Funny Joke

Griffin played a joke on Savannah that was pretty funny.

First off, Archie is a stuffed Mountain Lion that she got while camping
in Arches National Park, on her 6th birthday.  He is now her constant companion.

This is a letter  Griffin gave her as a joke  last night.

He quickly said "just kidding", and showed her Archie, who was totally fine!
We thought it was pretty funny, she did too.

This week

We celebrated Dad's birthday!  I made the cake, and the kids decorated it.
After school, he went rock climbing with a friend, then out to lunch.
We went out to dinner as a family in the evening, then came home for cake,
ice cream & presents!   I'm pretty sure he had a great birthday.

The kids all started swim lessons.  We have evening classes, which is nice.
They enjoy going, and having fun learning new things .  Well, Griffin is frustrated
with the whole must *listen* to the teacher thing, but oh well!

Happy POPS Day!

Today we celebrate our dad, who is fantastic!  He is such a patient, kind,
loving Dad. He has always been such a good dad to our three kids. 
We love him lots, and lots.

We made him a special little POPS basket, and put it out for him to find
when he came home from work on Sunday morning.  It had several items
that begin with POP.

In the bags is white chocolate popcorn ( yummy recipe, from my friend Nikki).
It's funny, I honestly have never bought a pop-tart EVER!  When the kids saw
a commercial they thought that would be a perfect addition to this basket.
I seriously stood in front of the display at the store for like 15 minutes, trying to
decided if I should bring this into our home.  In the end I did, it made the basket
cute.  Dad shared with the kids and I'm happy to say that the pop-tarts had only
one bite out of them, then left alone.  The pops cereal also went un-eaten by the
kids. Not stuff they usually get, more for Dad I guess.

When he woke up, we took the kids to a surprise baseball game.  It was lots of fun!
We got all of the tickets free thru his work.  We enjoyed lots of yummy treats like,
hot dogs, nachos, chips, pretzels, cotton candy, and churros.  It was a great way to
spend the evening.  When we got home he did the pop-its in our front yard.

Belt Test

YAY, the boys are both yellow belts now!  These are some pictures of the ceremony.

Here's a video of them at their pre-test, which was on Monday.  It gives you an idea
of a few of the things they have learned in class.  The actual test today was much
more in depth, and they did a great job!





Untitled from Amy BArron on Vimeo.

Bummer summer...... sorta

This summer is not going quite as I had planned.  I've been having some medical issues, and I've been completley wiped out with fatigue.  My problems with nausea & vommiting has gotten worse.  I am trying a new medication for the nausea, but side affect is headaches (so of course I'm having those too).  Anyways, I have little energy most days.  I've been trying to do something fun with the kids or get some housework done when I'm feeling good.  Most days, honestly I've been spending a huge portion in bed.

Yesterday, I surpervised the kids making a chocolate pizza. In the book I am reading to them, the candy factory serves chocolate pizza for lunch.  I thought it would make a good desert.  The kids did a great job making it, and everyone thought it tasted yummy.

On another note, we finally got cell phones.  I downloaded a few free games.  The kids are hooked, they beg to play games on my phone all the time.

I'm still doing the running club.  I've just found it a lot harder to find the modivation to go on my mid week runs.  I hope I will be able to run the half marathon in October.  I'm also hoping I'll start feeling better sooner than later.  I don't want to have a bummer summer.

Marshmallow Guns

The other day we decided to do one of our summer bucket list projects.
We bought all the supplies for under 7.00 bucks.
As the sun was going down (and it was cooler) we got started.  We cut the pvc pipe the right sizes, sanded the mouth pieces, and assembled the guns. 

The next morning we let let kids paint their gun the color of their choice.
Gold, purple & green.
When they were dry, they finally got to give them a try.
They loved them of course!!

Yes, we have a few coolers in the kitchen area  :)   
We were still working on cleaning up from a bbq we had the night before. 
That's also why the kitchen table in missing as well.

The ways they entertain themselves...

                           Hanging out in a storage box for a large portion of the day.

                           Writting on the wall in the backyard with charred wood from the fire.

                                            Playing in the mud, and getting cut while at it.

                  Making homemade lemonade ice pops, and creating a lovley mess.

Watermelon Jello

Today we made a yummy treat that I've been wanting to make for a long time, watermelon jello.

It turned out so cute!  It was fun making something a little different. We used watermelon flavored jello, and the seeds were mini chocolate chips. The kids enjoyed it as their dessert tonight.

School Garden

We went over to the school tonight, to work in the greenhouse.   We planted some seeds, and watered everything that had already been planted.  We'll be going a few times a week during the summer.

After we were done, we walked around the school grounds. We found a bird nest with lots of eggs.  We were able to get really close to the nest, which was neat.  Mama bird flew off right as we walked up.