Celebrating the 4th

We started the day with a Neighborhood Breakfast. Just as we were about to take a family picture, one of my student's moms wanted to say "hi" and talk to me for a minute, and my family was getting tired of waiting, sooooo...

...my sister, Ruthanne, jumped in the picture to take my place.

(Katie stop laughing, it's not THAT funny! haha Okay, so it kind of is)

This is how the family picture really should look. Don't you think Wade and I make a better couple that Wade and Ruthanne anyway? lol
Austin and Ruthanne playing some baseball
Then it was Jonny's turn to be up to bat.
The Candy Cannon was a hit, as usual. It's a cannon that shoots out candy for the kids...and adults, too, of course. ;) I don't know how I was so lucky to capture it just as it was shooting off. Pretty cool, eh?

waiting for the candy to fly out of the cannon

Then we went to another Neighborhood Celebration, where they had a parade with the kids riding their bikes and scooters, a bounce house, and some lunch.

After naps, we hung out with Trent and Alix in their backyard. We couldn't ask for better neighbors. We love these guys! Here's Juliet, Em, Isaac, and Jonny at the sand & water table.
Cooling off in the pool and eating popsicles. Life doesn't get much better that that!

What the heck? Who let the big guy into the kiddie pool? ;)

That evening, we had a nice visit with Grandpa and Grandma Reed in Tooele, and then had a BBQ with Grandpa and Grandma Stoney and the fam at Tonya and Tyler's home in Grantsville. Here's Emily with Grandpa Stoney and Daphne, the dog.

Ah, sparklers...good times!

Emily and Jon kept dipping their noisemakers into the water bucket (where we put the used sparklers) and were "water-painting" all over the sidewalk.

the whole group watching the fireworks

Grandma Stoney and Emily talking to each other through the noisemaker :)

Create It: Art Week

Art Week was awesome! They painted,

created their own designs using cheerios, colored with sidewalk chalk, and even "water-painted."

Note to moms: You have to try this! You just give the kids a bowl of water and a q-tip as their brush, and they paint with water all over the sidewalk. And then clean up is a breeze. They pick up their used q-tips, throw them away, and the water on the sidewalk and on themselves dries within minutes...

...which is a good thing because once everyone is finished water painting, Jonny takes the opportunity to make a killer mess with the water EVERY time we do it! Here's my 3-4 year old class finishing up their American flag by gluing the white lines, adding the blue paper, and adding star stickers

Here's my 2 year-old class showing off their beautiful artwork. Before they finished their flags, I showed them a book with some unique patriotic-themed artwork by Norman Rockwell. They loved it, and I hope it got them ready to celebrate the 4th of July!

After circle time, dance/movement time, snacktime, and art time, my 3-4 year old class decided to make a bear cave under my big blue table. So after we drapped blankets on top and made it dark, I told them ghost stories. It was their favorite part of the day!

Emily and Nicole pushed their babies in the strollers and said, "We're good mommies, huh?"

Just in case you ever wondered what my children do while I prepare to teach and while waiting for their friends to arrive each morning, now you know...they have tea parties, using a water bottle to fill up their cups. And of course my little cowboy always has to have his horsies nearby!

New Gate and New Tenants

We are so excited our gate is finally installed! We live on kind of a busy street, and this gate gives me much more peace of mind for when Jon, Emily, and my preschoolers play in the backyard. The sandbags on the bottom right of the picture are to prevent any more flooding in the basement. That's right, with all this rain we've had in Salt Lake, our basement flooded a bit, but it was a huge blessing that it happened just as the old tenants were moving out, so we only had pay to have the carpets cleaned once. I think I've mentioned before we have a cute 2 bedroom apartment in our basement that we rent out. Because we live so close to Wesminster College and the U of U, it's not difficult to find new tenants. So there is usually only one day the apartment is empty after the old tenants have moved out and before the new tenants move in. My kids always have a HAY DAY on the day it's empty. They run all around the apartment and hide in the closets and shower. It's hilarious to me how it can entertain them for so long!

PS) We LOVE our new tenants! They are two single LDS girls who both have nanny experience, so they insist they want to babysit for us. Sweet! I may have them just listen to the baby monitor while the kids sleep upstairs, so Wade and I can catch a movie at 9pm or make a Denny's run at 11pm. haha I'm kind of liking this idea!

Splish! Splash!

Last Tuesday, I had a baby shower in Orem for Wade's cousin, so I went down a few hours earlier so I could visit my Aunt Anne and my cousins, Kristen and Karen. I had a good time chating with them, while Mattison, Isabel, Meg, and Ethan showed Emily and Jon how to work it on the slip-n-slide. They loved it!

Ethan, Emily, and Jon being crazy in the pool

Thursday, after I taught Summer Camp, my sister, Ruthanne invited us to swim at her apartment complex with her. She even watched my kids so I could run an errand to Wal-Mart. Thanks again sis! Funny Emily :)

A visit with Jocey and Cherie'

Kristal and I decided we needed a day off so we headed south to Utah County to visit our good friends, Cherie' Dick and Jocey Hobson. It was fun to see both of them and just talk and reconnect while our kids played.
Jocey took us to Discovery Park, and Emily and Regan thought this beehive made the perfect clubhouse.Sophie, Brea, Andee, and Emily on the tire swing with Jocey taking a picture at the same time. ;)

Jon and Sophie borrowed some guy's skateboard (don' worry, we asked first) and had a blast rocking back on forth, thinking they were big hotshots.

After we left the park, we got out of the heat, and relaxed at Jocey's house, eating some home-made slushies and laughing at our kids. Emily and Andee came down stairs to model their princess costumes. Such cuties!

Temple Trip

Last Saturday, I invited two of my friends, Alix and Meg, to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House with me. Neither one of them is a member of the LDS church, so it took a lot of courage for me to invite them. But they both said yes, because they were genuinely curious to see the inside of an LDS temple. On our way, I realized that I've never had someone named "Meg" riding in my car until now, even though our dashboard cover has the words "Meg's Car" on it. Wade and I bought the car 5 years ago from a girl named Megan and just never bothered to buy a new dashboard cover. It's always been a fun conversation piece when people get into my car and ask me if my nickname is Meg or something. haha We had a good laugh about it, and I told Meg I just had to get a picture of this momentous occasion! We then enjoyed some amazing fried zucchini, burgers, and milkshakes at Red Robin. Yum!

After lunch, we walked through the temple, and it was a really neat experience to share something that is so special to me with them. I love the temple. I feel warmth and peace each time I'm there. It really does remind me of what heaven is going to be like.
Gorgeous girls: Meg, Catherine, and Alix :)

The Music in Me: Music Week

Miss Kristal helping Emily decorate the paper to wrap around her home-made instrument

Each week, I like to give the children a healthy snack that goes along with the theme. I just couldn't figure out one that would work well for Music Week...until I remembered one of my favorite songs when I was in preschool. It's called "I like to Eat Apples and Bananas." Do you remember that one? It goes like this, "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas. (repeat) I like to ate, ate, ate, aaples and banaanaas. (repeat), continuing on with the other vowel sounds. They thought the song was SO FUNNY! And of course they enjoyed eating their apples and bananas after we sang the song together. Here's Regan, Jonny, and Brock

Corban, Emily, Nicole, and Cannon tapping their sticks to the beat to help them learn the rhythm in music

One of their favorite songs is "We are Dinosaurs" where we march around the room, and then stop to eat our food just like the dinosaurs.

We were having so much fun playing with the parachute that my little neighbor girl begged me if she could join us, so it REALLY looks like I have a big class. What cute kids!

The second day of class, I let the children take turns playing my keyboard to help them learn the sounds of different instruments. I can change the setting so the keyboard sounds like a saxophone, trumpet, harp, drum set, etc. They loved it! Here's Emily taking her turn.

Last, but not least, here's a snap shot of some of our home-made intruments. We call it a "drum-shaker" because it's a drum with rice in it, so it makes fun shaker noises, too. I'm still worried that it might be driving the parents crazy, but I know the kids loved it!