Fun with Daddy!

Today is Saturday and that means it is Daddy's turn to pick something fun!  He spent the morning helping Grandpa put the canopy over the pool while I got things ready for teaching Singing time (yes, I just got called as the chorister in primary!)  Once we were done with those chores, we went to sonic and grabbed some half priced drinks and then headed to Bridgestreet to play in the fountains.  The kids had a blast and I even put Jamie's feet in the water and he loved it!  We had fun watching the kids play and enjoying the summer sun.  After we were done, we stopped so get some ingredients for dinner and then after we ate, we headed over to Nana's pool.  Jon went first, while I stayed with the sleeping baby but once James woke up we went over too.  I got in the pool, but there are no pictures of it!  I did get a picture of the "catfish" I painted for the mural yesterday.

Piano

Today we had piano lessons, Wesley's very first!  He wasn't so sure going into class, but he came out grinning and is now excited to learn to play songs!  After piano, I had to do some errands, and that took most of the day.  We did have a little time to do our fun thing before Ella's make up Karate class so they picked to swim in Nana's pool.  I didn't have my camera around for that, but they had lots of fun!

 

Bowling time!

Today for our fun thing we went bowling with Nana and some friends.  Wesley isn't too much into bowling right now, but Nana lets him play her Ipad while we bowl so he still likes to go.  We invited Wesley's very favorite friend Levi and his family to come with us and we had lots of fun!  Since the kids were so well behaved, I let them try out Nana's pool for the first time this afternoon as well, so two double fun days in a row!

Extra lots of fun!

Today the kids got lucky and got double doses of fun!  They chose to go to the YMCA pool for their "fun thing" of the day so right after my water arobics class Mom and I took them to the pool for an hour or so.  Then we went to Nana's house and let them play while I worked on a mural for the fence around the pool.  The fence was originally painted to look like a farmyard but now that there is a pool there Dad decided it should be water themed.  So I made a mermaid of each of the kids for the first part of the mural.  After I finished, I got a call around 12ish from our friends the Carlson's (no relation) from church.  They invited us to join them at chick-fil-a.  We had already eaten lunch, but we wanted to play so we headed over and the kids had ice cream and played for over 3 hours!  Julie and I had fun chatting and totally lost track of time!  It was a wonderful fun summer day!

Cooking lesson number 1

Elinor wants to learn how to cook, ever since we watched "Master chef junior" with Nana and Grandpa.  I didn't have much time during the school year but now that summer is here I am giving her a chance to cook for us.  Each Monday I do the shopping for the family, so I told her she could pick a meal she wants to cook and I will get the ingredients and teach her to cook it.  So for this week, she choose "Crusted chicken with Mashed potatoes (no skins) and Edamamme"  She did a fantastic job.  I taught her how to peel and chop potatoes, and get them boiling.  then we breaded the chicken and set it aside.  After Karate, we mashed the boiled potatoes with butter and cream and baked the chicken in the oven.  She didn't want to touch the oven but I told her she would have to if she wanted to cook so she did and was great!  We also made some powdered gravy for the potatoes.  Her dinner was delicious, the chicken was moist and the potatoes were sinfully good.  I was so proud of her and she was really proud of herself too!

I hope this will help her be more grateful for the food I cook for her and result in a bit less whining about eating at dinner time.

Fun for the day.... Library!

Usually I do my weekly grocery shopping on Mondays, but since Monday was a holiday, we had to do our shopping today.  After shopping, the kids got to pick their fun thing for the day... the Library!  I am so happy that my kids think the library is a "fun thing" for the summer.  We picked out a stack of books.  Ella also had Karate today and she totally rocked it out!

The beginning of Summer

This year I made a deal with my kids, I would provide them "60 days of summer fun" (10 weeks of summer minus Sundays) if they would keep the house clean.  They agree to have the house clean by 10 am and if they do, they get to pick one fun activity for the day. (They have to clean their rooms, the living room, the play room and make sure the dishwasher is empty if it is clean and full if it isn't. )

  We made a list of things they wanted to do and made a calendar to help us keep on track.  They can pick one money-costing activity a week and the rest have to be free.  We have to work around our chores and appointments, but this could end up being our best summer ever!  Today started off good.  Daddy was off for Memorial day, so he got to join in the fun.  The kids had the housework done, so we went off to have lunch at MeiWei and then went to see "The Muppets most wanted"  Lunch was delicious, but the movie sucked!  Oh well, we had fun anyway.  We didn't take any pictures of the movie going, but we had lots of fun with the camera at the restaurant as we waited for the movie time to get there.


No one in my family could take a serious picture today!