Skewer Lunch & Science Experiments

Wednesday is our creative lunch and science day. Our lunches are pretty boring most other days. I got this idea off the internet to have a skewer lunch. I cut up the food and got it ready with Maddie's help and then I let the kids assemble their own skewers with the food they like.Maddie puts together a skewer.

Morgan eats her's as she is making fun of me for taking her picture of eating it!
Reagan admires her skewer. This lunch was a definite hit! The kids loved it!!
I bought some IBC root beer so that I could use the bottles for an experiment. Rob was very pleased about that!

We have been slacking on doing our weekly science experiment so today we did a bunch. We took a basketball and tennis ball and dropped them at the same time and observed how the tennis ball would shoot in the air. The kids loved this! We made lemon soda with water, lemon juice and baking soda -- it tasted awful!! We made a volcano with baking soda and vinegar ( 3 of our experiments today involved the reaction of an acid and a base).
We put lemon juice and baking soda in a bottle and then put a balloon on the bottle so it would inflate. Our balloons inflated a little, but they didn't get too big. We found that the bottled lemon juice worked better than the fresh squeezed juice, but it may have just been because there was more.

Nifty Nut House

We haven't been real good about doing our summer activity for the day regularly, except for our Outing day on Wednesday. Each Wednesday, Maddie makes sure that we go somewhere fun for our outing day. We had talked about going to Exploration Place today. However, I fell down yesterday while I was running and it was still pretty painful to walk. I knew that I needed to pick somewhere that wouldn't require too much walking, so we decided to go to Nifty Nut house. Nifty Nut House is definitely a child's dream when it comes to a candy store. It has so many fun things and the prices are pretty good as well. The older kids were even happy to go on this outing!!I gave each of the kids a $3 budget. Here are the kids with the candy they picked!
Marissa holds her baby. Reagan loved her big pacifier sucker. We stopped in Walmart on the way home and Reagan was sucking her pacifier and Marissa was pretending she was her big baby!

Morgan's 12th Birthday

Today was Morgan's birthday and she turned 12.
She went to an art class at the library this morning, and while she was gone the Young Women from church decorated her room. She loved it! In fact, I'm writing this post a few days later and the decorations are still up.
The sign that the young women signed. Marissa was very proud of her entry that she is excited to get to know her. Morgan thought it was funny!
Morgan with her new I-touch, just what she wanted. Rob had baseball games in Winfield tonight so Rob and I were gone most the evening. Marissa took the younger girls to get some presents. Morgan has learned to crochet this summer and they got her a book with instructions for crochet food and some yarn. She was crocheting, when Rob and I got home.
Not surprisingly, everyone was still up when we got home, so we had cake and ice cream around 11 p.m. Morgan had picked out these fancy candles that have flames in different colors. You can kind of see the different colored flames in this picture.
I love this picture of all the kids after Morgan blew out the candles. I especially think it is entertaining that Rob is concentrating on his phone. I can't get that kid to use his phone to save his life, except to get sports updates. I think all and all, Morgan had a good day!

Baseball Trip to Texas

As soon as the 2011 major league baseball schedule came out, Rob started planning this trip so that he could see the Mets play (his favorite team!!). Rob's baseball team had a tournament this season, but his coach said he was fine with him going. His exact words "that is just to important to him to miss!". I used it as leverage for good behavior, so that was a bonus as well!!

When it came time to go, there were enough other things going on that just Rob and I went.

We left Thursday around 11 to drive to Texas so we got there in time to watch the draft with Noah. We were all anxious to see where Jimmer would go and were happy that he went in the top 10 even though we would have liked to see him go to the Jazz.

Rob thinks that baseball games start when the gates open. On this trip, I realized that Lance was the one who taught him that lovely bit of info. Myrna and I took the 3 boys to the Friday night game and dropped them off. Lance met them at the park once he got off work. There are no pictures from this game because I wasn't there. Rob was excited that Mike Pelfrey (a home town Wichita boy) was pitching and thought the Mets were going to win. He was extremely disappointed that they lost and that night when he got back from the game he was really quiet.

Myrna and I went to Ikea and Cheesecake Factory while the boys were at the game. It was my 1st trip to an Ikea. I am NOT a shopper and later I realized that we spent 3 hours at Ikea. I love organizational stuff so I really loved it! I got some collapsible net baskets to use as laundry baskets - got that idea from Sallie when I was in Utah. I also got a magnetic strip and some containers to hang some frequently used spices in my kitchen and a few other random things. I bought a package of finger puppets that Marissa was making fun of. She couldn't understand why I would buy those when my youngest child is almost 7. However, the kids got them out of the package and were playing a game where they tried to snatch the finger puppets from each other's fingers. Marissa was the leader and they had a GREAT time!! I felt like I had all ready got my $5 worth for those finger puppets.

On Saturday, I took the boys to the game. Originally, Noah wasn't going to be able to go because he had a baseball tournament. He got done early and was able to go, but because of that we ended up having 2 seats together and 2 other single seats. I dropped the boys off 2 hours early at the park and then I went and got lunch and then parked and went and bought my ticket. I sat by myself behind home plate, very high up and took pictures while I watched the game. Luke and Noah sat on the first row on the upper deck on the 1st base line. Rob was supposed to sit on the 3rd base side on the upper deck, but he ended up sitting on the lower level out on the left field line. He said he just walked around and found a place to sit where there were some other Mets fans. Texas' best pitcher was pitching so Rob assumed the Mets were going to lose.

The scoreboard with the starting lineups. Jose Reyes bats leadoff for the Mets and he is currently Rob's favorite player on the Mets.
Jose Reyes taks a warm up swing. He got a hit in his first at bat and the Mets lead 3-0 at the end of the 1st inning. Things were all ready looking good!
Jon Niese, the Mets starting pitcher. My pictures have a little bit to be desired, since I'm taking them from very high up. However, I love that I got the ball in this picture.
I was glad the Mets were winning, but I was also glad the Rangers hit some home runs - they hit 3! It is always fun to watch the home run celebration when the home team hits a home run. Fireworks would shoot off and then these little girls would run across the grass with Texas flags! The Mets ended up winning the game 14-5 so Rob was a bit happier than the day before.
Noah, Rob & Luke after the game. Noah is holding the bat that Mitch Moreland gave him -- pretty neat!! Rob also got a foul ball during the game.
I met the boys at the 1st base gate because it was closest to the car. This is a picture of the stadium from the car and it was not zoomed in. We were parked super close - that's what happens when you park almost 2 hours before game time!! The night before Lance had parked far away - he was pretty much parked at Six Flags! The boys really liked where I parked!

We went to church in Texas the next morning and then drove home. We had a great time hanging with friends and seeing baseball.

While we were in Texas, Mark went on a camping overnighter Friday night to prepare for Philmont. Marissa was a huge help getting the girls where they needed to be and going to Maddie's games. Maddie's softball team had their final tournament. They were undefeated all season, but ended up getting 2nd. Their last game went 8 innings. They usually are about 3 innings. It was very hot outside so it was a very long and hot game.

My Birthday!

Today was my birthday. I don't get too worried about making a big deal about my birthday. The main thing I want is just for my kids to be nice and not to fight!Morgan cut out these letters and hung them on the railing. I thought that was cute of her.
Morgan also wrote "Happy Birthday, Mom" on the sidewalk with chalk. Morgan also got me a pair of ear rings.
Maddie and Morgan rode their bikes to Walgreens and got some candy for me. Maddie made a note and filled this sack up with candy, including lemonheads which is one of my favorites.
I love cookbooks and Rob loves baseball so he ordered me this cookbook of favorite recipes of major league baseball players. The best thing about this present is that Rob is really excited to eat the things made from this recipe book. He told me he would eat anything from this book as long as it isn't a major mushroom dish. Today I made the hot refried bean drip from Grady Sizemore. It was really good and Rob especially LOVED it. It is a recipe from Grady's mom and the book said that Grady usually picks off the olives. I walked by and noticed Rob was picking off the olives. I asked if he was doing it because Grady does it or because he doesn't like olives. He said it was because that's what Grady does. Funny!!
Mark gave me an ipad 2. Sweet!! That is the one thing I really did want.

Reagan made me a really cute card. Marissa took the 3 younger girls swimming this afternoon and she also took them shopping at the mall. She did that as a present to me so that I would have some time to myself. That was really nice, too.
I wasn't too worried about having a cake, but Marissa ran to the store tonight and got me a cake.

All and all it was a great birthday!!

Fishing for Family Night

It was Mark's turn to do the lesson for family night and he chose to go fishing. That isn't high on Marissa and I's list of fun things to do, but we went since it was family night. I don't have any pictures of Marissa because she got her wisdom teeth out last Friday. Her face is still pretty swollen and she did not want to remember what she looked like!Maddie caught a fish with her first cast and Rob is helping her get it off the hook.
Maddie is proud of her fish and happy to hold it!
Reagan and Morgan reel in a fish as a team effort.
A rear view.
Mark.
Rob.
Reagan, lovin this worm!!
Maddie.
Reagan and Mark looking concerned about their latest catch!
They caught Kate! Kate went swimming where they were fishing and got tangled up in the hook.
Removing the hook from Kate. Shortly after this, Rob took Kate to the other end of the lake to swim where the lake is pretty narrow. Kate promptly swam across the lake and got to the other side before Rob and proceeded to take off running. Rob ran around the neighborhood after her and eventually caught her when she stopped to pee. She never learns that she isn't supposed to do that!

Father's Day

For Father's Day the Young Women handed out cards with candy bars in them.These are the cards they made. Marissa came up with the idea from an old card that I had and then she made it up on the computer so the pocket would print out as well as "Happy Father's Day" in the inside. They turned out really cute!Mark spent the afternoon in his bedroom while I was cleaning up and working on dinner. The kids got out the playdough and Rob decided to participate, too. He decided to make a Tim Toone playdough guy complete with dregs!
After awhile Rob gave his playdough guy a hair cut. He eventually gave him a mohawk as well as other hairdos, but by that time the camera was put away and I was focused on getting ready for dinner.
Reagan and Maddie were playing with playdough as well. Here is a picture of Reagan.

When Mark left to go pick up the missionaries, there was still a pretty big playdough mess, the table wasn't set and I was still finishing up dinner. Mark didn't think we'd be even close to ready when he returned, but we were completely ready. The kids were even at the table singing funny songs when they got back! We had spaghetti for dinner because that is Mark's favorite meal.

Silly Hot Dogs & Headbands

Today was our creative lunch day. We tried an idea that I saw on a blog. We stuck spaghetti noodles through hot dogs.
Maddie decided to see how many noodles she could get through one hot dog!
We boiled the hot dogs and spaghetti and then ate them for lunch. The 3 younger girls and I all thought they were great. I ate mine with ketchup!! Marissa was not impressed. She picked the noodles out of the hot dogs and only ate the noodles. I don't think this is going to be one of Marissa's staple meals at college!! Rob didn't try them since he had gone to lunch with his baseball team.
We also made some headbands. We started out making some braided headbands which we saw at the Skip to My Lou website. Morgan started using scraps to make headbands with flowers of her own design. Reagan changed into a shirt that would match her headband.
It was definitely a challenge trying to get a picture of all the girls in their headbands.
Another attempt at a picture of the girls in their headbands.
The headbands posing on the deck.

More Zoo Pictures

Once we dropped Morgan off at her class, we went back to the zoo. I let the girls pick where they wanted to go first and they picked the petting zoo because they could remember that there was a baby sheep
We saw this baby sheep as well as a black one.
We also saw this baby goat. He was quite photogenic!!
It's hard to tell in this picture that the meerkat is a baby, but it is indeed. There were 4 baby meerkats, but this is the one that posed the best!
This was the only picture I took all day of the girls posed with a statue, but after our chimpanzee adventures from the day they just had to have their picture taken here!!
This is a picture of Reagan that I just loved!!