My sisters and I just spent a week in Washington helping my parents get their home ready to sell.  It was hard work emotionally and physically, but I have to say we did an amazing job.  The house looks great!  And, I think we might just have set the world record for number of trips to Lowes/Home Depot in one week.  I know my family wanted to kill me when I wouldn’t stop working but I tend to go a little crazy when there is a project to be done and a deadline to be met.  And the fact that we had more than one menstruating female in the house at one time also made things a little dicey.  Miraculously we survived and I still  love being with my family.  We always laugh so hard we cry. 

On our way to WA we drove through Mt. Rainier National Park.  I’ve been going there since I was a little girl and it was good to see it again.  It’s one of my favorite places on earth.

Love this one!

We lucked out and got to see the Lakefair fireworks show while we were there.  Possibly for the last time. 

This is my favorite fireworks show, hands down.  The fireworks shooting out over the capital building and echoing throughout the dome makes it one of a kind.  

The Breakfast of Champions
One other highlight of the trip, pathetic though it may be, was eating ice cream for breakfast.  My children were not around so I did not have to be a good example.  We had to find some way to make it through the week, right?

No trip home from WA would be complete without a stop at Multnomah Falls.  Love this place.  I love the whole drive down the Columbia Gorge and will miss it.

All in all it was a very productive trip.  Mom and Dad’s house looks so fabulous there will be a bidding war for sure, Sarin got her first kiss, and Allison learned how to get other people to do her heavy lifting thanks to Craigslist.  Oh! and the crazy man who drove all the way from Vancouver up to Lacey to get my parents free armoire made his wife very happy.  His parting words to us as he drove away with the huge armoire hanging out of his little tiny truck were, “Happy Wife, Happy Life!”  And Mom and Dad, you’ll be glad to know we did not see the armoire laying by the side of the road in pieces. 

Liberty turned five years old this week!  We love our spunky, talkative, dance wherever she goes, everything STILL has to be pink, knows how to hold her own on a cul de sac of boys, little girl.  She has been counting down to this birthday, that’s for sure. 

While eating her birthday cereal she said, “I can’t wait to go look in the mirror and see how much taller I am!”

She’s got em all wrapped around her little finger.  Even the neighbor boys gave her presents.  These included a re-gifted minion and pink paper airplanes.

Presents!

Pigs from Levi

Fairy Flutterby

This is a flying fairy that she has wanted for a long time.  But now she is terrified of it.  Picture those little toy flying helicopters with no controls.  It just smacks into the ceiling with a loud crash.  Oh well.

 
A light up ring from Cade

Light up Shoes from Grandma, who hasn’t actually seen them yet.

The Cake!

Liberty helped make and decorate it.

Here is the cake with the Sleeping Beauty Lego Set Cake Topper

Many moms welcome summer vacation because it means they get to have their kids home with them for a while.  They get to spend the time with them they don’t during the school year.  They take their kids to the zoo, to the water parks, and to the library, contentiously keeping  them up to date on their “summer reading program” .  I am not one of those moms this summer.   I am with my children all day every day of the year and so in June I took a complete break from anything that looks remotely like what I do the rest of the year.  With the exception of swimming lessons, dinner and laundry my children would not even be able to say they have a mother around this summer.  “A mother?” my children would say, “You mean the lady who has spent the whole month reupholstering those two chairs in the family room?  You mean that lady who doesn’t even make us come in for lunch or up for air from the lego closet?  You mean that lady who shows up to spray us with sunscreen, drive us to swim lessons and then disappears once we’re home to read a book or watch a show on netflix?  You mean SHE’S our mother?”  It’s true.  I’m not particularly proud of it, but it sure has felt nice!   And I think I deserved it.  So that is why there have been no blog posts for a while.  Mom was on summer vacation.  Now that June is over we will pick math back up again and probably history and we’ll hit the library, the parks and the river. 

To end the dry spell, I’ll start with….

The Fourth of July!

Yesterday we lived the all American 4th of July.  Our day started off with the neighborhood pancake breakfast and bike parade.

This picture was taken BEFORE the parade.  Liberty actually got left behind at some point in the parade until a nice couple rode up to help her make it back to the park. She was so worried she told them our phone number and they actually called our home to tell us they had her.  LOL.  She was only a few minutes behind everyone else, but by the time she got back she was not a happy camper.  She was hot, tired and sad she’d missed the big finish.   

**I will take a moment here to interrupt this 4th of July blog post to tell a funny story about Liberty knowing her phone number.  About a month ago she decided she wanted to learn it, so she found an old calculator she could use as a phone and  asked me for the number.  I told her the number, she typed it in a couple times and that was that.  I didn’t think anything of it and didn’t think she had actually learned it until later that night when I took her shoe shopping.  As we were checking out, the very young smarty pants behind the counter asked me for my phone number.  Before I could tell her, she turned to Liberty and asked her if she knew her phone number.  Then turning back to me in a very officious tone said,  “I am studying Elementary Education and it is VERY important for small children to learn their phone number.”  So very many responses went through my mind at that moment.   But I chose to graciously keep my mother of four/ex-elementary school teacher/homeschooler mouth shut and just smiled sweetly back at her.  Liberty then proceeded to rattle off our phone number perfectly to the nice little smarty pants behind the counter.  That’s my girl!**

Now back to the 4th of July.  In the evening we got together with most of our neighbors on the cul-de-sac for a BBQ and then lined the street to set off all our fireworks.  It was really really cool!   Lemonade, red, white and blue, face painting, water fights, old people, young people, and kids running all over the place with smoke bombs and snappers.  All to celebrate the birth of our country.  I am reading John Adams for book club right now and couldn’t help but think of his quote about the 4th of July:

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty; it ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Here are some pictures!

 
Is it just me or does this NOT look like Levi?

My neighbor’s father in law

Growing snakes

The monster truck ear mufflers got her through most of the fireworks.

God Bless America!

Liberty had the first of what I’m sure will be many dance recitals on Friday.  She has continued to be a natural and it was so much fun to watch her. 
“I wanna wear a dress and do my hair!” (said in a whiny voice).  This is what my roommates and I would say in college when one of us got to go to a dance but the rest didn’t.  Getting ready for a dance or even getting someone else ready is one of those rites of passage for us girls.  Last week I finally got to curl Liberty’s hair and get her all dolled up!  This was a dream come true.  I know, using a curling iron is not usually what you would consider big time dreams, but it was for me!  And getting to wear lipstick and blush was a big dream come true for my little dancer too!



She still makes the funniest faces.

And here is the dance!  Keep in mind these are 4-6 year olds who have never danced before.  It’s pretty funny.

And there you have it.  Libby’s first recital.  Can’t wait to do it again!

It’s Mother’s Day!!!!  So what better time to blog about…..Easter. 

The Easter Egg Hunt at Byams:  This was so fun, I think we should make it a tradition!

Sorry, she’s a bit of a ham now days.

The Whole Crew

Right around Easter, Penny took us to a friend’s home to see their baby rabbits.  So fun!

Allison’s plans for Spring Break fell through so we got to be her Second Choice option!!!!  We felt so honored!

Baking goodies with Aunt Alli and Princess Buttercup!  Ooh, I just came up with that one… that should be Libby’s new nick name!!!

While Alli was here, we did something our family never does; we decided spur of the moment to head to Twin Falls to see Shoshone Falls!  They were not as full of water as we’d hoped, but it turned out to be a pretty quick and painless trip, which for our family is saying something! 

And that was Easter week!  Thanks for coming to visit Alli! 

In other Spring news, we put up a tire swing!!

This year my only goal was to get through this event without any boy tears.  And we did it!  Success!  Cade’s car did great!  He was basically 4th place overall.  And he was thrilled with that.  Hallelujah!

This is Cade’s third year, so Rock let him do the whole thing almost completely by himself. 

Lots of excited boys.

Ready…Set….

Go!

And here is the coolest thing about the night.  A scout’s big brother put a video camera on his old Pinewood derby car and happened to race Cade’s car, so we got it on video!

You might think this an interesting name for a blog post.  Or maybe just a boring one.  If only I could name it something different, something more exciting.  If only I could name this blog post, “The wonderfully Wonderful Things That Adorable Little Boys Do.”  But I can’t name it that.  Sorry.

About four months ago Levi came inside telling me that the garage door opener was smoking.  I ran out to the garage to see if something was on fire only to find that Levi and his little neighbor friend had been playing with the garage door opener button.  Up, down, Up down, Up, down.  Over and over again.  “Weeeeee!”  they said. “Gee, Mom, we didn’t think it would hurt anything!”  they said.  Sigh.  Luckily, nothing was broken….yet.  Two days later the big spring across the top of the garage door broke.   Amazingly enough, the door still worked and so we went on with our lives and replaced the spring the following month.  Needless to say Levi was chastised to the full extent of the family law.

Last month Levi came inside to tell me (surprise!) the garage door opener was smoking….again.  I ran out to the garage to find the same two little boys with that same ‘I’m guilty as heck’ look on their faces. Deja vu anyone?  Accept that this time, the garage door opener stopped working the next day.  Levi was chastised to the fuller-fullest extent of the family law and will be working off the new $430.00 spring and garage door opener till he’s fifty.  Though, Rumplestiltsken did have the right idea and I may be willing to accept his first born instead.

If that were the end of the story, it would be a happy thing.  But it is not the end of the story.  Half an hour after the new garage door opener was installed I realized the opener had a motion sensor light on it.  Five minutes after I made special trip into Rock’s office to tell him the good news, Cade decided to stick a pencil INTO the motion sensor in an attempt to open the garage door.  “Gee, I wonder which button opens the garage door.  Maybe it’s this funny looking one that is not actually a button at all but a plastic covering for the motion sensor.  Hmm, I can’t get it to do anything so maybe if I stick a pencil into it, it will magically work!” 

I wish I could say that I handled that discovery well, but let’s just say that Cade will be telling his children and grandchildren about the explosion for years to come. 

Thomas Edison was a fascinating man.  We’ve been reading a biography about him and have learned a ton!  He was a bit of a rebel, he was a prankster, and he was incredibly persistent.  He tried 3000 different theories while trying to create the electric light.  My kids can no longer claim they have tried something twice and then give up.  From now on I will say, “Come back to me when you’ve tried it 3000 different ways and THEN we’ll talk.”

We made a telegraph as part of our study of his life.  The boys each wrote a message in Morse code and then typed it out on our telegraph. 

Here is Cade’s message translated:

Here is Reagan’s:

And Levi’s:

As you may have deduced from Levi’s message, we have been learning about the Civil War this month.  What has been really cool is to also be reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin for my book club this month as well.   I was able to tell the boys the amazing story of Uncle Tom and what he went through just as they were learning about slavery and its horrors.  Then right as we finished up the Civil War, Ben Carson announced he was starting an exploratory committee to run for president.  So we watched “Gifted Hands”, the story about his amazing life.  I figured I would only show the boys the first part of the movie when he was young.  I love that his mother required him to read 2 books a week and write a report about it.  But the boys were so enthralled,  we watched it all.  It was the perfect thing to finish up our unit. One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War a black man can do anything in America; from pediatric surgeon to President of the United States!

Reagan has become fascinated with magnets lately and bought these Neodymium magnets to play around with.  This video he made is pretty cool.

This week we learned about the composer, Franz Schubert.  While listening to his 8th Symphony, the boys decided to organize their Pokémon. 

A few weeks ago Levi wanted to make a squirrel feeder for the back yard.  We have a ton of squirrels.  So many in fact that if you have seen the movie UP, you will appreciate the fact that when my children are sitting at the table and I am trying to read to them, rather than sit enraptured as I think they should, their attention is often called away by far more interesting sights.  “Squirrel!!!” someone yells,  and they all dash to the window to watch the one millionth squirrel run the fence.  Sigh.  I should never have allowed the squirrel feeder.  But here it is.

In our homeschool co-op group Cade was in a Greek mythology class.  He made this diorama of the scene in the Odyssey where Odysseus almost gets sucked into the whirlpool, Charybdis.  I thought his use of electronics was pretty ingenious.

(Warning: Brag Alert-read ahead if you are a grandparent, but otherwise, proceed at your own risk.)

In other homeschool news, Liberty is begging me to teach her to read and is still dancing everywhere she goes.  She has her first dance recital next month.  Levi is begging me to let him read Percy Jackson.  I’m not ready to let him read about all those monsters at age 7, but I will have to give in at some point.  He would rather mom just step aside so he can plow ahead at his own pace with his school work, but I’m not quite willing to do that just yet. Cade is speeding along a grade ahead in math and has finally caught fire with reading.  He taught himself to read at the age of three, but he is only now choosing to read books just for fun.  Reagan is a straight A student at the middle school half day.  He loves playing in the orchestra and has had a really good experience there this year.  His ADHD medicine has been a HUGE help in all ways but especially in his school work.  It’s wonderful to see his bright mind outshining  his attention deficit. 
(End Brag Alert)

After three and a half years of homeschooling  I can say that it is still constantly evolving.  We still have really good days and really bad days.  But I still get up every day excited to start another school day.  Next year we will probably be making some big changes, but for now things are going great and I am really pleased with the progress the kids have made this year.

While in Grand Junction we went to the Math and Science Center that we love so much! 

The Python named Monty…….

The Lizard whose name escapes me.

This game is called Ball of Whacks.  No joke.

That evening we celebrated Grandma Dot’s 89th birthday.

She and Liberty chatted all night long.  Though Grandma admitted she only heard about 40% of the conversation. What was funny was to listen to Liberty’s responses when Grandma happened to repeat a question like “How old are you now?  Libby started saying“I’m STILL four, Grandma.” 
This cute picture was taken by Uncle Dave.    Love it!!!

Reading her birthday cards from the kids. 

Cade had to write his card left handed and had to try three  times to get it right.  The completed card promised a Cade Hymas origami card when his arm heals.

And then our time was done in GJ!  It went by so fast!  On our way home we stopped in Salt Lake to have dinner with Rock’s family.   Got these on Temple Square:

Really wish I had a GOOD camera.

Someone to look up to.

And to end on a funny note, here is Liberty in the bathroom at the restaurant.  She walked in and gasped with joy,  “I LOOOVE this bathroom!!!!”
She hadn’t even flushed the toilet and was already planning to paint her bathroom back home.  No way Reagan is going for that.

Thanks for a great trip G and G!!

Who knew ellipticals could be so deadly.  Actually, I did have a gut feeling that I shouldn’t let the kids play on Grandma’s elliptical because it was so big and powerful, but I am too often a paranoid parent and didn’t want to be the party pooper again.  I should have pooped this party, though.
 
Exhibit A-The Elliptical:

On Tuesday Cade was using the elliptical when he got his elbow at the wrong angle and the moving handle smashed his arm into the stationary handle he was holding.  He stepped down in terrible pain, crying and then promptly fainted!  I had to catch him and sit him with his head between his knees for a few minutes.  I searched all over for a bone or something sticking out figuring that fainting must mean something really bad.  But there was nothing we could see to indicate a break.  He laid on the couch with ice around his arm for a few hours before we took him to the urgent care.  It’s always hard to tell if a kid needs to go to the doctor with stuff like this.  With Levi it is usually evident, gushing blood is a pretty clear sign, but that’s not true for the rest of them.  When the doctor pushed and prodded on his arm it was very obvious he was not faking it. 

The X-Ray

Exhibit B-The X-Rays

Notice where the radius bone (big arm bone to the left) bulges out slightly on both sides.

I drew lines to show where the true line of the bone should be.  That slight bulge or buckle was the proof apparently.

Verdict: Broken!  The technical term is “distal radius buckle fracture”.  Rock’s cousin helped us understand why we couldn’t tell it was broken by looking at this x-ray.  He said your bone is like a stick with a bunch of saran wrap around it.  If the stick breaks, the saran wrap holds it together if it’s not too big of a break.  And the “saran wrap” is pretty strong when you’re a kid.  That’s why it is so hard to see the actual break.

The Urgent Care put a splint on him and sent us home with instructions to see our pediatrician for a cast once we got home 3 days later.

Left: Mount Garfield, Right: Grand Mesa, Center: Beaming boy who now has the bragging rights to the first broken bone in the family.  He could not wait to walk in and show off his cool sling to his siblings. 

Had to take his picture with the offending machine. Which, I might add, all children were forthwith banned from using.

The next day, Rock’s cousin Grant, an ER doctor in Grand Junction, took a look at Cade’s arm for us.  He then went to the hospital to confirm the break as valid, got us copies of the x-ray (Thank you, Grant!!), and brought back the materials to put on his cast!  Never thought I’d have a kid get a cast in the kitchen, but Caderade did.  With an audience, no less!

Grandma Dot was second only to the doctor in signing his cast. 
It was almost full with family names by the time we left GJ. 

Ironically enough, his arm is not the only thing Cade broke this week.  You can be a bit clumsy with a sling on, and Cade tripped over a basket and sent Grandma Hymas’ lamp crashing to the ground.  Grandma was very gracious and Cade’s parents are now out $80.00.  That is not the end of the irony  here, however.  This is not the first grandmother’s lamp that Cade has broken.  When he was one or two years old he  broke Grandmother Wesel’s heirloom lamp and his parents were out $150.00.  I’m sensing a pattern here.  Thank goodness he only has two grandmothers.  But as pointed out earlier, he still has two great grandmothers so I should probably warn them.

And that was Cade’s Spring “Break”.  Or maybe I should say Spring “Breaks”.  Stay tuned for the rest of our Spring Break story.