GIRL'S NIGHT OUT

This year our girl's night out was actually a girls night in! Everyone came to my house for a night crafts. We had big plans... Aprons, watches, magnets, and chore boards. Everyone came over Friday whenever they got off work. At the last minute we decided we would make aprons for all the little girls. Lindsay, Joni and I got started on that first since the little girls weren't going to stay all night. Here are our little models. Raigen, Brinlee and Kennedi showing off their new aprons!While we were busy sewing Cassidy and Kristine were hard at work making Macaroni and cheese (a Girl's Night Out Tradition) for dinner. It was delicious and I'm sure very fattening!

Next we decided to give our sewing machines a break and bring out the beads. We had ordered watch faces on-line and gone shopping for beads. So we all got to work designing our beaded watch bands.

We kept at it for a couple hours, Sierra strung and unstrung her band at least three times (until she finally decided it was cute), Joni ended up with a string that was just short enough to be a pain to tie, Brinlee made Taylor a baby bracelet, Lindsay was just about finished when she realized she was a bead short, and Cassidy was definitely the pro.

There were definitely times of frustration but we all kept smiling and loved the end result. Brinlee's and Kennedi's were my favorite because you just don't see miniature beaded watches that often!

Next the sewing machine's came back out. My mom got all the girl's sewing machines for Christmas this year so it worked out great, everyone brought their own machines and we could all sew at the same time. I helped Cassidy sew her apron since she was the only one that had never even taken the TLC sewing class that you take in 7th grade, but in all reality she didn't really need help, so I just gave instructions. Lindsay was kind enough to let me borrow her sewing machine to be in a picture! The aprons we sewed were reversible, so it was like sewing two apron's, and it took us a while. We spent hours listening to the new Hannah Montana CD while sewing and ironing a sewing some more, but again it was worth it and we had a lot of fun.

We were all ready for bed by the time we finished and did a quick clean up but everyone willingly put on their aprons and posed for a picture!Maybe we'll get together another night for the chore boards and magnets. Because our next project was definitely a good night's (morning's) SLEEP!

If you are wondering what happened to the boys that live at my house. They roughed it in the great outdoors! OK it was the back yard, but I think they had fun!

THE ZOO

Many of you may know that Trevin loves animals. Gage reads Trevin books before bedtime and most of them involve animals. Trevin loves the animal book because he knows what ALL of the animals say, that is all but a dog and a cat. So for the last couple of months we have been meaning to go to the ZOO but you know how busy life gets... We finally made it last Saturday and we had a blast. The weather was perfect, overcast, but hardly any rain and the animals were all pretty active.I had to work that night so we got up early and we were at the front Gate by about 9:30.

First stop was the monkey's which Trevin didn't seem to excited about then he finally saw one of them and was thrilled! He was so cute... he said Oh Oh and scratched his pits just like we taught him. I tried so hard to get all of his expressions on video, but non of them really worked out so you'll just have to settle for my pics. Next up was the Madagascar exhibit. By now Trevin had caught on to looking for the animals, but he still acted so surprised when he saw them. We saw beetles and turtles and all sorts of fun stuff in here. This is my family, posing for another picture, they are such good sports- and cute too!The next stop was the one that I was excited for.... THE ELEPHANTS! This is the sound that I taught Trevin and he does it so well, I couldn't wait for his to see how big they are. I know he doesn't look that excited in the picture but he really was.We sat down for the elephant show- they usually show off the elephant feet and trunks and stuff. But this time they had a big tree hung from the middle of "stage" and just let the elephants tear it apart. I could believe how good of a grip they got with their trunks.

Trevin enjoyed watching the penguins waddle around and did a pretty good imitation of them, the bears were fun and the wart hogs (he is still working on the pig noise), but his favorite of the day was definitely the Giraffes!

If you don't know what a giraffe says then you had better ask Trevin the next time you see him! Because he definitely has this one down. I think he would have stayed in the smelly giraffe building all day if we had let him. Our next stop on the tour was the tiger. He walked around and even Roared for us, which I thought was cool.

We watched the Gorilla for a while and Gage tried to teach Trevin that gorillas bang on their chests, but we are gunna have to work on that one!Cheyenne was happy the entire time. She loves being outside, especially if she is in the stroller going for a walk.We ate lunch on one of the grassy areas in the park, PB&Js, granola bars, and chips... YUM! While we were eating we decided to stay for the Bird Show, we debated cause Trevin and Cheyenne were both getting tired. In the end it was a great decision. Trevin loved it, especially when the birds swooped right over his head. I thought it would scare him, but he cheered, clapped and yelled "YES" even if no one else was cheering.

Cheyenne didn't seem to care much for the birds and decided to take a nap instead of watching.Trevin loved the birds so much that Gage gave him a dollar at the end to have the bird take from his hand and put in the donation box, I didn't get a picture of his face but he was way excited when the bird took it and he jabbered about it after.The final event of the day was a picture of my boys with the bald eagle! What a great day at the zoo!Just in case you're wondering a giraffe sticks out his tongue and smacks his lips!

Bear Lake Blast

This past weekend was the annual Crabtree family get together at the Lake. I've been waiting for this all summer, so here is the play by play...

Thursday night I still hadn't packed and we were leaving first thing Friday morning so I knew we were in for a late night. First I got both kids packed, then the beach bag, then me, then it was time to pack the car with tents, chairs etc. Then a quick run to the store for food, I got back at around 9:15 and got to start making salads (3 pasta salads and 2 fruit salads). Things were going smoothly until Trevin figured out he could climb onto the cooler that was on the floor and decided to grab the hot stove! I felt like an awful parent cause I was standing right there and should have been paying more attention. Any way I didn't get a picture but Trevin was so cute sitting on the counter trying to catch the ice cubes that I had put in a bowl of cold water. He ended up with two blisters- but we're lucky it could have been a lot worse. My night finished with making a 4th of July dress for Cheyenne and then winding down to an episode of "Reba."

Friday morning we planned on leaving the house at 8 am, but we made it out the door at 8:40. Two hours of driving and we made it to the Lake with two sleeping kids. But don't worry it didn't take Trevin long to wake up and start exploring! We always start the weekend with any work projects then we can spend the rest of the weekend playing. This year we recarpeted the stairs to the trailer, but first the old carpet had to come off.

Gage got to work scraping off the old stuff and Trevin wasn't far behind- he loves to help Dad. Gerin measured for the new carpet.Then Miles helped Gage glue it on, while I tried to distract Trevin.

Sierra and Savana worked to get the drive way cleared of weeds and Aanika worked in the flowers.

Darrin got the dirty job of pulling out bushes.

Trevin and Chase both helped Gage hammer the knots out of the grass. In the end Gage went a little over board and had about riped out the entire root system before Sherry stopped him. :) Everything looked great by the time we were finished. For our reward we got to ride the 4 man bikes that the KOA rents out. It was so much fun.

We had two bikes with 2 adult and 2 kids each and then a monster bike with 4 adults and 2 kids. What started out as a leisurely ride quickly turned into a competition. Gage and I totally smoked everyone! we even risked tipping the bike into a storm drain to take the lead. This is the monster bike but it's hard to see, they were eating our dust! After a while we all switched bikes, and we put all the "Power hitters" on the big bike, plus me... and in the end it was too much for the bike we broke the bike and only two of the four pedals worked for the ride home. Oops!

We got back to camp and it was time for the Men to prove themselves in the Mr. T completion. Each of them got a frozen T- shirt that they had to unthaw/brake apart and put on. This was a lot of fun to watch. They tried everything... pounding the ice block on the cement, prying with their fingers

Erwin tried the coconut method and pounded his shirt on a rock with a rock, and miles even resorted to turning on the truck and holding his shirt by the exhaust pipe! Oh the creativity...

Here they are our manly men!
Next it was time for our "Secret Agent Camp" The kids all decorated binoculars and used them to find clues around the yard.

It took him a while but Trevin finally figured out how to look through the binoculars. After a few secret agent tasks, breaking codes, combination locks, the agents were put to the test! They found a bomb and had to defuse it!Chersti is so creative. The kids loved taking turns cutting the wires to defuse it!The agents passed and the bomb was defused and everyone got to graduate! Here is our class picture!

Saturday was our day at the beach. What a great way to celebrate Independence Day! Gage went down to help dock the boat along with all of the other men. The rest of us packed up kids and made our way to the beach to mark our spot. Trevin wasn't that thrilled about playing in the water but Dad did get him to ride the whale for a little while. We did a lot of playing in the sand. Trevin loved to fill up the bucket and help Gage dump it out. Cheyenne slept for a while, but loved it when Papa held her.

The boat is always fun, who doesn't love a chance to get on the water? Trevin couldn't resist falling asleep to the rocking of the boat. Chersti even proved her skill on a wakeboard. Later that night Bubba the masked bandit showed up to start a marshmallow fight.

Marshmallows were flying left and right and Savana tried hard to keep up eating them as fast as the boys were shooting them. Trevin got pegged a couple of times but didn't seem to mind and definitely wanted to stay right in the middle of the action. We love Bear Lake but having the whole family together is the best part! We can't wait until next year. Maybe Trevin will be old enough to catch the lizards that kept getting away from him!

FLAGS and Graduation

For the last 6 or 7 yrs the Canova girls all paint their toe nails for the 4th of July. This isn't your typical pedicure either... we paint flags. Every year the tradition gets bigger thanks to the number of grand daughters that we have. We used to all get together at the same time but this year we did it in shifts. I was so impressed with the little girls they all sat so still which is hard for 1 and 2 year olds. Even Cheyenne got her toes painted, to Gage's dismay.

So this picture makes it look like Cheyenne was awake when we painted her toes..not really though. This was after we were finished. Doesn't she have the cutest little feet.

In the end there were 12 of us sporting flags to show our patriotism. Happy Independence Day!Cassidy the youngest of the CANOVA clan graduated from 6th grade this year. She got the Presidential Gold Medal award for academics.

I can't believe that she is officially out of elementary school. Time flies...but we couldn't be more proud of you Cass! We love you!