the roof of her mouth four times a day to widen her palate. That wasn't fun for either of us. She was in so much pain that there were a couple of nights that she just cried in her "sleep" all night. We finished turning the screw May 8th and now we are just waiting for her palate to heal and then we will start moving her teeth back together. She's doing great with her braces now.

Sew much fun.

This is the "Frenchy" bag that I sewed for Rachel. I'm still looking for the perfect fabric to sew one for myself. In the mean time Rachel is being kind and sharing her bag. She did a great job picking out her fabrics. It looks like springtime in a bag.

Look Who's Three!

Could it be??

Ian is three!!!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Ian had a fabulous birthday. He had cake at a friend's house (who happens to share the same birthday) and then came home to open his presents. His favorite being his new castle. Complete with working draw bridge, sneaky false floors/rotating walls, a dungeon, flying dragon and a cannon that really fires cannon balls across the room. (The only down side is that it's also his sisters' new favorite toy.)

Our Sunny Sunday Stroll

It was so nice and sunny on Sunday that we went on a stroll through the neighborhood. After many grey winter days, everyone was happy to be outside in the sun.

When childproofing fails!

Ian showing off his "natural" glow!

Ian is a little man who can't be kept out. We've yet to find childproofing that is also Ian-proof. On Saturday he managed to pick the kids' bathroom lock, pull himself up on the counter and get into the medicine cabinet. There he found Rachel's glitter grease makeup. Obviously he thought the instructions on it said, "apply liberally!" We used a lot of soap and water, but he still sparkled for days.