Misc.

I haven't really posted that much on our summer so far. We haven't really done that much. We've been just trying to keep cool and stay busy so that I don't kill the girls or so that they don't kill each other. They've been literally driving me crazy for the past two or three weeks. They can't stand to be apart from each other but when they are together, they seem to spend most of the time fighting with each other. Now I know why the other mom's are usually counting down the days that the kids return to school!

I thought I would post a few miscellaneous pictures of the girls over the summer so I can try to remember how cute and nice they are when they are behaving.

Emily playing with our neighbor, Lauren.Caitlyn with Lauren's brother, Ryan.Emily and Caitlyn at the Botanic Gardens with their little "collection" boxes.

Caitlyn's face painting design from Pioneer Day.

Emily's face painting design from Pioneer Day.

What face painting and a lot of other things has to do with pioneers, I'll never know, but the kids had a great time with the face painting and earning pockets full of lollipops in the games.

Our ward had a booth with pioneer food samples. I made some hardtack. The majority of the people didn't even wander out to the field where the extra booths were to see what was there. The ones that did, did not really want to try them. The few that did, did not really like them. In any case, I ended up having to bring home a ton of leftover hardtack. I still think that they should have had people get a taste of some of the Pioneer foods before they gorged themselves on bbq burgers and hot dogs...not to mention the tables full of deserts. I think it would give some people a new appreciation for what we have now.

Here is another picture of the girls with their neighbor friend, Lauren in a little inflatable pool on our driveway!
And lastly, the girls at Sycamore park playing in the water. We tried to make it over to the bigger water park in Moreno Valley on park day but when we got there, it was closed for maintenance!

Tooth Fairy

The time has finally come for the tooth fairy to come visit our girls. One of Emily's front bottom baby teeth worked itself loose and we told her to keep wiggling it to try to get it out. She's been working on it for about a week now. Today it looked like it was barely hanging on and her dad asked her to try to pull it out by herself. It took two little pulls and the tooth came right out. And she did it all by herself!

Way to go Emily!

PreSchool

Well, I finally did it. I registered Caitlyn for preschool this fall. I hummed and hawed about it for months but I finally just bit the bullet and did it. I had a list of reasons not to do it and a list of reasons why she should go. But with the help and urging of a friend, it's done now...I could always withdraw her from it later if it doesn't work out. So far, I've heard some pretty good things about the state run preschool program. And now Caitlyn won't miss her sister so much since Emily will be going to full day school this next year.

The worst part of it is that her class starts at 7:45 am. I am not a morning person, and neither is Caitlyn. So, we'll see how it works out.

So my schedule next year will be to get up, get Caitlyn dressed and out to school. Come back, feed the rest of the family their breakfast, then take Emily to school. Come home with probably only time enough to clean up the mornings breakfast and a few other odds and ends before having to pick Caitlyn back up (preschool is only 3 hours a day). Have lunch with Caitlyn, have her take a short nap in the afternoon, then go pick up Emily with Caitlyn in tow again and then work on homework with Emily before having to start dinner.

I'm getting tired thinking about it...or maybe it's just the heat!

Quiet bliss

Aaah, peace and quiet. The girls are napping. We were at the Jorgenson's swimming again today and the kids are all tuckered out. They made a slight attempt to complain or resist but they didn't have their heart in it. They went to sleep right away. Thanks again Kristi!

I cleaned up and took a shower in peace but I noticed I am a little sun burnt on my shoulders. I put so much effort into getting the kids all ready for the pool that I usually forget myself. I don't normally get burned very easily so it's not usually a problem or I stay in the shade more with the rest of the moms but it was so hot that I guess I got in the pool more than usual.

I usually have to get in to convince Caitlyn to swim instead of holding on to the edge of the pool and scooting around that way (even with her arm floaties on). Well, convincing is more like dragging her to the middle of the shallow end and leaving her there to swim back to me. After a while, she usually gets comfortable and I can get out again. There were lots of big kids jumping and splashing around so she spent most of her time today scooting around like that or attached to me in the pool until the very end (when we are trying to get ready to leave, of course).

Since there were so many kids around and I wanted to Emily to play in the water without worrying about her, I let Emily put her arm floaties back on (shhh....don't tell her uncle Mark). But when I got in the pool myself with Caitlyn, I had her take her arm floaties off and practice with me for a while, diving for rings in the pool and swimming to the edge of the pool like she started to do in her lessons. She did so well! And you will be happy to know, Mark, that she can swim down to the bottom of the shallowest end of the pool to retrieve the rings without any help at all from me. She can swim under water a short way and swim across the pool a short way as well. When I got out of the pool, she continued to get comfortable enough to jump in without anyone to catch her (well, in the shallow end still) and she did not try to put her floaties back on for the rest of the time we were there. She's totally ready for her next lesson!

Beating the heat

We attempted to go to park day on Friday. We were a little late because the girls couldn't make up their mind if they wanted to play with the neighbor kids or go to the park. Finally they decided to go to the park for a while and play with the neighbors later. But since we were already running a bit late, I did not prepare for them to be able to play in the water fountains at the park. It was unbearably hot there. We did not stay long. Instead, we came back and I let the kids play in our own water fountains.They played on the lawn for over an hour. One of the neighbor kids joined them. Unfortunately, they ran a trail around the sprinkler and stomped the grass into the ground so I don't know if we will be doing that very often.

Botanic Gardens

This week, we found some time to go down to the University again to meet Christian at the Botanic Gardens for a walk. Occasionally, Christian will have some down time when he is waiting on an experiment to get away for a little while. The girls love going to see the turtles and fishes in the pond. See that orange blob that keeps appearing in the pictures? That isn't a weird smudge on my camera or a flying koi. It's a dragonfly.

Beautiful, isn't it?

We also found a couple of rare monkeys in one of the trees. I found out that although this particular breed of wild monkeys are small and cute, they are extremely wild and dangerous.Where my little one gets these bizarre little poses, I'll never know. Lastly, here is a beautiful view looking out towards our house from the gardens.

Greed

Okay, I was greedy. I planted way too many tomatoes too close to each other. And now my tomato plants have all grown together into a big tomato jungle. I'll be lucky if they don't get all diseased from lack of sun in the tangled interiors. I'll also be lucky to be able to find all the tomatoes and be able to reach them without breaking off branches of others (I already broke a branch of one trying to reach in to harvest a summer squash next to the tomatoes...uh, which I also planted too close together in my greed to fit as many into the space set apart for our vegetable garden).

In my defense though, my tomatoes never grew this nice and bushy at the other house. I think they get a lot more sun here. Or maybe these heirloom tomatoes just grow a lot different from the regular tomatoes I've planted in the past. Perhaps it's both.