Ward Picnic

Here are my patriotic cuties at the ward picnic on July 2. It was a primary planned activity for the 4th of July. The primary classes all planned an activity to share with the ward members. We had sack races, 3-legged races, a water balloon toss, human knots, egg carry races, and foot races for the nursery babies (which was hilarious by the way). The Relief Society had a dessert bake off (thereby providing us with dessert- I know, brilliant, right? :) And the Elders Quorum was "assigned" to do a tug of war. Some of the guys were a little hesitant about not having gloves and wearing sandals vs. shoes. Excuses, excuses. Who would've guessed the rope would snap right in the middle??? That couldn't have ended any better, actually, because there were not hurt egos and everyone had a big laugh. The whole activity was SO great!! A ton of people came and we had a ton of food and a ton of fun!! It was a great activity. And now we are EXHAUSTED!!The winner is...everyone!!Ethan found himself a grandmother to play with- not HIS grandmother, but A grandmother.

Q- What do you do with your blankie when you don't want to put down your toys??

Mama!!!

Children's Museum

Saturday was Robotics Day at the Children's Museum so Charlotte and I decided to take the kids. I met her there and we spent all day playing. It was a really nice day. As Charlotte posted on Facebook, her & I were pretty stink'n proud of ourselves that we made it through the whole day with only 1 wipe between us. Whew!! We saw everything we wanted to and did something for everyone. Although there was some concern about doing all boy things, we did finally make it to the Barbie exhibit- so the girls were happy too (actually the boys always ham it up at the Barbie exhibit on the catwalk- I think they like it more than they'd say :) Katie and Elena were thrilled to get a pony on the Ferris wheel that went up and down.

Charlotte showed off her hula hoop skills. I was VERY impressed :) The robots were cool too.



Katie even thought to practice her princess wave to the crowd!

R & R

We spent most of the last week just resting and reading. I needed it! I was a little run down after all the work was done. I've read several good books this week. It's been heavenly. And Coleson finished his first major read of the summer. All in all a very nice week.

Father's Day Weekend

Kevin and Charlotte took care of planning a barbecue get together with the Jensen's at our house on Father's Day. Thank goodness they did because I was completely exhausted from the week at church. We all had a really great time together (of course- we always do). Vaughn is getting so big. This picture of him in the kitchen sink is to die for!! Katie was again in 7th heaven to have so many girls to play with (Janel's 3- Emma (though she is older) Eliza and Hannah & Charlotte's Elena) (and here's a picture of their bath time fun- from the neck up). Oh girls!! The boys pretty much disappeared the second the cousins arrived. And we didn't hear from them again until Tuesday :) (Just kidding- but seriously they love hanging out together). We did s'mores over the fire pit at the end of the cook out and then took marshmallow covered children directly to the tub.
(Elena was totally hamming it up and Ethan thought this was the greatest bath EVER!)

Kevin and Charlotte left at their customary 1am (I did mention how much fun we have hanging out together!) and the Jensen's spent the night. Then they left Monday and left Konrad and Schuyler with us for another night. The boys all got along soooo well- I was actually surprised how well. I can't believe how big they all are. I guess I knew it comes with age, but it really shows when 4 boys can play together for 3 days straight and have no major melt downs.

Somehow, the boys got Jared into a bow and arrow discussion at dinner. So then Jared had to get out his cross bow. Their eyes seriously could've popped out of their heads! Lol!! I should've snapped a picture. Next, was the blow gun. I know it sounds scary, but they played by the rules and no one got hurt. Always a good thing. I'm sure their parents will NEVER let them come to our house again. The boys were very organized about it and took turns, everyone had a dart color, and they would all go up and investigate each others targets. There was a scoring system and all. I think Schuyler would've spent the whole night on it if we'd let him. So I had to find a way to twist all of this weaponry talk into a family home evening lesson. Light bulb!- Enos. So Jared used his bow and played the part and they had to guess who he was and recount the story. Then we made rice krispie treat trees to represent the forest Enos went to pray in. The kids were pretty happy with that. To round it all out, we watched the new Tron movie that the boys are in love with. They ate popcorn and slept downstairs together. (Coleson & Konrad were found in their usual spots-right next to each other; I don't think they even realize when they cuddle- that wouldn't be very manly, indeed :)


Tuesday, we met Charlotte in Crawfordsville at McDonald's to eat some lunch and return the boys. It was a really fun few days. I'm totally up to be doing it again several times this summer.
Here's Ethan and Vaughn on their lunch date :)

Our new ward building!!

It's finally here! We are in our new ward building!! It's so beautiful and so exciting. I have to admit it's been a lot of work getting ready though -and I just came on board a few months ago. Actually maybe it's BECAUSE I just came on board a few months ago- talk about overwhelming. But my counselors and secretary (who's really more of a counselor) have been AMAZING. I couldn't have done it without them. We came up with a beautiful display for our Open House this week. All the displays from every auxiliary were really nice (although Nicole said if there was a contest going we might have won it :) Jared's booth on food storage got to be right next to our Primary booth. And since we were both running our booths we got to spend most of Thursday and Saturday kinda together.

My mom said I should not underplay the value of what it has taught the boys in us preparing for this building. It has been a great learning experience. They got to see the construction when Jared was helping here and there with the building. And they got to help a lot with the moving in since they helped move in boxes and toys and clean toys from our toy drive for the nursery and just set up things. It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun. And the end product is just so beautiful. We are so blessed to have another ward building in the area. This building is just lovely.

I just realized I don't actually have a picture to post of the new building. I'll to have to snap one Sunday and post it.