Fourth of July weekend

On Friday, July 2 we took our kids to a movie in the Park. They were showing Planet 51 The movie didn't start until almost 10:00. We thought it would start closer to 9:00. While waiting for the movie to start they had a raffle and threw beach balls and frisbees around. They also played music. The kids fell asleep almost as soon as the movie started but Karl and I enjoyed it. After it was over Karl carried Steven, I carried Summer but we had to wake Matthew up so he could walk to the car. He was so punch drunk he kept laughing all the way back to the van. It was pretty funny!

See the beach ball?

Steven already settling in for the night.

Finally, it's getting dark.

The wind is blowing the screen is.

On Saturday, July 3 we let the kids sleep in so we missed the pancake breakfast. But we went and met my family for the parade. The kids had a lot of fun but I was really annoyed because this kid who was like 16 years old kept jumping in front of my kids to get all the candy, frisbees, and toys. My kids got plenty of junk but it was just the principle of it. I mean come on, do you need 10 frisbees, really? And I couldn't believe that people in the parade threw things right to him and then bypassed the littler kids. Why would you do that? We all cheered when one dad jumped in front of him and grabbed the frisbee that someone threw to him. What a jerk! And his parents were right there cheering him on. I was like "Are you really proud of him? Cause I think he is a little punk.

We didn't do much on Sunday, July 4th but Karl had the 5th off. So on Mon we went out to breakfast then we met my parents, sister and her kids, and my brother's fiancee Mandy at the park for a picnic lunch. Then we took our kids to the dollar theater to see "How to Train Your Dragon". It's the first time we took Summer to the theater but she did really well. She slept through half of it and the other half she was happy during as long as we had plenty of popcorn for her to eat. After that we went to the air force museum. This is the only picture we have of from there since our camera battery died. It was a fun day and I was not ready for Karl to go back to work on Tues.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

On Saturday, June 26 we went to a Raptors game. It is very minor league but it was perfect for the kids. We sat in the general admission seats and all around us were families with small children so we didn't have to worry about the kids bothering anyone. The kids enjoyed it and surprised us by making it through the entire game. My parents came too and we all had a good time. And the Raptors won in the very last inning 4-3! Go Raptors!

Steven playing with my mom's sudoku game

Steven just chillin' at the game!

We have enjoyed taking advantage of the free summer activities that the library has been offering. A few weeks ago they had Native American Hoop dancing. Here are some pictures of the kids trying out the hoops. Our camera battery was dying so they didn't turn out that great.

Then he showed the kids some tricks. Later he was dressed in full Native American dress but I didn't get any pictures of that.

Some of the other library activities that we have been too were the Bird Refuge and Water Fun with the Mad scientist. The bird refuge proved to be a disappointment. We thought since she was from the bird refuge she would have some birds and do some type of bird show. But also she did was talk about habitats and the animals that lived there and also lectured us on how bad it is to feed wild ducks bread. Plus when they were passing things out and stuff they kept skipping right over Summer as if she wasn't there. I know she is small but she is not invisible. The only reason she got to do anything is because Matthew gave her some of his things (they were passing out toy animals and having the kids put them in the habitat).

The kids had a lot of fun with the mad scientist activity. They did lots of experiments involving water some of which we could do at home. The only mishap with this activity was when they were trying to shoot off a pop bottle rocket using water. They tried twice and both ended with bottle hitting kids.

Tonight we are going to a dinosaur activity. Look for a future post about that one!

A couple of days ago Karl found Summer sitting on one of the shelves in our pantry! Here are some pictures of that!

She is such a silly girl! Here are some other cute things she does lately: she calls herself "My"; she loves books and likes to "count" the pictures (points at the pictures and speaks gibberish). I think she does that because Steven is very into counting things right now! She also loves to dance. She sings all the time too. In our new ward she already has the reputation as the little girl who sings. She will hold the hymnbook and belt out songs in her own little language. It is pretty cute but can be embarrassing when people turn around and look at us and smile. Everyone is always coming up to us and telling us how cute they think it is. We love our Summer, she definitely keeps life fun!

Summer Fun!

Here are some of the fun summer activities that we have been involved in lately.

First, I forgot a few weeks ago when I did the Memorial Day weekend blog to mention that on the Sat before Memorial Day when we were down visiting my grandparents' graves Karl got a phone call from his store. His assistant called to tell him that someone had driven into his store. Fortunately no one was hurt and there was minimal damage done. But some the bricks in the wall were pretty banged up and even though only a couple of them were damaged they will pretty much have to replace the whole wall. The wall is also concave now because it curves in now where the car hit it. You can't see that in the picture but you can see damage to the bricks.

Can you see the damaged bricks on the bottom left and the bottom right? They are the second row up from the bottom. It is hard to see in the picture.

Last week a friend from our old neighborhood invited us to a kiddie pool party. The kids had a lot of fun and it was fun to hang out with some people from the old neighborhood!

Steven is very into dressing himself lately. In fact he frequently gets up and gets himself dressed before we even get up in the morning. One day we were getting ready to go out and he went to his room to get himself ready and this is what he came out looking like!

Here are some pics of Summer, whenever we get the camera out she wants us to take her picture.

For FHE last week we decided to have root beer floats as a treat. Our kids looked so cute eating them that we decided to take some pics.

Every Thursday night during the summer our local library hosts a children's activity. Two weeks ago there was a puppet show of Celtic fairy tales. If you have never heard any Celtic fairy tales, they are really weird. But our kids loved them and all three laughed throughout the whole thing. The only problem arose when some of the puppets came out to the audience to "meet" the kids. There was a dragon that pretended to eat a boy and it scared Steven to death.

Matthew waiting to meet one of the puppets at the end of the show.

The kids loved this puppet who was pretending to be king of the leprechauns but was really just the janitor who cleaned toilets. No matter what you are talking about if you mention toilets kids think it is funny!

They also loved this bird who kept appearing on stage when he wasn't supposed to and always wanted applause when he started a scene.

The infamous dragon. Steven liked him fine when he was on stage but did not want it coming near him.

Summer watching attentively

Matthew and Steven watching. Matthew is in the light blue shirt and Steven is the little head you can barely see to the right of Matthew between him and the boy in the dark blue.

Last week they had a hands on art experience which they loved. We don't have any pictures from that one though. The highlight was when they learned to draw from Val Bagley a famous local artist who illustrates a lot of LDS children's books. We have a few of them. Tonight they are having Native American Hoop dancing.

I think we gave Karl a pretty good Father's Day. We made him french toast for breakfast and gave him a tackle box, movie and some books. We love him and are so grateful for him and the wonderful father and husband that he is.