Monday, July 30, 2007

trade-offs

so somedays my floor and barstools look like this at 5 pm...





I have to remind myself that is because I am a fun mom and do fun stuff with my kids- sometimes with the endless cycle of clean-up in the "world of mom" you have to remind yourself it was for a good cause, because man i hate sweeping that floor everyday!

today we did:


litmus paper tests (the only fiasco during this experiement was smart baby trying to spraying fantastic (one of the test liquids) into a whistle he found-- he thought it would make bubbles come out when he blew into it) no son- POISON!


Smart son picked out this photo we took while at temple square and wanted to paint it- he worked so hard on it, mixing variatios of greens- he probably spent almost 2 hrs on it! smart baby did his own verison in oil pastels- he spent 5 minutes on his!


oobleck (in their own selected colors no less)


and here is smart son with one of his tall towers (he does them vertically) he also likes to make these thoughtful arrangments from all the random objects in the house: chairs, shoes, diapers, pillows, books, toys, foods, plates-- trouble is you can't lock up and hide everything --at least he is resourceful!

(And yes i have excessive amounts of blocks- It's a disease-I am just a sucker for blocks) water blocks, bead blocks, city blocks, unit block, pb kids story blocks, middle eastern temple blocks, mirror tiles- I know I have to stop.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

MOF Weekend

Okay how do you explain to people that you are going to spend the weekend with a bunch of women you don't know and have only met online (My Online Friends- MOFs)-- My husband would call it a "retreat with some of my old friends" lucky he had the cover that two of my best IRL friends (shelah and catherine) were going to be there. I also used the justification I needed to support my friend Catherine in her PhD research, as she is using the message board and accompanying blogs for her dissertation data on women's literacy practices.
So here is the story. Two and a half years ago my friend Shelah invited to this private message board which she assured me was very "cool". And well she was right- they are great sources of information, support, and just great women and moms. One day last fall I posted a thread about how cool it would be if one day we could all get together- Well as it turned out we all liked the idea and made it a reality and about 2/3rds of the women got to come- people were flying in from all over even other countries (yes we are that cool). One MOF's in-laws loaned us their cabin in the mountains and voila! a weekend of fun was born. Shelah my best friend and former college roommate and I were in charge of food (we both really love food) and we along with out trusty pal Athena, cohort in grocery crime spent 4 hours at Costco and Maceys loading 6 carts to the gills with all our food. Even with having some meals catered we had a lot to buy and organize. We had a bunch of yummy salads, fondue night, hashbrown quiche, suffice it to say a variety of yumminess. We won't even go there with drinks and ice for 70+ women in 95 degree heat. Everyone was more fun in real life. We had games, spa night, classes, shopping in park city, and just spent a lot of time enjoying one anothers company. So many people helped to make it a fabulous weekend and now a tradition has been born. However I was so busy talking and eating I didn't get to take many pictures. Note the one picture of me, shelah and catherine was taking in 95 degree weather after dinner- we so tired and thrashed!

Utah trip

We just returned from our Utah vacation. We had to tell smart son that just because we had been doing cool things each day that was merely a vacation treat and not the precedent for a new daily schedule. We started out our trip hiking around Silver Lake; smart son was enamored with the desert vegetation and wildlife and the gorgeous mountains. The next day we took the boys out for Indian food- Smart son proclaimed that naan was now going to be what he put down on his primary spotlight paper as his favorite food. From there we went to the Clark Planetarium where we saw the Ultimate Universe and Mysteries of the Nile (2 thumbs up) and i have to say they have a stellar gift shop (yes we walked out with a rectangular based prism, litmus paper, vortex maker, and rock collection- i was trying to be conservative!)! They loved the jaunt to BYU- complete with BYU t-shirts, books from the bookstore, free reign at the candy counter,trips to the Bean Museum, Earth Science Museum, and Art museum (where i even snuck in a chicken Caesar salad at the MOA cafe-yum!) Cougareat lunch and Creamery ice cream. Smart son is already planning to follow in our academic footsteps- what better way to convince your child of your alma mater's superiority than to spoil them with everything delicious the campus has to offer. We had a few family dinners with allen's siblings, and a little reunion BBQ with all the cousins on his moms side. We got to enjoy an annual sonic excursion (no they don't have a single one in my state of residence) an sometimes you just can't go without a great limeade and onion rings. I left for my MOF GWO weekend (see separate entry) and Allen spent his first days ever of solo parenthood. They went to the Air Force Museum, fishing, swimming, and to the zoo. And being 24th of july weekend I bought the boys a whole package of sparklers to enjoy and celebrate their pioneer heritage with! It was a great trip and my boys can't wait to go back!

think blue


yes my ultrasound yesterday revealed- it's boy #3 on the way- I let the boys put together this blue party for dh. It looked great until smart baby found a way to get himself an early serving of cake- it was well out of reach so he went to the playroom- grabbed a lacrosse stick and used it to procure himself a sample of cake and frosting.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

one trip down, one wedding down and 17 weeks down


whoa- I feel like i haven't blogged in forever- and then i saw the date on my last post-where has the last month gone!! That is my longest break ever-part of my lack of blogging I will blame on my parents slow dial up internet which makes me crazy (one day highspeed will come to their street!)And have been a good mom spending a lot of time each day reading books to the boys and helping Bennett with an EPGY class he has been doing this summer.


We are heading back to home tomorrow. My boys had a fabulous time in Virginia visting my parents. They loved their daily trips to visit Gigi, riding the tractor with my dad, driving the motorized jeep around my parents yard, going swimming at the club with aunt d, picking chokecherries, making "salad" for the wild animals to come eat, spotting bats, horses, deer, foxes, and millions of insect varieties, baths in the giant tub, sourdough pancakes with my dad, donuts from Ukrops, going to Tom Leonards, summer haircuts, fireworks, (although they both fell asleep in the middle of them) and all the other fun things that come with our trips here.


Thanks to everyone who has been checking in on me- I am 17 weeks this week and still kicking along- It still doesn't feel "real" yet-I am starting to show more but mostly just look thick. I am not as sick as before- but still not feeling really peppy- on top of pregnancy yucks i got a cold that went straight to my chest and has had me coughing for days! So most nights i just want to veg out and go to bed (hence lack of blogging). I can report I made it through the wedding I was doing- wedding cake, grooms cake, and flowers. It is always nice when they are done and you can breathe a sigh of relief. Smart baby loves the perks of being the son of the cake baker.
now we head back to home unpack and repack for our Utah excursion! okay that is all the patience i have for picture loading tonight!