24th of July

As I've mentioned before, Pioneer Day is a big day deal in our town. This year I helped with it since I'm in the Primary presidency at church. The only thing worse than watching parades is being in them, but it was fun to be with my kiddos. 

Our theme was sunshine, so the kids all dressed in white t-shirts (no idea why) and sunglasses. 

Calvin and Autumn looking adorable and waiting patiently for our chance to climb on the float:

Cute Calvin:

Adorable Autumn:

Thanks to the helium shortage, we couldn't find anywhere that would rent us a tank big enough to fill our fun balloon. We ended up using a bike pump and propping it on a chair. Not so cool, but hey, who knew that one of our modern problems would be our inability to fly balloons?

Then we had the usual party at our house. The biggest hit this time around was the sidewalk chalk:

Four sky divers jumped from a plane right above us. Not sure if you can see all four specks:

More chalk:

Lots of conversation:

Darling little Ruby:

McKenna and Autumn got into a chalk fight. They thought they were HILARIOUS:

Dirty Hands:

After dinner we had a few minutes of rain. But then it cleared up and we still had the shade from the clouds and this perfect double rainbow:

 The boys playing ladder ball:

Fun on the trampoline:

Best friends hangin' together:

Chalk covered boy:

We brought out glow sticks and the kids had a blast decorating themselves and dancing in the dark. The music from the city party was blaring, and we had an awesome dance-off. 

I don't know if I've mentioned that the reason we have a party every year is because our house is right next to the park where the city does their amazing firework show. We have front row seats, in the privacy of our own yard.  This year's fireworks were some of the best I've ever seen. Loved them.

Ready for the show:

Not sure what our Mario friends were up to today, but after the kids were in bed, this is what I found on the stairs: 

 

7/24

Creeper

Carrie lurking behind the backup camera of my car. She's so cute. In a Smeagol sort of way.

7/25

Will Read for Zombies

Calvin has been earning Plants vs Zombies figures for reading books. He gets one for every three books he reads by himself to me or Andy. He's blasted through two sets of Bob Books, dozens of Dr. Suesses, and a few Sandra Boyntons. He's doing amazing.

He loves this ottoman because it has squares on it like the sections of the zombie game. He loves setting up the figures and playing for hours. This boy has an amazing imagination. Sure, I'm slightly nervous that my four year old is obsessed with zombies, but hey, he can read and he's creative. That's gotta count for something, right?

 7/26

TV Yoga

Autumn practicing the plank while watching tv. That's how we roll around here.

7/27

Fourth of July

Today we decided to stay home and lie low, so we had a fancy party with a metal folding table and a plastic pool.

The kids thought that the colored Kool-aid ice cubes were the best thing ever.

Good food.

Calvin is obsessed with pulling out the seeds. Even if it's seedless watermelon.

 Autumn having a flower moment.

And then the stuffed animals came to the party.

After a relaxing day at home, our neighbors came by and invited us to come watch fireworks with them. We went to their house and half a dozen families that we love were there. The kids played with sparklers, LED balloons, and their friends. We had popsicles at 10pm. It was the perfect way to end the day.

Before and After

We decided that we needed some summertime changes around here. So this is what we went with:

Before:

After:

 Before:

After:

 I usually cut everybody's hair. I get out all of the stuff, drag the boy kicking and screaming, fight him for an hour, and then spend forever sweeping up the floors and giving him a bath to get off every miniscule piece of hair. Andy is much easier--we avoid the kicking and screaming--but it's still the prep and cleanup. My favorite present is when he just goes to the barber and has it done (although he always gets it military short. I like controlling the length, so I guess it's a toss up whether I want to do his or not).

Autumn pulls out her hair a million times a day. I do it over and over again, but she seems to like feeling like a wild jungle girl with hair covering her face and sweat pasting it to her neck. She needed a change. And Calvin has looked unkempt for a month.

I had heard about this place from many people, so I finally decided to give it a try. I called them and they fit me in within a few hours. It was amazing. First of all, they were punctual. We didn't have to wait forever with the kids getting agitated. And then they got to choose which fun chair to sit in:

 (Pink Car)

 (Blue Car. Although he wanted the airplane the kid next to him was sitting in.)

Calvin's cut took 15 minutes. The girl's took about 20. That was it. No hour of fighting--they got to pick a cartoon to watch and the stylists chatted with them the whole time. When they were done, they got to pick a balloon and a sucker. I paid the best $13/ea I've ever spent in my life, and let the kids play on the slide while I happily watched somebody else sweep up all of the hair. 

I mean, what's not to love about this place?

I was happy. They were happy. They look adorable. Win, win, win.

Also, we had the most rain today that I've seen here in years. It was coming down in thick sheets that I could barely see through while driving, all the way from the south part of the valley up to the point of the mountain (locals will know what that means). I like to think that the storm followed us back from Seattle. You're welcome, Utah.

7/5