Old friends

Welcome to the world of the sillies. It's even funner with their oldest friends, Maddy and Ruby. Maddy was C's first friend in the world.....and now look at them, all grown up and wearing makeup. Not well, but they are still learning.

This is what happens when you let the big sisters put on the makeup. Maybe Barnum and Bailey are looking?

Straight out of Cosmo.

 

These are my friend Hillary's girls. She is my good old neighbor friend from Payson. We have missed having them just next door......*sniff*. Look how giddy my kids get when they see her girls--they go noodly! We like our old buddies.  (Me and H get noodly too--just no one gets a picture of us).

Enjoying the final days of summer before the learnin' begins. Gotta meet the otter pop quota.

My big fat birthday

Here's the old lady and the chilis.

See how they are helping me out? My Spence makes a mean chocolate cake.

Spence took us to Liberty Land for the big day. He could have taken me to Chuck E Cheese and I would have been happy. I was just glad to have him for the whole day.

                                    

Miniature golf. I smacked it over the top of Lincoln's head and almost into the water. Bubs showed us all how to play, since she's been M.G. before. I wasn't a very good student.

Since it was my birthday, I got lots of smooches. From willing participants.

 

We decided that Liberty Land really caters to the younger (and smaller) set.

Getting ready to roll

 

Veruca got a car all to herself. She cruised around like a regular little teenager.

The bumper boats were our favorite. I got the one with the broken squirty thing though, and kept spraying the attendant (on accident of course!). C got stuck under the sprayers in the back and got soaked. It was pretty darn fun.

The Chilis and the Dad of the chilis

We took the girls up the canyon and had a picnic...since both times we were planning on going camping did not work out (I'm not really that sad about missing out on the camping, but the girls would like it.) Doesn't Spence look cute? He's a big boy now.....he turned 30 in June. He's all growed up.

Violet and Veruca playing in the fire pit. That's the funnest part. And the getting dirty part.

Weeze playing with her cars. She said she was parking them, and getting them ready to race.

Showing me the muscles. BAM!

Every time Weeze says her prayers, she asks "Please bless us that we can go to the park in the morning." After hearing this about 20 times, I figured I had better take her to the park. This is how the two of them got ready to go. Veruca with her adventure purse, and Violet with her wife beater on.

Blowing mom kisses. She loves me.

I love them bunches and bunches.

Hiking to the tippy top Timp Caves

Here's Violet and Veruca climbing on whatever was available on that super skinny little trail. I wasn't worried about them tumbling off the steep scary cliff when they'd run off and start hiking up tree roots. Nope.

Happy to be starting on the trail, FINALLY. We got up there at 8 a.m., but since we chose to go on the 24th of July, there was a 3 hour wait. Oh well, Wingers had some yummy breakfast.

Some more places to climb. Some more gray hairs for mom.

See that picture by Spence? That's what I was waiting for my children to do. They fall over just standing there. Cetera falls off her chair just eating dinner. I had zero expectations that they would make it there alive.

So they did make it there alive. And then we saw some cool stuff. The caves were nice and chilly inside too. That was the whole reason I hiked up there in 95 degree weather. To be chilly.

Some cool stuff.

The heart of the cave.

I really did like the caves. I took pictures of just about everything. The girls liked the dog and the dinosaur formations, and I liked the iron in the rock that glowed green. It was a really fun outing with the chilaylays. They even did really well on the hike, despite the heat, and were only whiny once we got to the car. :) But by then I didn't care anymore, cuz there was a/c.  Spence did pretty good too, and was only whiny once or twice. :)

My babies

This is what Sunday naps are all about.

Yep.

 They are all mine.

Tball and Bubby

Here's her very first game from this summer. She listened very intently to her coach, and did everything just as he instructed her. Do you see that crouch? She was ready for the ball!

Batting. She smacked the lil sucker quite a few times.

We liked watching the little monkey play. She just LOVES whatever it is she's doing, and throws herself into whatever it is completely. Her enthusiasm is such a kick. She's our little star.

Gum gum gum gum gum!

Well, all the gum-chewing backfired on Violet. Fortunately this time she didn't turn blue--just got herself in a sticky icky mess. So here's what we did:
I got out the peanut butter, scooped out a big hunk and smeared it all over the ooey gooey mess. Fortunately this fortuitous idea dawned on me after trying 1; hairspray (didn't work in the slightest), and 2; whipping out my scissors and trying to scare Violet by showing her how her hair really would look like Violet B.'s. Oh and p.s., she apparently couldn't care less that I was going to cut it. It was mommy who was sniffling.
So just btw and fyi and tgif.......peanut butter DOES work (just don't use crunchy). She smelled like a cookie crumb all day but it was ok. She took her ban from gum rather well. A solemn 'ok' was all she uttered. I guess watching her hair being greased down did the trick.

Stadium of Fire

We took Bubbers to the Stadium of Fire (with the Jonas Bros. oh my gOSH!!!) on the 4th. We got our tickets in April or something, so the wait was VERY long for our little 5 yr. old. I am not sure why they gave us goofy 3-D glasses, other than to make us look goofy, but what else is there to do while you wait? You have to get there 3 hours early as to ensure you have a place to park, so you can sit in your car for 3 hours afterwards waiting some more for traffic to clear.

Beyond excited. It's made her a bit insane.

Lots'o Jonas Bros (OH MY GOSH!!). I felt old watching all the teeny boppers go loopy when they came out. It was contagious so naturally Spencer got loopy too. :)

Checking out the Jo Bros.

The fireworks were really awesome. It sure beat hanging out on the driveway, trying to light little squealers, and being mosquito fodder.

They retired a large flag they've used in the show for years while we there. It was actually a really excellent show--for all the fun I made of the Jo Bros. It was patriotic, and paid tribute to our soldiers who are away from their families and loved ones. I thought it was a great opportunity for Bubs to learn more about why we are so lucky to live in America.

Lemonade Stand

Cetera read a book this summer called "Alex and the Lemonade Stand". It's about a little girl with cancer, who wanted to help other kids with cancer, so she started a lemonade stand. She donated the profits to her hospital to benefit others. Cetera was very impressed and asked us if she could do the same. What's a parent to say to that? OF COURSE. But unfortunately, cuz we are lame, she had to ask us many more times, and finally we helped her do it. Here's the little salesmonkeys outside, ready with their pitcher and cups. Weeze sampled the product a little here, and a little there, and then a little more. Bubbers had test it as well. They deemed it marketable.

Dad was the first customer, and then two other lucky passers-by.

Bubbers learned how to give change, and what made 20 cents. They also learned that lots of lemonade on a hot day can make your belly hurt. The little business women made 90 cents that day. Cetera asked if we could mail it to the hospital. Again, what do you say? They were so proud of their efforts, and so were we.