Cookies with Grandpa!

My brother is getting married this Saturday! That's actually tomorrow. Grandpa Howard is here from Ohio and he's staying with us for a few days. Yesterday, he made cookies with the kids while I mowed the lawn. Stephen was at school and Dallas was outside finding bugs. He must not have noticed the call for cookies.

Grandpa was a little more lenient with the kids than I would have been. That's one reason why grandparents are more fun than parents. I came back in the house just as they were getting the cookies in the oven. He was offering the kids a taste. "Go ahead, eat it. Clean the bowl." Unfortunately for Brenden, he fell asleep and took a once in a lifetime NAP!

Lily had been sampling and helping from the beginning. Raw eggs, sugar, a bite of the butter cube... She didn't take the offer to taste the completed dough. She got some water to pour into the bowl. Evan was too busy at the sink washing the dishes. Meanwhile, Marek was trying to taste it. He got a bit that was soggy and said, "Eeww! Yuck! This is disgusting!"

Don't worry though, all the cookies were eaten!

Then we went to the Great Salt Lake to collect some sand as a souvenir. It was great till the bugs started eating us. We ran away in a hurry!

A day off!

This is what I woke up to find in my bed. I guess I was tired enough not to notice the boys getting there. This is a great start to the weekend! Steve has the day off work today too. After Dallas gets home from school we will go camping. My friend invited us to go with them. She laughed and said, "That's the same look that Steve gave me when I asked him! There will be lots of adults there and we miss you! Let's do something." So we agreed, for one night not the whole weekend. We will test it out to see how the kids do, and how well we can handle the idea ourselves.

So I am finally forced to empty some of my camera, as the memory is full. You know I am not very good at this posting pictures thing. They are a bit jumbled, and I couldn't get everything here that I wanted to. I don't have all day for this! So here they are. Good luck figuring out who is who. We have been experimenting with Lily's hair-dos, playing soccer (both boys, not a once a week commitment!), piano recital, weeding our yard (Some of it), the older boys went to a car race, we "rescued" a butterfly, and just been plain silly. Some of the pictures are missing/doubled. sorry. Now I am off to our next adventure, Camping!

Oh no! Don't spill it!

This must be a brag about Lily month because the last post just happened to spotlight her too. Oh well. She is my girl after all!

She will be the flower girl for my brother Bryce's wedding in a few weeks. We took her to the rehearsal - so cute!- then we went to a dinner. The restaurant was on a street with construction going on. They were actually doing the work, not just the equipment sitting there. While we were waiting for the rest of the party to arrive we watched some of their work. What can I say, she has brothers right? So that being said I was surprised to hear her telling the dump truck, "NO! Oh no! It's dumping out! He's spilling it!" Heaven forbid someone other than Lily could make a mess.

Spring is here

My injury to the finger is healing well and I can type now, but time doesn't permit for all my thoughts to be here. School is nearly over for the year. Like most things lately, it came suddenly for me. I have nearly missed all the holidays this year until Stephen insists we decorate for whatever it is next. With spring here he is taking up catching butterflies, along with the bugs. Marek is afraid of flies - deathly afraid of flies, and Lily is afraid of ants.

We did some weeding and planting in the yard yesterday and we found a worm. Lily was so pleased with HER worm, "It's cute! It's cute? It's so cute! Look! Mine worm! Mine worm! Look, it's cute? It's so cute!" Then she went over to Daddy and pulled his arm. "Yes, Lily. I saw your worm."

"It's cute! Dare he is. I found it." Then Lily carried it over to Daddy in a shovel to be sure he saw it. When he still lacked enthusiasm, she picked it up with her fingers and shoved it close to his eyes. "It's cute? Mine worm!" Then she ran over to show her brothers. They were moderately interested but not as excited as she wanted them to be. About 3 minutes later I hollered, "Boys! Look at Lily. She is trying to show you her worm." Of course they had seen it but she was too excited about it to stop shouting.

The boys were devising a race course for the curl up (potato?) bugs. Using extra pipes from an old Christmas gift they were getting ready to study them as scientists to see who was faster. Lily's worm joined the races. She had to tell her worm (long dead by now) good night, night night worm! After she was into her bed she wanted to get out and check on it. "Mine worm! He's so cute! Night night worm!"