Milk Crates

Logan had Brody over. They wanted to build a fort outside. In lieu of them melting outside (it's still like 100 degrees now), I allowed them to come inside with their fort makings which included milk crates, blankets, and wood planks. Their project occupied the entire day and included all the kids, plus friends who were over. I let them keep up their building which morphed into a restaurant when Shelly's kids came over. It was a fun building opportunity that kept them well-entertained.

Cousins Day - Part 4

For our last summer cousins day, the kids made puppets. I found a kit with foam pieces at a craft store, and bought it. Lindsey excitedly made examples of each of the animals that the kids could make. After the kids made their first couple puppets, we realized that there was enough materials to make more, so the kids got really creative and made some wild and mixed-up animals.

It has been fun to get together with the family on a weekly basis this summer. The kids definitely looked forward to it, and it provided me with some type of leverage (if you don't get your chores done, you'll not swim with the cousins). I think my favorite part about it all was watching the older kids step up and help the younger ones, realizing that it wasn't all about them.

As tradition goes, Lindsey "beautified" the girls by doing their hair after swimming.

Cousins Day - Part 3

We made cards for cousins day. Kelly had the fun idea of using shaving cream and food coloring to make the front side of cards. The kids really enjoyed it, even Shelly and I had to take a turn playing too. The girls all started playing house/mommies after they made their cards.

Cousins Day - Part 2

Another fun cousins day brought the making of and playing with playdough. My sister had the recipe and shared it with us. Spencer was quite interested in making it, and tried to take over the process. The kids all ended up having a fun time with the brightly colored dough (except for the youngest two, they combined colors, resulting in a grayish color). Spencer really enjoyed making the dough, so much that he constantly reminded me to put salt on our grocery list and asked to make the dough every day for a week.

Cousins Day - Part 1

We haven't done much this summer except for hang out. I finally planned an activity. Every Friday has become Cousins Day. My nieces and nephews come over for a craft, snack, and swimming. The kids have had so much fun creating, playing, eating, and splashing. Our craft today were patriotic magnetic flags. Each cute little flag was different. Lindsey and Spencer are the oldest ones, without other cousins there their age, so they have become super helpers and are so fun to watch teach and help the younger ones.

Kaylen's Dance Recital - Cinderella

Kaylen just completed her second year of dance with Miss Wendy. This year she did a combo class of tap/ballet/tumbling. The best part about the class was that her cousin, Abbie, and Grandma's neighbor, Brooke, were also in the class. All year, they have worked on their part for the recital. Kaylen's class did a ballet dance to "Pat-a-Cake." Each girl was dressed like a fairy tale character.

Kaylen and Abbie

on stage

after the show - she was surprised that the flowers were for her




on the way home, we saw the stagecoach used in the recital

Backyard Fun - Part 4

Our new schedule (with all the back and forth between our old neighborhood and new house) allows us extra time to spend at my parents' house. The kids' favorite activity there is playing in the backyard. There are Little Tikes toys, a swing, and a new favorite - bricks. These are just some pictures I took while we were there. Kaylen and Caleb (her cousin) busily lined up bricks that morning.

Backyard Fun - part 3

Grandma Lindsey

Logan, Abbie, and Kaylen

Monkey Spencer

After one of my nephew's baptism, some of us got together for lunch at my parents' house. The kids had so much fun playing outside (and ditching) their chores. They played outside for about 3 hours.

Princess Day Camp

Kaylen's dance teacher held a workshop for the girls she teaches, named "Princess Day Camp." I signed Kaylen up to go, along with 2 of her cousins. Kaylen looked forward to the day she could go back to dance (we're taking a break during the summer). She learned a princess dance, made a princess craft (the sparkly crown), and ate a snack. At the end of it, we we able to go watch the girls perform. It was a cute litle dance.

Kaylen is such a little dancer/princess. She loves to dance. If we watch some dancing show on tv (like "So You Think You Can Dance" or "America's Got Talent"), Kaylen will start dancing away. If Eric plays a slow song on the piano, she will also dance to that. She has these arm movements that she does where her hands are cupped and she will slowly bring each arm, up above her head. She will continuously repeat this. She is a very cute little dancer.

After the "performance," my parents took us and my sister and her kids to Sam's Club for lunch. We must have been quite a site, with 7 kids in tow. As if lunch weren't chaotic enough, we decided to walk around the store. We had each gotten drinks with our lunches, so off we set with like 10 drinks in the cart to walk around the store. We even went at the right time and got to have lots of yummy samples. I'm sure the old ladies serving the samples felt like they were being attacked by a group of starving seagulls. It was fun, and I'm sure it will be one of the highlights of the summer - the lunch trip to Sam's Club with some cousins.

Hannah and Logan "driving" on the water bottles

Kaylen, Caleb, and Abbie

I love Abbie's face - she didn't really want to sit by Kaylen