Brace Yourself

Jenna and her friends have started a book club and Jenna hosted their first meeting this week.  The book was "A Little Princess" and they watched the movie together as part of their discussion.

Korinne has always had an interest in cooking so I bought an online cooking course designed just for kids.  Each week she has a class that she can watch at any time.   

Here she is cutting up a pepper during a lesson on using sharp knives safely.  It made me a little nervous to send her in with a sharp knife, but the instructor designed this for kids even younger than her so I figured she probably knew what she was talking about.  Korinne was cutting like a pro and now knows kitchen knife safety.

Our kids have been ready for braces an average of 2 years before their peers. Why? I have no idea. They just lose their teeth early and by the age of 10 have all of their permanent teeth.  This time it was Korinne who walked into the Orthodontist to get braces.

Before

After 

Korinne didn't much care for the process. 

I had to take Jameson with me because both Britton and Jenna were gone. He did pretty well most of the time, but still had difficulty during such the long appointment. Before leaving he did say to me, "Mom I NEVER want to get braces."  All I could think of was that I really hoped he wouldn't have to get braces because I am so over this orthodontist thing.

Korinne's friend Cara went out of town for 2 weeks and asked Korinne to take care of her hamster while she was gone.  She told her she could just go over to their house every couple of days, but Korinne insisted on keeping it in her room. I don't care as long as I don't have to see it.

 I was in charge of our SOS activity this week so I arranged for the kids to put on a musical program at a local Assisted Living Center. We had a good variety of musical numbers. Some kids sang songs, others played the piano, Britton played his cello and 2 older girls played the guitar and ukulele while singing.

I brought all of the little kids to the front and had them sing some fun primary songs like Popcorn Popping and The Wise Man and the Foolish Man so every child in our group was able to perform during the program.  I was impressed at how much Jameson sang out and did all of the actions.  They were super cute and the residents really enjoyed hearing from them. We have a lot of talented kids in our little summer service group!  After we were done the Activities Directer announced "Furry Friend" time for the residents.  I guess they bring in all sorts of animals for them to pet and stuff. When we walked out the door we were surprised to see a big horse right by the door. Looks like "furry friend " time is just as big of a hit with little kids as with the older residents.

Jameson finished his swimming lessons this week, but still refuses to put his entire face in the water. Looks like it is going to take more lessons to get him truly comfortable going all in they way under water.

The kids were excited that Grandma and Grandpa are finally back from their big trip to Europe. Between this trip and their trip to Pennsylvania they have been gone 6 of the last 7 Sundays. We enjoyed Stake Conference today and a visit from an Area Authority Elder Steven M. Peterson. And, of course, it's always nice to have Adam home all day on a Sunday.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!

Happy Father's Day to this guy. 

The kids are sure lucky to have such a wonderful Dad.  Adam goes above and beyond in everything he does.

Last Sunday morning we saw the most brilliant rainbow from our back deck so we had to run out and take a few pictures.  Too bad pictures never do it justice.

We also got to babysit a neighbor while her Mom went to ward council since her Dad was out of town. As you can see Aliya got plenty of attention while she was here.

Monday late afternoon there was a big party for the new high school in the Macey's parking lot. They had free hot dogs and drinks, a dunk tank and bouncy house. They also sold T-shirts and hats and all the new apparel for the school.  It was very well attended and since they had 6 different shirts that were only $5.00 the kids are all ready to cheer for the Ridgeline Riverhawks in style.  

The new Mascot "Splash" was there and grabbed Jameson for a picture.  I have no idea who the girl is, probably a cheerleader or something, but I didn't have the heart to tell her to take about 5 steps to the left before I took the picture.

Korinne and Jameson started swimming lessons this week.

Jameson is ok being in water, but he is not a fan of putting his face in the water.  We're hoping he'll make some progress this year.  Korinne had 1 hr lessons each day for a week and Jameson has a 30 min. lesson for 2 weeks.

Our SOS service project for the week was to pick up trash in our local canyon.  We had quite an army of little ones on a treasure hunt for trash.

It's always more fun to do service with friends.

In no time at all the kids had collected 6 garbage bags full of trash. Not bad for less than an hour of work.

The Kirks took Korinne and Jameson on a few 4 wheeler rides this week.  When I asked Korinne where the picture that Carrie sent me was taken she said, "Up the canyon".  Wow. Apparently I haven't been far enough up to ever see this beautiful sight.  Good to know it's there!

All the kids posing on the parked 4 wheeler.

Yesterday Adam and Britton spent the day at our stake Youth Conference.  It was one full day starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending around 9:00 p.m.

 They had a variety of activities all day long.  Bubble ball and the lazer tag were definitely a hit.

The conference had a temple emphasis so all of the kids walked from the stake center to the temple which for is about 10,000 steps.

Britton and friends resting at the park after the long walk and dinner.  Adam logged in 20,000 steps during the day long conference. That's a lot of walking.

The 2nd week of summer is now in the books!

Summer Begins

Summer started out with a bang around here.  Britton attended a stay-at-home EFY session that started the Monday after school got out.

Britton with his company

The entire group for the week.

Britton and his friend Collin absolutely loved EFY and I think it was a fun way to start out the summer.  Cross country practices also started the Monday after school got out.  The team meets at a park every morning at 6 a.m. to run together so even though Britton was at EFY all day, he and Collin were still able to make it to all of their team workouts, too.  Yeah, he was tired by the end of the week.  That's a lot to pack in.

On Tuesday morning Jenna was off to a mini-girls camp. Technically they didn't need to have girls camp this year because it's a Trek year, but they all decided they couldn't live without any camp at all so they went glamping for 2 days.  That would be glam + camping in case you didn't follow me. Hanging out at a cabin in Bear Lake for 2 days?  Yeah, that's glamping.

They all stayed at the cabin of one of the YW leaders.

So I saw this next picture and thought, "Oh, that's a nice group picture of everyone" only to find out it wasn't the entire group at all, it was JUST the Beehives.

16 Beehives, 4 leaders.  That's a lot of Beehives!  

You know that one age group in the ward that randomly has way more than any other age group? Well, that would be our Beehives in our ward.  Anytime a new family moves in the joke is that they are guaranteed to have a girl who is 12 or 13 years old. The funny thing is that it's true most of the time. Jenna is the Beehive Class President and loves every minute of being with such a large group. Next year they will all start becoming Mia Maids as 13 of them have their birthdays between January and June. Crazy.

This summer we have teamed up with 5 other families to do weekly service projects with our kids. We call it SOS for Summer Of Service.  Each family takes a week to plan a service project that the kids can do sometime during the week.  For our first service project the kids sold cotton candy and popcorn to raise money for the "Days for Girls" charity working in Africa.  Earlier in the spring our RS had a sewing night to make kits for this same organization.

Korinne and Jameson helping with the posters.

I babysat Jameson and the other little ones at home while the other Moms helped with the sale.

Holding up signs to get more customers.  

They made $160 and donated it all to a great cause.

Yeah, our summer went from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds.  Korinne and Jameson have a very busy social schedule with neighborhood kids.  It's a lot for me to keep up with everyone coming and going all day, but I guess I'd rather have busy kids than bored and grumpy kids.

Happy summer to all!

Summer!

We haven't ever visited graves on Memorial Day so this year we thought we would do something different and go to Idaho and let our kids visit some of their ancestor's graves. We traveled after dinner on Sunday and stayed at my sister Heather's house on Sunday night.

The kids loves playing with their cousins on Monday morning.

We even had an impromptu Memorial Day BBQ together.

 Heather and some of her kids traveled with us to the first cemetery since it was local for them. We visited the grave of Jacob and Magdelina Spori.  Korinne recently learned about her G-G-G Grandfather Jacob Spori when she had to bring the story of an ancestor to Activity Days. She was impressed that he was fluent in 9 languages and was the first LDS missionary in Palestine.

This was the first time I've ever visited the Spori graves.

Next up was Robert and Aloha Kerr, my maternal Grandparents. The kids remember G-Grandpa Kerr as he has only been gone for 5 years.

Last but not least we made our way to Grandma June and Grandpa Bill's grave.  They are my paternal Grandparents.

We drove by the homes of both sets of grandparents.  I was a little disappointed to find my Grandma June and Grandpa Bill's house in such a state of disrepair.

Their old house with the store attached has changed a little, but not too much. The yard was a mess, though.

We decided to do something my family talked and joked about while growing up, but never actually did. We visited the Idaho Potato Museum. Yes, there is a museum about potatoes. It was quirky and interesting, but unfortunately sometime in the last 25 years they discontinued the "Free Taters for Out-of-Staters."  They had taters all right, but you had to pay for them.

 It was a nice quick Memorial Day trip and a walk down memory lane for me.

I went out on Tuesday to call Jameson in for the night and he walked around the corner yelling, "Hey Mom, I have a man bun!"  What? A "man bun"?  Yes, a man bun.  When Uncle Stephen was in town the week before he was sportin' a man bun and Jameson was more than happy to show us that now he had one, too.

Ok, so it was pretty small and was the product of the neighborhood girls, but he was very proud of it.  He was also covered in glitter. Yeah, thanks for that ladies.

It was the last day of "school" this week.  I put it in quotations because we all know that any day of school after Memorial Day is absolutely worthless.  My neighbor, Annie, always throws a big last day of school party for the kids (and Moms).  The party seems to get bigger every year and at the end of the day she usually says she probably won't do it again the next year, but then she does and always adds something new to the mix.

The little kids usually have everything to themselves for awhile before the bus drops the older kids off.

School's out, scream and shout!

Before I could even find Korinne for a picture she had a donut in her hand. Hmm, she must be related to me.

Like I said, the party just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

The newest thing this year was the dunk tank.

Yeah, it was a hit.

Korinne waiting to get dunked. The water was straight from the hose and FREEZING. Jameson really loved to dunk people.  They let the little kids get pretty close so he didn't have a problem hitting the mark. Everyone got to dunk and be dunked as many times as they wanted. It was a dream come true.

Saturday was a work in the yard day, but we did have our own family firepit that night to welcome in the summer.  It jumped up 20 degrees all of the sudden so we aren't used to the hotter temperatures quite yet.

Roasting hot dogs. . .

. . .and drinking a green smoothie.  We had to get our fruits and vegetables in somehow.

Ok, so we are down a few camp chairs to accommodate our family.  Good thing we had some strollers to supplement the seating arrangement.

Welcome summer, we're so glad you are here!