What In the world???

We went for a stroll to the park this morn. This is what happened

Brody caught a bird. I assumed it was injured...

So we put it down. It could FLY! But wasn't... 

So then he unleashed his magic bird whisperer powers and caught another one. 

(I was a tad creeped out)

Really little birds? Your just sitting there perched on Zane not a care in the world??

Weird. 

They would fly away and then a bit later come back and just stand on the ground. So the boys would go pick them up again.

We brought them home. In a bike helmet.

They are in our trees.. I think. 

Its still so strange to me. Maybe someone had some pet sparrows and let them go?? 

Seasonal Dinner Maker

When it is summer, it is nice outside.

When it is nice outside, nice things grow like yummy fruit and veggies.

And when it's nice enough for things to grow, it is nice enough for us to be outside. All day.

When we are outside all day we got hot and tired.

When we (and I mean ME) am hot and tired I don't have any desire to cook. or to even eat hot cooked food.

So dinner looks like this.

Add some corn on the cob and lots of yummy summer salads. 

Delish! 

Two chores and some fun

That's our summer system.
The boys each pick an extra job- a bigger job, and once it's done they pick an extra special fun thing.
The jobs are in one jar folded up so it's totally random- then the fun things are in another jar. Works well so far.
Today Brody had to sweep the garage and Zane had to oil down the front of the kitchen cupboards. Of course they needed some help but they did really well with minimal complaints- because what was the fun thing??
Back yard camp out!!!! Unfortunately the winds are unreal! So I mentioned setting up the tent downstairs and the boys were all for it. We made a special run to the store for movie treats and rented a redbox. Then put up our 10 man tent in our living room. Haha! It's a tad nuts- and im shocked it fit- it is a HUGE tent. Then of course every blanket and sleeping bag and stuffed animal is in with us. We got Preslie to bed and then the four of us sprawled out and watched the movie. It's now after 10- Dev retreated upstairs but the boys and I are still wide awake. Fun times! However- wishing I sucked it up and we were outside. Good thing there's next time!

Summer Lovin'

Theres been a whole lot of this happening around here- Bike rides! Without me because I have been busy/obsessed with flowers-more on that in a sec. 

Evanston is fully aware that they need to remind their citizens why we love to live here- so when the snow melts and the temps get over 60 they start doing their very best to impress the residents- and it works! This was the bluegrass festival. Fun times for sure. 

Later that night after we had all the banjo music we could take, we headed over to the Rodeo. The clown asked the audience if anyone was from out of country, I claim sweet Alberta as home sweet home, so up shot my hand. Mr cowboy clown was impressed and trucked on up the bleachers to see a true blue Canadian for himself- and I got a nice close up pic. Zane refused to be in it.. are you surprised. Also, the whole motivation for going to the rodeo was so the boys could catch a chicken. Well it wasn't quite as Brody imagined, and it ended up being about 50 kids and 4 chickens, he didn't catch one and he was devastated. Like sobbing and couldn't get it together and we had to leave. When he was finally able to communicate, it turned out he thought if the chicken was caught he would be able to keep it- and knew that this was probably his only shot at being a chicken owner. Sad Sad. He shares my heart when it comes to farm ownership and desires. Anyway, tomorrow I will call 4-H and see about how to get this poor boy some farm   experience. 

We have been backyard warriors! And front yard warriors. The improvments have been fairly impressive thus far, if the yard fund was bottomless it would be extra amazing, but thats just not the case.  I know that this really isnt THAT impressive by most standards, however, my track record with growing things usually goes like this.

BUY

PLANT

WATER.. sort of...or too much

WATCH

WONDER

GET FRUSTRATED

PLANTS DIE

BUYERS REMORSE

And then swear to never repeat. Ill fill my flowers with pretty rocks or something. 

I have kept these alive! And they are growing and spreading and doing pretty flower things. WOW. 

Some things I have learned. 

Those little tags that come in the flower are full of useful info, like how much sun and water. 

I treated those little tags like casual suggestions in the past. oops. More important then I thought apparently!

See the pine tree in back? I hate pine trees in the front of homes.Id love to pull it out actually- This one needed to be 'brought up' a good 3 feet.. well Dev was a gem and did it.. but its more like up 6 feet. oops. It looks a little odd, but hopefully once we do something underneath it will improve. We are both learning to appreciate the outcome of yard work. We dont like it any better but it has turned out to be a good family thing we can all work on.Brody and Zane are great weed pullers, I have become obsessed with my flower watering schedule and checking out their improvement. Im eager to see how things look come August. 

Funny Beans

The kids are cracking me up

Here's Zane logic at its finest-
Too cold to hold the freeze pack, so needed oven mitts, but not too cold to have it on his head


The boys combined forces on Preslie's hair do :)

Time For Change

How are all you bloggy people changing your format and layout on a weekly or seasonal basis? I just neglected lesson preparations, dishes and everything else in attempts to get a new layout and it didn't even work all the way and I don't know what to do next. Frustrated! And now the whole change ball is rolling and I want to paint walls, move pictures, and furniture and come up with new color schemes. Change Shmange I say!

Terrible, no good, very bad day

It was yesterday.

We went to Flaming Gorge.

The boys fought a lot all the way there.

The place to buy the rec pass was cash only and then didn't have change. Really?!

When we stopped and got out we discovered we had a tire going flat- very very fast.

We were on top of a hill covered with shale rock and not very near to any flat sturdy ground that would be accommodating to operation tire change.

Then it started to rain and blow like mother nature was having a three year old temper tantrum.

We got the spare tire on- only to discover that it was low on air and had a faulty valve.

So we had to race back to Green River to a tire shop.

We didn't catch any fish.

We didn't see anything beautiful at Flaming Gorge.

The tire guy informed me that my tire was not fixable and that my plan of driving my existing tires until winter was not going to happen- I needed 4 new tires ASAP.

I asked if his tire shop wanted to donate 4 new tires to a very nice lady who was having the worse day ever. He didn't.

We headed for home.

I got pulled over by Wyoming State Patrol.

Luckily the officer had the ability to read minds or moods- and didn't give me a ticket.

More boy fighting on the way home.

We made it home and decided to see a movie. I wore my new shoes and ate a lot of whoppers.

Conclusion:

New shoes make everything better

And

Even on terrible days I am blessed.

My dad was with us. He changed the tire and figured out all the tricky stuff. My mom was with us and helped keep Preslie happy.

What would I have done if it was me and the kids? No cell service, tricky circumstances all the way around and crappy weather. Yikes!

So no it was not exactly an ideal day- but it will still filled with blessings and memories right??

7 months!

Here she is- seven months!
Eating real food, rolling all over,sits independently, gets sad when Dev or I leave the room, loved by her brothers, sleeps 7-7, happy baby, starting to show a lot of personality, loves music and bath time and when we sneeze, fascinated by the dogs, has enough hair for a ponytail, always falls asleep when we go swimming, starting to rip off her headbands, still pukes ALL the time, even on alimentum, if things don't improve then we will get a upper GI scan done- poor baby.. And poor whoever is holding her because they end up covered in her puke.
Her last weigh in was 16 lbs 5 oz.

Call me Phineas

Theres a 104 days of summer vacation...you know the song.


Today was day 1.


Step 1 to awesome summer kick off party;
Be friends with a 'Ferb." In my case, Allie who is a party pro and has serious OCD party obsession. She draws diagrams to accompany her lists. Love her! LOL. I'm all for fun, but suck at details. Like real invites and garbage bags.

Step 2: Deliver cute Popsicle invites at 9pm, and remind your friends that 9pm is NOT an acceptable bedtime- ITS SUMMER!!! :)

Step3: Lay down a 25 FT piece of contractors plastic- down a hill. 

Step 4: This is very important- soap is not the answer to slipin n sliding. The key is OIL. Baby oil all over the plastic, and petroleum jelly- and then all over the humans, we even used cooking spray oil. Its slick! Works like a gem. These little floaters worked super great too. 

 Step 5: Cute umbrellas and wagons to offer shade- because these parties last awhile

Step 6: Shaving cream and silly string and just say GO FOR IT! And they did. It was funny. 

 Step 7: Giant bags of popcorn and coolers of Popsicle. 

 Hip Hip HOORAY! FOR SUMMER!!!

Smarty Pants

Farewell Kindergarten

I cant even describe how fast this year has gone! 

And here I sit thinking about all that has happened, all the things I have learned as a Mum, all the things Brody has learned in school and the sad reality that I am getting old!

Just so you know...

The magical age when knees in pants wear out before the pants get out grown is 5-6 (at least at our house) Brody managed to skip size 7 pants completely and also size 1 Jr shoes. Hes now running around in a 8 pant and Jr size 2 shoe. He is the 2nd tallest boy in his class- hes at the fun age where the girls dominate the title of 'tallest kid'.

Here's a little interview I did:

Me: What was your favorite kindergarten memory?

Brody: Our field tip to the zoo, or maybe when we all went swimming. I loved the book fair, and the assembly with the guys who did fighting tricks.

Me: What was your favorite school lunch?

Brody: Hot ham and cheese sandwiches, broccoli cooked, bean dip and pears. And always chocolate milk.

Me: What was your favorite learning thing at school? 

Brody: SCIENCE!!! Oh I love science. We should have science all day every day. And I liked my Ipad stuff, music sometimes. 

Me: Are you excited for grade 1? 

Brody: What? grade 1? You mean 1st grade? Im just excited for summer, Im not even thinking about 1st grade. 

Wednesday was the awards ceremony for the whole school. Brody got two awards, one for reading excellence and another for 3301 minutes out-loud reading. He is a phenomenal reader! his teacher and the reading coaches at Clark are incredible- heroes for sure! As a parent I have always thought that learning to read is a huge milestone- I cant even begin to express how proud, grateful, happy, and relieved I am that reading is something Brody can do well, and something he enjoys. 

Brody and his teacher Ms. Collins

Ms Collins, Brody and the Principal, Mr Petersen.

Thursday we went to the zoo..

Friday was Kindergarten graduation. I didn't even cry. 

School Friends

Just for fun BEFORE and AFTER

First Day...

Last Day- same shorts :)