Fountain Fun

There is a fairly new park down the street a ways from my house that has a pretty fountain and a wading pool. We love it because there are always kids playing in the fountain so it's like free swimming for my kids. Today around noon, we went there for the first time this summer. When we first arrived we were the only ones at the fountain, but there was a blanket on the ground with a bag and some other stuff. Britton immediately jumped into the fountain and started running around, kicking his feet, and splashing like crazy. Haley and her friend, Sabrina, were a little more hesitant to get in, but they quickly warmed up to the whole idea. A little while later a lady (the owner of the aforementioned blanket) and her son came back. She sat on the blanket for a while watching and then decided to wade a bit with her son. Britton was still running around in circles, kicking and splashing. Each time he ran by her, I would try to get him to slow down, but he wasn't obeying too much. He'd slow down quite a bit but still manage to splash her just a little each time. At one point she grabbed him and said, "I don't want to get wet." That seemed to help a bit but he still managed to annoy her a few more times. I pulled him out and talked to him on several different occasions but that was mostly just to appease her. She would turn and glare at me whenever he got near her. I wasn't about to get mad at him or make him stop having fun on her account. He wasn't being mean or doing anything wrong, he was just playing. I just don't understand why she even got in the fountain in the first place. Isn't it pretty obvious that if you go into (or even near) a fountain full of 2, 3, and 4 year olds that you are most likely going to get wet? Some people. I was just really glad when lots of other kids arrived and they were all being 10x as wild as Britton.

Haley's Cereal-Eating Habits

Haley eats cereal in the strangest way. It's the exact opposite way that I eat cereal. She has the cereal in with the milk and then she spoon feeds herself the milk. Then she asks for more milk to go with her cereal. Then she eats the milk again and so on. After about 3 bowls-full of milk, she usually finishes the majority of the cereal, but sometimes she just leaves the cereal there in the bowl. So, basically I guess she just likes flavored milk. This is so strange to me because when I eat cereal, I eat the cereal part and discard the milk, not the other way around. It's too bad we can't just share, we'd make the perfect cereal eating team, but somehow the thought of eating her soggy cereal grosses me out.

National Backyard Campout Day

Saturday was National Backyard Campout Day! We have been talking and getting ready for this all week. Britton would ask everyday if it was the day we were going to sleep outside. When it finally came, he couldn't wait. He helped Jason put up the tent, then he and Haley filled it with all their pillows and blankets and went out there to play long before it was time. When we started the "campout", I showed Britton some stars/planets. (You are supposed to be able to see Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn right now, but I'm not so good at locating things other than the moon in the sky, so we just kind of faked it) At one point, Britton pointed at something and said it was a spaceship. So, we made up a story together about the spaceship coming down and Buzz Lightyear getting out and so on. He loved the story and was having so much fun. Later, when we were all settled in and Haley and I were about asleep, Britton started begging us to go inside. I was shocked since he had been so excited about the whole thing. He loves sleeping in the tent whenever we're camping. He wouldn't stop asking us to go in and finally he said he was scared of the spaceship. No matter what we said to explain that it wasn't really a spaceship and that we were safe, he wouldn't believe us. So, we packed up all our stuff and went inside. So much for our Backyard Campout. At least we tried. It was fun for the few hours it lasted.

Spider's Webs

One of Britton's favorite things to do is to build spider's webs in his room out of yarn. We were eating dinner over at a friend's house about 6 months ago and their kids taught Britton how to do it. The other night, we had some friends over for FHE and Britton got the help of the older kids to make a great spider's web in his room. Normally when Britton makes them, half the fun is cutting it down. But, this time he wanted to leave it up in his room. So for two days now, I've had to climb over and dunk under the web in order to put things away in his room. The plus side though is that it's harder for him to get out of bed at night and climb in bed with us. Too bad we didn't think of that years ago.

Pinky Dinky Doo

There's a fairly new kid's show called Pinky Dinky Doo. Although I've only seen it one or two times, I really like it. The writer used to always tell his kids stories at night about Pinky Dinky Doo and that's where the show came from. I think that makes me like it even more because it reminds me of the "Mr. Bear, Mr. Penguin" stories that Britton and I used to make up every night. Not that my stories are good enough to make into a TV show or anything, but we have fun with them.

A Pictureless World

My camera has been broken the past couple of weeks and I don't know how to fix it. So, this blog will just be writing for the next little while. Not quite as exciting or interesting.

Personal Trainer

What I really need to help me get in shape is a personal trainer. Someone who will just make me work out harder and longer (or at all). So, since I can't afford to hire one, I made Jason my new personal trainer. After I get home from my morning walk, I wake him up and he puts me to work. I rotate focusing and legs and arms every other day. I have been really sore since we started, but that's good. It's really been fun because normally I don't get to hang out with him much in the morning.

Adventure Days

Last week we had our first ever "Adventure Day". I decided that there is so much cool stuff around here to do outside that I need to plan an adventure once a week for my kids. So, I do a fun preschool lesson on whatever it is that we'll be doing and then we go on the adventure. Last week we went to Timpanogos Cave. Britton was so excited. We checked out books at the library on caves. And for preschool we learned all about caves. He learned how to spell cave and practiced writing C's. He learned all the cave vocabulary (stalactite, stalagmite, etc). We colored pictures of caves and drew in the stalactites and stalagmites. We learned about bears and hibernating and all about bats. We built a bear cave and put all our teddy bears inside and then pretended to hibernate for the winter. We went outside and hung upside down from the tramp like bats. Anyway, we had a great time and it just built up his excitement for go to a real cave.
We went to the cave on Friday. Jason carried Haley in a backpack carrier the whole way up. I ended up carrying Britton on my shoulders about half the time on the way up. The hike was a bit long for him, so he lost a bit of the enthusiasm by the time we actually go to the cave. But, once inside, he was fascinated again. He had a great time being able to see the things that we had been learning about. He and Haley both had a really hard time keeping themselves from touching things though. They would see a really cool rock formation and their first instinct is to feel it all over.
On the way down, Jason and I switched--I carried Haley and he ended up having Britton on his shoulders a lot of the way. We had a nice picnic lunch by the river across the street from the cave. For our first Adventure Day, I'd say it was quite a success.

Les Gourmands

I'm part of a French club that was started by my friend Desiree. The idea is to help us all use French more often so that we can retain it a little bit better. The plan is to meet about 4 times a year and either go to a French restaurant, watch a French movie, or have a French book club. Then most of the club will be writing emails in French to each other whenever we feel like it so that people in other states and countries can participate too and we can all work on our reading and writing skills. Saturday night, we all met a French bakery to have our first meeting. It was fun. I got to see people that I don't see very often and meet some new people as well.
When I was telling my neighbor about what I was going to be doing over the weekend and how I'd be going to this, she said, "you're sure in a lot of clubs". I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess I am. They aren't really clubs maybe, but my friends are always coming up with fun things to do together--play groups, dinner parties, book clubs, french clubs, investment clubs, etc. I'm lucky to have such cool friends that keep me learning new things and help me stay social.

Hey Go Team, Go, Go, Team!

Last Thursday I had the chance to go to a banquet honoring my former high school basketball coach. It was put together by a team mate of mine--Tish. We all had to think about and write about our favorite memories and she compiled them along with pictures into a nice book for him. He has coached for about 15 years now and just recently switched over to being the boy's head coach. So, this was to pay tribute to him for all he did for the girl's basketball program. He took a program that was basically non-existent where anyone who showed up to tryouts would make the team to one that was state champions and very well respected. I was on the team closer to the early years, unfortunately. But, I am still very grateful for those years and all that I learned. It was fun to go back and see everyone and hear about their families and kids. The amazing thing is that everyone is pretty much the same. Of course, I didn't know everyone because there were 15 years worth of people invited, but I was surprised by how many people I actually did know. Our coach always encouraged us to come back and support the teams after we left. So, I made it to a few games here and there right after I graduated. And then to the State Tournament games and the game when they won State Champs. And then when I did my student teaching back at my alma mater, I was able to teach almost the whole varsity team that year. So, of course, I went to most of their games. Our coach was always happy to see us no matter how long it had been and always invited us into the locker room with the team afterwards and would say things like, "this is what you helped build". I think that's pretty cool of him to include us all in the success of the team. A legacy isn't really made by two or three years and he was more than willing to share the glory with everyone involved.