"Sailing" with Grandpa

We met Grandma & Grandpa Dunn at Pineview Reservoir a couple of Saturdays ago hoping for a little bit of sailing. Unfortunately there wasn't enough wind for sailing but we did get to row around a little. Superstar and Cutie thought that was just as good. Silly Guy said he thought sailing was boring and he didn't ever want to go again. We had to set him straight that he wasn't sailing today and he should try it on a more windy day. He did learn how to skip rocks though. He was pretty excited about that. It was fun to do something different even if we didn't get to sail.

School starts at last!

The first day of school is finally here! I was so looking forward to summer vacation June and it's been a great summer but school starting is the greatest thing right now! Juice is a senior, Sonny Pie a sophomore, Silly Guy-4th grade, and Superstar-2nd grade. The high schoolers are so glad for school to start, the younger kids are not so sure but their mother is very glad. Poor Cutie keeps asking when he gets to go to school and where his school is. He wants to go too. He's going to Mom's Preschool at our kitchen table. That will be fun too!

Today's the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're all anxiously watching and waiting for our son/brother to get home today. He's been gone all summer to work at Camp Loll, a scout camp by Yellowstone. We haven't seen him since mid-June when he left. He missed his fifteenth birthday and his brother's fourth birthday, the fourth of July, the 24th of July and we missed him! We've been able to send letters and talk to him on the phone occasionally. Last week after we all got to talk to him Silly Guy said, "I like Sonny Pie even better than candy!" I think we all feel that way right now. He'll be back today:)

Projects!

Last Spring my husband suggested that we should choose a room in our house to fix up each month. Every Saturday we would spend about four hours working. What a great way to teach our children to work!(I hope it's working) That seemed like a good idea so we stripped the outdated wallpaper from our family room and painted in April and May. It looks great! That worked out pretty good.

So in June we decided to fix up the boys' room. The first Saturday we pulled down the wallpaper border and washed the walls and picked the paint colors. The second Saturday we painted. That didn't take very long so my husband said, "Let's refinish the dresser and bunk beds!" Now refinishing furniture is a pretty big project, but he wouldn't be deterred so we pulled the furniture out into the back yard and went and bought some stripper and began. . . . .and guess what!

It's still sitting in our carport.

We(I) finally finished the dresser a couple of weeks ago, but the bunk beds are a lot bigger job and they're still sitting there. School starts in two weeks and I am determined that we're(I'm) going to have it finished before that. I've been trying to get one piece stripped each day this week, but I'm not sure the kids are learning to work from this project since the stripper is very acidic and I don't want them working with dangerous chemicals.(I'm not very excited to work with them myself!)

Anyway, I think it will be very nice when it's done, but I am not sure I am glad we began. I'll post some pictures when we're finished.

Words that make my heart sing!

We were on our way to a concert or something when my 7-year-old leaned over to me and said,
"Mom, you're a spring chicken!" I was a little surprised at that. He went on to say, "That means you're young and beautiful." Of course I loved to hear that from my little boy! Then he continued with, "Well, you're not really young, but you seem young and you ARE beautiful!"

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A few days ago my 9-year-old said to me, "During the summer you're my best friend." He's really shy and has been toying with the idea of being bold and going to play with some of the 20 other boys his age in the neighborhood. I guess he decided he likes me better:)

Getting To Know You

I was at a neighborhood play group today(which I rarely take my kids to) and met a woman who has just moved into our neighborhood. She is such a great example of getting to know everyone and learning about all of her new neighbors. She said to each of the moms there, "What do you do?" That was all. And she wouldn't let them say anything obvious like, "I'm just here." It had to be something she wouldn't obviously know.

I'm not that outgoing. It takes time for me to get to know people. I learned a lot from this woman. It doesn't have to be that hard!

Pioneer Day

A week ago we said to our three younger boys, " This week is Pioneer Day. What should we do for it?" Their response was, "What's Pioneer Day?" We were shocked that they didn't know what Pioneer Day was since it's such a big deal around here. We don't really go out to where all the crowds are much and we don't watch TV to see the big parade from Salt Lake so I guess they just didn't realize there was a holiday at this time.

So-------we decided to give them a taste of Pioneer day.

We had a lesson about the pioneers in Family Home Evening so they would know the source of all the celebration

AND

We went to the parade here in Logan. It wasn't very big but it was a hit with the boys because they loved getting candy thrown at them and water sprayed at them:)
AND

We walked around all of the displays and booths they had at the park. Isaac won us a Dwarf African Frog by throwing a ball in a cup so now we have a new pet!

AND

We went to the fireworks in the evening. We usually do this but maybe the kids didn't realize the reason for the fireworks in the first place. I think the glow sticks we brought with us were more exciting to the kids than the fireworks.

It was a fun day and I don't think they'll ask us what Pioneer Day is ever again!