Horsethief Lake

 It has been awhile since we posted.  But here are some pictures from Horsethief Lake we went to with Will's parents and the Jensens. We didn't get a lot of pictures, having too much fun. I had never heard of this lake but it was beautiful.  It took about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get there. 

After getting everything all settled (twice actually because we discovered one area of the lake was better for little kids), we enjoyed a delicious lunch.  Fried chicken, chips, and watermelon.  What else could you ask for?

So yummy!

It was great being able to hang out with cousins we haven't seen in a long time. Adam and Hannah were especially interested in Axel. 

Hours were spent on the lake. The older kids threw around a football.  I only had to rescue it one time when the ball went too far out.  Everyone loved taking turns in these rapid riders. I even got a turn and was given a tour of the "zoo" by Whitney, complete with "animals".  

Anyway, I am really glad we got to go to the lake.  It was a lot of fun.   

Tree Questions

Some people already know but a while back our huge tree in the front yard fell down during a crazy wind storm. The house and everything was just fine.  That was a huge relief.  The next week we had some help from our ward members to chain saw it into little branches and logs. So that was nice to get that taken care of.  My question is what to do to get rid of the stump.  Has anyone ever had to do that?  It's huge. And very STUCK!  It is just sitting there and not harming anything.  But we would still like it gone.  My kids want to plant something different there. We don't really want to pay someone to come grind it. Any other suggestions?

Our Own Field Day

With school ending so abruptly this year, the kids missed their fun last day of school festivities.  I asked another lady in our ward who also has kids at Rocky Heights if she wanted to do field day with us.  We each planned some activities for the kiddos.

They started off by each picking a partner and then having to run across the field with a ball in between them, not letting the ball drop.  Adam and Naomi just held the ball so they made it back first.  It was fun watching the teamwork, or lack thereof.

I planned an obstacle course.  They had to do all kinds of weird things.  Like hop and blow bubbles.

And run over to build a robot out of blocks. We timed the kids.

It kind of took awhile for each kid so we had them start to go at the same time.

Eventually the babies wanted to just play with the bubbles.

Another game was trying to get as many beads out of the ice water as possible in 45 seconds.  Each bead represented one piece of candy.  I think this was a favorite.

So I saw this one online.  The kids had to sit up without spilling the water on their foreheads.  It was hilarious to watch.

Will versus all the kids in a tug of war competition.  I don't know who won; the rope started breaking.

The kids learned to play towel volleyball.  It took a little effort to figure the swing and release method, but it was fun.

Then we ended with Otter Pops.  I think the kids had fun.  I'm glad we had some friends to do field day with us.

Dr. Seuss Dinner

This dinner was so fun.  I liked the decorations and the food and costumes.  I read lots of Dr. Seuss books to the kids throughout the week to get us in the mood. Apparently, we had a lot more Dr. Seuss things than I thought.

We were watching three extra kids for a couple of days.  They enjoyed doing the festivities with us.  The kids all made Cat in the Hat decorations.

Lots of fun were had with these hats.

I cut out some pictures from a Dr. Seuss preschool book I found.  Then I taped the small ones onto blocks and the large ones onto the wall.  We looked super Dr. Seuss-ified.

Most of us were either Thing 1 or a Star Bellied Sneetch.

Hannah was not so interested in picture taking. Let's play guess the book which inspired these dishes.

Cat in the Hat parfaits!

Green Eggs and Ham!  These were more loved than I thought they would be.

Hop on Pop! Popcorn.

Butter Battle Book! I was pretty proud of this creation.

ABC's Book! We just had to drink pink ink like the Yink!

The Lorax! I made these cute cupcakes with the colorful trees that the Lorax is trying to protect. The cotton candy was a huge hit.

Anyway, with three extra kids and so much food and decorations there was no space for the kids to sit.  So they got a sheet on the living room floor.  Will and I and the two two year olds stayed at the table.

It was such a fun meal.  I think I liked it as much as the kids.

From Different Countries

We have had two different themed dinners with food from outside our country.  First was our history dinner - food from Ancient Greece.

We wanted to make some homemade decorations for the evening.  Here Adam is stirring our salt dough.  Whitney gives him the thumbs up sign.

We used the dough to make some vases.  Then we baked them for several hours.

Afterwards the kids painted their vases.  They all turned out really cute.  Even I painted one and I put symbols and designs like what can be found on Ancient Greek vases. 

And the kids each made their own Greek column.

Dressing Greek.  Hannah's toga didn't last long. 

We had some colorful togas.

It is hard to tell what we ate, but I did a lot of research on Ancient Greek food.  Apparently, the women would spend hours everyday pounding the wheat to make flour.  I felt spoiled just opening a bag.  But, in my defense, flour has been harder to get lately.  I made homemade bread.  We used olive oil on top, instead of butter.  We also ate cucumber slices and hard boiled eggs.  I guess meat was mostly for festivals or the wealthy.  Anyway, the meal was simple but yummy.  You can see some of our columns in the background. 

Loukoumades for dessert.  I made some of the fried dough with traditional honey syrup, but I covered the rest with cinnamon and sugar to keep my kids happy.  It was a delicious meal.