Summer Swimming

There are so many kids in our neighborhood, so not only do I get to entertain my own kiddos, but sometimes we have a few extras. I'd have to say, things are a bit more calm when you have a group of girls over vs. a group of boys.

Today though, was a bit of an exception. It's been raining, non stop, over the last few days. And when there's no lightening these little girls find many things to do in the rain.
Somethings boys just never understand, but are jealous that they can't do. :)

Babysitters :)

We just love our Babysitters. They are such tough cookies. I think we stayed out a bit too late this night. Gotta love these 2.

How to Entertain a 3 Year Old

She kept at this for over half an hour.

And of course, big brother is not to be left out of the mix.

Another Bug in the House

How do these things keep getting in? Couldn't be the fact that my kids leave the doors open to cool off the neighborhood, could it? Yuck!

Jared was kind enough to scoop this grasshopperish thing up and put it outside for me. I realized too late he'd have made a good addition to the Bug Collection.

Lawn Mowing in Texas

I grew up in Utah where it's so dry in the summer that your lips crack if you don't use chapstick daily, sometimes hourly. So moving to Texas with all its "wonderful" humidity came as a bit of a shock to me. But it's not just the air, it's the grass too. Back home if you didn't mow the lawn once a week it really wasn't a big deal. But in Texas if you skip a week this is what happens.

It's got to be 8 inches tall, and that's in only 2 weeks. And to put a little more perspective to this growth, the only time my lawn gets watered is when the kids are on the trampoline with the sprinklers on.

Another fun thing about mowing the grass in Texas is all the little animals hiding in the 8 inch growth. This week was a Toad, much to Phoenix's pleasure. He sat in the empty pool for an hour playing with the thing. Eventually, to his sadness, he had to let it go so he could come in for some lunch.

And yes, he did chase Aspen around a little bit with the frog. She screamed like a Banshee. :)

Cleaning Schedule

A few weeks ago it was our turn to clean the church. Jared got some easy job like vacuuming while Aspen, Phoeninx and I cleaned the Men's Bathroom (Yuck!).

In the end we all cleaned windows. There was always a fight to see who got to use the sprayer, which they all ended up with a turn. I was shocked to see how many paper towels we used, and have officially decided to never install these kind of doors in my house. There are just too many little windows, with too many little hand prints. :)

5 Guys!

Well, I finally did it. I drove 10 miles to get there, but I finally got to eat at "5 Guys" Burgers. YUMM-O! They have the best French Fries ever. And here in Texas you can get either Salted, or Cajun style (I'm going for Cajun next time). And the burgers tasted just as good as any 4th of July Burger I've ever had. Aspen was in shock that I was even able to take a bite, that thing had to have been 6 inches tall. Yum, give them a try if you get the chance.

Sick Kids

Sicily woke up from her nap on Saturday puking, then was still at it Sunday morning. So on Father's Day, Jared got the joy of staying home with a sick little one.

Aspen went with a friend to the Library on Tuesday for School-aged Story Time, and apparently fell asleep during the program. They brought her home around 3:00, where she promptly crashed on the couch. She then slept until 6:30 the next morning. 15 hours! She had a pretty nasty fever, so she spent the next day reading and watching TV. But this morning, all is well. Playing as usual.

Downside was on Wednesday, Phoenix came down with the same thing. But add some vomiting to the mix, at the grocery store no less. He slept from 2:00 in the afternoon till 8:30 that night, then was up till 11:00, and slept till 7:00 this morning. But he's all better now apparently, fighting with his siblings as usual.

Jazz

We are pleased to introduce you to the newest member of our family. This is Jazz! Isn't he the cutest. We adopted him from a friend on Sunday and we've loved him being here every since.
He has quickly become involved in most activities in our home. Piano practice, Lego building...all sorts of things.

But we do have to watch him around Charlie. As you can see, by the look on Charlies face, he's not too happy about having a new pet in the home. Every time we go to get Jazz out of his cage, Charlie is right there to make sure we know he's still the Top Dog in this house. No aggression, just obnoxiousness. Silly puppy!

New Pool

Target and Wal-mart always have the best deals for backyard summer fun. This is our latest improvement for summer. SOOOO fun! The kids are loving it. Plus when Aspen and London go to the pool with friends, Phoenix and Sicily don't feel left out.

And it even comes with a diving board (notice the foot stool)!
Hours of fun, so worth the $$!

Splash Park

It is most definitely summer here in Houston, TX. The heat, the humidity it's all in full swing. So to ward off some of the intensity of it all we've had a lot of water added to our scheduling of activities.

On today's list was Moms and Tots group at the Splash Park. These Parks are the best inventions ever. They're usually set up right next to a regular park, so the kids get sopping wet, go swing and slide for a while, then go get wet some more. What could be better?!

Phoenix is always good at striking a pose, and you just can't best Sicily's smile.

She will not run through the sprinklers at home but she loves it here.

And of course there's my Aspen. Our "Little Monkey," as she was christened when she was 2. She always seems to find a way to climb on something.

Zanny Bands

These are the latest craze in our area. I thought they were everywhere, but apparently not. These bracelets have just exploded in popularity and I finally broke down and bought a few packets, after my kids lovely friends had given them quite a few.
They're basically just rubber bands, but they come in all shapes and colors. Each packet has a theme: Zoo animals, Gymnastics, Sports, Pirates, Food, Dogs, Sea Creatures, Rock Star....on and on. You get the picture.

I went online to try and find some LDS version, but they don't have them yet. So here's my plan. You folks in Utah that read this Blog, make Zanny Bands popular in your area too, you can buy them on Amazon for pretty cheap. Then guaranteed Deseret Book will pick them up and I'll be able to find some Book of Mormon version or something for all my Primary kids. Awesome! It's a plan, then.

Cherry Chocolate Cookies

Phoenix and I had a quiet afternoon, so I let him pick out a recipe from my "Ultimate Cookie" Cookbook. He found these scrumptious cookies that we were hard pressed to save any for Daddy, who was out of town.
This is the before and after shot. You thumb pressed the cookie, put a Maraschino Cherry on each, then smothered them in a mixture of chocolate and sweeted condensed milk. YUMM-O!!

Tree Cutting

While driving to Swim Practice last week we noticed a HUGE tree in our park had been knocked down due to the previous nights storm. Well, after practice the wonderful Tree Men were there chopping it up into mulch. We sat for 30 mins watching them chop up all the branches and shove them into their mulch maker. The kids were enthralled.
They finally got all the branches picked up and now it was time for the Big Event.

The tree fell too fast for my camera so I only got shots of the aftermath.

Now I was finally able to convince the kids to, "Let's go home now, Please." It was fun to watch.

Now we have a lovely tree stump that the kids can climb on and play "King of the Mountain." Gotta love those storms, makes new games for everyone.

First Swim Meet

We started Swim Team on May 10th. 4 days a week we practice for an hour and a half. The kids LOVE it and are having so much fun. So now that it's summer we are into the Meets. The kids had such a great first Meet, and did awesome!

Here's London diving in for his Freestyle race.
Whew! That was fast! He did great. Stroked much faster than he does in practice and listened to me when I told him to only breathe every 4th stroke. Made him MOVE!

He took 5th for his heat (out of 6), and his time was great.

Aspen getting ready to dive right in. Don't they just look like Olympic Swimmers!?!

I was actually able to get a video of the end of her race. She did awesome too. She's really come a long way on her endurance. She'd usually poop out towards the end, but she's definitely making it all the way now.

And big smiles at the end. Aspen took 2nd in her Heat (out of 3 swimmers). Way to go!

Stolen Trees and Bunny Rabbits

I took Phoenix and Sicily on a walk the other morning and came across a bit of side walk completely covered in garbage sacks and tree branches. Obviously the family had just cleaned up their back yard. So as we scooted down into the road to go around it all I discovered 2 potted trees laying down amongst all their yard trash. Perfectly good trees! Totally alive! So as soon as we got home we jumped in the car, went right back to the pile, and loaded up their trees.

I have no idea what kind they are, but their awfully pretty, and add some lovely green to my back yard. Yeah for me!
Downside is my Bunny thinks they're not just pretty but tasty too. So this little tree has been moved up where she can't reach him anymore.

She was pouting in the shade later on. I thought it was funny.

Our Pet Lion

After buzzing both the boys I figured it was time for one more summer cut. Now every time she sees him Sicily says, "Charlie...lion!" Isn't he the cutest! And he's so happy. I can't imagine going through a Houston summer with all that fur, he's much better off as a lion.

Summer Time and the Living is Easy

My friend, Brooke, and I went shopping at "Garden Ridge" and found these awesome hammocks for only $30, frame and all. It wasn't until we got them home that we noticed the sticker on the box that said, "Don't sit in it if you weigh over 100 lbs." Dang it!

Well, I sat in it anyway. And so did Jared. Not at the same time, mind you, we didn't want to push our luck. But it's all good. Works great, totally comfy and perfect for summer.
Now if the weather would just cooperate. This humidity is a bugger.

Primary Chorister

Sometimes I think I have too much time on my hands. But really it comes down to the fact that last week was the 5th Sunday so I had to do 2 straight hours of Sharing Time. So with that much time to kill, I made an LDS version of "Candy Land." It doesn't actually have a name but it's really fun to play. The concept being each space they landed on they had to sing that song number. It went really well. And even though I had 50 mins with Senior Primary none of the teams even made it past the Golden Plates Bridge.

Now I get to adapt it for Family Home Evening. Probably assign a gospel topic question to each song number. Should be fun.
Apparently we've been singing Follow the Prophet a lot at home, because even Sicily has picked it up. She is all about the singing lately, it's so cute.

Last Day of School / Houston Zoo

We were invited to a Birthday Party at the Zoo on the last day of school, so with early release at 10:45 we headed straight to the Zoo, and what a fun day it was.

This new little guy is only 1 month old, his name's Bailor and he's just the cutest. Running around getting sprayed with the hose, so fun to watch.
One of the few statues that all the kids could climb on at once. Yeah!

Just an awesome shot. I amaze myself sometimes. :)

Swimming with the Piranhas. Go London, pretty brave of you.

We discovered that Giraffes tongues are 18 inches long and a very purply black color. But the longest tongue in the animal kingdom actually belongs to the Anteater, it can stretch up to 25 inches. Yuck!

London wanted to take the Kimono Dragon home with us, sorry son a 4 ft snake is good enough for me. Plus, this guy can eat up to 80% his body weight in one sitting. That's a lot of hamburgers.

What are those!?! Not actually Texas Long Horns, but a cousin non the less. How in the world do they keep those things up?

3 female lions at the zoo and not a male in sight. Phoenix still liked them, even though he was a little bummed.

So I didn't mention that it was raining cats and dogs the entire time. Good 80 degrees nice drizzle and a breeze. "Perfect" day for the zoo in Houston. We're actually taking refuge under the Monkey area, it was a down pour for a while there.

Sicily dancing with the Otters.

The Ground Squirrel holes are always a favorite. I loved them as a kid and my kids love them now.

At the end of the day we had a picnic and this work of art was close by. I think it looks like a smooshed up Slinky. Not really sure what it's meant to be, but the kids found some use for it.