Saturday, June 20, 2015

Settimana Tre

Each week there's always a little more.
It seems a bit crazier than the one before.
I drive them here. I drive them there.
The gray is multiplying in my hair.
I thought that summer was made to rest.
But keeping kids entertained is always a test
Maybe it is too early to tell,
But I may be creating my own personal...

WELL, let's talk about week three.

I know I complain a bit fair amount about the chaos and constant moving around here, but honestly...I like it. (Most of the time.) I just thought I would be able to sneak in a few more of my own projects.

That isn't really happening, but I am having a great time with my kids. And that's what really matters.

Let's see this week in a nutshell.

I dropped off Robyn bright and early Monday morning at her check-in for Clear Creek Camp. I told her the goal was to make it longer than Thursday morning. (That was when I had to pick up June last year.) She was very excited to go. She had several friends attending with her, and I knew she would have a blast. They even spelled her name correctly on the lanyard.


Spoiler: She made it all the way through camp. I picked her up today when the buses dropped off all the kids. I have fun pictures, so I'll give her a post of her own. Man, it is nice to have her back though. But don't look for her in this week's activities. She was absent.

After getting rid of Robyn, I came home and we made Marshmallow Shooters that afternoon. It was such an easy craft, with few supplies. I actually had everything on hand already. (Bonus.) Here are the items you need.


You do need a sturdy plastic cup. The ones I had on hand happened to work fine, but I hear if your cup is more flimsy, just stack two together. You will need to cut off the bottom third of your cup. Careful...cups are a little tricky to cut.


Now make a knot in your balloon and cut off the top.


Stretch it over the top of your cup. Here is the finished product. Please ignore the leftover third of the plastic cup on the orange one. That is not part of the finished product. That is just Pearl being Pearl.


Insert projectile, hold your cup by the rim, pull back on the knot, and let her fly.


Marshmallows are great projectiles (as evidenced by the name of this project) but I took some advice I read on the internet and only used puffballs in the house. That way, if I lost one, it wouldn't get smashed into the carpet by unsuspecting feet. But the marshmallows were great for outdoors.

Make up any game you want with them. We did a distance contest first. Everyone stood where their marshmallow landed. You can see that they can go pretty far. Kudos Ivory and Daisy. (Now, get out of the middle of the road.)


We also played a game to see whose puffball could stay in the air the longest. Mine came down last, so I was the winner, but we couldn't find June's, so she claimed her white puffball was still in the air. I told her it must be in the tree, but I was joking. But when June looked up, there was her puffball...stuck in the tree. We wisely played our next round away from the tree and I still claim victory for that first round.

We shot marshmallows through holes, at each other, and at a Bishopric member. (That is what happens when you stop by during a battle.) These were a really fun and easy craft.

Tuesday, June picked out a fun game at PERC. It was a logic game and I admit that I wanted to do every level. It starts out at Beginner and ends up at Expert. The last few levels sure were tricky, but I'm happy to say that I did all 40 levels. (Ivory did a lot of the intermediate levels with me.) It is called Chocolate Fix. I recommend it to puzzlers out there.


Wednesday, Ivory joined the ranks of the sore mouthed. She was really excited to get her expander, right up until the day before she got it. It really is a unpleasant contraption. It fills up your mouth, making it hard to swallow and speak. While you get used to it eventually, food tends to get perpetually stuck up there. And let's not forget the delightful experience of turning the key each evening to push the upper palate just a little farther apart. Ouch.


Ivory has been such a trooper. When they took her impressions, the hygienist said she had never had such an easy time. Ivory didn't gag or move one bit. She doesn't complain about the pain, but she does bring me a toothpick often to help her extract food. I do feel badly for her. And just think, in two months, they will add some braces to make the fantastic package complete.

This week we pulled a switcheroo because Tyler's work party was on Thursday. I figured we would count swimming as our fieldtrip, so we made our treat on Wednesday. We made Ice Cream Cupcakes. I don't even have a great recipe for them. Search for them on Pinterest, or follow these really simple instructions. Make a cake mix according to directions and then put only one Tablespoon of batter in each cupcake liner.


Bake them for 15 minutes at 350 degrees and then let them cool. Soften your ice cream and then fill up the rest of the cup with whatever flavor you desire. (I happened to have a lemon cake mix on hand, so I thought strawberry would compliment it nicely.)


Freeze those bad boys for two hours and then eat them. You could look up a complicated whipped cream frosting, or you could just spray on some whipped cream from the can in the fridge. I totally opted for the latter. And if you add sprinkles, they totally look professional.


They were super delicious. Even poor Ivory with her contraption was able to choke one down. (She has had a lot of ice cream recently.) Daisy cakes was loving her cupcake.


The hardest part is taking a good 'bite.' They are cold. But I braved it so you could see a side/inside shot. Oh the sacrifices I make.


Thursday, we went swimming. The company gave us a day pass to the Provo Rec Center. It is pretty awesome, and the one time we went before, half of it was closed so we left. The girls had never experienced the whole thing, so I was really excited to take them.

I had a time limit in my head because I needed to be home to help Tricia watch her kids, but Tyler was going to swap me halfway and let the kids play for a little extra time. I don't really want to go into the whole story, but suffice it to say that minutes before we were supposed to get kids out of the water to meet up with Dad (kids weren't allowed to be in the water while no parent was on duty) Ivory disappeared with Pearl. June, Daisy, and I couldn't find them ANYWHERE. I was so mad and worried at the same time. Add to that the stress that I was supposed to be out the door so I didn't miss another appointment.

I found them eventually in a completely different pool. Ivory is good at leading her own crew...she just doesn't check in with the parental figure. That does not float in my book. Ivory went home early with me so she could remember the consequences of changing locations without letting mom know.

I was sad for it to end that way because we had a great time. The kids loved the slides, we played all over the place. It was so fun. I'll have to remember to come back sometime and let Robyn play.

No real pictures because I was in the water and I was planning to take a photo right before I left, but I spent that time searching for missing kids. I did have Tyler get a photo with the remaining kids while they were coming home.

Love selfies.


Here is June learning to take one.


And here is my one shot of the pool. Don't look for us...I was just taking a picture of the location where Tyler should meet us. He does well with verbal and visual instructions.


In the evening, we went to the BBQ put on by DHI. It was delicious as always. I had to leave early to go to a baby shower (so EXCITED for you Trudy!!) and I missed Tyler thawing out a frozen t-shirt and getting it on first. He is amazing. You will just have to picture him in a wet t-shirt. (Mmmm....nice.)

Finally Friday. We watched The Waterhorse. Friends came over and played. I picked up Robyn from camp. We watched The Waterhorse a second time so Robyn could see it. It was a great day.

Tomorrow is Saturday and I plan to sleep in as long as possible. Bless you weekends.

1 comment:

meganmushrat said...

Looks like you had a fun week, even without Robyn. Two kids in braces? - ouch! I had them and they are no fun.