Carving Pumpkins for Family Home Evening

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening this week. The kids each designed their own and I helped most of them scrape out the insides and I helped them carve when they needed it. They are (from left to right) a half happy half sad face (Ella), an eagle (Valerie), a kind of happy/scary face (Scarlett), and Luigi from the Nintendo games (Dante).

My latest project

I had been looking for chairs for the table we bought last October (from Ikea) ever since then. Well, I finally found some chairs. In July, we were yard sale shopping and I found a set of 4 chairs with an alder table all together. I didn't need the table, but thought I could refinish the top and maybe sell it or something (the top was really needing to be refinished, it was scratched, drawn on with permanent marker, etc...). I guess that the table grew on me, because now it is in our kitchen! First we sanded the top and re-stained it. Then I took a break from the table and painted the 4 chairs. We have been using the chairs for about a month. I finally decided to finish the table, so in the last 2 weeks, I have been priming, painting, and sealing the table legs. I finally finished, and now we have a fantastic new kitchen table! I'm so happy with how it turned out. The table is stained with a mahogany stain, and the chairs and legs of the table are painted green (obviously) with a glaze over to antique them. I love it. We forgot to take before pictures but the table top was only polyurethaned and the legs were red. The chairs had a natural wood seat, the rest painted red. They actually didn't look bad, but I liked the green better. It was a fun first refinishing project for me.

Memorial Day Fishing

Memorial day was pretty fun. The morning began with some homemade cinnamon rolls, then I took the kids fishing in Provo canyon (Valerie caught a trout), followed by grilling burgers and then some Carcassonne after the kids went to bed. Becky had fun with her mom who visited with us for a few days.

Cherry Hill Competes at Amateur DanceSport Competition

Haircut at Home

Becky's mom gave Dante a haircut while we were at New Beginnings with Valerie.

Sledding

I got home early yesterday afternoon so we all decided to go sledding. I took some videos of the kids sledding with my phone and uploaded them to YouTube. Here they are!

Grandpa's 90th

I haven't posted for a while, and some things have happened that we haven't posted about like our trip to Oceanside in August. I'll post some stuff about those things later when I have access to our iPhoto library at home.

This weekend I got to go back to California to celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday. My parents and my sisters were all able to be there. It was cool to see everyone together. We haven't been all together for years.

We arrived at LAX on Friday and after a quick meal at In and Out we decided to visit Redondo Beach and see the old house and the neighborhood. The house was under some heavy renovation and remodeling. The park was much different that what I remembered also.



After looking at the house, we went down by the Pier. There weren't many people on the beach since it wasn't very hot and it was a school day. The beach seemed much smaller and steeper than I remember. Our family has fond memories of riding bikes or roller skating on the strand along the beach for Family Night.





That evening, we had dinner with my grandparents and prepared some stuff for the party.

On Saturday, we had the party. It was fun to see cousins, friends and family and hear their stories. I got to hear a few WWII stories. We took a ton of pictures too.









That night we went to a Mexican restaurant and tried playing a game, but everyone was too tired. We ended up playing "Bohnanza" and "Hit The Deck" on Sunday night. We also got to go to church with my grandparents and visit Aunt Bertie and her daughter Nancy.

It was a fun trip. I'm glad I could go.

4th of July Balloon Festival

To view the whole set, click here.

On the 4th of July, we got up way too early and went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Provo. I overslept a little more than I wanted so we didn't see the balloons take off, but it was still a lot of fun. The balloons would go up or down to catch breezes in different directions and they would try to come back to the field where they started so that they could drop bean bags onto targets or pop helium balloons that were tied to long strings. Once in a while they would fly right over our heads and they came close enough that we could easily see the people in the baskets and hear the roar of the flames as they heated up the air in their balloons.

On the way home we stopped by Macey's grocery store to get some supplies and they were giving away free french toast and doing demonstrations with mentos and diet coke.

During the day I dismantled our gazebo that had been severely damaged by the snow. It took a while, but it's mostly completely in little pieces now. All I needed was a screwdriver. Hopefully next week I can take all the aluminum from it to the recycling center and get a few dollars.

That night we all drove down to Provo High's soccer field and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We had to wait a little while, but we had brought some books to read and glow sticks for the kids. A bunch of other people there had brought store-bought fireworks and it was fun to watch them light them off. The fireworks finally started and we had a good view of them from where we sat. There was a long gap in the middle where everyone was confused about whether the show was over or not. My friends later told me that they were retiring an old flag in the middle of the fireworks show. It was a nice show and when it was over, it was really easy to get home. We had barely any traffic at all. MUCH better than trying to drive home from over by the Provo temple.

We Made Flubber!

Wow, we haven't posted for a while. I'll try to post a few this weekend to catch up.

I had the day off on July 3rd and I decided to do a craft or something with the kids since I don't get a chance every day. I'm usually so busy on weekends that we never get the chance.

I remembered that when we were Cub Scout den leaders, we did an activity where we made some kind of slime with white glue and borax. I did a Google search for white glue and borax and found a bunch of recipes online for GAK or Slime or Play Putty or Flubber. I picked one out and it went something like this:

GAK

Ingredients:
8oz white glue
Warm water
Borax
Food coloring (optional)

1. pour the white glue into a platic bowl. If you poured out the entire bottle, put some warm water in there and shake it around to loosen up the remaining glue and pour it into the bowl also.
2. Add some food coloring to the glue if desired.
3. Mix 1/2 cup of warm water and a teaspoon of borax in a disposable cup. Stir it until it is as dissolved as you can.
4. Start stirring the glue mixture and slowly pour in the borax and water mixture a little at a time. Keep stirring and adding the borax mixture until it is the desired consistency or the glue has soaked up as much of the borax as it can.
5. Pull the mixture out and start kneading it. It's ready to be played with!

When we made Dante's slime, we accidentally only added half a teaspoon of borax. His slime was much looser and stickier. It was fun to play with, but it stuck to your hands a little. We then added more borax water and it hardened up like the others.









Click here if you want to see the entire set of pictures.

Jousting!

The kids' school had a medieval fair today and the Knights of Mayhem came and did a jousting show for us. They threw spears from horseback, sliced cabbages in half with a sword from horseback, and then did a proper joust with solid lances. I'm glad I took today off.

Painting, Planting, Pottery

First off, I felt it was warm enough to paint the front door last week. I got the paint last fall, but it always seemed too cold to leave the door open for a whole day, so I put it off. I really like the way it looks, and I also painted the white frame around the door as well, since paint was peeling on it. Now the railing needs a coat of paint too, but I will get around to that later. Also, last spring, we got more bulbs from the local park. They plant all new bulbs every year and just let the public come and pick them up when they get pulled out. So, I went one morning and grabbed a bunch and planted them. Of course, I didn't know what they would look like, but I think they look really nice in my yard. Also, they all don't bloom at the same time, so I had red and yellow ones in bloom earlier, now there are a bunch of pink, darker pink, orange, white, and yellow ones in bloom now.



The fifth graders from all around Utah County and even some from SLC, all participated in a program called Hope of America last week. They split it into 2 days this year because there were 8000 kids participating. There were dances, videos, the chorus of 5th graders, and a pre-show to entertain us. It was really big and we had fun. Valerie was wearing yellow, and was in the first row above the blue row of kids. We found where she was sitting because she had her sunglasses tucked in the collar of her shirt and I could see them from where we were sitting.


For the last month, Valerie and Scarlett were taking a pottery class where they were able to learn wheel turned pottery and other skills. They made a bunch of pieces and I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow if I remember. Maybe I will post a picture of all their work when I get them. The class was put on by the Scera Arts Council and there was an Art show of all the kids taking drawing, painting and pottery. It was fun to go and see what other kids did as well as see our own artists.



The girls also had some art at a school art show last week as well. Valerie and Ella brought some pottery pieces they made at different classes and Scarlett had a painting she did at school exhibited there. There were different craft projects for the kids to do also, and the kids had fun doing the crafts.

Scarlett's Birthday

Scarlett had a fun birthday this weekend. I made omlettes for the kids in the morning, Scarlett opened some presents from family in the late morning, and then we had a friend party at Jump On It in the afternoon. The kids had so much fun. One of Scarlett's friends wasn't able to come, so I used her pass to go jump with the kids. I guess I'm too old to jump on trampolines for an hour and a half, because my lower back and feet have been in pain ever since.

Pinewood Derby

Cars all ready
Originally uploaded by mrklaw

The cub scouts in our ward did a pinewood derby this last week. Since Becky is over Cub Scouts in Primary, we tagged along and Valerie raced a car from last year during the open races at the end.

Easter eggs

Easter eggs
Originally uploaded by goldbug121

We spent one night dying eggs with the kids. They had fun of course.

5th grade wax museum

5th grade wax museum
Originally uploaded by goldbug121

The 5th grade does a wax museum every year, where the kids pick a historical figure and do a report about them. Then on one night, all the kids dress up like their person and pretend to be them. The parents walked around and pushed a "button" and the kids would tell about their person. Valerie was Marie Curie. It was fun to learn about her. Valerie did a good job with her report and memorizing facts about her.

girls in Easter dresses

girls in Easter dresses
Originally uploaded by goldbug121

This year I thought I would make dresses for the girls. Here they are wearing them. We had stake conference on Easter this year like last year.

New blog and new this week

I just created a new blog to write about my quilting/sewing projects. You can find it here

We had a pretty busy week where the kids had a dance festival. It was very fun to watch and sometime John will post videos of it somewhere. I am trying to upload pics, but blogger seems to be really slow at that the last few days. Yea! I finally got them to upload.






Today after church we went to Mike and Megan's house for dinner. We had some really nice weather (61 degrees) and a fun time together (other than when Scarlett accidently hit Max in the face with the swing, I think he walked behind her or something) and got a bloody nose). That was the only trauma and it was fun to get together.


When my Mom and Dad were here last for MacKenzie's baptism, they gave us each an amaryllis bulb. Mine put up two flower stalks and has 5 flowers on it now. Very pretty. Oddly enough, Megan's didn't put up any stalks at all, and just produced leaves. I wonder what Liz's did...