Dargans Among Us

We love having my family come visit. Even as I was editing photos for this post, Pearl was pointing at people and saying, "Grandpa and Grandma." I really hope all my kids will have great memories of when my family comes to visit.

We did a lot of stuff while they were here, some of which I already blogged about, but we'll add a few more tidbits.

We had FHE while they were here and did a lesson about honesty. For great details on the lesson, check it out here. The basic idea is that you scoop out some ice cream into a bowl. Then you talk about how sometimes we make bad choices, and you sprinkle a good amount of salt on top of the ice cream. Then perhaps we realize it wasn't a good decision, or we are embarrassed or worried about getting into trouble, so we try to cover the mistake with a lie. This is where you pour a hefty amount of chocolate syrup over the ice cream, covering up the salt. But the lie doesn't take away the original mistake. I let each of the children take a bite of the ice cream. I don't think it tasted very good.

We poured salt into an empty bowl and talked about how if you fixed a lie right away it is easier to take care of, and we wiped the salt right out. Then, I took a bowl with crusted salt and talked about how if you keep covering a lie and let it sit, it becomes even harder to fix.

(Of course, I didn't do a very good job of drying the salt, so it wiped out fairly easily. Oops. But they got the idea.)

It was a good lesson overall, and I hope the kids will remember it for a time.

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point is usually a must when my fam visits. This time, Mom and Dad went to Cabelas, and I just took Tim and the littles. I have mentioned before that I have never really had a chance to walk through on my own and read stuff. And frankly by now, I don't really care. I have skimmed through that museum many a time. However, there is usually a hands-on room before the dinosaur part and I like playing in there more than anywhere else. This time the theme involved sound. There were many different things to experiment with. The girls liked these funny headphones that made you think sounds were coming from a different place than they were.

Tim tested how deer hear the world. (Or was it a donkey?)

Daisy...well, maybe she hasn't figured it out yet.

There was also this cool tunnel room you could walk through. In the middle there was a gravel patch and speakers.

You were supposed to walk through as quietly as you could and it would pick up the sound and give you a score at the end. The first time I walked through, my score was 2.5, but I never got it that quiet again. Here is my next best score.

Daisy and Pearl didn't do too badly.

Tim's score would climb too high and then he would give up and make a lot of noise until the reader said, "Too loud. Go back and try again."

Of course we zoomed through the rest of the museum with some important stops. Like the sand area. Pearl liked it right up until her hands got dirty. She is a bit of a princess.

Daisy didn't mind a bit and played as long as I would let her.

We stopped at the scale. (Hold the enthusiasm, Tim.)

And at the huge shark of course.

I skipped the sand at the end. I just wasn't in the mood to fill my van with dirt. Instead I took the kids to the gift shop and bought them dragons instead. (Only because they get the short end of the deal often being the youngest, and the dragons actually weren't too overpriced. Shocker.)

What else??

Oh, we can't forget the new addition to the family. My parents got a puppy, April, and they brought her with them. She was such a sweetie. I haven't seen too many dogs that come with such a great disposition. And she was soft and snuggly and would cuddle with anyone. But she clearly had her favorite.

Earlier in the week, we stopped by the BYU bookstore, and it was a strange coincidence that my folks ran into a young man from their home ward. They hadn't seen him for a while since he came to Utah. So he stopped in one evening (after his finals were done) to play games. We had a lot of fun. Here is our gang.

I can't believe how fast the time went. We were squished while they were here, but it didn't matter. We sure love these people.

Come visit again soon!!

Time is Winging It

Whew...almost the end of a great week. Nothing spectacular about this last few days, unless you count that my house is officially clean from top to bottom. That will last about 18 seconds around here. (And naturally, I'm not counting the garage.)

I thought that I might check off some things on my every growing blog list, especially since some of these items are from back in March.

We had some good friends leave in March, but before they left, we had a huge fondue party. Best. Ever. Cheese fondue, Broth fondue for meat, and of course, chocolate fondue to finish the course. Although, everything was eaten at the same time, so I would bounce back and forth between the cheese and chocolate. Extravagant deliciousness, I declare. Everyone brought something, and I was in charge of the chocolate fondue, so I didn't feel bad taking home the leftovers. (There were leftovers you say? I know, amazing...but I made sure to bring plenty to begin with and we finally ran out of things to dip, really.)

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the extra chocolate, but when I came home from church, it seemed natural to just gather the kids and have a frenzy.

I found anything available to dip. I think we had bananas, apples, and pretzels. (Maybe our fingers? NO, that is gross. Shh, I never do that.)

We made short work of it, and Ivory was happy to stick around and help with the clean-up.

Also back in March, June's class did a project where they each took a county in Utah and researched it. They had a huge county fair where they displayed their boards and answered questions about their county. (Luckily, June's friend's basement flooded the day of the fair. I say this is lucky because her mom called me a half hour before it started and asked if I could drive her daughter. This was the first I had heard of the fair that evening. June may not be the best message bringer. But, we all made it there, if not a few minutes late.) After all was said and done, there was a huge project wandering around the house. What are you supposed to do with these things? The answer is simple; photograph it and then chuck it. Although I still feel guilty throwing something away that June spent so much time on. Blat.

Here is her county board.

Here are some details about Summit County. I especially like her picture of a mink.

And I like her little key for the map. She did a good job on her project.

Robyn also brought home a large school made item. Her class made Gallon men to illustrate proportions of liquid. What I loved most is that Robyn's was very unique. She made, instead, a Gallon WOman and then had her doing the splits.

I think I mentioned somewhere that there were some teeth lost recently. I remember Ivory lost her tooth at church because she folded it up in a paper and gave it to me after class. June lost some of her bigger teeth. She now has quite a hole in the side of her mouth. The tooth fairy stays busy around here.

Lastly, we made Italian Creme Sodas the other evening. They were slated for one of the summer treats, but Dad requested them early. It took me a while to find the syrup, but they were worth it. Yum, and double yum. Robyn took this picture. Not bad.

So, I took a picture of her. Delicious.

Life just continues on its way. It is hard to keep up, but the good times keep on rolling...

Color Me Happy

When my mom was in town a while ago, one of the top things on her list was to go to Color Me Mine. And I was happy to come along for the ride. Color Me Mine is probably one of my happy places. (Not that everything I do is fantastic, but there is always potential for greatness.) Once painting was mentioned, there was a whole slew of little ones that demanded a session of their own. I allowed the oldest three to come, simply because I know they can paint on their own with little adult supervision.

Only Tim and Ivory finished that evening. I had to take the older girls back later, and my mom....well, she picked the hardest piece in the store, and spent over 12 hours making it amazing!! (She went back twice more.)

In fact, let's start with pictures of her piece, because it seriously is great. So much detail, and she made sure to do three coats on almost everything so it would be bright and vibrant. Just looking at it, I bet you can imagine why it took so long.

Here are some detail shots.

I didn't see Tim's piece, so I'm sorry it won't make the blog.

Here is Ivory's candy dish.

Robyn made a napkin holder. (Actually, I told the girls they could only come with me if I could choose what they painted. I have wanted a napkin holder for some time.) It looks nice on this side with the flowers.

And innocent enough on the other side with the cookies.

But really, it is a napkin starved creature. Watch out.

June was commissioned to make a plate which we could later use to display eggs. I think she did a fabulous job.

These are her favorite eggs.

And I did a dessert plate. I think I want to do a whole set of dessert plates eventually. And what better place to start...than with cake.

So ends another venture in painting. Certainly not the last for us. Daisy is already begging to go since she missed out this last time. Well, twist my arm Daisy...we can probably go again soon.

Gymnastics on a Smaller Scale

After Robyn's birthday party, we went to Ivory's Gymnastic Competition. I guess I should be clear that I didn't see any need to do the competition. It cost a little extra, and I think we already spend enough. But last time they had one, Ivory really wanted to go, and I finally caved, and when I went to sign her up, it was already full. (Oops, I didn't realize there was a limit to how many kids could compete.) So this time around, Ivory pleaded to go. And what day should it fall on?? Why, Robyn's birthday of course. In fact, for a while, I  was worried that the two events would overlap, and I kept telling Ivory that if there was a conflict, Robyn's birthday would take precedence. Luckily, it didn't come to that.

I'd never been to one of these things before, so we just arrived and went with it. They divided the kids into groups, with overlapping levels. Ivory was in a group that had Beginning girls, level 1, level 2, and level 3 girls. (Ivory was the only level 2 girl in her group, but it seemed that one of the level 1 girls was doing the same routines she was. Honestly, I was a little confused how it worked.)

At this gymnastics place they start you in Beginning girls and then they call you when your child advances. Great. Seems easy enough. Ivory moved up to level 1 in about 8 months. Then just three weeks ago, they called and told me that she was ready for level 2. Great. This really doesn't mean much to me. But I was smart enough to put together that if she had just moved up a level, there were chances that she wouldn't be as good as the other girls in her group yet. And that didn't bother me. I just wanted Ivory to feel like she had done well at the end of the day.

They competed in four events. Ivory's group did floor first. Ivory can't do a back walkover yet, but she sure can get her leg up in the air looking good.

Next they did Vault.

Then came bars, but it was back lit and hard to see so I didn't take any pictures.

And finally, beam. Ivory did fall off once, but she jumped right back up to finish.

I thought she did great, and I cheered her on the whole time. Ivory looked over to where we were sitting often, so I could tell that she wanted us to see what she was doing. I took three of the girls with me. (Tyler stayed home with Pearl who crashed after the horse party.) You have to remember that the kids had already had a long day to begin with, so they were a little bored and tired sitting there. I took close-ups of June since she was underneath my legs.

Daisy was just plain bored and got drinks from the drinking fountain every 5 minutes.

And Robyn brought in some art stuff to work on.

During a break in the event, they asked if anyone had a birthday and everyone sang to Robyn. That was pretty cool and embarrassing for her.

Then it was finally over, but not really, because they did awards and they gave ribbons for every event. So, we were there another hour. They did tumbling first, then boys, and finally they got to girls. They have a good system where everyone gets a medal, even if you come in 7th or so. My kids got confused at one point because they announced Beginning Girls 8 and under and Ivory wasn't called. Robyn looked over and said in a sad voice, "Ivory didn't get anything." And I explained that was because she was in level 2, and they hadn't announced them yet. "Oh, good," Robyn said.

Finally, they got to Ivory's group. They announced the results for Vault first. There were five girls from level 2, so they started with 5th place. Then 4th, and 3rd. I was starting to get worried, because they weren't calling Ivory's name, and I thought maybe they had forgotten her. They announced 2nd place, and still it wasn't Ivory. So, I held my breath and sure enough, Ivory got first place!! She was so dang excited. And we were too. I know this is competition is on a really small scale, and Ivory doesn't know much, but it is still really great to get a first place ribbon.

Ivory went on to get 1st in bars and floor as well. She got 3rd in beam, and we cheered her on again. I really felt like a very loud parent, but we had no idea she would do so well, so we were really excited for her. And then, Ivory won the all around champion for level 2. I was one proud mom.

I still feel kind of bad that I wasn't expecting her to do so well. But she had just moved up a level. And really, the girls who competed were just the ones who wanted to pay for this event. There are most likely many other girls who just didn't come. But my Ives did great!! Boo-yah. Look at all her ribbons.

We didn't even stay for the last awards. Tyler and I were already late to Supercross. (Ah...the over-scheduled day!!) I raced home, dropped off children, cheered Ivory again, kissed the birthday girl, and went out on the town with the handsomest man I know.

We got there a tad late, but it didn't matter. We were there for the main events, and it was quite the show!! Thanks Ty's Dad for the tickets. We were just sad that you couldn't be there. It's always a good time.

picture from MotoUSA

And cut. Wow, what a crazy Saturday. Good memories.